Fsf-friends December 2007

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Internet, tech skills growing quietly in Goa...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Sep '24

02 Sep '24

INTERNET, TECH SKILLS GROWING QUIETLY IN GOA PANJIM, April 30: Goa's BSNL internet service provider is already providing some 3000 broadband connections in the state, and roughly another 24,000 people dial-up to get access the Net using this central government-run service. These figures emerged during an informal discussion at the monthly meeting of the India Linux Users Group (Goa), a network promoting Free Software and Open Source in the state. ILUG-Goa, which holds its meetings usually on the fourth Saturday of each month at the Goa Science Centre at Miramar, sees a range of tech issues -- usually directly related to Free Software and Open Source in Goa. During it's meet on April 29, a range of issues came up for discussion, from how to partition your hard-disk (to install GNU/Linux side-by-side with Windows), to software tools to ehance productivity, and various internet and broadband options available to users in diverse parts of Goa. For instance, there are some useful Free Software tools to monitor your bandwidth usage on BSNL's broadband. One such tool is available for free download at http://tinyurl.com/qgu9p Called the Data One Broadband Statistics, this is a screen-scraper written using Perl to download usage statistics of BSNL's Data One (www.bsnl.co.in/service/dataone.htm) broadband service and total it. Generally, BSNL (www.bsnl.co.in) allows only the Microsoft-based IE and has no monthly total. But trust Indian software talent to find a work-around. This solution comes from the Free Software/Open Source network in Chennai. Meanwhile, the Goa free software network stays connected and announces its event via http://iluggoaannounce.notlong.com There are no fees for joining, all are welcome, and encouraged to form parallel user-groups in diverse parts of the state. Meanwhile, the Fedora Core 5 Free Software distribution has just become available on DVD in Goa. Number of foreign magazines are also available. Members of ILUG-Goa such as engineer Bijon Shaha and software pro Arvind Yadav gave diverse views on techies-only distros like 'Gentoo'. Debopriyo 'DP' Sarkar pointed to a 'mindmap' of various Free Software distributions or 'distros' available, which was illustrated at linuxhelp.blogspot.com Earlier, there was a brief presentation on FreeMind. FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. It has the potential of playing the role of a high productivity tool. Operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster because of one-click "fold/unfold" and "follow link" operations. Other members raised a range of issues -- from how to get started in GNU/Linux, to playing around with tools like StumbleUpon, and how to encourage Free Software usage in schools and educational institutions. Remy Furtado of Rosary College, Navelim expressed an interest in working on the Free Software tool Moodle, ideal for distance education, as the Goa University moves to a pattern of semisterisation. Goa Engineering College's Prof George Easaw has done work on this platform, as have others. Reacting unofficially, BSNL officials said Goa now had six STMS 155 MBps connectivity, which was resulting in a speedy expansion of broadband to many parts of the state. But for broadband facilities to become available in village areas, at least 60 subscribers were needed to make operations viable. So far, broadband from BSNL is available in a growing number of areas in Goa: Panjim, Vasco (except Cortalim, but including Sada, Mangor, Bogmalo, Sancoale and other areas), Ponda, Bambolim, Merces, Dona Paula, Porvorim, Mapusa town, Calangute-Candolim, and Saligao, among others. Equipment has already been installed in Aldona exchange, and broadband facilities are expected to go functional -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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Careers in FLOSS... (Dec 2003 issue of LFY)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Jun '24

06 Jun '24

=========================================== LINUXForYou * Dec 2003 (Vol 1 No 10) In India Rs 50 (with CD) http://www.linuxforu.com Pages 102 * US$7.95 0 74470584957 =========================================== THIS ISSUE has probably reached your city. Saw it in Bangalore, and also got a complimentary copy from the LFY team at LinuxBangalore2003. But when I reached back to Goa on Dec 4, it wasn't in as yet. So it might take time to reach 'small town' India... FN REVIEWED: Mandrake 9.2 * PhProjekt * StarOffice 7.0 COMPUTERS AT TIS HAZARI, the session courts for the city of New Delhi, are being shifted over to Linux, courtesy the National Informatics Centre. - Rahul Chopra in this month's editorial. LINUX LEARNING CENTRE at Bangalore is offering courses in administration, security, development (internals and programming essentials, programming with Qt, device driver programming, MySQL & PHP), RHCE and Red Hat rapid track certification. www.linuxlearningcentre.com DotGNU RELEASES CD: It can now be used to implement application programs and Web services in C# and C applications under multiple operating systems, including GNU/Linux, FreeBSC, MacOS, MS Windows. The 219 MB release 0.1 CD is available as a free download at http://download.freedom.biz/dotgnu/dotgnu-0.1-cdrom.iso.gz.torrent e-Bridge calls itself "the new state-of-art training facility from eSpark Infotech is now open in the heart of Bangalore". It's offering embedded Linux courses (Linux fundamentals, programming Linux, embedded C & Linux, realtime C & Linux, Linux internals, device drivers, networking) and DSP courses (DSP fundamentals, TI/analog dev programming, audio/video, image processing, bio-medical systems). www.ebridgesolutions.net Linux.net provides a free e-mail service to those who want an e-mail address that ends in '@linux.net' MAJOR UPDATES and releases: OpenNA Linux 1.0, Gibraltar Firewall 1.0, Xandros Desktop 2.0, Onebase Linux 2.0, CUPS 1.120rc6. CAN YOU MAKE money with open source? Registration entails a "nominal fee" of Rs 5000 for a three-day conference. http://www.linuxasia2004.com/attendees/ February 11-13, 2004, New Delhi. SEND IN YOUR favourite slogans for a tee-shirt, and win five free copies of the shirt... LFYedit at efyindia.com MONEY CAN't buy respect, says Robert Adkins. Some of us might have met this guy at LB2003 in Bangalore. He's the CTO of Technetra Corp, and an advocate and implementer of FLOSS solutions for government. He can be contacted at radkins at technetra.com CAREERS WITH FLOSS: The number of students opting for courses in Open Source is growing steadily, even as industry experts predict a growing need for trained professionals in this expanding field. EXIT RED HAT, ENTER FEDORA: It's official now; the free (of cost) version of Red Hat Linux will not be available anymore. This has created a lot of FUD in an already unstable environment, thanks to the SCO episode. But is Red Hat closed for good? WEB-BASED COLLABORATION SOFTWARE: PHProjekt is an easy-to-install collaboration suite, which runs on the open source platform and databases. As the design of the system is developer-friendly, adding new features and components is a piece of cake. STAROFFICE: The latest version of Sun's office suite, StarOffice 7, may just be the right solution for the cost-conscious user. It loads faster than the earlier version, and sports some noticeable improvements. IN THE LFY CD THIS MONTH: Slackware (the "oldest Linux distro") and a range of GNU software for Windows users. FALLING BACK on backup systems. MAKING ADOPTION OF Linux in the enterprise easy. www.linux4e.com Business partners required: http://wwww.linux4e.com/partners ooWRITER HELPS YOU create your own templates and styles so that you can work with documents easily. Open Source is key to IBM's vision of computing. User empowerment is key to Microsoft's, writes Alolita Sharma USING DATABASE functions in Calc, a tutorial. (Wish there were more how-tos for the user in this mag! --FN) HALDIA DOCKS: it has a uniquely designed Linux installation with an active-active cluster set up, which is considered the best of its kind. This has ensured efficiency and cost-effectiveness. BASIC UNIX commands and concepts: an extract from *Running Linux* (Shroff Publishers, Pp 674 only Rs 425 in India). VxWorks and LynxOS are definitely the biggest embedded operating systems in use today. But slowly they are acknowledging the power of GNU/Linux and how it can help them maximise deployments. HELP LINUX GO INDIAN: By using various translation tools, you can join Language translation groups working across India to help translate GNU/Linux into your language. EXPERT INTRODUCTION: Multi-threaded programming under Linux. KICKSTART YOUR Linux installation (Part I): Installing Red Hat Linux on multiple machines one after another can be quite tedious. To avoid answering the same question over and over again, try the KickStart method, as it does not need any user intervention. WRITE CHEQUES. NOT JUST BOOKS: Niyam Bhushan on how anybody can turn thoughts into words, and words into wealth. NFS CLIENTS for Windows. OpenSSL PACKAGE offers a vast crypto library of algorithms WAIT QUEUES in Linux device drivers UNDERSTANDING recursive sub-routines INDIA-RELATED NEWS: HP launches GNU/Linux laptop Mandrake's latest distribution Oracle announces 10g for GNU/Linux Delixus offers India Linux CxProtect anti-virus mailing solution for mail-servers Trade management system from Network Programs Netweb Technologies unveils Tyrone MRO-Tek rolls out Network Management Systems Review of FLOSS at BangaloreIT.com =========================================== DISCLOSURE: This journalist (FN) writes a monthly column for LFY and gets paid for it. Promoting awareness about the content of LFY however is not part of the job, and is carried on with the intention spreading awareness about FLOSS among different GNU/Linux user groups in India. -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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Fwd: Nokia Internet Tablet Amazon's "Best of 2007"
by Praveen A 28 Dec '07

28 Dec '07

Good to see a gadget powered by Free Software becoming a best seller. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Peter Robinson <pbrobinson at gmail.com> To: maemo-developers at maemo.org Hi All, Thought you may be interested that Amazon has released its "Best of 2007" in different sections (most sold by quantity, most wanted etc) and Nokia's Internet Tablet's featured in list of the bestselling products on Amazon.com in 2007 by total units sold for the Computers sections: Computers: Nokia Internet tablet PC http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=88756… Well done all. Pete _______________________________________________ maemo-developers mailing list maemo-developers(a)maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Debian Live switched to GPL3+.
by Praveen A 22 Dec '07

22 Dec '07

Hi, http://git.debian.org/?p=users/daniel/live-helper.git;a=commitdiff;h=042354… Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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School Admin
by Sarath Lakshman | ശരത്ത് ലക് ഷ്മണ് 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hi friends, Recently I have written an application which can be used in the schools in kerala as student admission register as per Kerala Educational Rules [KER]. This would make tasks such as T.C issuance, finding details about students etc easier. Checkout http://code.google.com/p/school-admin Platforms: GNU/Linux , M$ Windows Comments please :) -- Sarath Lakshman http://sarathlakshman.info

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Taking a look... at some recent developments in Urdu computing (from BytesForAll, South Asia)
by Frederick Noronha [फ़र ेदरिक नोर ोनया] 17 Dec '07

17 Dec '07

BYTESFORALL: A LOOK AT SOME URDU DEVELOPMENTS... Some useful and interesting links from the UrduComputing mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urdu_computing URDU NVU RELEASE Huda Sarfraz huda.sarfraz(a)nu.edu.pk: The current release of the Nvu localization includes the Urdu Nvu installer for Windows, which has it's GUI in Urdu. Work to be done for future releases includes changing the layout direction of Urdu Nvu to right-to-left. For download and installation details, please go to Urdu Nvu Windows Installer. http://www.crulp.org/software/localization/OSS/NVu.html Nvu (pronounced "N-view") is a WYSIWYG HTML editor, based on the Composer component of Mozilla Application Suite and Gecko 1.7. It is a common WYSIWYG editor for Linux and is intended to be an open source equivalent to proprietary software like Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver (although to date it is missing many features they possess). As a WYSIWYG editor, it is designed to be easy for novice users and does not require any knowledge of HTML or CSS to use. The project was started by and sponsored by Linspire. Linspire hired Daniel Glazman, former Netscape Communications Corporation employee and CEO/Founder of Disruptive Innovations, to be lead developer. Nvu is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, and it can be built successfully on any platform with the Netscape Portable Runtime. (Source: Wikipedia) * * * ONLINE DICTIONARY: Aijaz Akhtar aijazakhtar(a)rediffmail.com: A very good Dictionary is now available on line. Its huge database, Unicode nature, and Nafees Web Naskh font give it an edge over other on line dictionary sites. Visit here: http://www.urduenglishdictionary.org/ [Works fine in FireFox 2.0.0.9, on Windows XP-SP2 with Urdu fonts and phonetic keyboard installed for MS Office. When doing Urdu to English search, you will need to switch your keyboard to Urdu from the language bar.] * * * GNU/LINUX WINDOW MANAGER xfce IN URDU: Aijaz Akhtar aijazakhtar(a)rediffmail.com: Very good news. A low end yet powerful window maker for Linux is now translated into Urdu by Makki. XFCE may not be as beautiful an interface as KDE or Gnome for Linux, yet it is powerful and consumes less processor power and is light on RAM requirements, making it suitable even on a pentium-1 or 2 machine with 400-500 MHZ processor (Correct me if I am wrong). So now one can download this, and configure your Linux (with XFCE preloaded, since it is not bundled with in some Linux disros) to use Urdu interface of Linux. Download presently from here: http://www.4shared.com/file/28497917/a3c84cdc/xfce_441_Urdu_Translation_by_… Soon to be uploaded in the download section of http://urduweb.org. Mohammed Ali Makki had already translated and made available Urdu Slax earlier that is available here: http://www.urduweb.org/mehfil/local_links.php?catid=19 * * * HINDI TO URDU TRANSLITERATOR: Abdur Radhid: arnandan(a)yahoo.com A beta version of Hindi to Urdu Transliterator is available on line. Please give your feedback. Visit here: http://hindi2urdu.tripod.com COMPILED IN PUBLIC INTEREST BY: * * * TYPING IN URDU, UBUNTU ETC: Ali Hussnain Shah: hussnain_shah(a)gmx.net as a starting point you can use crulp's Urdu Layout for Linux at http://www.crulp.org/software/localization/keyboards/linuxphonetickb.html There should be one text file containing the key mappings. You can us it to learn and change it as you like and use that on linux. After you have developed a standard keyboard and if this should be included in all Linux distributions, submitting it to xorg (opensource implementation X Window System, on which KDE,Gnome are based) would be better.. their mailing list is at http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg After submission to xorg it will be included in all linux distributtions (debian, suse, ubuntu ...) as soon the distribution uses a new version of the X system. I think Sergey Udaltsov is responsible for handling of the X input system there in the list. * * * PAKTYPE NASKH BASIC FONT: Lateef Sagar Shaikh lateef_sagar(a)yahoo.com: I have created PakType Naskh Basic 1.0 font, which is available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/paktype http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paktype/files/NaskhBasic/1.0/ This font supports following languages: Amazigh, Arabic, Balochi, Balti, Berber, Brahui, Burushaski, Farsi, Fulani, Gojri, Hausa, Hindko, Kalami, Kanuri, Kashmiri, Khowar, Kurdish, Ladakhi, Maba, Malay, Mandinka, Ormuri, Pashto, Pathwari, Punjabi, Saraiki, Shina, Sindhi, Somali, Swahili, Torwali, Turkish, Urdu and Uyghur and others. This font is free for distribution and modification under GPL. Glyphs taken from ArabEyes.org font KacstQurn, having following copyright notice; KACST holds the copyright of the included Arabic font which is donated under GPL by KACST. URW Design and Development holds the copyright of the included Latin font which is donated under GPL by URW. * * * LIGATURE-BASD NASTALEEQ WRITING SYSTEM: Sarmad Hussain sarmad.hussain(a)nu.edu.pk: In 1980 Mr. Ahmad Mirza Jamil developed a ligature based Nastaleeq writing system. He has written about 18,000 valid ligatures of Urdu and developed a Noori Nastaliq font. Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP) is releasing a soft copy of these ligatures in Unicode format. CRULP has extensively used these ligatures for testing the fonts developed at the center and realised that it will be a valuable resource for other font developers. These ligatures are grouped in 2 to 8 characters and are sorted in the end character order. The ligatures can be downloaded from www.crulp.org. Reference: "Noori Nastaliq computerised Urdu calligraphy (list of ligatures)," calligraphically designed and compiled by Ahmad Mirza Jamil, Elite Press, Karachi. * * * URDU AND PHOTOSHOP CS2: Imran Ahmed imran1(a)optonline.net: Why Urdu isn't supported in Photoshop CS2: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Adobe-Photoshop-1028/Urdu-Images-Photoshop.htm * * * SEVERAL KEYBOARD LAYOUTS: Imran Ahmad imran1(a)optonline.net: For the past couple of years I have been trying to find easy way to type in Urdu on computer. For these reasons I tried several Urdu keyboard layout such as pakUrdu, Bhurgri, NLA, Phonetic, phonetic-2, Ishaque, Olympia, Urdu Mahir, and MS_UR_KB. The fact that there are so many Urdu keyboard layouts while not having any standard set, made it more complex to achieve my goal. Finally I end up sticking with Microsoft Urdu keyboard, but the options for clear fonts type still lacks. -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490 Links from Goa: http://goalinks.livejournal.com/

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Fwd: [IP] Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL
by Frederick Noronha [फ़र ेदरिक नोर ोनया] 13 Dec '07

13 Dec '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> Date: 12 Dec 2007 19:15 Subject: [IP] Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL To: ip <ip(a)v2.listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: From: dewayne(a)warpspeed.com (Dewayne Hendricks) Date: December 11, 2007 3:52:07 PM EST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy(a)warpspeed.com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL Information Week By Paul McDougall In what could become a major test case for the most widely used open source software license, a group that represents open source developers has sued Verizon Communications -- claiming that the telecom giant's FiOS broadband service violates the terms of the GNU General Public License. In court papers filed Friday, The Software Freedom Law Center maintains Verizon's use of an open source program called BusyBox in FiOS violates version 2 the GPL because Verizon has not made the product's source code available to its customers--as the license requires. Since November 2006, "Verizon has distributed to the public copies of the firmware in the infringing product, and none of these distributions included source code to BusyBox or offers to provide such code," SFLC alleges in its complaint, which was filed in federal court in New York. <http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=2048… > ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490 12000+ downloadable, sharable hi-res photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ PLEASE READ, a story on what's possible when there's a marriage between the Right to Information and media: The Indian Navy's deadly aircraft (The Mint) http://www.livemint.com/2007/11/26013747/The-Indian-Navy8217s-deadly.html

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[Fwd: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact BIS now!]
by Sunil Mohan Adapa 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

Dear Friends, I've recieved the following mail this morning asking to act on gathering supporters and on finding out who is representing India in the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) for OOXML (deadline for selection is Dec 11). Hope you all signed the petition. -- Sunil Mohan -------- Original Message -------- Subject: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact BIS now! Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 18:59:22 +0100 From: Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion(a)ffii.org> To: sunilmohan(a)fsf.org.in Dear Sunil Mohan Adapa, You signed the <NO>OOXML petition, a movement backed now by more than 70.000 supporters worldwide. Our effort to influence the OOXML (Office Open XML) standardization process has been an astonishing success so far. We aim for at least 100.000 signatures in February when the Geneva Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) will convene with the aim to resolve comments. Microsoft is trying by all means to get its "standard" adopted without substantial changes despite of its thousands of officially reported technical flaws and the pre-existence of ISO 26300:2006 (OpenDocument, ODF) as the most appropriate international standard for the representation of office documents. By next Tuesday Dec 11 2007 delegates from your National Standards Body BIS who will participate in the BRM have to be announced to ISO. At least Portugal and Ireland will be represented by Microsoft. In many other countries, we know that Microsoft gold partners are proposing themselves as heads of national delegations. Many of them will prevail if we do not take action. Will you let Microsoft represent your country at Geneva and decide the future of OOXML? You can make a difference and call now BIS at +91-1123237991 and help us to find out: a. Who will represent BIS on DIS 29500 at the Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva? b. When will the decision on delegates be made and if BIS is aware of the Dec 11 deadline? c. Does your national delegates for the BRM are independent enough from Microsoft? d. Does the responsible Committee of BIS for DIS 29500 work on resolution proposals for all the 3500 comments tabled or - if at all - only for the national comments that they submitted? Please report your findings by replying to this email, we will update this page with the members of each national delegation: http://www.noooxml.org/brm More things that you can do to help our effort against this broken standard proposal: 1. Join our mailing list and get in touch with many other activists: http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml-club 2. Become a member of FFII, the worldwide association leading the <NO>OOXML campaign: http://action.ffii.org/member_application 3. Become a member of DIGISTAN, the organization for the promotion of true digital open standards worldwide; please indicate your interests to: members(a)digistan.org 4. Blog about OOXML which shapes the public debate; blogging has been instrumental to our success in Sweden for example; 5. support our campaign work with financial means: http://www.noooxml.org/donations Best regards, -- Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion(a)ffii.org> <NO>OOXML Campaign leader

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Fsf-friends December 2007