Fsf-friends February 2007

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

21 participants
22 discussions

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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Zotero for Firefox
by Shekhar Krishnan 28 Feb '07

28 Feb '07

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use web browser extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It has been developed by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University http://chnm.gmu.edu and is now in use by thousands of historians, anthropologists, journalists, lawyers and other researchers. Zotero is an open source alternative to citation tools like Endnote, and lives inside of your browser, allowing you to automatically capture and manage sources and citations in online catalogues, archives, and other repositories, as well as taking notes, tagging these materials, and exporting bibliographies in various formats. For more information and to download and install Zotero, go to http://www.zotero.org Zotero requires use of Firefox 2.0, the latest version of the popular open source web browser from the Mozilla Corporation. If you don't already use Firefox or haven't yet upgraded to the new version 2.0, go to http://www.getfirefox.com to download it. Once you've installed it or upgraded your earlier version, go to the Zotero site to download and install the extension for Firefox 2.0. Best, S.K. -- Shekhar Krishnan 400, West 119th Street, Apt.10D New York, NY 10027 U.S.A. http://www.mit.edu/~shekhar http://www.heptanesia.net http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar

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Clarification by British PM's Office that "Software patents" are not enforceable in UK
by Ramanraj K 27 Feb '07

27 Feb '07

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page11077.asp <quote> We [The Prime Minister's Office, UK] received a petition asking: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make software patents clearly unenforcible." ... ... The Government remains committed to its policy that no patents should exist for inventions which make advances lying solely in the field of software. Although certain jurisdictions, such as the US, allow more liberal patenting of software-based inventions, these patents cannot be enforced in the UK. ... ... </quote>

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Re: 'F' for Fedora; 'F' for Free (Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay)
by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray 27 Feb '07

27 Feb '07

> Which part is funny ? Michael being President of OSI or Michael as a Red > Hat Executive backing Fedora ? a. Nice to see a Red Hat (for that matter any company) executive talking and embracing 'Free Software' and not 'Open Source'. b. Funny to see the OSI president leaning towards the FSF's stance on software freedom and using the FSF backed terminology, and away from the OSI's. c. It is not about hatred. I could not help smiling at this at a time when the 'FSF is evil', 'RMS is a dictator', and 'non-free kernel modules make a good desktop distribution'. 'Funny' was the most decent word I could come up with at 04:30am. :-P Cheerio, Debarshi

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 46, Issue 15
by Mishi Choudhary 27 Feb '07

27 Feb '07

hi i've been trying to get in touch with kiran in regard to the convention on 3rd and 4th . Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

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'F' for Fedora; 'F' for Free
by Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray 27 Feb '07

27 Feb '07

http://rahulsundaram.livejournal.com/ Fedora is on the verge of becoming the first mainstream GNU/Linux distribution to meet the FSF's standards of a 'free operating system'. Here is the current status: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FreeSoftwareAnalysis https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006-April/msg00181.h… Funnily this move is backed by Michael Tiemann (Vice-President of Red Hat and President of OSI). Before signing off something to feed my pride: http://joey.ubuntu-rocks.org/blog/2006/12/28/q-what-should-end-user-graphic… Cheers, Debarshi -- husband v. use sparingly; conserve; save husbandry n. frugality; thrift; agriculture

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Hurd.in meetup during FOSS Meet @ NITC 07
by Praveen A 26 Feb '07

26 Feb '07

Hi, Hurd.in team will be meeting up during FOSS Meet @ NITC 07 to discuss future plans for Hurd.in community. Be there. More details. http://hurd.in/bin/view/Hurd/FOSS_Meet_At_NITC_07 Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Free Software Convention in Hydrabad
by Arun M 25 Feb '07

25 Feb '07

Dear friends, Free software activist in Andhra Pradesh is organising a convention on free software on 3rd and 4th of March. Event is supported by FSF India. We welcome all the Free Software activists to the event. For more information see the link below. http://nationalconvention.swecha.org/WordPress/ regards arun

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[Article Link] Coming up: a planetary web
by Praveen A 24 Feb '07

24 Feb '07

"People say information is power. I believe that sharing of information is power. Open access to the world's information is what one should look at," says Cerf who is the Vice-President & Chief Internet Evangelist of Google. Read the Deccan Herald article http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb212007/index158322007221.asp -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Fwd: When is a standard not a standard (sub-titled Microsoft and BIS)?
by Arun M 24 Feb '07

24 Feb '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gora Mohanty <gora(a)sarai.net> Date: Feb 23, 2007 6:55 PM Subject: When is a standard not a standard (sub-titled Microsoft and BIS)? (This message is being sent primarily to the ILUG-Delhi and Sarai PRC mailing lists, but is also copied to people that Venkatesh Hariharan had sent the original message to. Please note that henceforth, I will only be following up on the ILUG-Delhi list. You have to join the list to post there (see <http://www.linux-delhi.org/cgi-bin/anCMS/mailingList.cgi?action=mailingLists> ), but the archives are available publicly at http://frodo.hserus.net/pipermail/ilugd/ and http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi/ ) Hello, I had the (mis-)fortune of attending a seminar on Information Technology Standardization [sic] organised for the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), by MAIT. The ostensible reason for the meeting was to identify requirements of the IT industry in order "to formulate effective, meaningful and implementable standards". The background for this is an effort by Microsoft to push through a 6000-page document on Office Open XML (OOXML), presumably as a counter-standard to Open Document Format (ODF). Details on this are available on Venky's blog at http://www.osindia.blogspot.com/ Due to other commitments, I had time to attend only the inaugural session, which had a keynote address by Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft Corporation. Incidentally, Microsoft was the only company represented on the panel, and allowed to give a formal presentation, though representatives from open-source companies, and the community were also present. Questions on the talks were also not entertained. What was frankly disgusting was the attitude of BIS officers, even those of senior ones, towards Microsoft; going beyond courtesy, and even obsequiousness, to border on servility. The HP laptop being used for the presentation prominently displayed the Microsoft Vista logo. Mr. Mundie's presentation was, in my opinion, a masterpiece of double- speak, and fascinated me so much that I made sure to make a transcript of his slides. Apparently, having solved issues with security, privacy, and reliability, Microsoft has been focusing on inter-operability over the last 1.5 years. While this might seem like great news, Mr. Mundie was diligent in avoiding any specific commitments, such as the simple one of guaranteeing that any Microsoft application will be able to export to an openly-published, patent-unencumbered, standard format, without loss of information. While the presentation went ahead to extol the virtues of meta-data, and the use of XML data formats, Mr. Mundie somehow omitted to mention that XML does not automatically imply openness, or freedom from patent restrictions. Finally, it seems to be the opinion of Mr. Mundie that industry standards are needed to keep a check on "unconstrained innovation", which leaves me wondering how Microsoft knows about innovation, unconstrained or otherwise. Fun and games aside, I think that it is worthwhile for the open-source community in India at large to formulate a coherent position on the use of openly documented, and patent-free standards for any government data, and to publicise the same to both government organisations, and the media. It is our data, so we should have an absolute guarantee of freedom in using it. I believe that Venky is drafting such a document, that we can put up on a Wiki, and use as a basis for a formal policy paper. Regards, Gora

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New release of the deepOfix Mail Server (version 3.1) is available for download now...
by Abhas Abhinav 24 Feb '07

24 Feb '07

Dear Friends, DeepRoot Linux is pleased to announce a new release of the deepOfix Mail Server! Version 3.1 of the deepOfix Mail Server is a major release encompassing a large number of fixes, enhancements and additions. Please do give the new deepOfix Mail Server a try. We are confident that it can meet the server requirements of anyone wanting to use GNU/Linux and Free Software. About the deepOfix Mail Server ------------------------------ The deepOfix Mail Server makes it possible for organisations with minimal technical expertise to have robust server infrastructure. The mail server effortlessly delivers the freedom, reliability and excellence of GNU/Linux to you and is available as Free / Open Source Software itself. It offers unprecented ease of use, doesn't require prior GNU/Linux experience and is backed by a full-time development and support team. As always, we will eagerly await any feedback, criticism, bug reports, wisdom or advice that you might have for us. Cheers, Abhas. Links ----- * Download the deepOfix Mail Server Install CD (version 3.1) http://sourceforge.net/projects/deepofix * deepOfix Mail Server - Version 3.1 - What's new? http://deeproot.in/deepofix/version-3.1 * Development websites deepOfix Installer and OS - http://code.deeproot.in/deepofix EasyPush Server Manager - http://code.deeproot.in/easypush http://deepofix.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/deepofix/ * Subscribing to deepOfix-related mailing lists http://deeproot.in/deepofix/mailing-lists -- i-take-charge at DeepRoot Linux http://www.deeproot.in / +91 (80) 4112 4784 / 85 Getting GNU/Linux to work for you. Faster. Better. Today. Every way.

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X.org officially supports GNU Hurd now!
by Praveen A 20 Feb '07

20 Feb '07

Hi, Interesting news http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/PressReleases/X11R72Released Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software
by Frederick Noronha 19 Feb '07

19 Feb '07

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070216/D8NB1EK05.html Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software Email this Story Feb 16, 3:42 PM (ET) By JOHN RICE (AP) Richard Stallman, President and founder of the Free Software Foundation, speaks during the... Full Image HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) - by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software. Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code. "It's basically a problem of technological sovereignty, a problem of ideology," said Hector Rodriguez, who oversees a Cuban university department of 1,000 students dedicated to developing open-source programs. Other countries have tried similar moves. China, Brazil and Norway have encouraged the development of Linux for a variety of reasons: Microsoft's near-monopoly over operating systems, the high cost of proprietary software and security problems. Cuban officials, ever focused on U.S. threats, also see it as a matter of national security. Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, an old comrade-in-arms of President Fidel Castro, raised suspicions about Microsoft's cooperation with U.S. military and intelligence agencies as he opened a technology conference this week. He called the world's information systems a "battlefield" where Cuba is fighting against imperialism. He also noted that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once described copyright reformers - including people who want to do away with proprietary software - as "some new modern-day sort of communists" - which is a badge of honor from the Cuban perspective. Microsoft did not return calls seeking comment. Cuba imports many computer preloaded with Windows and also purchases software in third countries such as China, Mexico or Panama. Valdes is a hard-liner who favors uniforms and military haircuts, but the biggest splash at the conference was made by a paunchy, wild-haired man in a T-shirt: Richard Stallman, whose Free Software Foundation created the license used by many open-source programs, including Linux. Middle-aged communist bureaucrats and ponytailed young Cuban programmers applauded as the computer scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology insisted that copyright laws violate basic morality; he compared them to laws that would threaten people with jail for sharing or modifying kitchen recipes. Stallman also warned that proprietary software is a security threat because without being able to examine the code, users can't know what it's doing or what "backdoor" holes developers might have left open for future entry. "A private program is never trustworthy," he said. Cuba also has trouble keeping proprietary software current. Its sluggish satellite link to the outside world makes downloads of updates agonizingly slow. And U.S. companies, apparently worried about American laws restricting trade with Cuba, are increasingly blocking downloads to the island. Cubans try to get around the problem by putting software updates on a server located on the island. But many computers wind up unpatched and vulnerable. Cuba's Cabinet also has urged a shift from proprietary software. The customs service has gone to Linux and the ministries of culture, higher education and communications are planning to do so, Rodriguez said. And students in his own department are cooking up a version of Linux called Nova, based on Gentoo distribution of the operating system. The ministry of higher education is developing its own. Rodriguez's department accounts for 1,000 of the 10,000 students within the University of Information Sciences, a five-year-old school that tries to combine software development with education. Cuba is also training tens of thousands of other software and hardware engineers across the country, though few have computers at home. Most Cubans have to depend on the slow links at government internet cafes or schools. Rodriguez shied away from saying how long it would take for Cuba to get most of its systems on Linux: "It would be tough for me to say that we would migrate half the public administration in three years." But he said Linux use was growing rapidly. "Two years ago, the Cuban free-software community did not number more than 600 people ... In the last two years, that number has gone well beyond 3,000 users of free software and its a figure that is growing exponentially." Even so, most of the computers at this week's technology conference showed the red, green, blue and yellow Windows start button in the bottom left-hand corner of their screens. And the start of the open-source sessions was delayed as organizers fiddled with the computer running their projector. The conference room screen had been displaying the words "Windows XP." -- FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please) http://fn.goa-india.org http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com

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Key expiry breaks most D-I Etch RC1 images
by Debarshi Ray 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

http://times.debian.net/1073 "The expiration of the Debian archive's signing key for 2006 has broken most of the installation media from etch RC1." Cheers, Debarshi -- After the game the king and the pawn go into the same box. -- Italian proverb

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The Government of West Bengal speaks out in favor of FOSS
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 An article in Anandabazaar Patrika (a leading Bengali daily) dated 11th February 2007 - From the article এ বার মুক্ত সফটওয়্যার ব্যবহারের পক্ষে রাজ্য [Bengali] রাজ্যের তথ্যপ্রযুক্তি মন্ত্রী দেবেশ দাস বলেন "ফ্রী অ্যান্ড ওপেন সোর্স সফটওয়্যার (ফস) এর ব্যাপকতর ব্যবহার এই সম্যসার সম্ভাব্য সমাধান" । [...] আরও অনেক বেশি সংখ্যক লোকের কাছে কম্পিউটার শিক্ষার সুযোগ পৌঁছে দেওয়ার জন্য লিনাক্স এর মত মুক্ত সফটওয়্যার বড় ভূমিকা নিতে পারে বলে তাঁর দাবি [/Bengali] ie the Minister of Information Technology for the state of West Bengal Debesh Das said (in the context of not having enough developer/software engineering skills in the state) that "the wider usage of Free and Open Source software would be a possible solution to the problem". He also stated that FOSS software like Linux have the potential to reach out to a wider audience for the training of Computer. The article also quotes him as saying "In the present times, most of the computers come with a preloaded OS that have a high royalty tag associated with them, using FOSS can change that situation. With the reduction in the prices of the computer hardware the usage and penetration would increase in schools, colleges and administrative offices. An increase in the skilled manpower base would also be observed. - -- You see things; and you say 'Why?'; But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFzonbXQZpNTcrCzMRAvZiAKC3Igq2wMqWl+z4l1tX9e7aYbWTDACfWLDR gRLSNnW7PHqabXeXMn/FNrg= =rqFb -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Microsoft and their Indian promoters can be sued...
by CK Raju, Thrissur 09 Feb '07

09 Feb '07

Information Technology Act provides stiff penal clauses through which proprietary software agencies like Microsoft and their (scrupulous) Indian promoters like IKM (in Kerala) can be sued. Here's the relevant paras ... "70. Protected system (1) The appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that any computer, computer system or computer network to be a protected system. (2) The appropriate Government may, by order in writing, authorise the persons who are authorised to access protected systems notified under sub-section (1). (3) Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in contravention of the provision of this section shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.72. Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacySave as otherwise provide in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, any person who, in pursuance of any of the powers conferred under this Act, rules or regulation made thereunder, has secured assess to any electronic record, book, register, correspondence, information, document or other material without the consent of the person concerned discloses such material to any other person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both." All we need to demonstrate is loss of data without the consent of the owner, here, the Government, for which only an internet connection to a protected system is needed. Microsoft, would pull out data without the requisite consent, and they and their promoters can be tried in Indian courts. "75. Act to apply for offence or contravention committed outside India (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), the provisions of this Act shall apply also to any offence or contravention committed outside India by any person irrespective of his nationality. (2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), this Act shall apply to an offence or contravention committed outside India by any person if the act or conduct constituting the offence or contravention involves a computer, computer system or computer network located in India." State IT Policy can remind the agencies of this issue, though its not mandatory, law is binding, whether you know it or not. Traitors, beware.... CK Raju Thrissur -------------------------- All fire, no smoke... http://ernakulam.sancharnet.in/doxa

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Electronic Voting Machines Software
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 06 Feb '07

06 Feb '07

Sorry and asking the same questions without using abbreviation Can anyone advise if the the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in use in India have their firmware open for inspection. -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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EVM Software
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 06 Feb '07

06 Feb '07

Hi Can anyone advise if the the EVM in use in India have their firmware open for inspection. -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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congratulations and thanks
by Nagarjuna G. 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

My hearty congratulations to all of you, who made the gnowledge.org portal launch a great event. let us all continue to make this one of the largest collaborative portals in the world. Though the event marks the end of a project, for those who are in it, it is a beginning. The gnowledge portal team is now ready to take calls to conduct workshops to introduce the new way of organizing a very large amount of free knowledge that already exists on the Internet. Best way to begin is to register at the portal and begin contributing in your area of work. We can all decide together, how to shape this portal in future. Nagarjuna

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Doug Mahugh : Linux Asia Open XML Workshop
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Mr. M. Moni, the head of India's e-Government Standards Committee, kicked off the event by saying "it is both strange and welcome to have Microsoft here today." He then discussed the Indian government's commitment to open standards, stressing the importance of open dialog between government and industry, and spoke of the huge investment in existing documents in both the public and private sectors. http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2007/02/03/linux-asia-open-xml-worksh… - -- You see things; and you say 'Why?'; But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFxYAZXQZpNTcrCzMRAmRpAJ4xe9geq6Ncpp2y0Qa2FEgJIDZ9RQCeOvg3 hAfmePQ7HpvVmusg6FRYZdE= =SB2g -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Vista DRM Cracked on Launch Day
by Vihan Pandey 01 Feb '07

01 Feb '07

> > A ReactOS developer and first year student of bachelor's degree in > > software engineering Alex Ionescu [1] from Canada has blogged about > > a way to bypass the PMP (Protected Media Path), a DRM technique > > used in Windows Vista. Read the blog here [2] > > I'm not convinced that putting Winduhs down is the right way to go > about promoting freedom and/or free software. What does the list > think? i agree. Instead of harping on Winduhs' weaknesses, maybe we should be talking > about how it takes freedom away and entraps users. agreed. In fact i did some reading on the guy Alex Ionescu, he started out with DOS 4.0(majored in Hex editing) later adopted the windoze family and saw *nix's in between. Based on his history, he was and is majorly into win32 kernel stuff. Another angle on the same is that reverse engineering windoze is against the law(as one has signed the EULA during the install) and could probably land the person concerned up in jail. Should we be breaking the law even if it is for exposing cracks in an already broken system? Probably not, to quote RMS on the same ``breaking an agreement even for preventing a bad thing is NOT good". Anyway there are enough high priority GNU and other Free Software projects out there. Personally i would NEVER want to go on a windoze box EVER. Even if it were just for idle curiosities. Regards, - vihan

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