Fsf-friends September 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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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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[Fwd: [ilugd] Revoking/Objecting to Software Patents in Indian Patent Office]
by Anivar Aravind 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ilugd] Revoking/Objecting to Software Patents in Indian Patent Office Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:02:56 +0530 From: Saurabh Nanda <saurabhnanda(a)gmail.com> Reply-To: The Linux-Delhi mailing list <ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org> To: The Linux-Delhi mailing list <ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org>, GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India <linuxers(a)mm.glug-bom.org> http://spicyipindia.blogspot.com/2007/09/spicyip-tidbits_23.html India, prima facie, does not allow pure software patents or business method patents. But that doesn't stop companies from trying. The Indian Patent Office is already being flooded with the patents described as "A web based system to do XYZ" or "A computer system in conjunction with XY to do Z" With no one opposing them (and not enough noise about this, like in the case of pharma patents), there's a high probability that this would get granted. Does anyone know of a concerted effort to keep this kind of cruft out from our country? Any pointers? Nandz. -- Anivar Aravind moving Republic Peringavu.P.O Thrissur-18 Kerala http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/about

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Fwd: list of audio software
by Frederick Noronha [फ़र ेदरिक नोर ोनया] 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

Could someone offer help and advice on this? FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: sajan venniyoor <venniyoor(a)gmail.com> Date: 21 Sep 2007 11:28 Subject: Re: list of audio software To: abhijit(a)mudeth.org, Ramnath Bhat <ram(a)voicesindia.org>, Frederick FN Noronha <fredericknoronha(a)gmail.com> Cc: "N. Ramakrishnan" <nram(a)ideosyncmedia.org>, Seema Nair <s.nair(a)unesco.org> Dear Abhijit, Ram, Fred, Along with the CR Technical Manual, we'd like to provide community radio groups with free audio software. In his presentation at Pondicherry, Abhijit had mentioned Audacity but of course there's lots more available as free downloads. I have drawn up a rough list (see below) of audio software, but Ram of Ideosync points out that some of them are not very user-friendly. Could we test some of these (and others like Ubuntu Studio that Ideosync Ram has mentioned) pick out the best for our CR people? It would be a very useful resource that we could club with the Technical Manual and offer to CR groups. Let me know what you think. warm regards, Sajan > > > Audacity: Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ > > ZaraRadio: ZaraRadio is a free radio automation system (a 'playout' system). It operates on Windows (but not on Vista). It's not stated whether it works on Mac OS or Linux. http://www.zararadio.com/index.php?centro=main.php&lang=en > > Campcaster: Campcaster is a free and open source radio management software. It has been designed for a Linux environment, but could possibly be used on other platforms in future. http://www.campware.org/en/camp/campcaster_news/605/ > > Ardour: Ardour is an open source digital audio workstation and can be used to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. http://ardour.org/ > > Sweep: Sweep is an audio editor and live playback tool for GNU/Linux, BSD and compatible systems. http://www.metadecks.org/software/sweep/index.html > > ReSound: ReZound is an open source and graphical audio file editor primarily for but not limited to the Linux operating system. http://rezound.sourceforge.net/ > > Rivendell: It is a complete radio broadcast automation solution, with facilities for the acquisition, management, scheduling and playout of audio content for GNU/Linux operating system. http://www.rivendellaudio.org/ > > Jokosher: Jokosher is a simple yet powerful multi-track studio which can be used to create and record music, podcasts etc. http://www.jokosher.org/ > > NGO-in-a-Box: Offers a variety of FOSS audio software. http://audiovideo.ngoinabox.org/?q=taxonomy/term/142 > > > Pro Tools: Pro Tools Free is a free version of Pro Tools for Mac. It is a digital audio workstation used for music production, post production etc. http://www.download.com/Pro-Tools-Free/3000-2182_4-3296394.html -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490 List of Indian e-lists http://wikiwikiweb.de/MailingListsInIndia

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[X-POSTED] First GPL violation filed in USA
by Raj Mathur 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The first lawsuit for GPL violation in the USA has been filed yesterday against Monsoon Multimedia, who were distributing busybox without making the source code available. This appears to be primarily a precedent-setting action, since MM had already acknowledged that they were using GPL source code in their product(s). If SFLC (the complainant) wins an injunction, it would be a big step for GPL compliance in the US, and hopefully could also be used to get a precedent in India and other countries. Story at: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070920153227686 Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ Freedom in Technology & Software || September 2007 || http://freed.in/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFG80u8yWjQ78xo0X8RAiJDAJ9O+06SfLhKvub6fwfX+kkS0AzLdgCfVs6o JG5GrsMhuiTlPQCkWYr/ezY= =ivLc -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Globalisation Institute calls for Unbundling Microsoft Windows
by Anivar Aravind 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Globalisation Institute Brussels, calls for Unbundling Pre Installed Windows Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating system, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market. Operating systems, it says, are not a natural monopoly, requiring just one supplier. Instead, in a competitive market, there would be a broad compatibility between different supplier’s products. “Competition would encourage open standards and interoperability as vendors would, for competitive reasons, want their products to interact with other vendors’ products,” the submission says. Full Report is here http://www.globalisation.eu/publications/unbundlingmicrosoftwindows.pdf -- Anivar Aravind moving Republic Peringavu.P.O Thrissur-18 Kerala http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/about

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Gigabyte Mainboards and Bios
by Mani A 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

The more recent mainboards from Gigabyte require the M$ Windows for Bios update, even the MS DOG bios update utility is not offered. Boards in the GA-Mxxx series for example have this feature, notwithstanding the few words on Linux drivers on the relevant page. The right thing for Gigabyte to do is to make a minimal FreeDOS / Linux standalone utility for the purpose. I am telling them a few things. Best A. Mani -- A. Mani Member, Cal. Math. Soc

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GNOME vs KDE
by CK Raju, Thrissur 21 Sep '07

21 Sep '07

"The GNOME community announced a new release today after six months of development. GNOME is a desktop environment primarily used on Linux and other open-source platforms. GNOME 2.20 includes numerous improvements and new features that benefit users, administrators, and developers...." News at http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070919-gnome-2-20-officially-release… "Second Beta Release of KDE 4.0 available. On 6th September 2007 the KDE Community released the second Beta release for KDE 4.0. This release marks the beginning of the feature freeze and the stabilization of the current codebase. Simultaneously the KOffice developers have released their third Alpha release, marking significant improvements in this innovative office suite. ..." Info at www.kde.org CK Raju

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Attacking Multi-core CPUs
by Mani A 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

There is an interesting interview of Robert Watson on his paper: http://www.watson.org/~robert/2007woot/2007usenixwoot-exploitingconcurrency…, at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/14/system_call_sploits/page2.html Best A. Mani -- A. Mani Member, Cal. Math. Soc

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