Fsf-friends October 2008

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

17 participants
23 discussions

Re: [Fsf-friends] [Fsf-kerala] IT/ITES SEZs now a nightmare for investors
by CK Raju 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Anoop Ambika <anoop(a)kreara.com> wrote: > sense. This time through the slogan should be "produce what the majority > wants as opposed to produce what the rich minority wants" Suggesting a minor amendment. - not 'wants' but 'needs'. There's a subtle difference between the terms. CK Raju

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Schools in Andhra Pradesh to go Microsoft way...
by CK Raju 15 Oct '08

15 Oct '08

".. An NComputing system works on a shared basis wherein each student's monitor, keyboard and mouse are connected to a shared PC through a small NComputing access device. The device will help the school cut electricity costs as it uses one watt of electricity, which is very low compared to a normal PC, informed Chairman and CEO of NComputing, Stephen Dukker. The systems will have Microsoft Windows Server operating system and Microsoft Office Suite for students to learn in addition to acquiring computer skills and learning subjects such as maths, said Chairman and Corporate Vice- President of Microsoft India Ravi Venkatesan..." http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/14/stories/2008101458480300.htm -------------- Somebody said Free Software Movement is active in Andhra Pradesh... CK Raju

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Working with IOTA, ILUG-Cal.ORG delivers FOSS-based Desktop Computing training to high school teachers
by Indranil Das Gupta 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

Dear all, Last year, we - the Indian GNU/Linux Users' Group - Kolkata Chapter, had conducted the highly successful [1] 2-month long weekend program on GCC programming workshops and tutorials at the Rajabazar Science College[2], University of Calcutta. Recently there was a call for support and collaboration from the Institute of Open Technology and Applications (IOTA), an autonomous society that has been recently set up under the aegis of Dept of Information Technology, Govt of West Bengal. IOTA's mandate, afaik, is to identify cases and espouse the use and adoption of FOSS in the state of West Bengal. Towards that end, training in FOSS based technologies of high school teachers across the state, has been identified by the society as one of the courses for immediate action. Several training programs are in the offing. The teachers' training program at West Bengal State University (WBSUB), Barasat was a part of that. Between 2nd and 4th October, 2008, 51 high school teachers belonging to 42 different schools from across the district of North 24 Parganas [3] attended the workshop. A team of six ILUG-CAL.ORG members gathered in Barasat (North 24 Parganas) from 4 different districts of WB, worked nearly against time to plan, execute and successfully deliver the program, with less that 20 hours of head-start before the event took off. It was the first time that ILUG-CAL has been involved in directly training the high school teachers in using FOSS. For the detailed report and the associated data please go to http://indradg.randomink.org/blog/archives/124 . cheers -indra References: [1] http://list.ilug-cal.org/pipermail/ilug-cal-discuss/2007-June/001363.html [2] http://santanu-sinha.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-gcc-at-rajabazar-scie… [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_24_Parganas

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Science progresses only if knowledge is shared - says US dept of energy ( Office of Scientific and Technical Information)
by renuka prasad 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

An interesting message --- To make great discoveries, researchers need scientific information, and they need it fast. Through a suite of innovative tools and resources<http://www.osti.gov/collections>, OSTI works to ensure scientists and the American public can readily find and share research so that science can advance. This requires expertise and innovation in both knowledge management and knowledge diffusion, critical components of the nation's science cyberinfrastructure<http://www.osti.gov/innovation/research/cyberinfrastructure> . to read more ---check the link below http://www.osti.gov/innovation/

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A Brief Report on National Public meeting on Software Patents
by Anivar Aravind 08 Oct '08

08 Oct '08

See http://cis-india.org/advocacy/floss/software-patents/blog/the-national-publ… Anivar -- Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.

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Microsoft entry through ACM
by CK Raju 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

"..Microsoft has signed a licensing agreement with ACM providing all ACM Student Members with access, at no charge, to a variety (~ 100) of software packages through its Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA). The goal of this program is to get these tools into the hands of current students. All active ACM Student Members are eligible to participate in the ACM/MSDNAA Program..." http://www.acm.org/membership/student/msdnaa-faq CK Raju

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Re: [Fsf-friends] International Centre
by shirish 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Hi all, I think Mr. Sreekumar was talking about this . http://english.mathrubhumi.com/news.php?id=4099&cat=1&sub=14&subit=0 Just have to say looking forward for the same :) -- Regards, Shirish Agarwal This email is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ 065C 6D79 A68C E7EA 52B3 8D70 950D 53FB 729A 8B17

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International Centre
by Sreekumar R 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

What more regarding the new "International Centre for Free and Open source software" which I came to know from todays news paper.sreekumar

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(R)e-Governance in Kochi Corporation !!
by CK Raju 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

"...The capital and initial costs, including those for hardware with software system cost, application software, creation of web portal, data digitisation and training and capacity building of personnel for the first two years of the commission, will be available from the Central government. The cost of the land and building, site preparation, civil infrastructure, employee cost, power and communication cost shall be borne by the State government or the urban local body. Wipro, one of the IT majors, is in the process of preparation of the detailed project report for the e-governance programme for Kochi. The agency is expected to complete the work within two months, Ms. Antony said. The Kochi Corporation had earlier made some attempts to computerise the office with the support of the Information Kerala Mission. A portion of the data in the possession of the Corporation was converted into electronic format earlier. .." Full story at http://www.thehindu.com/pp/2008/10/04/stories/2008100450510100.htm --------------- Are our activists in government aware of this new development ? Why aren't the platforms, mode of storage of public information, types of standards being deployed not mentioned here ? Is it another Microsoft back-door ? CK Raju

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Software Patenting
by Praveen A 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

"If formulaic Hindi films were protected by patent laws, we would be able to make only one film," joked Abraham. The system of software patenting wipes out smaller businesses and innovation, he said. "Software, like poetry and literary works, is already protected by copyright. After all, Bill Gates made his fortunes from copyright and not patents. But many software companies are trying to get additional protection." Copyright and patents are both part of intellectual property rights, but copyright restricts the expression of an idea while patents restrict the idea itself, according to Abraham. Under a patenting regime, even before a kid writes one line of code he has to read many patents." Full Coverage http://www.timeoutbengaluru.com/aroundtown/aroundtown_feature_details.asp?c… Another story by Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/05/stories/2008100559810400.htm Vote for it at FS Daily http://www.fsdaily.com/Legal/Software_patenting_will_harm_industry_consumer -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Fsf-friends October 2008