On behalf of Team Swatantra I would like to extend our support to the fund
collection drive for relief for the victims of the Bihar flood.
I request all to please join in this effort.
Thank you,
Vikram Vincent
Coordinator
http://swatantra.org
9448810822
*Forum For Science & Development*
*Free Software Movement-Karnataka*
*An Appeal*
Dear Friends,
Bihar has been reeling under floods of an unprecedented nature leading to
large-scale death and destruction. Although the resilient people of Bihar
are used with the floods which are almost a perennial feature, the present
floods have taken the nature of a National Calamity as the River Kosi has
changed its course and is flowing in the opposite direction. This is a
situation which was unforeseen and many districts of Bihar are totally
submerged and lakhs of people are marooned without food or relief. About 16
districts have been submerged and more than 20 lakhs people have become
homeless.
The Government machinery is doing its bit, but the sheer magnitude of the
calamity makes it almost impossible for it to be handled by the Government
alone. There is no assessment of the actual loss of lives and property as
many areas are still inaccessible. The threat of epidemics is also something
that looms large in such circumstances. It becomes the duty of all patriotic
citizens to rise to the occasion and assist in such relief efforts.
The Forum For Science and Development and Free Software Movement-Karnataka
is organizing collection of relief for the flood victims in an effort to
provide succour to the suffering. A Relief Team will leave to Bihar in the
Second week of October and along with the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti disburse
relief in the affected areas. We request you to contribute generously in
this endeavor so that we can share their suffering and mitigate it to some
extent. Our volunteers will be approaching you individually for your
contributions and also seek your support to meet concerned officials in your
establishment to make it a meaningful effort.
In anticipation of your support and cooperation,
Thanking You,
Sd/-
Dr.S.Chatterji
Convenor, FSD.
Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Bangalore. Ph-9342858587.
Dr.Vijoo Krishnan
Co-Convenor, FSD.
PG Dept of Political Science
St.Joseph's College, Bangalore.
Ph-9449612237.
H.S.Jaykumar
Convenor, FSM-Karnataka.
Ph:9448163453
---------- കൈമാറിയ സന്ദേശം ----------
അയച്ച വ്യക്തി: ashik salahudeen <aashiks(a)gmail.com>
തീയ്യതി: 4 September 2008 1:00 PM
വിഷയം: [ilug-tvm] Khadi Board visits the GNU/Linux installfest at
Technopark today ..
സ്വീകര്ത്താവ്: ilug-tvm(a)googlegroups.com, smc-discuss(a)googlegroups.com
Hi all,
We at the installfest were lucky enough to have that heady feeling
that accompanies a picture of FOSS working its magic and people
benefitting from it. Today we had a visit from Khadi board.
Khadi board has been using Fedora and Ubuntu to run their office for
quiet sometime now. They had to obey a ruling from the government
which mandated the use of FOSS. Instead of waiting around and shoving
miles of red tape over it , they went into action and started using
FOSS. Of course they ran into problems. They went to CDAC for help.
Unfortunately , its another government body and they proved it. CDAC
started bull shitting , promising stuff and delivering nothing ,
demanding ever increasing amounts of money for it and being secretive
about it. Frustrated , the people from Khadi board turned to the FOSS
community and voila !! things started to go right. Their major problem
was Malayalam rendering and input which was solved by the leading
Malayalam language computing group , Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (
http://fci.wikia.com/SMC ) . Its members provided support to Khadi
board, over web. And Khadi board kept coming back to the community
which never let them down.
Today they were here to offer support for FOSS communities , in their
own words " We saved over fifteen lakh rupees on OS licensing costs
alone. Donating money as sponsorship to the FOSS communities and the
events that they organize is nothing com[ared to the help and support
they provided us"
And you know what ? We are proud of them . We are proud of ( and to be
the ) members of FOSS community that helped this organization which
is a beacon of hope to the dying traditional weavers community.
Khadi board is going to be the first public sector organization in
Kerala to go completely paperless. And they did this because the FOSS
community was right behind them supporting them. Not the government ,
not the so called software and research organizations sposored and
funded by government, but the community who owns and maintains FOSS.
A video that we managed to capture (pardon the poor video quality and
awful reporting ) : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=BuyfLUzFz9E
--
സ്വതന്ത്ര മലയാളം കമ്പ്യൂട്ടിങ്ങ് - എന്റെ കമ്പ്യൂട്ടറിന് എന്റെ ഭാഷ
വെബ് താള്:http://smc.org.in/
ഗൂഗിള് കൂട്ടം:http://groups.google.com/group/smc-discuss
സാവന്ന സംരംഭം: https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/smc
ഐആര്സി ചാനല്: irc.freenode.net ലെ #smc-project
ഓര്ക്കൂട്ട് കൂട്ടം :http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=20512120
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
"Freedom is the only law".
"Freedom Unplugged"
http://www.ilug-tvm.org
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "ilug-tvm" group.
To post to this group, send email to ilug-tvm(a)googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
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For more options, visit this group at
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-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
--
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
Second beta release available
-----------------------------
The second public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now ready for testing. This beta release is made available to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org, but is not recommended for production use at this stage. If you are a regular user of OpenOffice.org, here's a great opportunity to help us make the next release the best ever. Download this release from download page. http://download.openoffice..org/3.0beta
CK Raju
Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now, on http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html/
PRESS RELEASE — [ World / Economy / Innovation ]
=======================================================================
September 24 Is World Day Against Software Patents
=======================================================================
Brussels, 2nd September 2008 -- A global coalition of more than 80
software companies, associations and developers has declared the 24th of
September to be the "World Day Against Software Patents". Five years
ago, on 24 September 2003, the European Parliament adopted amendments to
limit the scope of patent law and thereby protect small software
companies from the harmful effects of broad and trivial software
patents. A global petition asking to effectively stop software patents
worldwide will be launched on 24 September 2008, together with specific
additional requests for certain regions such as Europe, the United
States or India.
On 24 September 2008, the World Day Against Software Patents will
provide volunteers with the opportunity to express the growing concerns
of users, businesses and developers. The granting of software patents by
patent offices around the world affects their freedom to innovate. The
organisers expect 24h of activities across the globe. Volunteers will
gather in front of patent offices to inform the general public of the
problems underlying software patenting.
A global petition demanding to effectively stop software patents
worldwide will be launched on the same day. In some regions of the world
such as Europe, the United States, or India, dedicated campaigns are
being prepared by local supporters. The organisers intend to celebrate
the World Day on an annual basis unless substantive clarifications are
adopted in national laws that stop software patenting along with their
effects on the digital economy.
Benjamin Henrion, initiator of the StopSoftwarePatents coalition effort,
explains "The aim behind StopSoftwarePatents is to gather a worldwide
coalition of businesses and civil society in order to get laws which
clearly exempt software from patentable subject matter. This is the best
solution for getting rid of 'patent trolls' and uncontrollable legal
risks generated by software patents. The day the software industry forms
a clear front against software patents will be the beginning of the end
for the 'patent trolls'."
The Belgian campaigner was among the persons who persuaded the members
of the European Parliament five years ago to adopt amendments that limit
the scope of patent law in order to protect small software companies.
The European Council of Ministers - where national patent offices
exercise significant influence - fiercely insisted on making software
patents legal in Europe. Additionally, 'patent trolls' and US-based
corporations invested large lobby resources to support the position of
the Council. After a long struggle, the proposed directive was finally
rejected by the European Parliament in its second reading. Since then,
European and national patent offices continue to grant these software
and business method patents without an approval of the legislator by
creative interpretation of the European Patent Convention.
In few other nations, notably the US, the patent offices are even more
permissive. However, even in the US, no legislator ever approved the
practise. The global coalition calls for a larger representation of
business and civil society against software patents. The current lobby
gap makes Congress and Senate, the Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit (CAFC) and the Supreme Court susceptible to lobbying from patent
industries, holders and patent professionals. Although companies
affected by software patent litigation have been lobbying for a reform,
their advocacy for "quality" and "lower damages" targets the symptoms
rather than the roots of the problem.
=======================================================================
Quotes
=======================================================================
Businesses
==========
Anwar Ummer Arackal, CEO of OpenFirms, a consulting company for some of
the leading health care organizations and companies in India, says
"Patents in the field of software hinders the accessibility to
technology of our government health care clients who depend mainly on
large scale deployment of embedded devices for functioning. This
situation would lead to monopoly and anti competitive strategies."
Stefane Fermigier, founder and chairman of Nuxeo SAS, says: "It is most
important for the future of our company and our ecosystem, and for
software innovation in general, that the tremendous legal uncertainties
introduced by software patents for true innovators are kept out of the
market."
Marco Schulze, manager of Nightlabs, a professional supplier of
ticketing solutions based in Freiburg, Germany, says: "Small Software
companies cannot afford to go to court or pay damages. Who is this
software patent system for?"
PatentFrei, a coalition of 1000 German software businesses united
against software patents, explains: "The copyright law, which should
guaranty the copyright holder the security of an appropriate
reimbursement, has become an empty shell. The creativity of software
developers has been replaced by the creativity of patent lawyers with
the writing of broad patent claims. Politicians are asked today more
than ever to bring back a patent system which has gone off course, and
to stop granting patents on software."
Jean-Paul Smets, founder of the Noepatents petition in 2000 and CEO of
Nexedi software publication, considers that "European Union is the world
most friendly region for software innovators. Unlike in the US, Software
Entrepreneurs can focus on R&D and do not need to worry about the risks
of costly patent litigations or absurd software patents trolls."
Eneko Astigarraga, CEO of CodeSyntax, a software company located in the
Basque Country, says: "It's clear that software patents reduce
competition and innovation in the software industry, patents represent a
brake on innovation, especially on Internet."
Charles-H. Schulz, Partner at Ars Aperta: "Software patents exclude
competition, force companies out of business, drive up costs, impoverish
states and hinder their citizens to innovate and create revenues. We
chose to accept competition and foster innovation."
Pieter Hintjens, founder and CEO of iMatix Corporation, which provides
messaging solutions to the worlds financial markets, says "Patents are
for firms that can't compete without state intervention. We were free to
innovate in high-speed communications protocols because Europe was free
of software patents. We have always seen the US-style patenting of basic
ideas to be a curse on the fast-moving software business. Software
patents are protectionist voodoo."
Alberto Barrionuevo, President of Andalibre, the Association of open
source companies of Andalusia, says "Software patents, if legalized,
would destroy the most part of the IT business sector in the world.
AndaLibre is strongly against any software patent and will fight for the
freedom of creation in software."
Matthew Holloway, the author of Docvert, says "Software patents are
inherently broad and always result in government granted monopolies that
allow one company to outlaw their competitors. Because of this software
patents stifle innovation and economies. Allowing one company to own a
software idea is as foolish as allowing one company to own a food idea.
In my career I have never seen a software idea that was patent worthy."
Civil Society
=============
Hartmut Pilch, board member and former President of the FFII e.V.,
explained in 2006 how the patent system can be saved: "My message to the
patent world is: Either get back to the doctrines of forces of nature or
face the elimination of your system."
John Ingleby, of Schoolforge UK, says "Software patents hamper
development of new software by increasing legal costs while at the same
time enabling concealment rather than publication of innovations."
Richard Stallman, Founder of GNU Project and Free Software Foundation,
says "Software patents are a threat to all software developers and all
software users. Just one patent can ruin years of work, and no software
project is safe: with each design decision, there is a chance you will
step on a patent that will explode and destroy your project. To make
software development safe for the developers and the users, we must
abolish software patents."
Bruce Perens, creator of the Open Source Definition, and advisor to
governments and industries, says "Software patents are a drag on
innovation in the countries that have implemented them, vastly
increasing the cost of producing real products in the proprietary
software world because they replace innovation with litigation. But
we're most concerned with them because they are entirely incompatible
with Open Source, which is the strongest driver of innovation in
software development today."
ANSOL, the Portuguese association for Free Software advocacy: "Asking
for software patents is nothing more than creating an arms race. And we
all know why arm dealers love those and the normal people who end up
paying hate them."
=======================================================================
Links
=======================================================================
* Call for a World Day Against Software Patents signed by more then 80
stakeholders:
http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/call
* Draft petition with Request for public comments:
http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/petition
* Permanent link to this press release:
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/September_24_Is_World_Day_Against_Soft…
=======================================================================
Contact
=======================================================================
Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-414 84 03
+32-484-566109
bhenrion(a)ffii.org
(French/English)
=======================================================================
About the FFII
=======================================================================
The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over fifty countries,
dedicated to the development of information goods for the public
benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More
than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted
the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning
exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.
_______________________________________________
In-parl maillist
subscribe via http://aktiv.ffii.org/
fine-tune via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/in-parl
--
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
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Sullivan <johns(a)fsf.org>
Date: Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Subject: [GNU/FSF Press] FSF and Stephen Fry celebrate the GNU Project 25th
anniversary
To: info-press(a)gnu.org
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, September 2, 2008 -- The GNU
operating
system is turning 25 this year, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has
kicked off its month-long celebration of the anniversary by releasing "Happy
Birthday to GNU," a short film featuring the English humorist, actor,
novelist
and filmmaker Stephen Fry.
In the five-minute film, Fry compares the free software operating system to
"good science" and contrasts it with the "kind of tyranny" imposed by the
proprietary software produced by companies like Microsoft and Apple that it
replaces. He encourages people to use free GNU/Linux distributions like
gNewSense (<http://gnewsense.org>) and free software generally, for
freedom's
sake.
"Stephen has generously donated his time to the cause of free software. His
ability to communicate a technological and philosophical movement in terms
of
the basic principles of sharing and user freedom -- ideas that everyone can
understand -- will introduce a new and broader audience to the benefits of
free
software," said Matt Lee, an FSF campaigns manager and writer/producer of
the
film.
The video is available for download at <http://www.gnu.org>, and the FSF is
encouraging supporters to share it as widely as possible. Many have already
posted an image of Fry linking back to the video on their blogs and web
sites.
The film will also be distributed as an update to gNewSense users.
Peter Brown, the FSF's executive director, added, "We intend for the 25th
anniversary to be more than just a reflection on the history of the free
software movement, because despite all of the success brought about by the
GNU
system and other free software projects, we still need a determined effort
to
replace or eliminate the proprietary applications, platforms, drivers and
firmware that many users still run. In this light, the video of Stephen Fry
is
not just a celebration, but a rallying call for the work that still needs to
be
done. During September we plan a number of further announcements leading up
to
Software Freedom Day (<http://softwarefreedomday.org/>) on September 20 and
the
GNU anniversary on September 27."
Today over 300 software packages are released under the auspices of the GNU
Project, and new programs are being added all the time. These programs range
from the original core operating system components to more recent additions
like Gnash, a free software answer to the threat posed by Adobe's
proprietary
Flash player plugin; and GNU PDF, a reader for PDF files. Outside of GNU,
the
Free Software Directory (<http://directory.fsf.org>) names over 5,000
additional free software projects, including Firefox-based web browsers, the
Apache web server, and OpenOffice.org. Other well-known groups, like
Wikipedia,
Creative Commons, and the free culture movement, cite the GNU system and the
free software philosophy as important inspirations for their decisions to
make
similar commitments to freedom in their respective areas.
"Happy Birthday to GNU," along with more information about GNU software and
philosophy, are on display at <http://www.gnu.org>.
### About the GNU Operating System and Linux
Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free
software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating
system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom. See
<http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html>.
In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one, the
kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU GPL,
making
it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a complete free
operating system, which made it possible for the first time to run a PC
without
non-free software. This combination is the GNU/Linux system. For more
explanation, see <http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html>.
### About Free Software and Open Source
The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as "open
source," which cites only practical goals such as making software powerful
and
reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids discussion of ethics and
freedom. These two viewpoints are different at the deepest level. For more
explanation, see
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html>.
### About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer
programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom)
software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants
--
and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread
awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of
software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an
important
source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work
can
be made at <http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
### Media Contacts
John Sullivan
Operations Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
<campaigns(a)fsf.org>
###
_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org>
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press
--
HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!
Hi,
Since I'm into bridging the digital divide and this company
http://www.thinvent.in by my friend Saurabh conbines Free Software and the
former, thought that I'd push it on the list for those interested.
--
Vikram Vincent
+919448810822
http://swatantra.org/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Sachin Joshi* <rushtosachin(a)gmail.com
<mailto:rushtosachin@gmail.com>>
Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 3:52 PM
Subject: Open Source Hindi Speech Recognition System Release
To:
Recently, we have built an open source Hindi Speech Recognition System
which is freely available at -
https://sourceforge.net/projects/hindiasr/
This system is based on CMU Sphinx3 package. hindiasr package provides
the basic acoustic models for north Indian hindi speakers. These models
can be plugged into any application by using Sphinx APIs. I hope that
these acoustic models will be useful for many open source application
developers, who want to integrate a Hindi speech recognition system into
their application.
The latest release of hindiasr is HindiASR-2.0 . For detailed
information about how to run the system (on Linux Platform) please check
out the README2_0.txt from this release.
Regards,
Sachin Joshi
