Fsf-friends September 2008

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Large Hadron Collider - powered by GNU/Linux
by James Mathew 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/09/large-hadron-collider---powere… -- HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

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Appeal for Bihar relief fund
by Vikram Vincent 09 Sep '08

09 Sep '08

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

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Fwd: [ilug-tvm] Khadi Board visits the GNU/Linux installfest at Technopark today ..
by Praveen A 05 Sep '08

05 Sep '08

---------- 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 ilug-tvm-unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -- 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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OpenOffice3.0beta
by CK Raju . 04 Sep '08

04 Sep '08

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/

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September 24 is World Day Against Software Patents
by Praveen A 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

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

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Fwd: [GNU/FSF Press] FSF and Stephen Fry celebrate the GNU Project 25th anniversary
by James Mathew 02 Sep '08

02 Sep '08

---------- 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!

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Free Software and Thin clients
by Vikram Vincent 01 Sep '08

01 Sep '08

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/

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Fwd: Open Source Hindi Speech Recognition System Release
by Shyam Karanattu 01 Sep '08

01 Sep '08

---------- 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

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Fsf-friends September 2008