Fsf-friends November 2009

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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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Fsmk Newsletter Volume-6
by naveen mudunuru 26 Nov '09

26 Nov '09

Dear Friends, FSMK is releasing another edition of its Newsletter. http://fsmk.org/NewletterVol6-2009 We have already discussed lot of policies and politics of free-software. It has enhanced the importance of FSMK day by day. Today we are interacting with many people like you. It is ultimately propagating the necessity of free-software and the message of freedom! Come and join the hands of FSMK and be part of a freedom movement. Regards, FSMK EB Team

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Why internet data cards are not available for laptops which work on GNU/Linux?
by jaykumar hs 23 Nov '09

23 Nov '09

Hi , My friend Dr. Chatterjee is using Debian on his HP laptop and is in search of intenet data card which supports GNU/Linux. But service providers Reliance, and Tata Indicom intimated that their datacards donot support GNU/Linux. BSNL's customer care has informed that its datacards which support GNU/Linux are out of stock. Can some one help us on this issue? Regards Jaykumar

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Fwd: On UID and FOSS
by jaykumar hs 22 Nov '09

22 Nov '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ravi Shanker <raviscn(a)gmail.com> http://pragoti.org/node/3686 *The Free Software movement had raised an issue relating the possible threat to sovereignty due to the UID project. This fear was raised in the context of Microsoft's declaration of desire to be a partner on the UID project. Microsoft as a corporation is tied to the laws of the United States of America. Microsoft being a proponent of proprietorial software would never let out the source code of the programs it would use on any project. If Microsoft or any other provider partners on the UID project there could be three possible situations: 1) In case of an adverse international political situation a foreign government could order the software vendor to lock or cripple the UID database in India – a case of cyber-warfare; 2) it could lead to a situation of a vendor lock-in, whereby each time the UIDAI wishes to make changes to the database it would require the services of the software vendor, thus enabling the vendor continue to earn rent income; 3) the use of proprietorial software could have the unintended consequence of being incompatible with e-governance platforms which already use Open Source programing. The UIDAI team responded to these concerns: 1) The Open Source model will be used for the UID project and the Source Code will be under public ownership; 2) all APIs will be standard and published APIs and can be accessed using a variety of software; 3) Proprietorial software may have to be used for specialized tasks like biometrics for that may be the cheaper and more efficient choice at hand, but in such cases the contract with the software firms will have sufficient safeguards to prevent any vendor lock-in.* * *

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Looking for Free Software developers
by V. Sasi Kumar 18 Nov '09

18 Nov '09

SPACE (http://space-kerala.org) is looking for programmers who have knowledge in php, python, C, etc. and interest in Free Software. Familiarity with GNU/Linux is desirable. They may have to work primarily in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum). SPACE is looking to start activities in other places (inside Kerala and, later, outside too) soon, and hence there is a possibility of moving out of Thiruvananthapuram too. Salaries may not be comparable to industry levels but are negotiable. Interested persons can write to me personally with biodata. Best -- V. Sasi Kumar http://swatantryam.blogspot.com

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Report on Python workshop at St.Joseph's college
by Pramode C.E. 12 Nov '09

12 Nov '09

http://pramode.net/2009/11/12/report-on-python-workshop-at-irinjalakkuda-st… Regards, Pramode ----------- The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/

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[ANN][X-Post] SciPy India 2009 - Call for Papers
by Kadambari Devarajan 10 Nov '09

10 Nov '09

Call for Presentations ====================== The SciPy India 2009 Program Committee is currently developing the conference program. We are seeking presentations from industry as well as the academic world. We look forward to hearing your recent breakthroughs using Python! Please read the full 'call for papers' <http://scipy.in/talks-cfp/>. SciPy India 2009 Conference --------------------------- The first 'SciPy India Conference' <http://scipy.in> will be held from December 12th to 17th, 2009 at the 'Technopark in Trivandrum'<http://www.technopark.org/>, Kerala, India. The theme of the conference will be "Scientific Python in Action" with respect to application and teaching. We are pleased to have Travis Oliphant, the creator and lead developer of 'numpy' <http://numpy.scipy.org>as the keynote speaker. Please register here <http://scipy.in>. Important Dates --------------- * Friday, Nov. 20: Abstracts Due * Friday, Nov. 27: Announce accepted talks, post schedule * Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 12-13: Conference * Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 14-15: Tutorials * Wednesday-Thursday, Dec. 16-17: Sprints Organizers ---------- * Jarrod Millman, Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, USA (Conference Co-Chair) * Prabhu Ramachandran, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Bombay, India (Conference Co-Chair) * FOSSEE Team Sponsors -------- * National Mission On Education through ICT - Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India * SPACE-Kerala (India) * Kerala State IT Mission(KSITM) * SIG-FOSS Of CSIy -- Check out my blog at http://kadambarid.livejournal.com

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White House embraces Free software
by ck raju 03 Nov '09

03 Nov '09

"..The White House launched a new version of its website on Saturday. While little has changed on the surface, the underlying technology is now powered by the open source Drupal content management system..." http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2009/10/27/white_house_goes_open_source.h… -- CK Raju

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Fsf-friends November 2009