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
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
---------- 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.*
* *
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
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
