Fsf-friends March 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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Fwd: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto
by Anivar Aravind 10 Apr '09

10 Apr '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 3:38 PM Subject: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto To: network(a)lists.fosscom.in Dear Friends, Key sections of the FOSS manifesto (Point # 1 on FOSS in education, # 4 on open standards, #5 on encouraging freely shareable, FOSS based knowledge repositories like Wikipedia in Indian languages), have been strongly articulated in the BJP's IT vision document that was unveiled today by BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Shri LK Advani. The 40 page vision document is at: http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/images/stories/it-vision.pdf The press release is at: http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/content/view/799/281/ I am also enclosing my blog on this subject: Venky ===== http://osindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/bjps-it-vision-supports-open-source-and… Saturday, March 14, 2009 BJP's IT Vision supports open source and open standards The BJP, the largest opposition in India has released an IT Vision document that endorses open source and open standards. Many of the points mentioned in the FOSS Manifesto for India that we put up online last week have been incorporated in this document. This document was unveiled by none other than Shri. LK Advani, the BJP's candidate for Prime Minister. I did a quick read of the 40 page document and am impressed with how thorough and comprehensive it is. As a long time supporter of free and open source software, I am delighted to see a major Indian political party endorse it. However, I am even more delighted to see that this endorsement is rooted in a comprehensive vision for India's development. A big chunk of the credit for this document should go to Shri. Sudheendra Kulkarni (an alumnus of IIT Bombay) and Shri Prodyut Bora (an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad). Shri Kulkarni was advisor to Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee when Vajpayee was prime Minister of India and Shri Bora is Head of the IT Cell of the BJP. I was happy to see that the Digital Colonization theme that my friend, Jaijit Bhattacharya of Sun talks about has been incorporated in this document. Apart from the FOSS Manifesto, some of my key passions on open standards (that we don't pay for standards like weights and measures in the physical world, so why should we pay for standards in the digital world?) have been reflected. Also, as a co-founder of IndLinux.org which we started in 2000 in an attempt to bridge the digital divide, I am happy to see that the BJP has promised to create a National Mission for Indian Language Computing. The CPI(M), another national party in India has always been a strong supporter of our stand on open source, open standards and our fight against software patents. We are hopeful that other political parties will also take cognizance of the FOSS Manifesto and incorporate the same into their IT plans for India. With the country scheduled to go to polls next month, we now have a broad consensus emerging around the use of open source and open standards. This is great news for all of us who believe in free and open source software! _______________________________________________ Network mailing list Network(a)lists.fosscom.in http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in -- 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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RTI Application on VTU -M$ deal
by Anivar Aravind 30 Mar '09

30 Mar '09

See the response to RTI application by CIS http://cis-india.org/advocacy/floss/blog/rti-application-on-microsoft-vtu-d… Great Work Pranesh 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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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] Fwd: [ilugd] AGBM, and elections to ILUG-Delhi: Sun., May 3rd, 2pm, SIT-JNU
by Vikram Vincent 26 Mar '09

26 Mar '09

2009/3/24 Harish Singh <kumar.harish.singh(a)googlemail.com>: > Uh. Where did you find that quote ? It sounds like you picked that one out When people make rash comments without investigating the facts we can evaluate the person and their opinions better. > of a hat. That quote is inaccurate on so many levels, I wouldn't know where > to start. The original quote is here http://www.allgreatquotes.com/politician_quotes.shtml "Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote. -- William E. Simon" > FYI Debian is not an example of democracy by their own admission. Before you > post something to a public forum you should check your notes. Do you follow the elections of the DPL? What about the intense discussions on matters of policy within Debian? I guess you are talking through your hat. Read http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution and follow the appropriate MLs. > If you want to see democracy and its ill effects on a project head on over > to > http://lwn.net/Articles/197383/ ( > > Re: Democracy: No silver bullet ) > http://lwn.net/Articles/197380/ ( > Managing Gentoo - a study in quotes ). There is nothing there in those links that contradicts what opinion I have expressed. The developers are expressing their individual opinions on the issues mentioned. If you feel that FSF-I need not follow transparency, democracy, dynamism, accountability then you and whoever else are free to keep that opinion. I can tell you quite confidently that if FSF-I follows such a path then it will not be long before the only people left with FSF-I are its office bearers. <off-topic> Currently, the majority of the votes cast across the country are by uneducated people. They vote for a particular party because they are given certain incentives. The people who claim to be educated ie., the urban and educated lot and others give a variety of reasons for not partaking in this important responsibility towards our country. And then they complain... So because you did not vote the corrupt come to power. Check out the Ads by Times on TV they really emphasise on the point. A popular band from Christ College 'Thermal and a Quarter' came out with a song called 'Shut up and Vote' Watch it on youtube. http://www.mid-day.com/poll2009/2009/mar/180309-Jaago-Re-One-Billion-Vote-C… And if you do not like any of the contestants then at least cancel your vote so that it is not misused. So shut up about the problems and vote. </off-topic> -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://swatantra.org/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] Fwd: [ilugd] AGBM, and elections to ILUG-Delhi: Sun., May 3rd, 2pm, SIT-JNU
by Vikram Vincent 25 Mar '09

25 Mar '09

2009/3/25 Harish Singh <kumar.harish.singh(a)googlemail.com>: > Hello! You are not reading what is the official statement at debian.org . > Essential it says > "Even though Debian isn't really a democracy, we use a democratic process to > elect our leaders and to approve general resolutions. These procedures are > defined by the Debian Constitution > <http://www.debian.org/devel/constitution>. " ><snip> The developers decided upon that process. That is democracy. >From your series of mails I understand that you are not for a democratic process. Whether India is truely democratic is debatable but not for this list. But as long as the Preamble of Indian Constitution http://www.iloveindia.com/constitution-of-india/preamble.html says that we are a democratic republic we shall work to ensure that it remains as such.

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Mani takes GIMP session for mount carmelites
by Senthil Sundaram (sensunda) 25 Mar '09

25 Mar '09

Hi, Yesterday (sunday), Mani had taken GIMP session Mount Carmel MBA students (Shivaji Nagar) & We Care group (a group working for handicapped children). There were 40 students from Mount Carmel & total around 70. The feedback was excellent and everyone praised Mani for his good english. I was not there and Mani briefed us about this. http://slumdweller.wikispaces.com/faq It is a very good effort from Mani and now he is growing confidence to take GIMP session to bigger crowd. He also told them briefly about the concept of Free Software. Thanks & Regards senthil for mani mani : is from a working class family [ son of a loading / unloading worker ] - got access to a old laptop few months back - learnt gimp himself - from screencasts given by a volunteer - need for FREE HARDWARE - FREEDOM HARDWARE - FREE AS IN FREE CHAI .

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Fwd: [ilugd] AGBM, and elections to ILUG-Delhi: Sun., May 3rd, 2pm, SIT-JNU
by Vikram Vincent 24 Mar '09

24 Mar '09

Maybe FSF-India can learn from this. +1 for ilugd --> transparent, accountable, democratic without diluting any core ideas, dynamic==potential for evolution... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gora Mohanty <gora(a)sarai.net> Date: 2009/3/22 Subject: [ilugd] AGBM, and elections to ILUG-Delhi: Sun., March 3rd, 2pm, SIT-JNU To: ILUGD main list <ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org> Hello everyone, We will be having an annual general body meeting (AGBM), and conducting elections to the governing board for ILUG- Delhi at 2pm, Sun., 26th April. Anyone needing a postal notification should send me a request to that effect, including your mailing address. The meeting will be at the School of Information Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru University (SIT, JNU). For directions, see Area 5 on the map at http://www.jnu.ac.in/main.asp?sendval=JNUCampus Enter from the North Gate behind Munirka DDA flats, turn left at the T-point, and left again at the next T-point. The building on your right is the administration building which anyone should be able to direct you to. Turn in at the second right, and turn immediately left into the parking lot for the auditorium. The SIT is immediately behind the auditorium. Please feel free to call me at 9868527992 in case of any issues. The annual elections will also be held at this meeting, with Jyoti Bhargava <jyoti(a)jdesignlab.com>, as the election officer. Please send mail to Jyoti if you are interested in contesting the elections. The available posts are: President: Treasurer: Vice President: General Secretary: Joint Secretary: Member (2 posts): Regards, Gora _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [FSUG-Bangalore] Fwd: [ilugd] AGBM, and elections to ILUG-Delhi: Sun., May 3rd, 2pm, SIT-JNU
by Vikram Vincent 24 Mar '09

24 Mar '09

2009/3/24 Harish Singh <kumar.harish.singh(a)googlemail.com>: <snip> "Bad people are elected because good people don't vote." Free Software Movement and projects like Debian et.al are examples of democratic functioning. Maybe by using these FS related examples people may apply it to the non-software world too.

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Re: [Fsf-friends] [fsug-tvm] Re: CPI(M) manifesto calls for promotion of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
by Anivar Aravind 20 Mar '09

20 Mar '09

2009/3/19 Santhosh സന്തോഷ് VS <everlovingyouth(a)gmail.com>: > "the Congress is left as the only major > national party which is yet to formally take a position on FOSS." > This is the reason for the doubt as the election here is > between congress and CPM > Clear that it is political. Otherwise which is the proof that congress is > not using it any where? I posted a Modified Version of Vinay's Mail. We expect Congress will also Support Free Software and Open Standards and all parties will reach at a common position on supporting Free Software A lot of positive steps are happened during UPA regime 1. Knowledge Commission report endorsing Free Software ( Now they have to take t to Policy) 2. 11th 5 year plan says FOSS is the only way to move forward to increase Computer penetration in india from 1% of population to 5 % percent 3. National Draft Policy on Open standards ( They have to Mandate it now) Negative : Draft Patent manual that tried to introduce software patents that will have a serious negative impact on small and medium software enterprenures in the country So it is the time for them to decide on taking credits of these positive moves happened on UPA regime by including the followups on their Manifesto. A short Note(personal) on CPIM & BJPs Policies (lets talk negatives) we can congress also in this list after their manifesto BJP's IT Vision Document seems to be from a techno-nationalist perspective. It envision citizen as a member of network society ( obliviously they will miss a lot of citizens who does not have the access ) which is under state surveillance. Access Question is not properly pointed in BJP's policy. it is more about access quality & infrastructure (ie middle class and upper class ) Also it omits Important issues of Privacy of citizen in digital spaces. It is talks about National ID cards (Biomentric? ) Cyber Warfare etc. It Also keeps silence about important issues like patents. But their adoption is very positive . It opens a dialogue space with BJP on Free Software Values. Now they seems to be only concerned about Digital security of the state & not about the citizen . Also there are critiques about practicality of the policy based on cost estimates CPIM's manifesto is little more progressive for me compared to BJPs IT vision. It focuses extending the idea of Free software to other sectors like agriculture & Drug Discovery. But is silent about Open standards. The strong point against new Public Funded R & D Bill (which allows state patenting of Public Funded Research ) and against US & EU influences in Indian patent Office i also good. So let hope All Political parties will have a healthy competition on Supporting Free Software. we can reach at a conclusion based on all Manifestos Anivar

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Fsf-friends March 2009