Fsf-friends July 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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Kerala school training material
by Raj Mathur 14 Oct '09

14 Oct '09

Hi, Can someone point me to a comprehensive collection of materials used for training in Free Software in schools in Kerala? Any and all of these would be appreciated: - Teachers' training material - Teachers' training curricula and time frames - Ditto for the Train the Trainers programme - School curricula on and using FS - Accompanying textbooks, training guides, etc. Anything else that is available apart from this would be great. Thanks, -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves

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Fwd: [en] Caracas Declaration
by Nagarjuna G. 07 Aug '09

07 Aug '09

-- Nagarjuna G. gnowledge lab, HBCSE, TIFR. India.

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Microsoft, Yahoo agree on ad partnership
by justin joseph 29 Jul '09

29 Jul '09

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Microsoft-Yahoo-agree-on-ad-rb-909225241.html… "SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc have agreed to an online search and advertising partnership, in an attempt to rival Google Inc, that will be announced within 24 hours, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday."

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FSMK-News Letter2
by naveen mudunuru 27 Jul '09

27 Jul '09

Dear all, We welcome all the members, sympathizers and critics of FSMK to the second edition of our News Letter. This edition discusses different topics that ranges from technical, philosophical, free software politics and activism in depth and breadth. Please find the News Letter at the Below Link. http://fsmk.org/sites/default/files/FSMK%20Newsletter%20Volume%202.pdf http://fsmk.org/node/39 With warm regards, Naveen Mudunuru FSMK Editorial Board -- regards naveen Be Free, Speak Free, Work Free. Advocate "FREE SOFTWARE", FREE as in FREE SPEECH, not as in FREE BEER

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Fwd: [Fsmk-discuss] FSMK Newsletter Volume 2
by Vikram Vincent 25 Jul '09

25 Jul '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rameez Thonnakkal <ssrameez(a)gmail.com> Date: 2009/7/25 Subject: [Fsmk-discuss] FSMK Newsletter Volume 2 Hi All, Presenting the second edition of FSMK News Letter. FSMK News Letter Volume 2 <http://fsmk.org/node/39> Thanks a lot for accepting the first news letter and letting us know your valuables suggestions and criticisms. We have tried our best to improve based on those inputs. Improvement is a continuous process and we assure you the same with our current News Letter. We discuss everything related to free software. It includes technology, news, free-software politics, philosophy,etc.. We are sure that this is a stepping stone to get well equipped on free software movement. Through this News letter, Know about the Free Software Movement Karnataka and Join the Movement... We are expecting your valuable comments.. Write to us editor(a)fsmk.org. Regards, FSMK Editorial Board _______________________________________________ fsmk-discuss mailing list fsmk-discuss(a)lists.fsmk.in http://lists.fsmk.in/listinfo.cgi/fsmk-discuss-fsmk.in -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://swatantra.org/ http://fsmk.org/

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Article on Free Software Workshop for Govt. School Teachers - 2
by Vikram Vincent 20 Jul '09

20 Jul '09

First they ignore you Then they laugh at you Then they they fight you Then you win - Gandhi Neat quote on the FSMK T-shirt! :) "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi With this message a few geeks at Free Software Movement Karnataka (FSMK) have been working on popularizing the open source software in the government schools and offices. "Karnataka Government decided to use free software for 8th 9th and 10th standards as a part of their ICT@Schools project(Information and Communication Technology). As of now It is vendor controlled project (Educom, EVeron, etc are implementing it) under BOOT (Build Operate Own & Transfer)scheme. For making it more accessible to teachers & students(IT enabled learning), we are initiating this training as a pilot project in bangalore. This is organised by DSERT and a Consortium of Free Software Organisations in Bangalore (FSUG Bangalore, Sampada, FSMK, ITfC, DeepRoot Linux, IT4Change & Moving Republic are the organisations associated.)", said Naveen Mudunuru, an active volunteer with FSMK. 1. A session on FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) philosophy. 2. Basic usage of the desktop explaining the various hardware components. 3. Use of Open Office. 4. Educational games on the distro. 5. Use of Internet. The team comprised of volunteers from various groups typically software techies from various companies some of who have moved to social sector for good. The hall was packed with almost every system occupied with about 25 teachers. The teachers very pretty enthusiastic about the training and sat patiently for the long sessions absorbing as much as they could. One teacher in particular didn't mind delayed lunch as they were in middle of something. The first day was mostly basic stuff covering the different components like mouse (why it is so called?), CPU, etc. Many teachers were curious about typing and use of kannada. Ktouch, gtypist, gcompris, etc were suggested to the them. The afternoon session Naveen introduced the teachers to the concept of FLOSS. Naveen used the analogy of a bike. When someone buys a bike (s)he expects to use it the way (s)he wishes. If a neighbor is in need and comes ask for the bike for some work (s)he is free to lend the bike which may not be the cased with a product from Microsoft or Apple or such. If it has some problem one would like to have a look at the bike himself or herself first and only then goto a shop. Even if (s)he has to goto a shop the person is free to go to a local shop and doesn't have to go to the same vendor who sold the bike. This 'freedom' is not there in closed source software. There was a mention of how Einstein was able to come up with concepts like theory of relativity as Newton, who said, "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.", didn't keep his knowledge to himself. The way to go ahead in technology is to share and exchange knowledge. Reminds one of the words from George Bernard Shaw - "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." The second day was entirely spent on Open Office where equivalents of Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. People who were familiar with the office suite asked how they could do certain things they did in the MS counterparts. The sessions were exhaustive and covered most of the things the teachers would need. The day ended in a presentation on a one of the schools made by the Teacher from that school. Looked pretty well done. The teachers were briefly introduced to the use of Kannada - the idea was to encourage them to use English. The detailed coverage on the same is planned in the subsequent sessions. The third day was devoted to the Internet. The teachers were also requested to work in groups to infuse in them idea of sharing and helping each other which is the basis for most development in FLOSS. The idea behind the sessions was to equip the teachers to help themselves by looking for help on the net. They were introduced to checking emails, google, wikipedia, youtbue, etc. An email was created for each teacher and also a mailing list containing all of them for future queries and discussions. The teachers expressed their heart felt gratitude. If this initiative interests you please get in touch with Naveen: naveenmudunuru(a)gmail.com 998640 3928 Vikram: vincentvikram(a)gmail.com 94488 10822 Software _must_ be accessible to people who could use it to bring about a positive change in their lives. Such programs are only making this a reality by touching the needier sections. -- Mayank Rungta -- article released under creative commons

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Article on Free Software Workshop for Govt. School Teachers - 1
by Vikram Vincent 19 Jul '09

19 Jul '09

We,the FSMK(Free Software Movement Karnataka) volunteers cum trainers, along with members from few other organizations trained Government School teachers to use and get comfortable with Free Software,in a step towards scaling a steep task of setting the binary knowledge free. These training sessions happened on the 16th, 17th and 18th of July,2009. I was expecting reluctance,hesitation,mild levels of ego and confusion from the participants...But all that emerged out of these teachers was an extremely high level of enthusiasm, an equaling curiosity and tireless efforts for the first two days...Witnessing this in person and being a part all three days has been all together a new kind of an experience.... We were able to break the dogma of The Cyberphobia (Fear of working with computers) from these people the very first day....The joy they subsequently found working on the basics which we taught them was just heart warming.... The ultimate goal of this workshop has been making the teachers self sufficient in handling computers for basic purposes, so that the kids are benefited. The second day was more about trying to make them feel more independent. The interest and the curiosity levels in the teachers remained still the same, while the extent of apprehension and inhibitions from their side were mellowing down. The third day was to introduce them to an entirely new world, as seen by them, through Internet and the various possibilities using it like mailing, searching, browsing useful sites, copying content from net, file downloads etc... The Internet really hooked them on,making most of them pledge that they would want to use it more even after the sessions. But,the kind of awe they were in, while undergoing these sessions puts a big question about the IT revolution India is supposedly going through...In a city where all the major IT players of the world have at least one establishment is ridiculously unbalanced. Its own teachers are literally scared to work with computers... Blaming the Government is something which is eternal...And we've got used to it... The question is what each of us can do? I genuinely feel that we as a literate community have a lot to do with a sense of sincere concern towards the society we are a part of.... If you feel that you can do your part in bridging the divide, join us at fsmk.org. - Raghavendra S Volunteer FSMK ( fsmk.org)

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MSME is also pushing IPR?
by renuka prasad 17 Jul '09

17 Jul '09

i do not know whether i am sharing a very old news or a new one , but could not stop me sharing this link http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/schemes/ipr.htm with regards renuka prasad

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