Fsf-friends February 2010

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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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National Conference On Free Software- 2010, Bangalore
by Raghavendra S 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Dear Friends, It is a matter of great pride for all of us that the *National Conference On Free Software* is being held in Bangalore on 20th and 21st of March,2010. The conference would be hosted by the Free Software Movement-Karnataka(FSMK) ( fsmk.org) The conference aims at enhancing awareness on Free Software in the country . As run-up to the Conference, we will be organizing Technical Workshops in colleges, inviting other college students and professionals in Bangalore for the same.These will be in the mode of hands-on workshops like we have been doing in the past. We are also trying to focus on the Kannada localization, Accessibility tools and customized distributions for students. There will also be some interesting inputs to the Conference in terms of activities from the Slum Computing Centers as well. In the conference, apart from spreading the word of Free Software - We are trying to focus on the sociology of ICT as a whole. - Discussions on the Policy track will focus on working with the IT ministry to try and get Free Software in school education in Karnataka - Our community has been keenly watching version 2.4 of Draft Policy on Open Standards, We will work with all communities including open source in this conference for this important battle for software freedom - Good number of talks by reputed speakers in the realm of Free Software struggle are being organized over the two days Shri Katta Subramania Naidu, IT minster, Karnataka will be inaugurating the conference. Central ministers and State IT ministers, prominent literary figures, industry professionals and students are expected to participate. We take this as an opportunity to urge each one of you to lend your help and support in making this National Conference on Free Software a success. *Free Software is the future, the future is ours.* -- Raghavendra S http://fsmk.org/ http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/

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ICE FOSS'10 @ FISAT
by jijo thomas 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi all, The Free Software Cell of FISAT Engineering College (Angamali,Cochin,Kerala), FFSC is organizing a national level FOSS Conference "ICE-FOSS '10" on April 9th & 10th.It will be highly gracious if you could spare us some contacts for sponsorship and guide us in finding speakers and resource persons for the events. We will be highly elated if you and your team "Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom"could take part in the event and attend the seminars and open discussions*. About FISAT * Federal Institute of Science And Technology (FISAT) is a ISO 9001:2000 certified private self financing Engineering College in the city of Cochin, Kerala. The College has always been a centre of excellence and believes in not just producing graduates of technology but in producing valuable professionals who can contribute to the community.Within a short span of 7 years the college has become one of the most sought after engineering colleges. * About FFSC * Fisat Free Software Cell established in 2006 under the Computer science Department of FISAT and is one of the most active Student Cells in the College. It stands for a person's right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. FFSC undertakes various open source related projects and Dakshina - A high performance Cluster Computer was one such project. We also conduct regular classes on Linux, Web Design and development. FFSC activities also include Conducting linux install fests, seminars and conferences. Following are the events which we are planning to conduct: Talks: - FOSS,GNU & Ethics - Green IT and High Performance Computing - GIT Version Control Systems - Free software in education and Beyond Workshops - Kernel Programming - Qt Workshop (and Maemo Basics) - Python and SciPy Open Discussions - Localization and Malayalam Community - Open Source for the differently-abled (Focusing on Visually Challenged)

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Fwd: [FSF] Open letter to Google: End the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and Flash
by Nagarjuna G 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Holmes Wilson <info(a)fsf.org> Date: Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 4:01 AM Subject: [FSF] Open letter to Google: End the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and Flash To: info-fsf(a)gnu.org Dear supporter, This week, Google's attempt to purchase video codec maker On2 was approved by On2's shareholders. If Google does the right thing, this could be wonderful news for free formats. The FSF has just posted an open letter to Google, calling on it to free On2's VP8 codec with an irrevocable royalty-free license, and to promote the newly freed video codec through YouTube. Read why it would be so amazing for free software developers, free software users, and all users of the web if Google does the right thing: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/google-free-on2-vp8-for-youtube/ We feel that this is a very important message for web developers, video creators, and tech-savvy members of the public to hear. Please help us spread it around, particularly here: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/b462q/open_letter_to_google_fre… And if you have an account on digg: http://digg.com/tech_news/Open_letter_to_Google_free_On2_VP8_and_use_it_on_… (It's important that we let people everywhere know about the importance of free software and free formats, so please help spread the word -- but please don't let sharing important news about free software lead to further use of services that promote and use proprietary software.) Thanks! Sincerely, Holmes Wilson Free Software Foundation

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Microsoft Research India to Work on UIDAI
by ck raju 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Microsoft Research India announced its involvement in the Unique Identification of India (UIDAI) project at TechVista 2010 in Bangalore. The project seeks to provide valid identities to India's population of more than a billion people. "I am looking forward to working with researchers on technologies like multilingual computing and biometrics," says UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani. Microsoft Research India also launched a portal for the computer science community called ResearchAndYou.com. The portal is designed to bridge the gap between computer science researchers and the large pool of potential research talent in India. The Web site will provide students with an interactive forum where they can connect with researchers to ask questions and explore research opportunities. The site also will act as a single source of information for resources in different disciplines. TechVista 2010 also brought together a panel of ACM A.M. Turing award recipients, including Barbara Liskov, Tony Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Tony Hey, to discuss the future of computing. http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20100215/news02.shtml ------------------------ For long, Infosys had been a strategic partner of Microsoft. What else can we expect from Nandan ? -- CK Raju

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murali paramu - Dell Video Chat
by murali paramu 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

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Fwd: Heads-up: FSFE Valentine's Day campaign
by Nagarjuna G. 11 Feb '10

11 Feb '10

found this a interesting idea! -- GN

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Fsf-friends February 2010