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
--
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| Join the friendly user group |
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