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IBM Challenges University Students
by Ramanraj 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

IBM Linux Scholars Challenge 2004 is a contest for University Students (Note: it is too late to register now) http://www.linuxuniversitychallenge.com/ But, if you are a Student, you would probably be interested in the challenges that are listed at: http://www.linuxuniversitychallenge.com/challenges.php?PHPSESSID=9de84d4cf3… ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Iqara Broadband Webmail : http://mail.iqara.net. Have any problem write to idc(a)iqara.net

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Sly -stories in Madhyamam
by Praveen A 30 Jan '05

30 Jan '05

Hi all, Today there was an article in Madhyamam daily (in special page -- I guess Kudumba madhyamam) about Sarath Lakshman and 'his' slynux [Linux is the trade mark of Linux Torvalds --who developed the linux kernel for the free (swathanthra) gnu syatem]. The writer's knowledge about Free Software and Linux is very pathetic. He saya Richard Stall man wrote Linux !!! It is a pity that he didn't go though the sites and learned what is free software and linux. There is nothing new in slynux (probaly malayalm fonts that knopper couldn't include). The writer says the mounting of windows partitions has become easy. It is easy in every other distributions too. All the features he calim for 'his' slynux is availabe with knoppix (transpond compression of 2 GB to 700 MB). For those who are in doubt check the knoppix site http://www.knoppix.org GNU/Linux has grown at a very rapid rate that it has come to a level as user friendly or even in cases more user friendly (you can install softwares from internet with a click) and inovative (Project looking glass, enlightenment ...) But people don't change easily and many stick to the windows-till-death attitude. Knoppix has all these features and it was there for a long time. Anyway one thing is that I really appreciate Sarath's efforts but the media's response has been really sickening. Of course it helped to spread the message of free software and GNU/linux (mistakenly used as linux -- which is only one of the many kernels available for the gnu system. It is like the engine of a car -- though most important, useless without other accessories). It is really a nice thing he has done, but what I'm criticising is the media. It is not his fault that knoppix already had all these options and nobody cared to look at it !!! I hope this publicity (though not the right thing) will have good effect on the masses about free softwares, especially among students. The thing is that, when you are writing something for the public, atleast think that some people will be out there who knows what he is talking about. For God's sake when write about something please read the basics !! Check the relevant sources -- "There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels." A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Re: query about gnu.org.in
by Anand Babu 28 Jan '05

28 Jan '05

,----[ Anand Avati <avati(a)quipus.org> ] | hello anand, i'm anand too :) saw your id on freehoo site while | submitting a patch.. how do i involve myself with gnu india? | Can i get an @gnu.org.in id too? :) `---- Please subscribe to fsf-friends mailing list. http://www.gnu.org.in/mailinglists.html GNU is a movement and it is the free software philosophy that drives us all. If you believe in it and want to help, you can consider yourself as a GNU volunteer already. How ever getting @gnu.org or @gnu.org.in mail-id depends on becoming an official maintainer for at least one GNU project or how much you volunteer for the FSF activities. We have a huge "wanted" list at https://savannah.gnu.org/people/ Please see where you can fit in. ,----[ Anand Avati <avati(a)quipus.org> ] | i tried digging info about it on gnu.org.in/help/ ... but while | registering a volunteer i hit a 502 ;) `---- I also found the link (Click Here for the old list of Volunteers) http://forum.gnu.org.in/fsf-volunteers/all_membersInd broken. Will ask the webmaster to fix it. BTW, Thanks for your patch, I applied it to CVS. -- Anand Babu Free as in Freedom <www.gnu.org>

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RMS talk at IIT-M on 7th Feb 2005
by Ramanraj K 28 Jan '05

28 Jan '05

Richard Stallman, founder and leader of the Free Software Foundation, will talk about the Danger of Patents on Ideas Used in Software, at the Central Lecture Theater (CLT), HSB, IIT-Madras, Chennai, on Monday, the 7th February, 2005, from 4.00 PM to 6.00 PM. All are welcome.

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Events, jobs, etc on linux-india.org
by Raj Mathur 28 Jan '05

28 Jan '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 [Cross-posted] Hi, Work is going on to make linux-india.org a portal for all Linux/FLOSS-related activities in India. It contains many sections, and you can help increase the spread of your own interests by contributing to the site. You can publish the following kinds of information: 1. Events. If you are organising a Linux/FLOSS-related event in India, or know of one being organised, please make an entry for it in the Events Submission page (http://linux-india.org/index.pl?id=2941&isa=Category&op=show) You event will then be listed on the front page of the web site and get exposure to all visitors. I personally am trying to keep up with the event listing posted on these mailing lists and add them myself to the Events Calendar, but I may miss out on some events or post incorrect information. Much better if the organisers themselves put the correct information in. 2. Jobs If you're looking for people to work in a Linux/FLOSS related field, take a minute to fill out the Job Submission form at http://linux-india.org/index.pl?id=2942&isa=Category&op=show . This will allow your job to be listed on the web site, making it easier for people with the right kind of skills to find and respond to you. 3. News If you're aware of any Linux/FLOSS related news in India, please submit it on the web site at http://linux-india.org/index.pl?id=2940&isa=Category&op=show . The News administrator will review your posting and list it on the main news page. 4. LUGs/FSUGs/GLUGs Are you running or closely associated with a LUG/FSUG/GLUG? Send lugadmin(a)linux-india.org a quick mail with the name, nickname and URL of your LUG and we will be glad to add it to the LUG list at http://linux-india.org/index.pl?id=2198&isa=Category&op=show . Your LUG doesn't have a web site? No problems -- create a lug-<city> (or fsug-city/glug-city) account for yourself and make your web site on linux-india.org itself! Then mail your user ID to lugadmin(a)linux-india.org to have your local web site listed in the LUG list. There is no charge for any of these services. Most of the submission forms require a login, so do make an account for yourself on the web site. It's simple, quick and I guarantee that your login details will remain confidential, until you yourself choose to publish them. Feedback welcome. Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.8 <http://mailcrypt.sourceforge.net/> iD8DBQFB+eu7yWjQ78xo0X8RAuzHAJ9ikUndbUzYddgHRMjZ+m1V/iOjXgCdEWTf NT2+RidOpXV8oT0dIO95zTk= =f5yf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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FSF-TN Mailing List
by Ramanraj 27 Jan '05

27 Jan '05

Richard Stallman, founder and leader of the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation, will be inaugurating the Tamil Nadu Chapter of Free Software Foundation of India, at the Vellore Institute of Technology, on Sunday, the 6th February, 2005, at 9:30 AM and deliver the keynote address. All are welcome to the event, and more information about the inaugural function is available at http://www.swatantra.info One of the prime objectives of FSF-TN is to take free software closer to people in all the districts in Tamil Nadu, by organising meetings, events, demos, and user groups wherever possible. An open public mailing list to discuss and promote the adoption of free software in TN, has been started at: http://gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsf-tn Please volunteer to join fsf-tn and lend your support. -Ramanraj K ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Iqara Broadband Webmail : http://mail.iqara.net. Have any problem write to idc(a)iqara.net

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FLOSS Meet @ NIT Calicut
by Dilip V 27 Jan '05

27 Jan '05

FLOSS Meet @ NIT Calicut A one day seminar/workshop on the Free/Libre open source softwares is going to be held in National Instute of Technology Calicut on 29th Jan 2005( Saturday) at NIT Calicut. The Seminar is intended to provoke the student community. The event will bring together academicians, students and the industry people who are involved in the Movement.The event is organised by 1.GNU/Linux Users Group Calicut 2. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) student Branch 3. Computer Society of India Calicut chapter The seminar is intended to highlight the development and need for open source software under GNU/Linux platform. The seminar will encourage the students to use this free software with presentations and interactive sessions by experts in the field. A large number of delegates from academic institutions and industry are likely to participate. About the Event The event comprises of two sessions. The morning session will be on the concepts and philosophy of free software. Free software alternatives like Openoffice, Octave, Apache etc, will be introduced and discussed with a view to bring out the advantages of these. It will also cover the security issues rising in the computer world. The afternoon session will be a workshop on the languages used in this context. It will be a live demonstration about the computer language Python, and SQLlite used on open source platforms. Contact Details Interested candidates can register either through the website http://glugc.nitc.ac.in/floss Or through email dilpu.v(a)gmail.com, pravi.a(a)gmail.com Mobile No 09447367875 Profile of the Speakers 1. Atul Chitnis -- He is one of India's best known technologists. He has been at the forefront of India's technology evolution. He was the chief organiser for Linux Bangalore 2004 2. Shanker Balan – He is working as a Systems engineer, Yahoo! Bangalore. In his spare time, he advocates the spread of BSD technology, an alternative open source platform to GNU/Linux. 3.Swaroop C H -- Software engineer in Yahoo! , His book A Byte of Python has been downloaded more than 24,000 times 4.Pradeep Kishore Gowda -- Senior Software engineer in ZeOmega infotech,a Bangalore based company deeply rooted in Open Source Software development. Sponsors The main sponsor for the event is M/s Tata Consultancy Services. Other sponsors are IBM ACE Centre, and Computer Engineering Associations. Regards, - - Dilip V, Mobile No : 09447367875 eey1071(a)nitc.ac.in, dilpu.v(a)gmail.com, Semester 8th, Electrical and Electronics, National Institute Of Technology, Calicut. (Formerly known as Regional Engineering College Calicut) Visit My Blog @ http://www.dilpu.blogspot.com

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[Fsf-friends] FLOSSNews: Bangalore, Pune, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kerala..
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 27 Jan '05

27 Jan '05

We're just working to revive the news-content of the Linux-India-General mailing list. Kindly visit and check out the links. Once you're on the site below, please check out 'Indian news'. Your contributions and news-submissions would be welcome! FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- ====================================================================== News from Linux-India * http://www.linux-india.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Website being relaunched, by Raju Mathur of Delhi. Contributions in terms of content and tech support are welcome!] ====================================================================== Linux India: The India Linux Organisation Portal NGOs, searching long for alternatives, find flavour in alt.software Frederick Noronha reports -- Asia Source, being held in Bangalore from Jan 28 to Feb 4, 2005 hopes to bring together over a hundred people from 20 countries to increase the use and awareness of FLOSS among the non-profit sector in South and East Asia. GNUnify ... at Pune, Feb 13 to 15, 2005 Vidyadutt S <vidyadutt at gmail.com> has announced the GNUnify festival of Symbiosis at Pune, a regular event that takes place at this time of the year -- and has continued over the past two years -- at the central Indian city of Pune. GNU/Linux... in the life sciences Tarun Kant <tarunkant at linuxmail.org> from the SunnyLUG from Jodhpur for this useful piece of information. He says: "For people who are into life science research/bioinformatics, there are a few good linux distros available." This includes the VigyaanCD, the live Linux CD containing "all the required software to boot the computer with ready-to-use modeling software". Says Kant: "And let me tell you this (Vigyaan) is an effort by an Indian. Kudos to you Pratul K Agarwal for such a nice package." >From software... to culture Crimson Feet coordinator Prayas Abhinav is working on a "showcase" of audiovisual -- film, animation etc -- work produced by alternate methods, and plans an exhibition on February 5 and 6, 2005 at Ahmedabad. Open Source in Education, Mumbai meet on Feb 11, 2005 Sameer D Saharabudde <sameerds at it.iitb.ac.in> has sent in an early intimation of a program scheduled for February 11, 2005 on "Open Source in Education". Says Sameer: "Some 50 people involved in the education system, like university department heads, college heads, etc will be invited." Further details awaited. Sameer is a research scholar, KReSIT, IIT Bombay. Microsoft at the KSEB (Kerala) Satheesh S Pillai <satheeshpillai2000 at yahoo.co.in> recently drew attention of the Free Software User Group-Kochi to the report made by Centre for Computer Aided Power Sector Studies (C-CAPSS) in Kerala about the billing software developed by "a famous consultancy along with M$ as part of the e-Governance project". This report makes interesting reading, and has immense implications for many government computerisation plans. You can find the full report at http://www.kseboa.org/KSEB%20LT%20billing%20computerisation.pdf LaTeX for Malayalam 0.9 released TUG-India -- http://www.tug.org.in -- has announced that an update 0.9 for 'LaTeX for Malayalam' has been released at sarovar. This update enables the use of Type1 Malayalam fonts available with CDAC ISM Publisher, according to Alex. Download the package from: http://malayalam.sarovar.org/ . IITIANS Develop Linux-Based Cell Phone Tracking Software CXOToday.com writer Julia Fernandes has reported on how "three young Mumbai-based IITians, who have developed a Linux-based software application that tracks the location of mobile phones." Nithin Kamath's LinTux Newsletter A made-in-Mangalore product. Interesting compiliation of news and updates from the world of FLOSS across India and the globe. Check it out at Now in the 14th issue. Keep it up Nithin. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/lintux THE HINDU: A whiz-kid's tryst with Linux What do people do when they hear that doing a particular thing is very difficult? Most of them try to avoid it. But some people meet the challenge headlong. Sarath Lakshman a Standard X student of the Jawaharlal Nehru Government Higher Secondary School, Mahe, belongs to the second category. This article is from the national newspaper THE HINDU, reproduced here with gratitude to this publication for highlighting an issue which is important to understanding what makes sense to the young techies-in-the-making of South Asia. Low-cost CD outlet http://www.linuxbazar.com is run by Srinivasan <LinuxIndia at hotmail.com>. Says he: "I sell CDs at Rs 50 per CD. Spreading the word on my website is difficult .. still I have managed to ship Fedora to remote corners in India incl. Jammu." L10N How-To and Toolkit On Jan 19, 2005 Sunil Abraham <sunil at apdip.net> announced that the IOSN-CDAC L10N How-To and Toolkit is ready for a "final round of comments and feedback." The main page contents listing of the CD is available at http://anakin.ncst.ernet.in/~aparna/consolidated/CD. It has links to the guide, as well as the list of tools we will include in the CD. You can see the current version at: http://anakin.ncst.ernet.in/~aparna/consolidated in the HTML format. Feedback welcome! Font developer's guide Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at clai.net> is offering what he terms a "preliminary version of a font developer's guide". Check out what this determined young man has to offer at http://sayamindu.randomink.org/conv_guide/ Listing Indian LUGs, GLUGs, FSUGs and more... a list of links to various user groups in the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) world. Please visit it at http://wikiwikiweb.de/LugsList/ Punjabi translation of Debian Installer comes closer to realisation Christian Perrier <bubulle at debian.org> said January 19, 2005 that the Debian Installer team has been contacted by Amanpreet Alam, who offers to start working on Debian Installer (and further Debian translations) in Punjabi. Says he: "The work on Hindi started about two to three months ago after a discussion here where Ravi Shrivastava offered to initiate it." ET's software stories Indian business daily, 'The Economic Times', has this link for software-related stories. Unfortunately just a few related to Free/Libre and Open Source Software in India ... a field where so much is happening! C-DAC launches Janabhaaratii FLOSS localisation project C-DAC, the Indian government-run Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing, has announced in October 2004 the launch of the launch of its "janabhaaratii" project for localisation of FLOSS. It suggested the goal would be "development, deployment and community building, and the work would be put out under the GPL/LGPL licenses. Govt open to open source software ... or just hedging bets? India's business newspaper reported in end-December 2004 that the Government of India "continues to evaluate options for using open source software, a move which would proliferate the usage of IT by bringing down its costs". IT secretary Brijesh Kumar was quoted as telling the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, an industry lobby group, that the "government continues to consider options available in open source software". There was a suggestion that "India should force proprietory software makers to share source code by threatening to shift to open source software", the ET reported, citing the case of China. _ _ _ _ _ | (_)_ __ _ ___ __ (_)_ __ __| (_) __ _ ___ _ __ __ _ | | | '_ \| | | \ \/ /____| | '_ \ / _` | |/ _` | / _ \| '__/ _` | | | | | | | |_| |> <_____| | | | | (_| | | (_| || (_) | | | (_| | |_|_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\ |_|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_(_)___/|_| \__, | |___/ ====================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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[Fsf-friends] Third National Colloquium on economic and social implications ofthe new patent regime.
by Arun M 25 Jan '05

25 Jan '05

Dear Friends, A meeting on new patent ordinance is being organised in Delhi on 1st Feb 2005. Richard Stallman will be the first speaker. Other speakers include Mr. B.K. Keayla of National Working Group on Patent Law Mr. S.P. Shukla, who used to be the GATT ambassador during Uruguay Round. Vandana Siva. Venue: India International Center, New Delhi. Program Details: ---------------- Forenoon session : New Patent Regime and its implications 10.00 am to 12.30 pm Press briefing 12.30 pm Afternoon session : Implications of extension of the new patent regime to software, plant varieties, micro-organisms, etc. 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm Tea : 9.30 am Lunch: 1.00 pm You are invited to kindly participate and enrich the deliberations. A line confirming your participation is requested. Relevant material on the topics would be made available only between 9.30 – 10.00 am.

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[Fsf-friends] NGOs, searching long for alternatives, find flavour in alt.software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 24 Jan '05

24 Jan '05

GOs, SEARCHING LONG FOR ALTERNATIVES, FIND FLAVOUR IN ALT.SOFTWARE >From Frederick Noronha For an sector that talks of alternatives, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or voluntary sector stays surprisingly aloof from one significant alternative that has really worked -- free software. But there are stirrings to bridge this huge chasm. In end-January, India's technology mecca Bangalore is to be the venue for an international 'camp' meant to promote FLOSS among the NGO sector. Others talk of building 'another world'; in free software, it is already there. Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS, using the newish acronomy that better describe both diverse strands that make it up) today allows just about anyone to avoid globally dominant players, and to find more freedom-oriented options. It also, at the same time, works very efficiently in the growing world of computing. Asia Source, as the 'tech camp' is called, will be held from January 28 to February 4, 2005 and "hopes to bring together over a hundred people from 20 countries to increase the use and awareness of FLOSS amongst the non-profit sector in South and South East Asia." There will be participants coming in from a range of backgrounds. Sucharat "Ying" Sathapornanon from Thailand looks after IT for the Asia-Pacific Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Edcuation. Umesh Pradhan comes in from Thimphu, Bhutan. Ujjwal from Nepal is a "technical supporter" of non-profits in Kathmandu, Nepal. Yee Yee Htun from Myanmar lives along the Thai-Myanmar border, and is a volunteer webmaster for AAPPB (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma) -- www.aappb.org. Alecks Pabico from the Philippines is a journalist working with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. >From a range of Asian countries, NGOs and grassroots technology support professionals will come in "to learn new skills, exchange tips, and share experiences", organisers say. Local hosts reminded participants that Bangalore is famous for its silk, sandle wood, handicrafts, designer jewelery and (tasty vegetarian) food. But beyond the names and faces and local attractions, there's a more important message. FLOSS bestows on the user four freedoms -- freedom to use the software for any purpose; freedom to study how the software works; freedom to modify the software; and freedom to share the software with others. From a technical perspective, this can be used to reduce costs and hardware requirements while also improving security, reliability, performance, stability, and scalability. >From a wider philosophical perspective, FLOSS can transform patterns of access, usage, control and ownership of knowledge and technologies. Globally, FLOSS has grown after several hundred thousand hackers and students scattered across the globe collaborated to produce a unified body of knowledge without resorting to hierarchical structures and exploitative relationships. This movement is also seen by some to demonstrate how wealth can be created by entrepreneurs in the free market without using the proprietary copyright regime. In Bangalore, four themes will flow throughout the event. FLOSSophy for NGOs (or, why Free Software and Open Source makes sense), migration and access to non-proprietorial software, tools for content-building and communication, and the localisation of computing to make it relevant to countries across Asia. Elizabeth, originally Timorese (from East Timor), is currently doing her internship at the Open Forum of Cambodia with KhmerOS (Khmer Open Source). The KhmerOs is working to localise software to Khmer, the Cambodian language. Says she: "I'm learning from them while also preparing a localization document for Tetum, one of our national language in Timor Leste." Tetum uses the Latin script with some accents, since it has words imported from Portuguese. Talat Numanov from Dushanbe, Tajikistan works in Central Asian Development Agency as an IT specialist, and his goal is to learn more about FLOSS and distribute it to users. Says he: "My friends use Mandrake Linux (because it has been localised to Tajik)." Russell T. Kyaw Oo from Myanmar says: "I am focusing on localization, translation and modification." Guests from overseas should be meeting up with Guntupalli Karunakar, a soft-spoken extremely low-key Mumbai-based champion of localisation. He's one of the key movers behind the Indian Linux Project (http://www.indlinux.org). Explains Karunakar: "My primary experience is in F(L)OSS localization. I have been working on this for last four years, We have almost completed Hindi localization part." Not-so-friendly neighbouring regions are sometimes united by common concerns. From Pakistan, Sufyan told Karunakar in a pre-conference online discussion: "We at Open Source Resource Center of Pakistan (www.osrc.org.pk) will be grateful to you if you can give us an action plan for localization in Urdu." Localisation is an issue that many are addressing in the FLOSS world, and taking computing to communities which otherwise might just be seen as an unviable market. Javier Sola, a Spaniard living in Cambodia, is coordinator of the KhmerOS project. "Our goal is to make Cambodia OpenSource-Country by means of localization. I am an enthusiast of F(L)OSS localization. I believe that it is the key to adoption of F(L)OSS by users," says he. He has been also working on a "toolkit" on how to do FLOSS localization. In Javier's view, localization and making migration easy are the two "keys to FLOSS adoption". In Bangalore, he regrets not being able to attend both tracks. Hok Kakada, another Cambodian, works for the KhmerOS project, which she sees as aiming to "enable all the Cambodian people to use a computer in their own language". She says that by using FLOSS, their team has already localized a number of applications into the Khmer language -- actually, not just applications, but even the operating system as well. OVER A HUNDRED Over a hundred participants are expected at this global meet. Together with experts and specialists, they'll look at how technology and free and open source software makes sense within the non-profit sector -- in terms of access and content. Asia Source organisers -- the Dutch TacticalTech.org network and Mahiti.org in Bangalore -- say theirs will be the "first event of its kind" in the region. Peer-learning will take top priority. Participants will look at available options, learn how to select and apply alternative technologies. They'll access skills and tools to utilise this in their daily work. There will be experts to share the skills. Colin Charles, also from Malaysia, considers himself an "all round open source person, actively involved in The Fedora Project and OpenOffice.org." He has helped many NGOs, companies and individuals make the switch, first to the Windows-like Open Office and then to GNU/Linux. Soon-Son 'Shawn' Kwon from South Korea works with a "big corporation" by day and by night has been managing the highly-successful Korean Linux Documentation Project, "as a hobby". David Tremblay is a French Canadian volunteer working for Oxfam Quebec as an IT analyst in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. He says: "I'm implementing websites, intranet, extranet and networks using -- as much as I can -- open source, open standards and accessible technologies. I'm trying to build a strong open source community in Ha Noi. I'm also a proud [GNU]Linux desktop user." Tremblay argues that he wants "to raise awareness among my NGOs that are too often giving away computers without thinking what their are doing.... I want to raise awareness that software choice isn't genuine. Too often, they think of their computers as a hammer, and everything become a MS-nail." One of the more colourful and high-profile though is "Rasta coder" Jaromil. Denis 'Jaromil' Rojo is the maintainer of dyne:bolic, HasciiCam MuSE and FreeJ. He calls himself "a nomadic rastafari of south Italian origins" and a free software developer. Dynebolic (dynebolic.org) comes out with a GNU/Linux multimedia-oriented distribution. Jaromil sees it as being suitable for "audio/video manipulation, network radio streaming, veejaying and anything else we can come up with together". He points out that this is a "100% free" operating system. (In the world of FLOSS, the word 'free' doesn't refer to zero-cost, but refers to the freedom to run, study, redistribute and improve software.) At the 'camp', there will be a range of sessions. From planning and helping an NGO to migrate to FLOSS, to sharing tips and techniques on using tools for content development, advocacy and campaigning. In parallel to this they will look beneath user-level scenarios, and break-down tricky issues such as techniques for localising software and forms of understanding the real cost of technology use. Asia Source will be held in a small artists community on the outskirts of Bangalore. But perhaps this needs to be recognised as an endeavour that goes beyond just code. FLOSS ideals are spreading to other fields. It's amazing to see the manner in which the sharing of knowledge and information is catching on in other circles too. Today, like sharing Free Software, the same ideals are growing in fields like open law, open source biology, MIT's OpenCourseWare, Project Gutenberg and Books Online (that distributes e-texts free online), free dictionaries and encyclopedias, and the open music movement. VENTURES THAT MAKE SENSE Various experiments are seeing FLOSS being deployed to bridge the 'digital divide'. While the potential is vast, and significant achievements are being reported at the ground level, there probably just isn't enough awareness about it. Tomas Krag in Copenhagen runs a small non-profit called wire.less.dk. It works primarily with low-cost wireless solutions for remote areas (mostly in the so-called 'developing world'). With a background as a web-developer, technical architect, and technology evangelist, his interest is "in a variety of open (standards, source, spectrum, doors) technology solutions to bring more people on to the Internet, and make it a richer better place". Adi Nugroho lives in Makassar, a small town in Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. He's been using FLOSS since 1998. In March 1999, with some friends, they founded the Linux User Group Ujung Pandang, to learn GNU/Linux together and to help each other to migrate and use it. Way back in September 1999, they build iNterNUX, the first full-GNU/Linux Internet cafe in Indonesia, which use FLOSS for all servers and workstations. NEEDING A LEG-UP IN ASIA In the West, FLOSS grew early. But in Asia it is a younger development, mainly because widespread public access to tools vital for collaboration -- like the Internet -- grew in these parts only very recently. In Bangalore, the camp is being supported by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Aspiration. This event is sponsored by Hivos, the Open Society Institute, and the International Open Source Network (IOSN). This perhaps marks a shift in the approach of international development organisations, who have come to recognise that the Free Software approach to knowledge and skills makes the most sense in a world where poverty and illiteracy and unconquered enemies for a few thousands millions. Prior to this event, similar 'source' events have taken place in South East Europe, Southern Africa and are planned in 2005 in Western Africa. See http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource (ENDS)

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Query from a Silicon Valley Indian ... selling out education to proprietary s/w
by Frederick Noronha(FN) 24 Jan '05

24 Jan '05

V. M. Kumaraswamy, a Silicon Valley Indian, is keen to check out the possibilities of filing a public interest litigation over what he sees as the "wrong doings" of the GoK (Karnataka) and GoI e-governance secretatries and other officials recently. Please pass on any useful tips if you can to him at NovaMed(a)aol.com He writes: > This is V. M. Kumaraswamy from USA. 949-857-8578. > > We would like discuss HOW TO GO ABOUT PIL . > > This is in relation to wrong doings by GOK and GOI. Especially > e-Governance Secretaries in GoK and GOI. > > GOK has signed an MOU with MICROSOFT, without proper procedures and not > properly notifying it. It looks like they have sold Education Syatem to > MS. > > It looks like e-gov in GOK, is preselcting it's biddeers fro e-gov > projects. There might be corruption involved here. > > There are so many things I can list here for you. > > What can be done here to stop all these things. > > Can you enlighten us. FN

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[Fsf-friends] The VideoLAN project investigates possible violation of their intellectual property
by Praveen A 24 Jan '05

24 Jan '05

Following announcement by Cinema On the Web (COW) and DivXNetworks of the new COW video on demand service, the VideoLAN project team members were informed of a possible violation of VLC media player's license. The VideoLAN project, which owns copyrights to VLC, distributes VLC as free software exclusively under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL). Full storey at http://www.videolan.org/pr2005-1.html Regards Praveen A -- "There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels." A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Software, politics and ideology...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 23 Jan '05

23 Jan '05

Not particularly new, but some interesting perspectives. FN Cathedral and the Bazaar, The Book available at http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ Review: http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbook.cgi?book=71 A pragmatists perspective of an Ideology. by cyent on 2000-12-29 03:14:01, review #68 content better than 99% writing better than 80% The Cathedral and the Bazaar is justly famous for explaining mechanisms behind the success of Open Source software. Its primary viewpoint is in laying bare the "inner clockwork" that makes the Open Source development model so successful. Its primary weakness is that of any analytic and objective analysis. There is an implicit assumption that only the objectively observable clockwork drives the process and thus discounts the role of spirit and ideology. Thus if you believe humanity can be explained by reductively in terms of cells, molecules and atoms, you will find this work satisfying. I have lived in some of the vast spiritual and ideological upheavals that have trampled over most of the world in the 20th century, leaving pragmatic and materialistic USA in relative peace... Thus I find Raymond's assessment of the role of the ideology behind Free Software a little shallow. Yet in this very shallowness lies its huge popular success. How can the pragmatic and materialistic USA, the main producer and consumer of software, be made comfortable with a methodology flowing out of an essentially radical ideology? By rubbing off the sharp edges, renaming "Free Software" to a less emotionally loaded "Open Source". By explicating the methodologies and mechanisms behind the success in the hope that one can take the mechanisms on board without swallowing the ideologies. By merging it with American right wing individualistic traditions. This Raymond does remarkably well. Whether you have more radical thoughts or are staunchly capitalistic, Raymond has done his job very well. Read it. Read it now. You need to read his triptych to understand what is going on. The Cathedral and the Bazaar Explains the mechanisms that make Open Source such a good software development model. Homesteading the Noosphere Is his analysis of the property and ownership customs of the open-source culture. The Magic Cauldron Is an excellent review of economic sense of Open Source. Conclusion of the Reviewer In conclusion it is well worth the read. Yes, you can, as many Open Source proponents do, take on the mechanisms but not the ideology. However, be aware that beyond the mechanisms, discounted, discarded and undescribed by Raymond, lie also a vast sea of extremely potent ideologies. You can argue long whether the ideologies are communistic (as many have accused), libertarian, or simply religious (eg. Larry Wall's Artistic License). Whatever your opinion is, the zeal of Free Software supporters does not permit a simply pragmatic explanation such as Raymond's. Look to the (global, not USA) history of the 20th century and wonder... What in the long run will have the most impact. The mechanisms, or the ideologies? As far as I'm concern the copyleft on this if even more left than two options imposed on me. See http://www.geocities.com/cy_ent/bugroff.html for details of the "No problem Bugroff" license. The above review is copyrighted by its author, and is copylefted under the following license: GFDL 1.1 FORWARDED VIA: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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hi
by Thejesh GN 22 Jan '05

22 Jan '05

Hi All, I am new to tis group. I work for IT company in bangalore. My other hobby is running www.techmag.biz which is the terrific combination of Linux + apache + php + mysql

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[Fsf-friends] GNU/Linus distros for life sciences/bioinformatics researchers
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 22 Jan '05

22 Jan '05

Thanks to "Tarun Kant" <tarunkant(a)linuxmail.org> and the SunnyLUG from Jodhpur for this useful piece of information For people who are into life science research / bioinformatics, there are a few good linux distros available. I will be trying these out in the coming days and will keep posting my experiences. These are: 1. DNALinux DNALinux is a is a SLAX-based Linux distribution with bioinformatics software pre-installed. DNA and protein sequence manipulation software is included. Like EMBOSS, Primer3, ClustalW, T-Coffe and others. Website: http://www.dnalinux.com/ 2. BioBrew Linux BioBrew Linux is an open source Linux distribution based on the NPACI Rocks (www.rocksclusters.org) cluster software and enhanced for bioinformaticists and life scientists. While it looks, feels, and operates like ordinary Red Hat Linux, BioBrew Linux includes popular cluster software e.g. MPICH, LAM-MPI, PVM, Modules, PVFS, Myrinet GM, Sun Grid Engine, gcc, Ganglia, and Globus, *and* popular bioinformatics software e.g. the NCBI toolkit, BLAST, mpiBLAST, HMMER, ClustalW, GROMACS, PHYLIP, WISE, FASTA, and EMBOSS. It runs on everything from notebook computers to large clusters. Website: http://bioinformatics.org/biobrew/ 3. Bio-Linux Bio-Linux provides both standard and cutting edge bioinformatics tools on a Linux base. It is powerful, configurable and easy to maintain. Bio-Linux has been customised for ease of use and provides an ideal system for scientists handling and analysing biological data. Bio-Linux also comes with many development tools, providing a solid base for bioinformatics software development. It can also be easily deployed as a computer cluster. As of version 4.0, Bio-Linux is based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Bioinformatics-related customisations include the inclusion of a large number of bioinformatics programs and programming libraries, the addition of graphical menus for much of the bioinformatics software, and links from the desktop to key documentation and applications. The system also includes a comprehensive, categorised and searchable documentation system for bioinformatics software. 4. Bioknoppix The University of Puerto Rico High Performance Computing facility (HPCf) and the Puerto Rico Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN-PR) have release Bioknoppix. Bioknoppix is a live CD linux, based on KNOPPIX, and specialized to include tools for bioinformatics. Bioknoppix does not need to be installed on your computer, making it a perfect tool for workshops and demos. Some of the software included in the 0.3 release are EMBOSS 2.8.0, jemboss, artemis, clustal, Cn3D, ImageJ, BioPython, Rasmol, Bioperl, Bioconductor Website: http://bioknoppix.hpcf.upr.edu/ 5. Biolinux-BR BioLinux-BR is a project directed to the scientific community. The intention is to create a Linux distribution for people with little familiarity with the installation of the operational system and mainly for people that do not know how they must proceed to unpack a program, compile and install it correctly. For these reasons, this is a Linux system that aims to be easy to use and still offering packages that will be part of the BioLinux-BR. Website: http://glu.df.ibilce.unesp.br/ 6. Vlinux VLinux Bioinformatics workbench is a Linux distribution for Bioinformatics. It is easy to use, no installation required, CD-based distribution based on Knoppix 3.3. It includes a variety of sequence and structure analysis packages.It is an Open source product released under the GNU GPL License. Website: http://bioinformatics.org/vlinux/index.html 7. Vigyaancd VigyaanCD is a live Linux CD containing all the required software to boot the computer with ready to use modeling software. VigyaanCD v0.1 is also based on KNOPPIX v3.3. It contains programs for bioinformatics, computational biology and computational chemistry. It also has genomes from Eschercia coli (K 12) and Synechococcus sp. WH 8102 It is suitable both for beginners (12 demos and tutorials) and experts. ISO image size (v 0.1) is 647 MB. And let me tell you this is an effort by an Indian. Kudos to you Pratul K. Agarwal for such a nice package. In fact I just downloaded the CD and have casually tried it. Looks superb. It has the option for a persistant home directory on HDD, which is very essential for Live CDs. Every thing is very comprehensively arranged. Once again. Three chers for Pratul. Cheers -Tarun ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/SunCityJodhpurLUG/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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NGOs, searching long for alternatives, find flavour in alt.software (long)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 21 Jan '05

21 Jan '05

NGOs, SEARCHING LONG FOR ALTERNATIVES, FIND FLAVOUR IN ALT.SOFTWARE >From Frederick Noronha For an sector that talks of alternatives, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or voluntary sector stays surprisingly aloof from one significant alternative that has really worked -- free software. But there are stirrings to bridge this huge chasm. In end-January, India's technology mecca Bangalore is to be the venue for an international 'camp' meant to promote FLOSS among the NGO sector. Others talk of building 'another world'; in free software, it is already there. Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS, using the newish acronomy that better describe both diverse strands that make it up) today allows just about anyone to avoid globally dominant players, and to find more freedom-oriented options. It also, at the same time, works very efficiently in the growing world of computing. Asia Source, as the 'tech camp' is called, will be held from January 28 to February 4, 2005 and "hopes to bring together over a hundred people from 20 countries to increase the use and awareness of FLOSS amongst the non-profit sector in South and South East Asia." There will be participants coming in from a range of backgrounds. Sucharat "Ying" Sathapornanon from Thailand looks after IT for the Asia-Pacific Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Edcuation. Umesh Pradhan comes in from Thimphu, Bhutan. Ujjwal from Nepal is a "technical supporter" of non-profits in Kathmandu, Nepal. Yee Yee Htun from Myanmar lives along the Thai-Myanmar border, and is a volunteer webmaster for AAPPB (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma) -- www.aappb.org. Alecks Pabico from the Philippines is a journalist working with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. >From a range of Asian countries, NGOs and grassroots technology support professionals will come in "to learn new skills, exchange tips, and share experiences", organisers say. Local hosts reminded participants that Bangalore is famous for its silk, sandle wood, handicrafts, designer jewelery and (tasty vegetarian) food. But beyond the names and faces and local attractions, there's a more important message. FLOSS bestows on the user four freedoms -- freedom to use the software for any purpose; freedom to study how the software works; freedom to modify the software; and freedom to share the software with others. From a technical perspective, this can be used to reduce costs and hardware requirements while also improving security, reliability, performance, stability, and scalability. >From a wider philosophical perspective, FLOSS can transform patterns of access, usage, control and ownership of knowledge and technologies. Globally, FLOSS has grown after several hundred thousand hackers and students scattered across the globe collaborated to produce a unified body of knowledge without resorting to hierarchical structures and exploitative relationships. This movement is also seen by some to demonstrate how wealth can be created by entrepreneurs in the free market without using the proprietary copyright regime. In Bangalore, four themes will flow throughout the event. FLOSSophy for NGOs (or, why Free Software and Open Source makes sense), migration and access to non-proprietorial software, tools for content-building and communication, and the localisation of computing to make it relevant to countries across Asia. Elizabeth, originally Timorese (from East Timor), is currently doing her internship at the Open Forum of Cambodia with KhmerOS (Khmer Open Source). The KhmerOs is working to localise software to Khmer, the Cambodian language. Says she: "I'm learning from them while also preparing a localization document for Tetum, one of our national language in Timor Leste." Tetum uses the Latin script with some accents, since it has words imported from Portuguese. Talat Numanov from Dushanbe, Tajikistan works in Central Asian Development Agency as an IT specialist, and his goal is to learn more about FLOSS and distribute it to users. Says he: "My friends use Mandrake Linux (because it has been localised to Tajik)." Russell T. Kyaw Oo from Myanmar says: "I am focusing on localization, translation and modification." Guests from overseas should be meeting up with Guntupalli Karunakar, a soft-spoken extremely low-key Mumbai-based champion of localisation. He's one of the key movers behind the Indian Linux Project (http://www.indlinux.org). Explains Karunakar: "My primary experience is in F(L)OSS localization. I have been working on this for last four years, We have almost completed Hindi localization part." Not-so-friendly neighbouring regions are sometimes united by common concerns. From Pakistan, Sufyan told Karunakar in a pre-conference online discussion: "We at Open Source Resource Center of Pakistan (www.osrc.org.pk) will be grateful to you if you can give us an action plan for localization in Urdu." Localisation is an issue that many are addressing in the FLOSS world, and taking computing to communities which otherwise might just be seen as an unviable market. Javier Sola, a Spaniard living in Cambodia, is coordinator of the KhmerOS project. "Our goal is to make Cambodia OpenSource-Country by means of localization. I am an enthusiast of F(L)OSS localization. I believe that it is the key to adoption of F(L)OSS by users," says he. He has been also working on a "toolkit" on how to do FLOSS localization. In Javier's view, localization and making migration easy are the two "keys to FLOSS adoption". In Bangalore, he regrets not being able to attend both tracks. Hok Kakada, another Cambodian, works for the KhmerOS project, which she sees as aiming to "enable all the Cambodian people to use a computer in their own language". She says that by using FLOSS, their team has already localized a number of applications into the Khmer language -- actually, not just applications, but even the operating system as well. OVER A HUNDRED Over a hundred participants are expected at this global meet. Together with experts and specialists, they'll look at how technology and free and open source software makes sense within the non-profit sector -- in terms of access and content. Asia Source organisers -- the Dutch TacticalTech.org network and Mahiti.org in Bangalore -- say theirs will be the "first event of its kind" in the region. Peer-learning will take top priority. Participants will look at available options, learn how to select and apply alternative technologies. They'll access skills and tools to utilise this in their daily work. There will be experts to share the skills. Colin Charles, also from Malaysia, considers himself an "all round open source person, actively involved in The Fedora Project and OpenOffice.org." He has helped many NGOs, companies and individuals make the switch, first to the Windows-like Open Office and then to GNU/Linux. Soon-Son 'Shawn' Kwon from South Korea works with a "big corporation" by day and by night has been managing the highly-successful Korean Linux Documentation Project, "as a hobby". David Tremblay is a French Canadian volunteer working for Oxfam Quebec as an IT analyst in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. He says: "I'm implementing websites, intranet, extranet and networks using -- as much as I can -- open source, open standards and accessible technologies. I'm trying to build a strong open source community in Ha Noi. I'm also a proud [GNU]Linux desktop user." Tremblay argues that he wants "to raise awareness among my NGOs that are too often giving away computers without thinking what their are doing.... I want to raise awareness that software choice isn't genuine. Too often, they think of their computers as a hammer, and everything become a MS-nail." One of the more colourful and high-profile though is "Rasta coder" Jaromil. Denis 'Jaromil' Rojo is the maintainer of dyne:bolic, HasciiCam MuSE and FreeJ. He calls himself "a nomadic rastafari of south Italian origins" and a free software developer. Dynebolic (dynebolic.org) comes out with a GNU/Linux multimedia-oriented distribution. Jaromil sees it as being suitable for "audio/video manipulation, network radio streaming, veejaying and anything else we can come up with together". He points out that this is a "100% free" operating system. (In the world of FLOSS, the word 'free' doesn't refer to zero-cost, but refers to the freedom to run, study, redistribute and improve software.) At the 'camp', there will be a range of sessions. From planning and helping an NGO to migrate to FLOSS, to sharing tips and techniques on using tools for content development, advocacy and campaigning. In parallel to this they will look beneath user-level scenarios, and break-down tricky issues such as techniques for localising software and forms of understanding the real cost of technology use. Asia Source will be held in a small artists community on the outskirts of Bangalore. But perhaps this needs to be recognised as an endeavour that goes beyond just code. FLOSS ideals are spreading to other fields. It's amazing to see the manner in which the sharing of knowledge and information is catching on in other circles too. Today, like sharing Free Software, the same ideals are growing in fields like open law, open source biology, MIT's OpenCourseWare, Project Gutenberg and Books Online (that distributes e-texts free online), free dictionaries and encyclopedias, and the open music movement. VENTURES THAT MAKE SENSE Various experiments are seeing FLOSS being deployed to bridge the 'digital divide'. While the potential is vast, and significant achievements are being reported at the ground level, there probably just isn't enough awareness about it. Tomas Krag in Copenhagen runs a small non-profit called wire.less.dk. It works primarily with low-cost wireless solutions for remote areas (mostly in the so-called 'developing world'). With a background as a web-developer, technical architect, and technology evangelist, his interest is "in a variety of open (standards, source, spectrum, doors) technology solutions to bring more people on to the Internet, and make it a richer better place". Adi Nugroho lives in Makassar, a small town in Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. He's been using FLOSS since 1998. In March 1999, with some friends, they founded the Linux User Group Ujung Pandang, to learn GNU/Linux together and to help each other to migrate and use it. Way back in September 1999, they build iNterNUX, the first full-GNU/Linux Internet cafe in Indonesia, which use FLOSS for all servers and workstations. NEEDING A LEG-UP IN ASIA In the West, FLOSS grew early. But in Asia it is a younger development, mainly because widespread public access to tools vital for collaboration -- like the Internet -- grew in these parts only very recently. In Bangalore, the camp is being supported by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Aspiration. This event is sponsored by Hivos, the Open Society Institute, and the International Open Source Network (IOSN). This perhaps marks a shift in the approach of international development organisations, who have come to recognise that the Free Software approach to knowledge and skills makes the most sense in a world where poverty and illiteracy and unconquered enemies for a few thousands millions. Prior to this event, similar 'source' events have taken place in South East Europe, Southern Africa and are planned in 2005 in Western Africa. See http://www.tacticaltech.org/asiasource (ENDS) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha is a freelance journalist who writes often on Free Software, and can be emailed at fred(a)bytesforall.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice
by Krishna Pagadala 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Please find a half-finished essay on "Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice" at http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/issues/freedom_of_knowledge_and_justice.… and also at the end of this email. Criticisms welcome. Regards, Krishna Freedom of Knowledge, Accountability and Justice ------------------------------------------------ This essay is highly influenced by lessons learnt from the Free Software Movement, I encourage the reader to read the companion essay on "Freedom of Knowledge and Development" before reading this one. Knowledge: What is it? ---------------------- "The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned." For the purposes of this essay Knowledge should be understood to include all forms of knowledge used in the public sphere, whether or not such knowledge is considered private. The knowledge not included is the personal/private/intimate kind of knowledge about natural persons, which the public has no right to know. Specifically all information in all human institutions in whether it is technology, accounts, planning documents, reports, to the minutest detail excepting knowledge infringing which is personal and intimate to natural persons. Freedom of Knowledge -------------------- * The freedom to use knowledge for any purpose. * The freedom to learn and adapt it to your need. * The freedom to share and help your neighbor. * The freedom to improve on existing knowledge and share your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. * The freedom to use the knowledge no matter its source. Accountability -------------- Human institutions whether they are in the form of governments, corporations, trusts etc. must be accountable to the people. However abuse of power has been a constant throughout history irrespective of the outward form the concentrations of power have taken. The most important way in which this abuse of power is sustained is by restricting the flow of information. To make these institutions accountable, knowledge about their workings needs to be widely avaiable so that the institutions can be improved by the public in both adversarial and collaborative manner. In the absense of such knowledge power, will continue to be abused. This is the prime reason why there is enormous resistance to right to information laws around the world. To help please join a right to information advocacy group in your home country. Also do not restrict right to information only to government entities. Justice ------- I have been concerned about Justice in the context of colonialism. The first criteria to acheive justice is that it must not be vengeful / retributive. It must be of the healing variety by nursing the sick back to health. One of the immediate responses in this context has been reparations, usually meaning money. However I see serious problems with such forms of reparations, given the history of "AID" by developed countries. The problems being 1) AID has not reached the level that the developed countries have promised. 2) 80% of AID is restricted, in the form of soft loans, requirements to buy from donor countries corporations etc. 3) Elites in the recipient countries eat the money away. 4) Money does not have value in itself, it is merely representation of wealth, it has value because of socio-economic circumstances, in particular violence that is required to maintain such violence. In light of these problems with money, reparations in the form of money seem inadvisable. Knowledge however represents true wealth that is independent of violence, increases in utility as it is shared and leads to increased levels of development. Knowledge is thus an ideal solution to the problems brought out by money. It has a healing effect in that the developing world gains real wealth without cost to the developed world. Attribution ----------- There are three pillars that have contributed to my understanding of the world, and in helping me form my worldview. First I would like to thank Richard M Stallman and Free Software Foundation, for their important message of software freedom. Second Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen's works inspired me in thinking about solutions to a lot of misery that I am aware of. Finally I would like to thank Noam Chomsky for helping me overcome my blindness and helping me understand how the world really works. Resources --------- Freedom of information. http://www.freedominfo.org/ "Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard Stallman" http://notabug.com/2002/rms-essays.pdf Philosophy of free software http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/ ===== Books for Disadvantaged Children - $10 Health Care for a Tribal Village - $100 Electricity for a remote community - $1000 Satisfaction of making a difference - Priceless Visit: http://www.oneforindia.org/?r=krishnaact To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the next step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to self-reliance for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? -Mahatma Gandhi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

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Patents & Biotech
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 19 Jan '05

19 Jan '05

Patents and Open Source Biotech Biotech Posted by michael on Tuesday January 18, @05:32PM from the my-new-asian-bird-flu-technique-is-unstoppable dept. sebFlyte writes "Since Slashdot readers seem to be interesting in the issues and problems surrounding software patents, I thought they might be interested to see that Wired is running an interesting piece on patents in Biotech and the way that they can hold up important research, and how there are clear parallels with the open source software community with the way that advocates of openness are trying to solve these problems." http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66289,00.html ===== ____________________________________ /\ \ \_| Rakesh 'arky' Ambati | | Bangalore (INDIA) | | Homepage: http://arky.port5.com/ | | _______________________________|_ \_/_________________________________/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com

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Fwd: [glugc] need help for switching 2 linux
by Praveen A 18 Jan '05

18 Jan '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: shiyasvp <shiyasvp(a)yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:26:10 -0000 Subject: [glugc] need help for switching 2 linux To: glugc(a)yahoogroups.com Hai friends My name is Shiyaz. Now I am working at Doha Qatar. Now here Microsoft people searching for pirated products. So it's very difficult To give new pc with windows xp and other software. Every pc manufactures must Install windows xp (windows products.) if they use Microsoft products. So many customers didn't agree with this policy. We have an internet café, Today Microsoft people came here and ask license for Microsoft windows for all PC (50) computers is there So today our IT section decided to switch red hat Linux. Our IT section is not powerful, and they don't know Linux. I have some idea in installation of Linux. Here all people call to foreign countries and India, Philippines, using software dialers Gcc2u, net2phone, globalvoiz, mypccall, netpccall, www.gcc2u.com,www.net2phone.com, www.globalvoiz.org, www.mypccall.com www.netpccall.com . I think in these dialers will not support Linux if we switch Linux customers can use only net browsing. And Linux will support yahoo messenger and msn messenger?. And these software. Dialers. At any cost we want this dialer and messenger. Any remedy is there, anybody help me. Please replay me immediately By shiyasvp(a)yahoo.com ________________________________ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glugc/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: glugc-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Listen to what you type !!!
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Check out this wonderful text to speech converter program site. Download and feel it !! http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/download.html Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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[Fsf-friends] The GNU/Linux Commands Dictionary by Santhosh Thottingal
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Hey all, My friend Santhosh has written a book 'The GNU/Linux Commands Dictionary'. I've attached the pdf file. Go through it and sent feedback to him at santhoshthottingal at yahoo.co.in Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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SLYNUX -- Sarath Laxman's Linux website
by Praveen A 17 Jan '05

17 Jan '05

Check out this site www.slynux.co.nr Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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FreeSoftwaremagazine.com
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Jan '05

16 Jan '05

Issue 1 Volume 1 of this new magazine has just hit the (cyber)stands. And, don't be too surprised, you're free to download a copy too of this 78-page publication. Some of the articles in the first issue: o File formats; format wars (Marco Fioretti) File formats: the past, the present, a possible future o XML: The answer to everything? (Kay Ethier, Scott Abel) This article weighs the pros and cons of XML for some applciations (publishing) and explores why it is the best possible solution for many programming and publishing needs. o Free file formats and the future of intellectual freedom (Terry Hancock) Information as property may be served by closed file formats, but the freedom of information requires free formats. o Creating the Free Software Magazine (Tony Mobily) A long path that takes us to the very beginning of this project. o Mac OS X: Welcome to the jungle -- a look inside the Mac OS X software ecology (Chris J Karr) o The magic of live CDs (Harish Pillay) What are live CDs, and how do they work? o Every engineer's checklist for justifying Free Software. It's not just about 'no licence fees' (Malcolm D Spence) o Smarter password management (John Locke) How to handle your passwords without getting lost o The content tail wags the IT dog (Daniel James) Without hardware and software, there would be nothing for digital media to be created on, or used with. And yet the content industry attempts to tell the far larger IT industry what it can and cannot do. o Motivation and value of free resources. Wikipedia and Planetmath show the way (Aaron E Klemm) o It's all about freedom (Christian Einfeldt) Freedom is free software's competitive advantage. o The Commons (Dave M Berry) The Commons as an Idea -- Ideas as a Commons o Let's not forget our roots (Free Software is not just about cost or stability; it's a movement that mustn't forget the principles which made it possible) Tom Chance. A PLANT NEEDS WATER TO GROW! Free Software Magazine -- by subscribing you will be supporting a magazine which believes in Free Software. All our articles are released under the GNU free documentation license, enhancing existing information on Free Software. Download your copy today from http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com Subscriptions open! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 21, Issue 4
by fjsylvester＠marketweighton.com 16 Jan '05

16 Jan '05

happy new year friends fjsylvester

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[Fsf-friends] FLOSS into the Mayan languages... and a LatAm distro based on Gentoo
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Ola, here's some news from Latin America... Julio Cesar Gonzalez of LUGUSAC <juliocgc(a)fisica.usac.edu.gt> writes in to say that they have got "organized as a Linux Users Group, currently pursuing to be a Technological Foundation. The mail list is open and can be reached at: http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/lugusac and our site is at http://www.lug-usac.org Says Julio: "We are the forge of several projects, maybe the most interesting 'Proyecto Luciernaga', on translating FLOSS into mayan languages, (see it at http://luciernaga.berlios.de ) and "Proyecto Mayix", the very first Central American distribution based on Gentoo -- http://www.mayix.net " In the first half of 2005, this team expects to partner the creation of a GNU/Linux Users Group in the west highlands (Quetzaltenango, native name Xelaju), their site will be at http://xelalug.linuxserver.at/ Says Julio, whose based in Gautemala: "In Central America the major interest on FLOSS is here in my country (Guatemala) and in El Salvador. Some LUGs in Belize and Honduras." He, together with several friends, formed a GNU/LUG at their university three years ago. Their Mayan language project incidentally is an inter-institutional project, also involving groups such as the "Fundacion Rigoberta Menchu Tum" (Nobel Peace Price, 1992) and "Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala" (national autority for mayan languages)." According to Julio, they're currently working on the translation of OpenOffice.org Writer 1.1 into the Mayan language k'iche'. He adds optimistically: "After that, we'll produce the OpenOffice.org suite in all the major Mayan languages, a web browser and, eventually, a Live-CD with a Mayan-languages GNU/Linux distribution." We wish these big and ambitious plans all the very best. If you could support in any way, get in touch with Julio Cesar Gonzalez Cordon <juliocgc(a)fisica.usac.edu.gt> who says: "It's exciting to share, to learn, and to build another world with you!". FN Related URL: Fisired (http://fisica.usac.edu.gt) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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GNU/Linux Users Calicut Website
by Praveen A 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Hi all, We are happy to inform you the launch of GNU/Linux users group Calicut (glugc --pronounced gee-lug-see). Check out the site at http://glugc.nitc.ac.in Regards Praveen A A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Re: [Fsf-friends] sly stories
by CK Raju 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

--- "V. Sasi Kumar" <vsasi(a)hotpop.com> wrote: If he had studied in a government school, or had seen the IT text books for SSLC, he would have understood what free software is. I understand that he is in a CBSE school. We need to put pressure on CBSE to bring free software into their IT education. -- I think the dangers of such proprietary technologies creeping into the curriculum are much beyond that what we usually imagine. For instance, see this feature of Micro$oft. "...Project Shiksha Highlights Microsoft in partnership with State Governments to deliver comprehensive, leading K-12 IT curriculum as prescribed by the standards bodies Student scholarships to recognize India’s top students who drive innovation through technology A teacher scholarship program to recognize and reward India’s leading teachers committed to delivering world-class education An online community for teacher collaborations, best practice sharing and honing of skill sets..." (full story at http://www.microsoft.com/india/education/pil/shiksha/ ). Read our Chief Ministers details on amending Curriculum on an annual basis (after he visited Technopark, TVM in Nov 2004), and the seriousness would increase. (A response to that story is at http://www.indiavarta.com/Opinions/index.asp?Category=opinion&mesgId=32757 ) Rgds, CK Raju _____________________________________________________________ LinuxTimes.Net --> Open Source to everyone.

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Indian Free-gis mailing list
by sajithvk 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Friends, Geographic Information Systems are powerful tools for organising and processing geospatial data. The use of this software is increasing in our country, especially since the availability of satellite imageries makes it a very useful tool in planning. However, most of our institutes use proprietary GIS applications, which are very expensive, in addition to being restrictive. Many people are not even aware of the availability of equally or more powerful Free Software applications like GRASS. So we formed an email group for Free-GIS related discussions. This email group was formed to promote the awareness and use of such applications, and to help new users to become familiar with them. Please see http://gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-gis. We invite you to join the group and contribute to our efforts. List Admin

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FLOSS meet at NIT Calicut -- site temporarily moved
by Praveen A 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

There has been some problem with our website [http://glugc.nitc.ac.in]. We are trying to sort it out. For the time being check out the page in our main site. http://nitc.ac.in/nitc/static_files/floss/index.html Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Article from The Hindu: Sent to you by Praveen A
by thehindu＠web1.hinduonnet.com 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

I hope you'd like this. ============================================================= This article has been sent to you by Praveen A ( pravi.a(a)gmail.com ) ============================================================= Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/edu/2005/01/11/stories/2005011100200400.htm) Education Plus    Kerala    YOUNGACHIEVERS A whiz-kid's tryst with Linux What do people do when they hear that doing a particular thing is very difficult? Most of them try to avoid it. But some people meet the challenge headlong. Sarath Lakshman a Standard X student of the Jawaharlal Nehru Government Higher Secondary School, Mahe, belongs to the second category. A challenge Until 2003, Sarath had never used Linux, computer operating system (OS). He had heard about it, though. When he repeatedly heard from various people that Linux was not an everyman's OS and that operating Linux requires more than a casual knowledge of computers, Sarath saw a challenge staring him in the face. His answer to that challenge was `SLYNUX' - or in other words `Sarath Lakshman's Linux'. The story of Sarath's achievements using the computer begins some time back. Even as a child, Sarath was interested in science and technology; the young scientist demonstrated this by prying open household electronic gadgets and tinkering with them. When he reached Standard VIII and started learning about computers as per the syllabus designed by the IT@School programme, he got hooked to computers. E-periodic table One day, in Standard IX, when the Chemistry teacher was taking a class on the periodic table, it struck Sarath that computers could be used to teach the periodic table in a much more interesting way. This resulted in the development of the `e-periodic table' - software that helps the student to learn the positions of elements, their atomic numbers and so on. This software turned out to be a hit with the students of his school. When officials of the IT@school got wind of this, they got in touch with Sarath and asked him whether he would give the copyright of his software to them. Sarath was only too willing and a few days later had the satisfaction of seeing his `e-periodic table' in the resource CD for the Standard X IT@School sent to all schools in the State. New software As far as Sarath was concerned, this was only the beginning. "I then thought of developing a software that would help students learn the basics of electronics - my childhood passion. I began working on this and eventually came up with `Electronic Studio MX', which uses animation to explain basic concepts in electronics," he told The Hindu-Education Plus. With two successful projects under his belt, Sarath turned his attention to Linux - something he had always been told was very, very difficult to operate. Initially, Sarath installed a popular version of Linux, on his computer. Soon, he saw that what he had been told about Linux was not too much of an exaggeration. " I found that this OS was very good in matters of security and smoothness of operation. But I found that the average user would be confused by the names given to programmes in Linux. The fact that Linux uses inter-dependent system files excited me and convinced me that I could make this OS simpler and easy to comprehend," he explained. SLYNUX Sarath said he was also particular that his version of Linux should be operational from a live CD - that is, it could run even without being installed in a computer. Next, he went about devising the SLYNUX desktop to closely resemble the normal Window's desktop. This way, he ensured that anybody who is familiar with Windows could easily switch to using SLYNUX. Sarath says that anybody who uses his OS would have the advantage of getting a lot of pre-installed programmes. "Normally, there are very few programmes in Windows OS. You would have to pay for getting more programmes installed or else pirate the same. For instance, SLYNUX has a pre-installed SLYNUX media player and a Linamp player. So, the user can play VCDs and even DVDs using the programme `Xine'," he said. That is not all. SLYNUX also has a multi-purpose messenger programme that can be used for MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber and IRC messaging services. SLYNUX also has Mozilla Firefox, which can be used to access the Net. "Another major feature about my OS is that it supports internal modems; something that other Linux versions normally don't. It can also access most of the file types used in the Windows OS. In addition to this, SLYNUX also supports Malayalam fonts. I have even included an on-screen Malayalam keyboard," Sarath said. By providing a flash player plug-in, a CD-burner software and a `paint' programme, Sarath has also made sure that his OS is pretty strong on the multi-media front. He recommends at least 256 MB of RAM to get the best out of his SLYNUX CD. Marketing Sarath says he hopes to market SLYNUX, which he took only seven months to develop. "I will retain this as an open software. I would like to see more students using this free software. If we can have something free, why spend lakhs of rupees purchasing proprietary software," he asked. The answer would have to come from policy makers who handle IT education in the State. As this `young achiever' points out there is no institutionalised support in the State to people like him who set out to make things easier for others; for, there may be others - as yet unseen flowers - who are capable of similar feats, if not more. Sarath can be contacted at `sarathlakshman(a)yahoo.com G. MAHADEVAN Photo: S. Gopakumar Copyright: 1995 - 2005 The Hindu Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the consent of The Hindu

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[Fwd: [Ilugc] One Day One Command] watch
by Ramanraj K 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

watch - a useful command. Communities too need to "watch" out and sometimes act quickly. "hue and cry" has semantic traces back to watching out for seasonal fish from the shores, then actually evolved into a legal practice in England, where neighbours were obliged to come in aid of felony alarms until the practice was repealed in 1827. Watching for dangers, raising alarms, and rushing aid are part and parcel of community life, and being able to delegate some of these activities to commands like watch, could make life a little easier. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hue1.htm http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/02/pol.play.amber.alert/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Ilugc] One Day One Command Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:21:47 +0530 (IST) From: Bharathi S <sbharathi(a)MidasComm.Com> To: Indian Linux Users Group - Chennai <ilugc(a)ae.iitm.ac.in> One Day One Command :- --------------------- watch - Periodically run and show the output of a program Summary: Watch runs command repeatedly, displaying its output This allows you to monitor the program output change over time. Examples :- $ watch ls -- Every 2sec(default time) 'ls' is executed and output is showed on the screen. $ watch -n 6 who -- Every 6Sec 'who' run and list the current users $ watch -d date -- Highlight the difference b/w successive updates Press Ctrl+C to stop the Watch Command. Read: man watch Wish you happy Pongal & Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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FLOSS meet at NIT Calicut
by Praveen A 13 Jan '05

13 Jan '05

Hi All, We are happy to announce the one day FLOSS meet at National Institute of Technology Calicut (formerly Regional Engineering College, REC) on 29th JAnuary 2005. For more details log on to http://glugc.nitc.ac.in/floss/index.html FLOSS@NITC Free/Libre Open Source Software Movement (FLOSS) which emphasis on the Freedom of using different softwares. FLOSS meet is a one day seminar/workshop focusing on Free/libre and open Source technologies on 29th January, 2004.The event is jointly organized by the IEEE Student branch, CSI Calicut Chapter and GNU/Linux Users group at Calicut. The Seminar is also intended to provoke the student community. The event will bring together academicians, students and the industry people who are involved in the Movement. The event will comprise of two session, in the morning and afternoon. The morning sessions will be more concentrated on the floss philosophy, how students can involve and get benefit out of the floss community etc. There will be talks related to the security issues rising in the computer world. The afternoon session will be a workshop type. The workshop will be live demonstration type about the favorite floss language Python. SPEAKERS The one day FLOSS conference will be managed by the industry people who are involved in the movement. The eminent speakers are MORNING SESSION 1.Atul Chitnis -- He is one of India's best known technologists. He has been at the forefront of India's technology evolution. He was the chief organiser for Linux Bangalore 2004. 2. Shanker Balan -- Systems engineer, Yahoo! Bangalore. He is the part of the team which takes care of Yahoo! Mail related operations all over the world. AFTERNOON SESSION 1. Swaroop C H -- Software engineer in Yahoo! , His book A Byte of Python has been downloaded more than 24,000 times. 2. Pradeep Kishore Gowda -- Senior Software engineer in ZeOmega infotech Bangalore. He has worked with/for Asea Brown Boveri(ABB), Ingersoll-Rand, Deeproot Linux, Business Intelligence and Newer Technologies (BIGANTS) Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Free Software magazine Issue 1: out! (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hello people, (my apologies if you receive this email more than once!) I sent this email to people who proposed articles or advertising for Free Software Magazine. Well, Free Software Magazine (issue 1) is out! Please go and check it out: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com It is absolutely crucial, at this point, that we all: * Spread the word. Talk about Free Software Magazine to your LUG's mailing lists, your geek and non-geek friends, and anybody who you think could be interested in subscribing * Subscribe yourself! (if you can afford it). In the (hopefully near) future, writers and arvertisers will get a free subscription. Until then, please support us! * Tell Slashdot/Freshmeat/anybody about us! Here is a possibile announcement: "The first issue of Free Software Magazine (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com) is out! Free Software Magazine is a new magazine entirely dedicated to free software. It contains quality articles relating to both technical and non-technical issues; all published articles are released under a free license after their publication. The magazine obviously needs subscribers - the more the better. Have a look at it: if you feel like supporting an exciting project, please subscribe! * Put a link to http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com on your web site. Even better, publish one of these banners on your web site: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/banner-square.gif http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/fsm_banner_01.gif http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/text_banner.txt * Do whatever you think could help the magazine - as long as it's ethical Well, that's it. Please let me know what you think about Free Software Magazine. And... thanks a lot for your help! Bye, Merc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Mobily Author of "Hardening Apache" (Apress) "...this book can save you pain, humiliation, and hair loss" -- Mitchell Pirtle, PHP Magazine 05/2004

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[Fsf-friends] Do you know anything about GRDSS... (developed at IISc, Bangalore)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

GRDSS is a GRASS (Geographic Resource Analysis Support System, http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/grass) based GIS. GRASS is an open source GIS that works on the GNU/Linux platform, but most of the applications are in command line arguments. The command line syntax for GRASS was time consuming for individuals with limited programming skills. In order to overcome this, a user-friendly graphical interface GRDSS (Geographical REsources Decision Support System) was developed with all functionality of GIS and image processing. It aids decision makers and planners at a decision support system to visualise the decisions with spatial and temporal decisions along with capabilities to capture, store, process, display, organise, and prioritize spatial and temporal data. -- From GIS@development, August 2004 p 20. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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Debunking Wine Myths
by Praveen A 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Here are some common Wine "myths" that are either completely wrong or not very correct: * "Wine is slow because it is an emulator" * "Wine is bad for Linux" * "Emulators like VMWare are better" * "You need Windows anyway" * "Wine is bad, Winelib is better" * "Wine will always be playing catch up to Windows and can't possibly succeed at running new applications" * "Because Wine only implements a small percentage of the Windows APIs, it's always going to suck" * "Wine is only for Windows 3.1 / Wine will never support Win64" * "Wine is for Linux only" * "Wine is for Intel x86 only" * "My game has copy protection that doesn't work with Wine" * Myth 1: "Wine is slow because it is an emulator" Some people mean by that that Wine must emulate each processor instruction of the Windows application. This is plain wrong. As Wine's name says: "Wine Is Not an Emulator": Wine does not emulate the Intel x86 processor. It will thus not be as slow as Wabi which, since it is not running on a x86 Intel processor, also has to emulate the processor. Windows applications that do not make system calls will run just as fast as on Windows (no more no less). Read full storey at http://www.winehq.com/site/myths Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Debian ports to BSD
by Vivek Varghese Cherian 11 Jan '05

11 Jan '05

Looks like Debian is now also porting itself to the BSD Kernels apart from the Linux Kernel. http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/ http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/netbsd/ Regards, Vivek Varghese Cherian

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Preliminary software patent FAQ
by Raj Mathur 11 Jan '05

11 Jan '05

[Cross-posted] I've started work on a software patent FAQ with an Indian viewpoint. Please take a moment to read and: 1. Provide feedback (or better, enhancements) on style and facts. 2. Put it in an easily-editable Wiki so it's easier for people to contribute. Please do NOT choose a Wiki that has a complex registration process. 3. Fill in the portions that are incomplete and suggest new topics and/or facts that can go into the FAQ. I'm hoping that the FAQ can serve as a starting document for any action we take against software patents in India. The FAQ is available at: http://kandalaya.org/Docs/patent-faq.sgml -- SGML source http://kandalaya.org/Docs/patent-faq.html -- One big HTML file http://kandalaya.org/Docs/html/patent-faq.html -- Multiple HTML files Regards, -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves

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Edupage: BSA calls for stronger copyright legislation
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 10 Jan '05

10 Jan '05

BSA CALLS FOR STRONGER COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has released a white paper calling on government to strengthen laws meant to protect copyright holders from digital piracy. Fearing a situation like the one that record companies are grappling with, the BSA--which includes such companies as Microsoft, Intuit, and Symantec--urged lawmakers to take appropriate steps to ensure the enforceability of software copyrights and patents. An attorney for the group, Emery Simon, said the goal of the paper was not to encourage specific action but simply to identify a "problem that needs attention." The paper contends that a series of court rulings regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have resulted in an "impediment to effective enforcement," but the group did not specifically call on lawmakers to revise that law. CNET, 7 January 2005 http://news.com.com//2100-1030_3-5516568.html MICROSOFT LAUNCHES ANTISPYWARE TOOL Microsoft this week began offering a test version of an antispyware application for download. The company had been promising such a tool for some time, and it will debut an antivirus tool next week for cleaning viruses and other malware from computers. A spokesperson for Microsoft also said it will begin offering a service called "A1" that will provide users with updates to these tools. Microsoft has been working to improve the security standards of its products, and the company's new tools represent its extension of those efforts into the software security market currently led by companies including McAfee and Symantec. Shares of both of those companies' stock fell sharply on the news of Microsoft's new security tools. Reuters, 6 January 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7260250 ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639

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[RMS Events] Swatantra - Info
by Arun M 10 Jan '05

10 Jan '05

Swatantra is a conference focusing on Free and open Source technologies. Its the first of its kind event being organized in south India. The symposium will have food for thought for all genre of people may it be from the academic circles or the big time Industrial arena. The symposium is being organized by the Department of Information Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology ,Deemed University. The symposium will be held on 6th and 7th of February, 2005 and will be divided into various sessions. The event will also witness the inauguration of the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Free Software Foundation of India by Richard M. Stallman, Founder GNU. RMS will deliver the keynote on 6th Feb, 9.30 is the timing of his speech. Prof. Nagarjuna will be the chief guest and inaugurate the event. Please visit the site http://www.swatantra.info for more details. The whole event is open to all including workng professionals and general public.

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[Fsf-friends] Invitation: FOSS brain-storming session with Min. of IT
by Sridharan Anand 10 Jan '05

10 Jan '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear Free/Libre Open Source Software Enthusiast, There is a committee of the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, that is visiting the AU-KBC Research Centre (http://www.au-kbc.org), MIT Campus of Anna University, Chromepet, Chennai, on Thursday, January 13, 2005, in connection with launching a programme on `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals.' The committee would like to have a brain-storming session with all persons interested in FOSS from 10:30 AM -- 1:00 PM on the following issues: - - -- Status of current usage of FOSS in Industry, Government, Education and Research, worldwide and in India. - - -- Human resources needs in the FOSS sector in India and abroad. - - -- Available FOSS human resources development programmes in the formal and informal sectors (in the world and in India). - - -- Government's possible role in promoting FOSS in India. - - -- Any other steps needed to promote FOSS in India. Kindly make it convenient to attend this meeting and give your valuable inputs so that the Ministry of Information Technology can formulate the necessary plans and schemes to further the cause of FOSS which you have been serving individually and collectively in a voluntary manner. Enclosed please find a note on the theme of `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals' from the Free Software Foundation (India) for your information and comments. In case you would also like to circulate any note to the participants in this connection, please send the same to us. The meeting will end at 1.00PM with lunch. Please e-mail confirmation of your participlation to me (Mob.: 98410 26505) or Anand Sridharan (Ph. 2223 4885/2711/1034). Additional information on how to reach here etc. will be supplied to you on geting your confirmation of participation. Look forward to seeing you here on the 13th. Regards, Prof. C. N. Krishnan. Director. AU-KBC Research Centre MIT Campus of Anna University Chromepet, Chennai-44. (http://www.au-kbc.org) - - -------- Comments sent by Professor Nagarjuna, Chairman, FSF (Free Software Foundation), India on the subject `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals.' 1. What are the focus areas that need to be addressed by Govt. at national & international levels? Localization: Most urgent focus area should be to identify, encourage and support the already ongoing groups that are striving to localize (private IT solutions in Indian languages) the GNU/Linux operating system. How urgent this is becomes clear if we take into account the fact that currently only 4% people (based on the approximate english literacy) are capable of using computers, while our country has about 65% literacy. So far IT is enabling only the upper strata of the country. If we want our people to participate in this information age, making content available to Indian languages should be a top priority. In this regard, another serious matter: most of the already localized and digitized content in Indian languages is done in an unethical and inappropriate way, because the documents are encoded in proprietary standards (both at the level of font and data encoding). This is serious becomes clear if we know that this is not allowed in any other country except in India. Govt. must enforce all the industries who are presently in this market (including Govt's CDAC) to develop filters to covert all such documents in ISCII, TISCI and Unicode formats. (please see below our proposals on Encoding policy) Conversion of schools to FOSS: We should work towards the target of 100% FOSS use in schools 5 years from now, and before 2020. Starting now, we shouldn't install any new machines in schools/colleges and public institutions with non-free software. This will eventually solve not only HRD related issues for FOSS but also to nurture a good ethos within the learning institutes that shape future societies. Content Development: While this might seem not a related issue of FOSS, but FOSS practiced and demonstrated a unique model where people can generate and maintain content that they require on their own if they follow the wikipedia model (http://www.wikipedia.org) and other such community portals. We should not only create a mirror of sites like wikipedia in our country, but also should make efforts to create and translate the existing public content in Indian languages. This will also encourage a large number of Indians to contribute in such portals worldwide. Mirrors of Free Software: Indian mirrors (repositories that keep upto date versions of the software developed) must be created and located within the country for faster and sustained access. Internet: Internet is the nurturing media of swatantra software. It is difficult to visualize the success of free software without Internet. Providing faster and economical access to this facility particularly for public institutions will help support and sustain the movement further. Though not related to FOSS directly, we must have the network work within the country independent of the international backbone. Seriousness of this becomes clearer if we look at the fact that when our up front ISP's are disconnected to the international backbone, two people within a city in India may not be able to communicate with each other despite the fact that they are completely wired. This could be due to the non-availability of root DNS servers, and not a very clean routing of packets within the country.] Not having such an independent network may cause serious problems in case of international pressures. Having such a facility is crucial for a good bargaining power of a developing nation. China, I was told, has such a network which works independent of the international backbone. At the international level we should protect our freedom in matters related to imposing software patents. The current stand by India on this very important issue should be held strongly and no modification is required. We should withstand and stand on our feet and defend our independence in this matter without yeilding to the pressures of the so called developed countries and bigger financial powers to enforce software patents in our country too. 2. What policies / guidelines should be evolved to create a strong HRD in FOSS in India? Digital Encoding: A very important issue is to drive industry and all govt and other public bodies to encode all their documents in open standards (non-proprietary). E.g., exchanging and storing documents in MS Word should not be allowed, since these documents being binary not only propogate viruses with them making them vulnerable, but since the encoding method is not a standard and the companies change them in every next version merely (without any technical reason) to keep their users locked and continue to use their upgraded software. If we encourage such usage, then govt. is actually supporting a monopoly practice to flourish within the country. Alternatively, the document encodings be done in text, html, xml, pdf, rtf, in that order of preference. A similar policy for encoding spreadsheets, databases, audio, video etc. All digital encodings of public documents as a policy cannot be done in propreitary standards. FSF India wishes that we work towards enforcing this by bringing in other stakeholders and confederations like NASSCOM, FICCI, CII, MAIT etc should be alerted to take up this issue in the national interest. This will encourage good business ethos within the industry. We wish that Govt. take this initiative and lead. FSF India will provide any help to Govt. in this regard in arriving at a policy document. Curriculum: Second major issue for human resource development within the country is to plan in a major way to restructure the technical curriculum of schools and colleges within the country. What is happening now is no less than a crime: e.g., existence of brand names within the curriculum/syllabi at all levels (schools, colleges and universities). This is a direct endorsement of a particular company and a specific application. This is a serious issue and should be considered very urgent. We need to alert and bring together the policy makers of technical education immediately and ask them to remove all mentions of brand names in the syllabi. For example, eliminate Oracle and replace it by RDBMS, eliminate Exell and replace it by spreadsheet etc. This kind of secular syllabi will provide enough freedom also to the instructors to use what is available. When we went to schools and organizations to promote free software we were astonished to find such glaring omissions. We request that Govt. must look in to this matter. Keeping in mind that schools and colleges are the places where the trained technical persons are getting generated, it is here that we need to concentrate to create a secular technical curriculum. Please keep in mind that a large number or private IT training colleges are directly funded by major software companies to provide education only in a specific technology. If technical training is entirely left to private interests bigger companies will dictate what is good for the country and not the Govt. We should also monitor this area also, since many people opt for getting trained in such institutes. Swatantra Software Consortium: By inviting all the stake holders and confederations a consortium (similar to the W3C) should be formed to make informed decisions on technical and policy issues related to software and technical matters. Standards to be followed by Websites: Access to content available on the Internet depends on the delivery method followed by the content publishers. Most content publishers unknowingly support some specific encodings again proprietary, which will enforce the users to use a particular technology, again promoting certain business interests. A much bigger and broader issue is to drive towards a policy where no technology is allowed to be distributed (marketed) in a proprietary mode of delivery. Just as we seek our automobiles come with nuts and bolts we should demand that every software that is marketed must carry the source code along with the right to modify and distribute the software. This is going to encourage a lot of innovation, as is already evident within the FOSS world, within the country. This is the best way to achieve the self-reliance enshrined in our Constitution, and is the main focus of the 2020 vision of our Honarable President Kalam. Let people participate in shaping the technology of our society. Law mandating use of Free and Open Software and Standards in public affairs is necessary to enable wider and stronger use and adoption of FOSS. Just as the GNU Manifesto, and the GPL together laid a firm foundation for growth of free software, a clear statement of objects and reasons for using FOSS for Computerisation, with enunciation of it as legislation alone will enable use, adoption and evolution of workable solutions. A 'Computerisation [FOSS] Act' may help establishing public networks to handle routine transactions, using FOSS, with transparency at every level, for productivity and growth. Without this, there would be wastage of resources resulting in poor implementations not usable or workable. It is also necessary to have laws that compel hardware and software manufacturers to disclose technical specifications and details about their products to buyers, to enable interoperability and portability. For example, new AGP cards like NVIDIA are getting far more complex than the CPU, and it may become increasingly difficult to reverse engineer such complex hardware to make such devices accessible to free software. Selective disclosures to non-free software entities alone promote monopolies, and therefore harmful. Manufacturers should disclose full information about their products, which will also enable independent checking, testing and verification of product integrity and security. All research projects funded by the state should be made free and open to the public. FSF India has already elaborated the necessity for this in its recent memorandum addressed to CSIR. Software Patents Policy to be arrived at as mentioned in response to the first point. Keep reverse engineering legal. This is required till all the technology is not free. India should reject US pressure to prohibit free software to play a DVD, etc. Any attempt by other bodies that try to create policies that would limit what can the FOSS community can do should be resisted. One way is to play an active role in WIPO to block any proposed treaties that would limit what people are allowed to do with FOSS. For instance, the proposed WIPO Broadcast Treaty would do this. 3. Any other suggestions on the subject `HRD for FOSS capable IT Professionals'. If the above mentioned basic issues are addressed most of the ground work for creating FOSS professionals get created. Contests, Events, Festivals and awareness camps may be organized to enthuse the community to develop Swatantra software solutions. FSF India will help organizations that come forward to organize such events. Special projects for developing Swatantra software may be given to qualified professionals to develop the required software. Nagarjuna G. Chairman Free Software Foundation of India. http://www.gnu.org.in - ---------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQFB4jjjpd4Kqg0tCGoRAjzHAJ9/Vn0PyLAS4usajhy+7hInLgrtSACg842g xOO6GfT6HPZtbR0u+Wbukww= =Gfgh -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Beware ! freedom ahead...
by Arun M 09 Jan '05

09 Jan '05

Beware ! freedom ahead... Crimson feet Magazine together with FSF India and Darpana Academy of Performing Arts will be organising a two day workshop on Free Software and Free Culture. Date: 5th 6th Feb, Venue: Natarani Theatre, Darpana Academy, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad

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[Fwd: [Ilugc] [Fwd] Invitation: FOSS brain-storming session with Min. of IT]
by Ramanraj K 09 Jan '05

09 Jan '05

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Ilugc] [Fwd] Invitation: FOSS brain-storming session with Min. of IT Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 03:46:48 -0800 From: Suraj <suraj(a)symonds.net> To: ILUG-Chennai <ilugc(a)ae.iitm.ac.in> fyi, -Suraj ----- Forwarded message from Sridharan Anand ----- From: Sridharan Anand Subject: Invitation: FOSS brain-storming session with Min. of IT Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:09:46 +0530 To: sanand(a)au-kbc.org User-Agent: KMail/1.4.1 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear Free/Libre Open Source Software Enthusiast, There is a committee of the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, that is visiting the AU-KBC Research Centre (http://www.au-kbc.org), MIT Campus of Anna University, Chromepet, Chennai, on Thursday, January 13, 2005, in connection with launching a programme on `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals.' The committee would like to have a brain-storming session with all persons interested in FOSS from 10:30 AM -- 1:00 PM on the following issues: - -- Status of current usage of FOSS in Industry, Government, Education and Research, worldwide and in India. - -- Human resources needs in the FOSS sector in India and abroad. - -- Available FOSS human resources development programmes in the formal and informal sectors (in the world and in India). - -- Government's possible role in promoting FOSS in India. - -- Any other steps needed to promote FOSS in India. Kindly make it convenient to attend this meeting and give your valuable inputs so that the Ministry of Information Technology can formulate the necessary plans and schemes to further the cause of FOSS which you have been serving individually and collectively in a voluntary manner. Enclosed please find a note on the theme of `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals' from the Free Software Foundation (India) for your information and comments. In case you would also like to circulate any note to the participants in this connection, please send the same to us. The meeting will end at 1.00PM with lunch. Please e-mail confirmation of your participlation to me (Mob.: 98410 26505) or Anand Sridharan (Ph. 2223 4885/2711/1034). Additional information on how to reach here etc. will be supplied to you on geting your confirmation of participation. Look forward to seeing you here on the 13th. Regards, Prof. C. N. Krishnan. Director. AU-KBC Research Centre MIT Campus of Anna University Chromepet, Chennai-44. (http://www.au-kbc.org) - -------- Comments sent by Professor Nagarjuna, Chairman, FSF (Free Software Foundation), India on the subject `HRD for FOSS Capable IT Professionals.' 1. What are the focus areas that need to be addressed by Govt. at national & international levels? Localization: Most urgent focus area should be to identify, encourage and support the already ongoing groups that are striving to localize (private IT solutions in Indian languages) the GNU/Linux operating system. How urgent this is becomes clear if we take into account the fact that currently only 4% people (based on the approximate english literacy) are capable of using computers, while our country has about 65% literacy. So far IT is enabling only the upper strata of the country. If we want our people to participate in this information age, making content available to Indian languages should be a top priority. In this regard, another serious matter: most of the already localized and digitized content in Indian languages is done in an unethical and inappropriate way, because the documents are encoded in proprietary standards (both at the level of font and data encoding). This is serious becomes clear if we know that this is not allowed in any other country except in India. Govt. must enforce all the industries who are presently in this market (including Govt's CDAC) to develop filters to covert all such documents in ISCII, TISCI and Unicode formats. (please see below our proposals on Encoding policy) Conversion of schools to FOSS: We should work towards the target of 100% FOSS use in schools 5 years from now, and before 2020. Starting now, we shouldn't install any new machines in schools/colleges and public institutions with non-free software. This will eventually solve not only HRD related issues for FOSS but also to nurture a good ethos within the learning institutes that shape future societies. Content Development: While this might seem not a related issue of FOSS, but FOSS practiced and demonstrated a unique model where people can generate and maintain content that they require on their own if they follow the wikipedia model (http://www.wikipedia.org) and other such community portals. We should not only create a mirror of sites like wikipedia in our country, but also should make efforts to create and translate the existing public content in Indian languages. This will also encourage a large number of Indians to contribute in such portals worldwide. Mirrors of Free Software: Indian mirrors (repositories that keep upto date versions of the software developed) must be created and located within the country for faster and sustained access. Internet: Internet is the nurturing media of swatantra software. It is difficult to visualize the success of free software without Internet. Providing faster and economical access to this facility particularly for public institutions will help support and sustain the movement further. Though not related to FOSS directly, we must have the network work within the country independent of the international backbone. Seriousness of this becomes clearer if we look at the fact that when our up front ISP's are disconnected to the international backbone, two people within a city in India may not be able to communicate with each other despite the fact that they are completely wired. This could be due to the non-availability of root DNS servers, and not a very clean routing of packets within the country.] Not having such an independent network may cause serious problems in case of international pressures. Having such a facility is crucial for a good bargaining power of a developing nation. China, I was told, has such a network which works independent of the international backbone. At the international level we should protect our freedom in matters related to imposing software patents. The current stand by India on this very important issue should be held strongly and no modification is required. We should withstand and stand on our feet and defend our independence in this matter without yeilding to the pressures of the so called developed countries and bigger financial powers to enforce software patents in our country too. 2. What policies / guidelines should be evolved to create a strong HRD in FOSS in India? Digital Encoding: A very important issue is to drive industry and all govt and other public bodies to encode all their documents in open standards (non-proprietary). E.g., exchanging and storing documents in MS Word should not be allowed, since these documents being binary not only propogate viruses with them making them vulnerable, but since the encoding method is not a standard and the companies change them in every next version merely (without any technical reason) to keep their users locked and continue to use their upgraded software. If we encourage such usage, then govt. is actually supporting a monopoly practice to flourish within the country. Alternatively, the document encodings be done in text, html, xml, pdf, rtf, in that order of preference. A similar policy for encoding spreadsheets, databases, audio, video etc. All digital encodings of public documents as a policy cannot be done in propreitary standards. FSF India wishes that we work towards enforcing this by bringing in other stakeholders and confederations like NASSCOM, FICCI, CII, MAIT etc should be alerted to take up this issue in the national interest. This will encourage good business ethos within the industry. We wish that Govt. take this initiative and lead. FSF India will provide any help to Govt. in this regard in arriving at a policy document. Curriculum: Second major issue for human resource development within the country is to plan in a major way to restructure the technical curriculum of schools and colleges within the country. What is happening now is no less than a crime: e.g., existence of brand names within the curriculum/syllabi at all levels (schools, colleges and universities). This is a direct endorsement of a particular company and a specific application. This is a serious issue and should be considered very urgent. We need to alert and bring together the policy makers of technical education immediately and ask them to remove all mentions of brand names in the syllabi. For example, eliminate Oracle and replace it by RDBMS, eliminate Exell and replace it by spreadsheet etc. This kind of secular syllabi will provide enough freedom also to the instructors to use what is available. When we went to schools and organizations to promote free software we were astonished to find such glaring omissions. We request that Govt. must look in to this matter. Keeping in mind that schools and colleges are the places where the trained technical persons are getting generated, it is here that we need to concentrate to create a secular technical curriculum. Please keep in mind that a large number or private IT training colleges are directly funded by major software companies to provide education only in a specific technology. If technical training is entirely left to private interests bigger companies will dictate what is good for the country and not the Govt. We should also monitor this area also, since many people opt for getting trained in such institutes. Swatantra Software Consortium: By inviting all the stake holders and confederations a consortium (similar to the W3C) should be formed to make informed decisions on technical and policy issues related to software and technical matters. Standards to be followed by Websites: Access to content available on the Internet depends on the delivery method followed by the content publishers. Most content publishers unknowingly support some specific encodings again proprietary, which will enforce the users to use a particular technology, again promoting certain business interests. A much bigger and broader issue is to drive towards a policy where no technology is allowed to be distributed (marketed) in a proprietary mode of delivery. Just as we seek our automobiles come with nuts and bolts we should demand that every software that is marketed must carry the source code along with the right to modify and distribute the software. This is going to encourage a lot of innovation, as is already evident within the FOSS world, within the country. This is the best way to achieve the self-reliance enshrined in our Constitution, and is the main focus of the 2020 vision of our Honarable President Kalam. Let people participate in shaping the technology of our society. Law mandating use of Free and Open Software and Standards in public affairs is necessary to enable wider and stronger use and adoption of FOSS. Just as the GNU Manifesto, and the GPL together laid a firm foundation for growth of free software, a clear statement of objects and reasons for using FOSS for Computerisation, with enunciation of it as legislation alone will enable use, adoption and evolution of workable solutions. A 'Computerisation [FOSS] Act' may help establishing public networks to handle routine transactions, using FOSS, with transparency at every level, for productivity and growth. Without this, there would be wastage of resources resulting in poor implementations not usable or workable. It is also necessary to have laws that compel hardware and software manufacturers to disclose technical specifications and details about their products to buyers, to enable interoperability and portability. For example, new AGP cards like NVIDIA are getting far more complex than the CPU, and it may become increasingly difficult to reverse engineer such complex hardware to make such devices accessible to free software. Selective disclosures to non-free software entities alone promote monopolies, and therefore harmful. Manufacturers should disclose full information about their products, which will also enable independent checking, testing and verification of product integrity and security. All research projects funded by the state should be made free and open to the public. FSF India has already elaborated the necessity for this in its recent memorandum addressed to CSIR. Software Patents Policy to be arrived at as mentioned in response to the first point. Keep reverse engineering legal. This is required till all the technology is not free. India should reject US pressure to prohibit free software to play a DVD, etc. Any attempt by other bodies that try to create policies that would limit what can the FOSS community can do should be resisted. One way is to play an active role in WIPO to block any proposed treaties that would limit what people are allowed to do with FOSS. For instance, the proposed WIPO Broadcast Treaty would do this. 3. Any other suggestions on the subject `HRD for FOSS capable IT Professionals'. If the above mentioned basic issues are addressed most of the ground work for creating FOSS professionals get created. Contests, Events, Festivals and awareness camps may be organized to enthuse the community to develop Swatantra software solutions. FSF India will help organizations that come forward to organize such events. Special projects for developing Swatantra software may be given to qualified professionals to develop the required software. Nagarjuna G. Chairman Free Software Foundation of India. http://www.gnu.org.in -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQFB4RgNpd4Kqg0tCGoRAkcGAKCQBDIWBJrVztPMi90kR3sQDrrUSwCeP/lA vhFbOmsLIsbBv84XpYCRA60= =uCi9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ,-----------------[http://www.symonds.net/~suraj/]---o | Papanasam Sivan is also known as the "Tamil Thyagaiah" `------------------------------[suraj(a)symonds.net]---o _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email ilugc-request(a)ae.iitm.ac.in with "unsubscribe " in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc

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Richard Stallman talking about the intersection of free softwareand politics (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 Jan '05

09 Jan '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- [Audio file available for broadcast] From: lotus <lotus(a)riseup.net> Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:13:17 -0800 Archived-At: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/mmid/imc-audio/2005-0108-di Subject: [IMC-Audio] Audio of Interview with Richard Stallman IMC Radio Network Original article is at http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/3249.php radioActive sanDiego - Interview with Richard Stallman by lotus at radioActiveradio dot org Saturday, Jan. 08, 2005 at 3:06 AM This week on Resistance Remixed, DJ lotus interviews Richard Stallman. They will be talking about the intersection of free software and politics, the free software movement as a radical social movement, software patents, antifascism vs. anti-capitalism and the rise of nformation control technologies and policies. audio: ogg vorbis at 30.5 mebibytes http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lotus-stallman-2004-1-6.ogg This show took place on Thursday, January 6th, 7pm, PST and is one hour long. This week on Resistance Remixed, DJ lotus interviews Richard Stallman. They will be talking about the intersection of free software and politics, the free software movement as a radical social movement, software patents, antifascism vs. anti-capitalism and the rise of nformation control technologies and policies. For more information on Richard Stallman, see http://www.stallman.org/ For more information on free software, see http://www.gnu.org For a previous indymedia interview with Richard Stallman, see http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/266/index.php © 2000-2004 IMC Radio Network. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the IMC Radio Network. http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/3249.php Please feel free to rebroadcast! lotus at radioActiveradio d0t org

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[Fsf-friends] New GNU+Linux distro from Argentina, RMS promotes it as 100% Free
by Praveen A 09 Jan '05

09 Jan '05

Check this ! https://e.ututo.org.ar/indexee.html The ISOs are in gnu repository Praveen -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

2 1

[Fsf-friends] Richard Stallman talking about the intersection of free software and politics
by Anivar Aravind 08 Jan '05

08 Jan '05

[Audio file available for broadcast] From: lotus <lotus(a)riseup.net> Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:13:17 -0800 Archived-At: http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/mmid/imc-audio/2005-0108-di Subject: [IMC-Audio] Audio of Interview with Richard Stallman IMC Radio Network Original article is at http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/3249.php radioActive sanDiego - Interview with Richard Stallman by lotus at radioActiveradio dot org Saturday, Jan. 08, 2005 at 3:06 AM This week on Resistance Remixed, DJ lotus interviews Richard Stallman. They will be talking about the intersection of free software and politics, the free software movement as a radical social movement, software patents, antifascism vs. anti-capitalism and the rise of nformation control technologies and policies. audio: ogg vorbis at 30.5 mebibytes http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lotus-stallman-2004-1-6.ogg This show took place on Thursday, January 6th, 7pm, PST and is one hour long. This week on Resistance Remixed, DJ lotus interviews Richard Stallman. They will be talking about the intersection of free software and politics, the free software movement as a radical social movement, software patents, antifascism vs. anti-capitalism and the rise of nformation control technologies and policies. For more information on Richard Stallman, see http://www.stallman.org/ For more information on free software, see http://www.gnu.org For a previous indymedia interview with Richard Stallman, see http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/266/index.php © 2000-2004 IMC Radio Network. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the IMC Radio Network. http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/01/3249.php Please feel free to rebroadcast! lotus at radioActiveradio d0t org

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Fund Raiser
by Sriharsha 07 Jan '05

07 Jan '05

Hello Mr.Arun, in continuation to the discussion at fsf-india mail list, I want to know if you currently have stock of any items that can be sold. If so, I would like to have the details (Description and Price). Thanks, Sriharsha. ps: I sent this to your personal mail, but did not get any response, so I am posting it here, so that anyone with appropriate knowledge can mail me back -- ***************************** * Sriharsha Vedurmudi * Software Engineer * * Redpine Signals Inc. * Gate #395, Plot 87,88 * Sagar Society, Road #2, * Banjara Hills, * Hyderabad - 500 034 * www.redpinesignals.com * * +91-40-23559911 (Office) * +91-98851-37338 (Mobile) *****************************

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[Fsf-friends] FREE multimedia software * dyne:bolic 1.4 codename LUMUMBA
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 07 Jan '05

07 Jan '05

Jaromil will be visiting Bangalore in end-January 2005 for the Asia Source camp see http://www.tacticaltech.org -- FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 re all, i forward you the release announcement for the new version of dynebolic, the GNU/Linux multimedia oriented distribution i'm doing. I'll be carrying with me some copies and will be available to have workshops employing it for audio/video manipulation, network radio streaming veejaying and anything else we can come up with together ;) annunciazio'! annunciazio'! pepperepe'! pepperepe'! dyne.org productions proudly present: 8 8 8 o 8 8 8 .oPYo8 o o odYo. .oPYo. 88 8oPYo. .oPYo. 8 o8 .oPYo. 8 8 8 8 8' `8 8oooo8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 ' 8 8 8 8 8 8 8. 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 . `YooP' `YooP8 8 8 `Yooo' 88 `YooP' `YooP' 8 8 `YooP' :.....::....8 ..::..:.....:..::.....::.....:..:..:.....: :::::::::ooP'.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::...:::::: version 1.4 :: codename LUMUMBA ::::: 100% FREE MULTIMEDIA GNU/LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM RASTA SOFTWARE FOR THE FREEDOM OF CREATION the complete system is free to download and copy, go on ____ _ http://dynebolic.org _ _____ ___ __ http://dynebolic.org __ ____ __ ___ http://dynebolic.org ___ ___ _ ____ http://dynebolic.org ____ __ and redempt yourself from closed source software ISO CD image of 610Mbytes :: WHAT IS DYNE:BOLIC ? Dyne:bolic GNU/Linux is a live bootable cd, containing a whole operating system that works straight from boot, without the need to install or change anything on the hard disk. If you like and want to have it on harddisk you can simply copy the /dyne directory on your computer: the simpliest installation ever! Dyne:bolic is user-friendly: recognizes your hardware devices (sound, video, firewire, and USB), and offers a VAST range of free software applications for multimedia production, audio and video manipulation, sound composition and synthesis, 3D modeling, photography, peer2peer filesharing, web browsing, desktop publishing, word processing, cd burning, email, encryption, remote conferencing, funky games, a world atlas navigator and even more. Advanced features include: a complete environment with the most advanced multimedia applications available on GNU/Linux, automatic clustering joining the CPU power between any other dyne:bolic on the local network, capability to work well on old PC (Pentium1 64Mb) and even XBOX game consoles, support to save and encrypt personal data and settings on a usb key. Dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists and artists to promote free speech as a tool for the production and not only the fruition of digital and analog informations. It takes birth as a grassroot effort to spread free software and the spirit of sharing information and knowledge. for more information see: http://dynebolic.dyne.org/index.php?show=features with screenshots http://dynebolic.dyne.org/index.php?show=press past reviews http://dynebolic.dyne.org/index.php?show=docs the manual and wiki :: WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE? This release provides a major upgrade to software included and adds new useful applications, plus fixes some important outstanding bugs. Since the enormous success of the previous release, the suggestions of a growing number of users and the dedication of currently active developers Jaromil and Smilzo lead to this very stable release. Everyone is encouraged to upgrade! here the complete ChangeLog: = 1.4 major update "LUMUMBA" - Pure Data equipped with all major extensions: PDP, PiDiP, RRadical, grid, pique, bonk, choice, fiddle, freeverb, zexy, GEM-0.90, OSC and more (10x to Aymeric, Derek, Frank, Yves, Tom and PD!) - Blender-2.33a + Yafray-0.0.7 + Python game engine - LiVES 0.9.1 with Ogg/Theora and _many_ other codecs! - FreeJ-0.7.1 "BIKO" - RASTASOFTWARE! console remote controller (VJ over Ethernet) and Procedural Video Scripting: evolution from NLE systems - updated Linux 2.4.26, Alsa, OpenMosix and SquashFS-2.1 with improved efficience and wider device support including Zoran devices and most video boards - Xbox support up to recent versions and cromwell bios - Python is included with GUI extensions - Fix to modem connection, now fully functional - new software: Jamin-0.8, InkScape-0.39, poedit-1.2.5, KPhone-4.0.2, TimeMachine-0.2.4, tftp-hpa-0.38, Bomb-1.26, Pure-Ftpd-1.0.20, mlDonkey-2.5.22, Circle-0.41c, Aqualung-0.9b2, FLAC-1.1, iftop-0.17p1, Emacs-21.3, Seq24-0.5.2, Thunderbird-1.0, Chestnut-dialer-0.1, libtheora-1.0a4 - Mobilemesh wireless adaptive routing daemon see /usr/mobilemesh (10x to Elektra) - updated software: FreeJ-0.7.1, MuSE-0.9.1, ImageMagick-6, LADSPA, Jack-0.98.1, Blender-2.33a, Cinelerra-1.2.1, Gaim-1.0, GQview-1.4.3, isolinux 2.10, GEM-0.90, pd-0.37-4, Audacity-1.2.2, LiVES-0.9.1, BlueFish-0.13, EffecTV-0.3.9, MPlayer-1.0pre5, QJackCtl-0.2.10, Hydrogen-0.9, SDL-1.2.7, png-1.2.7, Xfe-0.72, libFOX-1.2.9, Firefox-1.0, Rezound-0.11.1beta, ogg-1.1.1, vorbis-1.0.1, Hydrogen-0.9.1, mjpegtools-1.6.2 - new games: Eboard, Racer and Eat The Whistle! tk-solitaire and Starfighter-1.1.1 plus the juicy updates for Wesnoth-0.8.6 - more documentation in the dynebolic user's manual - lectrobrain :: thk03 In case you have a DOCK (/dyne directory copied in your harddisk) you should upgrade it by using the one in this release - or when you boot the CD just answer YES when you'll be prompted to upgrade. : THIS IS RASTA SOFTWARE ! This software is about Resistance ina babylon world which tries to control and limit the way we communicate and we share informations and knowledge. This software is for all those who don't want to afford the latest expensive hardware to speak out their words of consciousness and good will, still offering a complete operating system with more features than some other proprietary system affected by viruses and full of spyware. This software is free, Jah Rastafari Livity bless your freedom! You should share this software for the good of yourself and your people, respect others and let them express, be free and let others be free. You are welcome to redistribute dyne:bolic in any way you like, to your friends and neighbours, to anybody who needs or is just curious to try, as you wish. The roots of Rasta culture can be found in Resistance to slavery. This software is not a business. This software is free as of speech and is one step in the struggle for Redemption and Freedom. This software is dedicated to the memory of Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Garvey, Marthin Luther King, Steve Biko, Walter Rodney, Malcom X, Mumia Abu Jamal and all those who still resist to slavery, racism and oppression, who still fight imperialism and seek an alternative to the egemony of capitalism in our World. :: CONTRIBUTE TO DYNE:BOLIC ! IF dyne:bolic can be useful for you, you can also be useful to dyne:bolic! consider the possibility to get involved with development, contribute artwork and ideas, help with debugging and documenting and anything else can come to you in mind. ->>>> BUG REPORT ONLINE INTERFACE: http://bugs.dyne.org ->>>> JOIN OUR MAILINGLIST: mailto:dynebolic-subscribe@dyne.org ->>>> CONTRIBUTE DOCUMENTATION: http://lab.dyne.org/DyneBolic (wiki) Furthermore, please consider that the dyne:bolic project is an indypendent effort relying on support from non-profit, grant-making and business organizations willing to sustain development of free and opensource software like this. Dyne:bolic relies on support from individuals like you to preserve, protect and promote the freedom it gives to its users. This new release opens a donation round which is much needed at the moment so please show your appreciation with a small act of generosity! thanks! :: GET SUPPORT AND CUSTOMIZED VERSIONS The dyne:bolic team is also offering commercial support: we can provide workshops, consulting services, customisations, setup and warranty for fitness to a particular purpose. If you need commercial support on dyne:bolic this is the way you can be 100% sure it will work for you. In fact, this is the sustainable model we are building around dyne:bolic to support our development and further research: we are following the best knowledge here principle and offer customisation and special support packages. For more informations see http://dynebolic.dyne.org/index.php?show=cust and our workshop offer http://dynebolic.dyne.org/index.php?show=workshop :: DEVELOPERS TEAM Denis "Jaromil" Rojo - mantainer of dyne:bolic, HasciiCam MuSE and FreeJ Alex "Smilzo" Gnoli - mantainer of the Xbox dynebolic kernel Silvano "Kysucix" Galliani - developer of FreeJ Antonino "Nightolo" Radici, Luca "Rubik" Profico and Angelo "Pallotron" Failla - developers of MuSE Federico "Bomboclat" Prando and Francesco "C1cc10" Rana for the bolic1 :: THANKS, WAVES AND CHEERS Thanks to the many people developing day by day the whole GNU/Linux system, they are thousands all around the world and it is impossible to include all of them here. ONE LOVE! Special Thanks to the OpenMosix project, Tom and the Blender crew, Salsaman for his valuable developments on LiVES, Dmp for the suggestions about Xbox, the amazing PD crews, Phillip Lougher for his great results in SquashFS 2, Albi for his suggestions and friendship, the linux-audio-dev programmers, the Twibright labs for Links2, the Xiph.org foundation, the squatters in A'dam and all others mentioned thru past present and future documentation of dyne:bolic! Great respsct to all dyne.org hackers, the FreakNet medialab and the autistici/inventati collective, ECN.org and italy.indymedia, the ASCII, the #mdp slum and the irc.freenode.net #dyne IRC channel, Metro Olografix, the Hackmeeting community, radio Ondarossa, New Global Vision and the great dynebolic mailinglist community. Thanks and greetings also to the individuals helping developers with their genuine solidarity, ospitality and humanity: Andrea Mayr, Armin Medosh, Jo van der Spek, Reni & Jogi, Matteo "blended" Scassa, Robert De Geuss, Gaby Wijers and many others understanting how much this is important to have keep such a project going. Thanks, A thousand flowers will blossom! :: DISCLAIMER This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Several redistributed binaries are copyrighted by the respective authors, it is documented in the accompanying manual of the distribution. dyne.org is available to provide the source of the included binaries upon request, all the included software can be redistributed under the terms of the GNU GPL license and, in some cases, the X/BSD license. For more informations refer to the web pages on http://dynebolic.org - -- jaromil, dyne.org rasta coder, http://rastasoft.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Cryptographically signed mail, see http://gnupg.org iD8DBQFB3jDDWLCC1ltubZcRAs+YAJwO+U601hpG79W2X21T84ZZgOviBwCglckQ b3W5dOqdgZmkJhyteCixS9c= =SuyN -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Firefox Tips
by Praveen A 05 Jan '05

05 Jan '05

Hi friends, Here are some tips and hacks to make your browsing more enjoyable experience. 1. How to use Firefox as a news reader or how to add a live bookmark If you see an orange button on bottom right corner of the page [For example in my blog go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi] Click on it and you will get a menu to choose. [In this case choose RSS. Other cases you may get a list of feeds to choose] then the dialogue box will come to chose the folder to save. Select the position you want. Now from the bookmarks menu when you go to the link it will open as if a folder and the links are loaded live ! Even though most sites are configured properly you may come across sites which offer RSS feeds but now orange button on the bottom right corner. Go to manage bookmarks from bookmarks menu and choose add live bookmark and change the properties. The link can be obtained by right clicking on the feed link and selecting copy link address and pasting it to the bookmarks dialogue. [Note: In GNU/Linux you never need to ctrl+c and ctrl+v ! but select and paste using center click (the scrolling button or press both right and left button at the same time] To be continued ....... References 1.http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/ -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Fund raiser
by Sriharsha 05 Jan '05

05 Jan '05

Hello Friends, I was browsing our site (fsf.org.in) and saw the "how you can help us" section. I have a little suggession, but am not sure if it is feasible at all. Anyway, here it is: 1. Is it not feasible to allocate some web space to users for hosting their home pages. There are two advantages of this: a) The domain extention will be something like.... "user.fsf.org.in" or "fsf.org.in/user" Whenever someone is visiting such a page, (s)he is automatically aware of fsf. (Also a little banner on the homepage will do no harm. b) This hosting can be done for a fee (the cost of actual maintenance + a significant amount for contribution towards fsf-i) I am ignorant about the procedures for such a thing, but Im sure it can be worked out. 2. Why dont fsf-i sell all those that fsf sells in USA (T-shirts emphasising free software, CD-ROMs etc.)? Cheers, Sriharsha. -- ***************************** * Sriharsha Vedurmudi * Software Engineer * * Redpine Signals Inc. * Gate #395, Plot 87,88 * Sagar Society, Road #2, * Banjara Hills, * Hyderabad - 500 034 * www.redpinesignals.com * * +91-40-23559911 (Office) * +91-98851-37338 (Mobile) *****************************

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RMS travel plan
by Arun M 05 Jan '05

05 Jan '05

Here is the tentative plan for RMS's trip to India during Feb. 31st Jan -3 in Delhi. 3rd evening to Calcutta. 4th Calcutta 5th in IIT Kharagpur. 6-9th In Vellor and Thanjavoor. 9-10 Hydrabad 11th leaving for Ahmedabad. 11-13th in Ahmedabad. 12th meeting in Darapana Academy of Performing Art. 13th Meeting in IIM Ahmedabad 14-16 Delhi

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