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NEWS: FSF's open letter to UnitedLinux Board
by Frederick Noronha 20 Sep '02

20 Sep '02

------------------------------------------------------------------ LWN.NET: THE FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION'S OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITEDLINUX BOARD "Bradley M. Kuhn, the Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, has submitted an open letter to the UnitedLinux Board of Managers. 'However, since nearly all of the volunteers from the Free Software community (your fellow developers) did not receive a copy of the so-called 'closed beta', we ask that in a show of good faith, you make available at least the terms of distribution you used for that product...'" COMPLETE STORY: http://lwn.net/Articles/10257/ ------------------------------------------------------------------

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RMS: why open source needs Free Software's ideals
by Arun M 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

The following is an open letter from Free Software Foundation President Richard Stallman to SecurityFocus' Jon Lasser, in response to his article Lobbying for Insecurity: I read your article about Microsoft and Security-Enhanced Linux with interest, and saw your advice to the open-source community. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27121.html

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IndicComputing Bytes #001
by Frederick Noronha 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

-------------------------------------------------------x--------------- ###################IndicComputing Bytes#########################Issue01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In this issue: o Bram Moolenaar's input o Search engine for Japanese, Chinese, etc o Good news: Mandrake goes Tamil! FROM BRAM MOOLENAAR <Bram(a)moolenaar.net>, the person who wrote VIM, the Free Software-based editor, when asked whether it would be possible to "work on Indian language solutions for Vim": Vim 6.1 supports translated messages, menus and Unicode. It should be possible to make a Hindi translation. Places to ask around for someone willing to do the work. Appropriate places are the vim maillist and the comp.editors news group. Perhaps there are a few Indian news groups, I obviously don't know about that. I also don't know if the current Unicode support is sufficient for your language. Please find out yourself. - Bram -- Engineers are widely recognized as superior marriage material: intelligent, dependable, employed, honest, and handy around the house. (Scott Adams - The Dilbert principle) /// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram(a)moolenaar.net -- http://www.moolenaar.net \\\ /// Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.vim.org \\\ \\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.a-a-p.org /// \\\ Lord Of The Rings helps Uganda - http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html /// ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A SEARCH-ENGINE FOR JAPANESE, CHINESE ETC: From seo(a)cybermultilingual.com Let us submit http://www.cityradio.nu for FREE on Japanese search engines, German search engines, Hispanic search engines , French search engines , Chinese search engines etc.....! Wonder if they have plans for IndicComputing? Can someone follow this up? Let us submit your website on International search engines for FREE! Visit us at http://www.CyberMultilingual.com for full details! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MANDRAKE GOES TAMIL: "V_VenkataRamanan" <venkat(a)tamillinux.org> wrote: Here is a Press Release, I wrote on request from people here in Toronto, on the forthcoming Mandrake 9.0 with Tamil enabled. Please feel free to forward to people who may be intrested. You may be able to download a formatted version of this in tamil and english from the following URLs. Tamil: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_tam.pdf English: http://www.tamillinux.org/articles/mandrake_eng.pdf Feel free to download the screen shots from http://www.tamillinux.org/kde/imsges/Thumbnails.html Total Tamil computer is now available: People throughout the world are using computers and Internet in their own languages. However, Indian users are compelled to use them in English. This is strange and is inexplicable to anyone from outside India. It is undeniable that Indian engineers and scientists are a dominant force in the IT world, but it is also true that they are grossly negligent of the needs of their own masses. This has pushed India to the top of the list of countries suffering from the Digital Divide. No more! The solution is on the horizon. With the release of Mandrake Linux 9.0, an average user (without much technical knowledge) should be able to operate a computer and use Internet -- all in Tamil. For the first time, the unfathomable prerequisite of English knowledge for operating computers has been eliminated, at least for those who know Tamil. What is possible? Mandrake is a package distributor of Linux and other open source software. While installing Mandrake Linux 9.0, it gives the choice of language for Graphical User Interface (GUI). All that is needed is to opt for Tamil here. The installation, in most of the cases, will be smooth with all hardware and network connections auto configured. At the end of the installation, when you reboot and login, you will be presented with a Tamil GUI (with the exception of a few yet to be Tamil-enabled programs). It is all yours to explore. Almost all operations for an average home user or a small office are now possible with total Tamil interface. You can do these tasks with Tamil GUI; 1.Configure your computer and connect to Internet 2.Create and edit files in Tamil and English (and other languages!!) 3.Manage your files and disks 4.Send email, browse Internet and chat. 5.Listen audio files and watch videos 6.Do all small office works (Word Processing, Spread Sheet, Presentation Graphics) 7.Maintain your personal/small office accounts 8.Schedule your tasks, Add and manage users. 9.Manage your desktop appearance, You can do much more than these. For example, you may be able to configure and run a FTP site with Tamil GUI. There are a few areas where work is currently under progress these include a graphics editor, a CAD drawing program, etc. Why in Tamil? Why not? Almost all developed countries use computers and Internet entirely in their local languages. In India, there is an unfortunate mindset to equate (English) language ability to technical achievement or intellectual superiority. Like every other device, computers are the tools invented by men. It is natural to sharpen the tool to make it suitable to the human beings as against adopting himself to the tools. To make the fruits of technology available to the common man, it should be made simple enough for the common man to understand. English language ability as a precondition to computer use is ridiculous in the context of majority non-English speaking population. Unless we shape the tool to our needs, we will always be dependent on other toolmakers for our survival. Availability of Tamil computers will enable localized applications (such as Sales Tax forms or Voter's List) to be developed rapidly. This will also take the local business to the new realms of commerce. There will be a strong motivation for the students to develop applications for their commonplace problems. Modern appliances such as cellular phones and televisions are being designed with embedded computers ^� it will be impossible to penetrate the local market without a native interface. If we do not do it now, we will be losing on all subsequent technologies. What is Linux? Linux is an Operating System (very much similar to the familiar Microsoft 98, 2000 or XP). An operating system interprets the user commands for the microprocessor in the computer. Linux is an outcome of efforts of millions of volunteers around the world. Currently popular commercial OS like Windows XP do not reveal source codes. This prevents knowledgeable users from efficiently using the programs. While every other product you buy lets you to modify it to your need (you do not need to seek permission from your realtor to repaint your bedroom or attach an additional jar for your mixer), software companies have manipulated patent and copyright laws to forbid users from adding or modifying their programs. Some intelligent and conscious programmers viewed this as anti-social and initiated the Free Software Movement (Free as in `speech' and not as in `lunch'). Thousands of programmers joined this movement that culminated as the Linux Operating System and other Open Source software. Product released by these volunteers are cleverly labeled as `copyleft' (to poke pun on `copyright') ^� which lets the user to peek into the source code, modify them and redistribute them without any strings attached. The only obligation is to make all modifications available as copyleft again. As this pool of programs grew excellent products started emerging out in the late nineties, weeding out the poor ones by natural selection. This has now emerged as a true and potential alternative to commercial products. As the source codes are freely available they are tested and driven to the limits of their vulnerabilities and all security holes are blocked. Linux is now estimated as the only operating system that grows in the market share. What is Mandrake-Linux? There are several companies that collect all the free programs developed by the users, test them for their integrity, package them and distribute them at a moderate cost. While selling the free programs seem an irony, many companies have successfully thrived and are continuing to grow despite the overall downtrend in IT. Mandrake is one of these companies that distribute Linux in a box. It aims at taking Linux to the non-technical users and towards that they have created some excellent installation and administration tools (which are again available freely with source open). Always willing to experiment, the engineers at Mandrake have worked closely with volunteers developing Tamil programs for Linux and have now announced that their upcoming version 9.0 will enable users to configure their computers with a Tamil GUI. You may be able to buy Mandrake Linux in the local bookstore or electronic shop or through their web store. Like every other Linux distributors, Mandrake also makes the entire product freely downloadable (it comes to about 2 GB). But, by buying these Open Source products, you contribute to those volunteers who devote their time and effort for this laudable cause. Unlike commercial OS, which requires buying a lot of extras (say an Office Suite, a Photo editing tool, a drawing utility, etc.), most of the Linux distributions come packed with hundreds of programs and an average user should be able to get almost everything he needs right after the installation. How Tamil GUI is enabled? The Linux volunteer base encompasses the entire globe. As such they have a common need to make these programs inter-operable with many languages. Their intelligent design of the GUI separates commands that are passed to the core of the OS (known as the kernel) from the interface icons and command prompts presented to the users. This enables easy translation of the interface without knowing the finer details of the programs. Volunteers working on these projects typically translate commands into their own language. With some minor compilation it is then firmly integrated with the program. There are some additional tools necessary such as a keyboard driver, the native language editor, etc. Several programmers have written such tools for Tamil. An incomplete list of volunteers include (not in any particular order) Sivaraj, T. Vaseeharan, Dinesh Nadarajah, Sivakumar, Gomathi, Venkataramanan, Nagu Chinnaswamy, Prabu Anand, M.K. Saravanan. This list is by no means exhaustive. Like a typical Linux volunteer cross section, Tamil Linux programmers come from Canada, USA, Singapore, Japan, India and Malaysia, largely interacting through the web and Internet discussion groups. It should also be mentioned that these works were possible due to several pioneering efforts on Tamil computing by K. Kalyanasundram, Manivannan, Muthu Nedumaran, Suvadi Ilango and others. There was also support and encouragement from the International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) and some industrial partners. What are the opportunities? Endless -- can be the only word that can quantify the floodgates of opportunities open by this. Linux has proven to be an excellent and reliable OS for all applications ^� from tiny laptops to supercomputers. In a country like India, due to the digital divide, not even 30% of the population has used the computers. Further penetration will be only possible if computers are easier to use. With Tamil enabled computers there will be enormous opportunities for the vendors to design and build computers for local needs. As already indicated, this will spur the growth of software tools for common applications such as sales tax reporting. Other Indian languages will soon follow the advances made in Tamil. As we master the art of enabling local language interfaces, we will be ready to assimilate the new technologies as they emerge. As Linux OS runs equally well on mean machines, it is possible to design and implements low-cost computer laboratories for schools in our community. Another potential area is computers for government offices. Open source software has been found robust and secure and there are no hidden vulnerabilities. Many developed countries have started adopting open source solutions for e-governance. It is a great coincidence that the first out-of-the box Indian language computer is being released during the 5th Tamil Internet Conference to be held in San Francisco, during 27-29th September 2002. Many interesting discussions are expected during this conference. Dr. V. Venkataramanan http://www.tamillinux.org Some Useful Websites � The Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org) � To know more about Linux (http://www.linux.org) � Tamil Linux developments (http://www.tamillinux.org) � Tamil Linux discussions (http://groups.yahoo.com/tamilinix) � Mandrakesoft (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/) � The International Federation of Information Technology in Tamil (http://www.infitt.org) The fifth International Tamil Internet Conference and Exhibition at Foster City, California (http://www.infitt.org/ti200s2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled in public interest from material on the Net by: -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

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ZDNet UK News: Government body says developing countries need open source
by ajith＠nsc.ernet.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

This ZDNET UK News story has been forwarded to you by ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in. They have added these comments: ------------------------------------------------------------ Government body says developing countries need open source Developing countries should look at open-source software and should avoid legislation designed to stop anti-copying measures being circumvented, a government-backed group of influential experts will warn on Monday. In its report, called Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy, the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights will encourage developing countries to take a stand against unfair copyright measures affecting online media, and against software pricing that puts products beyond the reach of many citizens. The commission, an independent body set up by the UK government in 2001, includes on its board Professor John Barton of Stanford Law School and Professor John Enderby, vice president of the Royal Society. Other members include Daniel Alexander, a barrister specialising in intellectual property law, Professor Carlos Correa of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Dr Ramesh Mashelkar, director general of the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and secretary to the Indian government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The report covers many areas of intellectual property, but the recommendations on copyright, software and the Internet will add fuel to debates over the use of open source in government and over copyright protection mechanisms. "Developing countries and their donor partners should carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of using low-cost and/or open-source software products," the report recommends. Publishers of software, as well as of conventional and online materials, have a duty to review their pricing policies to help reduce unauthorised copying and to ease access to their products in developing countries, the commission believes. "The cost of software is a major problem in developing countries and it is the principal reason for illicit copying," it notes. Part of the problem with proprietary software, says the commission, is that publishers often make no allowance for markets in developing countries where it notes many people live on less than $2 (£1.30) a day. But the report goes further than other recent studies on the use of open-source software in government, and recommends that to help adapt software to meet local needs, developing countries should ensure that their copyright laws allow reverse engineering of software programs "while complying with relevant international treaties they have signed." The commission cautions developing countries against some forms of international treaty; in particular the WIPO copyright treaty, which many countries are pressured into signing in return for monetary aid from organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The WIPO Copyright Treaty, while being less restrictive than laws such as the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the EU's Copyright Directive, which is due to be enforced in the national laws of member states next year, still "contains provisions of concern in developing countries," says the commission. In the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has received a great deal of criticism for making it illegal to circumvent technological protection, even when the purpose of circumvention does no violate copyright laws. Developing countries are advised against passing similar laws, and the commission goes so far as to advise them to declare void shrink-wrap software licences in some cases. "Internet users in developing countries should have fair use rights on available information, including creating and distributing printed electronic copies in reasonable numbers for educational and research purposes and making reasonable excerpts in commentary and criticism," says the commission. "If suppliers of digital information or software attempt to restrict fair use rights, either through contract provisions or by technological methods of protection, the contract provisions may be treated as void." In particular, says the commission, developing countries should allow their citizens to circumvent copyright protection mechanisms and should not follow the example of the US and the EU by enacting laws that ban such practices. Even weak levels of copyright enforcement have had a major impact on diffusion of knowledge and knowledge products throughout the developing world. "Stronger protection and enforcement of copyright rules may well reduce access to knowledge required by developing to support education and research, and access to copyrighted products such as software," notes the commission. "This would have damaging consequences for developing their human resources and technological capacity, and for poor people." The report is to be formally launched on Monday at an event in Geneva: speakers will Clare Short MP, the UK secretary of state for International Development; Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, director general of the World Trade Organisation; and Dr Kamil Idris, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The full report is available at the Commission's Web site here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ See the Digital Rights News Section for the latest on DVD-Ram, DVD-RW, zoning and copy protection. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. ZDNet News: The UK's best source for computing news - updated throughout the day. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/ Please report any abuse of this service to ukwebmaster(a)zdnet.com

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Re: [Fsf-friends] IT Vision
by klak＠giasbm01.vsnl.net.in 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

On 17 Sep 2002 09:10:01 +0530, "P. Sugathan" <sugathan(a)nsc.ernet.in> wrote: > The Kerala IT@School syllabus do mention about free software. But do > they encourage using free software at school? The approach paper on > IT@SCHOOL prepared by the Govt. do insist that, the computers bought by > the school should have pre-installed Windows9x as operating system!!.So > what is the point in telling the school children about philosophy of > Free Software and asking them to work on proprietary Software.? Yes, that does sound like a joke, doesn't it? Just goes to show what we are up against when dealing with an irrational Government bureaucracy :) At this very moment, some free software advocates are seized of the matter of the curriculum and are planning to do something about it. Nevertheless, the fact that a few pages on software freedom made their way into a school textbook for the first time (in India?) is quite an achievement don't you think? It will start those young minds thinking about it at least? And as has been stressed repeatedly on this list and elsewhere, letting people know about the philosophy of free software is far more important than getting them to use free software immediately. Once they are knowledgeable about software freedom and understand its implications, they will *ask* for free software. Perhaps the students, teachers and parents too will see through the irrationality of the syllabus? Regards, -- Khuzaima

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Columbia next country to try for a free software law?
by Raju Mathur 17 Sep '02

17 Sep '02

[Thanks to ox-en] Looks like Colombia is the next country to be contemplating a law on free software a la Peru and Mexico. My Spanish is rotten (read, non-existent after hijo di puta and vaya con dios ;-) so this message is about what I understood from the Google translation, which isn't particularly good. FWIW, the original text is available at: http://bachue.com/colibri/ley.html The Google-translated page is at: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbachue.com%2Fcolibri%2… Any Spanish-speakers here who could offer more information? Regards, -- Raju -- Raju Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves

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IT Vision
by Ajith Kumar 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

Hello, I am forwarding a copy of the letter send to the The Executive Director IT @ SCHOOL Project SCERT Buildings Poojapura Thiruvananthapuram-12 itschool(a)asianetindia.com for comments. regards ajith

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The basic problems
by sooraj 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

The main reason for the growth of free s/w in india may be the large amount of advertisement and support for proprietery s/ given by local Computer centers and educational institutions. Away from big cities, (I don't know what are the current circumstances outside kerala), no computer institute tries to teach free s/w. Instead they give large amount of advertisement for Office,Vb, VC, ASP, Oracle etc. The reason is that the institutes wants profit and they think that they can get a high profit only through teaching MS products. They make general public feel that A computer means windows (What a funny idea isn't it?) Even i have some experience with some employees in some computerised environment unknowing about free s/w at all. There is the deficiency of good faculties as well. Even those people running Computer centeres (We can call them principals or centre heads of an eucational institution) unawre of the fact that there are free s/w available instead of what s/w they use. Also anybody has a comment about teaching programming in high school classes before the student understands what is a computer, what is word processing, what is a spread sheet? what is internet etc.. Our educational policy is to first teach programming and may of our schools are without proper facilities.. The student who sees the computer for the first time in his life starts learning programming in c++ and he is really confused (that was the case with me when i started programming some years back).. So i think its appropriate to teach some fundamentals and some lab sessions at least for 2-3 months.. Any opinion about it.. then plz write to me thank U

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emacs and its manual
by Raghavendra Bhat 16 Sep '02

16 Sep '02

Hello: The self documenting editor Emacs has a very cool and extensive manual. It does not come as a separate package but it is there within Emacs itself. Start Emacs and then press Ctrl-h-i-d-m Emacs. -- , , ragOO, VU2RGU / \ ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) `-_---' `---_-' `--|o` 'o|--' \ ` / ): :( :o_o: "-"

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Re: Linux Workshop
by Frederick Noronha 14 Sep '02

14 Sep '02

Can anyone help this group? They are college students and need some experts to conduct a workshop. Please contact Chairman <ieeecec(a)bharatmail.com> Thanks, FN On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Chairman wrote: > hi Frederick > > Mr Rajkumar has referred your name for helping us to find a person for a workshop in Linux Networking. > > The students attending the workshop will be having a preliminary knowledge of Linux, commands and general things. The number of students will be around 30 -40. The workshop can be conducted in our labs. The portions for the intended workshop is given below > > Linux Networking > > Configuring a NIC > Basic Network Services > - telnet - Server / Client > - ftp - Server / Client > Basic Concepts of DNS > - Implementation of BIND > - forward & reverse lookup > - DNS Client Commands > DHCP - Server / Client setup > NFS - Network File System > - RPC portmapper > NIS - Network Information System > - ypserver / yp client configuration > - RPC portmapper > Apache Web Server > - Restriction through htaccess; > - Name & IP Based Virtual Hosting > Samba Server - File & Print Service > - Authentication through samba > - smbmount; smbclient; > Dial-up connectivity > PPP Server setup > Sendmail - Mail Server > - Configuring mail over LAN/WAN > - SMTP Server; POP3 Server Setup > Proxy Server - Squid > - ACL for restricting access > > We know this is too much to cover. What I was having in my mind is to cover as much as possible in 2-3 days. > > Kindly let me know whether you can find someone for conducting the workshop. > > regards > Kiran C > Chairman > IEEE Student Branch > College of Engineering, Chengannur > Kerala > India > > ------- > > > _____________________________________________________________ > Get Your Free ScanMail and Email At http://mail.ttkbharatplanet.com >

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LinuxInIndia#6: Penguin's Mantra, Funding On Way,LinuxBangalore2002
by Frederick Noronha 13 Sep '02

13 Sep '02

GNU _ _____ _____ http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | | (_) |_ _| |_ _| | |_ | | _ _ __ _ ___ __ | | _ __ | | _ __ __| (_) ___ | | | | '_ \| | | \ \/ / | | | '_ \ | | | '_ \ / _` | |/ _ \ | |____| | | | | |_| |> < _| |_| | | |_| |_| | | | (_| | | (_) | |______|_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\_____|_| |_|_____|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_| CopyLeft2002 GNU/GPL v2 OR LATER * ISSUE006 * SEPT 13, 2002 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Co-edited by Frederick Noronha and Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> * ARCHIVES/SIGN-UP: http://www.freelists.org/archives/linuxinindia +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In this issue o Indian language solutions for GNU/Linux o Want money to help you make Free Software? Here's some... o Made-in-Delhi accounting software o Gearing up for LinuxBangalore2002 (Dec 3-5, 2002) o Development by Design conference in India o Kids play around with GNU/Linux... and the results are... o CDAC lab goes in for GNU/Linux... and lot's more. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE PENGUIN'S MANTRA: Efforts are on to find Indian language solutions to GNU/Linux in the subcontinent that matters. Some call Indic and other South Asian scripts the final challenge to computer vendors for full i18n support. It has taken its time in coming, the challenges are not that simple, and successes have been few and far between. Yet optimism is high now. Can this frontier be conquered early? Technical challenges are certainly not few: the X rendering model is too simple for Indic scripts (but an upcoming tutorial on the Indic Computing site will have the nitty-gritty). Input for Indian languages is an open issue. Most `keyboard solutions' available today for X are fragile and are really more work-arounds than solutions. Some say the principal problem is rendering conjuncts without proper rendering engines and properly encoded fonts. Users want to type a sequence of characters, and not concern themselves with the details of rendering. This requires fonts with appropriate tables giving the possible character sequences and the glyphs for rendering each, and an engine that knows to read the tables. What are the varied initiatives are currently on in various parts of the country. What could be the proper strategic approach? Which issues should be tackled first? See an article http://www.freelists.org/archives/linuxinindia +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SMALL MEET AT BANGALORE: A small meeting on Indianisation of computing (including GNU/Linux) is being organised at Bangalore on Sept 15-16. Contact tap2k(a)yahoo.com (Tapan Parikh) if you'd like to get into the loop and join the campaign. This is a by-invite meet, but everyone is welcome to share ideas in the ongoing search to find long-awaited solutions. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PERL MODULE FOR INDIAN LANGUAGE I/O: Thanks to M K Saravanan <mksarav(a)comp.nus.edu.sg> Perl module to handle Indian Language I/O http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/perl_enhance.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIC COMPUTING: If interested in these subjects, do join the indic-computing mailing lists, and also the indlinux mailing lists. Often a lot of discussion regarding indic localisation happens on these lists. http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net http://www.indlinux.org +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GPL (GENERAL PUBLIC LICENCE) IN MALAYALAM: An attempt to translate the GPL into Malayalam. At present, the preamble is completed. From Mahesh T Pai. See http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TAMIL DESKTOP IN KDE9, BETA4: Vasudevan <vasu_a(a)cyberwaveindia.com> of ILUG-Chennai notes he has "successfully configured the Tamil desktop in kde9beta4, with advice from Parbhu_Anand from cooker development, which we struggled (with) at last Linux Expo unsucessfully." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FLOSS-SARAI INITIATIVE: No money in Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS)? A new initiative might help to change that for some youngsters in India. The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi (www.sarai.net) invites applications for Support Grants to projects in the area of Free Software, Open Source Software and Social Usage of Software Sarai invites programmers (practitioners as well as students) to propose projects in the area of free and open source software applications relevant to educational, social and community needs. We are looking for original ideas, as well as proposals to localize and adapt existing software and applications to South Asian conditions. For example - Desk-tops in Hindi, Open Office and Gimp in Hindi. Lighter versions of desktops like KDE, Innovations that creatively optimises older lower configuration machines, Linux documentation in Hindi, games using local context, etc. Conditions: Applicants should be resident in India, and should have a bank account in any bank operating in India. These are support grants and grantees will be free to pursue their primary occupations, if any. Mail your project proposal, work-plan and CV to both the following addresses: <application(a)sarai.net> with a copy to <fred(a)bytesforall.org>. Please mark your subject-line 'FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) Initiative'. Also point out what you see as the relevance of your work, and how you plan to share the resultant software once finalised. Enquires: dak(a)sarai.net Last date for submission: October 15th, 2002. Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are welcome, so long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FREESPEECH.ORG, COMMUNITY SITE FOR LINUXERS: Himanshu <himanshu_s(a)myrealbox.com> has something to announce: "I launched my new site, http://www.thefreespeech.org which is basically a community web site for Linuxers. Its main aim is "to initiate, collaborate and contribute" to the linux cause. The site itself, is home to the ILUG-BOM's novel "Project Resource Centre" idea, which will help ease the collaboration between students undertaking linux projects and self appointed "mentors". I guess, in the future it will also be home to dead projects, or very small projects/scripts, which have not been (or are to small to be) hosted at Sourceforge." http://www.thefreespeech.org +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DEVELOPED-IN-DELHI ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE: Sudhir Gandotra <sudhir(a)netshooter.com> announces that they've recently launched 'Kalculate' <www.kalculate.com>, a developed-in-Delhi software. It was worked on using C, GTK and PostgreSQL on the GNU/Linux platform. It promises to be the "first financial accounting package on GNU/Linux in India and the Asia-Pacific". Incidentally, the Indian 'IT' magazine in their September 2002 issue have carried the standard version of 'Kalculate'. This can be used for single-company accounting. The multi-company version, priced at Rs 10,000 (approx US$200), will be available to users of this version at Rs.3500 if they register and place their order by 31 Oct 2002, under a special promotion campaign, according to Gandotra. Rajesh Kankaria <rk(a)coralindia.com> points out that he had also worked on an accounting software developed on GNU/Linux around two years ago. But "due to poor response I didn't pursue it further", says he. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GETTING FREE SOFTWARE BOOKS TO INDIA: Systems Research Institute executive director Prof J G Krishnayya <jkrishnayya(a)yahoo.com> of Pune, who appreciates the worth of Free Software/Open Source, is keen to find ways of re-printing and distributing Free Software books in India. Contact him if you see any possibilities. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GEARING UP FOR LINUX-BANGALORE 2002: Bangalore GNU/Linux enthusiasts are to hold LB2002, a major meet on December 3/4/5 2002, J.N.Tata Auditorium, Bangalore, India. Last year's meet attracted a few thousand participants! http://linux-bangalore.org/2002/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DEVELOPMENT BY DESIGN CONF IN BANGALORE: The Second International "development by design" Conference will be held in Bangalore, India on December 1-2, 2002. The paper submission deadline has been extended to October 7, according to Leo Burd <leoburd(a)media.mit.edu> of MIT Media Lab. About dyd02: This conference seeks to establish critical dialogue towards open collaboration in sustainable technology, design and development. We invite diverse perspectives from academia, industry, nonprofit organizations, and independent innovators. You can submit a full paper, poster, video abstract or position paper online. Student projects will be shown in a design exhibition at the conference. http://www.thinkcycle.org/dyd02 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN UNDER-PRIVILEGED kids lay their hands on GNU/Linux? See the results at http://www.digitalequalizer.org/kids.htm Daryl Martyris <dmartyris(a)hotmail.com> argues that this experiment clearly hints that that school-age children are able to effectively and quickly learn to the basic uses of computers without any formal training. Not just that, they also used GNU/Linux-based PCs. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIA'S SUPER-COMPUTING AGENCY GOES FOR GNU/LINUX (Reuters) : Aug 12 reports say India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, which makes supercomputers used for heavy-duty data processing, said it had decided to use open source Linux software in a high-performance computing lab. The Pune-based state agency, whose machines are used for advanced computing functions in activities such as oil exploration and weather forecasting, will use a Linux platform customised by International Business Machines. "The selection of Linux public software and its deployment by C-DAC (the centre) will provide a boost to the research activities of the scientific community in India," C-DAC and IBM said in a joint statement. Founded in 1988, C-DAC is a state-run research and development firm which has built four versions of its Param series of supercomputer machines. It also earns revenue from selling Indian regional language software and by training high-tech engineers. C-DAC's new laboratory will start operations in Bangalore later this year, the statement said. "We are using Linux only for a specific lab and have not yet decided whether to adopt it across all our applications," R.K. Arora, C-DAC executive director, told Reuters. http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-20260575- 0.html?tag=ats +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GNOWLEDGE NETWORKING AND ORGANIZING SYSTEM, GNOWSYS: Dr. Nagarjuna G. works in Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research as a Reader. He works in the area of Science Education, Metacognitive studies, History and Philosophy of Science, and is an advocate of Free Software for Education and Research. Currently developing an expert system for knowledge management called "GNOWSYS: Gnowledge Networking and Organizing System" developed in Python and Zope. He is the coordinator of the centre's portal site development project for science and mathematics education. Contact Nagarjuna G. <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FLOSS STUDY: From the ILUG-Chennai mailing list. Ravi Rao reports: Free/Libre and Open Source Software ;; Survey and Study -- FLOSS ;; Final Report http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/Final4.htm Makes a very interesting read ... ;/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SIMPUTER, LOOKING FORWARD TO IT: More on the Simputer (the commonman's computing device, driven by GNU/Linux) from huiswerk345(a)yahoo.com, from Paul Soetmulder, Encore Technologies (S) Pte Ltd : Bad news: We only hand out limited number of SDK's (software developer kits) at this point in time, to both customers and partners. We want to stay focused on 100% success rate for all our customer projects, and we hope you appreciate this approach. Our customers and partners do. Some good news: Yes the project is moving "full steam" ahead and soon we will surprise you with reference clients, available applications and other news on a new dedicated website. Some more good news: Yes many partners have already signed up to work with us in developing solutions. Countries represented in our partner network cover Japan, Asia, Australia, Africa, India, Europe and USA. We still have some countries missing in each continent. Want to join this group of mobile computing pioneers, its only one email away. And more good news: Please note that all Encore Simputers production planned for the months August/ September time-frame have been taken up. At this moment we share to our best capability the units available among partners and customers. Our partners and customers support this as we deliver the solutions and benefits they need. The best news for Partners: Also October orders exceed production levels, although I have made reservations for "2 Encore Simputers" for next 100 pioneer partners" (in addition to 2 units for existing partners who have placed their orders) for October 15th time-frame. First come first served. Want to become pioneer partner, please email our CEO, Mr. Ravi Desiraju at ravi_desiraju(a)ncoretech.com. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INSTALLING L.T.S: Baiju M <malayalamlinux(a)yahoo.com> informs that more details about installing LTS systems are available in GNU/Linux Utilities for Education CDROM (GLUE CD). All necessary packages are available in that CDROM. You can read the proposal by Ajith Kumar here: http://malayalamlinux.sourceforge.net/edu/proposal-by-ajith.html It gives all details about hardware costs, advantages of LTS systems etc. Says Baiju: "Now I am fully involved in Malayalam GNU/Linux Project. So that you contact Free Software User Group Kozhikode members for more details. (I CC'ed his mail to the group mailing list). You can get the latest CDROM from Rajeesh (ph:0495 355415) If you asking the the CDROM for installing in any school, FSUG will give it you without any cost. If you are from TVM you can contact me (just drom me a mail). There is another FSUG group at Kochi (I think Raghavendra Bhat, a member of that group has got that CDROM)." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GNU/LINUX COUNTER: Eighteen million guestimated GNU/Linux users; how many from India? Please fill in your details at http://counter.li.org/ If you know someone who could volunteer to push forward this counter in regional Indian states, please contact harald(a)alvestrand.no with a cc marked to rproton(a)yahoo.co.uk, pm(a)linuxindia.org and ghane(a)dotxtra.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INTRODUCTORY COURSE: From Patrice Reimens <patrice(a)xs4all.nl>, a Dutch friend and fan of India. Check the Open Source/Free Software introductory course by Lisa Haskell for students. Very nice intro, full of useful pointers. http://mediaartprojects.org.uk/current/open_source_course/ Says he: "Lisa is now doing http://tech2.southspace.org (programme, thin) and http://tech2.southspace.net (diary, fat) in Lancaster." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DATABASE OF HACKERS: Tripta <tripta(a)sarai.net> from New Delhi points to http://orbiten.org and says: "I am not sure whether you are aware of this survey but does provide interesting perspectives. I am planning to conduct a survey/research amongst the `hackers' involved in the movement to trace and identify the pattern of the development of free software movement.... I was wondering if you could send me the list of the `open source projects' being conducted by individuals/groups/organizations...I am attempting to create a database as mentioned earlier, identify the pattern and seek for avenues of possible collaborations." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROCURING CDs: Abhijeet More <abhijeetmore(a)rolta.net> suggests the following sources for GNU/Linux CDs: http://www.linuxplaza.org * http://www.indiainfotech.org Navin Dhanuka <navin_dhanuka(a)yahoo.com> says of IndiaInfoTech.org: "Dhiraj Thakur & Sheetal Chopra are doing a great job by serving the free software community with latest linux distros at affordable costs. I got Debian 3.0 at just Rs 50 a CD. That's real cheap and affordable as student Says Amol Hatwar <amolhatwar(a)rediffmail.com>: "I got the same at 30/- at linuxplaza.org. And yes Prahant Shah does a good job too." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GETTING STARTED WITH GNU/LINUX: Some tips from: Trevor Warren <trevorwarren(a)yahoo.com> who says these are good places were to start learning GNU/Linux: --> RH linux 7.2 Unleashed(Sams.net) --> Linux in 24 Hrs (Sams.net) --> www.tldp.org (Dos-Windoze-howto...to start with, the rest u can figure out what u can read up and what interests you. I havent seen any classes in Bombay that are worth it. Just stick to the books/sites and ask us when you screw up with anything.) Trevor Warren is an active member of the Mumbai (Bombay) LUG. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MAIL FROM AUROVILLE: From just next to India's own Little France, on the east coast, the place known as Auroville someone <netadmin(a)auroville.org.in> writes in to say: "Can some one suggest an easy to use web interface that can be installed on a Linux mail server for web based mail access?? I live in Auroville, near Pondicherry and we have been running Redhat 6.2 set up by a Nexus guy with more than 800 mail boxes. There is IMP (for web based mail access) and sendmail doing the job. We wish to be independent and need some help in this regards. Any tips on SMTP authentication is welcome. Auroville is an interesting place to visit and maybe help us with our Linux setup. Adequate compensation is part of the deal :-) please respond, thanks." MEA CULPA: Mita <mita(a)auroville.org.in> from Auroville has drawn our notice to some errors in three paragraphs of the last issue of this ezine (LinuxInIndia#5). Unlike mentioned earlier, Mukund does not live at Auroville, but in London, and only visited Av during his studies at Pondicherry University. He did not work for Ximian, Inc, and hasn't worked on gtkhtml or gimp. There were other inaccuracies in the description of Mukund and Karthik Ram (an ecologist, but not connected with GNU/Linux). We apologise sincerely for any misunderstandings created. -FN +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COMPUTER EDUCATION IN KERALA, GOING WHICH WAY?: Ajith Kumar <ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in> is disappointed with what's happening on the education front in Kerala. He comments: "Visit the site http://www.keralaeducation.org/itschool/project.htm and find out how the IT (schools project) has been sold of to contractors." Check out his alternative proposal. "In order to implement the project government certainly need to set some guidelines regarding the objectives and quality of the program. This could have been done simply by drafting a proper syllabus and insist on covering that syllabus and also specifying the number of hours each student get for theory and practicals. But what has been done is allowing few private agencies to exploit the poor students and paving way to waste precious foreign exchange by promoting the products of a Multinational Corporation." Write to Ajith for a full-text of his proposal... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COST-EFFECTIVE SYSTEM USING GNU/LINUX: Ajith goes on to note that GNU/Linux also has software to reduce the hardware cost by using diskless PCs. Hardware cost of setting up a 10 terminal system is less than Rs 200,000 (US$4000) and each additional PC costs around Rs.14,000. The government, he argues, should help the schools to mobilize the initial investment to acquire this setup and in th long run every school will have a good computer lab. If it cannot do that, it should not become a burden to schools by forcing them to depend on a few selected agencies. By seeing the guidelines it is clear that the motive behind selecting few agencies is not ensuring quality but to open up another area for corruption. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ON AN Ipaq: Trevor Warren <trevorwarren(a)yahoo.com> has loaded GNU/Linux on an Ipaq h3850. Says he: "As of now, my research areas are localisation of GNU/Linux on these personal access devices." See http://mlasia.mine.nu/ipaq/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SEE PICTURES IN CONSOLE MODE (FRAME MODE): Blinston (aka Asterix Baron) who's email address echoes that Shakespearean dilemma <b2ornot2b(a)yahoo.com> has written a small program called cjpg which allows you to view JPEG files whilst in the console mode (frame buffer). Says he: "If anyone can help me out by testing this program on various graphics cards and different modes to iron out all bugs ... well it worked on my SiS530 with all the modes i could try." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/files/cjpg-0.1.tar.gz +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PYTHON FOR SCHOOLKIDS: Says Raju Mathur <raju(a)linux-delhi.org>: Been thinking about learning/teaching programming for school-goers and Python seems to be more of the right choice than ever. It's clean, well-supported under both Linux and Windows, object-oriented and has a fairly large set of libraries for basic functionality available. Now if only they'd fix the syntax of the damn language I may even start using it myself ;-) Anyhow, I don't know if you're aware of the wxWindows project? It's a C++ graphical library which runs under multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc) and, here's the beauty, provides a consistent interface to the native windowing systems of the platform that it runs on. So a wxWindows program running on Windows would use the native Windows toolkit while one running on Linux would use, e.g. GTK+ (the Gnome toolkit). Apps written in wxWindows thus have the look and feel of the platform they're running on...." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTES FROM THE REST OF ASIA: Thanks to Bala Pillai <bala(a)tamil.net> for this input: "The most interactive open source/Linux community in our time zone/Asia springs out of the Philippines. Primarily because the Filipino psyche is a more secure psyche, a more self-confident pyche. Folks who are self-confident worry about the future less, and allocate more time diagnosing and solving problems rather than echoing and reechoing it. Filipinos are also more into sharing and online sharing - we should look to more symbiosis with them. Manila-based Miguel Paraz whom I have interacted with since 1996, is a key catalyst in the Filipino Linux community. http://www.q-linux.com is a good starting point to get a feel for the key Open Source catalysts in the Philippines. KL,Malaysia-based Dinesh who runs http://www.alphaque.com is another lead Open Source catalyst in our timezone. Do look for symbiosis opportunities there too." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FROM THE DEVELOPERiq: Some updates from the August 2002 issue of DeveloperIQ, an Indian software magazine published from Bangalore. www.developeriq.com LINUXmag section has a special article on how to compile your own Linux kernel, by Philip de Groot. On the CD: Corel Photo-Paint 9 for Linux. Special DeveloperIQ Linux applications collection CDs: RedHat 7.2, 2 CDs Rs 299 RedHat 7.3, 5 CDs Rs 699 Caldera OpenLinux - Workstation 3.1.1, 2 CDs Rs 199 Caldera OpenLinux - Server 3.1.1., 2 CDs Rs 199 Mandrake 8.2, 3 CDs Rs 499 with support Rs 999 Debian 2.2, 3 CDs Rs 499 or with support Rs 999 (support for 30 days or 30 e-mails, whichever earlier) LINUX MAG INDIA-on-CD: 18 Cs in a year. Rs 1499. Get a whole lot of Linux apps and the latest updates. Log on to www.linuxmagindia.com for full details. Five CD starter kit contains RedHat 7.2, Openoffice 1.0, Galeon 1.2.1, KDE 3.0, Mozilla Internet suite 1.0rc2, Netscape 6.2.1, Acrobat reader 4.05, Gimp 1.2.3, Ximian Gnome 1.4, Kmail 1.0.29.2, gqmpeg 0.12.0, Etherape 0.8.2, Kyahoo 0.7, Image 0.1.9, Qcad 1.4.7, Blender 2.12, Cross Artist 1.1, sfront 0.7 and more Development tools: j2re1.4.0, j2sdk1.4.0, j2sdk1.4.0Forte, Redhat 7.2 manuals: installation guide, getting started guide, customization guide, reference guide, release notes, MySQL 3.23 a Redhat RPM, server (i386), Behcnmark/test suites, client program, libraries and header file for development, client shared libraries, binary package, Glade, Anjuta 0.1.7, clip 0.93, DDD 3.3.1, DejaGNU 1.4.2, gIDE 0.3.5, GNU Debugger 5.0, gnome debut 0.1.5, jDBA 0.7, KDE SDK 2.2.1, Open DAP 2.0.19, pyut 1.0, Libtool 1.4.2 and more ENTERTAINMENT: Half-life Opposing Force Server, Trophy 1.0.1, Tux Racer 0.61, Mojoworld Transporter 1.02, Search and Resume Game, Q3Text (Linux)1.07, Armagetron, abuse-SDL0.6.0, Vega Strike 0.2.0-14, 4st Attack Version, SDL_Paradroid, EasySok Version: 0.3.0., FreeDroid 0.7.0, Decopter Version 0.2.3, Penguin Command Version, gf passthru Version; 0.0.1-alpha, Iter Vehemens Ad Necem Version 0.311, Operation Blacksun 2 Version. Send your comments and feedback to ramdas(a)developeriq.com (Editor Ramdas) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UPDATES FROM i.t. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: It calls itself "the magazine for techies and those who want to be"): * Simputer team gets first Dewang Mehta award. ("The [GNU/Linux-based] Simputer places computing power in the hands of the masses. It has a wide range of applications such as microbanking, data collection, Internet access, agricultural information, the school laboratory, the kiosk Simputer, smart card, general purpose citizen's ID card, driving licence, land records, income tax records, passport, bank pass-book and digital cash.") * Included on this CD: ComunigatePRO (scalable, standards-compliant and feature-rich Internet mailing server), Kalculate (complete Indian accounting package for GNU/Linux users), MySQL-Front 1.16, etc. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOLUNTEER TO PROMOTE THIS LETTER? WRITE IN AND TELL US WHAT IDEAS YOU HAVE IN MIND. CONTACT fred(a)bytesforall.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It is not possible to verify all claims made by our informants above. We have attributed statements, as far as possible, to ensure that readers can cross-check details. Please verify software and other claims independently. * FOOTNOTE: Frederick Noronha <fred at bytesforall dot org> is a Goa-based freelance journalist, who writes on IT-for-development and GNU/Linux themes regularly, and is cofounder of BytesForAll <www.bytesforall.org>. In the past year, he worked on a print media fellowship to study India's contribution to GNU/Linux, from www.sarai.net (Sarai-New Delhi) Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> is webmaster for Linux India, listadmin for Ilug-bom, Country Manager of India for Linux Counters (do get counted as a GNU/Linux user!). Visit his personal site at: http://pmehta.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Singapore...
by Frederick Noronha 12 Sep '02

12 Sep '02

The Singapore Linux Conference 2002 Call For Papers Introduction. The Singapore Linux Conference 2002 celebrates the 8th year of existence of the Linux User Group of Singapore. The official theme of this year's conference is "Linux Means Business". We would like the conference to highlight Linux use in the business environment. This includes any current Linux roles that might interest conference attendees, as well as new proposals. The business track in particular will be geared toward introducing Linux to attendees who may have never used Linux in a business setting. We are seeking individuals who are experts in Linux and free or open source software (OSS) to share and discuss your experiences with Linux/OSS, or to present your current project. If you are a commercial sponsor of the Singapore Linux Conference 2002, we welcome you to submit papers to the conference. We request that the submissions highlight your corporate commitment to open source software by presenting technical papers. However, we will also have a business track for application specific papers and allow tutorials/demonstrations promoting proprietary products that use Linux. Suggested Topics Presentation Types. Business Track Conference Papers: This track is to help introduce Linux to businesses as well as highlight current developments in applications specific to business. Presentations may have commercial or non-commercial content. If you are interested in presenting a paper on a commercial product or service please consider being a sponsor. Technical Track Conference Papers: The technical track will consist of general open source topics. Linux-specific papers, particularly business-oriented ones, will be given priority. However, we will consider all topics and will accept as many papers as time permits. Tutorials: These longer sessions, which usually address a smaller audience, provide the attendee with more in-depth insights, practical information and/or hands-on learning opportunities than a normal paper presentation. Tutorial sessions are also suitable for commercial presentations that include interactive product demonstrations. These are scheduled as 110-minute sessions, but we will try to accommodate any request. Demonstrations: (open to the public up to 70 people) Product demonstrations during the conference are an excellent way to introduce new products or make Linux-related commercial announcements. Please inform the committee by September 8th if you wish to schedule a demonstration. These are free to sponsors. These will be treated as BOF sessions for the purpose of scheduling. Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Sessions: (open to the public up to 70 people) We will be scheduling open discussions and technical Q&A sessions during the event. Consider these if you are interested in discussing any open source topic with similar-minded attendees in an informal setting. These sessions are also suitable for those who wish to promote their project but lack the time or experience to give a full paper. These will be scheduled concurrently with the conference. It is requested that a short description and title be submitted by September 15th 2002. Important Dates. Abstract submission deadline: August 16th 2002 Acceptance notification: August 23th 2002 Paper submission deadline: September 15th 2002 Tutorials: October 14th 2002 Presentations: October 15th-16th 2002 Abstract Submission Form Paper and Tutorial Submission Guidelines. Each conference paper presentation is allotted 50 minutes including time for questions and discussion. If you are interested in conducting a tutorial or a workshop, or if your topic is particular in-depth and/or involves audience participation, please notify us that you require a 110-minute tutorial time slot. Please also be sure to note down any additional requirements (e.g. special equipment). Abstract submission (August 16th 2002): Abstracts should be approximately 200 words long and be accompanied by a brief (100-word) biography of the author(s). The deadline for abstract submission is flexible, though on-time submissions will help us tremendously. The abstracts will be reviewed by the conference committee based on content, presentation and suitability for the event. Paper submission (September 15th 2002): Accepted speakers will be notified and will be required to electronically submit a written paper, approximately two to ten pages in length, for inclusion in the conference proceedings. Full papers must be submitted by the September 15th 2002 deadline to ensure publication in the conference proceedings. Paper submissions must be the final, print-ready versions, and no later changes will be accepted. Submission format: Postscript, PDF, Tex, XML/DocBook, or text format is acceptable. The official language of the conference is English. All submissions and correspondence regarding them should be conducted through the website or via e-email to the conference committee: papers(a)slc.lugs.org.sg. Licensing of accepted papers: Upon paper acceptance, authors will be required to grant an unlimited, non-exclusive right to the Linux User Group of Singapore and its partners to publish the papers and presentation material in both electronic form on CD-ROM and the website, and in paper form for the conference proceedings and magazines. Your submission indicates that you agree to these terms. Papers accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms can not be accepted, and will not be reviewed. Papers will be held in full confidence during the reviewing process. Conference Location. The Singapore Linux Conference 2002 will take place at the Le Meridien Singapore in Singapore. Accommodations will be provided for accepted speakers in hotels close to the venue. Singapore tourist information is available at Singapore Tourism board. Speaker Incentives and Financial Compensation. All speakers will be provided with hotel accommodation for the duration of the event and all conference events. We are not able to pay any royalties for presenters. The Linux User Group of Singapore is a non-profit organization of volunteering professionals and enthusiasts of free and open-source software. We therefore have only a limited budget for travel expenses and request that you or your employer kindly pay for your trip if possible. We may be able to pay travel expenses (economy-class plane tickets) for a limited number of speakers, on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to ask for commercial sponsorship of your paper, please let us know and we will try and contact sponsors on your behalf. Please submit your request for a travel grant together with your abstract submission.

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Re: Linux Workshop
by Frederick Noronha 12 Sep '02

12 Sep '02

Could anyone suggest a suitable resource person? FN On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Chairman wrote: > hi Frederick > > Mr Rajkumar has referred your name for helping us to find a person for a workshop in Linux Networking. > > The students attending the workshop will be having a preliminary knowledge of Linux, commands and general things. The number of students will be around 30 -40. The workshop can be conducted in our labs. The portions for the intended workshop is given below > > Linux Networking > > Configuring a NIC > Basic Network Services > - telnet - Server / Client > - ftp - Server / Client > Basic Concepts of DNS > - Implementation of BIND > - forward & reverse lookup > - DNS Client Commands > DHCP - Server / Client setup > NFS - Network File System > - RPC portmapper > NIS - Network Information System > - ypserver / yp client configuration > - RPC portmapper > Apache Web Server > - Restriction through htaccess; > - Name & IP Based Virtual Hosting > Samba Server - File & Print Service > - Authentication through samba > - smbmount; smbclient; > Dial-up connectivity > PPP Server setup > Sendmail - Mail Server > - Configuring mail over LAN/WAN > - SMTP Server; POP3 Server Setup > Proxy Server - Squid > - ACL for restricting access > > We know this is too much to cover. What I was having in my mind is to cover as much as possible in 2-3 days. > > Kindly let me know whether you can find someone for conducting the workshop. > > regards > Kiran C > Chairman > IEEE Student Branch > College of Engineering, Chengannur > Kerala > India > > ------- > > > _____________________________________________________________ > Get Your Free ScanMail and Email At http://mail.ttkbharatplanet.com >

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Mahiti... wanting to fill a post
by Frederick Noronha 12 Sep '02

12 Sep '02

This is a Bangalore-based IT firm that helps NGOs to get into technology, and Sunil has been moving to GNU/Linux in the recent past. Contact Sunil Abraham <sunil(a)indiacares.org> ---------- Forwarded message ----------

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2002 Free Software Awards
by Arun M 11 Sep '02

11 Sep '02

The FSF and the GNU project request nominations for the 2002 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software. We want to give this award to a person who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of Free Software (free as in freedom as defined in the Free Software Definition), through activities that accord with the spirit of software freedom. http://www.gnu.org/award/2002/2002.html

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Sincere Choice
by Raju Mathur 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

[Cross-posted. Beware when replying!] Bruce Perens analyses Microsoft's Software Choice campaign and proposes a new Sincere Choice campaign of his own. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26616.html http://sincerechoice.org/ -- Raju Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves

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Regular Press Releases by FSF, India till March 2003
by CK Raju 08 Sep '02

08 Sep '02

-- Amended one --- Pls discard the earlier msg, if received -- As adviced by some prominent academicians and social scientists, here within Kerala, I would like the issue to be discussed within this forum on whether it would be more appropriate from our part, if we were to issue some press releases on a regular basis on social fairness, economic impact etc of Free Software under the banner of FSF, India. The timing is crucial for FSF India, as e-governance is on the agenda of most of the Indian States (originating from the Planning Commission of India). State Planning Board of Govt of Kerala had announced allocation of around 147 crore of rupees for the process. Coupled with the announcement of Ministry of Information Technology, Govt of India that it would be a partner in funding goes on only to prove the degree of commitment to this cause. Even if we were to focus on the freedoms, I would seriously like to put forth the suggestion to include themes of 'dependency factor', 'economic impact on future generations of taxpayer' and the 'magnitude of economic capital that may fly out', as money still happens to be the prime attention catcher for the general public. Once this attention is caught, we may get into more philosophical issues. Perhaps if we plan to launch press releases at a time (of a month) when there are no serious national news items, we may be able to hit the bull's eye. The issue came up for discussion with some eminent social scientists. A diagram ( http://business.vsnl.com/kalapila/egovernance.pdf ) highlighting the issue explained against the background of flight of capital (with over 1200 local bodies, various education departments, finance institutions, health institutions, training institutions - private sector, and data-processing units from private sector, to name a few) when the entire network is based on a proprietary software technology was thoroughly debated. A counter proposition that an effective software migration policy would set records straight, seemed highly improbable. Any single department arguing for a migration would have to be subjected to the discretion of other sister departments. When the economic impact of a migration is countered at this stage, coupled with the 'inertia factor' of the bureaucratic setup and the dependency factor (that would have built up ever since commissioning), such a migration would remain a distant dream. For instance, for the Department of Local Self Government with over 1200 local bodies, the recurring costs would come up to over Rs 20 crore for three years. Combined with around 10 data entry supporting units (on Build Operate Transfer !) and around 4 training institutes, other department offices, this 20 crore could easily shoot up to Rs 400 crore and even further. And keep allocating this amount for every block of three years. Since the global market survey appears to be in favour of Free Software, most of those trained on proprietary systems might land up within the State, prescribing it for the micro-enterprises. (Going abroad, even otherwise, would be a distant dream with the ITES landing up within the State.) If the press takes up the issue, perhaps our policy makers keen to help proprietary transnational software companies would be forced to think again. The picture appeared to go deep inside, when it was supplemented with economic figures, stressing on the freedom of companies like Microsoft Licensing Inc, to impose arbitrary recurring licenses. Since this huge figure would go out from 'circulation', poorer sections of the society would take the brunt of the fallout, a highly explosive situation. Journalists listening to this forum should help in finding a way out. CK Raju KILA, Thrissur

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Regular Press Releases
by CK Raju 08 Sep '02

08 Sep '02

As adviced by some prominent academicians and social scientists, here within Kerala, I would like the issue to be discussed within this forum on whether it would be more appropriate from our part, if we were to issue some press releases on a regular basis on "Social Fairness of Free Software" under the banner of FSF, India. The timing is crucial for FSF India, as e-governance is on the agenda of most of the Indian States, where Kerala's State Planning Board had announced allocation of around 147 crore of rupees for the process. Coupled with the announcement of Ministry of Information Technology, Govt of India that it would be a partner in funding goes on only to show the resolve. Even if we were to focus on the freedoms, I would seriously like to put forth the suggestion to include themes of 'dependency factor', 'economic impact on future generations of taxpayer' and the 'magnitude of economic capital that may fly out', as still money happens to be the prime attention catcher for the general public. With no serious political developments happening around, other than the 'Veerappan factor' in South and 'Children's death' in East, should we openly come out in the front, at this point ? I discussed the issue by highlighting on how the different vertical departments of the State Governments that were to have proprietary software platforms would become a spider's web (with each concentric circle denoting inter departmental connections with smaller units, say at district level, each straight line from the centre denoting the different departments) and even if we were to assume that by suitable software migration policy we could make records straigt, how the different connecting lines within the spiders web would prevent such a transformation from taking place. I then imposed another spider's web on top of the origin, without the concentric lines, telling them that this one was the supporting arms from other sectors like information processing sub-units, training units and education establishments that would be there to help the overall process. The picture appeared to go deep inside, when it was supplemented with economic figures. Perhaps, journalists listening to this forum could contribute more, to this suggestion. CK Raju KILA, Thrissur

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infoDev Core Grant Program (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 01 Sep '02

01 Sep '02

Don't know if it would be politically correct to apply for World Bank money for Free Software work. Anyway, here's the info for anyone desiring it. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- infoDev Core Grant Program August 29, 2002 -- The new guidelines are now available. #### Proposals may be submitted at any time, however they will reviewed with all other proposals when the next batch process of reviews is announced. Proposals are reviewed in batches during the year. The next batch review deadline will be September 30, 2002. All submissions for the next round will be expected to conform to the revised guidelines. How to Submit a Proposal to infoDev: 1. Download and carefully review the Guidelines for Writing an infoDev Proposal Revised August 2002 MS Word Version (272K) http://www.infodev.org/projects/guidelines.doc PDF Version (308K) http://www.infodev.org/projects/guidelines.pdf 2. Submit your proposal online http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/ict/projects.nsf/Infodev+Project . Before entering online, you may wish to download and complete the Application Form (MS Word file: 54K) http://www.infodev.org/projects/proposal.doc If necessary, you may send it to us via email to: infodev(a)worldbank.org source: http://www.infodev.org/apply.htm

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request from a new member-fsf
by Ubais Ali 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

hello my dear fsf-friends.. I'm a final year Btech student.I want to do my final year project.I would like to do it in linux.If anybody has got any ideas ,please let me know your ideas including the details at my email id ubaisali(a)hotmail.com Thanking you all.. luv Ubais Ali.. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

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Free Software *is* the ethical option for NGOs/campaigners too...
by Frederick Noronha 30 Aug '02

30 Aug '02

Maybe we need to popularise such ideas among the NGO/not-for-profit/campaigner circuits too... FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Visit by Richard Stallman to OWI, 7 June 02 OWI - One World International http://www.oneworld.net/ Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project and president of the Free Software Foundation, visited OWI on 7 June for a seminar with staff. Stallman is the world�s best-known advocate of free � as opposed to open-source � software. He opposes the use of proprietary software, which he reasonably considers is largely motivated by the thirst of large corporations to make profits and to control computer use and indeed people for their own private and un-transparent ends. He talked about the origins of the free software movement in the 1980s, among developers like himself opposed to the privatization of socially useful knowledge. The movement embraces a democratic principle in that the direction of software development is determined by the choices made by those who use and work on it, which anybody is free to do. Ex-MIT programmer/developer Stallman described his moral revulsion when faced by the binding terms and conditions that the proprietary software corporations impose on users. He considers that most people in poor countries will never be able to afford the cost of software licence fees. He expressed strong distaste for the dubious means by which proprietary companies seek to enforce their licences in the South. In his view debate about the `digital divide' is in part an artificial one arising from restrictive government policies and unethical corporate behaviour. Stallman described the early stages of developing GNU software (pronounced with a hard G), imitating proprietary Unix (GNU = Gnu is Not Unix), 18 years ago. Currently there are a reported 400,000-plus developers of free software around the world, working on a combination of GNU and Linux. They are opposed to the so-called open-source movement, which also uses Linux, on the grounds that the latter does not share the goal of a world in which everybody can use entirely free software. Acknowledging that the task of freeing oneself from the dominance of Microsoft and other software corporations appears daunting, Stallman countered that the longer one depends on these corporations the heavier the dependency will become. So it makes sense, he said, to free oneself sooner rather than later. Stallman was critical of NGOs that support ICT capacity-building among grassroots organizations and communities if this involves introducing them to proprietary software. He sees this as increasing the power of predatory corporations and therefore disempowering people and communities. A new GNU project, NGU, aims to link GNU/Linux technical support with NGOs seeking to move from proprietary to free software. Few if any major NGOs have made such a move to date. But Stallman reported that the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol has a policy of actively promoting free software and plans to install GNU-Linux for 1 million schoolchildren. Stallman left OWI with some challenges about how we could work with and support the free software movement, e.g. by develop GNU-Linux training materials, supporting the development of free software packages where needed, and moving to GNU-Linux ourselves. It would be interesting and helpful to know how important the Foundation Trustees consider the issue of free vs proprietary software. Is this something that the OneWorld Network should take a position on? Links: www.gnu.org Free Software Foundation (FSF) ML, June 02

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Venezuela's Government Shifts to Open Source Software
by Arun M 30 Aug '02

30 Aug '02

According to government sources in Venezuela, the South American nation has announced an official policy that exclusively calls for the use of open source software in that government. http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-08-30-011-26-NW-LL-PB http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lared.com.ve%2Farc… Felipe Perez Martí from his first appearance in television incarnated like Minister of Planning, he would announce his absolute certainty of the urgent necessity to take years of inefficiency and chaos to him to the framework, gigantic and slow Venezuelan State. He would declare then his thesis of the shared in common economy and their attachment to the philosophy of the free code. That day when it presented/displayed the first economic proposal of the renewed economic cabinet of president Chávez, would speak of Internet, and his convinced persistence to evolve towards a country where the and-government was a high-priority strategy. [..] "I BELIEVE IN THE SHARED IN COMMON ECONOMY " - Minister, On what one is based the thesis of the shared in common economy and free software that is impelling the Ministry of Planning and Development? - free software is an extremely interesting phenomenon, which we thought to take advantage of in the reform of the State, we even set out to impel this scheme like essential part of our model of development. I think that the technology is public good, as well as the knowledge is public good. In simpler terms, cambur is a deprived good, because you you eat it, then no longer is available for anybody more. But if you use a computation program, it does not disappear, but that is available for "Pepe", for "Ricardo", for any other, and that characteristic gives a very special quality him in economy. The Industrial Era privatized the technology like a way to produce it. Nevertheless, a new modality arose to produce public goods: "the shared in common" way. Also the State can produce these public goods or promote that they take place so that not to mer his production to me, as it happens with the knowledge. It is

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Volunteer and Biz directory.
by Arun M 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Hi All, A Volunteer and Biz directories have been added to FSF India site. "The Free Software Foundation of India is an organization run mostly with the support of volunteers. If you agree with the objectives of FSF-India, as described on the home page, and would like to contribute your services as a volunteer, please register here. Please do specify the areas where you think you can contribute, so that when the organization is in need of your expertise we may contact you for your help." http://forum.gnu.org.in/Volunteers "One of the objectives of the Free Software Foundation of India is to bring together free software users and businesses. This business directory is an effort in that direction. If you run a free software business or service, and would like to be listed in our directory, please register here." http://forum.gnu.org.in/bizdir

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Mail Clients
by Tapan S . Parikh 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Im asking for advice about mail clients for Linux. I used to use pine, but I think Ive outgrown it now. In the last week Ive tried the following two options. Im not happy with either, and Ill give the reasons why. * Balsa - not very robust, error-prone - not multi-threaded - locks up when checking / sending mail - doesnt expunge messages until you close Balsa - weird glitches w/ flagging and read/unread status - not alot of bells and whistles I would like (searching, etc.) - positive is that its mailbox structure and organization is very simple * KMail - i didnt like the mbox organization where there are all these weird .file directories and structures that are very difficult to navigate from a shell - im not a kde (gnome all the way!) guy and keeping up with new releases of kde / kmail would be a pain Basically I am looking for a simple, fast, graphical browser with decent bells and whistles but still stores mail in mbox format with easy to navigate (from the shell) folder structures. Any advice from out there? (please cc me directly also as sometimes it is a while before i read the messages that come to me in digest form) -- Tapan

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[ Fwd: [malayalamlinux] Malayalam translation of the GPL]
by Arun M 29 Aug '02

29 Aug '02

Hi friends, This is realy good. Can you make a Unicode text file ? HTML file seems to have some invalid UTF-8 sequences. gv is not able to render the ps file :( Arun. --- Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> wrote: > From Mahesh T Pai Wed Aug 28 09:30:19 2002 > To: malayalamlinux(a)yahoogroups.com, > indlinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net > From: Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> > Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 22:00:19 +0530 > Subject: [malayalamlinux] Malayalam translation of > the GPL > > Dear everybody, > > I am working on translating the GPL into Malayalam. > At present, the preamble > is completed, and I have put it up on my site, > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/ > > The files are pre-release versions, and comments on > the terminology used is > invited. For ease of feed back, I have numbered the > paragraphs in square > brackets [], and please quote the paragraph number > in your responses. > > It is available in four formats, > 1. Varamozhi text:- > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.t… > > 2. jpeg file:- (huge - 183 kb) > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.j… > > 3. iscii encoded html, cur'tsy iLeap - so it uses > ML-TTkarthika font. > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.h… > > 4. Unicode html, converted from varamozhi. > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease-u… > > The unicode file uses styles in the headers and uses > malayalam.ttf (the font) by > default. If you do not have malayalam.ttf, open > this file (the html file) in > any text editor, and add name of font you have on > line 19. > > 5. Post script format, (hhhhhuuuuuuggggggeeeeee - > 251 kb) > http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.ps > > I expect that there might some some opinions on the > choice of words used, (like > 'saujanyam' and 'swatantra'). > > Expecting your feed back (boquets and brickbats), > Mahesh T Pai.

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[indlinux-group-request@lists.sourceforge.net: IndLinux-group digest, Vol 1 #48 - 1 msg]
by Nagarjuna G. 28 Aug '02

28 Aug '02

----- Forwarded message from indlinux-group-request(a)lists.sourceforge.net ----- >From nagarjun Thu Aug 29 00:28:46 2002 Envelope-to: nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in Delivery-date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 00:28:46 +0530 From: indlinux-group-request(a)lists.sourceforge.net You can reach the person managing the list at indlinux-group-admin(a)lists.sourceforge.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of IndLinux-group digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Malayalam translation of the GPL (Mahesh T Pai) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 22:00:19 +0530 From: Mahesh T Pai <paivakil(a)vsnl.net> Reply-To: paivakil(a)vsnl.net To: malayalamlinux(a)yahoogroups.com, indlinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Indlinux-group] Malayalam translation of the GPL Dear everybody, I am working on translating the GPL into Malayalam. At present, the preamble is completed, and I have put it up on my site, http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/ The files are pre-release versions, and comments on the terminology used is invited. For ease of feed back, I have numbered the paragraphs in square brackets [], and please quote the paragraph number in your responses. It is available in four formats, 1. Varamozhi text:- http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.t… 2. jpeg file:- (huge - 183 kb) http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.j… 3. iscii encoded html, cur'tsy iLeap - so it uses ML-TTkarthika font. http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.h… 4. Unicode html, converted from varamozhi. http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease-u… The unicode file uses styles in the headers and uses malayalam.ttf (the font) by default. If you do not have malayalam.ttf, open this file (the html file) in any text editor, and add name of font you have on line 19. 5. Post script format, (hhhhhuuuuuuggggggeeeeee - 251 kb) http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity/gpl-ml-preamble-prerelease.ps I expect that there might some some opinions on the choice of words used, (like 'saujanyam' and 'swatantra'). Expecting your feed back (boquets and brickbats), Mahesh T Pai. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ IndLinux-group mailing list IndLinux-group(a)lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indlinux-group End of IndLinux-group Digest ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/ Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7 ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

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(no subject)
by jayveecomp 27 Aug '02

27 Aug '02

Jacob T. Mathew Jayvee Computer Services & Exports Pvt. Ltd Software Technology Park Trivandrum 695 034, India Phone; +91 471 334878, 326042 E-mail: jayveecomp(a)satyam.net.in www.jayveeindia.com

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Scripts ... on the fly
by Frederick Noronha 27 Aug '02

27 Aug '02

On Tue, 27 Aug 2002 fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in wrote: > Fred> difficult would this task be? Do let me know... FN PS: If > Fred> someone could give me cost estimate for writing the script, > Fred> I'd be grateful... > > You owe me a soda when I'm next in Goa :) > > -- Raju Raju, I'm really grateful to you and Vinay Pawar. Thanks for the speedy help. As you probably know, they don't serve sodas in Goa. ;-) And for myself, I'm a teetotaller. No, in case you thought this is an attempt to cheat you of your legit charges, I'm only joking. You choose the menu and venue as to how I can repay you. But you've not been coming to Goa for some time now. Guess we could sure do with outstation speakers (for our 4th Saturday of the month ILUG-Goa meetings... and also for other public events, like the CSI's Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products ECAP due to be held on Aug 31-Sept1 at Panjim and Sept7-8 at Margao.)

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Query on scripts to study servers ...
by Frederick Noronha 26 Aug '02

26 Aug '02

Could someone help me with this task? I need some scripts that would help me to search for the type of servers a particular host is running. (One could use netcraft.com to find that out, but it would be rather time-consuming.) On the other hand, scripts which could automate this task would help me to collect the info and dump those in a file. How difficult would this task be? Do let me know... FN PS: If someone could give me cost estimate for writing the script, I'd be grateful...

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LinuxInIndia#5
by Frederick Noronha 26 Aug '02

26 Aug '02

GNU _ _____ _____ http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | | (_) |_ _| |_ _| | |_ | | _ _ __ _ ___ __ | | _ __ | | _ __ __| (_) ___ | | | | '_ \| | | \ \/ / | | | '_ \ | | | '_ \ / _` | |/ _ \ | |____| | | | | |_| |> < _| |_| | | |_| |_| | | | (_| | | (_) | |______|_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\_____|_| |_|_____|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_| CopyLeft2002 GNU/GPL v2 OR LATER * ISSUE005 * AUGUST 25, 2002 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Co-edited by Frederick Noronha and Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> * Issue released on the eleventh birthday of Linux, Aug 25, 2002 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In this issue o Indianising GNU/Linux o The Penguin goes to school (Delhi, Goa, etc) o NevyOS, the debate rages o Project Elx o Seeking developers for Simputer apps o Elx Linux o FSF-India is one year young o Community site for GNU/Linuxers o Indians working in GNU/Linux o Special focus on.... o Persian GNU/Linux o From the land of the Samba +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Archives at: http://www.freelists.org/archives/linuxinindia +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOME INITIATIVES TO INDIANISE GNU/LINUX: We learn from G Karunakar <karunakar(a)freedomink.org> that support for Indian languages is coming in slowly, but there are several efforts going towards this end on the GNU/Linux front. For instance: * IndLinux project www.indlinux.org / www.sourceforge.net/projects/indlinux A volunteer group working at the desktop level (KDE/GNOME), using Unicode, but ISCII will also be supported by providing convertor tools, Current focus on Opentype fonts development, translations for GNOME 2.0 . * IndiX http://rohini.ncst.ernet.in/indix/ A modified X server to support Indian languages using opentype fonts. Uses Unicode * IITM indlinux http://www.tenet.res.in/Donlab/Indlinux/ Have modified X & console in kernel to support indian languages. Use ISCII encoding only. * Linux Localisation Initiative ( LLI ) - lli.linux-bangalore.net A volunteer group working on translating LDP documentation (starting with HOWTOs) to indian languages. * Indic-computing project. indic-computing.sourceforge.net Aim is to create a resource center for all indian language issues in computing. * Language Technology Resource center (LTRC), IIIT Hyderabad. - http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/index.html Have developed language dictionaries, plugin for viewing ISCII, and font convertors. Also doing a machine based translation tool (Anusaaraka). Most of their work is release under GNU GPL. Projects listed at # 2, 3 and 6 are sponsored by government. Rest are volunteer based, looking for funds. Karunakar is himself involved with the IndLinux project. The active people (in the indian language area) at the Media Lab Asia are Venky Hariharan <venky(a)medialabasia.org> who is one of the founders of IndLinux project, and Tapan Parikh <tap2k(a)yahoo.com>. Both are actively working towards Indian-language computing, through Indic-computing project (indic-computing.sourceforge.net), and are also planning to hold a small, informal and preliminary workshop for Indian language computing in Bangalore in September. If you feel you'd like to share your ideas with them, please get in touch. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PERL MODULE FOR INDIAN LANGUAGES: M K Saravanan <mksarav(a)comp.nus.edu.sg> drew the attention of the Indian Linux Users Group in Chennai <ilugc(a)aero.iitm.ernet.in> to this perl module to handle Indian language I/O Check http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/perl_enhance.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MALAYALAM GNU/LINUX PROJECT: Baiju M <malayalamlinux(a)yahoo.com> is one of those who is planning to work with the Malayalam GNU/Linux project (being undertaken by the KBIP and the Free Software Foundation-India, as he recently mentioned, in passing. Could someone offer an update on how that's going? All the best to you guys... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HANDLING TELUGU: AkRti is a framework to facilitate easier development of applications that can handle the Indian language Telugu. The modular architecture decouples the input method, the underlying syllable based representation and the on screen display/print. http://sourceforge.net/projects/akrti/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIAN HOLY BOOKS: Explores indian holy books that are in sanskrit & translate them in english beside this project will also speak sanskrit shaloks which user will select it is useful for the peoples working on indian culture... http://sourceforge.net/projects/ved/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PATCH FOR LOCAL LANGUAGES: This is K Ratheesh's <rathee(a)lantana.tenet. res.in> comment on Indianizing GNU/Linux (this point was made some time back when he was a student at the IIT-Madras... email contacts might have changed): "I am working on enabling Linux console for local languages. As the current PSF format doesn't support variable width fonts, I have made a patch in the console driver so that it will load a user defined multi-glyph mapping table so that multiple glyphs can be displayed for a single character code. All editing operations will also be taken care of. "Further, for Indian languages, there are various consonant/vowel modifiers which result in complex character clusters. So I have extended the patch to load user defined context sensitive parse rules for glyphs / character codes as well. Again, all editing operations will behave according to the parse rule specifications. "Even though the patch has been developed keeping Indian languages in mind, I feel it will be applicable to many other languages (for eg. Chinese) which require wider fonts on console or user defined parsing at I/O level. "Currently I have developed the patch for Kernel versions 2.2.14 and and am in the process of making it for 2.2.16 and 2.2.17. I request people to try out this patch and give comments and suggestions to me. "Those who want to try out this patch can send mail to me in the address rathee(a)lantana.iitm.ernet.in or to indlinux- iitm(a)lantana.iitm.ernet.in The package , containing the patch , some documentation ,utilities and sample files will come around 100 KB. Try also www.ratheeshkvadhyar.com ratheesh(a)rediffmail.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COMPUTER VIA ONE BUTTON: Arun Mehta of New Delhi <mehta(a)vsnl.com> informs of the site http://indataportal.com/software/hawking.htm Check out the Hawkings project there. You will find links to both, the executable and the source code. Do also go to http://www.radiophony.com/html_files/hawking.html Says he: "Your suggestions on how to make using the computer a little more convenient with just one button would also be welcome -- perhaps you will consider joining the mailing list radiophony(a)yahoogroups.com, where this is being discussed?" (Join via radiophony-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FINALLY, GNU/LINUX BECOMES A DEFAULT OS: This interesting story comes from Raman.P <raamanp(a)yahoo.co.in> via the Chennai ILUG group. Raman is with the Railway Hospital, Chennai: "Recently we ordered five PCs from M/s HCL Infosystems through DGS&D, Govt of India rate contract (the Directorate Supply of Supply and Distribution, the body which undertakes purchasing for the government sector). We didn't order any OS or other softwares as we use GNU/Linux. To our surprise we received the box with preinstalled Debian Linux. It seems HCL has a policy of not sending out any machine without OS. Hence, if no OS is ordered then Debian is loaded. Well at last GNU/Linux is the default operating system." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GNU/LINUX IN SCHOOLS: Delhi and Goa, two regions trying to get GNU/Linux into the classroom, are exchanging their own 'distros' and software... to see how they could share experiences. Contact Pankaj <pankaj(a)sarai.net> or Tom Fernandes <anyaddress(a)gmx.net> for details +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOME FIGURES FROM GOA SCHOOLS COMPUTERS PROJECT: Ashley Delaney <delaneyashley(a)softhome.net> reports that the second shipment of once-used computers to Goa (the first to use GNU/Linux) saw Goa Sudharopo send in some 380 PCs. Some 40 were Macs, and 70 had licensed Windows OS on them. Some 123 had hard disks, while the rest had none or were non-working PCs. These wer edistributed to over 107 schools across Goa. For the 123 or so PCs, a customized distribution of GNU/Linux was loaded by LUG volunteers, based on Redhat 7.2. "It was made keeping in mind, the low hardware specs of the machines, the hard disk space and programs needed," says Delaney (21). "As a result, over a period of three weeks of brainstorming. they came up with a customized version of RH which fitted on 1 CD, was capable of running even on a pentium 100 with 32 MB ram with 1.2 GB of hard disk space. The total installation did not exceed 800 MB with SWAP space. It has Gnome and Windowmaker and excluded all the other desktops including icewm, and KDE.... "As a result, 20 schools all over Goa, are now running on this LTSP Linux solution, and over approx 30 schools with the standalone Linux on their donated systems," says Delaney. But he adds: "However, the main source of backlash has been lack of support and help." This mail, with other background, was recently shared on the fsug-calicut mailing list... for others to learn from the experiences. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AND... SOMETHING FROM DELHI. Check the Delhi issue... The archives are at: http://www.mail-archive.com/school%40linux-delhi.org/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GNU/LINUX IN GERMAN SCHOOLS: Winfried Truemper <me(a)wt.xpilot.org> informs counterparts in India that there is a project about GNU/Linux in German schools running for several years now. You may want to contact info(a)pingos.schulnetz.org for exchange of experiences. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEW VERSION OF GLUE: Ajith Kumar <ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in> announces a new version of GLUE -- the GNU Linux Utilities for Education. This came on July 30, 2002. You can browse the CD and install packages from it. Compilers for logo, basic, pascal etc are include. Lot of tutorials on various topics. Graphics Programming on GNU/Linux for the Turbo C fellows. The new version includes an installation script and does the following: (i) Converts the GNU/Linux installed machine to a Terminal Server. Installation and configuration of LTS is done by the script. If the terminal video cards are autodetected by XFree86-4, they just boot from the ether-boot floppy created. This has been tested on Redhat 7.1 & 7.3. (ii) Installs and configures IceWM, a fast, flexible window manager ideal for terminal servers, and puts a menu tailored for school use. (iii) Installs other RPM & TGZ packages from CD Anybody interested in getting a copy may contact the Free Software User Group Calicut <fsug(a)rediffmail.com> or <ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in> or Rajeesh P., Calicut, (Ph. 355415) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COMMENTS ON THE NEVYOS: Rajesh <rk(a)coralindia.com> has this to say about the NevyOS featured in an earlier issue of GNU/LinuxInIndia: Downloaded NevyOS, have planned to put it on a Ricoh Touch Screen Device, lying with me since long. Hope it will work. (It has a 486 processor.) Another one, which I dunno if I can change the OS, is running on MIPS. Device called ePOD, one of the slickest Tablets I have seen yet. Been using since over 1 year now with a 802.11b Dlink card. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MORE ON THE NEVYOS PLAN: Mayuresh Kathe <mayuresh(a)mac.com> explains issues arising out of the open source licensing of NevyOS. Says he: "We are contemplating going Open Source with NevyOS. Reason: 1. Its time Unix took a break from X. NevyOS is best poised to do that. 2. Its time we gave MS a run for its money on the desktop too. Again, NevyOS is best poised to do that (because, currently there are over 10 developers world wide developing killer apps for NevyOS, they would like to go open source too). But, at the same time what could be the alternatives for generating revenues if I have to atleast gain back on the investment? Could someone be charged if he is deploying NevyOS on a hardware platform of his design? If yes, what sort of a license will we have to put NevyOS under? Any brain storms on how we can enforce such licenses worldwide?" +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PEOJECT ELX: DesktopLinux.com founder and executive editor Rick Lehrbaum interviews Abhi Datt, Chief Software Architect and founder of Project ELX, a new project to create a uniquely easy-to-use Linux distribution. Abhi Datt describes his vision for Project ELX, lists the main features of the ELX Linux distribition, provides an update on the status of ELX, and shares his thoughts on how Linux can succeed on the desktop and elsewhere. http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT6850645834.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PEOPLE TO DEVELOP SIMPUTER APPS: Samyeer <sam(a)ncoretech.com> offers tips on what to do if you're a developer willing to develop Simputer <www.simputer.org> apps. Says he: "You can use GTK+ on the Simputer. If you are looking to get started then download the App Framework that is available at http://www.ncoretech.com/simputer/simputer/download.html and you can link in your GTK+ applications too.... We are looking for people/companies who will develop applications for the Simputer. Any help towards that would be really appreciated." Don't miss your date with what could possibly be computing making history in India. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOME SITES/LISTS: Some GNU/Linux mailing-lists and sites in India: ilugd(a)wpaa.org ILUG-Delhi fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in FreeSoftwareForum-India (Discussion list) linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net LinuxIndiaGeneral http://www.ilug-cal.org Indian Linux User's Group-Kolkata +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ONE YEAR YOUNG: July 20, 2002 was the first anniversary of the inauguration of FSF India in Trivandrum, as Rajkumar S <raj2569(a)yahoo.com> notes. Happy burday mates! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COMMUNITY SITE FROM GNU/LINUXERS: Himanshu <himanshu_s(a)myrealbox.com> announces he has launched a new site, http://www.thefreespeech.org which is basically a community web site for GNU/Linuxers. Its main aim is "to initiate, collaborate and contribute" to the GNU/Linux cause. The site itself, is home to the ILUG-BOM's novel "Project Resource Centre" idea, which will help ease the collaboration between students undertaking GNU/Linux projects and self appointed "mentors". "I guess, in the future it will also be home to dead projects, or very small projects / scripts, which have not been (or are to small to be) hosted at Sourceforge," he adds. Neat idea! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDIANS WORKING ON GNU/LINUX WORLDWIDE: Thanks to Ravi Shekhar S <ravi__at__india__dot__com> for an interesting compiliation on Indiaians working on GNU/Linux worldwide. Below are his descriptions; looking forward to the additional list he'll be sending: * Ambarish Malpani of Valicert inc.,( http://valicert.com/ ) --- he's the guy who ported Apache to windows NT and he's also the key contributor to the Apache project. * Karthik Ram ( http://karthikram.org/ ) --- he is an ecologist by profession but a great enthusiast of open source and he is famous for his award winning ecology search engine ( http://ecocrawler.org/ ) * Manish Singh (YOSH) ( http://yosh.org/ ) --- he is the official release manager of gimp ( http://gimp.org/ ) he is one of the developers of script-fu and net-fu. He is considered as one of the masters in the gimp foundation (others are "xach" (http://xach.com), "Larry Ewing" (http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/) etc.) even off the gimp world, this guy is one of the most respected guys in university of Berkeley. * Mukund S (http://mukund.info/) --- a guy from Auroville( a township in pondicherry) He's now starting a new company called TESSNA (http://tessna.com/) he is yet another gimp developer and he also worked for Ximian, linux.com. His buddies include Garrett LeSage (http://linuxart.com/), tigert (http://tigert.gimp.org/), Jimmac (http://jimmac.musichall.cz/), Miguel de Icaza ( http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/ ) He is also one of those Gtkhtml hackers. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WROX INDIA: Wrox India's (www.wrox.com)'s Programmer to Programmer site is http://p2p.wrox.com/ Search and Read Libraries of our Books Online at www.wroxbase.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ LIBYAHOO2: Check Philip's <philip(a)konark.ncst.ernet.in> work on http://libyahoo2.sourceforge.net/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ OPEN SOURCE/FREE SOFTWARE IN E-GOVERNANCE: Pamela Street of the World Bank <pstreet(a)worldbank.org> informs about a new conference, which indicates the growing interest in Open Source/Free Software. It's called 'Open Source: A Case for e-Government' and will be held in Washington, DC Oct. 17 - 18, 2002 The conference will draw participants from local, national and international organizations from both the public and private sector. The goals of the conference include: the presentation of best practices; raising awareness sharing of experiences among policy makers, donors users/consumers; universities, and industry specialists in Open Source, e-Government and related fields. Speaking and demonstration proposals are invited. More details from the conference website http://www.egovos.org +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPECIAL FOCUS ON... Sayamindu Dasgupta (17-1/2) a self-defined "Crazy GNU/Linux-er". Website http://www.peacefulaction.org/sayamindu ON HOW HE GOT INVOLVED WITH GNU/LINUX: Well, to be honest, I was bored with the same old Windows, and so, looking for an alternative OS. I could not afford a Mac, and so, I went to the local computer bookstore, and bought a book on Linux. That book had 3 CDs with it and one of them was Debian GNU/Linux 2.1. I decided to try that out, and popped the CD into my cdrom drive, and rebooted. But once the installation started, I could make neither head, nor tail out of that, and aborted the installation. Then after a few months I decided to try out Caldera OpenLinux 2.3. That worked brilliantly and I was in love with Linux within a few days. AGE AND 'OTHER PERSONAL STUFFS': 17 and half. Occupation -- student at South Point High School at Kolkata. Career plans -- to study physics (will try to go abroad for undergrad.) Present activities related to GNU/Linux: * Co-author : PCTel HSP Micromodem configuration miniHOWTO for the Linux Documentation Project <en.tldp.org> * Maintainer: PCTel HSP Micromodem GNU/Linux compatibility database <pctelcompdb.sourceforge.net> * Working on EricaOS - a web based Operating system designed mainly for web tv users (it will be running on top of a GNU/Linux server) * Writing the manual of KFstab - a KDE application which allows easy editing of the /etc/fstab file through a graphical interface. * Editor of the Linux - Support section of the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) * One of the most active members of iLUG-Cal (Kolkata LUG) * Working in the LOST project <lost.sourceforge.net> * Started work on a set of modules for drupal (drupal.org) that would let Linux User's Groups use the drupal syetem as their website (the modules will provide support for meeting management, minutes management, GNU/Linux cd-rom burning and distribution network management, mailing list management etc. along with the usual features of drupal) * Also done some work with regard to Bangla on GNU/Linux. * Authored a few articles on GNU/Linux (www.peacefulaction.org/sayamindu/docs.php) * Founder member/admin of http://www.peacefulaction.org which deals with GNU/Linux along with social and environmental issues. Future plans related to GNU/Linux: A website which would enable users to enlist, rate and write about compatibility of branded computers with GNU/Linux. Will be a mix of dmoz.org and pctelcompdb.sourceforge.net . If possible this will also certify, on basis of user ratings compatibility of branded PCs. Says he: "I also have plans to initialise an effort to translate the Gnome and KDE interface to Bangla, and some work has already started in this direction." Also plan to do something regarding desktop GNU/Linux (not sure what though). Write some more documents for the GNU/Linux newbie and on GNU/Linux advocacy Non GNU/Linux Activities: Is a member of the Mensa International (mensa.org). Code in PHP (done some work for projectpi.sourceforge.net). Also work for the Open Internet encyclopedia (open-site.org). Do some amateur astronomy ("don't get much time nowadays... also obsessed with physics"). Worked on a set of motion related graph generation system with php ("just for fun"). Is also obsessed with Richard Feynman. Phew! What a list at achievements... that too at 17-1/2! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PERSIAN LINUX. Roozbeh Pournader <roozbeh(a)sharif.edu> informs in a posting to Pakistan's PLUC: "About Persian Linux, we don't have much information published on our website (almost everything is in our mind), but it may be worth looking: <http://www.farsiweb.info>. Actually it is the Arabs that have a good community and are advancing with a good pace. Their website is at: <http://www.arabeyes.org/>. For general information about Linux and Unicode, one should see: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html>. I believe we are able to help anyone who wants to create and organize a Urdu Linux project for a start. We are already familiar with many internationalization groups, and can make sure the wheel won't be reinvented. Feel free to find someone with enough time as hand as an organizer, and introduce him/her to me." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FROM THE LAND OF THE SAMBA: Guilherme Lemos <guilherme(a)conectiva.com.br> from Brazil recently wrote in to say that he works for Conectiva (the GNU/Linux distro from the land of the Samba). His company also works on the magazine 'Revista do Linux'. Lemos is currently writing an article about GNU/Linux in India for the next edition. He's looking for info on GNU/Linux's deployment in India. If you could offer him some pointers, write to him at the above address. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ * FOOTNOTE: Frederick Noronha <fred at bytesforall dot org> is a Goa-based freelance journalist, who writes on IT-for-development and GNU/Linux themes regularly, and is cofounder of BytesForAll <www.bytesforall.org>. In the past year, he worked on a print media fellowship to study India's contribution to GNU/Linux, from www.sarai.net (Sarai-New Delhi) Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> is webmaster for Linux India, listadmin for Ilug-bom, Country Manager of India for Linux Counters (do get counted as a GNU/Linux user!). Visit his personal site at: http://pmehta.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Indianisation of GNU/Linux
by Frederick Noronha 24 Aug '02

24 Aug '02

I was fishing around for some information on the possible Indianisation of GNU/Linux. As Ms Mita puts it, Edward Cherlin's info (via the Simputer mailing list on yahoogroups) appears to be mind-boggling. What do others on this list think of it? Any feedback? FN On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Mita wrote: > Dear Edward, > What an excellent and valuable input! Thank you! By the way, you don't > sound like a generalist at all, more like a specialist! > Checked out both the sites you recommend; one was rather technical, but > the sil.org site is really great. > So did you go to the presentation of the Simputer there in California? > Did anybody on this list go? Please do tell us first hand how it was! > Did the simputer live up to all your expectations? > Cheers > Mita > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Edward Cherlin [mailto:cherlin@pacbell.net] > Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 9:29 PM > To: simputer(a)yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [simputer] [OFFTOPIC] Request for some inputs for an > article > > On Tuesday 13 August 2002 02:06 am, Frederick Noronha wrote: > > Dear friends, > > > > I am thinking of doing a piece on the challenges posed by plans for > > Indianisation of GNU/Linux. > > > > If you could give me some additional insights into the following > > issues (in a language that a simple reader would follow), I'd be > > very grateful. If you could send me the replies in a day or two, > > I'd be even more grateful. > > > > For my side, I will circulate the article among all before the > > Bangalor meeting. Thanks again. Frederick > > You're welcome. Where will this be published? > > > PS: Issues I need information on: > > > > What is your reading of: > > > > * Demand for Indian-language computers > > Although I have met a few engineers from India who speak only > English, the answer is that the demand for Indian-language computers > equals the demand for computers in India, plus a bit for places like > the UK, Pakistan and Bangla Desh that do significant business with > India or have significant Indian minorities. You can find current > sales and installed base numbers on the Net. If you need help with > this, e-mail me offline. > > > * Main languages which could be tackled at this stage > > By next year, the Pango project should support all nine official > Indic scripts, so the answer is "All of them." > > > * Which languages would pose greater difficulties > > Languages that are traditionally not written, or are written in > non-standard variants of the standard scripts. Talk to Peter > Constable at SIL.org about this. > > > * Applications that are needed to be run in Indian languages > > Everything. Don't take "No" for an answer. On Linux, you can > volunteer to Indicize any application. In the future, when font > management and rendering are standardized, all applications will run > in Indian languages for input and output without further ado, and > anyone will be able to create a localization file to customize the > user interface. Volunteers are also needed to translate documentation. > > > * Lack of support in other OSs > > Indic and other South Asian scripts are the final challenge to > computer vendors for full I18n support. Progress is slow at Microsoft > and Apple. Linux should pass them by the end of the year, or early in > 2003. > > > * Technical challenges in supporting Indian languages > > The principal problem is rendering conjuncts without proper rendering > engines and properly encoded fonts. Users want to type a sequence of > characters, and not concern themselves with the details of rendering. > This requires fonts with appropriate tables giving the possible > character sequences and the glyphs for rendering each, and an engine > that knows to read the tables. > > Apple and Microsoft are not willing simply to support typing, > display, and printing. They will not release language and writing > system support until they have complete locales built, preferably > including a dictionary and spelling checker. Linux is under no such > constraints. > > > X > > The Free Standards Group together with Li18nux.org are proposing to > rationalize and simplify I18n support under X, including a common > rendering engine, shared font paths, and other standards that will > greatly simplify the business of supporting all writing systems and > all languages. > > > Toolkits > > Dozens. Write to me off-list and tell me what tasks you want tools > for. > > Fonts? Check out pfaedit. > Keyboards? Unix keyboard files can be prepared in any text editor. > Rendering? Pango, Graphite > Software localization? IBM ICU, GTK, various languages... > Multilingual editing? Yudit and emacs both support several Indic > scripts, and could be extended with only moderate effort on the part > of a few experts. I have not tested vim, the other Unix Unicode > editor. Most other Unix applications accept some Indic input. > > Mandrake Linux includes Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi > Devanagari, and Tamil out of the box. That leaves Oriya, Malayalam, > Telugu, and Kannada still to be done, along with the Indic-derived > Lao, Sinhala, Myanmar, and Khmer. Tibetan and Thai are moderately > well supported. > > > Fonts? > > There are two projects to create a complete rendering engine: Pango > (Pango.org, Li18nux.org) and Graphite (sil.org). They also have plans > for complete sets of Unicode fonts (including not just the Unicode > characters, but also all of the non-character glyphs for rendering > Indic scripts. > > > Voice synthesis and recognition? > > IBM and several other companies have projects to support 40 or more > languages each. I can put you in contact with a voice engineer in > Silicon Valley, and you of course have access to the voice engineers > involved in the Simputer design. > > > Any right-to-left languages? > > Arabic and Hebrew are officially supported on Windows, Mac, and Unix. > Other languages in the same scripts (Urdu, Pashto, Farsi/Dari, etc.; > Yiddish, Ladino, etc.) can be typed but do not have full support. > Syriac (once used to write Malayalam) is included in Unicode but not > well supported. Thaana, used for Dhivehi in the Republic of Maldives, > is similarly encoded but not well supported. I can provide more > details, or put you in contact with experts on any of these. > > > What other challenges do Indian languages pose? > > That's it. We have them all in hand. Well, dictionaries and spelling > checkers, of course. Word-breaking doesn't operate the same way in > Indic scripts as in the Latin alphabet. Fine typography, which you > don't find in consumer or office applications in any language. And > the sheer number. There are more than 800 languages spoken in India. > > > * Projects that are currently underway, and which are interesting, > > in your opinion. > > As I said, Pango, Graphite, Li18nux, Free Standards. Mandrake Linux > emphasizes multilingual support, and welcomes offers of help. And of > course Simputer.

8 7

Forwarded: Free software for radio?
by Frederick Noronha 23 Aug '02

23 Aug '02

Pls reply to Robert Michel <Robert.Michel(a)post.rwth-aachen.de> FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Slave Alokesh, Fred & Georg, thanks for sending radio news from India. The news"local communities, non-profit organizations and educational institutions (Universities) for educational, cultural and economic development " request the question, what is necessary for build a low budget radiostation? The most important element becomes Software. Why not writing "free software" under GNU GPL for making radio ? Some weeks ago I found the vision from Patrick, swiss, and started to support him: HTTP://ross.sf.net Ross should be a toolbox, able to make a radio with one laptop only to running a big radio-network with satellite and internetlinks. Why "free software" - there are already 3-5 commercial solutions? - these are very expensive and keep the costumers in dependency to these software-houses. In analog times, everybody was able to replace a player "out of order", nowadays you have wait for support on telephone. - cheap solutions used by non-profit organizations are good enought for playing music, not for journalistic work - licence restricted software make it impossible for new people to learn using it at home. - analog radio times was good for blind people, software based radiostations are not usable today for them. - ....... ============== Can you help me ? ============== I'm looking for developer worldwide. People with radio experiences to saying me what regional culture of radio-studios they know, what software should be, programmer (C++), and later translator to make the software international. Which mailing-lists, websites, radio active people do you know? Do you have some more informations about these new stations in India? When will this start? Thanks for your attations - a better mail for sending to mailinglist we will write next weeks. The ross-team are already 6 people with more or less time for this. (Swiss, Germany, Austrian) Would be nice to find people for ross in India, too. Greetings form Aachen, Germany Robert

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[INFO] FLOSS Project Report
by Raj Singh 22 Aug '02

22 Aug '02

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) : Survey and Study FLOSS FINAL REPORT (http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/report/index.htm) International Institute of Infonomics University of Maastricht, The Netherlands Berlecon Research GmbH Berlin, Germany June 2002 Final Report * Part 0: Executive Summary Overview of the FLOSS project * Part I: Use of Open Source Software in Firms and Public Institutions * Part II: Firms Open Source Activities: Motivations and Policy Implications * Part II B: Open Source Software in the Public Sector: Policy within the European Union * Part III: Basics of Open Source Software Markets and Business Models * Part IV: Survey of Developers * Part V: Source Code Survey * Raw data from Source Code Survey Overview of the FLOSS project This project remedies the lack of information on Free/Libre/Open Source Software (1) starting at the very beginning: by conducting surveys to generate a unique base of primary data on Free/Open Source Software usage and development; identifying indicators to measure value creation and dissemination in the OS/FS arena; identifying business models based on these indicators; identifying the impact of and recommending changes in government policy and regulatory environments with regards to OS/FS; finally, the development of a base for extending these to the broader economic measurement of non-monetary and trans-monetary activity in the information society, beyond the domain of OS/FS. The specific features of this project are: 1. The collation of a base of hard data (until now no such data exist) on the importance and role of OS/F software in today s economies and an impact assessment for policy and decision-making. 2. The development of indicators for the measurement of value creation within the OS/F software communities, especially in order to identify the distribution patterns of contribution within OS/F software communities and projects. 3. The measurement of contributions and identification of dependence on such contributions as are provided by user organisations OS/F software, including government/international institutions, on the developer community and on project development at large. 4. The evaluation and identification of business models and best practices in the OS/F software community, especially the transition to and from commercial software operations. (1) Throughout this report and project documents the terms Free Software and Open Source Software are used interchangeably, except where a specific distinction between the terms is explicitly made. This page is part of the FLOSS study (http://www.infonomics.nl/FLOSS/). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: [Fsf-friends] i18n and T16n
by baiju m 18 Aug '02

18 Aug '02

1 0

i18n and T16n
by Frederick Noronha 18 Aug '02

18 Aug '02

I was working late night on this piece of Indianization of GNU/Linux, when an unsual thought struck... If internationalization can be reduced to i18n can Thiruvananthapuram become T16n? (There are 16 alphabets between T and n in the city's name.) Guess you'll excuse me for this unusual posting today. Just a bit bored with myself ;-) FN PS: If the idea clicks, do remember who suggested it first....

2 1

NEWS-INDIA: Kerala to get Centre's help to push e-governance
by Frederick Noronha 16 Aug '02

16 Aug '02

Kerala to get centre's help to push e-governance By Sanu George, Indo-Asian News Service Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 16 (IANS) The centre will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week with the Kerala government, offering it all assistance in promoting e-governance. The state is viewing this as a reward for its consistency in networking government affairs and putting them online. State IT minister P.K. Kunjalikutty said federal Communication and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan would be here Sunday to sign the MoU that would facilitate technical and financial help from the centre. "We are really proud because this is the first time any state government has been asked to sign an MoU with the centre in this field. This is going to boost our efforts to promote private investment in the IT sector," Kunjalikutty said. Mahajan will during his visit also inaugurate a 600,000 square foot building at Thiruvananthapuram's Technopark, which currently houses 60 companies. The major push for e-governance in Kerala had come during a crippling 32-day strike by government employees from February. Apart from providing Rs.1.2 billion for projects to improve efficiency in various departments, the budget earmarked Rs.150 million to set up a single point access for those seeking services like welfare benefits and revenue certificates. Plans for the MoU came in the wake of a study by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) ranking Kochi as the second most preferred destination in the country for the setting up of business process outsourcing or IT-enabled companies (ITES). The government is currently working on a state-of-the-art 400,000 square-foot building in Kochi to house such companies. "The building would be ready for occupation by the end of next year," said IT Secretary Aruna Sunderarajan. Another encouraging development for the IT industry in Kerala has been the rare political consensus on pushing the sector and ironing out the creases. "We had a problem in one of the Technopark companies here. Because of the wholehearted support of the opposition, the issue has been sorted out without any problems. This is a good sign for all potential investors," said Kunjalikutty. --Indo-Asian News Service

1 0

Simputer... changes a viewpoint
by Frederick Noronha 16 Aug '02

16 Aug '02

Permit me to forward a posting from the Solaris mailing-list in Delhi. Perhaps GNU/Linux enthusiasts could also look at ways in which we could enhance our involvement in this GNU/Linux-based project. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- http://www.bayarea.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/mike_langberg/ 3866243.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp From the San Jose Mercury News. At LinuxWorld in San Francisco a number of interesting projects were presented yesterday including Open Knowledge Network, the Brazilian volkscomputers, and the following one--the Simputer. Langberg is a critical enthusiast when it comes to consumer items. He's not a development expert. A good opening line to keep local high tech folks reading this piece! Steve Posted on Wed, Aug. 14, 2002 Simple computer helps close digital divide By Mike Langberg Mercury News I've always been a digital-divide cynic, suspecting all the talk about transforming the lives of poor people through Internet access to be self-serving narcissism from Silicon Valley technologists seeking a justification for making themselves rich. Vinay L. Deshpande has changed my mind. Deshpande, a Stanford-educated software entrepreneur in Bangalore, India, is the driving force behind the Simputer, a handheld device that resembles a Palm personal digital assistant. The Simputer (www.simputer.org), which costs from $175 to $375 depending on features, is designed for impoverished rural villages in India and other under-developed parts of the world. This isn't a cure for hunger or disease, but Deshpande makes a convincing argument for how the Simputer could make life better for people living far from the technology fast lane. If you're struggling to feed your family on an income equal to a few dollars a day, you don't need access to Amazon.com or eBay. What you do need are the latest commodity prices for your crops if you're a farmer, or accurate weather reports if you fish from a small boat, or a reliable way to gather medical data if you're a rural health worker. These are things the sturdy Simputer can do at a far lower cost than temperamental and fragile laptop computers. Deshpande, who spoke Wednesday at the LinuxWorld trade show in San Francisco, got the idea for the Simputer at a family wedding near Mumbai in November 1998, where he met the owner of a small community bank. The banker had a problem: He operates what is called a ``pygmy deposit scheme,'' where independent agents travel to isolated villages to collect deposits and make payments as small as one rupee, or about two cents. The agents give paper receipts, and sometimes cheat the bank by turning in altered copies of the deposit slips listing smaller amounts. Catching such cheaters often takes days or weeks. The banker wanted a handheld device costing no more than $200 with an attached receipt printer that agents could use to collect deposit data, downloading the information by phone to the bank's computers at the end of the day. This device wouldn't eliminate theft by the agents, but they'd have a hard time disappearing with more than one day's worth of funds. Deshpande, 55, assembled a team of academics from the Indian Institute of Science and engineers from his company, Encore Software (www.ncoretech.com), both based in Bangalore. The group quickly realized any device created for the banker could solve many other problems in many countries. The Simputer is designed to be easy to operate, reliable, rugged and to run on easily obtained AA batteries. There's a slot for sliding in smart cards, which cost less than $1 and can be given to every person in a village for storing their personal information. A built-in modem makes it possible to collect information and send out messages through the Internet. Villages beyond the reach of phone lines can send and receive data through the smart cards. To hold down costs, the Simputer runs a slimmed-down version of the free Linux operating system -- eliminating royalty payments that would be required for the Palm or Microsoft PocketPC operating systems used in today's PDAs. Deshpande and his colleagues also developed visual icons and text-to-speech feedback so that even illiterate users could benefit from the Simputer. Encore Software began producing the first run of Simputers this month at a contract manufacturing plant in Bangalore; another production line is due to start up next month in Singapore. The Simputer isn't available yet in the United States, but Deshpande is talking with several potential distributors and expects to have a deal in place by year-end. Meanwhile, the Simputer Trust is willing to license its hardware and software designs to any interested manufacturer for a one-time fee of $25,000 to companies in the developing world and $250,000 to companies in the developed world. As word of the Simputer has spread, Deshpande is hearing more ideas for how his creation could be used. The post office in India, for example, is considering giving the Simputer to mail carriers who handle money orders. A villager could send money through a smart card, plugged into the mail carrier's Simputer, for delivery to a relative on the other side of the country, downloaded to the recipient's smart card. This would eliminate sending money orders through the mail, where they are often lost or stolen. Health care agencies in South Africa want to develop a small ultrasound monitor that could be plugged into the Simputer for tracking fetal development among pregnant women in rural settlements. The Indian government is also interested in the Simputer for collecting reliable and timely information on agricultural production, a process now bogged down by inaccurate and slowly gathered paper documents. Asked to summarize his hopes for the Simputer, Deshpande spins around and points to a logo printed on the back of his official Simputer Trust T-shirt: ``Radical simplicity for universal access.'' There's no guarantee, of course, the Simputer will succeed. Even if it does, technology alone can't fix all the problems causing poverty. But I found Deshpande to be uplifting. The technology revolution, in the end, really could help everyone on Earth make better lives for themselves. Contact Mike Langberg at mike(a)langberg.com or (408) 920-5084. � 2001 siliconvalley and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.siliconvalley.com Steve Cisler 4415 Tilbury Drive San Jose, Callifornia 95130 http: home.inreach.com/cisler 1-408-379-9076 cisler(a)pobox.com solaris--independant forum for IT & development issues un/sub info: solaris-request(a)mail.sarai.net with the word "help" in the subject line or in the body of the message. URL: http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/solaris/ archive: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/solaris/

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IT@schools
by Ajith Kumar 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

hello, here is a proposal for cost effective computer infrastructure for schools. ajith

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What a thread !
by CK Raju 14 Aug '02

14 Aug '02

The biggest thread that I have ever seen, reflecting on a single article. The article is worth examining. The link is at http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-05-20-006-26-IN-LF-PB CK Raju

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Mail Server will be down on 13th
by Nagarjuna G. 12 Aug '02

12 Aug '02

The mail server running the mailman for our mailing list will be down for few hours on 13th during the day. We are upgrading the machine and the server will be back to work by 6pm, if everything goes as expected. BTW, the webserver is also the same machine, so that also will be down. Nagarjuna

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LinuxInIndia #004 (TUG 2002 comes to India)
by Frederick Noronha 10 Aug '02

10 Aug '02

GNU _ _____ _____ http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | | (_) |_ _| |_ _| | |_ | | _ _ __ _ ___ __ | | _ __ | | _ __ __| (_) ___ | | | | '_ \| | | \ \/ / | | | '_ \ | | | '_ \ / _` | |/ _ \ | |____| | | | | |_| |> < _| |_| | | |_| |_| | | | (_| | | (_) | |______|_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\_____|_| |_|_____|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_| CopyLeft2002 GNU/GPL v2 OR LATER * ISSUE004 * AUGUST 11, 2002 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Co-edited by Frederick Noronha and Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> * +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In this issue o TUG 2002 comes to India o Linking projects to students o ELX Linux in the news o FSF-India mailing list change o Experiences from the classroom o Links you could use o Solaris mailing list o Scripts for a terminal server o Kaii Linux PDA +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TUG 2002 COMES TO INDIA: Registration is now open for the TUG 2002, the annual conference of TeX Users Group scheduled for September 1-7 at Technopark, Trivandrum, India. This is the first time that TUG conference is being held outside Europe and US. The TUG conference is one of the worlds leading TeX users/developers conferences aimed at the experienced developers and at the the same time novice users as well. One day tutorial for novice users which is followed by a two-day tutorial on advanced topics, take one to the four day conference of presentations and discussions by developers in the TeX world. The conference language is English. Organized by the Indian TeX Users Group (TUGIndia) in association with international TeX Users Group, the TUG 2002 will bring together for the 23rd time. TeX enthusiasts from around the world for talks about TeX, XML, metapost, multilingual typesetting, non-Latin and Indic scripts, graphics and much more. You can also join your fellow developers in birds-of-a-feather sessions, sample the local beer at our social event. The Organizing Committee Chair is Satish Babu <sb(a)inapp.com>, Internet Applications Technologies, Trivandrum, India and Program Committee Chair is Sebastian Rahtz, Computing Services, Oxford University <sebastian.rahtz(a)computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>, Oxford University, UK. The conference takes place at the Park Center, Technopark, Trivandrum and is co-sponsored by IT Mission Group, Government of Kerala. On Sunday, September 1 through Tuesday, September 3 there are four tutorial to chose from. The conference itself will open on Wednesday, September 4 with a keynote, "TeX, XML and the State of the Art" by Hans Hagen, Pragma Advanced Document Engineering, Netherlands. For all the details and online registration have a look at our web page: http://www.tug.org.in/tug2002/ Contacts: Organising Committee TUG 2002 <tug2002(a)tug.org.in> Thanks to Radhakrishnan <cvr(a)river-valley.org> for these details. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ LINKING PROJECTS TO STUDENTS: An attempt to offer students interesting GNU/Linux projects. Check the following sites. --> http://www.ilug-bom.org.in/wiki/ --> http://www.ilug-bom.org.in/Volunteer/ Suggests Trevor Warren: "Lets get started with volunteers/mentors listing their names as project guides....And start using Wiki to create a list of Projects for Students to come and visit. I would humbly request all to get started on the same ASAP.......which would b in accordance to the spirit with which all of us are doing our best to get the student community involved with Free Software." Contact for Trevor Warren: trevor(a)zenith-india.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ELX LINUX IN THE NEWS: Sunil Rajanala (Economic Times) reports from Hyderabad that Everyone's Linux (ELX) in association with Maxil Technology Solutions, US, is gearing up to launch a Linux-based operating system, ELX Power desktop version across North America, Europe, Latin America and Australia anytime now. ELX is India's first commercial Linux-based Operating System, which claims to match Windows by every feature and provides the additional advantages of Linux's robustness and security. The Linux operating system has been developed by Hyderabad-based Everyone's Linux, formerly 3T solutions. Economic Times quoted Maxil Technology's MIS director, Raj Kosaraju saying the soft launch of ELX Power Desktop Version 1.0 took place during late June this year across North America including Canada. ELX also plans to launch the product in India soon for just Rs 900 for Indian customers. Kosaraju said during the test phase, the pre-release version of ELX had 89,000 free downloads between April and June 2002, with most of the downloads from educational institutions, colleges, and universities. See http://www.elxlinux.com http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=15402221 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FSF-INDIA LIST CHANGE: Recently a change has taken place in the names of the FSF lists. fsf-friends is the list to which you need to send the mails (to take part in discussion on Free Software in India). fsf-india is now the announcement list of fsf-india, and fsf-friends is the list where subscribers can post their emails. This tip from Nagarjuna <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ EXPERIENCES FROM THE CLASSROOM: Leo Fernandes <leo(a)indialink.org> narrates his recent experience with the Linux-in-schools project in Delhi: "Well, Monday was my first day in school! Was wonderful to be in the company of peers in Class 4. I learnt some logo commands. It's a great programming language! I think I will continue my education.... "So folks, we have passed through the first two days of having a Linux server in a school computer lab in Delhi for classes 4 to 8. We have RH 7.3 running on a Pentium 4 server with 640Mb ram and 20 diskless workstations booting off the server into X. LTSP is cool "Software setup was painless. However identifying hardware problems took 90% of time and energy. Defective bootroms, network cable probs, mouse probs etc..etc... We were also hit with DCOPServer errors. Couldn't figure out what went wrong. We worked around that by avoiding multiple logon with the same id. However running X with KDE 3.0.0 from 20 diskless stations made everything crawl -- that's when we upgraded to 640Mb ram. We are looking at options to improve speed. "Now the real test begins -- how the students and teachers take to it. "There's a lot of hand-holding to be done and numerous mundane tasks to take care of - like web pages with helpful documentation subitable for teachers, for students at higher classes etc. Some guide to basic operations is very much needed. "The whole setup was done as part of the hardware and network system upgrade that the school was undertaking. So we need to ensure that teachers can continue with their current work and projects within the framework of the present curriculum. They are open to new ideas too. "We have Openoffice for wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentations. LOGO programming, and Bywater BASIC. Hopefully teachers and students will be able to cope with this new environment. "These initial days are crucial. Any help and suggestions to enhance the acceptability to this new environment is always welcome. "I wish to express my thanks to Dhruv, Prateek and Pai for their help and support. Dhruv and Prateek have been particulary helpful in taking time off to visit the site and make their contributions. More on this as we progress. Leo" We're all awaiting your updates, Leo. Positive or otherwise. Let's learn from our own and each other's experiences. (Leo is a great guy, and work by people like him in the 'nineties helped me to get access to e-mail when it was still not commercially available in the market...-FN) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ LINKS YOU COULD USE: These are some useful contacts one came across during a seminar on deploying GNU/Linux in government, held in Goa many months ago. Please check if the contacts still work though... Shrikant Navelkar, Sales Consultant, Red Hat India navelkar(a)redhat.com Mukul Mathur, ASEAN/SA Linux Manager, IBM mmathur(a)in.ibm.com Ajay M Kapoor, Channels Head, India, Red Hat India ajayk(a)redhat.com Sachin Dabir, Head-Enterprise Sales, Red Hat India sachin(a)redhat.com Info about Red Hat in India. http://in.redhat.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOLARIS MAILING LIST: Check out this list. Not exclusively GNU/Linux, but focuses on IT and development issues. Solaris--independant forum for IT & development issues. Un/sub info: solaris-request(a)mail.sarai.net with the word "help" in the subject line or in the body of the message. URL: http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/solaris/ archive: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/solaris/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SCRIPTS TO SET UP A TERMINAL SERVER: Heard about GLUE, the education-related version of GNU/Linux? Ajith <ajith(a)nsc.ernet.in> writes in to say: "There are several people (in Calicut/Kozhikode) now who can setup LTSP. The job of setting up LTS has been made a bit easier now. The new version of GLUE contains a script that will make the computer a Terminal Server. If the clients have video cards that are auto detected by XFree86 version 4, you don't need to do any configuration. It will make boot floppies for the terminals and, if you are lucky, the terminal comes up with the GUI. Proper hosts, dhcpd.conf and lts.conf files are made by the script. NTOP is installed to monitor the health of the network. It also installs the ICE Window manager and installs a menu with all the software installed from the CD and other required stuff. IceWM is light-weight, fast and flexible. Starts much much faster than KDE or GNOME. Installation of other packages on the CD also done by the script. If you copy the CD to the Web Server Document root area (no need to run the web server) all the science applets also can be accessed from the Window Manager Menu. All tested on a RedHat 7.3 installation. If anyone interested in trying it out, let me know." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ KAII LINUX PDA: A sneak preview of Infomart's "Kaii" Linux PDA Rick Lehrbaum (Updated March 18, 2002) http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8619741565.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ * FOOTNOTE: Frederick Noronha <fred at bytesforall dot org> is a Goa-based freelance journalist, who writes on IT-for-development and GNU/Linux themes regularly, and is cofounder of BytesForAll <www.bytesforall.org>. In the past year, he worked on a print media fellowship to study India's contribution to GNU/Linux, from www.sarai.net (Sarai-New Delhi) Parag Mehta <pm at linuxindia dot org> is webmaster for Linux India, listadmin for Ilug-bom, Country Manager of India for Linux Counters (do get counted as a GNU/Linux user!). Visit his personal site at: http://pmehta.org ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Call for submission for papers...
by Frederick Noronha 10 Aug '02

10 Aug '02

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jochen Topf <jochen(a)remote.org> Subject: Linux-Kongress 2002 registration opens! Date: 16 Jul 2002 16:53:56 GMT Registration is now open for the Linux-Kongress 2002. If you register before August 9 you will receive a 33% discount on the conference fees! The Linux-Kongress is one of the worlds leading Linux developer conferences aimed at the experienced developer community. One day of tutorials is followed by a two-day, two-track conference program, with a Linux exhibition to browse in between the talks. The conference language is English. Organized by the German Unix User Group (GUUG) the Linux-Kongress will bring together for the 9th time Linux enthusiasts from around the world for talks about security, multimedia, clustering, new kernel developments and much more. You can also join your fellow developers in birds-of-a-feather sessions, sample the local beer at our Social Event and compete against your peers in the Linux-Kongress Komplete Konfusion Kuiz. The conference takes place at the University of Cologne, Germany. On Wednesday, September 4 there are five tutorial to chose from. The conference itself will open on Thursday, September 5 with a keynote by Marcelo Tosatti, the maintainer of the 2.4 kernel tree. Thanks to the German Ministry of Education and Research there is a special deal this year: Students pay only 50 EUR for the conference, tutorials and the Social Event! For all the details and online registration have a look at our web page: http://www.linux-kongress.org/ Don't forget to register in time for the 33% discount. I hope to see you in Cologne! Jochen Topf ########################################################################## # Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: cola(a)stump.algebra.com # # PLEASE remember a short description of the software and the LOCATION. # # This group is archived at http://stump.algebra.com/~cola/ # ########################################################################## ------------------------------ From: Lars Tunkrans <ltu(a)icl.se> Subject: NORDU2003 - Call For Papers Date: 16 Jul 2002 16:54:00 GMT Reply-To: ltu(a)icl.se Subject: Call For Papers NordU2003 5th NordU/USENIX Conference, General Technical (NordU2003) February 10 - 14, 2003 Aros Congress Center Vaesteraas, Sweden Important Dates Paper submissions due: September 2, 2002 Notification of acceptance: October 2, 2002 Camera-ready final papers due: December 2, 2002 Conference Organizers Program Chairs Martin Wahlen, Sound Foundation Poul-Henning Kamp, FreeBSD developer & consultant Program Committee Seppo Kauppinen, Lars Tunkrans, Fujitsu Services Kristen Nielsen, TDC TeleDanmark Network Division. Review Committee Jonas Skeppstedt, Lund University Marshall Kirk McKusick, Unix developer & consultant - formerly CSRG UCB. Julia Lawall, DIKU Brian A. LaMacchia, Microsoft Tutorial Coordinator Ulla Sandberg Organization Committee Anita Nilsson, UniForum Marknadskonsult Jan Saell, Irial Overview The NordU program committee solicits papers on topics related to UNIX and UNIX like systems and UNIX system administration. We especially encourage papers on novel techniques, architectures and methodologies. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: Security Security Audits Common Problems Mandatory Access Controls Operating Systems Virtual Memory File Systems Device Drivers Open Source/ Free UNIX Open Source projects Open Source methodologies Open Source case studies Economic Impacts High Performance Computing Clustering the GRID High Availability Clustering Storage Technologies Checkpoint Techniques. Mobile Computing IPv6 802.11b BlueTooth Software Development Languages Development Environments Change Management Interoperability Windows Standards Storage Area Network Interconnects UNIX drivers software Paper Submissions Submissions should be full papers of about 4000-6000 words. The maximum submission length is 14 single-spaced A4 pages, including figures, tables, and references, using an 11pt font. Submitted papers should be in PDF format. The committee will not review papers that exceed the length limit, or papers in other formats such as Word or HTML. Extended Abstracts are acceptable, if they provide sufficient detail. Submissions are due on September 2, 2002. The program committee and external readers will judge papers on technical merit, significance, relevance, and presentation. A good paper will demonstrate that the authors: Are attacking a significant problem, have devised an interesting, compelling solution, have demonstrated the practicality and benefits of the solution, have drawn appropriate conclusions, have clearly described what they have done, and have clearly articulated the advances beyond previous work. Please read the detailed USENIX author guidelines for more information. Accepted papers may be shepherded through an editorial review process by a member of the program committee. The NordU conference, like most conferences and journals, does not allow submissions that are substantially similar to works that are previously published or are under review for publication elsewhere. Papers accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms will not be read or reviewed. Best Paper Awards Awards will be given for the best paper. Work-in-Progress Reports Would you like to share a provocative opinion, interesting preliminary work, or a cool idea that will provoke discussion? The NordU technical sessions will include slots for work-in-progress reports and "outrageous" opinion statements. We are particularly interested in presentations of student work. To submit, please send a proposal (one page or less) to the program committee at pgm03(a)nordu.org. Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (BoFs) are informal gatherings organized by attendees interested in a particular topic. BoFs will be held in the evening. BoFs may be scheduled in advance by emailing the Program Committee at pgm03(a)nordu.org. BoFs may also be scheduled at the conference. Registration Materials Complete program and registration information will be available in December 2002 on the conference Web site. The information will be in both HTML and a printable PDF file. If you would like to receive the program booklet in print, please email your request, including your postal address, to: congrex(a)congrex.se ########################################################################## # Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: cola(a)stump.algebra.com # # PLEASE remember a short description of the software and the LOCATION. # # This group is archived at http://stump.algebra.com/~cola/ # ########################################################################## ------------------------------

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DeveloperIQ: Compile your kernel, get new GNU/Linux software....
by Frederick Noronha 09 Aug '02

09 Aug '02

Some updates from the August 2002 issue of DeveloperIQ www.developeriq.com * LINUXmag section has a special article on how to compile your own Linux kernel, by Philip de Groot.Get better hardware support by compiling your kernel... or move to a more faster and stable kernel. * On the CD: Corel Photo-Paint 9 for Linux. * Editorial: Microsoft is learning a few tricks from the Open Source space (by Ramdas S ramdas(a)developeriq.com) "You would not get the source code of any Microsoft products at least as of now! The strategy is to offer free products in space where the competition from Open Source is strong to match in offerings. The new ASP.Net Web Matrix, which supports ASP programming, is now freely available.And Microsoft is backing it up with support, unlike the Open Source Community." (Whatever this is supposed to mean!!!FN) * Ramdas says: "At the point of writing, we were trying to figure whether we could connect it to MySQL on Windows instead of the more expensive MS SQL server..." (So, the freedom of affordability is important too ;-) * Special DeveloperIQ Linux applications collection CDs: RedHat 7.2, 2 CDs Rs 299 RedHat 7.3, 5 CDs Rs 699 Caldera OpenLinux - Workstation 3.1.1, 2 CDs Rs 199 Caldera OpenLinux - Server 3.1.1., 2 CDs Rs 199 Mandrake 8.2, 3 CDs Rs 499 with support Rs 999 Debian 2.2, 3 CDs Rs 499 or with support Rs 999 (support for 30 days or 30 e-mails, whichever earlier) * LINUX MAG INDIA-on-CD: 18 Cs in a year. Rs 1499. Get a whole lot of Linux apps and the latest updates. Log on to www.linuxmagindia.com for full details. Five CD starter kit contains RedHat 7.2, Openoffice 1.0, Galeon 1.2.1, KDE 3.0, Mozilla Internet suite 1.0rc2, Netscape 6.2.1, Acrobat reader 4.05, Gimp 1.2.3, Ximian Gnome 1.4, Kmail 1.0.29.2, gqmpeg 0.12.0, Etherape 0.8.2, Kyahoo 0.7, Image 0.1.9, Qcad 1.4.7, Blender 2.12, Cross Artist 1.1, sfront 0.7 and more Development tools: j2re1.4.0, j2sdk1.4.0, j2sdk1.4.0Forte, Redhat 7.2 manuals: installation guide, getting started guide, customization guide, reference guide, release notes, MySQL 3.23 a Redhat RPM, server (i386), Behcnmark/test suites, client program, libraries and header file for development, client shared libraries, binary package, Glade, Anjuta 0.1.7, clip 0.93, DDD 3.3.1, DejaGNU 1.4.2, gIDE 0.3.5, GNU Debugger 5.0, gnome debut 0.1.5, jDBA 0.7, KDE SDK 2.2.1, Open DAP 2.0.19, pyut 1.0, Libtool 1.4.2 and more ENTERTAINMENT: Half-life Opposing Force Server, Trophy 1.0.1, Tux Racer 0.61, Mojoworld Transporter 1.02, Search and Resume Game, Q3Text (Linux)1.07, Armagetron, abuse-SDL0.6.0, Vega Strike 0.2.0-14, 4st Attack Version, SDL_Paradroid, EasySok Version: 0.3.0., FreeDroid 0.7.0, Decopter Version 0.2.3, Penguin Command Version, gf passthru Version; 0.0.1-alpha, Iter Vehemens Ad Necem Version 0.311, Operation Blacksun 2 Version. Send your commends and feedback to ramdas(a)developeriq.com This note is circulated by: -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

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[ilug-goa] revolution :) (fwd)
by Kanti Jadia 08 Aug '02

08 Aug '02

Hi all, There seems a lot of options in these cases. A student can have a lot of options to work A few i propose a few options from my side -> SUBJECT TRADITION LINUX REVOLUTION ;) ->STATUS -> ------- --------- ------------------ ->-------- -> OOP(c++) Turbo C++ GCC(G++) + vi ->*successful Add GCC + EMACS,ANJUTA ,kdevelop -> RDBMS Vb+Oracle8i PHP+MySQL ->**see bottom Add Python + MySQL , Python+PostgreSQL -> HTML ie netscape ->obvious Add mozilla,galeon,konqueror -> Networking BSD sockets(GCC) same no change -> S/w Engg. MS.Project Mr.Project ->***successful Add CVS ->=============================================== ->* I downloaded david 1.02 which is supposed to be a full fledged ->c/c++ IDE for Gnome .. but it takes a hell lot of time to start ->and it crashes very very frequently.. Arvind Y. is supposed to ->provide me Anjuta .. guess that can be a good option to TC++ .. ->----------------------------------------------------------------------->----- ->** i tried the MySQL 3.22 server ( too old?? ) everything works ->fine but 3.22 dosent support checks ,views and foreign keys. ->(emulates foreign keys) can someone suggest a replacement??? i ->cant get my hands on Oracle 9i for linux ..that could be a ->solution i guess.. ->----------------------------------------------------------------------->----- ->*** Can anyone suggest any good case tools for linux?? ->----------------------------------------------------------------------->---- If you could create an online list with focus on students more applications can be added(tip of the iceberg at present). Best of luck Kanti

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Fwd: [fsug-calicut] IT at Schools, Kerala
by baiju m 08 Aug '02

08 Aug '02

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LINK: Open source for e-government
by Frederick Noronha 07 Aug '02

07 Aug '02

____________________________________________________________________ Open Source for E-Government Call for Participation Open Source: A Case for e-Government Washington, DC Oct. 17 - 18, 2002 infoDev, the Cyberspace Policy Institute of The George Washington University, and the UNDP are proud to present a conference on Open Source: A Case for e-Government to be held in Washington, DC, USA, Oct. 17 - 18, 2002. The conference will draw participants from local, national and international organizations from both the public and private sector. The goals of the conference include: * the presentation of best practices * raising awareness * sharing of experiences among policy makers, donors, users/consumers, universities, and industry specialists in Open Source, e-Government and related fields. To facilitate the organization of topics and events at the conference, you are invited to submit speaking and demonstration proposals. We strongly encourage speakers from both developed and developing countries to share experiences and submit proposals. * Read the Call for Speakers

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O'Reilly newsletter (new books, etc)
by Frederick Noronha 07 Aug '02

07 Aug '02

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 13:25:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Marsee Henon <marsee(a)oreilly.com> To: basit(a)basit.yi.org Subject: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, August 5 O'Reilly User Group Program Newsletter August 5, 2002 Spread The Word To Your Members... Highlights This Week: ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***Book News*** ---------------------------------------------------------------- -IPv6 Essentials -iPhoto: The Missing Manual -Mastering Regular Expressions, 2nd Edition -Perl Pocket Reference, 4th Edition ---------------------------------------------------------------- ***News*** ---------------------------------------------------------------- -Protecting Privacy with Translucent Databases -O'Reilly's 250th Book on Safari -Top 100 Power Picks -2002 OSCON .NET Report -The Rotor Architecture Revisited -Making the Python Cookbook -Promiscuous Mode Problems -Flash on Mobile and Embedded Devices -Top Ten Web Performance Tuning Tips -2002 OSCON Java Wrap-Up -10 Reasons We Need Java 3.0 -Wanted: Bioinformatics User Groups -Dissecting .Mac -Jaguar: Time to Stop Pussyfooting Around ================================================ Book News ================================================ Review books are available--please email me for a copy. If you need your books by a certain date, please allow at least three weeks for shipping. Send or email me copies of your newsletters and book reviews. Don't forget, your members get 20% off any O'Reilly book they purchase directly from O'Reilly. Just use code DSUG when ordering. Press releases are available on our press page: http://press.oreilly.com/ ***IPv6 Essentials*** Order Number: 1258 "IPv6 Essentials" provides a succinct, in-depth tour of all the new features and functions in IPv6, guiding you through everything you'll need to know to get started, including how to configure IPv6 on hosts and routers, and which applications currently support IPv6. This book will help you plan for, design, and integrate IPv6 into your current IPv4 infrastructure. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ipv6ess/ Chapter 2, "The Structure of the IPv6 Protocol," is availble for free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ipv6ess/chapter/index.html ***iPhoto: The Missing Manual*** Order Number: 365x Apple's wildly popular iPhoto software is a gorgeous digital shoebox for downloading, organizing, printing, publishing, and touching up unlimited numbers of digital photos. In this comprehensive, witty guide, authors Pogue, Schorr, and Story give iPhoto 1.1 the one feature it lacks: a manual. With this guide, Macintosh fans can take their digital photos to the screen, to the Web, to printouts, to hardbound photo books, even to DVDs. And they'll learn how to take iPhoto far beyond its seemingly simple feature list. But the software is just the beginning. The book also covers choosing and mastering a digital camera, basic photographic techniques, and tips for shooting special subjects like kids, sports, nighttime shots, portraits, and more. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/iphototmm/ Top Ten iPhoto Tips http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/06/08/iphoto_tips.html ***Mastering Regular Expressions, 2nd Edition*** Order Number: 2890 Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They have spread like wildfire in recent years, now offered as standard features in Perl, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, MySQL, awk, Emacs, and many other popular tools and languages. If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regular expressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/ Chapter 8, "Java" and Chapter 9, ".NET" are available free online: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/chapter/index.html ***Perl Pocket Reference, 4th Edition*** Order Number: 3749 "The Perl Pocket Reference, 4th Edition" provides a complete overview of the Perl programming language, all packed into a convenient, carry-around booklet. It is updated for Perl 5.8, and covers a summary of Perl syntax rules, a complete list of operators, built-in functions, and standard library modules, all with brief descriptions. Also included are the newest Perl features, such as enhanced regular expressions, multithreading, the Perl compiler, and Unicode support. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr4/ For a complete list of Perl titles, visit: http://perl.oreilly.com/ ================================================ News From O'Reilly & Beyond ================================================ ------------------------------- General News ------------------------------- ***Protecting Privacy with Translucent Databases*** Could translucent databases have helped Yale protect its data? http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/08/02/simson.html ***O'Reilly's 250th Book On Safari*** "IPv6 Essential" is a Safari milestone--it is O'Reilly's 250th book in the subscription-based web service that lets you search hundreds of best-selling technical titles. http://safari.oreilly.com/main.asp?bookname=ipv6ess Sign up now and get your first 14 days on Safari free. https://www.oreillynet.com/safaripromo/oreilly-14.html ***Top 100 Power Picks*** The editors of "Enterprise Systems" have selected Tim O'Reilly as one of the Top 20 IT Leaders in its annual Enterprise Systems Power 100 issue. The awards look at top influencers, forces, technologies, and products in large enterprise computing. http://www.esj.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=108 --------------------- .NET --------------------- ***2002 OSCON .NET Report*** http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2002/07/29/oscondotnet.html ***The Rotor Architecture Revisited*** Microsoft's Dave Stutz reports on activity around the Rotor project, which was recently refreshed. Besides .NET developers diving into the CLI source code, teachers and students are using it for compsci curriculum development, Microsoft is working on a project to add generics, and as reported on these pages, "diverse porting activity in the wild" has been sighted. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2002/07/22/rotor.html --------------------- Open Source --------------------- ***Making the Python Cookbook*** Putting together such a collective work presented some unique challenges. We recently spoke to the book's two editors about the community effort involved in creating the Python Cookbook. http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2002/08/01/cookbook.html Python Cookbook Order Number: 1673 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythoncook/ ***Promiscuous Mode Problems*** Noel Davis looks at a vulnerability in PHP; buffer overflows in Cisco IOS, Fake Identd, HylaFAX, and EnGarde Secure Linux's resolver libraries; and problems in the reporting of Promiscuous Mode by the Linux kernel, Sun Fire servers, chfn, chsh, Pine, GNU Mailman, and the VNC challenge and response. http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/07/30/insecurities.html --------------------------- Web Development --------------------------- ***Flash on Mobile and Embedded Devices*** Developers take note: the market is growing! http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/08/02/flash_embedded.html For related reading check out: ActionScript: The Definitive Guide Order Number: 8520 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actscript/ J2ME in a Nutshell Order Number: 253x http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/j2meanut/ ***Top Ten Web Performance Tuning Tips*** In the world of Web publishing, lots of effort goes into building functionality, and to some degree into designing the user interface, but performance tuning is often overlooked in the mad rush to get to the next project. Here's a terrific list of top ten performance tips from Patrick Killelea, author of "Web Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition." Web Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition Order Number: 172X http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/webpt2/ --------------------- Java --------------------- ***2002 OSCON Java Wrap-Up*** http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/07/29/osconjava.html ***10 Reasons We Need Java 3.0*** It's now seven years since Sun posted the first public release of Java, and it is showing its age. There are many parts of Java that everyone agrees should be fixed, but can't be for reasons of backwards compatibility. Elliotte Rusty Harold imagines a "Java 3" that jettisons the baggage of the last decade, and proposes numerous changes to the core language, virtual machine, and class libraries. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/07/31/java3.html ------------------------------- Bioinformatics ------------------------------- ***Wanted: Bioinformatics info*** Do you know of any bioinformatics groups? Know anyone who does? Have you read a good bioinformatics article lately? Please let me know at marsee(a)oreilly.com --------------------- Mac --------------------- ***Dissecting .Mac*** Current iTools enrollees have felt conflicting emotions about Apple's announced move to .Mac, with its annual pricing structure. Here's a look at the services being offered, and their value, from an experienced user's point of view. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/07/30/dot_mac.html ***Jaguar: Time to Stop Pussyfooting Around*** Debates about Apple's marketing of Mac OS X, upgrade pricing for Jaguar, and the viability of the Switch campaign are distracting us from what's important: it's time to move forward with this operating system as quickly as possible. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/08/01/jaguar.html Until next time, Marsee

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TUG 2002 - Update
by Nagarjuna G. 07 Aug '02

07 Aug '02

----- Forwarded message from Radhakrishnan CV <cvr(a)tug.org> ----- >From nagarjun Wed Aug 7 15:11:26 2002 Envelope-to: nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in Delivery-date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 15:11:26 +0530 From: Radhakrishnan CV <cvr(a)tug.org> Subject: TUG 2002 - Update To: Nagarjuna <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> Could you please post this in any of the appropriate FSF India list? Thanks for your assistance. Radhakrishnan ------------------------------------ This is an update of TUG2002. The precise program schedule is now available at: http://www.tug.org.in/tug2002/program.html As you can see, TUG 2002 deals with many of the emerging technologies in the document universe with emphasis on non-Latin and Indic scripts document processing. I would request all of you to have a look at the programs and abstracts of presentations. It will be of much assistance to the organizers if you would register at the earliest. As this is the first time that the Annual Conference of TeX Users Group is being conducted outside Europe and US, I hope, you will not miss this chance to participate. -- Radhakrishnan Indian TeX Users Group ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/ Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7 ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

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[ilug-goa] revolution :) (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 07 Aug '02

07 Aug '02

A young student-friend from Goa, Ajoy Kunkolienkar, recently put out this post. Could we do something to encourage such thinking? Any further development of the CD-for-engineering-students plan? FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- hi everybody! i've been trying some stuff over the last week which prompts me to post this mail... what i'm basically trying to do is to create an option or rather highlight an already existing option to the student community. in any course in computer science , the subjects of RDBMS ,OOP , Networking and software engineering are common .. and they form the scope of the Bsc compute science course offered by various colleges affltd. to the GU. Most of the colleges (almost all) use MS windows as the default platform for conducting practicals in the above subjects.I tried doing otherwise ie. using *Linux* for all practicals and by doing so, i hoped to give others a choice too.. i tried the foll. combinations , but some have shortcommings.. can someone help me out with them? SUBJECT TRADITION LINUX REVOLUTION ;) STATUS ------- --------- ------------------ -------- OOP(c++) Turbo C++ GCC(G++) + vi *successful RDBMS Vb+Oracle8i PHP+MySQL **see bottom HTML ie netscape obvious Networking BSD sockets(GCC) same no change S/w Engg. MS.Project Mr.Project ***successful ============================================================================= * I downloaded david 1.02 which is supposed to be a full fledged c/c++ IDE for Gnome .. but it takes a hell lot of time to start and it crashes very very frequently.. Arvind Y. is supposed to provide me Anjuta .. guess that can be a good option to TC++ .. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** i tried the MySQL 3.22 server ( too old?? ) everything works fine but 3.22 dosent support checks ,views and foreign keys. (emulates foreign keys) can someone suggest a replacement??? i cant get my hands on Oracle 9i for linux ..that could be a solution i guess.. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Can anyone suggest any good case tools for linux?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- hoping for a reply, -=AJOY=- datafort(a)rediffmail.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Access Your PC from Anywhere - Free Trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/o5uw2C/0ncEAA/Ey.GAA/0XFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To Post a message, send it to: ilug-goa(a)eGroups.com To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: ilug-goa-unsubscribe(a)eGroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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[fred@bytesforall.org: [Life] Taking the Penguin to the classroom (Goa)]
by Nagarjuna G. 05 Aug '02

05 Aug '02

----- Forwarded message from Frederick Noronha <fred(a)bytesforall.org> ----- >From nagarjun Fri Aug 2 10:31:42 2002 Envelope-to: nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in Delivery-date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:31:42 +0530 cc: Animesh N Nerurkar <banduji(a)symonds.net> From: Frederick Noronha <fred(a)bytesforall.org> List-Archive: <http://mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in/pipermail/life/> List-Help: <mailto:life-request@mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in?subject=help> List-Id: A Mailing List for Free Software Solutions for Education <life.mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in> List-Post: <mailto:life@mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in> List-Subscribe: <http://mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in/mailman/listinfo/life>, <mailto:life-request@mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in?subject=subscribe> List-Unsubscribe: <http://mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in/mailman/listinfo/life>, <mailto:life-request@mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in?subject=unsubscribe> Reply-To: life(a)mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in Subject: [Life] Taking the Penguin to the classroom (Goa) To: life(a)mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in X-AntiVirus: OK! AntiVir MailGate Version 2.0.0.0 at hbcse has not found any known virus in this email. X-BeenThere: life(a)mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.5 This is a draft article that Animesh and myself are working on... it kindof explains the approach in Goa. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- =================================================== GNU/LINUX IN OVERDRIVE... TAKING THE PENGUIN TO THE CLASSROOM =================================================== By Animesh Nerulkar & Frederick Noronha GOA MADE it to the news some months back, as a group of volunteers attempted to take GNU/Linux to the classroom. Fighting pessimism, a heavily Microsoft-loaded syllabus and a daunting task coupled with the ever-looming difficulty of getting volunteers, the project has moved on. Silently and away from the headlines, a small group has struggled to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Will things work? It's still too chancey to predict... But, clearly some indicators and pointers are emerging already. If Linux is going to reach the school classroom, the success or failure of such a project would probably depend on: * acceptance of Linux by teachers and students * availability of Linux support, when needed * ability to get earlier-generation hardware to work with suitable versions of Linux. Goasudharop's Goa Schools Computers Project (GSCP), a network of expat Goans inspired by concerns about spreading computer education emerging from back home, shipped in a containerfull of some 280 once-used computers from New York. GNU/Linux hass been installed on a number of these. Some 150 schools inGoa benefited from this handout, with 20 of these schools recieving LTSP networks, using the Linux Terminal Server Project software. On behalf of Linux Goa (Goa chapter of the India Linux User Group) local software engineer Arvind Yadav and automobile engineering student Animesh Nerurkar put together a single-CD version Linux, based on Red Hat 7.2. The goal of this was that it would make an install of GNU/Linux easier and faster; standardise the installation, so that problems when they arose could be more-easily identified and tackled; and match the available hardware (Pentiums) with the software. RedHat 7.2 was selected over other versions as the base for this custom CD mainly due to its built-in support for the ext3 file system -- seen as being more hardy to withstand the powerfailures and abrupt shutdowns that school usage could imply. Besides, this was also the latest version of linux released at that time. To make the installation and maintenance work easier, Arvind and Animesh point out that they worked on creating a standard Linux installation. Kind of stick-the-CD-in-and-it-works thing. This CD was used to deploy GNU/Linux in most of these schools in Goa and another "few hundred" in Nepal. Schools in the distant mountainous kingdom had also requested and deployed the same with help from Linux-Goa's volunteer Tom Fernandes, of German-Goan descent, who has been working with GNU/Linux extensively in Goa over the past months. Tom traveled all the way across by train and bus to help out, in the backdrop of a Maoist insurgency in that politically-troubled country and amidst unpredictable traffic dislocations and many-day general strikes. This custom schools CD also evoked interest among those promoting the use of GNU/Linux in some of Kerala's schools. As the custom built CD was intended for use in schools, it was planned as a solution to the anticipated needs of these schoools and their curriculae, rather than as just another package of goodies. Besides, at the back of everyone's mind was the level of expertise of the average volunteer -- not all of us are in the same league as Alan Cox, after all. Some amount of standardisation was also prefered to ensure ease of voluntary support to these schools in the eventuality that another volunteer might have to work out a solution to a computer which he or she (yes, there are a few committed women volunteers too!) didn't do the initial setup for. It was also expected to adequately provide the needs of GNU/Linux related self learning for the school staff. Of course, installation and configuration of GNU/Linux software is a time-consuming job. Each installation, on each PC, takes the good part of an hour. (One needs to note here however that a Windows install usually 'fixes' only the Operating System. In the case of Linux, one normally gets not just the OS but virtual tonnes of office applications, Net tools, a few games, engineering applications -- if you choose them -- and a whole lot of software to do virtually everything you could do with a computer). There are two special catagories of installation in the new menu -- Workstation, for stand alone systems, and LTSP-Server, for a network server. For each of these installation catagories, a custom disk-partioning scheme was customised while the original Redhat scheme were rejected as it did not by default meet the hardware requirements of the PCs being installed in the schools which, expectedly, were not the latest available in the market. The time zone selections were set to default to "Calcutta/India". Such small efforts were aimed at ensuring that the installation setups were easier for the person finally doing it. As most machines are restricted to some 32 MB RAM and 1.2 GB hard disks. those working on the project were left with no option but to ruthlessly eliminate any software package that was unessential. As a result, some standard packages and apps from the original Red Hat 7.2 'distro' were dropped and some additional apps were added. The need for dropping some of the original Red Hat collection was dictated by the hardware resources of the machines that would use this, while the additional software was meant to provide additional functionality and ensure the availability of the complete, needed solution. KDE, a resource hungry solution, was the single largest casualty along with all QT-based apps. Gnome, as the next most resource-hungry, would also have been put on the chopping block were it not for the fact that atleast one, complete, non-radical, userfriendly desktop was needed (atleast initially). This was seen as necessary to avoid intimidating the school staff. Gnome was selected over KDE as it was found to be a lot less resource hungry. Windowmaker menus were customised and added on the CD with the intention that at some point of time, the school staff and children wud migrate to a lighter desktop such as this. Some games were selectively included in the CD from the original Red Hat package as these were known to enhance educational and entertainment value. LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server Project, besides its documentation and a vast collection of remote boot images were added. Browser Opera was added. Some howtos had to be written to cover these changes and to aid in the implementation of the project. Arvind coded shell scripts for this purpose. To complete this excercise, two volunteer and one GSCP teachers training programmes were held by Linux Goa. For the teachers training, theory sessions were compulsary, practicals were optional. Each teachers training programme lasted two days, four sessions per day, two hours per session. In all, a total of eight sessions done. Tom Fernandes and Animesh volunteered as instructors on behalf of Linux Goa, while Arvind and Animesh helped with the volunteer training. On most PCs, this single-CD install would work without causing much trouble for even a newbie, believes Animesh. (Other Linux-Goa stalwarts like Goa University professor Gurunandan Bhat cautions against building undue expectations on this, saying, "Installs are tricky and often unpredictable.") To demonstrate how it would work, our non-techie members who have never done a single install in their life -- like one of the co-authors of this article -- were called upon to face the test. They -- or should one say the CD -- passed easily. Tom Fernandes <anyaddress(a)gmx.net> suggests that another desktop manager could be used (in lieu of Gnome). "Nautilius is damn slow (on the Pentium-I's). It uses up 80% of the RAM," suggested Tom. Currently the machines are being set up with Gnome as default. Animesh raises some questions. He says: "How do we use computers to further the cause of education, rather than just dump a set of hardware and software in the hands of school-teachers?" He says while the attempt to implement a Linux-in-education solution in Mexico is largely seen as having "failed", in Portland-Oregaon a success story was reported. This had also resulted in the LinuxForKids.com collection of software. Others -- in places as far apart as Vietnam and Kolkata -- were interested in looking at Goa's experiment with taking Linux to schools. Delhi has since started an ambitious project, and is working itself to take GNU/Linux to schools through the support of the local LUG (Linux Users Group). Future plans in Goa include working out a more carfully planned schools specific linux distro. There is also need for a carefully planned engineering college specific Linux distro. Say volunteers: "Any one interested is welcome to join in the effort, regardless of ur nationality, geographical location, or such other considerations." To conclude, here is some food for thought: People are neither trying to learn computers, nor are they trying to use computers. They're simply trying to get their work done. GNU/Linux will gain acceptance if it can help them to get to that goal without too much difficulty. (ENDS) -- Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783 BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com Email fred(a)bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference _______________________________________________ LIFE mailing list LIFE(a)mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in http://mm.hbcse.tifr.res.in/mailman/listinfo/life ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/ Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7 ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

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