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Hindu Business Line on free software & Tvm phone directory
by KG Kumar 18 Mar '03

18 Mar '03

http://www.blonnet.com/2003/03/18/stories/2003031801531700.htm -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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The Hindu on Free Software & Tvm. tel. directory
by KG Kumar 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003031707890300.htm -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Tvm in AsiaOSC
by KG Kumar 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

www.asiaosc.org/article_23.html -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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TACO Alert - FSF India site slashdotted
by unmadindu＠softhome.net 17 Mar '03

17 Mar '03

Subject sez all :-) http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/16/2222254&mode=thread&tid=117

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TeX and Free Software helps print Trivandrum telephone directory
by KG Kumar 16 Mar '03

16 Mar '03

FREE SOFTWARE HELPS IN TIMELY PUBLICATION OF BSNL'S TRIVANDRUM TELEPHONE DIRECTORY The latest edition of the Thiruvananthapuram telephone directory, officially released yesterday, was processed and typeset with a range of free software tools that gave substantial savings on costs and time, and allowed the publisher, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), to produce a neatly laid out and elegant publication ahead of schedule. The two-volume directory, to be distributed to all subscribers of the Thiruvananthapuram Secondary Switching Area (SSA) from March 25, has 1,200 pages and 3.2 lakh entries. Four lakh copies of the directory are currently being printed by the city-based St. Joseph's Press (SJP), using typesetting software and programs provided by River Valley Technologies (RVT), a Thiruvananthapuram-based software house that has vast expertise in offering typesetting and publishing solutions using free and open-source software. (Free, open-source software is software whose source code is freely available for scrutiny, modification or distribution, unlike proprietary software, which is privately owned and closely held.) For BSNL, this is the first complete directory to be published since 1999. According to K. Sreekantan Nair, Principal General Manager of the Thiruvananthapuram telecom district, BSNL has spent Rs 3.5 crores on printing the directory. For SJP, this was a particularly prestigious order since it is the single largest printing job to be ever undertaken in Kerala. Says Fr. Mathew Thekkel, the then Manager of SJP, who supervised the project, "This was a bold drive aimed at the future and meant to prove the capability of St. Joseph's Press." In the normal course, an order of this magnitude -- a print run of 4 lakh copies, each of 1,200 pages on 48 GSM white paper in three columns of Helvetica Narrow 7 point typeface, with 94 lines per column -- would have taken six months and involved around 50 employees wholly dedicated to the work. However, in this case, SJP was able to beat the March 15 deadline set by BSNL and, according to Fr. Thekkel, will be able to finish the entire printing in four months, using a small team. At present, SJP's printing presses are operating 21 hours per day at their maximum capacity of 20,000 copies per hour to finish the directory printing. The secret to the swift processing of the job was in the typesetting work done by RVT, says Fr. Thekkel. "But for the technology skills they have, we would not have quoted for the job," he adds. "Had we used the normal programs like PageMaker or QuarkXPress, we would have needed three months time," says Fr. Thekkel. RVT, on the other hand, used a combination of free software programs to extract BSNL's data, process it and typeset it into camera-ready copy. According to C. V. Radhakrishnan, Managing Director of RVT, the BSNL data of telephone numbers, subscribers names and addresses was supplied as files in dBase, an outdated database software that goes back to the days of the DOS operating system. Using a set of free software libraries downloaded from the Internet and locally customised, this data was extracted into the postgreSQL relational database, also free software, and then entirely recreated. RVT then wrote a Java program to pipe this newly generated database into TeX, a powerful typesetting engine and programming language, written by Donald Knuth of Stanford University and released in the public domain. From TeX, RVT produced the final output as Portable Document Format (PDF) files, using pdfTeX, also free software. "So powerful is TeX that it was able to process nearly 1,200 pages in just four minutes," says Radhakrishnan. "Not only that, since it is also a programming language, it is able to do several things automatically, like the generation of header markers, for example," he adds. To incorporate corrections and editorial changes to the proof sheets, RVT designed a graphical spreadsheet interface for SJP. This also helped to save time in updating around 10,000 entries which had changed since the last directory was printed four years ago. Fr. Thekkel forsees a great potential in the directory business, so much so that SJP is thinking of setting up a separate division for such work. The Department of Telecommunications has recently told its SSAs to print directories on their own, rather than rely on outside publishers, who often fail to deliver on time and in the required quantities. The Thrissur, Pathanamthitta and Tiruvalla SSAs are also due to publish their directories soon. -- KG Kumar Indian TeX Users Group kg at tug dot org dot in ------------------------

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Re: Malayalam
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Mar '03

16 Mar '03

Arun, Aren't you posting this to the other lists too? It's important to share even the small milestones along the journey. Who knows, this might *not* be such a *small* milestone anyway. FN On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, Arun M wrote: > Hi, > > > Today we did a pilot test of the Malayalam Gnome in a panchayath near > Trivandrum. We got very good response. The participants of the program > was mostly women(around 36 people from nearly 50 participants) from > panchatyath. More than 50 % of participents had some formal intriduction > to computers. And a few without any computer Knowledge. We have > collected the feed back on language uses and benfits of a malayalam > localised platform. Result is very much encouraging. The half day > session planned got extended to one complete day. Details i will send > soon. > > regards, > arun. > > > > -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.bytesforall.org : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : Goa India 403511 : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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GNU/Linux Month
by Amol Hatwar 15 Mar '03

15 Mar '03

Hi all, I read a seperate e-mail about RMS' bithday on 16 of March. Why not all of us celebrate it in the following manner: All of us who beleive it must be GNU/Linux and not Linux, carry an email signature indicating this, and a link where one could get more information for about a month. This should be equivalent to wearing a badge in the net-era. Let's declare March 16 - April 15 as the GNU/Linux month. I'll be glad to see more of such badges floating around :). ------------ It's most certainly GNU/Linux, not Linux. Read more at http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html. ------------- And oh yes, Happy Birthday Richard (en avance). Warm wishes, Amol Hatwar.

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Arkoprovo's suggestion(s) and thoughts thereon
by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

hi, arkoprovo makes some valid points about the presence and footprint of the GNU/Linux movement in the country. But i think we better take a good look at what is happening in reality. instead taking the platform as a viable, stable, economically beneficial and socially altruistic alternative to proprietary/closed source software, state governments are actually using this as a bait to drive/hammer down prices of you-know-what software. this does not serve the movement nor the purpose of the activism. on a truly national level, opinion must be created alongwith awareness about the stability and the viability of the system. for more on what is happening, i suggest the mar'03 issue of the [most unfortunately named] LinuxForYou. Frederick Noronha in one part of his column [nice one FN btw !!] outlines the malaise that is slowly creeping through. *free as in speech and not as in beer* might have been a rallying cry towards critical mass, but *freedom matters* should be the wardrums that roll. freedom matters and ideas matter. throughout history, man has risen against all odds, braved mighty challenges, driven by the sheer will and desire to be free. if such strong is the quest for freedom then i see no reason why we will not have people contributing. the only hitch is that in all FSF cause espousals we see the same faces. this is good as it reinforces belief and faith in the system. but we need to see new faces, new ideas, new projects and more importantly national awareness of such events. we need to synergise and form symbiotic relationships with related efforts and grow in unison. regards sankarshan --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/03

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Distributing mirrored data on CD to low bandwidth people.
by Imran William Smith 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

We are in the process of creating a mirror of some open source / free software in Malaysia, since the local mirror situation is not good. What is the mirror situation like in India / South Asia? My main question: Broadband rollout is currently low in Malaysia. We could help open source here by sending out CDs of the key open source apps / distros / packages. They'd probably be sent free since we have some funds for Malaysian open source development. But we don't want to be taken advantage of. Also, we'd like to encourage the software to spread further than just the people we send to. Can anybody see some way of turning this into a pyramid? I am thinking, maybe we could send 1 or 4 copies. If 4 copies, your name gets added to a database on the web, and others near you can come and get the other 3 copies. Something like that. It could be heavily engineered (credits for helping out on a web site, credits for sending copies to extra people, debits when we send people CDs) or all based on trust. Trust is probably better. But we want to make sure that the people who benefit are those who really don't have the bandwidth, rather than somebody who has access to the data in other channels but prefers us to send to them. We also have to make totally sure that we are distributing legally (for GPL, would we have to bundle source with binary, or just make the URL for the source very clear on the CD with the binary?) Thanks for your thoughts.... Imran -- www.AsiaOSC.org | Asian Open Source Centre www.mimos.my | MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia

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FM Relaunch
by Amol Hatwar 11 Mar '03

11 Mar '03

Hi all, Many of you may be aware of the Freedom Matters re-launch. The goal is not only to give Free Software developers/users a voice in India, but also to make a social and political impact on issues relating to Freedom. The job is not easy, and I'll require all the help from you guys can give me. Attached, please find the initial proposal that RMS, Arun and I have been through. I'll be glad to hear any additional suggestions and comments on the same. People who are ready to volunteer and work for the cause can mail me personally indicating this. Warm wishes, -ah

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