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SIMPUTER SURFACES AT GOA'S MINES

[ GNULinux CORPORATE VIEW ]

The Reuter's report of the use of Simputers at Dempo's mines in Goa (see http://in.tech.yahoo.com/030731/137/26i2o.html ) was good news for GNU/Linux fans in Goa. After all, the core of the Simputer is Free Software.

Only goes to underline the point: technology can become relevant to the commonman if only knowledge is not hidden or blocked.

Journalist Anshuman Daga, writing from Bangalore, reported that "like many companies worldwide, Indian mining group Dempo uses handheld computers to help it manage data about its business".

Says the report: "(T)he device Dempo uses to update its inventories is a home-grown product called the Simputer."

It quotes Demop stragetic planning official M.R.Aravindan saying: "Earlier, it used to take us more than a week to compile and analyse details of the iron ore picked up by our trucks."

Two years after a launch marred by marketing and funding concerns, the Simputer is spreading quietly into small towns and schools, as well as to business users such as Dempo. There are plans to put it on retailers' shelves across the country this year.

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FROM MAPUSA... TO SHIRODA?

[ CAMPUS TALK ]

Students at St Xavier's College in Mapusa came across a range of new ideas and options in recent weeks, during a workshop over GNU/Linux that spanned much of the day.

Before the event -- executed well by the college and ILUG-Goa volunteers -- students played around with many Free Software 'distros'. Needless to say, there were no artificial or legal blocks on anyone copying this software, experimenting with it, or learning more.

Ashley Delaney delaneyashley@softhome.net wrote in to say prior to the event: "I went to Xavier's this morning, and was plesantly surprised to see a few guys installing Red Hat 9 on a few PCs albit with a few hardware problems. (They've got access to) a whole lot of distros and were trying to install all of them!"

This workshop went off well. Many students sat glued to their seats, long after the time for demos was over. Bright young students went home with fresh ideas and inspiration.

Next to take the step was RIT, the Rayeshwar Institute of Technology, which incidentally is Goa's third and youngest engineering colleges. They're keen to learn more about Free Software ("free as in freedom, not price") and probably set up a local group to take their understanding further.

User-groups are an excellent way of promoting self-study. The Net also allows for the sharing of knowledge of an unprecedented pace. In Goa itself, there are two mailing lists, ILUG-Goa (search for it at yahoogroups.com) and teach-yourself-linux (located on the same site).

Anyway, the Shiroda engineering college would be following in the footsteps of the older engineering colleges in Goa. GEC at Farmaguddi has a core-team that well understands the power of Free Software. Last year, Free Software Foundation head Richard "RMS" Stallman visited and lectured here. PCC too has been quick to realise this potential. Earlier this year, they hosted a team speaking about TeX -- that simple but amazing piece of software that can make publishing a breeze!

REPORT FROM GEC: The first LaTeX report from the Farmagudi-based Goa Engineering College got ready recently. It was a final year Mech project report.

This report with graphs, tables, figures, biblio, contents etc. (complete in all respects) is with Prof George Easaw geasaw@vsnl.com in pdf format. He generously offered to upload it to a public site "for curious members who would like to see how the report looks like".

This pdf doc was only about 650 KB.

Says Prof Easaw: "LaTeX (has arrived) in the GEC with a bang ... and the four students -- Sameer, Anil, Swapnil and Dharmaraj -- promised that they will henceforth try to use Free Software whereever possible and spread the good word around. i have personally seen that they are quite well versed in preparing the LaTeX reports independently."

MORE ON TeX: Ms. Kshama Fernandes kshksh@sancharnet.in is a young prof at the Goa Institute of Management, Ribandar, who won the wows of GNU/Linux geeks when she recently demoed her skills at using TeX to compose academic papers, and even a book.

TeX is, incidentally, pronounced at Tek.

Says Fernandes: "I started using Tex two years ago and it has been a great experience. It helped me do a lot of things, including publish a book.... As an academic, I should be spending my time on putting across ideas (not wasting it on doing typesetting)."

She demoed the 'goodies' that work with Tex. BibteX, that brings up the bibliography. Tools to create hyper references in the document. GNUplot for graphs. Programmes in Pearl, awk and shell scripts. Jgraph to do graphs, xfig and a nice (commercial) statistical tool calledl Stata.

She explained how a bibliography, once put together, could be easily reused to write any academic paper, and probably even shared among a group of researchers working on similar topics. She showed us the "jugglery" that went into make mathematical equations.

Kshama went on to compile the document (for a dvi output or pdf). She felt that there was a bug in the hyperreferences -- when you click on one, it doesn't seem to take you back where you started from. She assured it was possible to place pics into the text, and said she had done this for her 250-page book.

By the time she left, ubergeeks were left to comment on the ease with which she handled Debian and the command-line interface.

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GNUachievers

IT WAS bound to happen. Word has gone out that the young men (and a few women) who are into Free/Libre and Open Source Software (or FLOSS) do their work with a passion, and can really deliver results.

For one, their in the field because they love it. Second, something about FLOSS encourages those who delve into it, to go real deep. Thirdly, when others share knowlege so freely and readily, how could you not learn fast?

Gaurav Priyolkar got a job with a prominent Indian software export house, and is now based in Pensylvania, US. Bilnston, better known as B2 to friends, was quickly picked up to become part of an outstation team. So was his hacker collegue Ajay Cuncolienkar. Ex-polytec Yunus Shaikh shuttles between Ponda and Scandinavia for work on thin clients. Arvind Clemente and youngsters like Andrew Suarez are viewed as people with a serious interest in security. Animesh Nerurkar was selected by the CMIE and posted back in Goa.

Who says our youngsters can't find opportunity, and get good jobs? Just give them a chance to learn without barriers, and in areas that interest them deeply. Sit back and see where they reach!

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Planning for ECAP

Want to volunteer at the GNU/Linux initiatives during the Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products (Sept 13-14, Panjim; Sept 20-21, Margao)? Check out the discussion and updates underway on the ILUG-Goa list at yahoogroups.com

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SNIPPETS

* Amol Hatwar and Raj from Synapse, recently gave an interesting intro on Amol's plan for Freedom Matters "a bimonthly that is not a software journal, but looks at the *why* of Free Software". All volunteers welcome.

* Arvind Yadav has been recently experimenting with Spamassassim, which he finds a good tool to block spam.

* Who in Goa is into VLSI, USB 2.0, PCI and shell-scripting? Who's interest revolve around LaTeX, xfig, gnuplot and octave? Know someone working in embedded Linux? Who specialises in web development, and who's into DNS, sendmail and squid? If you're getting puzzled, check out the latest list of who's interested in what field of interest from among the India Linux Users' Group (Goa). For a copy of this listing, write to fred@bytesforall.org. If you are interested in some Free Software subject, submit your name too!

* The good thing about Free Software is that it spreads without borders. Some of our committed supporters in Goa come from distant places. Members Laxman Saval laxman_saval@hotmail.com and Leya D'Souza are both based in the Gulf. A whole lot keep in touch from other places. Kaushal Bandarkar has been keeping in touch from distant Kurkushetra, though he's a student of Goan origin who has family in Ponda.

* Facing problems in accessing Sancharnet's server? ILUG-Goa has compiled more than one FAQ for GNU/Linux users wanting to log-on to the Internet. Contact them for a copy.

* Shailesh B wrote in recently: "I a computer enginner from Pune University. My native place is Goa ,but now i reside in Pune. Sir i would like to contribute to this (Goa Computers in Schools) project with the technical knowledge I have. Please dont let me down." Of course, there's always space for helping hands. If you'd like to support the initiatives to take computers further to schools in Goa, and use them productively there, contact Ashley Delaney Yahooid: ashleywiz Ph: 2409580/44 , 9422448700