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Donald Knuth on open source
by saurabh daptardar 12 May '08

12 May '08

Hi, I came across an interesting interview of Prof. Donald Knuth where he talks about open source ( and other things) http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 Regards, Sourabh Daptardar P.S: Ubuntu camp should be happy should be happy to know that he uses Ubuntu ;) -- "Reality is, after all , too big for our frail understanding to fully comprehend. Nevertheless, we have to build our life on the theory which contains the maximum truth.We cannot sit still because we cannot, or do not , know the Absolute Truth." -- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose ( An Indian Pilgrim )

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Internet n/w in Etch GUI
by Rony 09 May '08

09 May '08

Hello Everyone, Recently I had downloaded the 3 DVD Debian Etch set, the updates DVD and after checking that md5 was the same, I burned them into DVDs. At a client's place when I installed Etch from them, everything went smoothly. However Firefox (Ice Weasel) does not open any sites. The net is the Triband ADSL modem and in the gnome-terminal as well as konsole, dig, ping as well as ftp download works. Since there was some distraction towards other machines, I did not get to try out the Ubuntu live CDs. The only peculiar thing about the setup is that the ADSL modem (old D-Link) is connected to this machine by ethernet and another windows machine uses the usb interface. A network card in that doze machine then passes on the shared usb connection to the rest of the networked machines. Before installing Debian, the target machine ran xp and net was being normally used though both ethernet and usb have the same 192.168.1.1 ip. The usb machine was shut down too to see if the same IP was the culprit. Even now with Etch, the net works only in terminals. Is this some bug with Etch 3 DVD ISOs? Has anyone encountered such problems with Etch? -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

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SVN problem
by Subhodip Biswas 08 May '08

08 May '08

Hi ! When i am trying to access svn over http i get this : [subhodip@home-server ~]$ svn co http://josm.openstreetmap.de/svn/trunk JOSM svn: REPORT request failed on '/svn/!svn/vcc/default' svn: REPORT of '/svn/!svn/vcc/default': 400 Bad Request (http://josm.openstreetmap.de) While when i am doing this : [subhodip@home-server ~]$ svn co svn://svn.mapnik.org/trunk mapnik Checked out revision 697. Why is this so ? what I am missing out here ? -- Regards Subhodip Biswas GPG key : FAEA34AB Server : pgp.mit.edu http://subhodipbiswas.wordpress.com http:/www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/SubhodipBiswas

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FSF India Delegation Meets the Union Minister for IT
by Rony 08 May '08

08 May '08

Hello All, I found this information about a meeting between FSF India and the Union IT minister in Oct 2007. http://www.gnu.org.in/node/130 Has the Govt. made any progress in implementing the points raised in the petition? -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

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Fwd: [gpl-violations.org] Court hearing about GPL case of Welte vs. Skype
by Kartik Mistry 07 May '08

07 May '08

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Python Seminar Part 1 Sunday 11th May 2008
by Prashant Shah 06 May '08

06 May '08

More details : http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ -- http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ elite.mumbai(a)gmail.com

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how to install from pendrive....
by mukesh yadav 05 May '08

05 May '08

hi.. at last meet we install the ubuntu from the pendrive in EEEPC...... I just wanted to know how do i prepare a pendrive so that i can install from a pen drive.. than you

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] Issue using GTK based Application in KDE
by Neelesh Gurjar 05 May '08

05 May '08

Neelesh Gurjar <neel.hjs(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> I am using Fedora 8 with KDE 3.5 and using Tally 7.2 for Linux on this >> machine. Tally is GTK based application. When I run this application in KDE, >> some of the shortcut keys dont work however when I run it in GNOME those >> shortcut keys work properly. Tally has shortcut keys like "Alt+F12" >> "Alt+F11" etc. >> >> So how can I get this done in KDE ? Abhishek Amberkar wrote: >ALT+F12 is already registered as a shortcut key in KDE. >IF you are not using that shortcut, then go to KDE Control Center >and disable it. > This might help. I tried this also. I disabled Alt+f12 in Kde Control Center. Still no luck. :( Thanks NeeleshG

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How to View Session Details? -- Sify Broadband
by Amit Joshi 04 May '08

04 May '08

Hi, I am using Sify Broadband on Ubuntu. I have a package with a download limit and so I need to check the session details. I am using antidialer to login, but I don't see how I can view my session details. I tried to search on google and came up with the following link, but unfortunately it is not working here. http://broadbandforum.in/sify-broadband/823-need-info-session-details-page-… I have no idea what my SAM server is supposed to be, but after looking into my antidialerrc file I found out that 202.144.65.70 works but not in the way the above link describes. Please help. Regards, Amit. -- http://mckagan.googlepages.com

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Free Software in India - Cover story by Down To Earth Magazine
by Praveen A 04 May '08

04 May '08

As 13-year-old Nalin Sathya, who will sit for these exams next year, puts it, "The system is very easy to use and I can now use it even without seeing the monitor. Python programming language is very easy. I am trying to learn it." Sathya's confidence emerges from a series of events that began eight years ago. -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Issue using GTK based Application in KDE
by Neelesh Gurjar 04 May '08

04 May '08

Hi, I am using Fedora 8 with KDE 3.5 and using Tally 7.2 for Linux on this machine. Tally is GTK based application. When I run this application in KDE, some of the shortcut keys dont work however when I run it in GNOME those shortcut keys work properly. Tally has shortcut keys like "Alt+F12" "Alt+F11" etc. So how can I get this done in KDE ? Please help -- Regards NeeleshG LINUX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity

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Fwd: Please participate and advertise
by Anurag 02 May '08

02 May '08

The SELF poster originally attached with this mail is available at: http://selfproject.eu/en/system/files/theODC_poster.pdf Anurag ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ms. Meena Kharatmal <meena(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> Date: 2008/5/1 Subject: Please participate and advertise To: Anurag <anurag(a)gnuer.org> Hello, SELF Project http://selfproject.eu aims for collaborative sharing and creation of open educational materials developed using the SELF Platform http://beta.selfplatform.eu. In July 2006, SELF Project is organizing an international conference on "Free Knowledge, Free Technology" in Barcelona, Spain http://fkft.eu. We are also announcing an Open Documentary Contest http://selfproject.eu/contest. The shorts will be screened and awareded during the FKFT conference in Spain. We would like to take this opportunity to announce the Open Documentary Contest for your participation. Please follow the website for further details. You may download the ODC Poster at http://selfproject.eu/en/poster We would appreciate if you circulate this contest into your network. Participation is open and the last date is May 31, 2008. Thankyou. Best Regards. Meena. -- .................................................................... Meena Kharatmal Blogpage --> http://okeanos.wordpress.com Homepage --> http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/~meena Wikipedia ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refined_concept_map .................................................................... -- http://web.gnuer.org/

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VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block (253, 0)
by Agnello George 30 Apr '08

30 Apr '08

Hi I am trying to install Cent OS 5 on a freshly formatted HDD. When boot my system frm the CD rom i get e following error "crc error VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block (253,0) plese append a correct "root=" boot optiion kernel panic -not syncing: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on unknow-block (253,0) " never faced such a issue before if can one can help , would be really grateful Thanks -- Regards Agnello Dsouza

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Network and Sound not working
by Cyril Chacko 29 Apr '08

29 Apr '08

Dear all, Has anyone configured Debian Linux on Campaq Presario F733AU Laptop. I have installed Debian on the Laptop. The Ethernet card is not detected during the install. And after install, none of the devices worked properly. Going through the net I managed to find out how to get the display going. I had to use the Vesa driver instead of nv from Xorg. However I am not able to find anything to tell me what to do about my other devices. I am adding my lspci output to this mail. Thanks for all the help Regards Cyril chacko -- Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Make sure they are on you.

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strftime for javascript
by Philip Tellis 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

They say that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, so this dog has been up to some old tricks. A couple of days ago I released strftime[1] for javascript with partial support for all of PHP's strftime[2] format specifiers, and today I released version 1.2 with full support and the ability to localise it. Get it via freshmeat here: http://freshmeat.net/projects/strftime-js/ (if you want the tarballs) or directly here: http://hacks.bluesmoon.info/strftime/ (if you only want the source and docs). The code is BSD licensed. Some more info: - The opengroup specification for strftime has 33 format specifiers and 19 modified format specifiers - PHP's strftime has the 33 basic format specifiers and adds 3 more - This javascript implementation supports the entire PHP set, and does not support the 19 modified format specifiers - The code supports locale specific representations through a locale extension mechanism which is well documented [3] There are bound to be bugs, so send them my way any way you see fit. The project is also hosted on google code, but I'm not too happy with the interface and am considering moving it to sourceforge mainly for svn and issue tracking. If you have strong opinions one way or the other, let me know. Anyway, for now, play with it, let me know about bugs, if you want to write a localised module for a particular language, feel free to do so and send it in. Philip [1] - http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xsh/strftime.html [2] - http://php.net/strftime [3] - http://hacks.bluesmoon.info/strftime/localisation.html -- hello world

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PHP Seminar Part 2 - Sunday 4th May
by Prashant Shah 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Details : http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ elite.mumbai(a)gmail.com

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Indian students in SoC
by Praveen A 26 Apr '08

26 Apr '08

Hi, We know about 7 students from India who got selected for SoC this time. http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/SoC/2008 If you know of any student from India not listed there please update. Regards Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Subversion 1.5.x first public RC
by Senthil Kumaran S 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

Hi, The long awaited release of subversion "with merge-tracking" has been ready with its first public release candidate. You can find the official announcement here http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2008-04/1120.shtml In another 6 to 8 weeks we are expecting a GA :) This release includes a lot of feature additions (http://subversion.tigris.org/svn_1.5_releasenotes.html) to subversion. Try it and report bugs if any, that will help the community :) If you want to know how to use subversion with all those bells and whistles check out http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn-book.html -- Senthil Kumaran S http://www.stylesen.org/

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] Why Schools Must Embrace ODF and FOSS
by Venkatesh Hariharan 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

> > My choice would be that the Govt. makes it mandatory for all hardware > donations to be independent of riders on software that can be installed on > them. Legal experts could site some clause about not allowing MRTP in > education. Last time we met, Nagarjuna had mentioned about school syllabus > having to be independent of brand identities. Then let the donors (anyone) > decide whether they can operate under this rule or want to back out. That > will also help the public get a better understanding of the benefactors. As > an organization, FSF India could prod the Govt. into making this rule. We > can write a letter with all our signatures and send it to the PM and other > Ministries. We could all meet at HBCSE to sign this letter. Better still would be an online petition. http://www.ipetitions.com www.petitiononline.com I will follow up on this since I am now based in Delhi. Venky

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Why Schools Must Embrace ODF and FOSS
by Praveen A 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

Schools are being prevented from enjoying a revolution in software provision, and self-sufficiency is being halted by the promotion of dependency, said Ian Lynch, spokesman for the Open Schools Alliance. "Innovation starts with teachers and pupils, but under BSF the school's IT strategy is taken out of its hands," he said. see more news at how Microsoft is trying to lock students at an early stage http://boycottnovell.com/2008/04/19/school-odf-koffice-nlnet/ We (those us us from Kerala) can be proud that we did not let our children to suffer, but be watchful, they are trying hard. See how Microsoft's playmate Infosys is selling our children and our countries future. http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm/browse_thread/thread/5187fd263da0e0… -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Interview with Debian Devleoper from IITM Varun Hiremath
by Praveen A 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Which project do you currently contribute to? I am a Debian Developer and I am currently maintaining about 135 packages in Debian. This is my Debian QA page where you will find the list of packages I am currently maintaining in Debian: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=Varun+Hiremath Apart from Debian I have been contributing to many open source projects: 1) I am author of open source project python-gastables: python modules for compressible gas flow calculations: Homepage: code.google.com/p/python-gastables 2) I am also author of Krickscore - KDE applet for cricket scores. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Environment/KDE/krickscore-25612.sht… Homepage: http://varun.travisbsd.org/krickscore.php 3) I have been contributing to Jajuk - Advanced Juke box project, where I am working as a Developer and Debian package maintainer. Homepage: http://jajuk.info/index.php/Main_Page 4) I am also currently maintaing pidgin-festival ( formerly knows as festival-gaim). I rewrote festival-gaim to make it work with the new pidgin API. Homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin-festival/ How does it feels to have two DDs from neighbouring rooms? (Kumar Appaiah stays next to my room) It is a big advantage having him next door because we get to learn a lot from each other. Usually there is a lot of activity going on in Debian, and it becomes very difficult to keep track of things; having another DD next door really helps a lot to catch up with action. Read More about Varun at http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Varun_Hiremath Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Propagating Digital Democracy
by Rony 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

Hello All, This Olympic season has witnessed a lot of supporters of freedom and the media too is going out of its way to provide news reports on how activists all over the world are protesting against dictators and autocratic regimes. Even on normal days the people as well as the media have become pro-active in exposing those who abuse their power and position, whether it is the powerful Nations, politicians or Government officials. All this is happening because there is full awareness about Freedom and Democracy. There are now aware of their rights, so they protest whenever anyone abuses power. However in the digital world there is a near complete lack of awareness of Digital Democracy and Freedom. The main reason I believe for this is that we look at the digital world as simply a collection of electronic gadgets that help us do our daily work. We forget that the Digital World is nothing but an extension of the real world. Computers are no longer the simple devices that did specific jobs for us. They are a complete Digital Ecosystem that is fully integrated into our personal and professional space. Therefore anything that affects our Digital Freedom affects our individual freedom too. A software manufacturer for our digital environment is no different from a regular manufacturer who produces materials or finished products for our homes and offices. When we setup a home or an office, a lot of people are involved like carpenter, mason, plumber, painter, electrician etc. They provide us with the finished infrastructure we need to run our homes and offices. After their job is done and we start using the finished rooms, do we hand over an extra set of keys to each one of them so that they can walk into our rooms as and when they feel so and rummage through our things? We zealously guard our living space. What about our digital space? Why should a software manufacturer have to constantly access our Digital space under the pretext of providing security and upgrades when he should have provided a secure Digital product through its manufacture itself. How many of us realize that when a giant software manufacturer of one country has this access to our Digital space in most of the world's computers, including those used by Governments of all Nations, it has direct access to sensitive data and records of all those Nations. In our living world, we buy and use products that can be re-filled, re-cycled and can be serviced by more than one vendor as this makes our life easy and we are not dependent on one entity who may demand whatever price it wants to. We also look for continuity of use for those products over the years instead of simply paying high amounts every time and using them for short periods. Do we have the same awareness in the Digital World? Why are we content with paying large amounts of money for software to run our digital products and keep shelling out more and more every year for upgrades? Are we aware that digital products like computers can be run on software that is not expensive, restrictive and has a very long life span? That is Freedom software or Libre software. This is software that anyone can analyze, modify and use on their digital products with full freedom without the constant fear of it getting obsolete or our data becoming un-readable. In the real world if we guard our freedom to buy and use any product anyway we want without any monopolistic control or restrictions from the manufacturer then in the Digital world, why are we ignorant of our right to software Freedom and Digital Democracy? In the real world, if anyone powerfull and influential tries to flex his muscles and mow others down, there is an immediate public and media outcry against it. However in the Digital world why are we simply ignorant of our Digital Freedom and Democratic rights and let the Software super-powers simply bulldoze any initiative for Software Freedom? Knowledge creates awareness and awareness brings Freedom. Just as Democracy and Freedom are most important to mankind in the real world, so is Digital Democracy and Freedom, especially in this Digital era where knowledge is now digitized and should be freely accessible to everyone. -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

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Kumar Appaiah: 5th Debian Developer from India
by Praveen A 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

Kumar Appaiah (ILUGC Member and Final year Dual degree student, EEE Dept, IIT-Madras) is the 5th Debian Developer from India. Other 4 from India are Ganesan Rajagopal, Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan in Bangalore. Kapil Hari Paranjape in Institute of Mathematical Sciences Taramani. Varun Hiremath, student of Aerospace Engg. at IIT Madras. Congratulations Kumar. It is a great boost for the Debian community in India. -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] google groups without membership: was a list discussing the ICT policy for education
by Nagarjuna G. 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Raj Mathur <raju(a)linux-delhi.org> wrote: > On Saturday 19 Apr 2008, Nagarjuna G. wrote: > > Those of you who would like to take active role in shaping the ICT > > policy of India, please join this group and voice your opinions. > > This group has members from various organizations, and not > > necessarily from free software community. > > > > http://groups.google.com/group/ict-education-india > > Why Google? It won't let me join the group unless I have a Google > account, and it won't let non-Google-members view archives, etc. > > I presume increasing Google's market worth isn't one of the objectives > of this discussion forum. > I do not realize till this time that it is not possible to subscribe unless you have a google account. the owner of the group subscribed my gnowlede.org account, so i could not realize and never visited the site nor the archives. Can a person with google account invite a non-member? or does this also make the non-member a member if the invited accepts? Nagarjuna

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a list discussing the ICT policy for education
by Nagarjuna G. 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

Those of you who would like to take active role in shaping the ICT policy of India, please join this group and voice your opinions. This group has members from various organizations, and not necessarily from free software community. http://groups.google.com/group/ict-education-india -- Nagarjuna G.

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3gpwiz installation
by Nishit Dave 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

Hi all, I have installed 3gpwiz from the LFY April 2008 cd. This script requires that I install ffmpeg with support for all types of media codecs. The script for installing ffmpeg tries to download it from mplayerhq.hu through a CVS command. When I run the install-ffmpeg script, the output tells me that it cannot find mplayerhq.hu. Now, I usually connect to the internet through an open (no uid / pwd) proxy at the workplace, that apparently doesn't allow ftp access. As I have already configured the proxy in my environment settings, bash profile etc., connecting to the internet while on my Reliance datacard from the bash shell also does not work. The mplayerhq.hu site now hosts mplayer and ffmpeg sources on SVN, and the CVS repository is obsolete (up to 2006). I had downloaded the 2006 ffmpeg tarball and tried to install 3gpwiz against that (after modifying the script), but it did not work properly. Has anybody else installed 3gpwiz successfully? Can anybody tell me how to replace the CVS option in the script with an SVN command? If you want, I will post the script's contents (after rebooting to linux).

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Help needed
by Aniruddha Dasgupta 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

Hi people, We are at a fix here. our studio is expecting a new work in a couple of days and our windows systems are repeatedly infected by virus. and our copy of SUSE has become corrupt. If anyone has a copy of SUSE linux 10.1 with all the repositories and codecs etc. can they give us a copy ? would be very grateful. because we are novice with linux, we won't be able to get all the repos from the net and we don't even know how to do that properly. next, if someone can guide us, as to where we can get a copy of Maya for Linux. same problem. our copy is not getting installed. We would be greatly obliged if someone can come over as our guest and have a look, at ou place and the system. looking for all your replies. regards Aniruddha Dasgupta Director-Animation +91-9324696842

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.. Re: Sunday Meet I am Waiting For It!
by Anivar Aravind 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

> True. For now it's not even a standard, never mind any other criteria > by which one may choose to classify a standard. > Of course M$ will always have their spin on everything, so Open > Standard means just that - a non standard open to interpretation by > everyone and the mickysoft puppet. One of the Demands of the candle light vigil was the need of a Clearly defined national policy for Open standards. Such a policy document need to define Open standards first Now Knowledge commission recommends Open standards 11th 5-year plan talk about open standards National Egovernance plan (NeGP) recommends it. but in the absence of a national policy with a clear definition of open standards we need to spend a lot of time for every project to get corrected. As Nagarjuna points on Hindu report already posted here “Very big voices like NASSCOM and Infosys that have not participated in even one meeting have voted irresponsibly. We fear that if such lobbying continues, academics and individuals like us will be put on the defensive, unless there is a policy in place,” said Nagarjuna G., professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was part of the technical committee of BIS. Todays Programme was a big sucess here in bangalore. Nearly 70-80 people turned up. Anivar

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] .. Re: Sunday Meet I am Waiting For It!
by jtd 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

On Tuesday 15 April 2008 03:23 pm, Devranjan Das wrote: > > not yet. ISO has approved setting up a commitiee for reconciling > > the differences between the various factions and resolving > > technical issues. > > > > Dear List > > This wikipedia article says that "OOXML" is an open standard. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML > > Is that so? No. It's not a standard. It is a proposed standard which will have to be cleared by various regular ISO committies and the newly formed ones (read my previous mail), before becoming a standard. OTOH ODF is already an approved standard. -- Rgds JTD

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[OT] LFY April 2008
by Nishit Dave 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

Hey, have the subscribers among you started to receive this month's LFY issue, you know, the one with FreeBSD (!drool)? If only I have been left out, it would be because of their very helpful but slightly confused subscriptions dept. (Coming from me, would it perk up ears?)

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The Hindu: Techies protest proprietary standards; seek policy
by Praveen A 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

Today's Hindu has a report on Candle Light Vigil and Campaign for Document Freedom. BANGALORE: Ever since the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) vote on April 2 adopted Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) as a document standard, techie blogs and websites have been inundated with posts and articles voicing their opposition to proprietary software and technical issues with the new standard. Organisations and online communities — such as the Free Software User Group and the Free and Open Source Software — are looking to raise the issue more aggressively in the public domain. "We call the OOXML format a "banana standard." Besides raising awareness, we want the Government to formulate a policy supporting Open Software and also appeal the ISO mandate," said Anivar Aravind, a software consultant who will participate in a rally in front of the Town Hall on Tuesday to raise awareness about Open Document formats and demand a national policy on standardisation and use of Open Software. In simple words, the problem is one of compatibility, an important issue in this digital world. For example, take the much hyped e-governance. If the Government maintains its land records in a certain digital format, and the documentation uses a proprietary format, then a user will have to keep upgrading his operating system to access the record. Proponents of Free Software argue that even with Microsoft's old document format (.doc), a file created seven to eight years ago may not be recognised by a modern operating systems such as XP. "This is like being sold a house without being given the key to it. We need public support to take it to the policy level," says Venkatesh Hariharan, who was part of a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) committee. The BIS, which represents India at ISO, had 19 members of which 13 voted against Microsoft's OOXML. Many academics and colleges (NIT-Calicut among others) have written open letters to TCS, Infosys, NASSCOM, Wipro (that voted to abstain) and Microsoft (voted in favour of OOXML). There is a rising fear among academics and advocates of free software standards that BIS will come under pressure in the absence of any national policy. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the only two States who have a policy in place. "Very big voices like NASSCOM and Infosys that have not participated in even one meeting have voted irresponsibly. We fear that if such lobbying continues, academics and individuals like us will be put on the defensive, unless there is a policy in place," said Nagarjuna G., professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was part of the technical committee of BIS. This committee alone identified 200-odd technical flaws in OOXML's 7,000 page document — the Open Document Format is 600 pages — and more than 1,000 others were identified internationally. The National Knowledge Commission Report 2006 and the Eleventh Five Year plan for Information Technology recommend Free Software. http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/15/stories/2008041554380500.htm -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Sunday Meet I am Waiting For It!
by PenguinPuPPy 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

Sure It will be a pleasure to meet after a long time ..I was waiting for a meet since a long time what could be a better excuse that the ASUS Eee PC.BTY i have Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 beta will get them on Sunday -- To Love The Penguin(aka TUX) You Need To Be As Faithful As A Puppy

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Linux compat Printer
by jtd 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Hi all, My ancient hp 720C which worked for the last 11 yrs is finally showing it's age. The pins on the catridge socket have poor contact resulting in streaky printing. I was planing on buying the HP K5300DN, which works with full capability under linux. Print load is moderate. I require good color print for the occasional printed brochure. Any recommendations? -- Rgds JTD

3 3

Apache -MySQL module ??
by Agnello George 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Hi I would like to know if any one has worked on Apache -MySQL module Just like bind-dlz , i would like to know if it is possible of instead of storing the location of the website directory path in files could it be stored in a MySQL database. And if possible how do i query to that database through the httpd.conf file . Thank you Awaiting your reply -- Regards Agnello Dsouza

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PHP Part 2 - Sunday 20th April
by Prashant Shah 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

For those who attended part 1. Details : http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ Please register -- Elite System. http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ elite.mumbai(a)gmail.com Join our group for seminar announcements : http://groups.google.com/group/elitesystems

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] ASUS eee PC WiFi connection
by Arun Khan 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

> From: Rony > Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] ASUS eee PC WiFi connection > The stock os supports only wep. It also supports wpa but I have not had a chance to connect it to a wpa AP. It is strange that wpa2 is not supported by the GUI given wpa2 has been around for a while. -- Arun Khan

1 0

Bangalore, 15th April: Candle light vigil for Document Freedom
by Praveen A 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Dear Friends, Recently International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) is approved Microsoft's broken standard OOXML( with 1000s of Technical Flaws) also as a Document standard. India's Vote was No to this standard that creates vendor lock-in and prevents interoperability. Micro$oft played a lot of nasty games to get the approval from member countries. In this context we are Conducting a Candle Light Vigil for Document Freedom Demanding bureau of indian standard (BIS) to appeal ISO's Decision of approving the banana standard OOXML Venue : In Front of Townhall, Corporation Circle , Bangalore Date : 15th April 6.00pm The programme is planned as a starting point for various events & awareness campaigns on Document freedom . Please use following wiki page for organising the programme http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Campaign_for_Document_Freedom Also add your name on campaigners section Contact : Praveen A <pravi.a at gmail.com> +91 9986348565 Anivar Aravind <anivar at movingrepublic dot org> +91 9449009908/ +91 080 23435606 Why Document Freedom? We live in an age in which paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records. Document freedom is fundamental for your documents to outlive the application you are currently using and allows you to choose and change applications freely. Previous proprietary document formats have become difficult or impossible to read within little more than a decade. There is no reason to believe this trend will not continue if allowed so to do. Without open standards for our documents we are likely to inflict a 'digital dark-age' on our descendants when they discover that they are unable to read any of the sources for their history, such as Government records, acts of Parliament, property title deeds, scientific research papers, and family histories. They will not forgive us if we fail to act to protect them now, but instead allow another generation of poorly specified proprietary standards to become widely adopted. Document Freedom and Democracy Electronic records kept today include records of your government, such as tax and legal records or minutes of parliamentary proceedings. Making sure that such records remain in the control of the government is essential for a functioning democracy. The same is true for all interactions between citizens and their government, which should never depend on monopolies or on the proprietary product of a single company. How to achieve Document Freedom? Make a stand by saving your documents in ODF today. If your application does not support ODF, get one of the ODF supported applications like OpenOffice.org, Staroffice, NeoOffice, KOffice, AbiWord, Google Docs, IBM Lotus Symphony etc We request all users to 1. not send attachments in proprietary formats like .doc, .xls, .ppt 2. not pollute their friends computers and the internet with unethically encoded documents. 3. inform the users that they do not have right to decode the documents they themselves have written, if they use proprietary software 4. distribute open office cds, containing apps with source code for windows. 5. distribute live cds. Regards Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Re: [ILUG-BOM] ASUS eee PC WiFi connection
by Arun Khan 13 Apr '08

13 Apr '08

> From: Rony > Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] ASUS eee PC WiFi connection > > > Arun Khan wrote: > > A friend has acquired one of the ASUS eee PC. > > > > Is there a way to make the WiFi to work with an AP with WPA2? > > > > Hi Arun, join us tomorrow at HBCSE 10.30 am for the workshop on this > very eeepc. I had other commitments so I could not make it to the meet. Did anyone discuss how to connect to an AP with wpa2, using the stock OS that comes bundled with the unit? I guess, I can set my own AP to do wpa but that may not be an option in other locations. -- Arun Khan

2 1

Issue in SAMBA & LTSP
by Neelesh Gurjar 13 Apr '08

13 Apr '08

Hi, My file server is configured in CentOs 5 samba share (samba version 3.0.26a) and in clients desktops, i have a mix environment windows XP + suse linux 10.3 All clients mount through samba in windows and in linux they share from nfs or samba (using cifs ) In the above case, when we try to open the same file first computer should get rw and other one should get read only. But here i get both files opened in rw mode, which shld not happen. I tried following combinations for one file. 1. I opened one file in Linux and same time I open same file in Windows. I got write permissions at both end. 2. I opened same file in Linux and Linux. I got write permission at one and read only permission at other end. 3. I opened same file in Windows and Windows I got write permission at one end and read only permission at other end. So here I want to eliminate 1 st. It should not open writable at both end. Where I should look for ? Below is my share [test] path = /home/<user> browseable = yes volume = test strict locking = yes force group = windows force user = <user> comment = testing -- Regards NeeleshG LINUX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity

1 0

Problem of Via Chrome9 HC IGP with Ubuntu 7.10
by Raza Sayed 13 Apr '08

13 Apr '08

Hello, I got Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) CD . When i boot the live CD on my laptop , i get the option screen where we have options to start or install ubuntu , start in safe graphics mode etc... When i select 'start or install ubuntu', i get the usual splash screen , then a screen that shows all the drivers getting loaded etc.. , then when it reaches the stage where the desktop is to be loaded , i get a mouse pointer for a while and then the whole screen goes blank . The desktop does not load. Ive tried the following things but none of them worked : 1) I tried using vga=771 as a boot option . 2) I tried booting in safe graphics mode , but the same thing happened. My video card is Via Chrome9 HC IGP . Also, i dont have an alternate CD. I was able to get to the desktop with Ubuntu 6.06(Dapper Drake). So,is this an issue of Ubuntu 7.10 with Via Chrome9 HC IGP video card ?. Also, any way it can be resolved ?. Thanks a lot. Regards, Raza. "Don't tell me the sky is the limit, there are footprints on the moon !!" --------------------------------- Did you know? You can CHAT without downloading messenger. Click here

3 2

ASUS eee PC WiFi connection
by Arun Khan 12 Apr '08

12 Apr '08

A friend has acquired one of the ASUS eee PC. Is there a way to make the WiFi to work with an AP with WPA2? -- Arun Khan

2 1

Linux Mini Laptops
by Rony 11 Apr '08

11 Apr '08

Hello All, Yesterday at Lamington Road I came across small sized and low cost Asus and HCL laptops using older processors. I liked the looks of the Asus one as it was white in colour and resembled an Apple so I requested the shop assistant to put it on. It was an Intel one with 3 usb ports, one external VGA port, 7 inch screen, LAN, modem ports, Wireless LAN, camera. It had no CD drive, no HDD, only a 4 GB flash drive. It was preloaded with Google OS (which is based on Ubuntu). It booted fast into the desktop and had a proper GNU/Linux OS with Firefox, thunderbird, OO etc with Skype and Google applications too. It fits into a medium sized ladies hand bag and is easy to carry around. Cost is between 16.5K to 17.5K. This tiny tot is a good option for those intending to buy a PDA phone but have a low budget and even those who want more out of their PDAs. It is a full fledged operating system so attaching compatible peripherals like pen drives, printers, scanners, bluetooth adapters, USB modems etc would be very easy through the USB port. You can choose whatever software you want to install. The external VGA port can make this device handy for making presentations on a projector. This is just my personal opinion and I am not representing any of the vendors selling it. -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

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error: bind-9.5.0-25.1.b2.fc8.src.rpm cannot be installed
by Agnello George 10 Apr '08

10 Apr '08

i am trying to install bind-9.5 src rpm on my centOS system !! i get the the following error : the source for this is http://people.redhat.com/atkac/bind/ [root@rhel5 src]# rpm -ivh bind-9.5.0-25.1.b2.fc8.src.rpm error: bind-9.5.0-25.1.b2.fc8.src.rpm: Header SHA1 digest: BAD Expected(17fdf6bc865e18049b5b676cd033278d6315c2ce) != (d8bc2f1f6b9fec9fc5913627ab017e371026d58d) error: bind-9.5.0-25.1.b2.fc8.src.rpm cannot be installed if your wondering why i am using the src rpm is cause i would have to edit the bind.spec file i don't understand what Header SHA1 digest: BAD Expected means ?? can any one help me out here !!! thanks -- Regards Agnello Dsouza www.linux-vashi.blogspot.com

6 14

An Open Letter to Wipro, Infosys and TCS
by Praveen A 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

http://www.fossmeet.in/node/128 6th April 2008 This letter is to express our deep disappointment over your open support to the OOXML format forced through ISO by Microsoft. Being the top IT giants and thus the representatives of the IT industry in the country, it is a great shock to us that you do not stand with academia of the country and its representatives like the IITs, IIMs and IISc in supporting the Open Document Format (ODF) which is a true Free and Open Standard already recognised as an ISO Standard. Considering that a major portion of your employees come from such institutions, it is a wonder to us that you have decided to go ahead with this decisions. We would like to hear your explanation with respect to these points :-(quoted from www.noooxml.org/petition) 1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens; 2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification; 3. There is information missing from the specification document, for example how to do a ´autoSpaceLikeWord95´ or ´useWord97LineBreakRules´; 4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML; 5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent lawsuits or patent license fees by Microsoft; 6. This format conflicts with existing ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash); 7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids any date before the year 1900: such bugs affect the OOXML specification as well as software applications like Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. 8. This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone. With this decision, the impression you are making on your future employees in the academia is not a very pretty one. In fact, the development of OOXML receiving ISO´s approval has devalued our confidence in the standards setting process itself. We hope that you will put self-profit behind our country´s needs, change your decision, and stand with the rest of the country on this issue. PS: Please forward this to the groups you are in... -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

3 2

Compiz on Intel 845
by Rony 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

Hello All, I am trying to run compiz-manager in Etch but it needs XGL. However XGL drivers on the net are for nvidia and ati. How does one get compiz running on an old i845? I have installed compiz packages from the shame repo. Compiz-manager does not seem to do much except change my title bar and after pressing Ctrl+C to stop compiz, the active windows don't close until I log out. I want those 3D cubes. They are enabled in the CompizConfg settings manager. Here is the message I get when I run compiz-manager. "Checking for Xgl: not present. xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log Detected PCI ID for VGA: 00:02.0 0300: 8086:2562 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA]) Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present. Trying again with indirect rendering: Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present. Checking for non power of two support: present. Checking for Composite extension: not present. aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity " -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.

3 6

Re: [ILUG-BOM] Linuxers Digest, Vol 60, Issue 10
by Suhit Kelkar 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

Hello, I am new to the lug, and among other things I look forward to meeting fellow members. I look forward to Sunday. Regards, Suhit Kelkar.

1 0

[commercial]VoIP engineers and PHP developers needed
by Justin Moore 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

Hello, We have 2 immediate openings for the following contract positions: VoIP engineer, PHP developer. We are an American based company that provides managed iPBX and Web hosting solutions, with a solid foundation in FOSS. VOIP engineer: We are again searching for a VoIP engineer to work on a part time basis as a consultant. We are in the process of setting up an ITSP and have customers and upstream providers all set. The ideal candidate will have in depth knowledge of OpenSER and Asterisk, and will be able to help architect a redundant, scalable solution. PHP developer: The ideal candidate will have solid experience with PHP/MySQL and be familiar with Web standards. All development work is done under Linux with SVN. Previous experience with payment gateways/e-commerce solutions is a plus. Ability to work with minimal supervision is required. This is a contract position, but could be a temp to perm situation. You will work from home, on timings of your choosing and will be paid monthly (we will pay by wire after the first two weeks to show good faith, but monthly thereafter to save on wire fees) Please submit all resumes/vitaes to me along with preferred timings, salary requirements, and any questions that you may have. Have a nice day. Justin

1 0

PHP Seminar on 13th April 2008 & Python coming soon
by Prashant Shah 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

PHP seminar part 1 - 13th April Sunday 2.30 PM All Details : http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ Register/Message off the list ! Join the group for future seminar announcements : http://groups.google.com/group/elitesystems Note : PHP Part 2 and Python coming soon. -- Elite System. A free software company http://elitemumbai.wordpress.com/ elite.mumbai(a)gmail.com http://groups.google.com/group/elitesystems

1 0

[commercial] PHP Freelancers needed
by Prashant Shah 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

Short description : 2 Years experience in PHP Office in Lokhandwala Email / Contact : Mr. Sanjeev Sarma : sanjeevsarma AT gmail.com

1 0

can a badly configured firewall crash a router?
by Kenneth Gonsalves 05 Apr '08

05 Apr '08

hi, I have a firewall server which runs squid. The firewall is configured by shorewall. We have 3 ISPs, 1. bsnl broadband 2 Mbps 2. leased line 2 Mbps 3. an internal line - not relevant to this issue The LAN has 150 machines. The problem I face with the first two is this: the line works well, iftop shows 2 Mbps or more of traffic. Then at random intervals - sometimes after several days, sometimes after a few hours, traffic stops flowing. Checking the interface with ping, sometimes I am unable to ping the gateway, at other times I can ping the gateway, but cannot ping anything beyond the gateway. I stop traffic to that line, and after some time restart traffic and it works ok. I checked all the wiring, tightened everything in sight. When any of these lines are connected to a single pc, there is no problem regardless of the load put on it. We then put NAT on the leased line router and connected it directly to the LAN. It works without crashing. The only difference is speed. When connected through the firewall server, with full load in daytime, download of Ubuntu ISO takes about 1 to 2 hours. In the same conditions, when the LAN is directly connected to the router, it takes 5 to 6 hours. According to the ISP guys this is due to improper configuration of the firewall. I have discussed this with several people and they feel that a firewall cannot cause a router crash. One suggestion is that the router cannot handle the load - and that it is a hardware failure. Any one has had similar experiences? -- regards Kenneth Gonsalves Associate, NRC-FOSS lawgon(a)au-kbc.org http://nrcfosshelpline.in/code/

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