Fsf-friends December 2004

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

28 participants
34 discussions

To open software within three years
by Manjush G.Menon 26 Sep '05

26 Sep '05

Original Message ----- From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com> To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: Reply > Mr.Manjush G. Menon > We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS > Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux > from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open > software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk > etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken. > We plan switch out to open software within three years. > Executive Director > ---- Original Message ----- From: Manjush G. Menon To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM Subject: Respected sir, From Manjush G. Menon, Sr.Programmer, Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kochi-18. To The Executive Director, 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project, SCERT Buildings, Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram-12. Respected sir, SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL' It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team. Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality products for our future generation. For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections' which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes, it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities, all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included. By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project. Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future, Thanking you, Yours faithfully Manjush G. Menon. ______________________________________________________ Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk

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Happy New Year
by Praveen A 04 Jan '05

04 Jan '05

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2005 * May the year 2005 give you - * Independence of GNU * Power of Hurd * Popularity of Apache * Extensibility of Firefox * Luxury of .GNU * Efficiency of Python * Ease of Gambas * Robustness of SQL * Vision of OpenOffice * Simplicity of HTML * Style of Linspire * Dexterity of Gimp * Enormity of Blender * Vastness of Internet * Compactness of JPG * Richness of PNG * Coverage as Novell * Reach of Redhat * Choice of Gentoo -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Efforts on Standardizing Unicode Tamil Sort Order
by gok gok 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

Dear Friend, Please go thru the following web page that contains the issues and problems with the original unicode tamil sort order. Also this page deals with the standardization of a sort order for tamil with respect to unicode positions. Dont hurry in examining this. Take as much time to conclude your suggestions. Since the future of tamil depends upon such valuable decisions made now. http://www.angelfire.com/empire/thamizh/2/ please let me know your suggestions and corrections.. Regards R.Padmakumar __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Patents amendment bill
by Vijay Kumar Bagavath Singh 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

> Even if there is no patent for software in the ordinance way the govt is > handling the patent amendment is really bad. They seems to be more > accountable to WTO rather than people of India. > > We need to watch the situation closely. We will have to work closely > with other groups fighting patent amendments. It would be nice if people > in Delhi can work on getting more informations and networking with other > groups fighting the new patent amendment. How about creating a petition in http://www.PetitionOnline.com ? We can use http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html as a template. Vijay -- ______________________________________________ Check out the latest SMS services @ http://www.linuxmail.org This allows you to send and receive SMS through your mailbox. Powered by Outblaze

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FLOSS networks in Sri Lanka
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

Thanks to Anuradha Ratnaweera <gnu.slash.linux at gmail.com> for filling us in with details about FLOSS in Sri Lanka, as follows: Lanka Linux User Group (http://www.linux.lk , http://www.lug.lk ) have been advocating GNU/Linux and Free / Open Source Software since 1998. Recently, we have started working closely with the tux group of Narada Center (http://foss.metta.lk ). Check http://mail.linux.lk/lurker/ to see what we have been doing. Lanka Software Foundation (http://www.opensource.lk ) is another organization who is also promoting FOSS development in Sri Lanka. Anuradha -- http://www.linux.lk/~anuradha/ http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ENDQUOTE Thank you very much Anuradha! FN

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Free software in Goa... Dec 27, 2004
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

Present for the meeting: * Bijon "Multi Distro" Shaha * Mario "PHP" Alvares * Sylvester "Hardware" GeekBox * DP (Hiding Behind The Alphabets) * FN reporting on some points that came up * We handed over copies of GeekBox and Ubuntu to Mr Joshi of Goa Sc Centre * Bijon Shaha gave us an update of LB-2004, the Bangalore FOSS event * The talk veered around to pendrives, Ubuntu * Can we do something to re-start meetings in South Goa, at the useful D-Link venue? Another offer is to hold meetings at a cybercafe in Vasco... * Debian Weekly News is a great model for an e-letter sharing information about what's happening in the FLOSS world. * Mario mentioned his experiences on a Mac, with OSX * Woes of Fedora Core 3 users and the security hassles outlined. * Is Fedora Core 3 just "too secure"? * Sylvester offered information about SLAX, the Slackware distro. Slackware is more customisable. Syl@Comtech has a copy. * Mario is keen to create a live distro with Postgres on it. * This was followed with a demo of Ubuntu, the live version For free copies of this distro, just log on to http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org and ask for it. They even offer you free postage, and encourage you to ask for multiple copies (postage is costlier anyway than the medium!) * Later, a pen drive -- UMAX Apus 208 -- was easily got working on Mandrake 9.1. Did the same on EgovOS (based on Red Hat). Had some difficulty in getting with going with Debian Woody. Any clues? * Some useful tips for newbies or challenged-learners (like myself) Use this command to download an entire site wbet -m http://www.sitename.com To compress a folder tar cjf newfile /home/user/directory and to uncompress a folder tar xjf To unzip a filme unzip filename MC, or Midnight Commander is a good tool for this. * DP mentioned that Open Office 2.0 preview is out, which offers OOBase, a tool similar to DBase or Access in utility. * Later, the session continued with informal networking. We shifted to Cafe Prakash, the usual haunt, and shared some moments with friends there. Please point out any errors or mistakes above. Next meeting: January 22, 2005 (fourth Saturday). Miramar Science Centre. Our websites and URLs: http://ilug-goa.swiki.net (website on Swiki.net) http://www.ilug-margao.org (Margao site: Andrew, Arvind, Clinton...) http://ilug-goa.notlong.com (website on IOSN.net * free space for LUGs) http://iluggoa.iosn.net (Wiki on IOSN.net * free space for all LUGs) http://iluggoalist.notlong.com (short link to this list) http://ilug-goa-announce.notlong.com (low volume announce) http://tyl.notlong.com (for newbies) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxgoahelp (specifically help list) PS: OFFTOPIC -- Derek Cordeiro pointed out to me this useful tool for bookmarking and sharing sites. Please visit http://stumbleupon.com and also my tiny attempt below... works great! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://fredericknoronha.stumbleupon.com http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avoid Word/PowerPoint: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Can someone reach Ramanraj
by Anand Babu 28 Dec '04

28 Dec '04

I just realized Ramanraj's house is near the beach. I tried calling him a couple of times and got no response. Can someone reach him and confirm us if he safe and needed any help? -- Anand Babu Free as in Freedom <www.gnu.org>

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Re: [FSF India Board] New Patent changes
by Anand Babu 28 Dec '04

28 Dec '04

It is not yet clear if the new amendments to patent act includes computer software. Media news is not precise and most if it is speculation. Software patents are terrible. I think it will become too difficult and too late to fight software patents after the Govt approves such amendments. Let us take a take pro-active action early at this stage. Publishing articles on dangers of software patents can be a good start. Nagarjuna, Arun and Frederick Noronha has enough contacts in the press and can effectively propagate the message. Amendments related to drugs, food and chemicals poses even more direct threat to the community, than software. (Like increase in drug prices, inadequate or non-availability of patented drugs). Reverse engineering drugs to produce cheaper or better alternatives will become impossible. Patents give absolute monopoly to the owner. With this exclusive right, even if some one else comes up with the same idea independently, he still cannot use it. This means Indian drug research will have serious consequences and we are the ones to suffer at the end. It may make sense to club with the medical community and jointly oppose the new patent amendment. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The only reference to computer software in "The Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2004 promulgated on 26/12/2004" (url http://lawmin.nic.in/Patents%20Amendment%20Ordinance%202004.pdf) is amendment to Section 3 referring as >>>Quoted----------------------------------------------------------- (b) for clause (k), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely: "(k) a computer programme per se other than its technical application to industry or a combination with hardware; (ka) a mathematical method or a business method or algorithms;". <<<Quoted----------------------------------------------------------- My understanding is, Section 3 is all about non-patentable inventions. I am referring to the Patent Act document (url http://ipindia.nic.in/ipr/patent/mop2.pdf). I could not find any clause (k) under Section 3 in this document. Can some one point me to the correct document to which these amendments can be applied cleanly? -- Anand Babu Free as in Freedom <www.gnu.org>

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Patents amendment bill
by Vijay Kumar Bagavath Singh 28 Dec '04

28 Dec '04

The following news articles suggest that the patents amendment bill, could possibly introduce software patents in India. If this is so, why aren't we(FSF-India) fighting it? Quoting from http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?hpFlag=Y&chklogin=N&a… The Cabinet is expected to clear the promulgation of an Ordinance for the introduction of a product patents regime, which will also cover embedded software and hardware, next Wednesday. Quoting from http://athens-olympics-2004.newkerala.com/?action=fullnews&id=44168 "Fair use provisions in the copyright law that permits reverse engineering is not permitted under the patent law," said G. Devarajan, general secretary of the All India Forward Bloc. ... "This highly retrograde step would kill the fledgling open source movement in our country, particularly in our universities and institutions like Indian Institutes of Technology," a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader said. Vijay -- ______________________________________________ Check out the latest SMS services @ http://www.linuxmail.org This allows you to send and receive SMS through your mailbox. Powered by Outblaze

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Re: Re: [Fsf-friends] Patents amendment bill
by Kanti Jadia 28 Dec '04

28 Dec '04

This is what caught my attention on slashdot http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/27/1323237&from=rss " It was the same in Europe... (Score:1) by Rauchbier (745414) on Monday December 27, @11:55AM (#11192112) The patent lobby tried to introduce software patents in Europe silently as well. Thanks to the FFII [ffii.org] there was enough noise to wake up politicians. Now we have additional support from sites like No Software Patents [nosoftwarepatents.com], but it took a lot of time to get this support. Hopefully there is a chance to postpone the decision so the indian people and politicians can catch up on software patents. [ Reply to This ] " On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 Arun M wrote : >Also please note the worser situation with Medicine patent. >(read it together with recent natural disaster) > > >From personal level i will request free software activists not to >restrict ourself to software patent. Software freedom is just one >freedom an individual need. > > >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends ----------------------------------------- Enjoy your Freedom,use GNU/Linux. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html -----------------------------------------

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Fsf-friends December 2004