Fsf-friends September 2004

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

26 participants
44 discussions

Re: [Fsf-friends] Computer Education @ School
by Ramanraj K 17 Sep '04

17 Sep '04

Mahesh T. Pai wrote: > Ramanraj K said on Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 07:25:53PM +0530,: > > > I'll attend. We also need to present a memorandum. > > Please take a look at > http://puggy.symonds.net/~fsug-kochi/mass-memo.html Mahesh, please point to links that describe the current curriculum for computer science for IT@School. History is repeating itself again, in TN now :) While the Govt. of Kerala has provided the infrastructure required for IT@Schools, here in TN, Computer Science infrastructure _and_ teaching _may_ be handed over to proprietary concerns. Elcot should be asked to do what Keltron has already done for Kerala: <quote from www.keltron.org> Involved in the introduction of GNU History in curriculum of IT@School project. Involved in the introduction of GNU Linux Operating System to new Curriculum. Supplied Hardware with preloaded GNU Linux Operating system and other Applications to IT@ school project. Training in GNU LINUX platforms for government employees and other organisations Various training courses on GNU Linux and other free software tools Various training courses on GNU Linux and other free software tools like PHP, Perl, Python, MySQL, PostgreSQL etc. </quote> The proposed program schedule of Elcot is at: http://www.elcot.com/ncce/prog-schedule.htm http://www.elcot.com/ncce/prog-schedule-day2.htm <quote> Day 2, 25th September, Saturday, 2004 Venue : Hotel Trident Sheraton , Chennai 0930 to 1100 hrs International models in Computer Education Invited Presentations from 3 speakers of - INTEL / Microsoft / Apple </quote> It should be interesting to hear about the plans the special invitees from Microsoft and Apple have in mind for our school children. The whole idea appears to be to _give_ information to the delegates and I am not sure if the program schedule seriously allows delegates to address on the issues within the allotted two half hours of "moderated open discussion". Further, it has been reported that: "Private companies in computer education have brought in the hardware, software and the staff to teach the course framed by the State Government. Thus the schools get the benefit of computer education without the government bearing any recurring expenditure. This is a model that other States are hoping to follow." As you know, attempts like this in the US have been rejected as unethical and monopolistic. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-276058.html?legacy=cnet http://news.com.com/2100-1001-808241.html http://www.defenselink.mil/dodgc/defense_ethics/2004_Advisories/ADV_0402.htm BTW, www.elcot.com has announced that: National Conference on Computer Education in Schools is being postponed & will be rescheduled to another date I hope that the plans change as well, for the better :) Meanwhile, we could send in a memorandum to the school authorities in TN, on the lines of your earlier memo to school authorities in Kerala, to pre-empt any decision allowing propreitary concerns to take over teaching of Computer Science.

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PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 16 Sep '04

16 Sep '04

Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software. Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it. Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes about $30 million in overdue software license fees. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press] (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)

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Don't block citizens out of your website using proprietorial technologies
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Sep '04

15 Sep '04

Sir, The page below requires me to use Flash: http://rajyasabha.nic.in/bills-ls-rs/bills-ls-rs-main.htm and in this manner, the GoI is forcing me to utilise costly proprietorial software which I dislike using. I would request you to ensure that your website is accessible to everyone, even if they are not using Microsoft and other proprietorial technologies. Please base your website on open standards. FN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 fred at bytesforall.org fredericknoronha at vsnl.net http://fn.swiki.net (FN's swiki) http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa) http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks (GoaLinks Blog) http://news.gmane.org/gmane.culture.region.india.goa (Goanet)

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Computer Education @ School
by Bharathi S 15 Sep '04

15 Sep '04

Hello All, Tamil Nadu Government is conducting a conference in Chennai. The aim of this conference is finalize the syllabus for the Higher secondary school classes (11th and 12th Std). Organized by : Elcot Venue : Trident Hilton Date : 24th(Fri) and 25th(Sat) Sep 2004 Registration : Call Elcot Office @ Anna Salai, Chennai. Last Date : 20th(Mon) Sep 2004 Fee : Rs 500/- (For IT Professional) : Rs 750/- (For Govt and Edu Professional) NOTE: TN Govt is going to implement this syllabus during the next Edu year in (nearly) 1200 Schools. I hope, this right place to introduce the FSF/OSS to the TN Government. If anybody is going to attend this Conf, Plz inform to list. :) Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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Indic localisers' meet, Sept 18-19
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 14 Sep '04

14 Sep '04

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Indic Localizers Meet Date 18th-19th September, 2004 Venue - Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education, TIFR, Mankhurd, Mumbai, directions http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/Data/Objects/contact Planning for Indic L10n teams meet. Online meet on next Monday, 13th September, from 3pm - 9pm IST , at #indlinux on irc.freenode.net . Agenda: Discuss Agenda points and schedule IRC Logs (RAW) * IndicMeetLog <http://www.indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/IndicMeetLog> - 3pm-9pm (16th August) Minutes of meetings * IndicOnlineMeetMinutes <http://www.indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/IndicOnlineMeetMinutes> ( 16th August ) Meeting Agenda Get all Indic L10n teams to meet and * discuss current status * share individual roadmaps * discuss interaction and collaboration protocols with international bodies/maintainers * share experiences * chalk out a common roadmap based on consensus decision * work on l10n guide, status document * discuss and put in place Usability Metrics for L10n Projects * discuss the methodology of creating Test Cases for L10n Usability * discuss vertical domains where L10n customisation could be coming in handy * discuss and brainstorm and implementation aspects of L10n Projects * identify areas where implementation could be immediately visible * discuss and arrive at a consensus on formation of a common platform (see next bullet) * get onto forming a legal body , aka Indic computing consortium (something like that) along with charter and mandate for the same ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Meeting Schedule 17th September Evening - Outstation participants arrive in Mumbai - Dinner Day 1 - 18th September * 8AM - 9 AM - Breakfast Session I * 9 AM - 9:30 AM - Workshop starts, introductions, Initial address and objectives of workshop. * 9:30 AM - 11:15 AM - Presentation / Talk by Language teams ( 15 mins each ) o Teams to present: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam * 11:15 - 11:30 - Tea/Coffee Break * 11:30 - 1 PM - Team presentations/Talks continue o Teams to present: Punjabi, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, CDAC / TDIL * 1 PM - 2 PM - Lunch Session II * 2 PM - 5 PM* * 2PM - 2:45 PM Pending Issues o Locale definitions, Collation o Text rendering issues/bugs o Indic Unicode Issues o Input Methods o Fonts * 2:45pm - 3:30pm Prospective Issues o Spellchecker o Dictionary / Lexicon o Translation management tools * 3:30 - 3:45 - Tea/Coffee Break * 3:45 - 4:15pm Testing o Why and what need testing o Indic test framework * 4:15 - 5:00pm Usability o Usability studies o Workshops * 5:00 - 5:30 - Open discussion * 5:30 break for the day * 8:00 pm - Dinner ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Day 2 - 19th September * 8 AM - 9 AM - Breakfast Session III * 9 AM - 9:30 AM - Documentation o Indic Handbook docs - Language/Script info, Font docs o Howtos - for different tasks * 9:30 - 10:15 AM - Packaging and Distribution Issues o Packaging Indic stuff o Building an Indic distro - GRIND o Live CDs * 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM Deployment o Having Indic widely available and used. o Activities to increase awareness and usage. o Discussion * 11:00 - 11:15 AM - Tea/Coffee Break * 11:15 - 1 PM - Theme talks (15 mins each) o participants please propose if you want to talk on something, and which has not been covered in prev sessions * 1 PM - 2 PM - Lunch Session IV * 2 PM - 3 PM - Future Roadmap for GNULinux Localization * Task list / TODO list * Timelines for above * 3 PM - 3:30 PM - Consortium Meeting o The need and objectives of forming a consortium * 3:30 - 3:45 - Tea/Coffee Break * 3:45 - 4:45 - Consortium Discussion * 4:45 - 5:00 PM - Meet closing * Participants depart * 8:00 PM - Dinner 20th Morning - participants depart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Participants (confirmed) Language wise list * Bengali - Ankur group - Sayamindu Dasgupta, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay/Runa Bhattacharjee, Indranil Das Gupta * Gujarati - Utkarsh - Nirav Mehta, Ankur Patel * Hindi - IndLinux <http://www.indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/IndLinux> - G Karunakar, Ravishankar Shrivastava * Kannada - Pramod Raghavendra, Hari Prasad Nadig * Marathi - Indictrans - Jitendra Shah, Swapnil Hajare * Malayalam - SMC group - Mahesh T Pai , Arun M * Punjabi - Punlinux, Amampreet Singh Alam * Oriya - oriya.sarovar.org - Gora Mohanty * Telugu - ? * Tamil - Tamillinux team - R Hariram Aatreya, N Jayaradha * Urdu - Ravikant Sharma Others * Nagarjuna G - FSF India, TIFR * Prakash Advani - Onward Novell India * Venky Hariharan - Red Hat India * Abhijit Dutta - IBM India * Dr Om Vikas - TDIL, MIT, GOI * Hema Murthy - ? <http://www.indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/TeNet?action=create>_TeNet_, IIT Chennai * Alka Irani - CDAC * M Sasikumar - CDAC * Michael Sauntak - Burmese Localization ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net (FN's swiki) http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa) http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks (GoaLinks Blog)

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FLOSS and education
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Sep '04

12 Sep '04

Thanks to the IOSN-General mailing list for this... and Nandalal Gunaratne of the Lanka Linux User Group. -- FN http://www.schoolforge.net http://www.schoolforge.org.uk http://www.schooltool.org http://www.scholarpack.org http://www.theopencd.sunsite.dk http://www.lfsp.net (linux for schools project) http://http://www.affs.org.uk/education/index.html association for free software http;//edu.kde.org kde edutainment http://www.tux4kids.com/tyx4kids http://www.debian,org/devel/debian-jr http://www.bluelinux.org http:/k12os.org http://www.osef.org/ http://richtex.ca/seul http://www.freeeduc.org

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Seminar for teachers
by swathantra software 11 Sep '04

11 Sep '04

S2S2 in association with Science Park, Kannur is organising A Seminar plus Awareness program on Free Software & GNU/Linux for memebers of teachers association, KSTA. Date -12th Sept Sunday Venue- Science Park, Kannur Time - Afternoon. I have installed & tested the "Softexam" GNU/Linux version, released by directorate of education. It is found to be working O.K in Gnu/Linux. As root user it works, but in LTSP clients there are problems. Note that it is not a free software!!. Sujeevan S2S2. _____________________________________________________________ Linux.Net -->Open Source to everyone Powered by Linare Corporation http://www.linare.com/

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[Fsf-friends] GNU/LINUX IN... DeveloperIQ, Sept 2004 issue (Morphix gamer on CD)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 08 Sep '04

08 Sep '04

SUMMARY OF WHAT'S on the mag and CD... : * This month's CD includes GCC 3.4.1, Tcl/Tk 8.5, Mono 1.0, Python 2.3.4, Visual Tcl 1.6.0, Mlton-Perl, PHP (among other programming tools). Apache HTTP server, XEmacs 21.4.5, GTK+ 2.4, PHP source code. * CD2 is dedicated to the Morphix Gamer. Games run from your CD ROM drive, regardless of the OS you run. POST YOUR PROBLEM: Queries on booting from Windows NT bootloader after installing Linux, setting up the boot-time config, disabling graphic KDE boot with Suse 7.0, coping with a "weire" problem in Debian. GREAT LANGUAGE SHOOTOUT: Comparing 11 languages rated for 46 different parameters. An update of the Great Language Shootout pioneered by Douglas Bagley and Co, but which was abandoned since 2001. In terms of core technical tests, Borland Delphi is ranked at the top, followed by C (BC/VC), Java, VC++, C# and VB.NET. Only after that come in Python, Perl, Tcl, PHP and VBScript. If you disagree, write to ramdas(a)developeriq.com or produce better programs in FLOSS and prove them wrong! This topic is covered in a series of articles. FOR DEVELOPERS: India's largest CD ROM distribution and publishing company requires freelance developers and new products. "We require developers of games, education, edutainment, producitivity and utility software. Please mail demos of the products with your profiles to aladdin(a)vsnl.com or www.aladdinindia.com ECLIPSE 3.0, A QUICK RUN THROUGH: Eclipse is the darling of Open Source Java developers these days. In its latest avatar, it has outclassed itself, opines Debashish Bose. He explores the IDE, and does a bit of coding. CAN PHP MARRY IIS? Debashish Bose decides to play cupid and manages to marry off the server side scripting language of the FLOSS world with the Queen of the Microsoft web infrastructure, the IIS Server. CHECK OUT: New flaws found in XP SP2. Page 77. REVIEW: Beginning Red Hat Linux Fedora 2, Rs 429. Wrox/Wiley Dream Tech. PERL TUTORIAL: CGI and Perl -- the basics. The HTML form Tags and Perl * Selecting the right text format. * Linux installation paths * Security battle: Open Source versus closed source * Security issue: programmer's parameters * C language -- security primer * Library solutions in C/C++ CHINA JUMPS on the [GNU]Linux train. DEVELOPER IQ promises "an overwhelming [GNU]Linux section". If you feel they're not fulfiling the promise, write to the editor, Ramdas S at ramdas(a)developeriq.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 fred at bytesforall.org fredericknoronha at vsnl.net http://fn.swiki.net (FN's swiki) http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa) http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks (GoaLinks Blog) http://news.gmane.org/gmane.culture.region.india.goa (Goanet)

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SreenCam tools
by Arun M 08 Sep '04

08 Sep '04

Hi friends, We are in need of a tool like ScreenCam. This will help us in making tutorials for IT@School and similar projects. Some design work has been done. If any of the members interested in its development please write to me offlist. The complete project will include, 1. A screen capturing tool 2. Standalone player 3. Various output plugins 4. Editing suit for voice over and interaction. If some students wants to take this as collage project that will be useful. regards, arun.

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Kerala and free soft
by Arun M 08 Sep '04

08 Sep '04

Hi Friend, Sorry for not keeping you all updated. We are having lot of work in Kerala. Yesterday we organised a workshop for Journalists jointly with Working Journalists association. It was poorly attended due to other reasons like another parallel event and journalist here in Kerala were having lot of work for last few days. But those who came really enjoyed the workshop. They went back with a commitment to free software movement. They have demanded their association to have another workshop on free software. Kerala is now seeing strong debate on local body computerisation and free software. A study conducted by a group (i was also there) exposed the fact that local body computerisation pilot effort is a failure and state wide rollout based on this shouldnt happen. Government is planning for a state wide rollout of Rs 150 crore e-gov program on M$ platform. We have to stop this. Arun.

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Fsf-friends September 2004