Fsf-friends March 2007

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

34 participants
41 discussions

Fwd: [ATPS] Re: Fwd: [Fsf-friends] BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
by Anilkumar K V 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

--------- Forwarded message ---------- From: thomas joseph <thomasatps(a)gmail.com> Date: 08-Mar-2007 09:44 Subject: [ATPS] Re: Fwd: [Fsf-friends] BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame" To: ATPS(a)googlegroups.com Dear all, It is not BSNL as a whole to be blamed. It is the socio-economic-cultural attitude of our peope in general that is to be blamed. How about most of other Govt Departments, Undertakings and enterprises. Of course those in authority in BSNL who go for ms products are not only to be blamed but shall be condemned. But not BSNL as a whole. Why ? Here is an example of an open tender floated by the same BSNL, from Ernakulam SSA. Extracts...... QUOTE """"" 16. SOFTWARE 1.The operating system should be GNU/LINUX 2.The RDBMS should be PostgreSQL 3.The web server should be Apache. 4.The vendor must provide Source code of all applications with all passwords, operating system and development tools and the application software package all of which shall be transferred under General Public License providing for total technology transfer. ''''''''' UNQUOTE Is not an example to be emulated by others. Joseph Thomas

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Hall of Shame
by CK Raju, Thrissur 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

http://www.lug-delhi.org/wiki/HallOfShame/Websites I just wanted our friends to know that some time back FSF-India really had promoted this idea to alert about the first-time breaches of freedoms. Most of them were minor sways and hence the term "Shame". For the hardened betrayers, we don't give them an honour of Shame, we treat or handle them differently. http://www.lug-delhi.org/wiki/HallOfShame/ISP lists BSNL but for a different reason. All I wanted was to re-list it again with a new reason. It just happened that Mr Srinivas responded, which means that , even a mere threat of including in the Hall of Shame works!! If public agencies abuse their position and think themselves to be autonomous, to go ahead and create their own *choices* when actually they don't have any, we need to show them their place. We are not crying at mail servers of private players. If its a public agency - beware, if there is a breach, we will induct them to appropriate places. CV's contribution to TeX and ATPS's contribution to Financial services are in public memory domain. [I don't have any - and don't feel sorry about it.] Cheers, CK Raju

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Hall of Shame
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

Did someone forgot to mention Election Commission of India running on Windows Server using ASP.NET On 9th March 2007 Election Commission of India Fixed (disabled parts of) their website to avoid XSS and SQL injection vulnerabilities after intervention of CERT-IN. The vulnerabilities were reported on 2nd of March to ECI and on 4th March to CERT-IN, for the following URL: http://search.eci.gov.in/maps/eci_se2007/detailResult.asp Still a bit of usually harmless data insertion is possible. The above script is used to display detailed results of a given constituency. It may have been running unprotected for maybe few months. Had the ECI made the code GPLed, the vulnerabilities would have been detected much earlier. Even if these acts are shameful, I still do not support the "Hall of Shame" rhetoric, but if the Govt Departments are working for Public they must open their code using General Public License. Real Hall of shame is when Punjab Govt. spends lakhs on purchase of MS software for use in education at 10+1 and 10+2 level, where FLOSS would have been equally good (and same also for Sarv Sikhya Abhiyan). ----- CK Raju <ckraju68(a)yahoo.co.in> wrote: > http://puggy.symonds.net/pipermail/fsug-kochi-discuss/2003-August/000712.ht… > "Sanghamitra ?!" > CK Raju > > Anilkumar K V <achu.kulangara(a)gmail.com> wrote: On 11/03/07, CK Raju, > Thrissur wrote: > > > > ATPS's contribution to Financial services are > > in public memory domain. > > > > [I don't have any - and don't feel sorry about it.] > > > Raju, > > It is not clear what you are trying to convey. Can you please > elaborate, > > - Anil -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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go-db
by Kussh 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

The website http://www.go-db.com just appeared as a link at gmail. Has anybody here tried it as a development platform? Its not free software but is supposedly free for non commercial use. Updates after one year may have to be paid for(according to the FAQ) Kush

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Re: BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
by CK Raju, Thrissur 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Dear Sir, I had been monitoring the changeover plans of sancharnet email services to bsnl.in ever since it was announced publicly by your MD. From this request, it appears that your department is not fully aware of the implications for national security that such a migration poses. I had an initial debate when I had announced on the FSF-Friends mailing lists that bsnl.in mail server is on Microsoft platform with some learned professors arguing that my methodology to arrive at the conclusion were not technically correct. It was then I got a copy of your presentation, which clarified the issues to members in the Free Software Foundation's mailing list. I hope you would appreciate that the President of India had earlier said that "Its unfortunate that we Indians believe in proprietary solutions. A small shift in business solutions to proprietary can have devastating effects on our society.." A large number of newspapers had carried the story. One such article is here http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=477… If you watch carefully, the article continues "..He said that during a discussion with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a few months ago, he had discussed the issue of software security and the need to look for open source codes. 'Our discussions became difficult since our views were different,' Kalam said. ..". This is precisely our sore point - that a public sector undertaking has been given a different view about "security" by Microsoft and that you are (innocently, I should now say) executing the project, which goes against "national security" - going by President's own words. A service is never secure, unless the freedom to *examine* or *amend* the code is with us (in this case, with BSNL). You would also appreciate that as per IT Act 2000, there cannot be public systems that have malignant code inside - which means every public system will qualify only if this certification is there. IT Act says that such systems should not cause leakage of sensitive information relating to "privileges of parliament, trade, or other sensitive information" - which can only be ensured if public systems are *only* on Free Software. By taking what is legally now considered as a retrograde step, BSNL is now qualifying to be prosecuted under the aforementioned act. Its my sincere hope that you would do your best to redo the damage that will be caused to the nation by (1) taking its premier email services away from Microsoft and have it commissioned on Free Software platforms, (2) initiating an audit in every operational department under your control to ensure that proprietary solutions are phased out, and (3) thus, showing the world that BSNL cares for the concerns of the citizens. Should you have any difficulty in technical aspects, we have a great bunch of techies here who would be at your call to render service which are ethical and just. Regards and best wishes, CK Raju On 3/9/07, G Srinivas <gsrinivas(a)bsnl.co.in> wrote: > > Dear Raju, > > Can u please throw more light on your statement. > > > > Regards, > > G. SRINIVAS > > DGM(Dotsoft&Comp) > > HYDERABAD, BSNL > > 040 -23236153(O) > ------------------------------ > > *From:* anilankv(a)gmail.com [mailto:anilankv@gmail.com] *On Behalf Of *Anilkumar > K V > *Sent:* 06 March 2007 17:49 > *To:* gsrinivas(a)bsnl.co.in > *Subject:* BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame" > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: *CK Raju, Thrissur* <ck.thrissur(a)gmail.com> > > Friends, > > The mail server at http://mail.bsnl.in has now been confirmed to be on M$ > platform. Here's the link. > > http://egovstandards.gov.in/states_repositories/andhra-pradesh/brainstromin… > > BSNL should find a prominent place now in our "Hall of Shame". > > And the person associate with this *project* is > G Srinivas ITS, DGM(Dotsoft & Computers), BSNL AP > Email : gsrinivas(a)bsnl.co.in > > What a terrible shame ??? > > CK Raju >

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[Fsf-friends] http://www.defectivebydesign.org/actions/open_letter/steve_jobs
by CK Raju 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/actions/open_letter/steve_jobs Canvassing on for anti DRM campaign. Pls go through and sign. CK Raju --------------------------------- Heres a new way to find what you're looking for - Yahoo! Answers

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GNUs Grazing at Cubbon Park, Bangalore - March 10, Saturday 3pm
by Praveen A 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Hi, Gnus in Bangalore will be Grazing at Cubbon Park, you can also join :-) http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Bangalore/GNUs_Grazing Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍ Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Passion for Electronics, Compassion for Community
by Praveen A 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Be an Electro, Make a Difference Electros.in is home to passionate Indian students, professionals, and researchers in the fields of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering. http://www.electros.in/ Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
by CK Raju, Thrissur 06 Mar '07

06 Mar '07

Friends, The mail server at http://mail.bsnl.in has now been confirmed to be on M$ platform. Here's the link. http://egovstandards.gov.in/states_repositories/andhra-pradesh/brainstromin… BSNL should find a prominent place now in our "Hall of Shame". And the person associate with this *project* is G Srinivas ITS, DGM(Dotsoft & Computers), BSNL AP Email : gsrinivas(a)bsnl.co.in What a terrible shame ??? CK Raju

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(no subject)
by ANOOP KRISHNAN 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

We r going to hoist a program on free software on the first week of next month so please give us some guidance.................................. krishna Govt Engineering College Calicut _________________________________________________________________ Slidestory, audio slideshows http://www.Slidestory.com

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Fsf-friends March 2007