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Hi
by Bhaskar Chowdhury 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

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Gnumeric is better than Excel
by Sasi Kumar 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

"Persons who desire to use a spreadsheet package to perform statistical analyses are advised to use Gnumeric rather than Excel." says a report. Here is the report: The open source spreadsheet package "Gnumeric" was such a good clone of Microsoft Excel that it even had errors in its statistical functions similar to those in Excel's statistical functions. When apprised of the errors in v1.0.4, the developers of Gnumeric indicated that they would try to fix the errors. Indeed, Gnumeric v1.1.2, has largely fixed its flaws, while Microsoft has not fixed its errors through many successive versions. Persons who desire to use a spreadsheet package to perform statistical analyses are advised to use Gnumeric rather than Excel. See: http://www.csdassn.org/reportdetail.cfm?ID=508 -- V. Sasi Kumar Free Software Foundation of India Please see: http://swatantryam.blogspot.com/

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Oct 8, 2006 is the last date for registering as a speaker at FOSS.in
by Frederick Noronha 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

http://foss.in/2006/info/Main_Page Welcome to the FOSS.IN/2006 Site! November 24-26, 2006 National Science Symposium Centre, IISc, Bangalore, India Speaker and Talks Registration open till October 8th Register now! FOSS.IN is one of the world's largest and most focussed FOSS events, held annually in India. Over the years, it has attracted thousands of participants, and the speaker roster reads like a "Who is Who" of FOSS contributors from across the world. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

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Re: [Fsf-kerala] if u really want to earn money in less time and without spending money then read this messege carefully
by Dileep M. Kumar 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

On 10/3/06, mayank raj <mayank_raj001(a)yahoo.co.in> wrote: > > if u really want to earn money in less time and without spending money > then read this messege carefully > > list admin, please boot this person from all our lists. -- eMail: dileep.kumarayil (at) gmail.com www: http://www.symonds.net/~dileep/ blog: http://www.kumarayil.blogspot.com "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman

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'India's Patents Act must extend to software'
by Frederick Noronha 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

T H E H I N D U Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Sep 14, 2006 ePaper `India's Patents Act must extend to software' Special Correspondent To become ICT superpower, India will have to recognise patenting NEW DELHI: Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation, on Wednesday voiced concern over the fact that India's Patents Act still did not extend to intellectual property (IP) protection of software and underlined the need for addressing this issue urgently. (India protects software only under its copyright law). Addressing an interactive meeting on the `Role of IPR in the Knowledge Economy' organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr. Mundie pointed out that although India had made a lot of progress in enforcing IPR, it had still to bear in mind that for becoming an ICT (information and communication technology) superpower it would have to recognise patenting as a standalone enterprise. This was a key component for moving India forward from a manufacturing-services-led economy to an innovation-led economy, he said. "No field of scientific and engineering endeavour can progress without the advancement of IT where software is the centrepiece,'' Mr. Mundie said, and added that in the U.S., 30-40 per cent gains in productivity in the Eighties were attributable to innovations. ICT, he said, was at the heart of productivity increases in labour and capital, lowering of transaction cost, innovation and further growth in ICT to fuel economic growth. R. A. Mashelkar, Director General, of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), while giving a snapshot of the current state of play in the IP sphere, noted that while some of the advanced countries had benefited from strong IP laws, in a country like India which had to look at the concerns of both top end and the bottom end of the population, the issue of balance in the IP regime became important. Piracy in India, Dr. Mashelkar said, was a serious issue and it was here that penalties had to be swift, sure and severe. A high-level committee had made recommendations in this regard and the issue is at an advanced stage of consideration of the government. PTI reports: Pre-paid computer cards Microsoft on Wednesday said it would introduce pre-paid cards in India that would enable customers to access the company's genuine software without paying any fee upfront, a move apparently aimed at curbing piracy of its software. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/

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Re: Linus Torvalds -just for fun
by Roshan 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

Kush wrote: > Also the student in western system of education > decides what they want > to really study whereas we in India are asked to > cram any and everything > to give us so called "more rounded" knowledge > --ultimately the course is > so vast that we just get superficial knowledge of > everything and hardly > learn much. Not necessarily. I don't know from which university you are, but I would comment based on Mumbai University. The course contents is decided by the Academic Council of Mumbai University. For students, the aim is not to cram everything and anything, but to study and understand the concepts and theory. There are mistakes, but the aim of courses (specially of Computer Science and Information Technology) aim to give you a fundamental knowledge about each subject you learn. The fault lies in the examination pattern that allows rote learners marks. However, again, it is expected that the student learns and reproduces concepts in a systematic way that serves as a criteria for alloting marks. > Most private engg colleges have low > standards and students > just try to pass by hook or crook. Programming > exercises are copied and > there is no system of competitive learning by > sharing and open > discussion. I think we should have our elective > known to us in 2nd year > and study should be according to that elective. It is on the student's side, to ensure, that he/she is honest in his/her work. It is the responsibility of the teacher to spend some additional time discussing topics of relevance. Some foundation has to be built up before building something. Electives, afaik, are allowed when that is done. > There is another difference when I compare with > Indian > colleges/universities --methods of teaching. Linus > had information about > textbooks/recommended reading books much much before > his course started > and therefore was able to prepare in advance whereas > in our college days > we used to wait for the teacher to tell us which > books to buy after the > term started or was half way thru. We used to save > on books by borrowing > from the library (generally badly stocked) or get > earlier editions /hand > me downs. Atleast for graduate and post-graduate studies in Mumbai University, the syllabus is available (unless out of stock) before the course begins. (assuming a regular course, not one that is introduced). Perhaps, the seniors, themseleves should maintain a copy of the same. The syllabus is exhaustive enough to provide details on the author's of the books,the reference books and the topics covered for a particular subject. Along with this, the practicals, the tutorials / assignments and the lecture schedule is all provided. (Again, atleast for Computer Science and Information Technology) For engineering colleges, there are enough restrictions by the AICTE, and even so, there is a document called "Mandatory Disclosure" that discloses a lot of details necessary to know about the college in terms of academics and resources. > Kush, Please don't get me wrong. I do not intend to refute anything. The point is I feel, there is a communication gap that might have resulted into thoughts expressed by you. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Linus Torvalds -just for fun
by NS Srikanth 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

Message: 2 Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 15:31:57 +0530 From: "Roshan Mathews" <rmathews(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Linus Torvalds -just for fun To: "Principal Support List of FSF-India" <fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in> Message-ID: <1c4dc2780610020301q6826b6a8ua92d27977337b3f5(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed In Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (available online at http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/Quality/PirsigZen/), Hi This link does not work. It says no page to display. Is the link correct? I am very much interested. Can you gove the correct link please? NS Srikanth

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 41, Issue 26
by Vihan Pandey 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

> 4 I hope the FLOSS cell can give/get some donations of even outdated (by > a few years) technical books to the schools' FLOSS cell. A library of > books is very very helpful. Plus they need to have motivational books > such as Rebel code, Just for fun by linus torvalds, cathedral and the > bazaar, etc etc just to understand the opensource culture/history. Hi Githin, A great place to start up with books would be the offcial GNU doucumentation which you can get here : http://www.gnu.org/manual/manual.html http://www.gnu.org/doc/other-free-books.html A good edition would also be Free Software Free Society by RMS and Free as in Freedom by Sam Williams. These are all available freely online, printed copies for all may not be very easily obtained in India, but you could start with the ebooks. In fact you could have a community of like minded people who could pool some money together and get what you want printed and bound. What better way to start a FOSS cell :-) Regards, - vihan

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Linus Torvalds -just for fun
by kush 02 Oct '06

02 Oct '06

Hi all, I recently read "just for fun" by Linus and another writer. Came to know that he started playing/tinkering with calculators/computers of those days when he was around 10 or 11. Also he could write system software (assemblers, device drivers,linkers, loaders, disassemblers, etc) much before he started the linux project. So he was in a unique position to actually do this contribution for humanity because he had been honing his skills for a long time without even planning for it consciously. His getting hands on the Andrew Tanenbaum OS book (700 plus page book and studying it extremely thoroughly in 2 or 3 months) also was one of the points in his history which led him to develop this linux OS. Surely somebody (some mentor/teacher/classmate etc) would have guided him to this book or it happenned by chance. It is mentioned that he studied it so thoroughly that it became second nature to him-- he used to sleep with it. Also the student in western system of education decides what they want to really study whereas we in India are asked to cram any and everything to give us so called "more rounded" knowledge --ultimately the course is so vast that we just get superficial knowledge of everything and hardly learn much. Most private engg colleges have low standards and students just try to pass by hook or crook. Programming exercises are copied and there is no system of competitive learning by sharing and open discussion. I think we should have our elective known to us in 2nd year and study should be according to that elective. For Torvalds, his elective subject became system software programming --specially Operating system development even before he started his course. He learned other subjects (such as tcp/ip etc etc) related to the main project with the passing of time from other hackers as well. I think once he rewrote the kernel as well since something was implemented badly earlier. (his high standards --make the best software possible) There is another difference when I compare with Indian colleges/universities --methods of teaching. Linus had information about textbooks/recommended reading books much much before his course started and therefore was able to prepare in advance whereas in our college days we used to wait for the teacher to tell us which books to buy after the term started or was half way thru. We used to save on books by borrowing from the library (generally badly stocked) or get earlier editions /hand me downs. The information on how a programmer can do a great job by reading or learning about the thought processes of such unusual people and geniuses as the mathematician Gauss etc was also very interesting. (story of teacher asking a class to calculate the sum of numbers from 1 to 100) It shows that Linus was already by that time far ahead in his problem solving skills as he was somehow reading above and beyond his school/college course --biographies and stories of famed geniuses always help. His insight into how a question is framed which ultimately leads to a better solution is also something worth understanding. His sister Sara actually made him improve his english because of the sibling rivalry, playful competition, fighting between the children etc etc and also because he had to understand the manuals etc which were written in english for all his machines from abroad. When one compares him with Richard Stallman who also has great strengths, the only reason one sees him more successful in influencing something is because he is always in a continuous learning mode (even in non technical areas as the other writer has written) and also because he somehow understands the concept of not getting attached to one's possessions/ideas/beliefs too rigidly because everything is relative. I hope I can read some book/biography on Stallman too --please let me know if you know of any. Thanks, Kush

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by mayank raj 02 Oct '06

02 Oct '06

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