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No marks for Free Software?
by Ramanraj K 16 Sep '05

16 Sep '05

In Indian philosophy, marks are very ancient and well known - creation and life itself began with a mark, which is symbolised by lingam. "Lingam" itself merely means "mark". Religious marks are quite easy to understand and use: at a single glance, you could easily distinguish between people professing various beliefs and faiths. Trade marks also serve an useful purpose in distinguishing between products and services, and the various classifications within it. At a time when the free software community should be encouraging the use of marks that easily identify free software, we find a strange development that may only discourage people from using the marks more freely. Are there no marks for free software? Without freely usable marks, free software will end up as a big zero. As a newbie, I struggled hard to see the connection between RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, and the others. They all had "Linux" written on it somewhere, that gave me a solid clue that they are all probably belonging to the same genus, and after digging into it, I even managed to get to gnu, fsf and gpl. It is odd that the free software community could produce tomes of free software, yet not have even one standard solid graphical mark to identify itself in simple uncomplicated ways. There is no confusion with FreeBSD: they have a nice list of logos, and a clear guide to help people on using them. Some logos are also available under a "beer-ware" licence :) http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/daemon.html http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/share/examples/BSD_dae… GNU was conceived by RMS and Linux by Linus (or the sys admin who named the dir linux ruling over freix name suggested by Linus, who was then too modest to name the kernel after himself). Though the currently available free gnu os is named and called "GNU/Linux", there is no graphic mark that could be uniformly applied to all distros. In the spirit of the movement, there should be atleast one logo that FSF, OSDL, OSI and all the others who contribute code could agree upon to be used either freely or upon payment of a token fee or formal permission. It would be a good idea to start this as a separate project and even see if this could be a source of revenue to sustain the free software community. HTH. -Ramanraj K "suksmavisayatvam ca alinga paryavasanam" - Patanjali "The subtlest level of nature is consciousness. When consciousness dissolves in nature, it loses all marks and becomes pure" - quoted from "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", by B.K.S. Iyengar.

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Software Freedom Day
by Ramanraj K 16 Sep '05

16 Sep '05

It struck me that "Software Freedom" may mean several things, including the idea that people have the freedom to lawfully acquire and use any software they like. Perhaps, it is this meaning that should be higlighted on Software Freedom Day in future, so that it may be celebrated by one and all in a spirit of brotherhood. Recognising the freedom to use any software we like would also mean that all have a chance to be treated alike, and no person would be criticised for his individual choice of software. I feel this may become increasingly apparent in the days to come.

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Fwd: success--in viewing maharashtra's electoral rolls in the open source firef
by krishnaact 13 Sep '05

13 Sep '05

--- In eGovINDIA(a)yahoogroups.com, Kush <kushkaran@f...> wrote: Hi all, I am trying to see the results for the electoral rolls from http://203.199.16.205/msd/ or any other district except "Mumbai city" in the open source web browser known as firefox. Unfortunately there is a need to install a font called DVBW-TTSurekh available from http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/fonts/fontsHelp.php specifically http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/fonts/bin/Dvbwsr0n.ttf (For windows machines-- this has to be copied into the windows\fonts directory whereas for linux its to be copied into the user's home directory's .fonts directory ie ~/.fonts) and the following lines at the beginning of the source page of the result need to be added (which only a person with a little knowledge of html and a text editor would be knowing) <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> Then only the results are seen properly. THERE IS NO NEED FOR A CDAC PLUGIN AT ALL--something which has been made mandatory for all visitors so that they only use microsoft's Internet explorer. The results were deliberately not working except for "mumbai city" which is the elite section of maharashtra because the results page had a missing meta tag as above. Only search results generated from mumbai city were working because this meta tag was generated correctly for them. this affected search results for all districts other than "Mumbai city" including Mumbai Suburban and Pune. Once the tag is properly generated in each resulting page, any browser (netscape, opera, mozilla etc) can view the results. This is another way that a premier GOVT agency like CDAC helps propagate Microsoft and its products in preference to what is good for the country by forcing the layman to use microsoft products and showing that there is no other way to get IT work done. Regards, Kussh --- End forwarded message ---

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INDIA: Useful GNU/Linux links... [Courtesy: http://ilug-cochin.org/cool_links.htm]
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 13 Sep '05

13 Sep '05

************************************************************************* Chennai LUG has a great wiki going there! http://www.chennailug.org/wiki/Main_Page ************************************************************************* 1. The GNU Homepage. http://www.gnu.org/ 2. The GNU philosophy. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ 3. What is free software ? Know it more http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html 4. kernal.org Linux kernel archives http://www.kernel.org/ 5. Linux.org: The official linux page. http://www.linux.org/ 6. Linux.com: The flagship Linux site. http://www.linux.com/ 7. Linuxlinks.com A Linux portal http://www.linuxlinks.com/ 8. Linuxberg.com Download Linux s/w http://www.linuxberg.com/ 9. Linuxmall.com Linux mall on the net http://www.linuxmall.com/ 10. Linuxworld.com Linux news http://www.linuxworld.com/ 11. Linuxjournal.com Linux Magazine http://www.linuxjournal.com/ 12. li.org Linux international http://www.li.org/ Indian Linux Users Group Cochin Chapter The Cochin chapter of Linux India is run by GNU/Linux enthusiasts in and around Cochin. 13. Slashdot.org: News for nerds. http://www.slashdot.org/ 14. Freshmeat.net http://www.freshmeat.net/ 15. xfree86.org http://www.xfree86.org/ 16. The Linux Documentation Project. http://www.linuxdoc.org/ 17. The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL). http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html 18. ANSI Escape Sequences. http://www.evergreen.edu/user/serv_res/research/bsi/people/dawn/program/ans… 19. The Linuxbox Network: Free hosting for your free software projects. http://www.linuxave.net/ 20. Linux Weekly News. http://www.lwn.net/ Dr Krishnan C N <cnkrish at au-kbc.org> iheading the National Resource Center on FLOSS housed in MIT, Anna University. This is a joint venture between Anna University and C-DAC. This group has been studying FLOSSt training aspect. ************************************************************************* ILUG-Goa's links * We welcome your participation! ************************************************************************* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa ILUG-Goa's main friendly list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce ANNOUNCE LIST http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux FOR NEWBIES http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxgoahelp TECH HELP LIST WEBSITES: http://ilug-goa.swiki.net http://www.ilug-margao.org *************************************************************************

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Fwd: Re: success--in viewing maharashtra's electoral rolls in the open source f
by krishnaact 11 Sep '05

11 Sep '05

--- In eGovINDIA(a)yahoogroups.com, Kush <kushkaran@f...> wrote: In firefox, try this - In menu go to view -> character encoding -> Western(iso--8859-1) Yes, Laxminarayan Kamath's solution is a very convenient solution and better than mine -no editing is required at all. Thanks for the simplest and best solution. Kussh Kush wrote: >Please see the text file at the end of this message which gives the >reason why the asp page won't work till it is edited by hand or a filter >plugin used to search for "charset=x-undefined" or similar string and >replaced with "charset=iso-8859-1". > >This is deliberately done to cause a problem with all browsers. Then the >plugin has been made to work only for IE to get over this simple problem >which would look exceedingly complex to a layman. > >regards, >kussh > >krishnaact wrote: > > >>I forwarded your email, and got the response below. Please let him >>know if it works. >> >>Laxminarayan Kamath" <kamathln@g...> Add to Address BookAdd to >>Address Book >>To: "Principal Support List of FSF-India" <fsf-friends@m...> >>Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] Fwd: success--in viewing maharashtra's >>electoral rolls in the open source fire >> >>On 9/10/05, krishnaact <krishnaact@y...> wrote: >> >> >> >>>--- In eGovINDIA(a)yahoogroups.com, Kush <kushkaran@f...> wrote: >>>Hi all, >>> >>>I am trying to see the results for the electoral rolls from >>>http://203.199.16.205/msd/ or any other district except "Mumbai city" >>>..... >>> >>> >>and the following lines at the beginning of the source page of the >> >> >> >>>result need to be added (which only a person with a little knowledge >>>of html and a text editor would be knowing) >>> >>><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; >>> >>> >>charset=iso-8859-1"> >> >> >> >>>Then only the results are seen properly. >>> >>> >>> >>In firefox, try this - In menuy go to view -> charector encoding -> >>Western(iso--8859-1) >>Please tell me if it works. >> >> >> >> >> >> > > >How to see the result correctly in any browser? >1 go to http://203.199.16.205/ > >2 click on the district you want to search for --say mumbai suburban >the page will then become http://203.199.16.205/msd > >3 add the following string "/default.asp?action=first" to the location >ie http://203.199.16.205/msd/default.asp?action=first. Now you will be >able to see only the top frame which is what is needed. > >4 enter the search criteria and click on the search button. a new >results page is opened. > >5 save the results page on your computer and open it for editing in a >simple text editor such as notepad. Rename the saved file with the >extension html instead of asp. > >6 search and replace the text "charset=x-user-defined" with >"charset=iso-8859-1". Save the file. > >7 double click the saved file to view the page and you will be able to >see the page in any browser if the surekha font DVBW-TTSurekh has been >properly installed in the correct location as given in my earlier messages. > >windows/fonts directory in case of windows >or ~/.fonts directory in case of linux. .fonts is a hidden directory and >needs to be created if its not already there. > >8 if you are not able to see the result properly, finetune the >configuration of the browser. For firefox one has to do the following > >a-- go to edit --preferences (linux) >or tools-options (in windows) > >b--click on fonts and colors under general > >c--use the following settings for >1 fonts for-- western >2 proportional--serif/sans serif >3 serif-- dvbw-ttsurekh >4 sansserif--dvbw-ttsurekh > >5 unclick/disable--"use my fonts" option in case it is enabled > >leave other settings unchanged. click on ok, ok and this should work. > >Thats it. > >********************************* > >ABOUT THE CDAC PLUGIN-- what it does-- >1 it just copies the missing font onto the users computer --works only >for windows operating system. It changes a few parts in the >configuration file for the browser --this has to be done by hand for the >other browsers. Change the configuration to make use of the newly >installed font. > >2 it does a simple search for the text "charset=x-user-defined" > and replaces it with "charset=iso-8859-1" > before the page is displayed on the browser. > >It does this by acting as a filter before the asp/html/php webpage is >displayed by the browser. Again the plugin works only for Internet explorer. > >But the key question is --why is the result page generated in the wrong >way with the incorrect meta tag--thus requiring a filter/plugin and >making it impossible for other browsers to view the page correctly. > >This is the herapheri which makes a Microsoft product the defacto king >in the country and it is patently wrong that certain people in the >establishment are promoting this. We have 6 crore voters in maharashtra. >Considering that only a 1000 know how to access this page, still >enhancing a mindset for these 1000 influential people > >Firefox and mozilla browsers are not only stronger/safer/faster and more >powerful but they are evolving faster because they are open source. This >way countries like China etc will be far ahead of us. China and Japan >already are promoting open source in a big way whereas our govt deptts >are acting as agents by dereliction of duty and unnecessary hurdles and >misinformation. > >I am using ubuntulinux (hoary version) which is such a user friendly and >windows compatible package that the transition from windows to linux is >much more pleasant than the transition to other linuxes >--www.ubuntulinux.org--some retraining is required such as knowing how >to use the system monitor (substitute task manager/process monitor in >windows), synaptic tool for downloading packages/software, klipper >(substitute for clipboard in windows), firestarter (substitute firewall >such as zone alarm in windows) openoffice (substitute msoffice in >windows) thunderbird email client(substitute outlook express in windows) >nautilus file manager (substitute windows file manager)d4x (substitute >download package like freshdownload or getright or gozilla etc in >windows for downloading big files or multiple pages) etc > > >****************************** > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- End forwarded message ---

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PHOENIX -Tool for experiments
by swathantra software 09 Sep '05

09 Sep '05

Hello , PHOENIX, India's first open access electronic kit for data collection & analysis is now commercially available on mail order. For details of the project please visit (http://www.nsc.res.in). The features of PHOENIX * Low cost system for data collection * Digital signal input/output & conversion * Full access to internal design * Access to source code * Interface to "Scilab" for data analysis *GNU/Linux Live bootable CD * Innovative tool for designing experiments for science/engineering lab For general article on phoenix visit, http://www.livejournal.com/users/pramode_ce/1676.html Those interested in buying the hardware kit may contact S2S2. Regards Sujeevan S2S2, Kannur, Kerala (M)09447449107

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Fwd: [GNU/FSF Press] Announcing the GPLv3 Development and Publicity Project
by Ramanraj K 08 Sep '05

08 Sep '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Sullivan <johns(a)fsf.org> Date: Sep 6, 2005 9:01 PM Subject: [GNU/FSF Press] Announcing the GPLv3 Development and Publicity Project To: info-press(a)fsf.org Announcing the GPL Version 3 Development and Publicity Project (GPLv3) Stichting NLnet donate 150,000 EUR to support GPLv3 activities The Free Software Foundations are proud to announce the creation of the global "GPL Version 3 Development and Publicity Project". The project will bring together thousands of organisations, software developers, and software users from around the globe during 2006, in an effort to update the world's most popular Free Software licence. The GPLv3 promises to be one of the largest participatory comments and adoption efforts ever undertaken. The sister organisations in the United States and Europe are also happy to announce a total grant of 150,000 EUR from Stichting NLnet to support this truly-unique project. The global process will be overseen by the Free Software Foundation with support from its legal counsel the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC). Free Software Foundation Europe will be coordinating the European activities closely with both organisations and contributing to the global communication effort. Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation says, "With the release of GPLv3, we aim to increase the international reach of the Free Software movement." To develop this new licence, we will be contacting communities across the globe to ensure their participation in the update of one of the most important social documents of our time." Georg Greve, President of FSF Europe adds, "We are working closely with our sister organisation and the SFLC to make sure GPLv3 will address the overarching and national European issues," and "Europe has a vibrant ecosystem of highly-skilled Free Software developers and small- and medium-sized Free Software enterprises. It will be our goal to strengthen this development and help European governments to build upon it." In announcing the grant to the FSF and FSF Europe, Teus Hagen, chairman of NLnet said, "NLnet's support of the GPL and the Free Software movement, and its desire to see the successful adoption of GPLv3 achieved in the spirit of internationalization, made the funding of this project an important priority for us." Hagen said, "We hope to encourage other grant-making organisations to help fund this unique project". Written by Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation, the GNU General Public Licence (``the GPL'') is the Constitution and central licence of the Free Software movement, securing users' rights to freely study, copy, modify, reuse, share and redistribute software. The GPL builds upon the ethical and scientific principle of free, open and collaborative improvement of human knowledge, which was central to the rapid evolution of areas like mathematics, physics, or biology, and adapts it to the area of information technology. By now, the GPL is employed by tens of thousands of software projects, companies and governments around the world, and is supported by large communities of software developers and users who wish to share their work for the benefit of all. The GNU system, the Linux kernel, Samba, MySQL, and many thousands of other GPL'd programs, offer high technological quality as well as political and economic independence and sustainability. GPL'd software runs on or is embedded in devices ranging from mobile phones, PDAs and home networking appliances to mainframes and supercomputing clusters. Independent software developers around the world, as well as every large corporate IT buyer and seller, and a surprisingly large proportion of individual users, interact with the GPL. The current version of the licence, which was written in 1991 and is now 14 years old, has become central to the activities and operation of a large part of all companies and governments and is now in need of review. Stichting NLnet, a non-profit foundation based in The Netherlands, has a mission to stimulate network research and development in the domain of Internet technology. It develops and releases software under the GPL. http://www.nlnet.nl/ For details of the project, please refer to http://www.fsf.org or contact info(a)fsf.org; European activities will also be presented at http://fsfeurope.org, or via contact to team(a)fsfeurope.org. About the Free Software Foundations: The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software - particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants - and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Their headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), founded 2001, is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. The the Freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE. Further information about FSFE's work can be found at http://fsfeurope.org, get active yourself at http://fsfeurope.org/contribute/. Free Software Foundations currently exist in the United States, Europe, India and Latin America. All FSFs form a network of sister organisations. -- John Sullivan Program Administrator | Phone: (617)542-5942 x23 51 Franklin Street, 5th Fl. | Fax: (617)542-2652 Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA | GPG: AE8600B6 _______________________________________________ FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press

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Linux Version of Nila(Malayalam Software) released
by Manilal K M 07 Sep '05

07 Sep '05

Hi all, The Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) has released the free software version of the official Malayalam language software it had developed for the Department of Official Language. The software, which works on Linux platform, consists of six Malayalam fonts in Unicode and a special editor. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Web site, http://clickeralam.org/downloads.html Read More at: http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/07/stories/2005090700680200.htm The RPM for the above package will also be available soon. regards Manilal

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Free Software Week at MES College of Engineering Kuttippuram
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 07 Sep '05

07 Sep '05

Workshop in Kerala. Covered nicely by The Hindu. " Workshop to focus on Linux networking KUTTIPPURAM: The Department of Information Technology at MES College of Engineering here will organise a five-day faculty development workshop on `Networking with GNU Linux' from Monday. ..." http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/05/stories/2005090505910300.htm Rgds, CK Raju, Thrissur ------------------ http://ernakulam.sancharnet.in/doxa

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FreeSoftwareDay
by Thejesh GN 06 Sep '05

06 Sep '05

Are we doing anything in Bangalore ? -- Thanks, Thej http://www.techmag.biz

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