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3393 discussions

Re: [Fsf-friends] Using Apt-spy
by Mahesh T. Pai 06 May '04

06 May '04

Rakesh 'arky' Ambati said on Thu, May 06, 2004 at 05:31:23AM -0700,: 1) I need to create list for both testing/Unstable. Can I use this with -d option. Why don't you experiment? It will not kill you. And you certainly can educate yourselves. 2) Apt-spy creates list with one or two sites.Sometimes most packages won't be found on that site,due to various reason's (don't flame,often I kindly let the mirror site about this). There is some misunderstanding here. apt-spy looks only for official Debian mirrors. If you need unofficial packages, like backports, you need to manually edit sources.list -- +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M., 'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road, Ernakulam, Cochin-682018, Kerala, India. http://paivakil.port5.com +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+

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Playfair News
by Rajkumar S 04 May '04

04 May '04

Some more press coverage http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0503freesoft.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/05/03/HNundauntedbyapple_1.html raj

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Sun considers GPL license for Solaris
by Titty Jacob 03 May '04

03 May '04

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/04/30/HNsolarisgpl_1.html -- Debian GNU/Linux .~. The Choice /V\ of a GNU /( )\ Generation ^^-^^ .''`. : :' : `. `'` `-

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IT@School
by Arun M 03 May '04

03 May '04

On 26th April teachers union from Kerala, KSTA, made a protest demonstration in front of IT@School project (school IT education program of Govt of Kerala). One of the issues raised in this protest was lack of teacher training in GNU/Linux.

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Spam problems
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 02 May '04

02 May '04

--- Rishi <rishi(a)gangfam.com> wrote: > On Sunday 02 May 2004 1:58 am, Rakesh 'arky' Ambati > wrote: > > Hello List, > > > > I have a seen a considerable increase in spam > and > > auto-remailing virus in my mailbox.Is it possible > to > > prevent to mask email addresses on mailing list > > archives. > > Hi > > Don't know about masking of e-mail addresses but > this service called Spam > Arrest is really great.. > > http://spamarrest.com > > They have a 30 day free trial and I haven't received > a single spam since. hi, Is this GNU/Free software ? I have addressesed the email to mailing-list admin. --arky __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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[twnfeatures] World Summit on Information Society Skirts three key issues
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 May '04

02 May '04

Interesting debate. More knowledge needs to be in the public domain; we need to extend the debate beyond software. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- World Intellectual Property Rights Day 26th April 2004 WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY SKIRTS THREE KEY ISSUES The recent World Summit on the Information Society adopted a declaration and action plan aimed at a people-oriented information society where everyone can create, access and share information and knowledge. However, due to basic disagreements, decisions were postponed on two key issues (global Internet governance and creating a Digital Solidarity Fund) while another key issue (intellectual property) was hardly addressed. By Martin Khor Third World Network Features The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) ended with the adoption of a declaration and action plan aimed at a people-oriented information society where everyone can create, access and share information and knowledge. The Declaration has 11 key principles and the Plan of Action contains 147 proposals. Many familiar issues in the discussion on the information age found their way into the Summit documents, such as the right to information, equity, access, the right to cultural identity and diversity, local content, and building the capacity of the poor and marginalised. But some key issues, such as the impact of intellectual property, were hardly addressed. And decisions on two contentious subjectsInternet governance and the setting up of a new Digital Solidarity Fundhad to be postponed until the second phase of the Summit, to be held in Tunis in 2005. The wrangling over the two controversial issues at one stage threatened the atmosphere and outcome of the Summit preparatory process. They remained unresolved, to the bitterness of many developing country leaders. But a compromise was worked out whereby they will continue to be debated, with the assistance of two separate task forces to be set up under the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and final decisions will be made at the Tunis meeting. The governance of the Internet was one of WSISs most contentious issues. The issuance of Internet domain names is presently administered by a private organisation, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) based in San Francisco. Many developing countries argued that the administration of domain names and other aspects of global Internet management should come under an inter-governmental body, such as the International Telecommunications Union. However, the developing countries demand for an inter-governmental oversight of the Internet was strongly resisted by some developed countries. In the end, the Summit decided to postpone taking a decision, and instead asked the UN Secretary-General to set up a working group on Internet governance to make appropriate action proposals by 2005. The group should develop a working definition of Internet governance; identify relevant public policy issues; develop a common understanding on the roles and responsibilities of governments, existing international agencies, and other forums, and the private sector and civil society; and prepare a report to be presented in Tunis in 2005. The second major contentious issue was how to finance the many proposals in the Summits action plan to bridge the digital divide and upgrade facilities in the poorer countries. The developing nations proposed the concept of a Digital Solidarity Agenda to mobilise human, financial and technological resources for inclusion of all men and women in the emerging Information Society. But their proposal for a Digital Solidarity Fund to finance the Agenda was turned down by the developed countries, some of which claimed that existing amounts and channels of aid were enough and that the developing countries should commit their own funds. This caused many Third World leaders and diplomats to complain that the Summits fine sentiments and proposals would eventually mean nothing concrete for their countries, since there would not be the financial means of implementing the proposed actions. Again, a final decision on this divisive issue was turned over for the 2005 Tunis meeting to make. And again, the UN Secretary-General was asked to set up a task force, to review the adequacy of existing financial mechanisms to meet the challenges of ICT for development. A third contentious issue is how present and future intellectual property rights regimes are raising the cost of information and communications to consumers, and in turn affecting the access of the public, especially of the poor, to information and to the use of ICT. Some NGOs and research organisations are increasingly taking up this issue, pointing out that the principles and actions promoted by the Summit on access to all and participation by all in the information society are being undermined by the monopolising power of corporations making use of existing and new intellectual property rights regimes. This has enabled the high prices for software and may also lead in future to restrictions on and increasing costs of data transmitted through the Internet. At the Summit, civil society groups issued their own joint Declaration, Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs, which was presented to governments at their final official session on 12 December. The NGOs said the vast majority of humankind has no access to the public domain of global knowledge. Yet, instead of extending and strengthening the global domain, recent developments are restricting information more and more to private hands with patents being extended to software for example. They called on the UN to carry out a review of the impact on poverty and human rights of current arrangements for recognition and governance of monopolised knowledge and information, including the work of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the World Trade Organisation. They added that efforts should be made to limit intellectual monopolies, stimulate innovation and reward initiative, rather than keeping knowledge in private hands until it is of little use to society. Whilst the NGOs recognised that the current trend of governments granting more intellectual property rights to companies would counter so many of the fine principles of public access and equity expressed in the Summit documents, the subject is inadequately and inappropriately treated in the official Declaration. The Declaration instead tries to strike a balance between intellectual property protection (which grants monopoly and restricts access) and the need for dissemination and sharing of knowledge, and asks that everyone be empowered to debate and decide on these issues. This is skirting one of the biggest issues in the right and access to information. Needless to say, it will return in a bigger way in future as questions are raised whether the Summits aims and plans can be implemented if the current intellectual regimes continue and expand. The Declaration then states 11 key principles, namely: * The shared roles of governments and all stakeholders in promoting ICTs for development; * The need to develop ICT infrastructure including to reach to remote areas; * The ability for all to access and contribute information (stressing the need for a rich public domain, and affordable access to software); * Capacity building, where skills to take part in the information society are made available to all; * Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs; * Creating an enabling environment (including through regulations, fair competition, standards and proper Internet governance); * ICT applications should benefit all aspects of life (such as government operations, health, education, business, agriculture, environment, culture, and poverty eradication); * There should be respect for cultural identity and cultural and linguistic diversity and the creation and dissemination of content in diverse languages and formats; * Reaffirming freedom of the press and information; * Stressing the ethical dimensions of the information society (with all actors asked to prevent abusive use of ICTs motivated by racism, hatred, violence, child abuse, etc.); and * Committing to international and regional cooperation. The Plan of Action, which contains 147 action proposals, follows closely the 11 principles of the Declaration. Third World Network Features. -ends- About the writer: Martin Khor is Director of the Third World Network. When reproducing this feature, please credit Third World Network Features and (if applicable) the cooperating magazine or agency involved in the article, and give the byline. Please send us cuttings.

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Spam problems
by Rakesh 'arky' Ambati 01 May '04

01 May '04

Hello List, I have a seen a considerable increase in spam and auto-remailing virus in my mailbox.Is it possible to prevent to mask email addresses on mailing list archives. TIA --arky __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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Transcript of speech on Free Software by RMS
by Vijay Kumar 01 May '04

01 May '04

The transcript of RMS' speech at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy is available from http://glugt.linuxisle.com/projects.shtml A few quotes from the speech: * About a year ago, some developers... some researchers found out that, they figured out that, Windows XP when it asked for an upgrade, also reports to Microsoft, what's installed on your disk. And it does this secretly, it sends the list of files encrypted, so that it was impossible for people to tell easily that this was going on. * Even more bizarre, there is a malicious feature in the music sharing program, Kaza, where the company... the developers sell time on your computer. So, other people will pay Kaza, so that they can run their programs on your computer. * Paradoxically speaking, when you have a choice between several non-free programs to do the same job, which ever one you choose the support for it is going to be a monopoly afterwards, so at the beginning you get a choice, but afterwards you are stuck in a monopoly. * Well, there are lots of people in India who might be able to afford the computer, but couldn't possibly afford the software, because they can just barely afford a computer. So free software can make a big difference in terms of who in India can get a computer and run it. * But this is not what they are doing. And you can see easily if you look around easily, government organization in India are mostly using non-free software. And schools in India are using non-free software. This is a terrible mistake, it is a foolish and disastrous policy, governments of course deserves to use free software.... * And Microsoft did something really stupid. Well, really absurd. Supposedly, they offered various governments access to the source code. But they did it in a way that is fraudulent... * As far as I can tell, some people are born with the skill program, are born with their brains growing so that they will have the skill to program. They will be natural programmers. But writing clear understandable software is something you have to learn. That's judgment. The way you learn is by reading lots of source and by changing lots of programs. * So schools should use free software for the sake of education, but there is an even deeper reason, because schools are not supposed to teach just facts, just skills, but even more deep, they are supposed to teach the spirit of goodwill, the habit of cooperating with other people. * ...two weeks ago, when I met with Dr. Kalam and explained to him about why schools should use free software and about how non-free software is colonial system, I was really delighted, because he understood it instantly. * But sometimes, there is a different issue that does make sense for hardware. And that is the design spec, visible. You know, can the public get copies of design, to find out what the hardware does. Well, this is necessary in certain cases, so that you can check for malicious features... * There are portable phones in Europe which have this feature, that somebody can remotely tell the phone to listen to you. It really is a spy device, in the most classical sense. And if you have a portable phone, do you know who could be spying on you at any time? Vijay -- Free the Code. Free the User. ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP(http://www.nitt.edu)

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The Hindu reports about India's fastest academic computer built at IIMSc
by Ramanraj K 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

`The Hindu' in its Chennai edition dated 28-4-2004 carried an article titled `India's fastest academic computer to vie for top spot', and sorry I could not get any online links to the article. It has been reported that the Dept. of Atomic Energy made a grant of Rs. 3.5 crores to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, out of which the Linux cluster that clocked 1.382 teraflops was realised at the cost of only about Rs. 2.5 crores - a fraction of what supercomputers of this pedigree would cost. AB, you wrote about working on a similar project - is that a connected project?

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Freedom, Merit and Control
by Tarun Gaur 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

Hi Krishna, A Great way to describe Free Software. I fully agree with you and second your opinion. Freedom and Merit go hand in hand and merit is subject to hard work and research put behind it. Direction of research is again ascertained by keeping our ears open to the NEED; need of the classes and need of the masses. I think with FSF there is no reason why we cant touch base with both the segments. regards, tarun > >Message: 4 >Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:53:16 -0700 (PDT) >From: Krishna Pagadala <krishnaact(a)yahoo.com> >Subject: [Fsf-friends] Freedom, Merit and Control >To: fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in >Message-ID: <20040430025316.29080.qmail(a)web11903.mail.yahoo.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > >There was an interesting discussion on who controls >Free Software development process. I thought that >three distinct ideas were intermixed, when they >should not have been. I am writing out my thoughts on >the ideas. > >i) Freedom > Free software is all about Freedom, and nobody can >dictate what you can and cannot do with such software. >In other words nobody has control (`cracy`) over >anybody else. > With regard to the linux kernel it was written that >"Linus Torvalds controls the kernel development >process." > >That is not true Linus only controls his own tree, he >cannot control anybody else's tree. Anybody and >everybody can have their own kernel tree and kernel >development process. > >Also he does not have a road map of where the kernel >is going, and in that sense where Linux kernel goes is >more of a collaborative effort than a form of `cracy` > > >ii) Merit > I think that Linus tree has more merit in the >sense that it fits the needs of various people, that >any other tree I have a hope of building myself. > > It has been written on this list that >"Linus Torvalds has much more influence in the future >direction of Linux than I have." > > I am entirely in agreement with the idea of his >having an influence on the kernel. > Altough his influence comes from the merit of his >ideas, he still does not have control, and if some of >his ideas do not have merit they must be discarded. > >iii) Control > I am not a believer in control (coercion), >whatever disguised form it might take. > > It has been written on this list that >"Generally open source software is a meritocracy - >the "best choice" is purely based on a meritocracy. >meritocracy is how all of this functions." > > I think that we must base our decisions on merit, >however the fact that a persons ideas have merit >should not mean that the person gains some form of >control. `Cracy` can be and should be seperated out >from merit. > > I think free software is about being able to >recognize merit in each other and therefore build a >better society, while retaining freedom. i.e. without >giving up freedom, and without giving control to >others. > >Thanks >Krishna > > >===== >To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower >http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ > > > > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs >http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover > > >------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >Fsf-friends mailing list >Fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in >http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > >End of Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 12, Issue 31 >******************************************* _________________________________________________________________ Need quick cash? http://go.msnserver.com/IN/46923.asp Click here !

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