Linuxers November 2011

linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in

32 participants
35 discussions

A personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
by Siji Sunny 03 Dec '11

03 Dec '11

I know every one might have read this since it's in wikipedia.So it's a gentle reminder to all who hasn't contributed yet. "Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 679 servers and 95 staff. Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 450 million different people every month – with billions of page views. Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others. When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others. If everyone reading this donated ₹100, we would only have to fundraise for one day a year. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give. This year, please consider making a donation of ₹100, ₹200, ₹300 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia. Thanks, *Jimmy Wales* Wikipedia Founder -- Siji Sunny

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UID and FOSS
by Rony 02 Dec '11

02 Dec '11

Hello, The purpose of this thread is to move further from where we had left it in the earlier one and as suggested by Dinesh Shah, discuss how we as FOSS people can provide alternate solutions to the shortcomings of the current system. Lets keep this purely technical and not pro or anti Aadhar. I have been looking up official as well as technology information about the Aadhar UID system and some important links are posted below. My observations are as follows. 1) The Aadhar project uses 2 forms of biometric identities, the fingerprints and the iris. 2) The fingerprint system used is the standard 2D system which is prone to errors due to various factors as explained in the links. There is a new system which is the 3D fingerprint scan that is yet to be available commercially (IMHO). It has better accuracy with good image quality as it is contact-less. The pdf link to the same is here.... Quality and Matching Performance Analysis of 3D Unraveled Fingerprints http://vis.uky.edu/~realtime3d/Doc/Manuscripts/Quality%20and%20matching%20p… Fingerprint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint 3) In iris scanning, there are chances of cheating by using fake iris contact lenses. To eliminate this problem, iris scanners use 'live-tissue verification' techniques to detect natural tissue. Iris recognition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition 4) The Aadhar PoC ducument does not mention whether the live-tissue verification system is in place for iris scanners. proof of concept trial http://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/uid_enrolment_poc_report.pdf 5) It is surprising that though they take multiple photos of the subject during the enrolment process, there is no face recognition software to take advantage of this bio-identity for more accurate results. Although this should be a fringe benefit and not the main basis of checking id. 6) Blood group which is an important and constant bio-identity for life is not included in this project. If implemented, proper sterile needles should be used for every sample collected. This information may not be necessary for regular business but useful for security agencies for id lookup of suspicious persons. 7) The software used for the devices is a custom software "A reference implementation of the enrolment software was created to standardize the process and have a uniform look-and-feel of the application across all three states. However, since the devices used were different in each state, the enrolment software used in each state was a custom version which followed the reference design. The UID technology team worked with each of the three agencies to create the customized software to be used in the corresponding state. There were also variations in the capture process followed, particularly in iris capture, because of the variations in capture devices." As devices vary in hardware, their accuracy will vary too. Since the software is the custom type, there will be total dependency on the hardware suppliers for software. In addition to this cost, for every computer that they use across the country, a license fee will have to be paid for every operating system that is the commercial proprietary type. Conclusion: 1) Instead of leaving this project in the hands of private hardware and software suppliers, the entire project should be centrally controlled by a Govt. institution that is actively involved into computing and software development like CDAC etc. 2) They should test devices from various vendors across the country and list them according to their accuracy. Only those devices that conform to FOSS software support should be included in the list. The entire report of this testing should be posted openly on the internet. 3) Software for this entire project including the server side too should be developed in-house by that Govt. institution and made the standard to all computers involded in the Aadhar project across the country. 4) Use only free as in freedom and free as in cost and open source software for the Aadhar system. This will eliminate the per computer license fees for operating systems in every Aadhar computer across the country. Given the total number of Aadhar computers in tens of thousands, this will be a significant amount. The added advantage of POSIX confirming systems will be immunity against common computer viruses as the systems will be on-line all the time for faster transactions. Some more lniks.... Unique Identification Authority of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_Identification_Authority_of_India De-duplication – The Complexity in the Unique ID context http://www.4gid.com/De-dup-complexity%20unique%20ID%20context.pdf -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

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How can I unsubscribe from this list?
by Heenal Rajani 02 Dec '11

02 Dec '11

How can I unsubscribe from this list? Thanks! Heenal -- Heenal Rajani +502 4283 5042 www.HugItForward.org ~ be the change ~

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Aadhar on Wiki --> Edit it.
by Rony 01 Dec '11

01 Dec '11

Hello, There is a wiki article on the Aadhar UID project and has very little content on the risks of the current system. So add your inputs to it. Keep the temperature low. -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

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Indian UID, Aadhar Project Is A Proprietary, Non Open Source Project?
by Swapnil Bhartiya 01 Dec '11

01 Dec '11

http://www.muktware.com/bitsnbytes/2983 I worked on the story and found oss is only a smoke screen. The entire UID project seems to be a pure Microsoft stack. This document provides step-by-step instructions to install the AADHAAR Enrolment Client and Biometric components needed for Biometrics capturing. The document is not intended to be a user manual for the AADHAAR Enrolment Client. The application has been built to work with the given pre-requisites. 1.1 Installation Pre-requisites • Operating System: Windows XP SP3 OR Windows 7 (only 32-bit editions) • Windows Installer 4.5 • Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express • Aadhaar QSS SDK Setup • Vendor Device Manager You can see how the UID project has made Microsoft technologies mandatory. You can't use it without Microsoft. There is no mention of Linux in this important document. That clearly states that other than the already popular and powerful open source technologies such as Apache and MySQL rest of the stack is proprietary. Calling UID/Aadhar and Open Source project is like calling a Tata tractor a Mercedes just because one of its four tyres is a Mercedes tyre. -- Swapnil Bhartiya Editor: Muktware.com Skype: No Way...its non-free. Looking for alternatives Facebook: http://facebook.com/muktware Twitter: http://twitter.com/muktware Google+ : https://plus.google.com/109027644713767623413/posts

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[Job Opportunity] Linux System Admin
by Ashish Disawal 30 Nov '11

30 Nov '11

Company : www.affinity.com Located at : Charkop, Kandiwali (W), Mumbai No of positions : 2 Position : System Administrator Experience : 2 - 4 years Skills: * Supporting and Administrating Linux (Debian and Redhat based distributions) * Ability to work in a large scale environment * Strong Linux administration and networking skills * Experience on Apache, bind, nagios, iptables and svn * Knowledge on virtualization technologies * Knowledge of cloud computing and clustering * Any *nix certification preferred * Good knowledge of TCP/IP * Strong shell scripting skills. Perl/Ruby would be a plus * Experience on Kernel upgrade * Good understanding on security practices Role & Responsibilities: * Server Installation, Configuration & Management * Automation * Documentation * Research & Development lnxnubie - Always a Linux Newbie

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Is Linux Lagging Behind After Its Initial Headway?
by Rony 27 Nov '11

27 Nov '11

Hello, Without trying to sound pessimistic, I get the feeling that Linux is lagging behind M$ and at a time when its chances of catching up were the best. The gaps that Linux had created in the M$ environment through alternate compatibility appear to be getting slowly filled by M$ through the process of vendor lock-in. Small changes are taking place but in a way that brings people back to Windows. My bank's netbanking website worked superbly in Linux but a recent upgrade in their software has made the entire system Windows IE7+ only. OpenOffice upto 3.3 is unable to save .docx files so it is being rendered useless for the new office systems. Mobile phones still come with Windows only software for their 'Suites' for full functionality on the pc. There is not much happening in accounting, architectural CAD and multi-media packages too, in a way that can replace the use of current commercial Windows based software. It looks like it has hit the pause button. The big Linux giants do not look interested either. -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

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LUGM-Planning Meeting
by Siji Sunny 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Hello All, After having discussion with some of the group memebers,this meetup will be only a "planning meeting" and there won't be any technical sessions.So I request all of you to attend this for discussing and finalising 2012 LugMumbai's activities. Agenda : LugMumbai's Activities/Action plan for next 1 yr. -Workshop for students -FOSS Technical sessions/Conferences -Contribution to OpenSource Projects -Website/Wiki activities. Pls feel free to add your points. Date : 3rd December,2011 Time : 4PM Venue : Favourites Bakery and Restaurant Shop No. 5, 6-A, Sonwadi Mansion, 209 LJ Road, Shivaji Park, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400016 PS :Everyone who's attending will be assigned actionable items.People who can give sensible,implementation ideas also invited. -- Siji Sunny

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Stopping monitor / pc from going into standby
by jtd＠mtnl.net.in 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

This is one mystery that I have failed to crack. in xorg.conf Section "ServerFlags" Option "blank time" "0" Option "standby time" "0" Option "suspend time" "0" Option "off time" "0" EndSection in the XFCE gui set everything to never. But the freakin thing will go into standby without mouse or keyboard activity. Monitor is a HDMI TV. The Monitor DOES NOT go into standby and will show check HDMI input. As an added consolation, the behaviour is the same with a regular TV with VGA input and a regular vga monitor. Motherboard Intel and AMD. Any suggestions.

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LugMum- Meetup in December
by Siji Sunny 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Hello, Should we plan for a meetup /Technical session in December? Date : December 3rd Saturday ? Venue : Dr,Nagarjun &Ganesh, will it possible to arrange HBSE seminar hall? Technical Sessions : 1.Disko - UI frame work for Embedded Linux - By myself . 2. 3. -- Siji Sunny

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Linuxers November 2011