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
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/
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/
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.
--
<b>Swapnil Bhartiya</b><br>
Editor: Muktware.com<br>
Skype: No Way...its non-free. Looking for alternatives<br>
Facebook: http://facebook.com/muktware<br>
Twitter: http://twitter.com/muktware
Google+ : https://plus.google.com/109027644713767623413/posts
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
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/
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
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.
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