Fwd: [linuxiran]GNULinuxIndia 10012003

[Arash Zeini]

FYI

--- Frederick Noronha <address@hidden> wrote:
> From: Frederick Noronha <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: [linuxiran]GNULinuxIndia 10012003
> Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 09:18:46 +0530 (IST)
> 
> 
> 
>      e88~~\  888b    | 888   |  /  888              
>  888 ,e,           
>     d888     |Y88b   | 888   |  L  888 888-~88e 
> e88~\888  "    /~~~8e  
>     8888 __  | Y88b  | 888   |  I  888 888  888 d888
>  888 888       88b 
>     8888   | |  Y88b | 888   |  N  888 888  888 8888
>  888 888  e88~-888 
>     Y888   | |   Y88b| Y88   |  U  888 888  888 Y888
>  888 888 C888  888 
>      "88__/  |    Y888  "8__/   X  888 888  888 
> "88_/888 888  "88_-888 
>   
>
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>    Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by: Frederick
> Noronha * Jan 10,2003
>   
>
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> 
> 
>               Although we pride ourselves on being a software
> superpower,
>               hardly any of the products we use are made in
> India. -- G. 
>               Nagarjuna of TIFR, member of the Free Software
> Foundation,
>               quoted in a recent news report in the Times of
> India. See
>               http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/
>               uncomp/articleshow?artid=33405578&sType=1
> 
> NUMBER 300,000 FROM CHENNAI: The Linux Counter
> (counter.li.org) is where
> users of the GNU/Linux operating system can
> voluntarily register themselves
> as such. Recently, Harald Alvestrand of Norway, the
> founder of the Linux
> Counter, announced: "Account number 300.000 got
> handed out today - to a
> Linux user in Tamil Nadu, India." Let look forward
> to many other GNU/Linux
> enthusiasts signing up there and proudly identifying
> themselves as users of
> Free Software.
> 
>       PROJECT RESOURCE CENTRE GETS A FILLIP: Thanks to
> the many students
>       and mentors (over 100) that are now part of this
> list, the Project
>       Resource Centre has been seeing some interesting
> discussions. It is
>       a place where students wanting to work on GNU/Linux
> projects can get
>       ideas and guidance from volunteer-mentors. If you
> fall in either
>       category (student or possible mentor) please do
> sign up at
>       http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc
> 
> THE COMPASS TO THE EAST: ILUG-Calcutta is
> participating in COMPASS 2003
> (24-27 Jan 2003) -- the biggest annual IT event of
> the Eastern India. "We
> are having 18sqm of space and are planning a big
> show," say local
> volunteers.
> 
> P K Sharma <address@hidden> recently gave
> an idea of plans for
> participation. To subscribe to this LUG's mailing
> list send mail to
> address@hidden with the body "subscribe
> ilug-cal" and an empty
> subject line.  FAQ for the LUG:
> http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
> 
> They seem to be heading for it rather seriously.
> There are plans for demo's,
> installations, showcasing various distros, and
> focussing on GNU/Linux in
> school / at home / in the corporate world. If all
> goes as per plan, there
> will also be emphasis on the work done in GNU/Linux
> localization (Bangla
> Linux), how Free Software can be an enabler and
> force multiplier in
> e-governance, development possibilities (languages,
> tools, IDEs etc) ,
> scientific apps (Octave, Blender, etc), high-end
> computing like clustering
> and FT, and 'cool stuff' that includes video
> editing, dual heading, virtual
> machines, emulators and media streaming (MP3s and
> video). More details from
> Indranil Das Gupta <address@hidden> or
> Sayamindu Dasgupta
> <address@hidden>
> 
>       WATER... AND GNU/LINUX: Dr Vikram Vyas, who has
> written an
>       interesting software to help villagers calculate
> availability of
>       water in their region, is eager to port it to
> GNU/Linux. If you
>       would be interested in the same, kindly get in
> touch with him at
>       Vikram Vyas <address@hidden>
> 
> GNU/LINUX IN WEST ASIA: Quite a few GNU/Linux
> mailing lists are active in
> the Gulf area. Some see the active involvement of
> Indian expat communities.
> One list is address@hidden This
> group is sponsored by
> GoldenSun Internet Consulting &amp;amp; Research,
> Phone 971-4-2728310
> /Fax:971-4-2728320 http://www.uaelug.org Its
> moderator is GSC Prabhakar
> James, and the LUG was founded in 1999.
> 
>       address@hidden IN CHENNAI:
> address@hidden informs that
>       work on the GNU/Linux-in-schools front is also
> being undertaken by
>       address@hidden volunteer Suraj Kumar. Contact him at
> address@hidden
> 
> THEOPENCD LAUNCHES FIRST EDITION: Something from
> outside South Asia, but of
> potential interest to many of us. This is a
> collection of high-quality Open
> Source Software that runs in Windows. A good bridge
> for reluctant users of
> proprietorial software who would like to try out the
> power of Free/Libre and
> Open Source Software (FLOSS).  Says Henrik Nilsen
> Omma, one of the project
> leaders: "Our aim is to create a simple to use CD
> distribution of Open
> Source software for Windows, and in that way spread
> the OSS message.... The
> disc allows new users can try out Open Source
> software (OSS) in the comfort
> of their own, familiar operating system, rather than
> having to take the
> drastic step of reformatting their hard drive to
> install Linux or BSD. The
> collection, which includes OpenOffice.org, AbiWord
> and Beonex is primarily
> intended for non-technical computer users. However,
> we expect that the disc
> will appeal first to experienced OSS users, who will
> hopefully find it a
> useful vehicle by which to introduce OSS to their
> less computer-savvy
> friends." They invite all FLOSS enthusiasts to
> download the ISO, burn CDs
> and distribute them widely to friends, local
> schools, universities, and
> companies.  http://www.theopencd.org/ See
> http://linuxpr.com/releases/5379.html More details
> from Henrik Nilsen Omma
> <address@hidden>
> 
>       SIRTAJ SINGH KANG... IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: 
>       Australia-based Indian-origin KDE developer Sirtaj
> Singh Kang is
>       profiled in a prominent newspaper. Taj is one of
> the two 
>       nominated as official KDE spokespeople in
> Australia.
>       Quote: "When I was around 14, my dad bought us a
> 286-based computer. 
>       It was quite expensive. We weren't poor by any
> standards but this
>       stuff was still a luxury. Still, for me to get
> all the tools a kid
>       needed to learn programming cost as much again,
> even just to get
>       started. Given that software is infinitely
> reproducible practically
>       for free, there is really no excuse for this
> especially now that
>       hardware has become so cheap. Give interested
> people access to
>       software, allow them to improve and redistribute
> it - that's the way
>       for computing to really make a difference."
> 
>
http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/01/1036027033828.html
> 
>
***************************************************************************
> WANTED: Volunteers to support and help the growth of
> smaller GLUGs and LUGs
> across India. If you are willing to encourage a
> Little League LUG to grow
> and become active, please contact Sukrit D
> <address@hidden> of
> Pondicherry who formulated the Little League idea.
> ILUG-Bhubaneswar was
> recently discussing what could be done to boost
> their activities. 
>
***************************************************************************
> 
>       GNOWLEDGE.ORG: Dr G Nagarjuna, an eminently
> optimistic and
>       always-upbeat educationist from Mumbai
> <address@hidden>
>       recently announced that he completed setting up a
> Sourceforge site
>       for the Project Resource Centre (a centre for
> mentors to guide
>       students in Free Software work) and other projects.
> Says he: "I
>       haven't tested it completely, but it seems to be
> working
>       satisfactorily. I request the various groups to
> begin using this
>       facility." Needed: volunteers to maintain the site.
>       http://gnowledge.org 
>       Also see http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc
> 
> MAXIMUS2 INITIATIVE: Maximus2, a wholly owned
> subsidiary of a British
> company, is to give away what it terms its powerful
> office productivity
> suite -- GroupX2 -- free of cost. "Every
> organization with 10 to 500
> employees needs this application," it says. "With
> GroupX2 your company will
> become more organized, productive and highly
> efficient. The GroupX2
> application is normally priced at $1000 is free (of
> cost) for the first 2003
> companies that register," says the firm. Register at
> www.maximus2.com This
> application consists of full working software
> enabled for 20 users.  GroupX2
> will "take the pain out" of managing tasks, people,
> messages, calendars,
> meetings, contacts and much more. Please note, this
> is not 'Free Software'
> but a limited offer of a free-of-cost version for
> early subscribers. 
> http://www.maximus2.com
> 
>       BSPELLER, ON THE BENGALI LANGUAGE FRONT: Thanks to
> Sayamindu
>       Dasgupta <address@hidden> for forwarding a
> post from Taneem
>       Ahmed <address@hidden> on the Bengali computing
> front.
>       What is Bspeller: A light weight text editor with a
> Bengali spell
>       checker. This program is part of the Bengali
> dictionary project. 
>       Bspeller can also print Bengali text files using
> OpenType fonts, a
>       feature currently not available in most of the text
> editors, eg.
>       gedit, kedit, etc.
>       This is the first release of Bspeller that makes
> any sense as it
>       actually works as a Bengali spell checker! More
> information,
>       instructions, and screenshot can be found at:
> 
>
http://www.bengalinux.org/projects/dictionary/bspeller.php
>       Bspeller-0.3 is now available for download from:
> 
>
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=43331
> 
> SARAI.NET OFFERS SUPPORT FOR FREE SOFTWARE: The
> Delhi-based non-profit has
> taken another step to support Free Software.
> Meyarivan <address@hidden>
> recently announced the independent fellowships under
> its FLOSS Initiative.
> 
> Those selected include projects for: 
> 
> Linux based CNC Controller Sagar Behere [ behere at
> sancharnet.in ] and
> Sandeep Bhambra. The project aims to develop a
> GNU/Linux based CNC
> controller using off the shelf hardware. The
> mechanical design of the CNC
> machine has been completed and they have developed
> an add-on ISA expansion
> card that can control stepper motors simultaneously.
> 
> Management and Information System - Tapan
> Parikh/Ekgaon [ tap2k at yahoo.org
> ] This project aims to implement a complete, modular
> Management and
> Information System (MIS) for village-based savings
> and lending groups,
> otherwise known as Self-Help Groups (SHGs). This MIS
> would allow central
> tracking of the internal accounts, financial
> position, loan repayment
> performance and related account information for a
> community of SHGs,
> federated under a common administrative and
> financial body, referred to as a
> SHG Federation, or a Community-Based Financial
> Institution (CBFI).
>   
> Library Management Software - Sharmad Naik [ sharmad
> at goatelecom.com ]
> This project will implement a complete library
> management system. A working
> version of the software has already been released
> and future updates will
> provide complete functionality required for a
> library.
> 
> KreSIT (Kanwal Rekhi School of Information
> Technology), IIT Bombay [
> http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/ ] There are about 19
> groups working under the
> guidance of Dr.Pathak and Ms. C.Vijayalakshmi at
> KreSIT, IIT Bombay on
> opensource software. They have already developed
> software for distance
> education and are currently developing various
> applications in office
> automation, voip and localization.
>  
> Sunil Abraham [ sunil at mahiti.org ] Will test and
> benchmark free software
> to ensure that it can be used for mission critical
> applications. Will
> conduct research on different types of user
> communities, usability studies
> for various interfaces and devices and technology
> cost calculator for
> village information kiosks and work on open source
> storage formats and
> algorithms for bioinformatics.
> 
>       INDLINUX DISTRO... AN IDEA WITH LOCAL LANG SUPPORT:
> Details of one
>       distro planned, with local language support, are at
>       http://www.indlinux.org/distro Also see the Indian
> Linux Project
>       www.indlinux.org and the Indic-Computing Project
>       indic-computing.sf.net
> 
> LANGUAGE-RELATED SOLUTIONS: Says Guntupalli
> Karunakar
> <address@hidden> : IIIT Hyd has a good
> track record on free
> software, they have released lot of language related
> stuff under GPL
> (language dictionaries, machine translation tools
> etc). See
>
http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/Dictionaries/Dict_Frame.html
> and
> http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/downloads.html
> 
>       SITE FOR EXCHANGING SOFTWARE: A youngman from Goa -
> Ajay -
>       <address@hidden> tells of a small site he has
> built for
>       "exchanging software". Says he: "It is very basic
> and I plan to
>       build upon it gradually." Check
> http://sofall.vze.com
> 
> GLUE, AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION FOR SCHOOLS FROM DELHI:
> Feedback from Bijon
> Shaha <address@hidden> about the GLUE, an
> interesting concept from Ajith
> <address@hidden>: The cd uses the concept of
> preinstalled and
> prconfigured LTSP server which has been tar archived
> on a cd. Installation
> is basically extracting this tar ball into the new
> partition in the new
> system, which is very fast. At the first boot it
> depends on Kudzu for quick
> detection of hardware in the new machine where it
> usually has to unconfigure
> the mismatching hw and configure with the new
> hardware, and you are ready to
> use the server!
> 
>       BHUBANESWAR LUG NEEDS SUPPORT: This is about a
> (GNU)Linux Users'
>       Group that needs support.  The Bhubaneswar LUG
> mailing list was
>       setup sometime in 2000. But there has been only a
> very posts to this
>       lists. You can join the list by sendign a message
> to ILUG-BBSR
>       <address@hidden> ... This info
> was posted via
>       LIG, the Linux India General list. See
> 
>
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-india-help
> 
>
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> BOUQUETS&BRICKBATS BOUQUETS&BRICKBATS
> BOUQUETS&BRICKBATS BOUQUETS&BRICKBATS 
>
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> 
> From: Nikhil Shanker <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: NEWSLETTER: GNU/LinuxIndia Dec 27, 2002
> 
> I share the same opinions as Arun Sharma on LIG. The
> logo reduces "Linux" to
> a single column. GNU/Linux is acceptable since it
> caters to some
> individuals' sentiments, but this looks like an
> overkill.
> 
> I think RMS must be show the logo with "LINUX"
> replaced with "HURD" with
> the same one column layout. I bet, he'd be satisfied
> with... 
> 
>  
>    e88~~\  888b    | 888   |   888  888  888   | 
> 88888b          888  /
>   d888     |Y88b   | 888   |   888  888  888   | 
> 888  88    e88~\888  I
>   8888 __  | Y88b  | 888   |   88888888  888   | 
> 888ee88   d888  888  N
>   8888   | |  Y88b | 888   |   88888888  888   | 
> 88888b    8888  888  D
>   Y888   | |   Y88b| Y88   |   888  888  Y88   | 
> 888 88b   Y888  888  I
>    "88__/  |    Y888  "8__/    888  888   "8__/  
> 888  88b   "88_/888  A
> 
> bah!
> 
> > 
> >     SPEECH SYNTHESIS: Rohit Kumar of the Speech
> Processing Lab, LTRC at
> >     IIIT Hyderabad points to a speech synthesis demo
> at
> >     http://196.12.44.11/~speech/index.htm Says he: "I
> look forward to
> >     your responses both about the speech quality and
> the ease of use and
> >     understandability of the web interface. PS: For
> all [GNU/]/Linux
> >     enthusiasts the speech synthesizer is currently
> built on Red Hat
> >     Linux 7.2 and we have tested it with RHL 8.0."
> 
> This is insane too. You're quoting a post here, and
> you GNU-hijack it
> within the quotes. This very prominent and noticable
> GNU-hijacking makes
> the newsletter more unreadable. Although the content
> is commendable, the
> we-will-serve-you-oh-RMS-my-l0rd attitude hides the
> real juice.
> 
> Maybe even this comment will only be listed in the
> "Comments" section of
> the next version of the newsletter just like Arun's
> was. But I've been
> looking at this newletter everytime and seeing more
> GNU than actual
> information is really disheartening. The best part
> is it gets posted to
> LI and LUGs. Please note that these its not GLI and
> GLUGs.
> 
> I imply no disrespect to the poster. Its just an
> opinion. -- Nikhil
> (nikhil.shankar at acm.org)
>
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> YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are
> welcome.  Contact us at
> fred at bytesforall dot org --COPYLEFT 2002, GPL.
> May be freely circulated
> provided entire text is retained. FN
>
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> _______________________________________________
> LinuxIran mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/linuxiran
> 
> 


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