Gora Mohanty gora at sarai.net
Fri May 25 13:34:49 CEST 2007

Hello all,
   Below is an invitation for proposals for the RGF-Sarai
CSDS programme for short-term FLOSS fellowships. Please feel
to circulate this far and wide. The deadline for submission
of proposals is the 25th of June. Please feel free to address
any queries with regards to this to floss at sarai.net.

Regards,
Gora
--------------------------------------------------------------
                        Call for proposals:
              RGF-Sarai, CSDS, short-term FLOSS fellowships

1      Introduction

The Sarai programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, Delhi (http://www.sarai.  net) is pleased to
announce fellowships for projects related to Free/Libre and
Open Source Software (FLOSS) activities.  This year, we have
partnered with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) who are
providing support for work in the specific area of computing,
and localisation in five Indian languages, namely, Assamese,
Hindi, Kashmiri, Oriya, and Urdu. We also invite proposals
from projects in other FLOSS areas, especially ones that are
relevant to educational, social, and community needs. Any
project that meets the criteria given below is eligible for
the fellowships, but we are particularly interested in:

     o Indian language computing, including work on fonts,
       rendering, locales, input methods, spell-checking,
       etc., as well as in advanced technologies like OCR,
       handwriting recognition, and speech-to-text.

     o Localisation into Indian languages of user interfaces,
       and translation of help documents for FLOSS
       applications.

     o In the interest of sustained development, we would
       like to see the enhancement of, and extensions for
       projects funded as part of past Sarai FLOSS
       fellowships.  In particular, we draw attention to
       NewsRack (http://newsrack.in), Hindawi
       (http://www.indicybers.com), and ApnaOpus
       (http://apnaopus.var.cc).

     o Documentation for users of FLOSS tools, particularly
       in the area of Indian language computing.  The
       production of video tutorials would be welcome.

     o Development of graphics, multimedia, and publishing
       tools. This would include applications for audio/video
       editing, animation, and desktop publishing.
       Enhancement of existing FLOSS tools is especially
       encouraged.

     o Putting together, distributing, and supporting a
       complete Indian language distribution, using FLOSS
       operating systems, and tools.

     o  Collaboration software, and groupware solutions.

     o Writing Linux device drivers, and front-ends for
       common hardware, such as wireless cards, graphics
       cards, scanners, and printers.

The other significant difference from past practice is that
we will be asking for more of a collaborative approach from
the fellows, both among one another, and with people at
Sarai.  The collaboration need not be in the actual
development, but can consist of an ongoing conversation about
one's work, its direction, and current status.  While this
has been an implicit expectation in the past, this time we
are making the requirement explicit.  The exact details of
these will be worked out with the selected fellows, but will
include things like discussions over IRC, email, and postings
on the Sarai Project Resource Centre (PRC) mailing list.
Fellows will also be asked to prepare a timeline for the
projects, with intermediate milestones, and will be expected
to adhere to them.

2      Applying for the fellowships

We invite students, developers, researchers, and
practitioners interested in the FLOSS arena to apply for the
fellowships.  While there is no prescribed format for the
applications, we expect them to be in sufficient detail for a
reviewer to sensibly evaluate them. Attention to details,
such as a plan of work that addresses what is possible to
accomplish within the limited project period, a projection of
how the work might be continued after that, and a discussion
of the possible impact of the project, is strongly
recommended. In particular, we will look favourably on
projects aimed at eventual deployment, rather than
development per se.  Please mail your application, along with
a resume, to floss at sarai.net , with the subject line of
"RGF-Sarai FLOSS fellowships". As this information is
intended to be public, also subscribe to the PRC mailing list
at https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc, and post a
copy there, failing which your final proposal will be
forwarded there by one of us.  Enquiries are invited at floss
at sarai.net , and on the PRC list, including questions on
how to frame proposals.  The last date of submission is
midnight IST on Sun., June 25th, 2007. The projects will run
for a total of about six months, with a final workshop to be
held at Sarai, CSDS, Delhi, where the fellows will be
expected to present a summary of their work. Besides this, as
part of our engagement with the RGF, we will be holding
workshops in regional locations, and the FLOSS fellows will
be asked to be present at events local to them. The total
amount of the fellowship will be Rs. 70, 000.


3 Conditions

Applicants should have a valid bank account in any bank
operating in India. These are support grants, and the fellows
are free to pursue their primary occupations in parallel, as
long as they keep working on proposed projects.  The fellows
must be willing to make a release of their final work under
any open-source licence approved by the Open Source
Initiative (OSI). Please see under
http://www.opensource.org/licenses for a complete list.
Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, and faculty
on the behalf of a group of students are welcome, so long as
the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and
the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name
of an individual.

--
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Skype: fredericknoronha Yahoochat: fredericknoronha
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Email fred at bytesforall.org Res: 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India

Dear All,

As always, LINUX For You team is working on a particular idea for the
opinion story section this month. The topic for June 2007 issue is the
following:

"Do we need a National LUG?"

The industry and community would answer what do they feel about having
a National LUG. Should we have numerous LUGs functioning locally and
independently? Or should we rather have all of them working under the
aegis of a National LUG? What are the advantages/disadvantages of
having a National LUG?

Please send us your views positively by evening of 6th of May, 2007 at
niraj@... with a cc to sujata.banerjee@....

Regards,
Sujata

yes there seems to be some issue with the nvidia chipset on asus
boards. They do not seem to be configured easy on gnome.
better try aumix. incase you still have that RPM. i am using centos
4.4 that has the aumix . on console .its a better help than the gnome
mixer..

Regards
linuxmasters

yes there seems to be some issue with the nvidia chipset on asus
boards. They do  not seem to be configured easy on gnome.
better try aumix. incase you still have that RPM. i am using centos
4.4 that has the aumix . on console .its a better help than the gnome
mixer..

Regards
linuxmasters

Hi,

May come in useful for someone some day!

I needed to use the microphone and the recording volume was very low.
I had turned the mic and the capture controls to the maximum.

Gnome Volume Control by default does not show all the options in
alsamixer. Anyway, playing around (pseudo-randomly) with kmix and
alsamixer, I found that if one turns Mono on, the recording volume was
much better. This, though, turns the Mic off. So, it is very confusing
but worked with my sound card. (Nvidia chipset on a Asus board for
AMD)

If anyone can shed light on the difference between Mic and Mono, please...

Regards
Anil

Guys promote open source OS, rather than promoting 2 -3 opensource
applications.
Promote Plus points of OSS..

Regards
linuxmastes
Community : www.linuxchandigarh.org
Web :www.linuxsolutionz.com

Hi everyone,
I am a hobbyist using ubuntu, dapper drake and i have found it to be
very good, very likeable. I am in teaching profession and i would like
to do something to promote linux in general,ubuntu in particular as
well as other open source packages like Open Office, firefox, Gaim,
Gimp etc amongst lay computer users, people like me who are not in
computer stream, students especially. It would be so good if Panjab
university
incorporates Open Office along with MSOffice in its courses. They
argue that we have to teach what is common all around. I wonder if
something can be done to change this situation? i would be willing to
chip in time and effort. Please give your ideas and suggestions, lets
have a discussion on this. How about preparing a document which can be
got printed and distributed to principals, Vice Chancellor, professors
or general student community?

regards
nanbudh

Hi everyone,
I am a hobbyist using ubuntu, dapper drake and i have found it to be
very good, very likeable. I am in teaching profession and i would like
to do something to promote linux in general,ubuntu in particular as
well as other open source packages like Open Office, firefox, Gaim,
Gimp etc amongst lay computer users, people like me who are not in
computer stream, students especially. It would be so good if Panjab
university
incorporates Open Office along with MSOffice in its courses. They
argue that we have to teach what is common all around. I wonder if
something can be done to change this situation? i would be willing to
chip in time and effort. Please give your ideas and suggestions, lets
have a discussion on this. How about preparing a document which can be
got printed and distributed to principals, Vice Chancellor, professors
or general student community?

regards
nanbudh

Cross posting from Ubuntu-In mailing list, a very well written
explaining the concept to a Linux newbie of what FOSS is all about ,
the how and the why  of it being Free. Its a long read, hope you enjoy
it as much as I did.
Apologies for the cross-post,top posting and the long fwd mail :)
Regards
-Jasbir.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Parthan <parth.technofreak@...>
Date: Apr 18, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-in] [Fwd: to know about ubuntu]
To: Ubuntu India Local Community <ubuntu-in@...>,
shailendra patidar <shailendrapatidar_me@...>


Hello Shailendra,

Quoting your mail to B.Ghose, I as a member of Ubuntu India Team take an
an opportunity to put forth some facts and ideas.

> Hello, i am shailendra patidar doing engineering in the mechanical
> stream (in 2nd yr) from indore (m.p.).and recently i got a PC eddition
> cd for linux from my friend. and i want to  know about what is ubuntu ,
> and the main thing is that is there any thing in the world which is free
> of cost or they give us for his publicity. or they are using us and can
> they do something for you or me. i can make a lot of users which will
> use the linux.Because i know that it is easy for me and the other reason
> is that the i know very people who want some changes in their computer
> operating system and the linux can make this.but is their any financial
> help to me from ubuntu because nothing is free today. so i am waiting
> for some useful tips or some help from you .and if u can forward this
> request ,then this is too good for me.i am waiting for your response .

First, there are something in this world which is available as *free as
in free of cost* as well as something which should be rendered so. One
such thing is *humanity*, i.e. helping another fellow human without
expecting something in return. For example, when an old women tries
getting into or out of the bus, you go and help her but you do not
charge her for doing so. Your neighbor kid is not able to solve a math
problem, (considering that you can solve the problem) you help the kid
with solving the problem as a gesture of humanity or friendship. But,
you do not go to his/her mother and get money for the help (This is not
about taking tution classes to the kid!).

Second, consider you and me. You have a biscuit and I have a pappad in
our hands. You give me half of the biscuit and I give you half of the
pappad, we both get some biscuit and pappad but only half. Similarly,
consider you knowing a Hindi song and I knowing an English song. I teach
you to sing the English song and you teach me the Hindi song, now we
both know both the songs but did not lose our original knowledge (as in
biscuit we did not end up knowing half the Hindi song and half the
English song!).

The reason for the latter comparison leading to gain of something from
other without losing something which we have is possible only when the
thing being shared is *knowledge* and not in any other cases.

Now, coming to another reality which is very close to our subject of
actual discussion is we have been seeing Software as a product. I should
rather say you see it wholly as a product, but we the FOSS community
sees the Software as Knowledge. Taking the essence of the above
comparison, since Software is considered as Knowledge, it should be
*freely* sharable. The problem is people have been used to charging for
any service did to the society as well as considering Software as a mere
product which is sold in the market similar to biscuits, electronic
gadgets and what not.

Software is an idea of getting a job done. Software has this capability
that you can create 100s of copies of it without incurring much cost.
For example, for making 100 monitors and distributing them you incur
heavy monetary cost, you make a voluminous investment and hence, you
charge the customer for each monitor (which is completely justified).

But software is not so. You just create a software and for giving it to
100 people you just need to burn them in CDs. The cost you incur is for
creating of the software first time (which is very small compared to
come out with a monitor model) and then cost of 100 CDs.

Another point to remember is Software is knowledge. If you can convert
and idea into a software, I have equal chance of converting the same or
similar idea into a software. Also, for your idea to become better and
your software to grow into a high quality one, what you need is
feedbacks from the users, additional ideas from people, encouragement
for you to continue with the software and make it better. This is what
we call it as collaborative development and community participation.

This is how Linux kernel grew into what it is now, from what it was as a
College project. Its all because Linux Torvalds went ahead of making
money; he shared the kernel code he created, he welcomed people to send
in feedbacks, criticisms, bug reports; he allowed people to participate
with him; he allowed people to contribute in bits and pieces as well as
large features; and important of all, he gave equal respect and
importance to every individual who was ready to help and tried to help
him, as well as considered every contributing individual as a
co-developer. He never charged any one for using his code and he never
gave money for any one sending bug reports, patches, new codes etc. So,
as a result more people (in thousands?) took participation, contributed
as much as they can and you now see its result as a Linux kernel wholly
evolved out. This is how things work in FOSS world.

Our philosophy is share the knowledge you have, you will experience that
you gain many times more than what you gave. This philosophy, adding to
the Humanity concept I told in the beginning, is what Ubuntu follows. We
have a Linux Kernel as well as a GNU/Linux OS around. We have the
ability to use GNU/Linux, add freely available packages around to it and
make a bundle of it called as *Linux distribution*, naming it as Ubuntu
to remind our actual philosophy behind all these is *humanity* and we
finally share it with Humans. This is why we have a tag line "Linux for
Human Beings".

We are giving it free of cost because we ourselves have been getting
these things free of cost. So, we are ready to share it free, we are
ready to put in a bit more effort and making GNU/Linux suitable for
being used by ordinary household desktop users. We think we are doing a
service to our own society in the way we know. Though we are software
people, we are proving the humanity within us by sharing our capability
to create down-to-earth GNU/Linux distribution and share it with our own
fellow Humans.

And before closing this mail (which is already too big), that what we
mean as *Free* generally is *Free as in freedom*, freedom to share
things with others without anybody preventing to prohibiting us to do
so. We give it *Free as in Free food* as well because, we got it for
*free cost* and we do not want to do injustice.

If you have more questions, counter arguments, doubts and explanations,
feel free to mail the mailing list (which you have to join - its free of
   cost anyways ;) ). We will be very happy to clarify your mind and
understand what Free/Open Source software is all about :)

--
With Regards

Parthan (TechnoFreak)

A Proud GNU/Linux User and Ubuntero

[Web]   https://parth.technofreak.googlepages.com
[Blog]  http://technofreakatchennai.wordpress.com
[Album] http://flickr.com/photos/techno_freak/

--
ubuntu-in mailing list
ubuntu-in@...
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in

Hi,

Going through the discussion regarding the meeting, there were
references to firewalls.
The current version of fwbuilder 2.1.x is pretty good, especially for
configuring complex networks. ( http://www.fwbuilder.org/ )

I like its conceptual design.

Regards
Anil

Hi,

I often felt that Google will come to my rescue whenever my memory fails me.
A few days ago, it didn't. I was searching for a swiss knife for
project managers and couldn't find it. (I did but after half an hour
using Yahoo in this case.)

I do not think there is any hope of improving my memory, so I had
better use some aids.

By the way, I was searching for "Faces", which is about the only
project management tool I have enjoyed exploring.

A year or so ago, I had explored mind mapping software. In fact I had
found Freemind quite useful for helping me create some job profiles,
which I had to give to an hr consultant.

Now, I have started to use it to keep track of the experimentations I
plan to do and keep pointers to the status/outcome.  Hopefully, a year
from now, I will still be able to find Faces again or tell someone how
easy it is to write a servlet using jython.

Incidentally, it may be very useful for students for making their
study plans, especially for GATE/GRE.

The nicest thing is that it does not feel like documentation or planning :)

Regards
Anil

Hi,

Now that I have a couple of systems at home, I wanted to make sure
that I was not downloading the upgrades multiple times. I am using
Fedora and Yum but similar ideas could be useful for all.

The most appropriate option is to have the local repository and the
cache directory (with keep cache true) on one system and share it.

NFS exports will take care of it on the server (e.g. amd). The local
repository directory, e.g. /var/fedora, can be a read only export but
the cache directory, /var/cache/yum by default, has to be read and
write and should not squash root.

On the client side, it is not appropriate to mount these all the time
in fstab. They are needed only occasionally.

The best option is Automount. The easiest way is to create 2 entries
in /etc/auto.misc, e.g.
fedora          -ro,soft,intr           amd:/var/fedora
yum             -rw,soft,intr           amd:/var/cache/yum

Now, if any application accesses /misc/fedora or /misc/yum, these will
be mounted.
DO NOT CREATE fedora or yum directories in /misc.

Incidentally, I had a 'tough' time when a second disk on my system
failed and the os wouldn't boot because of the entries in /etc/fstab.
Now, whenever something is needed occasionally, I am using automount
only, e.g.
suse    -fstype=ext3            :/dev/sda3

This will allow me to access the partition with Suse installed on it,
when I need it.
Using a softlink /SUSE to /misc/suse allows me to point and click as well.

Regards
Anil

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.26/754 - Release Date: 4/9/2007 10:59 PM

Hello All,

Greetings for the New Year from LINUX For You magazine team!

As you all know, we run a section called 'Opinions' in LFY where we
pose a question to the community and industry and publish the
responses (selected by our technical editors) in the magazine.

The forthcoming issue of LFY would carry a story on the following:

Is Linux secure?

The story would focus on how the community view the security aspect of
Linux. Is it that the very aspect of 'being open' makes it vulnerable
to attacks and insecurity? To what extent according to you, security
plays a role in people choosing Linux/OSS to other proprietary software?

We value your suggestions and comments. So, any idea you would like to
share with us is most welcome.

Please write to us at sujata.banerjee@... before 14th April,2007.

The best responses would be published in the May 2007 issue of LFY.

Looking forward to your responses.

Thanks,

LFY Team

On 10 Apr 2007 05:47:10 -0700, MoHiT GuLeRiA <smsmohit@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> We have Jan (pronounced An) from Germany in our Company on trainee-ship for
few >months. He is good in Linux and security and wants to meet the Linux
Chandigarh group.
>
> We were discussing that what all services and features a Internet gateway
should have >and then an idea striked me that why don't we build the same for
DAV College. The >gateway can have proxy, bandwidth control, iptables etc..
>
> Proff. Sarwal, what do you think about it ?
>
> Friends do you think that it would be a good idea to start the next phase of
>implementations after discussions ? We can start implementing it in a phased
manner i.e. >one service after another. All the things can be discussed on the
forum. And the >configuration can be done at the time of meeting.
>
> You all can  respond regarding it to Jan's post at:
> http://www.linuxchandigarh.org/index.php?topic=15.0
>
> Thanks
> &
> Regards
>
> MoHiT Guleria
>
>   ________________________________
+1 Count me in.
Cool, just something what I do to earn my salary :)
-Jasbir.

Hello Vikas jee,

Won't be able to make this time. Is it possible that we
can do the meetings on 2nd and 4th Friday ?


Thanks
&
Regards

Mohit

----- Original Message ----
From: Vikas Gupta <gvikaskc@yahoo.co.in>
To: linux_chandigarh@yahoogroups.co.in
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:53:49 PM
Subject: [linux_chandigarh] meeting on friday at 6.pm

hello luggers,,,,
guys the meeting is on friday...16. ..2007 at DAVC chandigarh 6.00 PM....come with some presentations. ...thanks

---

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---

Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.
Try the Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Nipun Jain wrote:
>
>
> I ll be there. Fix a time so that nobody wastes any time.
>
> On 2/20/07, *Linuxmasters* <linuxmasters@...
> <mailto:linuxmasters@...>> wrote:
>
>
>     count me inn, but i am free but after 7 PM.
>
>     linuxmasters
>     >
>     >  For me friends, this is quite fine.
>     >
>     >  Regards
>     >
>     >  Anil Sarwal
>     >
>      > From: MoHiT GuLeRiA [mailto:smsmohit@ <mailto:smsmohit@>...]
>     >  Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 3:19 PM
>     >  To: linux_chandigarh@...
>     <mailto:linux_chandigarh%40yahoogroups.co.in>
>      > Cc: sarwalanil@...
>     >  Subject: This Friday (23-Feb-2007) meeting ?
>     >  Hello Friends,
>     >
>     >  Any plans to meet this friday i.e. 23-Feb-2007 ?
>     >
>      > HYPERLINK "http://www.linuxchandigarh.org/index.php?topic=7.0
>     <http://www.linuxchandigarh.org/index.php?topic=7.0>"
>      > \nhttp://www.linuxchandigarh.org/index.php?topic=7.0
>     >
>     >
>     >  Thanks & Regards
>     >  MoHiT Guleria

Hi,
7 pm sounds good to me .
-Jasbir

satyajitray560 wrote:
>
>
> Hi !!!
> I am new to Linux and only conversant with general GUI of Win XP.
> I want to switch to Open Source i.e. LINUX.

Hi ,
Welcome to Linux

> hence I've installed
> OPENSUSE 10.2 and MANDRIVA FREE 2007 but am unable to get my BSNL
> DATAONE BROADBAND (using HUAWEI smartAX 800MT) configured despite all
> attempts with the Wizards.
> Kindly advise/help and with instructions for GUI only, if possible.
We need more info about what all errors you got while trying to
configure your connection.And how is your adsl modem configured.
There are 2 ways to go about configuring an adsl account , either you
can configure the modem to directly connect to the ISP (in your case
BSNL) to authenticate your username and passwd or you can configure your
Linux OS to make the connection to the ISP.

You can also try out the following links for more information:
http://sudharsh.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/configuring-bsnl-dataone-broadband-in-l\
inux/
http://vinuthomas.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=63754.html
http://nileshbansal.blogspot.com/2006/12/bsnl-broadband-using-linux.html

>
> Sqn Ldr Satyajit Ray
> 1125A/31B, Chandigarh-160030
> Mob: 9316135017
>

Regards
-Jasbir.

Hi !!!
I am new to Linux and only conversant with general GUI of Win XP.
I want to switch to Open Source i.e. LINUX. hence I've installed
OPENSUSE 10.2 and MANDRIVA FREE 2007 but am unable to get my BSNL
DATAONE BROADBAND (using HUAWEI smartAX 800MT) configured despite all
attempts with the Wizards.
Kindly advise/help and with instructions for GUI only, if possible.

Sqn Ldr Satyajit Ray
1125A/31B, Chandigarh-160030
Mob: 9316135017