[3887] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #179
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Sat Sep 7 22:13:11 2002
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
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Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 22:13:03 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #179, Volume #4 Sat, 7 Sep 2002 22:13:03 EDT
Contents:
NEWS: Grassroots push for 'open space' in Indian software (Frederick Noronha)
Re: Amberfish 1.00 open source text retrieval software, GPL violation ??? ("Olonichev Sergei")
ddbugtopbm 1.0 - convert Diddle/DiddleBug sketches to PBM files (Russell Marks)
INDIA-GOA: GNU/Linux group getting ready for ECAP.... (Frederick Noronha)
ZDNETindia: Linux based handhelds mark India's entry in to hardware (Frederick Noronha)
NEWS: First financial accounting package on GNU/Linux in India (Frederick Noronha)
WWWOFFLE - Web proxy with features for dial-up users ("Andrew M. Bishop")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: NEWS: Grassroots push for 'open space' in Indian software
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:01 GMT
Grassroots push for 'open source' in Indian software
By Frederick Noronha
BANGALORE, Aug 26: 'Open source' and free software could open up new
windows of opportunity both for coders in the Indian software power-house,
and also to benefit those on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Soaring global software prices, tightening anti-piracy laws and even just
the ethical edge it promises is pushing campaigners from across the country
to lobby with international organisations and governments for the greater
use of 'non-proprietorial' software.
Increasingly, a small but growing band of 'free software' and open-source
advocates are pushing for a greater emphasis to this form of software.
Unlike proprietorial software, open-source can be freely copied and shared
across computers.
"If we calculate the actual cost (of pirated software being used in the
... country) India would lose a significant chunk of its billions earned
from its software earnings," argues mahiti.org CEO Sunil Abraham.
mahiti.org is a Bangalore-based non-profit organisation that works to
'affordable and simple' solutions to the non-governmental and non-profit
sector. Bangalore's NGO sector is rather active, while this city is also
considered the software Mecca and sometimes called India's Silicon Valley.
Such a trend pushing towards 'open source' was visible during a United
Nations Development Programme-organised meet to shape a UNDP-Government of
India country programme on information and communication technologies (ICTs)
for development held here on the weeked.
Dominant global players, represented by firms like Microsoft, are
hard-pressed to swim against the 'open source' demands.
"Every technology has its pluses and minuses. If you find it is suitable for
your purposes, go ahead and use it (open source software). But do an
evaluation first. Don't be biased. Nothing is really free," argued
Microsoft's manager for technical services in North India, Punya Palit.
"It's not just the 'operating system' that is available, but some 1500
application softwares that come along with it," said Pune-based Systems
Research Institute executive director Jagdish G Krishnayya. He pointed to
the potential of software like Linux, which is getting increasingly noticed.
'Open source' or free software refers to non-proprietorial software that
often allows its users to copy the programme across many computers, meaning
that the cost of the software often plunges to unbelievable lows.
Its proponents argue that while this may at first seem as affecting the
viability of software businesses, it would throw open vast new fields to
software usage in time to come.
"Instead of spending money running after software piracy, the Government of
India should spend the funds to promote open source software (which would
also bring down piracy of proprietorial software)," Abraham argues.
Other initiatives also give hint of the potential sought to be tapped in the
field of open source software.
Recently, UNDP's offices in the US were on the lookout for suitable Indian
participants for a global conference, to be held in October at
Washington-DC, on the use of 'open source for e-governance'.
Delhi-based alternative organisation Sarai, affiliated to the Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), along with a forum of lawyers in
Bangalore and mahiti.org, plan to build a 'copyleft registry'.
This would list all resources which are publicly accessible and freely
reproduceable -- thus promoting its sharing, while at the same time
protecting the rights of the person who created the work.
But Abraham argues that public money -- spent on research institutions and
universities -- should go towards building software that remains
publicly-accessible, and thus 'open source'. He also points out that big
names worldwide -- including Nasa, Nato and Walt Disney -- were going in for
open source software, and there was no justification for India not.
NGO workers and IT specialists also point to other related issues that block
the power of computing in a country like India. Besides the software blocks,
there are other factors hampering the greater use of computers in this
country of a thousand million people but where PCs sold each year are barely
two million or less.
Computing was not benefiting the commonman because it was being divided by
multiple standards, multiple vendors, its too-expensive nature, solutions
that don't fit Indian requirements, and more importantly the lack of
adequate and affordable local language technologies, it was pointed out.
"There is this hype created by computer vendors that hardware needs to be
updated constantly," says Government of Madhya Pradesh commissioner for
family welfare Aruna Sharma, agreeing at this meet in some way on the need
for countries like India to look to alternatives to battle the so-called
'digital divide' that excludes the poor from the power of computing.
Pointing to other options coming up, Dr P Venkatachalam of the Indian
Institute of Technology (Mumbai) said that India expects to have satellites
that would offer hi-tech 'cartosat' information with detailed images in some
two years time.
But, he cautioned, the country would probably have not yet built up enough
capacity and skills to make optimal use of such images, which could have
considerable applications in rural areas and development.
As this workshop pushed the attention on using ICTs for development,
Government of India's Department of IT e-governance director S.P.Singh said
fishermen in parts of the country -- particularly the southern Maharashtra
coast -- were already using suitable technology.
Some in Ratnagiri, coastal Maharashtra, had gained some access to low-cost
fish-finders, global-positioning systems that identified their location and
communication equipment which was being used to boost fish-catches.
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred at bytesforall dot org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao
Goa India * Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
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------------------------------
From: "Olonichev Sergei" <sergeio@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Re: Amberfish 1.00 open source text retrieval software, GPL violation ???
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:08 GMT
Recently Nassib Nassar announced "Amberfish is new open source text
retrieval software".
I tried to download this search-engine, following the link: "Download
Amberfish (source distribution)" from their home-page.
But instead of sources I was given a form where I had to enter the following
infomration:
Title:*
First name:*
Last name:*
Position:*
Organization:*
Address line 1:*
Address line 2:
City:*
State or province:*
Zip code:*
Country:*
Phone number (with country code):*
E-mail address:*
I entered this information three times, but have not recieved any response
from Etymon.
Isn't it a GPL violation?
BR,
Sergei
"Nassib Nassar" <nassar@etymon.com> wrote in message
news:20020816151339.GA2274@etymon.com...
> Amberfish is new open source text retrieval software featuring:
>
> * XML document searching (semi-structured text)
> * Structured queries (arbitrary containment) for nested
> fields/documents
> * Hierarchical result sets (for XML)
> * Searching across multiple databases, allowing modular indexing
> * Efficient indexing with little available memory
> * Full text and field searching
> * Boolean queries
> * Right truncation (prefix terms)
> * Phrase searching
> * Relevance ranking
> * Multiple documents per file
> * UNIX-friendly administrative tools for integration
>
> Amberfish is made available by Etymon Systems, Inc. under the terms of
> version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
>
> Main page: http://www.etymon.com/amberfish/
> Documentation: http://www.etymon.com/amberfish/amberfish.pdf
> Contact: info@etymon.com
>
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------------------------------
From: Russell Marks <russell.marks@ntlworld.com>
Subject: ddbugtopbm 1.0 - convert Diddle/DiddleBug sketches to PBM files
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:11 GMT
ddbugtopbm converts all your (PalmOS) Diddle or DiddleBug sketches to
appropriately-named PBM files. Obviously, you'll need a current backup
of your Palm so it can do this :-), which you can get with e.g.
pilot-link's pilot-xfer.
You can download it from here:
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/apps/graphics/convert/ddbugtopbm-1.0.tar.gz
There's also a web page here:
http://rus.members.beeb.net/ddbugtopbm.html
-Rus.
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------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: INDIA-GOA: GNU/Linux group getting ready for ECAP....
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:15 GMT
Our ILUG-Goa (India Linux Users Group-Goa) is getting busy with plans for
having a presence at the ECAP exhibition on the weekend in Panjim,
Goa, India. Below are some of the debates taking place on our mailing list
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa (feel free to sign-up, if you
wish).
ILUG is currently looking out for borrowing hardware that could be used to
demo the power and versatility of GNU/Linux. If any hardware vendors would
like us to set up GNU/Linux demos at their stalls, please get in touch. You
could contact Animesh <banduji@goatelecom.com> and we could see what's
possible. We hope to get -- possibly in a day or two -- a set of the
seven-CD distribution of the latest release of Debian 3.0 (Woody) that is
being copied and sent in from Kochi by our counterparts there.
Just thought I'd report back and keep you informed...
Frederick
***********************************************************************
edgard@pyramidsoftech.com Thu Aug 29
ilug-goa hopes to be holding two talks at the ECAP in Panjim.
The first will be on the 31st, sometime in the afternoon (please check the
CSI advertisements in the newspapers for the exact timing if you are
interested) and will be about "Linux SafetyNet", practices to keep your Net
experience safe with Linux. Concepts that will be covered will include
commonly used caching-proxy servers with access-control lists, firewalls
against script kiddies, viruses and trojans, anti-spam techniques, mail
scanning for viruses etc.
The second talk, on the 1st, will not be on any particular topic, but will
be an "Open Discussion on Linux", where we hope to field queries from
prospective (and current) Linux users. Dr. Gurunandan Bhat has kindly
agreed to be present at this talk, as one of the seniormost, most
experienced Linuxers we have in Goa... so even highly technical queries will
be welcome....
Dr. Bhat, looking forward to the discussion !!
Thanks & Regards,
Edgar.
Edgar D'Souza,
Pyramid Softech Pvt. Ltd. email: edgard@pyramidsoftech.com
4th Floor, Salgaocar Centre or : ed_dsouza_yc@yahoo.com
Rua de Ourem Ph : ++91-832-231285 / 6 / 7 / 8
Panaji, Goa. Fax : ++91-832-224324
==================================================
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------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: ZDNETindia: Linux based handhelds mark India's entry in to hardware
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:18 GMT
* Linux based handhelds mark India's entry in to hardware
India's superiority in the software field and lack of
initiatives in the hardware sector are two well-acknowledged
facts. Now, two indigenously designed and manufactured
handhelds are set to put India on the computer hardware map.
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/features/stories/64779.html?slink=nsl
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------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: NEWS: First financial accounting package on GNU/Linux in India
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:21 GMT
Sudhir Gandotra <sudhir@netshooter.com> announces that they've recently
launched 'Kalculate' <www.kalculate.com>, a developed-in-Delhi software. It
was worked on using C, GTK and PostgreSQL on the GNU/Linux platform. It
promises to be the "first financial accounting package on GNU/Linux in India
and the Asia-Pacific".
Incidentally, the Indian 'IT' magazine in their September 2002 issue have
carried the standard version of 'Kalculate'. This can be used for
single-company accounting. The multi-company version, priced at Rs 10,000
(approx US$200), will be available to users of this version at Rs.3500/- if
they register and place their order by 31 Oct 2002, under a special
promotion campaign, according to Gandotra.
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred@bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
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------------------------------
From: "Andrew M. Bishop" <amb@gedanken.demon.co.uk>
Subject: WWWOFFLE - Web proxy with features for dial-up users
Date: 8 Sep 2002 01:25:25 GMT
WWWOFFLE - World Wide Web Offline Explorer - Version 2.7e
=========================================================
The WWWOFFLE programs simplify World Wide Web browsing from computers that use
intermittent (dial-up) connections to the internet.
Description
===========
The WWWOFFLE server is a proxy web server with special features for use with
dial-up internet links. This means that it is possible to browse web pages and
read them without having to remain connected.
Basic Features
- Caching of HTTP, FTP and finger protocols.
- Allows the 'GET', 'HEAD', 'POST' and 'PUT' HTTP methods.
- Interactive or command line control of online/offline/autodial status.
- Highly configurable.
- Low maintenance, start/stop and online/offline status can be automated.
While Online
- Caching of pages that are viewed for later review.
- Conditional fetching to only get pages that have changed.
- Based on expiration date, time since last fetched or once per session.
- Non cached support for SSL (Secure Socket Layer e.g. https).
- Can be used with one or more external proxies based on web page.
- Control which pages cannot be accessed.
- Allow replacement of blocked pages.
- Control which pages are not to be stored in the cache.
- Requests compressed pages from web servers (compile time option).
While Offline
- Can be configured to use dial-on-demand for pages that are not cached.
- Selection of pages to download next time online
- Using normal browser to follow links.
- Command line interface to select pages for downloading.
- Control which pages can be requested when offline.
- Provides non-cached access to intranet servers.
Automated Download
- Downloading of specified pages non-interactively.
- Options to automatically fetch objects in requested pages
- Understands various types of pages
- HTML 4.0, Java classes, VRML (partial), XML (partial).
- Options to fetch different classes of objects
- Images, Stylesheets, Frames, Scripts, Java or other objects.
- Option to not fetch webbug images (images of 1 pixel square).
- Automatically follows links for pages that have been moved.
- Can monitor pages at regular intervals to fetch those that have changed.
- Recursive fetching
- To specified depth.
- On any host or limited to same server or same directory.
- Chosen from command line or from browser.
- Control over which links can be fetched recursively.
Convenience
- Optional information footer on HTML pages showing date cached and options.
- Options to modify HTML pages
- Remove scripts.
- Remove Java applets.
- Remove stylesheets.
- Remove shockwave flash animations.
- Indicate cached and uncached links.
- Remove the blink tag.
- Remove refresh tags.
- Remove links to pages that are in the DontGet list.
- Remove inline frames (iframes) that are in the DontGet list.
- Replace images that are in the DontGet list.
- Replace webbug images (images of 1 pixel square).
- Demoronise HTML character sets.
- Stop animated GIFs.
- Automatic proxy configuration for Netscape.
- Searchable cache with the addition of the ht://Dig, mnoGoSearch
(UdmSearch) or Namazu programs.
- Built in simple web-server for local pages.
- Allows CGI scripts
- Timeouts to stop proxy lockups
- DNS name lookups.
- Remote server connection.
- Data transfer.
- Continue or stop downloads interrupted by client.
- Based on file size of fraction downloaded.
- Purging of pages from cache
- Based on URL matching.
- To keep the cache size below a specified limit.
- To keep the free disk space above a specified limit.
- Interactive or command line control.
- Compression of cached pages based on age.
- Provides compressed pages to web browser (compile time option).
Indexes
- Multiple indexes of pages stored in cache
- Servers for each protocol (http, ftp ...).
- Pages on each server.
- Pages waiting to be fetched.
- Pages requested last time offline.
- Pages fetched last time online.
- Pages monitored on a regular basis.
- Configurable indexes
- Sorted by name, date, server domain name, type of file.
- Options to delete, refresh or monitor pages.
- Selection of complete list of pages or hide un-interesting pages.
Security
- Works with pages that require basic username/password authentication.
- Automates proxy authentication for external proxies that require it.
- Control over access to the proxy
- Defaults to local host access only.
- Host access configured by hostname or IP address.
- Optional proxy authentication for user level access control.
- Optional password control for proxy management functions.
- Can censor incoming and outgoing HTTP headers to maintain user privacy.
Configuration
- All options controlled using a configuration file.
- Interactive web page to allow editing of the configuration file.
- User customisable error and information pages.
Changes
=======
Since version 2.7d:
Bug Fixes:
Correct some invalid HTML in the message files. Fix some memory leaks, free
some unfreed memory, check some pointers, close some files. Don't send the
extra arguments to POST requests that WWWOFFLE uses internally. Removed
segmentation fault potential when password not used in config file. Another
fix for the cookie problem. Warn if running as root. Try both IPv6 and IPv4
socket binding (IPv6 may not accept IPv4). Potential bug fix for page
corruption. Potential fix for IPv6 configuration on Solaris.
New Features:
Add an option to have case-insensitive matching for URL-SPEC path and args.
Added the option to only fetch images on the same host (automatic fetching).
Allow URL-SPECs to contain an '=' sign embedded in them (long time bug fix).
The monitor options page now accepts ranges of hours or days (e.g. '1-5').
Availability
============
Version 2.7e uploaded, but may not be available yet
FTP server: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/apps/www/servers/wwwoffle-2.7e.tgz
FTP server: ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/unix/httpd/wwwoffle-2.7e.tgz
Web page: http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/
Author & Copyright
==================
This program is copyright Andrew M. Bishop 1996,97,98,99,2000,01,02
(amb@gedanken.demon.co.uk) and distributed under GPL.
email: amb@gedanken.demon.co.uk
[Please put wwwoffle in the subject line]
--
Andrew.
======================================================================
Andrew M. Bishop amb@gedanken.demon.co.uk
http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/
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------------------------------
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