[ILUG-Cochin.org] First Meeting of Indian Libre User Group Details
Warm Greetings To The FOSS Community, The first meeting of the "Indian Libre User Group" was held on March 22 2009. Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting. Date: 22-03-2009 Time: 2:15pm - 6.00pm Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building, Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam Attendance : 29 The turnout at the meeting was pretty impressive and just like last time, there were people from different walks of life. The attendees were enjoying a new video of RMS as everyone was arriving. The Meeting started of with the customary self introduction. Introduction to Free Software, Open source software and Licenses ~~~ As always the meeting kicked off with the usual discussion on Free Software and the significance of Freedoms. The difference of Free Software and Open Source software was highlighted. The need for software Licenses and the GNU GPL were discussed. The concept of copyleft was briefly explained. The discussion was more lively compared to previous meetings. Agenda : Community based curriculum ~~~ The agenda which was planned as part of our ongoing initiative to bring teachers closer to the Free Software Community. We had 5 teachers attending the meeting this time. The discussion started off by discussing the important skills which are the basis for IT Education. Some important skills that were suggested by the attendees were the following: - Typing skills - Internet Searching/ Browsing skills - General computer knowledge. - Application usage skills - Programming skills - Some people pointed out the fact that the existing curriculum was based on the above skillsets, but the teachers were not sufficiently trained to do justice with the specific subjects. - The syllabus was also outdated or rather inefficient in bringing out the core skills in students, for these there needs to be a revamp of the syllabus not a complete makeover. - There was mixed response among the audience to the fact that a community based curriculum would never appeal the decision makers. - Community based textbook was the need of the hour and a textbook created by the community would definitely be accepted by the decision makers said a few. - But the fact that the initiative was primarily aimed to shape a better future for students and the community did not have any expectations from any section of society, as is the community remains always said the moderator. - The teachers explained that the basic technical issues faced in schools, were the major hurdle that was preventing the teachers from gaining confidence to use Free Software. - The teachers also emphasized the lack of proper knowledge among the top level trainers. The direct impact was that the knowledge was almost nil when it finally reached the students. - The Book sprint initiative by the Free Software Foundation to create a community based text book (that would go into production) based on the GNU GPL, was announced during the discussion. http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/book-sprint http://en.flossmanuals.net/gnulinux - A brief presentation on the aim of the initiative, the process of collaboration and how the community can contribute was shown. - The moderator emphasized the importance of such an initiative among the Free Software Community in Kerala to create textbooks for students. Since the agenda discussion just was a tip of the iceberg, it was planned to continue the same in the next meeting. Few action items for a better discussion in the next meeting were suggested as follows: - Attendees should try to study the existing textbooks and try to determine the shortcomings, if they feel any and think of improvements - Also they should think of important ideas of how Free Software can be effectively taught at schools. This brought an end to the agenda discussion. After the Agenda the attendees assembled in front of the AMI trust building for a pose with the new group banner. Thereafter they moved to have tea and snacks. Technical Presentation : An introduction to Python programming ~~~ Sameer gave an introduction to Programming in General explaining High Level and Machine Level languages. Sreenadh explained the basics of Python Programming with a few basic programs. Sameer then explained basics of Visual Python through a simple program to bounce a ball against two walls. Conclusion ~~ The meeting concluded by thanking the people who helped conduct the meeting and all the attendees. The meeting concluded at 6.00pm. We thank all the attendees for coming and urge them to put their feedback on the mailing list so we can improve future meetings. And hope the next meeting on 26/04/2009 is bigger and better. Photos and Details of the meeting will be available on the web site soon. Attendees Manu Ram Harikrishnan T R Sanjai Sreenadh Hari K T Hari Raj K Manoj Kumar Dev
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] KeralaInfo
Brilliant! Although a little slow, but you can see that a lot of effort has gone into this. Good work. Regards, Arun Raveendran On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 8:40 PM, Mohammed Rashad wrote: > *Resource Maps of Kerala are available..* > > I had done a project as a part of final year B.Tech course using free > software. > Basic themes such as roads,railways,highways,place names,rivers etc. are > done. > Here is my homepage : http://keralainfo.web4all.in/ > > You can find application here: > http://keralainfo.web4all.in/resources/ > > > Please post your valuable comments and feedback. > > > -- > Regards, > Mohammed Rashad K.M > +919605476742 > > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org > > -- Regards, Arun Raveendran "Serving is a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men, but he's not a servant to men." - Life is Beautiful (1997) ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] terminal mode pdf reader
Dear all.. http://linuxtuts.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-view-pdf-file-from-console-in.html this link given by Mahesh was helpful and the given script is ok..thanks a lot for the support. On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mahesh Aravind wrote: > > Dear Unni, > > --- On Thu, 16/4/09, unni krishnan wrote: > > > There is no console based pdf reader, > > Are you sure? > > > as far as I know. But you can convert PDF to text or html > > "Ignorance is the real darkness" -- Louis Braille > > Check this link: > http://www.google.com/linux?q=Viewing+PDF+files+in+console > > > and can use the text/html reader in console to view it. The > > package you need to use are pdftotext and pdftohtml. > > You could instead try ggv(1) > > -- Mahesh > > > Is there anything Java can't slow? >-- seen on Slashdot > > > > > > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to > http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ > > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org > -- പറയാതെ പരിഭവം നീയൊന്നു മുടി കോതി- ക്കഴിയുമ്പൊഴായുസ്സു തീരും പറയാതെ പരിഭവം ഞാനൊന്നു നെടുവീര്പ്പിട്ടു- കഴിയുമ്പോള് ലോകവും തീരും.. ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] KeralaInfo
Hello Mohammed, Good one, I like it. Keep innovating, all the best :-) On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Mohammed Rashad wrote: > *Resource Maps of Kerala are available..* > > I had done a project as a part of final year B.Tech course using free > software. > Basic themes such as roads,railways,highways,place names,rivers etc. are > done. > Here is my homepage : http://keralainfo.web4all.in/ > > You can find application here: > http://keralainfo.web4all.in/resources/ > > > Please post your valuable comments and feedback. > > > -- > Regards, > Mohammed Rashad K.M > +919605476742 > > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org > > -- - With regards, Unni "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle" ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] terminal mode pdf reader
Hello Mahesh, > Are you sure? I never used ggv. Also my debian installation does not contain that pacage in default installation. But sure that in the repo ( Not ggv, its gv ? ) debian:~# aptitude search gv | grep -i pdf p gv - PostScript and PDF viewer for X debian:~# It says it is for X ( Not done much research, I will check it later ) Can you give a real life example to use that command. The link http://linuxtuts.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-view-pdf-file-from-console-in.htmlitself uses the pdftohtml as I told. Anyway thank you for poitingout new one ( Gv ). On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mahesh Aravind wrote: > > Dear Unni, > > --- On Thu, 16/4/09, unni krishnan wrote: > > > There is no console based pdf reader, > > Are you sure? > > > as far as I know. But you can convert PDF to text or html > > "Ignorance is the real darkness" -- Louis Braille > > Check this link: > http://www.google.com/linux?q=Viewing+PDF+files+in+console > > > and can use the text/html reader in console to view it. The > > package you need to use are pdftotext and pdftohtml. > > You could instead try ggv(1) > > -- Mahesh > > > Is there anything Java can't slow? >-- seen on Slashdot > > > > > > Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to > http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ > > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org > -- - With regards, Unni "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle" ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] Free Software Speech
It is too much to upload as I have a very slow internet connection here. Unfortunately, most of the speeches are videos, which always shows the face of the speaker (mostly RMS) :-). Also I don't think that the web hosting sites will provide me a space of 4GB. Anyway, I will bring a few copies when I come for the meeting. - Jos Collin On 18/04/2009, Althaf Backer wrote: > I think you can make use of p7zip to compress the file to greater extent > ,4GB is too much to download. > > > > -- > http://mykeystrokes.blogspot.com > http://twitter.com/akber_ join me here > I mailed you with 10KB/s connection what about you? > -- Use free software. Defend your freedom. ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] KeralaInfo
Hi Mohammed Good work . I failed my attempt to do some similar project using postgis , kmap few years back . later on the project for scrapped . My problem was that I did not have a mentor who could guide me . Good work , keep it up thanks JOseph John --- On Fri, 17/4/09, Mohammed Rashad wrote: > From: Mohammed Rashad > Subject: [ILUG-Cochin.org] KeralaInfo > To: mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > Date: Friday, 17 April, 2009, 10:10 PM > *Resource Maps of Kerala are available..* > > I had done a project as a part of final year B.Tech course > using free > software. > Basic themes such as roads,railways,highways,place > names,rivers etc. are > done. > Here is my homepage : http://keralainfo.web4all.in/ > > You can find application here: > http://keralainfo.web4all.in/resources/ > > > Please post your valuable comments and feedback. > > > -- > Regards, > Mohammed Rashad K.M > +919605476742 > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/ ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
Re: [ILUG-Cochin.org] terminal mode pdf reader
Thanks... I just fell in love with my life... On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 11:28, Mahesh Aravind wrote: > > Fayaz, > > --- On Fri, 17/4/09, Fayaz useful wrote: > > > If your interested to know, the backend > > of pdf viewers is a command called 'gs' > > I just fell in love with my life... > > > > The "command" gs(1) is not just a command. GhostScript is an implementation > of Adobe PostScript interpreter specification. > > gs(1) can interpret PostScript and Portable Document Format files (PDF), > and either dispaly/convert them to various forms depending on the whim of > the user. > > AFAIK, GS is distributed by Alladin Enterprises. Version X they sell it for > money, under a restrictive license. Version (X-1) they distribute under GPL > under a free license. > > gv(1) is the "command" (GhostView) used to view PostScript/PDF files. I'm > not sure, but my best belief is that ggv(1) is a replacement and a cleaner > implementaion of GV. > > -- Mahesh > > > Is there anything Java can't slow? >-- seen on Slashdot > > > > > Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now, on > http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html/ > > ___ > Mailinglist mailing list > Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org > http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org > ___ Mailinglist mailing list Mailinglist@ilug-cochin.org http://ilug-cochin.org/mailman/listinfo/mailinglist_ilug-cochin.org
