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Debian

Submission + - Debian is now Sweet Sixteen (debian.net)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "The Universal Operating System Debian is now sweet sixteen. Lets wish her a very happy birthday and congratulate all the developers, sponsors, users and the community. It all started with this discussion [0]. One of the oldest GNU/Linux distros, Debian among the most preferred choice for a Linux server. With Debian-derivative Ubuntu being among the most popular choice for Linux desktops, Debian is surely a universal OS.

For those who don't know, the name comes [1] from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra.

[0] http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.development/msg/a32d4e2ef3bcdcc6
[1] http://www.debian.org/intro/about"

Comment Re:Ask China (Score 1) 151

by bibekpaudel (#28320337) Attached to: How Should a Constitution Protect Digital Rights?
I'd love to read/see/listen any evidences to prove that. Otherwise that's a totally false statement. The popular opinion in Nepal is that the string-puller is India and eventually Uncle Sam. I don't buy popular opinion, but your take on China story is untrue. It's largely been a non-interfering neighbor except in cases of Free-Tibet activists.
Government

Submission + - How should a constitution protect digital rights ?

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "Nepal's Constituent Assembly is drafting a new constitution for the country. We (FOSS Nepal [0]) are interacting with various committees of the Assembly regarding the issues to be included in the new constitution. Especially, the "Fundamental Rights Determination Committee" is seeking our suggestions in the form of a written document so that they can discuss it in their meeting next week. We have informed them informally of our concerns for addressing digital liberties and ensuring them as fundamental rights in the constitution. We'd also like to see the right to privacy, anonymity and access public information regardless of the technology (platforms/softwares). Whether or not our suggestions will be incorporated depends on public hearings and voting in the assembly later, but the document we submit will be archived for use as reference material in the future when amendments in the constitution will be discussed or new laws will be prepared.

Below is the mail[1] I wrote to FOSS Nepal mailing list. I wanted to post a similar message to some international mailing list (like FSF, EFF) but I know only of announcement mailing lists of that kind. If you have something to suggest, please do. We're committed to doing everything we can to make sure that in the future Nepal becomes a country where digital liberties are fully respected. It's my personal dream to make our constitution a model for all other developing (or otherwise) countries as far as digital liberties are concerned.

There are many issues on which your suggestions would be valuable. How's it in your country? How would you want to change it? If you've interesting examples from history, they'd help too. If you're a legal expert, please mention the legal hassles our issues could generate. If you're from the FSF, the EFF etc, please provide your insights. If you're just another citizen like me, how'd you like your government to address filesharing, privacy, anonymity, platform neutrality, open standards etc? This slashdot discussion itself would serve as a reference to our document.

[0] http://fossnepal.org/
[1] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal/browse_thread/thread/10cb7162bc5c3998"
The Internet

Submission + - File Sharing Parties in Russia and Nepal (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "Just around the PirateBay verdict day, file sharers' all over the world have been celebrating the spirit of sharing.

TorrentFreaks writes [0], "Support for The Pirate Bay doesn't stop at the Swedish border, nor it is limited to blogs and forums." On 16th April, a group of Russian Pirate Bay supporters threw a street party at Pushkin Square in the center of Moscow, with the full approval of the Russian government. There are other more prominent supporters too. Novelist Paulo Coelho, who wrote the 65 million-selling book "The Alchemist", is an avid supporter of the 'bay, and even offered to testify in their favor during their court case.

In the South Asian Himalayan country of Nepal, supporters of file-sharing and piratebay came together in a real-life file-sharing party [1]. The whole event was planned and coordinated over the Internet using weblogs and twitter. People came with their laptops, thumb-drives, CD/DVDs, hard-disk and other storage devices and let each other know of the movies, songs, books, programmes or pictures they had and exchanged files with each other. The event named "Satasat GB" started in a Kathmandu restaurant this January with initiatives of some tech savvy youths. Excited by the response, they aimed to share even more data in the future versions of the event. Nepal has 12 hours of power outages every day (recently reduced, used to be 16 hours a day). According to the participants of the event, the reason for organizing the file sharing party- besides the need for the geeks to meet each other and have some fun, is load-shedding and Kathmandu's low internet bandwidth which make it difficult to download huge files over the internet.

[0] http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-supporters-throw-street-party-in-moscow-090416/
[1] http://ekantipur.com/kolnews.php?&nid=188770"
The Internet

Submission + - Open Source Activity Map of the World (redhat.com)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "Georgia Tech and RedHat's Open Source Index project (OSI) has
generated interesting results. The open source activity and environment
maps of the world show scores of 75 countries based on their policies,
practices, and other data in the fields of Government, Industry, and
Community. The interactive map helps explore open source software hotspots around the world.

Overall, France ranks number 1 in the index, followed by Spain, Germany, Australia and Finland. On number 6 is the UK, while the United States is 3 places below. China stands on No. 15 and India on 23.

Many countries aren't indexed, because of the unavailability of enough data, says the FAQ.

Activity map: http://www.redhat.com/about/where-is-open-source/activity/
Environment map: http://www.redhat.com/about/where-is-open-source/environment/"
Java

Submission + - Java 7 Module System Concerns (infoq.com)

Submitted by
synodinos
synodinos writes: "In this article, Lukas Krecan first introduces the reader with some basic concepts of modularization like: logical separation, physical separation, deploy-time dependencies, optional dependencies and dependency conflicts.He also gives a roundup of some Java module systems like: OSGi, JSR-277, JSR-294, Project Jigsaw. Especially with Project Jigsaw he deals with how it is connected to the upcoming version of Java.

Lukas is particularly concerned as to how efficient the new modularization mechanism will be and if it will be good enough to put aside other solutions like OSGi."
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Plug-in Architecture On the Way for GCC (sdtimes.com)

Submitted by
VonGuard
VonGuard writes: "This year marks the 25th anniversary of the GNU Operating System. A major part of that system has always been the GNU Compiler Collection. This year, some of the earliest bits of GCC also turn 25, and yet some of the collection's most interesting years of growth may still be ahead. The GCC team announced today that the long-standing discussion over how to allow plug-ins to be written for GCC has been settled. The FSF and the GCC team have decided to apply the GPL to plug-ins. That means all that's left is to build a framework for plug-ins; no small task to be sure. But building this framework should make it easier for people to contribute to the GCC project, and some universities are already working on building windows into the compilation process, with the intent of releasing plug-ins."
Education

Submission + - Linux Terminals for school kids in hilly villages (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "The BBC carries a story on the success of the E-Library project based on the Linux Terminal Server Project in the schools of remote hilly villages of Nepal. Started by Help Nepal Network (HeNN) and supported by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP, the organization behind NepaLinux) and the Free/Open Source Software Community of Nepal (FOSS Nepal), students from Nepal's top engineering schools volunteer for the project.

"Much of the country is remote and accessible only on foot, and many of its people have never glimpsed a computer, let alone touched one. Working with other organisations, including Save the Children-Norway, HeNN is setting up the libraries with the use of what is called the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP). This is a free and open-source (accessible to everyone) package which connects one powerful central server in the school, using the Linux operating system, to a number of diskless low-end computers. When linked to the server, each computer receives a full Linux desktop.

LTSP is seen as a cost-effective, power-saving and durable technology, not only in schools but also in other sectors. What's more, it is also virtually free of tampering and computer viruses — and the Linux software developed by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, a charitable educational library based in Kathmandu, is being provided free of cost.

And its appeal is growing. In front of the little shops on the rough village streets, men gather to play cards and drink tea. But even they have developed a fascination for the computer. So the school has arranged some computer classes for them, too."

The BBC further writes, "Before this, anyone wanting access to computers or sizeable shops would have to walk two hours and drive two more, so the system has proved highly significant for local pupils. Most of the places where E-libraries have been set up so far are in the hills."

"Kamal Prasad Sharma, aged 12, a student at Saraswati Secondary School in a small village not far from Kathmandu, was afraid when he saw a computer for the first time.""
Government

Submission + - Ten hours of power cut every day (wordpress.com)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "Nepal is a country whose power potential is roughly 83,000 MW, which is equivalent to the combined installed hydroelectricity capacity of Canada, the United States and Mexico [0], although less than 1 percent has been developed [1]. In recent years, load-shedding has been an unmistakable feature of daily lives in Nepal. People plan their days accordingly. They sleep and wake up accordingly. Businesses and office-goers, professionals try to adjust their work and daily routine in harmony with the load-shedding schedule published by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA, aptly called No Electricity Authority of Nepal). NEA is very good at doing it. It changes its schedule and duration time and again, citing different reasons. In summers, its usually because of the flooding at certain rivers that grains and rock try to disturb the hydro-power plants. In winters, its because most rivers originating in the mountains decrease in their volumes because the snow melts less. At other times, its because one or the other power plant needs to be closed because of technical difficulties. At no points do we learn about measures taken to forestall annual occurrences of such events.

Effective from today, NEA has imposed, another schedule[2]. There will be 70 hours of power cut every week. That is 10 hours a day. NEA says that, come mid-January, the duration will be increased. Imagine how lives will move. Industries have already declared that it'd be impossible for them to sustain.

There is an yearly loss of 25.15 percent power[3] (of total power capacity) by NEA due to power leakage.

[0] http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishdaily/trn/2003/jan/jan26/features1.htm
[1] http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/archive/ieo00/hydro.html
[2] http://nea.org.np/loadshedding.jpg
[3] http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=170922"
Google

Submission + - The First Android powered phone (blogspot.com)

Submitted by bibekpaudel
bibekpaudel writes: Today, T-Mobile announced the world's first Android-powered phone[]. This marks an important milestone in the young history of Android. It was less than a year ago, on November 5, that the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, announced plans to create a complete mobile platform that would facilitate the development of advanced mobile applications and give users the best the web has to offer on a mobile device.

[0] http://www.t-mobileg1.com/
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Kathmandu Declaration on Free/Open Source Software (fossnepal.org) 1

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "One of the three winners of the Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2007 Best Event competition[0], the FOSS Nepal community has issued the "Kathmandu Declaration"[1] today, that was signed by over 700[2] professionals, students and other FOSS enthusiasts, amidst the presence of Nepal's Minister of Science and Technology, journalists and high level government officials. The declaration was signed during the Software Freedom Day[3] 2008.

The declaration talks about the right to information, especially in the context of electronic exchange of information. A FOSS Nepal volunteer explains in his blog[4], the necessity of such a convention. The official statistics and result of Nepal's recent Constituent Assembly Election[5], that turned Nepal into the world's youngest republic and in a rare event, brought a warring party of Communist guerrillas into mainstream democratic process can be viewed only by using Microsoft Internet Explorer. The website[6] is run by the government's Election Commission.

The Convention advocates the use of open standards and open technologies for the electronic exchange of information. It brings all the information related to the "technology, procedure, results and statistics related to any study, research or implementation that involves partial or complete participation or investment of government" under the jurisdiction of the right to information.

[0] http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners#head-21e083384666d3141a28fe356d6886d49bbdcebc
[1] http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=SFD08_Press_Release_II#Kathmandu_Declaration
[2] http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=161299
[3] http://picasaweb.google.com/jwalanta/SoftwareFreedomDay2008RallyAndCandlelightVigil#
[4] http://open--source.blogspot.com/2008/09/sfd-08-how-good.html
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_Constituent_Assembly_election,_2008
[6] http://www.election.gov.np/reports/report/reportBody.php""
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Kathmandu Convention on Free/Open Source Softwares (fossnepal.org)

Submitted by
Bibek Paudel
Bibek Paudel writes: "One of the three winners of the Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2007 Best Event competition[0], the FOSS Nepal community has issued the "Kathmandu Convention"[1] today, that was signed by over 700 professionals, students and other FOSS enthusiasts, amidst the presence of Nepal's Minister of Science and Technology, journalists and high level government officials. The Convention was signed during the Software Freedom Day[2] 2008.

The Convention talks about the right to information, especially in the context of electronic exchange of information. A FOSS Nepal volunteer explains in his blog[3], the necessity of such a convention. The official statistics and result of Nepal's recent Constituent Assembly Election[4], that turned Nepal into the world's youngest republic and in a rare event, brought a warring party of Communist guerrillas into mainstream democratic process can be viewed only by using Microsoft Internet Explorer. The website[5] is run by the government's Election Commission.

The Convention advocates the use of open standards and open technologies for the electronic exchange of information. It brings all the information related to the "technology, procedure, results and statistics related to any study, research or implementation that involves partial or complete participation or investment of government" under the jurisdiction of the right to information.

http://softwarefreedomday.org/Competition2007/Winners#head-21e083384666d3141a28fe356d6886d49bbdcebc
http://wiki.fossnepal.org/index.php?title=SFD08_Press_Release_II#Kathmandu_Convention
http://picasaweb.google.com/jwalanta/SoftwareFreedomDay2008RallyAndCandlelightVigil#
http://open--source.blogspot.com/2008/09/sfd-08-how-good.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_Constituent_Assembly_election,_2008
http://www.election.gov.np/reports/report/reportBody.php"

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