Software Freedom Day celebrated

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Balram navigates cyberspace like any other net surfer. The visually-challenged youngster, however, uses a different set of tools to scan online newspapers and browse e-mail messages.
Mr. Balram has reason to become a die-hard advocate of free software. Addressing a function organised here on Saturday as part of the ‘Software Freedom Day,’ he explained how packages like Ubuntu and ORCA had enabled him to overcome his physical constraints and explore the cyberworld like any other youth.
The programme was organised by the GNU/ Linux Users Group, Thiruvananthapuram, Free Software Foundation of India and Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE).
Addressing a seminar held in connection with the event, noted campaigners for free software activists spoke on the applications available for various user groups and their advantages.
Representatives of the Kerala State Electricity Board, Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Board and the State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications spoke on how the adoption of free software had changed the functioning of their offices over the last one year. Institute director K.Pappootty explained how patent and copyright laws had led to the privatisation and monopolisation of knowledgeIT adviser to the government Joseph Mathew said the proposed International Centre for Free and Open Source Software in Kerala would harness free software for the development of technology in various sectors.
The event also included the screening of two films, Elephant Dreams and Big Buck Bunny, and a documentary titled Steal this Film, all produced using the Blender free software.
Demonstration of free software applications for the differently-abled and desktop effects were also arranged as part of the event. Another highlight was a tutorial for students and others interested in computer programming. A Freedom Toaster vending machine installed at the venue evoked a good response from those interested in installing free and open source software. As many as 40 students, teachers and technical experts participated in the workshop.
Report courtesy: The Hindu dated 21 Sept 2008

Google launches Chrome

Localizationforum in Chrome browser

Reacting to the surprise announcement by Google last week of its own browser offering, named Chrome, the authoritative ‘Information Week’ wrote: “The desktop is dying. Long live the browser.” And it is right on target.
The web’s search leader offers GMail, a web-based email service; GoogleTalk, a web voice call and chat client; GoogleDocs, virtually an office suite on the web; Orkut, a web social networking site, and GoogleMaps, the ultimate tool to understand where on earth you stand (literally!).
With Chrome, Google has virtually carpeted the average Internet user’s entire span of experience and, more importantly, shifted everything to the ‘Cloud’, a fashionable term for the enveloping cloud of Net-based applications and services.
Chrome is available for free download with a button, the Google search engine ( http://www.google.com/). It is a fairly slim 7 MB download and the opening page is starkly simple like all Google offerings. This can change fast because the page is quickly populated — by you. Different browser
Unlike other browsers, Chrome does not fill the page with default offerings but uses most of the space for 9 window panes — the nine pages you have visited most frequently in the past. To have web pages download fast, Chrome’s development team, headed by Google’s vice-president for Product Management, Sundar Pichai (a B.Tech from IIT-Kharagpur and M.S. from Stanford University, U.S.) decided not to reinvent the wheel, so to speak: it just took the Webkit rendering engine used by Apple’s Safari browser. Ironically, there is no Chrome version for Apple’s Mac PCs — yet, it works, now only with Windows.
In a videoconference briefing for The Hindu, from his lab in Mountain View, California, Mr. Pichai explained that Chrome was released as an Open Source project. This means the source code is available for developers to build their own applications. The fruit of two years work, Chrome does away with annoying pop-ups and dialogue boxes; seamlessly integrates search and navigation functions and allows users to surf “incognito” — erasing all trails of where they surfed.
Will satisfied users of Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera shift to Chrome? It remains to be seen; but if you are already a heavy user of Google’s tools it might make good sense to put all your web-hatched eggs in one big basket called Chrome!
Report courtesy: The Hindu

KDE release: proud moments

Group discussions at Kanakakkunnu palace

Ee alternate free standards approach engane
nadappilaakkum?


Vimal , Mahesh sir , Ragsagar, Shyam_k, Kiran,
Libregeek, Santhosh and Anivar


Chandrettan , Jaison, Hiran, Pravi and Ani

Praveen, Anivar, Ani Peter, Sushma

KDE release party at Trivandrum in photos

Santhosh makes the introductory speech


Mr Teeka Ram Meena logs into the new Malayalam
enabled KDE 4.1 .....


From Left, Standing : Chandrettan, Anoop(Gnuanu), Vimal,
Manilal, Mangalat sir , Praveeninte thala , Anivar, Shyam_K ,
Ani chechi, Kurian, Sreeranj, Ragsagar, Sushma. From Left ,
sitting : Mobin, Rajiv ( Mandoos ), Syam Krishnan ( ISS ..) ,
Jaisan , Kiran, Santhosh, Hiran

Localized KDE Screenshots

International free software centre at Trivandrum

Kochi: The Kerala State Information Technology Mission is keen to set up the proposed International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) by December this year.
In order to achieve this, M. Arun, secretary, Free Software Foundation of India and coordinator, Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE), has been appointed its ‘special officer.’ The Centre will be located in Thiruvananthapuram.
Concurrent with the launch of the Centre, the government will hold an international seminar on ‘Free Software, Free Society: Freedom in Computing, Development and Culture’ with a view to highlighting the State’s feats in FOSS. It is also aimed at formulating a consortium of FOSS-related organisations the world over.
“We expect several developing countries in Asia and Latin America, especially countries like Brazil and Venezuela that have some experience of developing free software for public/private sectors, to participate in the seminar,” said Mr. Arun. Naturally, collaborative development of commercial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages will be high on the agenda of ICFOSS.Logistic clearances
Meanwhile, the Information Technology Department is on an overdrive to obtain logistic clearances from the government for the project. It is in consultation with several experts, including free software guru Richard Stallman, in a bid to broaden the scope of ICFOSS.
“The focus is as much on spreading the philosophy of freedom as it is on the technicalities involved,” said Joseph C. Mathew, IT Adviser to the Chief Minister. The government, on its part, has earmarked Rs.60 lakh for the project.
Rahul De of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has already submitted the mission plan for ICFOSS. He feels that the Centre “is going to be a pioneering institution for promoting FOSS in India and dealing with FOSS issues”. Prof. De has identified six key areas that the Centre could operate on.
It may investigate what political, cultural and economic benefits FOSS would reap for the country.
Software development apart, this could be extended to issues such as patents, copyright, digital content and scientific publishing. Providing leadership in identifying FOSS technologies for different applications for the government, public enterprises, educational institutions, small business, individuals and other key sectors could be another thrust area.
The ICFOSS could be a consultancy for all government departments in the State for IT-related activities, besides creating a level- playing field for all software acquisitions.
It could certify FOSS software considered for adoption and facilitate FOSS-based initiatives in the State by setting up infrastructure.
On a larger scale, the Centre may also draw up an action plan aimed at making the State a global leader in the open source community by developing and customising FOSS applications for developing countries.
(Courtesy: Report by S. Anandan, in The Hindu dated 2 Aug 2008)

KDE 4.1 to officially support Malayalam

The amazing collaboration and enthusiasm showed by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing’s (SMC) KDE subproject made this possible. We had to cross the kde essentials barrier, which is required for inclusion in a KDE release as a supported language in a very short span of time. We achieved this milestone by completing 10000+ strings in about 10 days by 30+ contributors. KDE essentials include the most important packages that a default installation will have including the libraries and the base applications. Other Indian languages to be supported in this release are Hindi, Tamil and Panjabi. Exciting thing about this milestone is the participation of people from all walks of life including students, farmers, scientist, engineers …
Many of us were working till 3-4 am in the morning for the entire week leading upto the 4.1 deadline on July 11. #smc-project on Freenode IRC was the main connection for realtime collaboration with ‘mandoos’ (an IRC bot who can learn maanings and teach anyone who asks for it) helping the newly joined members of the team. You can join the IRC channel using your web browser by following this link.
People from all over the globe and round the clock joined this effort. Some places to mention are Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, USA … The enthusiam showed by the members throughout this great effort was amazing. In one single day 5 new contributors submited their first translation and more than 30 people contributed to this effort (Most of the contributors are listed here). It could be one of the few languages which completed kde essentials translations in such a short time.
You can see the list languages sorted by their percentatge of translations here. Malayalam is currently at 63rd position, 4th among Indian languages.
The release party is on Aug 9th and 10th at Thiruvananthapuram. Location and event schedule to be announced later (tune in to our mailing list for more details)

List of contributors. Thanks to Ani Peter for making this list.
1. Sasi Kumar
2. AnilKV
3. Ashik
4. Anoop
5. Anoopan
6. Prasad. S R
7. Hari Vishnu
8. Manu
9. Santhosh
10. Praveen
11. Manilal
12. Sushma K.S.
13. Sujith
14. Smitha
15. Remya
16. Hiran Venugopalan
17. Hitha Venugopalan
18. Chandrettan
19. Sankaranarayanan
20. Pratheesh
21. Syam Krishnan
22. Shiju Alex
23. Ragsagar V
24. Maxin B John
25. Sarath Lakshman
26. Baiju. M
27. Joju Joshua
28. Afsal
29. Nishan
30. Rajiv and his Mandoos
31. Ani
(This excerpt is from www.fsdaily.com, posted by Santhosh)

ഭാഷയുടെ നേര്‍വഴി

മലയാളം എന്ന തേന്മൊഴിയുടെ ഉയിരിനു നേരെ പിടിച്ച കണ്ണാടിയാണ് ഈ പുസ്തകം. ലിപി വിന്യാസം ഉച്ഛാരണം അര്ധഭേദം തുടങ്ങി ഭാഷയുടെ ഏതാണ്ടെല്ലാ മുഖങ്ങളെയും സ്പര്‍ശിക്കുന്ന ഒരു തീര്ഥയാത്ര.

ഭാഷയുടെ നേര്‍വഴി

കെ നാരായണന്‍

Move over '.com' and get ready for '.hotel' or '.sports'

London, June 27 (ANI): Come 2009, and almost any word will be able to replace ".com" in a Web page address - thanks to a decision made by the organization that manages the technical underpinnings of the Web, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN).ICANN unanimously approved the new guidelines as weeklong meetings in Paris concluded.Top-level domain names, or TLDs, refer to Internet name suffixes, such as the ubiquitous .com, .net and .org, among others. Currently, there are more than 200 TLDs, which also include the two-character country codes used by websites, such as Britain's .uk.Under the new plans, a domain name, the suffix at the end of a website address, can now be based on any string of letters.This will allow individuals to register a domain based on their own name, for example, as long as they can show a "business plan and technical capacity".The result could be the creation of thousands or even millions of new addresses.ICANN also voted collectively to open public comment on a separate proposal to permit addresses entirely in non-English languages for the first time."We are opening up a new world and I think this cannot be underestimated," BBC quoted Roberto Gaetano, a member of ICANN, as saying.Dr Paul Twomey, chief executive of ICANN, described passing the resolution as a "historic moment".ICANN officials said some technical issues for the new system must still be worked out, but it could be reviewing the first applications for new TLDs as early as 2009. (ANI)Fri, Jun 27, 2008 Courtesy Yahoo

Firefox thrives, Netscape fades

Firefox, the open-source Web browser, has claimed that it crossed half a billion downloads worldwide last week.The browser that was born from Mozilla, the free cross-platform open source Web browser framework, turned out to be the most popular of the “open” alternatives to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It acquired new users at a steady 20 million-a-month during 2007. However, its overall share among leading browsers in use is estimated to hover around 17 per cent.Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004 as an experiment within the Mozilla Project and the currently available free download is version 2.0.0.12 — a 5.7 MB tool. However, version 3 is already in the beta or testing stage and has incorporated some 1,300 changes.An edition optimised for portable phones called Mozilla Firefox for Mobiles will be available later this year, to start with for the Windows Mobile and Linux platforms.AOL’s recommendationIronically, Firefox’s surge forward in the browser stakes comes in a week that also saw the passing into history of the iconic browser Netscape, which for millions of users provided their first feel of surfing the world wide web in the Internet’s dawn, the early 1990s.On Saturday AOL, which has owned Netscape since 1994, withdrew the browser’s life support system and recommended users to change over to Firefox or Flock, two browsers which like Netscape are also based on Mozilla.Netscape was not the Internet’s first browser — that honour goes to Mosaic — but it was crafted by American software engineer Marc Andreessen who created Mosaic when he was a student. The market share of Netscape dwindled after Microsoft entered the field with Internet Explorer. By 2006, Netscape was being used by just 1 per cent of surfers.As of today, it will still be operational. But AOL has stopped all active support, which will effectively kill it very soon… a sad day for those who recall, with fondness, its friendly look-and-feel.Courtesy, The Hindu 2 Mar 2008

Your own ‘drive’ in Net ‘sky’

Users can upload and store their files in three foldersThere is a generous limit of 50 MB for any one fileBANGALORE: If you have portable hard drives and large-capacity memory sticks that you lug on your travels, prepare to shed them now.Microsoft is offering free personal and secure storage on the Web of a whopping 5 gigabytes to users registered for its Windows Live services.Users of its Hotmail e-mail service can access this virtual hard drive on the web using the same name and password.The service, which was in a beta form with limited storage and went live last week across the world, can be accessed at http://skydrive.live.com/.Users can upload and store their files in three folders: “Personal,” which they alone can access; “Share with friends,” which will be open to designated friends who are also registered Windows Live users; and a “Share with the World,” where one can place files that are open to the wider public to view.Possibilities This is arguably the largest free virtual storage offered so far by any Web player and opens up a lot of possibilities for us, lay users of the Internet: One can upload photos or documents for public consumption... useful for those, like teachers or public speakers who like to quickly share the text of their talks, courses or even Powerpoint-type presentation material.Many usesThere is a generous limit of 50 MB for any one file. In fact, frequent speakers can store their PPT archive so that they can update and give any of their lectures as and when required, without having to carry their material on CDs or thumb drives.One can post photos or travelogues for a limited circle... ‘shaadi’ albums for the viewing pleasure of close friends and relatives.The personal store will be particularly useful to keep copies of important documents — copies of e-tickets, short duration insurance policies, hotel booking records, visa references, scans of important documents such as degree certificates and birth or marriage records — which can easily be retrieved if the originals are lost.SecurityMicrosoft’s Windows Live head in India, Samir Saraiya, says that the level of security is similar to that of online banking... all file transfers are protected using what is known asSecure Socket Layer.There have been other online store services, mostly for virtual photo albums and the like, but the flexibility of Skydrive makes it a formidable offering and the size of the storage makes it comparable with what one would get on the solid state drive of an Ultra Mobile PC today. Courtesy: The Hindu

And now a site-specific browser

A new breed of the browser, called a site-specific browser (a browser tailored to a single on-line application), is slowly evolving.A mainstream browser (like Firefox) is indifferent to the kind of web site being accessed. Whether the site is your vital email service Gmail or an ordinary web page, for the browser they are all the same.For applications like on-line word-processors, several browser features (like the navigation buttons, and the home button) are actually unnecessary and have only a nuisance value. However, a user cannot avoid them as the application can be run only with the browser.If loaded with several web sites, a browser often fails (due to memory shortage or a system error). This browser crash is a recipe for disaster if you are on an on-line application (say, a Google spreadsheet) and in the midst of some serious data processing.Besides these issues, keeping some applications opened alongside sites on multiple tabs could pose some security threats as well. For instance many have the tendency to keep their web mail (like Gmail) account tab open for accessing the mail interface with ease. Browsing the Net keeping one’s Gmail a/c ’always on’ (with the same browser) is not advisable given the security/privacy risks involved ( http://www.davidairey.co.uk/google-gmail-security-hijack/). To counter these issues, a new concept known as a site-specific browser (some even call it a single site browser) is gaining ground.A site-specific browser (SSB) lets you dedicate a customised browser to a specific web application/site. Once an instance of this browser is integrated with the application, it will continue to stay on your system tray -- just like a desktop application. This enables you to readily access this on-line application in the same way in which you access a desktop application. An SSB integrates your favourite on-line application with the desktop and enables you to run it like a desktop application.Windows based toolsBubbles (http://bubbleshq.com/), is a good product in this genre with many innovative features. To create a site-specific browser with Bubbles, start the program and enter the URL of the web application you wish to integrate with it.Once a site-specific bubble (say, for Gmail) is thus created, you will find a bubble icon on the system tray and you can load the application (here Gmail) by clicking on this icon.Of course, you can create any number of site-specific bubbles this way.Another feature of this service is the site-specific extension for enhancing the power of a bubble meant for an application. For example, if you have created a Gmail-specific bubble, you can install the gmail-specific extension (http://bubbleshq.com/scripts/88) meant for regularly notifying you about new/unread mails.If you are a Facebook user you may find the Facebook bubble chat extension (http://bubbleshq.com/scripts/167/facebook---just-chatting) useful.The concept of the SSB is not new. Mozilla’s SSB project, Prism (http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/ Prism), which seems to be the inspiration for some SSB products, has been around for some time. Despite being aware of Mozilla’s Prism several months ago, Netspeak earlier failed to see the real potential of the SSB concept. You can download Prism from here: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Prism#Installs.Mango (http://mango.browser.googlepages.com/) is yet another site-specific browser application worth a test. An advantage of Mango is its facility to export an application as self-executable ’.exe’ file.The SSB is an evolving trend in browser space. Many new/better products may surface soon. Before settling down to a product let us wait and watch how this technology takes shape.Courtesy: J. Murali, The Hindu

Firefox 3 Web browser hopes for record downloads

LOS ANGELES (Xinhua): Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people, mostly volunteers, collectively develop free products, announced on Monday that it will launch a new version of the Firefox Web browser and hopes for record downloads.Firefox 3, scheduled to be launched today, features improvements in security, speed and design, according to Mozilla.With many of the enhancements in Firefox 3 involving bookmarks, the new version lets Web surfers add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new Places feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged and pages they visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to the bookmark list -- similar to what's already available on Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 7 browser.Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.Yahoo is the only Web service initially supported. To use rivals like Google Inc.'s Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail, developers of those services will have to enable that capability first.Firefox is the No. 2 Web browser behind Internet Explorer. Mozilla has been developing Firefox 3 for nearly three years and has been publicly testing it since November for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.Mozilla is trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.Courtesy: The Hindu, 19 June 2008

End of keyboard and mouse

It is not yet the end for keyboard and mouse. But unrelated product announcements last week, suggest that it might be the beginning of the end for these electro-mechanical interfaces to computers and Internet access devices. Hewlett Packard has unveiled the revised editions of its TouchSmart PC, first launched last year.
New versionAlmost simultaneously, Apple showcased the new 3G version of its iconic iPhone, which virtually pioneered the use of touch to access the various ‘smart’ functions of the handset.While the Tablet PCalso offered touch as a key component of its ‘electronic slate’ functionality, it was not very successful in the marketplace till recent roll outs of smaller form-factor UMPCs or Ultra Mobile PCs gave the tablet a second lease of life.HCL’s MiLeap Y or Allied Computers’ ACi Ethos are two examples of made-in-India touch sensitive UMPCs. Microsoft’s Surface Computer, extends the touch sensitive screen to coffee table size; but this remains a pricey option for shops and public information providers rather than lay users.
Interface technologyMeanwhile, touch as a device interface technology continues to evolve: On one hand ‘haptics’ (this means, simply, touch technology that touches back) which was nascent when we first reported on it in this space a year ago (‘Haptic technology set to touch all of us’; IT Trends, The Hindu, July 19, 2007), has made considerable strides in the lab, but few applications have reached consumers.Nokia might just be the first to offer a key-less keyboard (yes!), where individual keys on a phone are replaced by an ultra touch-sensitive haptic pad that produces a significant reaction, when the user punches a number.
Touch-sensitive screensAnother promising direction in touch-sensitive screens, is the one pioneered by Jeff Han, who has perfected technology for large multi-touch screens, accommodating 10 or 20 fingers at a time.Mitsubishi developed a Diamond Touch Table in an earlier era, with a similar functionality, but it seemed to have been an idea ahead of its time. Multiple users ranged around a large screen can become collaborators and this might well be the ‘killer application’ for touch technology tomorrow.Like basic touch technology, multi touch tends to use one of the three mainstream methods of achieving touch:Resistive: conductive surfaces held apart by spacer ‘dots’. Touching a point closes the circuit and a voltage is generated;Capacitive: uses the capacitance of the human body; when a person touches the surface, a voltage drop is sensed;Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW): Sound wave reflectors along the edge of the glass; touching generates a change in sound amplitude.For very large screens companies like Touchscreen.com have developed infra red touch technology to go with the plasma screens.The next edition, after Vista, of Microsoft’s PC operating system will feature advanced multi touch features.
Connectivity devicesThese ‘touching’ developments have been almost parallel to those that have marked the industry’s innovative use of voice as an interface for many connectivity devices, especially hand held phones and car-based systems.The percentage of success, especially of products which promised to transcribe spoken words into machine-readable text, however, never reached levels where they were worth the trouble of correction.But things are changing. Nuance Communications, the makers of the Dragon Naturally Speaking, speech recognition products for PCs, have perfected some of best voice-command systems for mobile phones. Daniel Hong, at DataMonitor, feels voice commands are now poised to become mainstream applications. From Motorola’s Mobile TV sets to TomTom’s GPS navigation devices, voice is now a standard interface.It is particularly meaningful in car-based navigation or email services, where the driver is unable or prevented by law, from operating a key board.
Biomedical instrumentsThe biomedical instruments industry has been an early user of combined voice and touch sensitive interfaces. GEHealthcare has a range of hospital diagnostic equipment — the Logiq series of ultrasound machines is just one example — where touch screens complement voice-activated commands, leaving nurse or technician to do other things with their hands.Such combinations may soon be the rule rather than the exception in mass consumer products like PCs or handheld wireless Internet tools.Military users have already caught the potential of such interfaces in reducing the margin of error in mission-critical situations.A study in Canada at the Ecole Polytech de Montreal, found that operator response was 33 per cent better with voice commands compared to touch screens.But in some military environments — the cockpit of a fighter aircraft or the operations room of a submarine or frigate — there will be situations where entering strings of code is faster, more reliable, using touch rather than voice. The conclusion: Both technologies have much going for them, and a combination might often work best.

Firefox for free download

Bangalore: Within weeks of each other, the most popular Open Source operating system and one of the most used web browsers for lay users have unveiled their latest avatars — and chances are they will attract millions of first-time users. On Tuesday, the third edition of Firefox will become available for free download. Such is the build-up and hype for this Open Source web browser that 1.6 million users have already pre-registered to get the software on Download Day, June 17 — and as of Saturday, 21,300 of them are based in India.Mozilla, which promotes Firefox, hopes to create a Guinness World Record for the highest number of downloads on a single day (downloads can be done from http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ /en-US/worldrecord/firefox3).Firefox has a reputation for blocking viruses and other malware more effectively than many competing offerings, and many users whose PCs or laptops run on proprietary systems still choose to browse with Firefox.The browser has ironed out almost all its minor glitches during months as a beta and what is offered now is a robust version.Going by the pre-release versions, Firefox 3 will be available in the Punjabi and Gujarati versions also.The switch to an Open Source operating system has become just a bit easier, with the recent availability of the latest version — 8.04 — of the Linux distribution, Ubuntu. A free download from Canonical, U.K., Ubuntu has become one of the most popular Linux flavours — and the latest version can be saved on a DVD and will run directly from that drive without disturbing whatever operating system one may be running. It can be downloaded from www.ubuntu.com/download but since the full software takes almost 4 GB, readers may prefer to use one of the free DVDs being offered with the June 2008 issues of the computer monthlies Digit and Chip in India. This correspondent used the Chip DVD and it opened Ubuntu in trial mode on a Windows Vista PC, allowing sampling of all its features, including the OpenOffice suite and the Open Source graphics software GIMP, which are bundled. At the end of the trial the DVD can be removed and the PC returned to the Vista desktop, without hassle.This feature alone will give many first-time users the courage to give Open Source a try.
Courtesy - Anand Parthasarathy, The Hindu, 15 Jun 2008

Altering biometric images enhances security

BOSTON: A trick reminiscent of a fun-house mirror might improve the security and privacy of the access-control technology that examines fingerprints, facial features or other personal characteristics.In such systems, known as biometrics, a computer generally reduces an image to a template of ``minutia points'' — notable features such as a loop in a fingerprint or the position of an eye. Those points are converted to a numeric string by a mathematical algorithm, then stored for later analysis. But those mathematical templates, if stolen, can be dangerous.So researchers have developed ways to alter images in a defined, repeatable way, so that hackers who managed to crack a biometric database would be able to steal only the distortion — not the true, original face or fingerprint. Charles Palmer, head security researcher for International Business Machines Corp., believes biometric fraud will become more sophisticated — and problematic.IBM's solution is to make biometric readers distort the image before it is scanned.For example, a face might be made to appear lumpy, or squished up around the eyes.Then a template of the distorted image would be stored.When someone returned to the scanner, the real-life image would be transformed according to the same patterns, creating a match with the tweaked image in the database.The original image is not stored anywhere. And even if hackers could obtain the altered biometric, it would be of limited use as long as individual organisations maintained their own formulas for transforming images before scanning.
— Courtesy AP

TCS strategy for e-governance

NEW DELHI: India figures quite low in a global e-Governance ranking with a per capita IT spend of just $1.29, a new study says.Country’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has authored the study, said that New Delhi has to catalyse policy decisions to improve e-Governance.India’s per capita public sector IT spend is just $1.29, compared to $199 in New Zealand and $153 in Singapore.“According to the WEF Global Information Technology Report, India ranks 44 out of 122 countries analysed and ahead of us are countries like Barbados, Latvia, Tunisia, Thailand and the Slovak Republic.“Therefore, there is tremendous potential for e-Governance to benefit citizens exponentially and maximise return on government investments,” TCS CEO and Managing Director S. Ramadorai said. If implemented properly, e-Governance can be an asset for the un-served and under-served areas in India and drive new efficiency gains nationwide.While Indian IT is the envy of the world and is associated with some of the most advanced and complex IT projects globally, India has not fully leveraged its potential of IT and the expertise of the Indian IT industry, the study said. The White Paper is an attempt by TCS to use its experience in e-Governance projects to define a road-map for India and highlight current impediments like a silo-based approach that is limiting the benefits of technology use. On the back of the findings, TCS has come up with a five point plan towards building an ideal e-Governance framework in India.It advocated “a nationwide mandate to allocate a fixed percentage of the annual budget for e-Governance projects, the need to adopt an integrated and holistic approach focused on services, national level oversight of any e-Governance programme and, thereby, move from individualised e-Governance to institutionalised e-Governance.The IT firm also suggested setting up of a government standing committee to oversee national e-Governance programmes.Courtesy- PTI

VS opens Malayalam computing initiative

KANNUR: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that the advantage of the Malayalam computing initiative of the State government will reach 50 lakh families over the next three years.Launching the State-level inauguration of the campaign for Malayalam computing, ‘Our Computer Our Language,’ here on Sunday, Mr. Achuthanandan said that in the first phase of the initiative, the efforts would be to make people aware of the immense possibilities of Malayalam in computing.Over 3,000 Akshaya centres across the State would offer training to help the public use Malayalam on computers, he said. Local bodies would be involved in the effort to benefit common man.Stating that the government’s computer literacy initiative through the Akshaya programme would be completed this year, the Chief Minister said the policy was to ensure that development of information technology (IT) benefited the common man. As the IT sector promised job opportunities for the youth, IT parks in the State would be equipped to create more of them in the sector, he said, spelling out the government’s initiative for setting up IT parks in non-urban areas as well.The Chief Minister said that computers installed in many government offices and schools were still to be fully utilised owing to lack of Malayalam computing facilities. With the launching of the initiative, computer use in each panchayat and village was expected to be active in six months.The Chief Minister said the objective of the Malayalam computing campaign was not only to strengthen Malayalam but also to ensure that the benefits of IT reached all sections.“New technologies should be utilised for preserving our indigenous knowledge,” he said hoping that the campaign would set a good model for other linguistic societies to make their languages compatible with computing in the year now being observed as International Year of Mother Tongues.Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan launched the Malayalam computing web site http://www.malayalam.kerala.gov.in/ and Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy inaugurated the community web portal http://www.entegramam.gov.in/.The Hindu, 9 Jun 2008

Localization

"Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be used and sold"
- Localization Industry Standards Association
ഏതെങ്കിലും ഒരു സോഫ്റ്റ്‌വെയര്‍ ഉത്പന്നത്തെ ഏതെങ്കിലും പ്രാദേശിക വിപണിയില്‍ ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്താനോ വില്കാനോ വേണ്ടി അതാത് പ്രാദേശിക ഉപഭോക്താക്കളുടെ ആവശ്യത്തിനനുസരിച്ചു (അത് ഒരു രാജ്യമോ പ്രദേശമോ ഭാഷയോ ആയിക്കൊള്ളട്ടെ ) ഭാഷാപരമായും സാംസ്കരികമായും വ്യതിയാനപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതിനെ പ്രാദേശികവത്കരണം അല്ലെന്ഗീല്‍് ലോക്കലൈസേഷന്‍് എന്നു പറയുന്നു
किसी भी सोफ्त्वारे को प्रत्येक भाषाई व संस्कारिक रूप को किसी भी प्रादेशिक बज़रोम द्वारा उपयोग व बिखरी करना (राज्य प्रदेश व भाषा चाहे कोई भी हो ) उसे लोकालिज़शन कहा जाता हे
लोकालिज़शन इंडस्ट्री स्तान्दर्ड्स असोसिएशन