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
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 12, 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
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
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