Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting.

Date: 25-07-2010
Time: 2:00pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building,
Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam
Attendance : 22

2.30pm

- Customary Introduction
- People shared their experience with Free Software.

2.40pm – 4.00pm
Discussion on Concept of Free Software and other topics

- Introduction to Free Software
- History of the GNU Movement
- History of GNU/Linux
- Concept of an Operating System, Kernel
- What is Source Code, Binary Program
- Licenses – GNU GPL
- Concept of Copyleft
- Open Source Software and its Difference with Free Software
- Drawbacks of proprietary software
- Free Software and Freeware
- Discussion on how freedom to study and freedom to modify can be used
- Concept of Community
- Development of Software through Free Software community
- Copyright aspects in other areas like Music and Movies
- Commercial aspect of Free Software

4.00 pm
Tea Break

4.30pm
Technical Discussions:

1. Emacs
www.gnu.org/emacs
Emacs is a powerful text editor.

2. Mencoder/ Mplayer
www.mplayerhq.hu
Mplayer is a powerful and versatile Multimedia Player and Mencoder is a audio/ video encoding and Manipulation tool.
Mencoder_Presentation

3. What is LTSP
www.ltsp.org
Linux Terminal Server Project(LTSP) is a Thin Client/ Diskless Node server.

4. Creating a Bootable USB Storage Device with RMS GNU/Linux
www.rmsgnulinux.org
RMS is mostly SLAX, A complete Libre distribution based on slax. Can be used on USB Drives and has a small footprint.

5. Troubleshooting Discussions.

5.45pm
Conclusion

- People were requested to handle small technical discussions for the next meeting.

- All people who came for the Meeting were thanked.

Next meeting : 22/08/2010

Website : www.ilug-cochin.org
IRC : #ilugkochi on irc.freenode.net
ML : mailinglist at ilug-cochin.org

The meeting of the “Indian Libre User Group” was held on May 23rd 2010 successfully.(4th Sunday of Every Month)

Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting.

Date: 23-05-2010
Time: 2:15pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building,
Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam
Attendance : 27

2.15pm

- Customary Introduction
- People shared their experience with Free Software.

2.20pm

• Introduction to Free Software
• History of the GNU Movement
• Licenses – GNU GPL, LGPL, Concept of Copyleft
• Open Source Software and its Difference with Free Software.
• Other Licenses and Operating Systems like BSD.

Agenda : Community Based Learning Centers,

• Discussions started with moderator explaining the concept of a Free Software Community Based Learning Center (CBLC).
• Although the audience were confused initially on the idea of CBLC, they were able to understand the crux of it through examples.
• Since the discussion was as usual a brainstorming, there was no plan/ blueprint to implement.
• Several people shared the experiences with Free Software and teaching and excercising the four freedoms.
• The discussion had drifted to a serious topic of lack of contribution to the Free Software Movement.
• The 2nd and 4th Freedom (Freedom to study and modify ) was not being excercised by the majority.
• Many people pointed out the lack of Development/ Contribution groups or communities, also many people pointed out lack of initiatives in User Groups.
• The discussion was wound up with many people planning to give a thought to building the next generation Free Software community, from children with their energy and to imbibe the culture of contribution by equipping them with knowledge.
• A case study of the “Free Learning Institute” as a CBLC was taken up and discussed in brief.

4.15 pm
Tea Break

4.30pm
Technical Presentation : Basics of Shell Scripting

• Introduction to Bourne Again Shell
• Explained the working principle of a shell using a small C Program.
• Gave an introduction to built-in Environment variables and user-defined Environment
  Variables.
• Discussed about the following commands, which are good for daily use.
  top, ps, links, elinks, lynx, mplayer for playing vcd,dvd, and audio cd, extracting audio-cd files,
  vcd and dvd using mplayer, virtual console,
• Audience responded by asking several questions
• Because of the late start of the presentation the actual topic could not be reached, hence the rest of this presentation would be continued at the next meeting

5.35pm
Conclusion

• The usually short concluding session last almost half an hour.
• IB Manoj of the Free Learning Institute, explained the aims, objectives and future plans of the Free Learning Institute.
• Suraj Kenoth invited all to the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing Camp being held at the Free Learning Institute on 24,25 May.
• Jay Jacob announced a small Development/ Contribution Kickstart camp on 29/05/2010 from 2pm onwards at ILUG Meeting Venue.
• Few people volunteered to take technical presentations for the month of June.
• The Malayalam translated interface of tux paint screen shots were shown to the attendees.
• All people who volunteered for the Meeting were thanked.
• Everyone was requested to exchange feedbacks with the meeting volunteers.

We thank all the attendees for coming and urge them to put their feedback on the mailing list so we can improve future meetings.

Next meeting : 27/06/2010

Attendees

1. Sreenadh
2. Jos Collin
3. Lentin Joseph
4. Praseed Pai K.T
5. Thomas V Vettical
6. Nishanth A I
7. Avin M Antony
8. Nighil Thomas
9. Nirmal
10. Paresh Palicha
11. Raju Ramdas
12. George John
13. Faisal P P
14. Harshad P A
15. Sinu John
16. Prasanth S
17. Kevin Sha
18. Manoj Kumar I B
19. Harikrishnan T R
20. Manu Ram
21. Deepak S P
22. Jigu E V
23. Sujiv
24. Thomas M Vazhapilly
25. Saju George
26. Jay Jacob
27. Sameer

Website : www.ilug-cochin.org
IRC : #ilugkochi on irc.freenode.net
ML : mailinglist at ilug-cochin.org

Photos

may 2010 meeting

may 2010 meeting

may 2010 meeting

Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting.

• Date: 25-04-2010
• Time: 2:15pm – 5.30pm
• Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building,
  Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam
• Attendance : 19

2.15pm

- Customary Introduction
- People shared their experience with Free Software.

2.20pm

Agenda : The Free Software Movemement in the next decade..

- Discussions started by looking back at the growth of Free Software
in the last decade and the reasons behind it.

- Then the discussion moved on the following topics
– What is Free Software??
– 4 Freedoms
– GNU Movement and its history
– Open Source Software
– GNU/Linux and other GNU based Operating Systems
– Licenses – GNU GPL

- One interesting aspect was the attendees sharing their
bits from history on facts relating to computers and technology.

- What are the new challenges and goals.
– Mixing Free Software with proprietary for convenience
– Blobs in Linux Kernel
– Handheld Devices and Mobile Phones that run proprietary
software.
– Digital Restrictions Mangement

- How does the community need to look forward to the coming years.
– More activities
– Local self sustaining groups
– Involve the younger generation

- Changing role of User Groups.
– Significance as support groups is reduced.
– More to involve in decision making
– Contribution to Free Software

4.00pm
Attendees break for tea

4.15pm
Technical Presentation: Power of Imagemagick.

- Session began by Explaining the power and flexibility of command line.
- Imagemagick is referred at http://en.flossmanuals.net/gnulinux,
when they speak about the advantages of command line.
- The first tool introduced was “convert”.
- The power of that tool was visualised before them.
- The two most powerful tools of Image magick were convert and mogrify.
- Other tools introduced were mogrify, identify, montage, display, animate.
- The tool “convert” was used to convert a Malayalam text file to image
with decorative forms.
- The animate tool also attracted the audience very much.
- “Mogrify” is used for converting and resizing a whole directory with a
simple command

5.15 pm
Conclusion
- Thanking all the people who contributed to the conduct of the Meeting.

- The message was that the meetings need to be place where attendees
come to share, learn and teach, not just to listen.

- One member shared his view on the cost involved in migrating to Free
Software.

- Three attendees volunteered to handle technical presentations in the
May 2010 meeting.

Attendees

Sooraj Kenoth
Sreenadh
Thomas V Vettical
S Sreekanth
Sanalkumar M.R.
Faisal P.P
Arshad P.A.
Rohit Viswam
Swathi
Vineeth T.V.
Melwin C.V.
Thomas M Vazhappilli
Saju George
Jay Jacob
Raju Ramdas
Praseed Pai K.J.
Manu Ram
Shalvin P.D.
Sameer Mohamed Thahir

We thank all the attendees for coming and urge them to put their feedback
on the mailing list so we can improve future meetings.

Next meeting : 24/05/2010

Following is a brief snapshot of the meeting.

Date: 28-03-2010
Time: 2:30pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Internet Club, IInd Floor, AMI Trust Building,
Broadway Enclave, Broadway, Ernakulam
Attendance :15

The meeting  started of a bit  late at 2.30pm with  the customary self
introduction.

The moderator started the  discussion by explaining the basic concepts
of  Free  Software and  the  Free  Software  Movement.  The  moderator
explained about the four Freedoms  with examples, why Free Software is
a better software and the  Free Software Licenses.  One attendee asked
to explain about Creative Commons.  Another attendee, who is a student
of FISAT  explained what  is Creative Commons  and how it  works.  The
features  of different  GNU  distributions were  also discussed.   The
attendees asked questions about  Entirely Free Distribution of the GNU
Operating System and Debian. The moderator suggested to use gNewSense.

- Agenda -  Digital Restrictions Management.

The moderator explained What is  DRM, its intention and how it attacks
a users freedom.

The moderator gave examples, the  Product which are having DRM and how
it affects the users. DRM  on Music, Movies(DMCA), iTunes, iPOD, iPad,
ebooks,  Amazon,  iPhone,  Games  etc were  discussed.   The  Fairplay
encryption  on  Music  and  Movies  were  explained.   DMCA  and  Copy
Protection on movie DVDs were discussed.

The  conspiracy between the  Media companies,  how they  influence the
Government and how they convert DRM as a law (DMCA) were explained.

The  moderator  explained what  is  Tivo  and  Tivoization. How  GPLv3
protects a user’s freedom from  the Tivo. Attendees asked doubts about
the digital  signature verification  in Tivo. The  moderator explained
how it is done.

Attendees talked  about their experience  of DRM in Mobile  Phones and
their thoughts  about Locked Mobile Phones.  The  Surveillance and spy
features done by Mobile Phones were discussed.

How can we identify a DRM  and the precautions we should take to avoid
DRM, before buying a product were discussed.

The moderator explained about the  fight against DRM and the campaigns
organized by  FSF(www.defectivebydesign.org).  The moderator requested
everyone  to go to  the website  www.defectivebydesign.org,  signup and
participate in the protest against DRM.

The session was not so interactive  due to the lack of awareness about
the topic among the attendees.  The discussion was wound up for tea.

Technical Presentation : Introduction to Latex
4.15pm

- The presenter  started by  explaining the process  used to  create a
text   document  using   text  editors   (unformatted )  and  Graphical
applications (formatted) like Openoffice.

- The steps needed to create a small document were discussed in brief

- Then the speaker explained in brief the concept of Typesetting.

- The history of Tex and its author Donald Knuth was also explained.

- The session  moved on to explain  the process by which  a Tex/ Latex
document could be created.

- Concept of a device independent file was mentioned.

- Methods and facilities for conversion of Latex files into PDF and ps
where explained through a sequence diagram.

- The first program  in latex was shown to explain  the basic steps in
creating a pdf or dvi file from latex source.

- Next some additional features of  latex like font facilities , using
tags and declarations etc. were explained.

- The speaker  also brushed through the process  of creating Malayalam
documents using Latex with the help of the mal package.

- The session concluded with the  applications of Latex in daily life,
especially for producing beautiful personal and official documents.

- The session wound up at 5.30pm.

Conclusion

The concluding session thanked  all contributors for the meeting.  One
of  the  members  highlighted  the  importance of  the  Free  Software
community and how  self sustenance is the need of  the hour.  He also
explained some projects and  initiatives that the community could take
up.

The  contact  numbers,  Email  ids, Mailing  List  Subscription,  Post
meeting activities, all of these were shared with the attendees.

The attendees also proposed for  “Shell Scripting” as the next meeting
technical presentation, and one person volunteered for it as well.

This meeting wound up at 5.45 pm.

We  thank all  the attendees  for coming  and urge  them to  put their
feedback on the mailing list so we can improve future meetings.

Let us hope that the next meeting will be more exciting.

Attendees

K.C. Sanjai
Fr.Thomas V Vettical
Amrit Krishna
Anil Unnikrishnan
Muhammed Sabir
Santhoshlal V.J
Vineeth T.V
Raju Ramdas
George John
Jos Collin
Jay Jacob
Sreenadh
Sameer Mohamed Thahir
Sanal Kumar
Faisal P.P

SFD 2009 Procession Inauguration

ILUG Cochin conducted a peaceful procession on 26th September 2009 at Marine Drive, Ernakulam to Celebrate Software Freedom Day 2009. The procession was inaugurated by Manu Zacharia, Consultant to the Cyber Cell of Kochi City Police, at 4.45pm. There were 14 people in the procession. The procession started from Ernakulam Broadway and proceeded towards Ernakulam Boat Jetty. From there the procession moved on to Menaka. We put body posters.  The procession stood there for half an hour.Some people came to us and asked us what was happening. We gave them Free Software handouts and gave awareness about Free Software. Next we walked to the Marine Drive Walkway. There we met lot of people. We stood at “China Net” Bridge for some time. Lot of people came to us and talked to us. A few of us went to the Southern end of the walkway and after some time they came back. After that we moved to “Rainbow Bridge”. It was time to wind up. After taking a few more photos we wound up at 7pm.

We had a great interaction with the public. We can say that the procession was successful. We hope, next year the procession would be much bigger and better with lot of people.

Participants:

Harikrishnan
Manu
Sameer
Kevin
Venkat
Abhilash
Althaf
Azad
Sreekanth
Zaheer
Sanal Kumar
Antony
Sreenadh
Faizal

Photos:

The following events are planned

Free Software Awareness Campaign on the Street

Date       : 26/09/2009, Saturday
Time       : 4.30pm – 7.30pm.
Venue      : Marine Drive, Ernakulam
Activities : Assembling in Busy areas on Marine Drive and Menaka and Jetty.
with placards and Body posters.
- Distributing Pamphlets and Brochures about Free Software
and ILUG Cochin.

ILUG Cochin Regular Meeting, 13th year special.Date: 27/09/2009, Sunday
Time: 9.00am – 5.30pm.

Venue:
Jay’s Internet Club
IInd Floor, AMI Trust Bldg,
Broadway Enclave
Broadway,
Kochi-682031
i.e. Behind Allappat Super Shoppe,On top of SBT Treasury wing,

Schedule:

9.00   : Welcome
9.20   : Free Software and the Future
9.50   : ILUG Cochin and its activities
10.10  : Tea
10.20  : Technical presentations
11.45  : Troubleshooting Free Software Issues ( strategy and dealing with
common problems )
12.30  : Lunch
1.30   : Technical Presentations
2.30   : Charting ILUG Cochin 13th year activities and plans
3.30   : 13th year celebration – Cake cutting, group Photo, Tea
4.15   : Technical Presentations
5.15   : Conclusion

Technical Presentations:
- Introduction to the Command Line
- Python Programming Primer
- Free Software for Web Development
- Magic of Inkscape, a vector graphics based drawing tool
- Free Software Content Management Systems
- Malayalam Computing in GNU/Linux

Presentations will be scheduled as per time, availability, convenience of
speakers.

Following will be conducted throughout the day

9.00 – 17.00
Install Booth:
Bring your machines and install your Free Software Distribution
of Choice.

Free Software Clinic:
Bring your machines with configuration or hardware
compatibility issues, we can try to help.

Career@Free Software:
Counseling and tips for a bright career with Free Software.

Free Software Applications for All !!
- We can help you with the various Free Software applications available,
and also looking for the alternatives.

Contact:

Sreenadh    : 9747173432
Sameer      : 9995717112
Hari        : 9495927003
Manu        : 9447372554
Venkat      : 9895191363
Kevin       : 9474311544
Jay jacob   : 9447111771
Sanal Kumar : 9496449969

0484 2374862    ( Venue )
0484 4025077    ( Venue )

contact {at} ilug-cochin {dot} org

A Map showing the venue is available at :
http://www.ilug-cochin.org/content/view/31/

ILUG Cochin put a stall on 18th and 19th September 2009, at Qbit ’09, the technical fest conducted by the Department of Computer Science, MA College of Engineering, Kothamanagalam. The stall was very active with students. We got lot of visitors and we helped them to clear their queries regarding FOSS. We could also help them to solve some technical doubts.

On the second day, there was a session by Jay Jacob. The session titled “Introduction to Free Software” was a very good one. Most of the attendees were schools students from the nearby School.

There was also a preview of the Open Movie “Big Buck Bunny”. After the session the audience had an interaction with the speaker.

Team:

Harikrishnan
Manu ( Second Day )
Lenin ( First Day )
Sreenadh
Jay Jacob

ILUG Cochin has participated in the Software Freedom Day 2009 Celebrations held at Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kalamasserry, Ernakulam. We were also one of the organizers of the event. It was a one day program. We have also put a stall at the venue which helped students and other people to clear their doubts, both technical and non-technical, about Free Software. There were seminars, exhibitions, technical talks. The seminar, “Introduction to Free Software” by Sreenadh and “FOSS in Web development” by Binny were some of them.

The event inspired some of the students at Rajagiri to start a Free Software User Group. There were students from VHSS Irimpanam who have put a stall for “Malayalam Computing” and also exhibited different Computer Hardware. There were also some students from GTHSS and they exhibited “WordPress”, a Free Software application for blogging.

Team:

Venkat
Kevin
Manu
Sreenadh
Hari
Jay Jacob
Lenin

Photos:

Jay Jacob

ILUG Stall

Stall

Stall

introduction to free software - sreenadh

Free Software in web development - Binny

ILUG Cochin has been invited to put a stall in the Cyber Safe 2009, an annual event conducted by the Kochi City Police as part of the Information Security Day. Its a 3 day program starting from 6th August. The exhibition is on 8th Saturday, August 2009.

The theme of the stall will be “Security with Freedom”. There will be an install Fest and installation on demand.  There will be demonstration of Free Software desktop applications as well as demonstration of server implementations like content filtering. Above all an awareness about FOSS will be given to the visitors.

More details about the event are given in the following website.

http://www.informationsecurityday.com/cybersafe/index.html

Your can read a report on ILUG Cochin’s participation in the last year event.

http://www.ilug-cochin.org/activities/exhibition_on_information_security_2008_by_kochi_city_police_details