Archives for December 2008

Members of the open source community claim that a paper on IT policy shows that the Andhra Pradesh state government has not got a clear policy on free software.The paper, which has been kicking around since 2005, has formed the backbone of the state government's plans to develop its IT infrastructure. (Picture right, AP chief minister Reddy).

It promotes the use of free software and open source alternatives, but said that it will encourage the use of only legal or authorised products.Open Source community leader Kiran Chandra, a member of the Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) board of directors, said this contradiction is causing problems among government sector employees who feel it means that since free software is not officially blessed by someone, they can't use it.

It also means that they do not feel they are free to modify it, because changes would mean that any authorisation that they have had for the product will be null and void.So far, technical colleges have been taking the lead in switching to Linux, but they have had to do so without much government help.

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Each day for the 12 days of Christmas, we're giving readers the chance to receive a different iTunes download, absolutely free.

The downloads are a mixture of music videos, TV shows and songs ranging from Kylie Minogue to Creature Comforts.

We also have an iPod nano to give away each day.Simply enter your name, email address and home country in the fields below to get your free download and enter the prize draw.Tomorrow: download the video for We Cry by The Script - for free

Article marketing is a strategy involving the submission of articles to online article databases called Article Directories, and these too are growing by the day. However, not all article directories are equal: more on that later.

For now, let’s think on what gains are to be made by submitting your article to a directory. This might be a piece of work that has taken you days to compose, or you may even have paid for it. Why, then, should you submit to a directory so that everybody can read it for free.

What you have to consider is why you wrote it. Why did you write that article? Was it to sell and make money from it? Unlikely, since there are a lot of writers better than you are that fail to university of texas online courses that. Was it to provide content for your website, perhaps even devoting a specific page to it as I have done here? That is the main reason for people writing articles.

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It’s heartening to think that even as we shiver our way through the most troubling winter for years, up at the North Pole, a compulsive eater with a white beard is preparing to squeeze into his red suit and bring joy to millions of children around the planet.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, the reindeer will be waiting, and online at www.noradsanta.org, we will be able to track their progress around the globe. If you are on the road yourself, you can follow Santa (and your presents) on your mobile phone.

This year looks to have been trickier than most for Santa. There is some disturbing footage of him losing his presents in what appears to be a Finnish shopping mall. Luckily, our hero in red turns out to be an expert in parkour, and soon chases down the man who has accidentally walked off with his sack, using some pretty nifty moves.

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If the followers of free software believe the CPM is on a dedicated endeavour to promote free software in the state, they could be hopelessly wrong.In the name of promoting free software, the IT Mission is being used as a hub to promote ‘Janasakthi’, an outfit launched by the VS loyalists ousted from the party and crores of rupees are being pumped out to it.

Arun M, the prime promoter of the Society for the Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) was appointed as the special officer in charge of the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) project of the IT Mission.As per norms, the IT Mission can allot works costing more than Rs 20,000 only through tender procedures.

On the other hand, SPACE, a non-governmental institution, is being given projects that run into crores of rupees. More alarmingly, the projects are given away to the SPACE directly without going through the required tender process.‘Malayalam Computing’ and ‘Insight’ are the main projects assigned to the SPACE. “For Insight project.the government allotted Rs 15 lakh in 2007 and Rs 50 lakh this year,’’ Ajay Kumar, IT Secretary and chairman of Kerala State IT Mission, told this website's newspaper.

“We approved the project for ‘Insight’ submitted by the SPACE and there wasn’t any tender procedures for the project,” he confessed.Hardly any amount has been set apart for Malayalam computing, he said. But it is reliably learnt that Rs 94 lakh was set apart for Malayalam Computing, of which Rs 43 lakh has been spent so far.

The ‘Asset Management’ costing Rs 25 lakh and ‘ICT for Underprivileged Sectors’ for Rs 50 lakh are the other major projects allotted to the SPACE.In the case of many of the projects by the IT Mission, it is comparatively easy to asses the cost as there involves some tangible materials for the conduct of the project. But so far as Insight and Malayalam Computing are concerned, assessment is quite difficult, as seminars, workshops etc form the main chunk of these projects.

Evidently, the IT officials also do not seem to practice what they preach around. The person appointed as the Special officer with the FOSS uses Apple laptop, which has the expensive Mac software rather than the free license software.He is in good company though.

Both the IT Secretary and the IT Mission director of the state that spent a quarter of a crore rupees to hold a free software meet, use Microsoft windows applications. Even the website of the international seminar on FOSS concluded in Thiruvananthapuram, was launched using the Arun’s Apple laptop.And here’s a blatant proof on misuse of public money: The Insight project office for which the state government pays the rent, is as well used by the SPACE, a private enterprise.

Microsoft Corp has enhanced its Zune music player subscription to allow customers to keep free songs for their collection.

In addition, customers can add the free music tracks to their permanent collection.Zune music can be downloaded for $14.99.

The current subscription gives customers access to millions of tracks. However, the software company has modified.

Its subscription plan to allow Microsoft MP3 player owners to keep 10 tracks per month. Microsoft Zune users can also add the free music tracks to their permanent collection. The modified subscription begins Thursday.

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In a bid to help novice downloaders jump-start their digital-music collections, Universal Music Group is offering "curated" playlists to Dell PC buyers.

Starting at $25, selected bundles 50 or 100 DRM-free songs can be added while building a custom PC on Dell's Web site. The songs will come preloaded on the computer, ready to play as soon as it's booted up.

The music option is available only on the Inspiron 1525, Studio 15, and XPS 1535 laptops and Inspiron 530, 530s, Studio Desktop, and XPS 420 desktops. The XPS One and Dell Mini 9 netbook are excluded from the offering.

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BlackBerry Nation, assemble! The fine gents over at Smrtguard are in need of your help. It turns out that they’re looking to translate their award-winning software PeekaWho into Italian and German, but are without the requisite skills (i.e. being literate in Italian and German)!

Are there any Italian or German-speaking members of the BlackBerry Nation willing to lend a helping hand? If so, Smrtguard is willing to throw in a free copy of PeekaWho and FollowUp! for your BlackBerry, as well as a lifetime supply of appreciation.All those interested can email support|AT|smrtguard|dot|com with the heading ‘Translate’.

"Don't ask me how or why but I'm gonna make it happen this time. My teenage dream tonight. Yeah I'm gonna make it happen this time.

Doing it for the fame." (Lady GaGa, "The Fame")Check out a totally guilt-free MP3 of Lady GaGa's "The Fame," the title track of her debut album.

The free download is offered in conjunction with a lengthy article on The Times' web site that explores the emerging pop phenom.

The Times explicitly wonders if Lady GaGa is the "future of pop.""Ask New York who will be big in 2009 and you'll only get one answer," The Times' Hattie Collin writes.

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Mike Goatly, LSS’s technical director explained: “Software developers and database administrators alike often have the need to populate a database with a known set of data. LiveDataScript provides a quick and easy way to accomplish this for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 by extracting existing data into a set of SQL insert statements that can be re-used time and again.”

LiveDataScript’s features include-• Scripting multiple tables, a single table or selected rows from a table.
• Connecting to multiple servers, allowing you to script from different servers into one file.• Scripting straight to a file, to the clipboard or to a new window. • Scripting derived columns or even completely arbitrary SQL - scripts are not confined to the columns currently in a table.

•Scripting with identity insertion for tables that have identity columnsTom Boother, LSS’s business development manager, explained: “In the ‘spirit of Christmas’ we want to help every friend of LSS spend more time focusing on their products and services by providing them with a utility that we have found invaluable at LSS.”

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