Showing posts with label suse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suse. Show all posts

Sunday, November 16, 2008

National Conference on Free Software and protest against Novell Microsoft tie-ups

The natinal conference on free software was venue for a turmoil today when renowned Free Software activist Anivar Aravind and few other activists were man handled out of the venue by the organisers and police.

Anivar being dragged by the Security personnel

The cause, as I came to know, were the posters made by Anivar and colleagues against the Novell-Microsoft deal, by which Novell pays for distributing copies of GPL-licensed software and Microsoft gives the customers of Novell a limited patent licence which is conditional of them not exercising many of the rights that GPL gives them.


View the following links for more pictures and enhanced details on MICROVELL ( Microsoft-Novell)
Visit following links for more information:

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Insignia '08, Hackerdom


...And thus began Insignia '08, Hackerdom.

Day: 28th of August, 2008
Time: 10.45 p.m
Location: Room No. C1, Govt. Engineering College Men's Hostel, Thrissur

Scene1:
The work on video editing progresses as the darker hours of night close in. Midhun, eyes swollen with lack of sleep, continues into what seems to be his eleventh straight hour in front of the system. Sailesh, assisting and intermittently performing the job of waking him up from brief accidental siesta, looked as alert and enthu-filled as ever. The job was getting on my nerves. It was our fourth day with the process of preparing a trailer video for Insignia 08, Hackerdom, yet it was where we had left it last evening. The mixing was taking helluva lot time, what with the format conversion of video files, cutting out clips for back ground music etc.

Scene2:
It was 1a.m. The video files and picture slides have been successfully blended in. BGM yet to be added. Midhun on the verge of calling it a day or calling it quit, two others(Sethu and Arun Rushdie) and me peacefully sleeping at one corner of the room, satisfied that our job of filming scenes for the video was completed in time. Krishnanunni, Convenor, Insignia 08, Hackerdom, walks in to view our progress. Anxiety was evident on his face, as he inquired the sleepy workers about the status.
Seeing that there needs to be another two or three hours of work needed on the video to get it completely done, manipulations happen ( :P) , an offer of Puttu and Kadala from Double-X the only hotel open at night in Thrissur. We ( the words Puttu and Kadala woke me up from the slumber instantaneously!) agreed and a half hour later, there it was, steaming hot Puttu and Kadala. Another two hours and lights off....

Scene3:
around 6.45 a.m, 29th.
I was the first one to rise( quite an unusual thing). Woke up the editors and mixers and blah blah and went about my chores. Two hours of sleep taking its toll, as they moved like zombies to begin where it had been halted.

Scene4:
10.45a.m, Seminar Hall, Govt. Engineering College
The Chief guest and other people presiding over the function- Curtain Raiser of Insignia 08, Hackerdom seated on the podium. The official welcome speech, followed by all the other speeches..


Scene5:
12a.m
Time to launch the theme music for the event, prepared by Jain. That was some music! A melodious mix of keyboard, saxo and drums, and many more that I couldn't comprehend.
Our video followed. Cheers from crowd....

Scene5 re-take:
Time to launch the theme music for the event prepared by Jain. Wait! what's happening? a sudden commotion in the rear end of the hall, and there drifts out a large mass of third years.
Reason: Results of Third semester exams announced. Memories drift back to last March-April, the time when we wrote it. Adam's Apple stuck half-way in my throat. The results couldn't have come at a better time than this. Tense faces all around. People scurrying around, searching for internet access. Dubious emotions settling around temples. Eyes glittering, water in them ready to pour out given the green signal...

I hate results!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

A Giant Leap Year ahead!!



The day was 29th February year 2008. The only leap year in our b.tech life.
As decided before hand, almost all of us had worn black attire to mark this auspicious day.

(It is said that leap year is the time when its girls' turn to propose. At least I'm sure I wasn't proposed neither on this day nor on the valentines day that preceded it!!)

We were smoking our brains out deciding what to do to make the day memorable. There were suggestions of mass bunking(as usual!) for the entire day and going for a movie, having a gigantic snack-time at Wimbies and many more. As I could remember, It was our ex-rep Sailesh who came up with the idea of going all the way to Kaiparambu, where Vidya Engineering College is situated, to attend Perizia, the tech cum cultural fest organized by the computer Sciences and engineering department.

Despite some initial hesitation, we finally decided to give his plan a try. Soon a crowd, numbering between 20 and 30, stepped out from the ongoing Environmental Studies class( yes, we do have this!!).

As was obvious, the gathering of "blacks" caught everyones' attention en route. It so happened that, at Shakthan Thampuran Bus Stand, three people from our group strayed off to have some snacks. Not realizing their absence, the rest of us boarded a bus to our destination. The trio, upon their return were making frantic inquiries about us, when an elderly looking man asked them(obviously noticing the dress code)," Are you among the black cats who just left now??"



We reached Kaiparambu by 12 and waited for the three individuals to catch up. Getting to the college was no piece of cake as we walked the 2 km stretch leading there under the scorching sun. A cargo jeep soon came by and some of us could manage a lift in it till the college. The rest, however, continued tirelessly.

Events at the college were ion full swing as we reached. Hiran came to meet us upon informing. Some of our seniors were already present, participating in various technical and otherwise contests. The participation was free and so I gave my name for Quiz, Programming in C and Mobile Photography, along with others.

Quizzing was never this easy. I was in and out of the lab where the event was being held even before I realized. One or two correct answers and that was it!! The words " You are terminated Mister" beamed at me!!

Next in line was the Programming Contest Preliminaries. Almost all of us took part in it. Vinu, Raman and myself were lucky enough to get through into the finals along with our seniors and some other guys. The final was a nightmare and the question was waaaaaaaaay out of my logics!! Sat for about 3 quarters of an hour and finally wrote the following and came out:

#include
main()
{
printf(" good luck with the event! with love from GEC Devidas\n");
}

:)


It was for the first time that I was participating in a photography contest. This event was more thrilling than the rest, frankly. The task was to click few snaps and present any two that were related to the event "Perizia". Here I include the photos I submitted:





Meantime Rushdie and gang were busy preparing for the Ad-Zap event. While we were "busy" with the programming finals , rest of our company left the place to Neetha's home. We soon caught up with them for the photo session that followed. Neetha's identical twin sister, Neema was also present.

The day had , unknowingly become, memorable with all these unexpected turn of events. There were certainly some newbies among us who would other wise restrain themselves to the class. And surprisingly, there were more girls in the group than us!!


Not all are here!

Another page added to the diary of GEC memories, bookmarked to cherish!!