Praveen Arimbrathodiyil blogs here

Changathikkoottam � A crowd of friends

May 9,10 Krishna ALP School Alanallur

Day 1

I got a chance to be a part of �Changathikkoottam� conducted by Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) [As an organiser]. It was a wonderful experience � a going back in time to the good old days in school. The programme was arranged for kids of age 9-12 (standard 4 �7) as mid-summer vacation programme. The programme was attended by over 50 students from various parts of Alanallur Panchayath. Changathikkottam consisted of Origami � which teach one to make models by folding paper -, science experiments, songs and games. I read about the programme in news paper and when I met Murali master I got the dates for our Changathikkottam. I thought the programme was on 8,9 so I went to GVHSS Alanallur on 8th morning only to see an empty school campus. On 9th I wasn�t that enthusiastic and I reched there by 11am, where as the programme started by 10am. In the beginning I discussed about Free Software with Parishad members as I was seeking their support for our efforts to spread free software. My first chance to get involved in the programme was when the participants are divided into two groups and one group doing Origami and other doing experiments. I went with the latter team and the first experiment was a plastic boat then we did dancing button and fire extinguisher. Continue reading ‘Changathikkoottam � A crowd of friends Day 1′

Some Background Info

Free Software Foundation of India was successful in its efforts to include free software in the high school curriculam [For the IT @ School project] in Kerala last year. But the teachers were given training only in Microsoft Windows even though GNU/Linux has given equal importance and a choice is given for schools to choose any one of these. About 33 schools [Out of toal 2699 schools in the state. Data from IT @ School Progress Reort ] chose GNU/Linux as a platform of choice and decided to go forward with the Free OS. But the IT @ authorities pressured many to change over to Windows but many persisted and forced to conduct the examinations on Windows as the Soft Exam — the software designed for that purpose was only available for Windows [See a news story from Hindu about protest by KSTA against SoftExam windows only version]. But two schools stood firm and refused to chose Windows [And now they have GNU/Linux version of the Soft exam as well]. The authorities had to budge before their determination and only two schools conducted [After a lot of hard work] their examinations on GNU/Linux platform. One was Mappila Higher Secondary School in Koyilandi and other was in Kannore District. Continue reading ‘A new beginning for IT education in Kerala’

This was a reply my friend Amar got from one of his friends. Thought it might be of interest.

[ All these discussions are available from the wiki http://bangalore.gnu.org.in/?Patents ]
The original mail was

Dear Friends,

Patents are a devious tool to harm developing countries’ development.
Not only will patents harm software; but will also lead to rise in
prices of medicines.[Read further for more info]

What you can do ?

a) Post this on your blog/website too if you have one
b) Email this to as many people as you know
c) Email to the Editor of various magazines, newspapers that we
don’t want patents
d) Email to the President of India and any political party in
India who has an email Continue reading ‘The other side of patents’

There has been active discussions about the proposed changes in the fsf india mailing list. All this started with a mail by Ramraj with a subject ‘patents can kill people’ and which had a link to an article by Kuldip Nayyar with the title ‘ UPA, come out from the cold ‘ .

Now the summary is posted in FSUG-Bangalore wiki by Rakesh and access the page here

Now this mail is circulating all over the place. So mail this to all the people you know today.

It is for you and me and for the interest of everyone.

It is very interesting to see someone writing about me. I am very happy to see it.

It goes like this

On the FSF Friends mailing list, a few hours ago, Praveen A, has posted his experience on doing exactly what the panel at LinuxWorld stressed upon � taking Linux to schools � and with the advantage of a neutral courseware.

The books for Class 8th, 9th and 10th for the IT@School program in Kerala have the word GNU/Linux sprinkled everywhere. But when Praveen went to a nearby school for organizing a workshop for the teachers he learnt something that is all familiar � the higher authorities try to avoid Linux by instructing the teachers to only teach Windows.

Praveen, for one, has decided to coach the willing teachers dueing the school vacation. Although it�s a start it�s not a solution in itself. There are larger issues as well as larger people to convince.

Continue reading ‘Hey someone writes abot me It so cooool’

PATENTS continuation

When the patent rule of 1970 is reformatted and brought as the new Patent
rule of 2004(yet to be implemented as a Rule, recently put up as an Ordinance):

1. Prices of medicines will rise almost 15 times.

2. Patent period is raised to 20 years.

3. Micro organisms will be patented.

4. Medicines from medicinal herbs will be patented by foreign companies. Continue reading ‘SAMSKRiTi series -3 — Patents Continued’

Yesterday I protested in a novel way, I think nobody would have done and my friends (even myself) has different opinions and responses about it. Yesterday I managed to wake up by 7 O’clock [ A rare thing ] and had a discussion with Prakash Peter on the way to PG mess about conducting a demo of phoenix in our Institution with Physics Department [Prakash Peter is lab assistant in Physics lab and he came to meet KSK to arrange for some programme for NSS. Previously we had gone to old age home together.] Continue reading ‘My experiments with …’

Upon time all of the industrialized nations have framed different ways to encourage various inventors in the industrial field. Some nations gave certificates which would help them to have economic gains, others gave bonus and cash awards. Even after all these the patent
rules which came in the early 19th century became the more prominent in case of the protection of industrial inventions as the time went on. Continue reading ‘SAMSKRiTi series -2 — Patent laws’

Yesterday we had a very interesting and important talk by Dr. K.P. Aravindan of Calicut Medical College who is an activist of kssp. He talked about various issues regarding the proposed patent law brought out as an ordinance. He started with the historical developments in the filed and talked about the the Paris Convention and the GATTS (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the TRIPS (Trade related Intellectual Property rights) …. Only the elites of this country benefit from Globalisation and we, lucky to be in the elite, should rebel against it and make the benefits available to the masses of this country. Continue reading ‘Changing rules of patents’

IS Rs. 29 = Rs. 2353 ?

Astonished???

Not any mathematical trick. Just compare the prices of some medicines given below.

Continue reading ‘SAMSKRiTi series -1 — IS Rs. 29 = Rs. 2353 ?’