http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog Freedom is the right of all sentient beings Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:24:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I live in a country where even buildings less than 100 years old can be protected as 'heritage'. Yet in India they can demolish a 700-year-old mosque without even batting an eyelid! http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/06/28/heritage-is-relative/ The ABC have a piece from National Library of Australia web archiving manager Paul Koerbin, about the importance of digital records preservation. Of equal importance, how can we be sure that we can actually read those archives in the future? Literacy of Egyptian Hieroglyphs was long-gone by the 18th century, and ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/05/09/will-it-be-domesday-or-doomsday-for-our-information/ The ability to run in a completely 64-bit environment is a major benefit of Linux over the competition. With everything open source, the community can port and compile applications to new architectures with ease. On Windows, you have to suffer from the fact that just about everything is proprietary. If there's ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/05/03/install-adobe-flash-10-and-reader-91-on-ubuntu-904-x86_64/ This is the most clever thing I have seen in a long time. The equation is simple: 2(cardboard box) + black paint + aluminium foil + acrylic cover = Kyoto BoxThere's an image of the final result over here. Attributes include: costs just $US 5 to produce amazingly simple to create completely solar powered: no ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/04/10/simply-ingenious/ I don't get it. In a community where openness is prized, some have seen it fit to criticise that very tenet. In the world of FOSS, bug trackers are laid open for all to see (and contribute to), and mailing lists are a hive of discussion and innovation. So why is ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/01/28/whats-the-big-deal/ It looks like I've opened up a can of worms. Last week I bemoaned about the low voter participation in Linux Australia (LA) elections. I spent considerable energy at linux.conf.au (LCA) in Hobart publicising the issue and canvassing opinion from community members. This culminated in a lightning talk titled 'YOU ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/01/27/participation-in-the-nation/ This is a follow-on from my last post, where I announced my candidacy for Linux Australia Council. I've posted this to the linux-aus mailing list, but thought it wouldn't hurt going here as it raises issues that I feel are fundamental to Linux Australia's existence. I'm a candidate for Ordinary Committee ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/01/19/what-is-linux-australia/ The Linux Australia Council elections are in full swing, and I thought it only fair to abuse my blog to pimp my candidacy for an Ordinary Committee Member position. You're an LA member (it's free!), drop in and exercise your democratic right (i.e. vote for me :p ). My official platform ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/01/16/shameless-plug/ Last month I proposed that the FOSS community create an integrated software installer for Windows and Mac OS that only included FOSS applications. If Google can make Google Pack, I opined, why can't we make a FOSS Pack? As I had expected, my idea was already realised, at least in part. ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2009/01/10/foss-pack-exists-well-kinda/ Just for a second, put yourself in the shoes of an average PC user. You use the software that came with your computer, plus perhaps some others that you downloaded, bought in a box or 'borrowed' from a friend. You've heard some good things about something called "open source", but ... http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2008/12/01/packing-foss/