FOSS Hike

FOSS Nepal Community conducted Hiking program on 19th April 2014. The hiking program was first of the kind organized by FOSS Nepal Community. Though much notified and hyped, not many community members turned up. There were only 7 of us. The members and their friends who came for the hike were:

1. Hempal Shrestha
2. Dadhiram Nepal
3. Prabin Gautam
4. Shalu Khanal
5. Pravab Dhakal
6. Martin Dluhos
7. Pratik Gautam

Except for Hempal dai and Martin, we met outside NachGhar, Jamal and took a Micro to Budanilkantha at 5:35am. We reached by 6:00 am and had breakfast. On the mean time Hempal dai joined us. Martin came with his bike. He thought the start and end point of Hike is same, but we had the plan otherwise. Everyone decided to help martin with his bike throughout the way. We start our hike from Budanilkantha temple at 7am. About 1.5 km uphill we reached Shivapuri-Nagarjuna National Park Entrance. The Entrance fee for us was Rs. 10 whereas being a foreigner, Martin had to pay Rs. 250.

We started from the gate at 7:40am. The group had already split over the pace. Pravab, Martin and Pratik were ahead whereas rest 4 were little bit behind. The reason was not just pace but aiselu (ऐसेलु).

We enjoyed eating aiselu from the bushes for such a long that we did not bother about the walk. After walking for about 40 minutes,  we started off-road.

There was small path towards the bushes upward. we thought we have to explore and headed towards it. After some time we realized the way was just in opposite direction to our destination. That is when we went into the wild. No path, no foot prints - slipery सल्लाको पात, and झ्याङ।

We walked for some time when we saw the road  steep down. It was not easy getting to the road.

 

After about 30 min walk, there was stairs towards Nagi Gumba off road upwards. We all met at Nagi Gumba. There were some construction going on. We had some cold drinks in a shop nearby.

There were more aiselu beside gumba. We had lot of them. There were still some remaining, we thought of leaving them for others to have :P .

Then we took a jungle walk. It was the most adventurous part of the hike. We all loved it. Martin missed this walk again because he had to take his bike through the main way.

There in the jungle we could see some birds, pair of wild hen(kalij), and insects. At some point we felt lost but again figured out the way out. Throughout the way we talked about various issues in FOSS, our community and future programs on Open Source and casual stuffs. We met Martin again after more than half and hour.

 

We were here at 10 O' clock. We walked ahead. the road was wonderful and the sun was heating up. We were feeling hot by now. Wanted to dive into any possible stream or river which comes on the way. Some part of the path was covered in dense forest with high trees where we would feel cool and dark. The jungle still had some laligurans(Rhododendron). Guys attempt to get some for themselves.

climbing up to get some guras.

 

getting off the wild way.

We walked for couple of hours. There were some houses on the way. There were shop selling waiwai, Mountain Dew and chyang. ठोट्ने (Thotney) is the name of this bush which is found in hilly areas. The stem tastes mild sour. It is edible and people also makes chutney from the stems. Its sometime sold in local haats (हाटबजार) in hilly regions. Similarly we also had पानी-अमला (paani aamla). which is actually a root of a kind of fern. 

After about two hours, we stopped by the stream. By this time, the feet were slightly aching. Removed our shoe/socks and dip feet into the water which was felt ice cold. The feeling was like - as if the cold reached the bones. We tolerated for sometime then it was comfortable to keep foot in water. We had some dry bhuteko chanas (भुटेको चना).

The stream was making such a nice sound, Pravab started meditating!!!

We walked for another two hours to reach some restaurant above Sundarijal. It was 2PM then. We had ordered for food and in the mean time had couple of beer "BSOD at Hiking".

 

          We totally deserve those bottles

We started moving down towards Sundarijal at 4PM. Meanwhile, Martin returned back to the river side few minutes bike from the restuarant to look for his bike keys which he may have missed. Rest of us  returned to kathmandu by bus from Sundarijal bus stop.

Nobody was injured (except for minor scratches) and everyone reached home safely. It was 100% fun.

Towards an Efficacious Adoption of IT in Developing Countries: A case of Nepal

Summary

The effective use and adoption of IT has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the developing countries. Despite of low level economic development, lack of infrastructure and long political instability, Nepal has been trying to prove its capability and aims to place itself in global IT map. Widened digital divide, brain drain, cost of IT infrastructure, power outage and insufficient connectivity infrastructures has always been felt as the challenges in IT adoption in the country. Beside that, increasing software piracy, lack of systematic framework for IT adoption leads to chaotic and uneven distribution of IT infrastructure in the country. This dissertation is based on the study and evaluation of IT scenario and adoption frameworks from various countries. It delivers the framework for efficacious IT adoption in countries like Nepal with the implementation of Open Technologies. Beside that, the thesis also suggests the roles and activities that must be carried out for making the investment in IT fruitful and how the building up of local expert pool and knowledgebase will help the country to be self reliable and reduces dependency on foreign proprietary software.

 Please contact author(Prabingautam@gmail.com) for details about his research.

The printed copy of this research thesis is now available in amazon.com

Installing Joomla in Linux

This tutorial series is made to teach you how to make website easily using Joomla Content Management System. In this part I am showing you how to get joomla from internet and install to the webserver directory in Linux based system.

Importance of Open Document Format: in short

Open Document Format (ODF) is about freedom from Vendor-lock document format. Its not just Linux. Its not just Open Source. Its about the documents/media we create, we archive. We want our documents to exist and work for years similar to manuscripts, stone/metal caved scripts, manifestos and epics... So we need some format in which we can save those documents to work for centuries and our successors for centuries can access it.

With MS DOC/XLS/PPT or any other formats.. its not possible. If u see now Word Perfect files of few years ago cannot be opened in MS Office 2007. and u cannot install WordPerfect in latest operating systems. To convert your files you have to pay for its support. So either way won't work.

But Open Document Format(ODF) is such a standard that its always accessible and will always be compatible.

Thats the reason why NATO and many western countries has already made ODF mandatory and of national standard. source(wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_adoption

Open Document Format primarily include OpenDocument Text(.odt) OpenDocument Spreadsheet(.ods), OpenDocument Presentation(.odp). But extends to media files, images, and everything which forms a pool and we refer as Open Standards.

These Open Standards, Open Source Softwares, Open Source Hardwares, Open Content and all are grouped to refer as Open Technology. With Open Technology, we have Open and Vendor-locking-free society.

This is just one importance of ODF.
You can dig more on it at:
http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_standardization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
http://www.documentfreedom.org/

How to install broadcom BCM4312 wireless driver in ubuntu 9.10

I purchased a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop.
I tried ubuntu 9.10 live cd but the wireless was not working. Infact the hardware drivers in system>administraton shows i need to download driver to use my broadcom wireless device. I used wired connection to download the package and activated the hardware from it. It started working.

So with same hope. Hope that everything will work in my machine, I installed ubuntu 9.10 in my laptop. But unexpected happened. my wireless device was not working and as i rechecked hardware drivers tool in system>administration, there is no device shown.

I did #lspci in terminal and then found that my wireless device is listed as:
0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)

I gave multiple tries installing and removing broadcom package as listed in synaptic list. To my surprise nothing positive happened. In one point my linux was not booting with same kernel (2.6.31-20-generic) saying "kernel panic". I tried with another kernel (2.6.31-14-generic) from grub and linux booted. I then went through all sort of forum and mailing lists. But no solution.

At one point i reached this site:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php


Success story is below:
Download wireless driver from the link http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
Download as per your OS architecture. My was 32bit so I used 32-bit driver version 5.60.48.36

Extract it and read the readme file

On Ubuntu, you will need headers and tools to compile/make the driver. Type following lines in terminal:
# sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic
# sudo apt-get build-dep linux

To check to see if you have this directory do this:

# ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

Now  go to terminal and type:

# mkdir hybrid_wl
# cd hybrid_wl
# tar xzf /hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5.60.48.36.tar.gz
(in my case: /home/prabin/Downloads/hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5.60.48.36.tar.gz)

Now make:

# make clean (optional)
# make

now when its done.. wl.ko file along with other files will be created.

Let me be lazy and copy steps from readme file

Fresh installation:
------------------
1: Remove any other drivers for the Broadcom wireless device.

There are several open source drivers that are used to drive Broadcom 802.11
chips such as b43 and ssb. They will conflict with this driver and need
to be uninstalled before this driver can be installed.  Any previous 
revisions of the wl driver also need to be removed.

Note: On some systems such as Ubuntu 9.10, the ssb module may load during
boot even though it is blacklisted (see note under Common Issues on how to
resolve this). Nevertheless, ssb still must be removed
(by hand or script) before wl is loaded. The wl driver will not function 
properly if ssb the module is loaded.

# lsmod  | grep "b43\|ssb\|wl"

If any of these are installed, remove them:
# rmmod b43
# rmmod ssb
# rmmod wl

To blacklist these drivers and prevent them from loading in the future:
# echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

2: Insmod the driver.

Otherwise, if you have not previously installed a wl driver, you'll need
to add a security module before using the wl module.  Most newer systems 
use lib80211 while others use ieee80211_crypt_tkip. See which one works for 
your system.

# modprobe lib80211 
  or 
# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip

Then:
# insmod wl.ko

wl.ko is now operational.  It may take several seconds for the Network 
Manager to notice a new network driver has been installed and show the
surrounding wireless networks.

Now you are done.

It must work but in my case i had to type :

# modprobe lib80211 
# insmod wl.ko

every time after login to my account.

I tried with rc5.d and init.d making script to make it run at startup but i failed. for few days I kept the script file in "startup applications"(system>preferences)

Finally AKS(friend of mine) told me to add both lines above to /etc/rc.local

I did so above the line "exit 0"

Hurray! its working now...

The rc.local now looks:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

modprobe lib80211
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.31-20-generic/build/hybrid_wl/wl.ko



exit 0

जिलेबि जस्तो support-cell को कथा

Its been more than a year. I, Shishir and Subir dai from FOSS Nepal Community proposed a FOSS Support Cell for Nepal Government which would help Nepal Government to work on Open Source and Open Standard. Until then and till now Government(High Level Commission for IT- HLCIT) was supporting FOSS Nepal Community to promote FOSS in Nepal. Basically as an understanding among HLCIT members and FOSS members, HLCIT asked for the concept note of Support cell to which we responded by presenting a concept note. The ball was now on HLCIT's court. After that also HLCIT and FOSS Nepal revised the note to give it a final shape. Finally Budget was allocated for Support Cell in FY2065/2066. The whole year the procedure went from one table to other and more than few dozen discussions and meetings were held. HLCIT never refused the concept note and we always got assurance for the establishment of support cell. I remember 7 months were left and we had very detailed meeting with HLCIT staff Deepak ji regarding the programs we can complete in this FY, required furnitures, office space, computers and other fundamental things. They assured us that not its almost final and we will establish it soon. Then also many discussions and followup were done. Four months left for the end of Fiscal Year. Still nothing had changed. The support cell was still an assurance to FOSS Nepal. After few days, Members of HLCIT were given leave from their responsiblity. The progress so far was halted. It took nearly two months to come back to topic as new members were appointed. We carried out the followups and discussions and finally came up with some programs to stop the budget from freezing. We proposed for partial migration of HLCIT Software assets to FOSS. This bring us to remaining one month of the end of Fiscal year.

I, personally, was frustrated by this issue.

• I wonder if this is the case with office dedicated to ICT equipped with IT intellectuals, what about others?
• If one program, for which budget has also been allocated and things can be started at any time, cannot be done. Then what can we expect to be done?
• Open Source is not FOSS Nepal's product which we can sell or whose use is benificial just for FOSS Nepal.
• Open Source is for each and every citizen and its asset of everyone.
• The Support cell was never going to earn for FOSS Nepal community. It was solely Government's body and would work for the government.
• Had it been done, FOSS Nepal members would just gain a supporting reference in its presentation saying "Nepal Government also takes FOSS seriously and started working on it."
• The benifit of support cell was for the Government.
• The Government donot do anything for nation and also for itself and if anyone is willing to help this is the response.

But now in the horizon of two fiscal year, we have seen some light of hope from newly appointed members of HLCIT. Lets hope the rounding of this story as "jilebi" ends and we get something as sweet as "jilebi".

Discussion on IT Policy 2008 Draft

Today, an interaction program for discussion on Draft of IT Policy 2008 was held at HLCIT. Me, Shankhar, Hempal dai, Jitendra, Dadhiram Dai and Sharad ji were Present from FOSS Nepal.

The program was well conducted. I think we were able to do for what we were there. The program discussed on every point and issues related to ICT and policy making. Mr. Manohar Bhattarai presented the draft policy and draft action plan to follow that policy. The discussion was over his presentation i.e not only policy but action plan as well.

Well, I cannot write what everyone said but will definitely write what we said/discussed.

Since there was very short time to analyse both the policies(2000 and 2008), i somehow managed to give at least some input. thanx FOSS Guys present at IRC yesterday ....

After much huddles to grasp the microphone, I talked on following things.

1. In action Plan presented, in point 3.4 of Human Resource Development section, It was said ..implementing body for IT in Education will be MOEST and MOE(Education). I highlighted on what FOSS/HENN and other NGO are doing so asked to add "concerned NGO" as well in implementing body.
2. In IT policy of 2000, there was defined role/work of NAST(National Academy of Science and Technology) which was lacking in new draft. So I put the point that NAST should be transformed to attractive place/center for ICT and Science.
3. I also talked on Importance of government's ICT Laboratory, research center and FOSS research/development center. To backup, I also cited the importance of making entire government website uniform and secure through the content management system and other possible ways which can be done only through the establishment of R&D center.
4. It was said that Government will promote FOSS and Open Standard in public as well as Private sector. Citing examples of how ICT is hampered by US political blockade in various countries, how Russia's teacher was penalized for using pirated windows and how Brazil is doing with FOSS,etc, With all these examples I defended the point that the point written in policy about FOSS was not enough. For this government must keep FOSS in top priority and not only will government promote FOSS but also keep it in priority and not only in public and private sector but also in government sector.
   
5. Regarding Open standard, I strongly talked about its implementation- "All Government offices and public sector must at least adapt open standard". To support it I cited the problem with election commission website and its font.

With this much of points from my side I handover the microphone to Shankar. he added the examples how various countries are taking and leading with FOSS; What they are doing. Later Hempal dai added few more things like-

1. There was written "We will take step for strong implementation of IPR". He suggested to change the line to "we will take appropriate step for IPR implementation". Because all govt. offices are using pirated softwares till date. Is Government capable of purchasing softwares for each machine or migrating to FOSS suddenly/in no time?? So the point was asked to be made more flexible.
2. Importance of Open Content to preserve language, cultural informations and all things of traditional/cultural importance. Its imprtance was highlighted.

With this and other discussion program ended.

I was not able to put some more things due to limited time.

1. Open Hardware whould also be promoted.
2. Open content should be in government's most priority work when we are talking about ICT for education and ICT based education.
3. Good brains are flooding to developed countries. How can we catch this. Its very serious problem for the country. Need of creating job opportunities and increasing ICT education is top level education sectors, its establishment.
4. E-governance... training and workshops are being conducted for e-governance application implementations. It should be made FOSS/ Linux centric and as these are/must be web based applications, there is always flexiblity. To reduce ICT cost and promote Freedom...FOSS must be there.
5. Localization must be continued and its development must be supported by government. Now when words of federal states are being spelled out, Localization will play one major roles. Along with this Standard Localization glossary must be maintained which must be revised every year and it should focus on making localized software readlable and usable easily and not to focus only on linguistically correct words and phases.
6. Taxes on development , export/import of FOSS projects/ softwares should be exempted to promote its use in every possible sector of the State.

I think we can put forward these points as well in future meetings and programs.


I feel very proud to be in the place where i am participating in the making of IT policy of my country.

SFD 08: How good!!!

Its been 4 years we as FOSS enthusiast of Nepal are celebrating Software Freedom Day. I remember my first SFD in 2005 organized in Yala Maya Kendra where i came as a coordinator of KUOSC team. We had collaborative program with Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya. I was unaware of the kind of program we will be having as i for the first time was visiting such event. It was very informal and friendly.

Similar trend continued...

In 2006 we had a very long event planning and had very good event on SFD.. upto our expectation...

In 2007, we did the most well organized SFD till then(till 2007). We also achieved the title of one of the best SFD. Few of new things on SFD 07 were Freedom Toaster, Live tux...

In 2008 , with just a week of massive preparation we most successfully conducted the Software Freedom Day. In many way this SFD was better: Our energetic guest: Hon. Minister Ganesh Shah, expert session, discussion on SW design pattern, Open source hardware and robotics presentation, launching of our own initiative "nirvikalpa",initiation of web portal "Prasfutan"- for local creative minds to share their creativities- poem, art, songs,music, article and whatever to the e-community and e-audience, best documentaries, open art, signature campaign, same live tux, visit of all apex body under Nepal Government we are concerned to. and what not......

The tshirt was also cool. also the posters and all artworks seen all around the venue. I really enjoyed the event. I appreciate the work of all volunteers. It was very informal. I enjoyed the documentaries and was happy to share my small documentary on LTSP deployment.

Three things I loved most:

1. Overwelming response and appreciation with round of applause while mentioning the name of my/our initiative "Nirvikalpa". How the name was flipped from "Vikalpa" to "Nirvikalpa". First we named it Vikalpa as a collection of s/w alternative to proprietary softwares. But later we realize that its not the alternative but the way to go. Thus We named it "Nirvikalpa". Thanx Bibek Paudel for giving it the final name which everyone appreciates.
2. The Minister's speech and his response. His eagerness to be close to the peoples. I really got influenced with his speech. I have never seen such active person as minister in Nepal.
3. The Kathmandu Declaration 2065 with the reason why we are compelled to launch the declaration. I remember the discussion on the site of election commission in our general mailing list....- for the people absent, the reason was: election commission's website says "please use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view this site" while we use any other web browser apart from M$'s IE. With the Money we are paying as tax, govt. office like election commission is not allowing all citizen view the election results and other informations. It violates the right of access to information of we citizens.

Apart from all these things, we did a brilliant citizen-journalist (amature journalist) work. we captured the videos and were able to make a news report/release. We dropped the footage and news at avnuesTV, Sagarmatha TV and channel nepal and news to annapurna post, the himalayan times and gorkha FM. Gorkha FM did a best job by announcing the news in every hour's news bulletin.

I really like to write more but..... i am very very tired......

thats all.....for now.

Nirvikalpa