Open Source: A Step Forward For The Betterment of Society

Open Source is very common word now a days, but it seems that it’s mostly misinterpreted word.  At least after viewing some of my students presentation or group discussion (in IT Genius) its proved my assumption is correct in this part of world. Before moving to description about open source, first we have to know what is proprietary software??

Well we can say that a proprietary software is a software coming with copyright license. User normally can not view code of proprietary software. Neither he can share the software legally. User have to pay for individual copy of such software’s . Example.. All well known Microsoft product from  various windows operating systems to Office, Photoshop, Coraldraw,Tally  etc . User require a license to use it(Remember to use it). It can be also called as closed source software, as anyone cannot find easily how photoshop or windows’s code is written. Normally all software with serial Key can be put into the category of proprietary software.

What is wrong with proprietary software, why is it untouchable?  Let’s discuss it with one example. Now imagine that you have purchased a bike. What it means in proprietary software term.

You can’t get the design of your bike in advance.

You have just license to ride your bike, you are not owner of bike.

Company which had manufactured this bike is the owner of bike.

You can’t share it with your friends.

You never get chance to view internal structure of your bike.

If you have any problem with your bike, you have to go to official service provider of your bike. Means even if you stuck in mid way, you can’t use screw driver nor can repair it with local garage .

You can’t further sell your bike.

Your bike’s technical support depends on the manufacturer, it may cancel all the support at any time.

Now if you have chosen open source bike what changes it will make….

You get entire design of your bike.

You have license to use it, modify it.

You can share it with your all friends.

You can sell your bike with some changes.

You can use screwdriver at  any time, as design of all part in micro form is available to you.

There is huge community support to make your bike look and work better.

There are less chances of roll back of support from owner, but even if that happens you have entire design with you, you can change the parts of your bike as per new trends.

   

 So now you have to decide which bike you want.

There is a common misunderstanding about open source which says it is free. Well it is very wrong. Open source software are free is always correct but here free means freedom. Freedom to view the code, modify it, redistribute it. Owner of open source product may charge you for product or for services.

  Linux is best example of open source product. Those who are interested in evolution of open source software and linux , please watch documentary The Revolution OS. It is 85 min long. But makes many things clear.

                                                                                    -Harshit Patalia (Lecturer, BCA)

Consumer Electronic Show 2011

The Show Which Takes Us From The Very Beginning Of 1970's When The Videocassette Players Were Launched.Till The Dual Core Processors Running On A 4th Generation Smartphone.
The Journey Started In 1967,With Their First Show Consisting Of 17,500 attendees and over 100 exhibitors.
In The Second Last Show They Had A Total Number Of 126,641 in attendees,With2,500 Exhibitors.

The Latest Show Was Held From January 6,2011 To January 9,2011.
It Was All About Tablets, Google Android OS And The 4Th Generation Smartphones.
The Main Attraction Of The Show Were Tablets, The Award Winning Tablet Is Motorola Xoom Tablet, Running On Android 3.0(Honeycomb).
The 4th Generation Phones Again Included More Of Motorola And Android Devices:LG Revolution, Samsung Infuse, HTC Thunderbolt, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, Motorola Cliq 2, Motorola Droid Bionic and Motorola Atrix 4G.
This Is A Real Fact That Android Is Gonna Rule the Market Shares Again With Their Wide Range Of Lusty Smart Products.
Coming To Hardware: The Race Of GHz, Intel Corporation"Sandy Bridge" Is Finally Here,
They began To Weave It Since 2005, Finally Introduced As The Second GenerationOf Core i Processors.The Best Part Is Integrated Graphics core With Turbo Boost Technology Enabled, It Can Achieve Up To 1350 MHz clock speed.
Motorola Succeeded To Achieve The Most Media Attention, CNet Ranked Them In The"Best OF CES 2011" Category, Their New Panel Of Smart Phones Consisted Of  NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, Their Atrix Is The First Phone To Use PenTile Technology.
Further Is Toshiba, In television Market:  The Television  System Supports 3D Capability Without Glasses, Even The Laptops Having 3D Screen Capability Without Glasses Were Demonstrated And
They Seemed To Be Perfect, Yet Toshiba Says The Laptops Are Still Under Development Stage.




The Games Are All About Every Techno-Companies, Except The Giant, Which Is The Second-Most Valuable Company Of America,What About Them, As Per The Recent News iPhone Is Coming To Another Network In America: Verizon, They Will Expect To Sell More Amount Of iPhone With Their New Deal.

CES 2010

Till The WWDC(World Wide Developers Conference) Comes Up With Apple Products. As It Is Held By Apple Inc. Rumors Of iPad2 Have Already Been On Internet Since A Month Now.
And The Reality Is Apple CEO "Steve Jobs" Is On Medical Leave, So Can't Say What's Next About Them.


Yes, Its Gonna Be A World About 4Th Generation, Higher Power, Higher Efficiency And Higher Price Tags.
Its All About Consumers Demanding More And Brands Providing The Most Consumer Ever Needs.
                                                                                         
                                                                       Deep Lakhani( F.Y. B.C.A'A')

Internet 'kill switch' bill will return

A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year.

            Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

 

The idea of creating what some critics have called an Internet "kill switch" that the president could flip in an emergency is not exactly new.


                                                            -Dhaval Tanna(F.Y. B.C.A 'B')

Bing's going to the Super Bowl, but not in ad form

As part of this year's Super Bowl, taking place February 6, Microsoft is flexing its marketing muscles. But it's not for a multimillion-dollar TV ad. Instead, the company is waging a ground war in the parking lot, trying to turn users onto Bing with a finale of its own championship series.

Since November, Microsoft and the Tailgating Institute of America have been hosting a series of regional tailgating events finals in various parts of the United States. The winners from each of those competitions will face off on February 3, three days before the Super Bowl, to determine who has the best overall tailgating experience. Bing's placement in that event will be large screens with football-related Bing queries, as well as mobile phones with Bing installed around the event so that tailgaters can give it a spin.

                                                                          

                                                                       -Dhaval Tanna(F.Y.B.C.A 'B')

Apple sues Nokia over iPhone scrolling patent

      The legal battle between Nokia and Apple shows no signs of

 letting up anytime soon. 

       Apple on Tuesday sued Nokia in the U.K. claiming that one of the company's patents is invalid, according to Bloomberg. The patent in question describes a scrolling technology on touch-screen handsets and is one of the patents Nokia previously sued Apple for violating. 

Nokia responded to the suit saying it is confident its patents are valid and it "will take whatever actions are needed to protect our rights."

Apple representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The legal tangle between the two companies has been going on since 2009 when Nokia first sued Apple for violating 10 of its patents. Two months later, Apple filed a countersuit listing 10 patents it believed Nokia was violating.

Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel, said at the time that "companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours."

The lawsuits and countersuits now span multiple countries including the U.S., U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands.
                                                                                     
                                                                   -Dhaval Tanna(F.Y. B.C.A.'B')

From Director's Desk

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.” ~Bill Beattie

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

Dr. K.J.Thankachan

The sustainability of a nation in the era of knowledge economy depends on effective educational productivity. Information & Communication Technology act as a potent and powerful tool for extending educational opportunities to anybody, anywhere and anytime.

                        Globalization and technological change processes that have accelerated in tandem over the past fifteen years have created a new global economy “powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge.” The emergence of this new global economy has serious implications for the nature and purpose of educational institutions. As the half-life of information continues to shrink and access to information continues to grow exponentially, schools cannot remain mere venues for the transmission of a prescribed set of information from teacher to student over a fixed period of time. Rather, schools must promote “learning to learn” i.e., the acquisition of knowledge and skills that make possible continuous learning over the lifetime.

           

This is the high time to focuses on the effective integration of ICTs into the educational system. The  multifaceted process of ICT in education that involves not just technology—indeed, given enough initial capital, getting the technology is the easiest part!—but also curriculum and pedagogy, institutional readiness, teacher competencies, and long-term financing, among others.

I am very much pleased to know that the Computer Club is releasing an online journal viz. INFOHOLIC. It will definitely give a strong IT platform to the students to polish their skills in ICT. On behalf of the Oshwal Education Trust I wish them best returns from venture and may God bless them all. Finally, let me say ‘ Educating  is divine”.
                             
                                                                                                  - Dr. K.J.Thankachan