Software freedom day :: A technical journey to Thrissur

It has been ages I attended some FOSS meets due to my acedemics till recently.

Here is the latest rocking update. GNU Today I celebrated the software freedom day with Swathanthra Malayalam computing team at Thrissur. It’s been a great day with lots of fun and little hacks. I’m really inspired by the works showcased by SMC. They are real testimonials proving that how much localization and local teams can contribute to our society.

Let me code todays time line here.

I have been in thrill since I received the invitation letter of SMC of mailing list about the Software freedom day celebration.

5.30 am mahe I reached Mahe railway station to start my techie journey of this special day. Amazingly the Kannur - Alappey express arrived in time. I got in and started browsing through Linux for you magazine. It was raining hard and I tried to snap some water drops falling from the window pane of the train. found out some guys around me were on listening mode with port 80. I immediately killed my process making their port 80 laugh closed.

9.44 am Finally I reached my destination railway station. Having a coffee I gazed at the heavy rain. Hardly struggling with people around finally I hired an autorikshaw and setout to Chamber of Commerce hall, Palace road, Thrissur as per Hiran’s guidance. Autorikshaw driver stoped at somewhere and asked me where should I go ? I’m confused since I’m uncertain with the route. I ringed Hiran again and asked the route. he chanted little bits of keyword hints of points of locations to reach the destination. I just lean my head out and looked around and learned that autorikshaw was parking infront of Chamber of commerce hall. ;). I’m fooled myself.. :D. As soon as I reached the hall Hiran gifted me a GPLv3 badge. I received it with wow. It’s a previllage to me. I wore the badge being proud of got licensed myself with GPL (GNU General Public License).

So ? I can be copied, modified, and redistributed under the terms that they transfer the same freedom to others!! ;)

I met Praveen, Anivar Aravind, C.K Raju sir, Santhosh Thottingal, Vimal Joseph … the real GNUmaniacs at the event. I got fond of Software freedom day balloons and snapped this :

Here comes the real deal. Hiran smile at me innocently asked “Could I be able write an application to collect name, address, phone no, email of attendees at the event ?” I’m startled. It’s really fun. Voila python bite my head. I took the project confidently since Python has recently become my part of life.

  • Live spot coding

I got thrilled with undertaking a live project, even though its simple. I was provided with Hiran’s Dell XPS 13’’ Laptop. I struggled hard initially with Laptop touchpad mouse and cute keys. I got a nice company with Mahesh, a FS freak from MES during coding. He pointed out some bugs in the code. I started writing foolishness on the code.py. It took enough time to figure out bugs since the laptop box was not easy compatible to me. :D. Shyam, the gsoc speech recognation guy also reached there in a short while.

Finally it ran. It could successfully write sequence of data into a database. In a shortwhile It’s being named as pyaddress. By the time, Pramode sir was there. Wow he is too a python fan I rememberd :).

Finally the application was ready for launch. Lauched it myself entering my details into the PyAddress. I admire Hiran’s Idea to transfer Laptop from person to person among the attendees. Offcourse, great gurs like Pramode sir also entered his name and address through my short utility. It’s pride to me:) Finally more than 45 entries were collected successfully. Cheers ! Hiran, let me thank you for giving me that interesting work.

  • SMC grant event

Anivar and Praveen were rocking over the stage speaking about SMC (Swathanthra Malayalam Computing) and its contributions. It was very impressive. They spoke about history of SMC and its advancements. Let me give a round of applause for the joint work of SMC. They also illustrated gsoc ( Google Summer of code projects ) by SMC. Most funny part was Malayalam Typing tutor application. Praveen was playing the game with fun and enthusiasm and all the audience were watching it on screen projectord. Finally the penguin was dead. There arised a laughter.

1.30 pm Hiran, Shyam and me went to hotel nearby and had food. The lunch was sponsored by Shyam being a gsoc holder. we spoke about scenario of Free Software community in kerala and its development. After noon session was about e-malayalam. Famous writers such as M. Mukundan, P.P Ramachandran, Mahesh Mangalat and some other particiapated in the discussion on the future of malayalam computing and standardisation problems. it was really something impressive. M. Mukundan sir spoke about the flexibility to handle ceative content using computers. I was presented 3 DVDs of Debian etch 4.0 by Shyam. Thanks a lot Shyam.. Wooha Debian full! :)

5.30 pm The time was moving with lightning speed. I was in hurry to reach railway station for returning back on 6.00 pm scheduled train. As soon as I reached railway station my low speed brain HDD 1.0 messaged me. I forgot to bring by umbrella back..it was 10 mins to 6 o’clock. Uhh. Without a second thought I hired an autorikshaw and ran fast to chamber of commerce. Got into the place in flight speed, took the umbrella and returned back. I was little worried whether I miss the train or not. I looked at the late indication display at the railwaystation. Noting awesome. As usuall Allepey - Kannur express was 25 mins late :D. Had a tea break. It was due rush in the train and I struggled standing on the train long till Tanoor station. I was thinking lots of things about todays event I was pinging myhead.com whether I remember all eventful moments of today. Offcourse, Its full of bugs. I will definitely have to apply GDB ( GNU Debugger on myhead.com )

I’m back here home @ 11pm.. blogging in a rush.

Hats off to SMC team.

Have fun and Keep hacking !