DataWind has slightly revised the names of the retail versions of the Aakash and Ubislate 7 tablets, bringing about quite a bit of confusion. The original Aakash, will now be called Ubislate 7, while the original Ubislate 7 become s the Ubislate 7+. The new naming scheme was spotted at DataWind's official websites for the ultra-low cost tablets.
The UbiSlate 7+ was opened for pre-booking last month. However, the device is now sold out till February and pre-orders are up for March presently. To refresh your memory, the UbiSlate 7+ runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform and is powered by a Cortex A8, 700 Mhz processor with HD Video co-processor. It has a 256MB of RAM, while supports (Internal) 2GB Flash / (External) 2GB to 32GB storage. The 3200 mAh battery of the UbiSlate 7+ is rated to deliver 180 minutes of back up. The UbiSlate 7+ has 7-inch of display with 800x480 pixel resolution. For connectivity, the device supports GPRS & WiFi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/. Check out more features of the UbiSlate 7+
Click here for more information
Swecha has put up a stall at the ongoing 26th Hyderabad Book Fair being organized at People's Plaza, Necklace Road in Hyderabad. The book fair was inaugurated on the 15th of December, 2011 and the stall received a reverberating response. All the visitors to the stall commended the work done by Swecha in bringing out 'Swecha OS' in telugu.
“The idea of digitizing and including into the latest release of Swecha OS some of the bed time stories narrated by our grandmothers to put us to sleep is commendable. It brings back into existence those old stories the present generation had almost forgotten,” quipped another visitor Rama Rao, an octagenarian
“I have been feeling bad that the number of telugu speaking people is reducing day by day. Being an ardent admirer of telugu, I feel glad on seeing the kind of work Swecha has been doing to promote the language in one of the most revolutionary technologies of the present day- computer. I congratulate the Swecha team and hope that they continue to do the kind of work they're doing,” said an IT employee who'd visited the stall on the inaugural day.
Swecha in association with Swarnandhra Institute of Engineering and Technology has organized a two-day district workshop as a part of Software Freedom Fortnight on the 23rd and 24th of September, 2011.
This district workshop catered to the students of engineering colleges of West Godavari district. Around 250 students from more than 15 engineering participated in this workshop. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. D. Madhu, Principal, Swarnandhra Institute of Engineering and Technology. Ashish from Swecha explained the importance of FOSS technologies to the participants after the inaugural session. Chaitanya and Ravi Teja, members of the student chapter of Swecha, free software hacktivists and a students of MVGR College of Engineering have taken technology sessions on the following topics:
Ms. G. Prasanthi, HOD, Dept. Of Information Technology, SIET, led the team of student volunteers from SIET who undertook the onus of organizing the workshop. The participants evinced interest in working with FOSS technologies.
District Workshop on FOSS Technologies in Vijayawada Posted Thu, 2011-11-24 12:59 by Ashish
Swecha in association with VR Siddhartha College of Engineering and NIMRA Institute of Technology has organized a two-day workshop as a part of Software Freedom Fortnight on the 25th and 26th of September, 2011.
This workshop catered to the students of engineering colleges of Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. Around 200 students from more than 10 engineering participated in this workshop. The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. Koteswara Rao, HOD of IT Dept, VR Siddartha Institute of Engineering and Technology. Mr. Siddartha Malempati, Vice President, Swecha took up a session on 'Free Software Philosophy' and explained the importance of FOSS technologies to the participants after the inaugural session. Naveen from Swecha took up a session on 'Making of a Computer Suite' in which he explained the installation procedure of GNU/LINUX based Operating System, Ubuntu. He also demonstrated the various functionalities of the Operating System. Chaitanya and Ravi Teja, members of the student chapter of Swecha, free software hacktivists and a students of MVGR College of Engineering have taken technology sessions on the following topics:
Visakhapatnam District Workshop on FOSS Technologies in Andhra University Posted Thu, 2011-11-24 12:56 by Ashish
As part of the Software Freedom Fortnight (from 15 th Sept to 2nd Oct) AUCE|GLUG has conducted a 2 day workshop on Free Software Technologies held on 24 th and 25th of September 2011. The workshop was conducted in association with “Swecha”.
Inaugural Function (Day 1):The inaugural function was presided by Prof.M.Shashi (HOD-Dept. of Computer Science and Systems Engineering), Prof.G.S.N.Raju (Principal AUCE(A)), coordinators for the Workshop Prof.V.Valli Kumari and Prof.N.V.E.S.Murthy and Prof.L.Pratap Reddy (JNTU-H).
The dignitaries gave a brief description about importance of free software and its advantages. Events:
This session is the 1st session of the 2 day workshop. This session was presented by Mr.Bhuvan Krishna, General Secretary of Swecha. Introductory things like what is free software, advantages of free software, proprietary software were dealt in the session. The four laws that govern the free software philosophy were presented with example scenarios pertaining to software development. Difference between free software model and open source software model were discussed in the session. Debian operating system was used the host operating system and some of its features were shown to the students. At the end of the session,
Swecha is celebrating Software Freedom Fortnight between 16th Sep - 2nd Oct in various districts of Andhra pradesh. The final event "Students convention" will be organized in Hyderabad which will sum up all efforts from the district level events. Following are the proposed dates for the events:
Please contact Siddharth +91 94900 98016 or write at siddhartha [at] swecha [dot] net for further details
JNTU – Microsoft A Memorandum of 'misUnderstanding' Posted Fri, 2009-11-06 16:13 by bhuvan
Microsoft and JNTU Hyderabad have entered into an agreement to provide Microsoft developer tools 'free of cost' to students in colleges affiliated to JNTU Hyderabad. According to this article which appeared in “The Hindu” on October 27, the Microsoft Corporation will provide these tools under the
DreamSpark programme of launched in November last year.
Click Here for more information The misUnderstanding:Though it might appear like a great deal, its actually not. Let us look at some aspects of this programme and 'understand' what lies beneath this misUnderstanding.
• Single Use Activation Keys • Operating System • Lack of Office Suite • Science Students • CSE Students ~ frogs in well • The Source? • No Video Streaming • No Updates • Colleges should now wonder • License issues • 11 comments • Read more Petition to Cancel Proprietary Tender by NIC Posted Wed, 2009-09-23 15:50 by siva Endorsed by Individuals OrganizationsWe appeal to the community, organisations and individuals to sign the following petition to cancel the proprietary tender issued by the NIC for procuring laptops for the Supreme Court of India.
Organisations can add their name in the wiki page provided and individuals can sign the petition.
All the respective organisations are requested to host the petition and gather the signatures of members associated with them. Swecha would gladly provide the space for petitions of the respective organisations.
History in America : see also Santa Claus in America In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident. After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870. Washington Irving reinvents Christmas
It wasn’t until the 19th century that Americans began to embrace Christmas. Americans re-invented Christmas, and changed it from a raucous carnival holiday into a family-centered day of peace and nostalgia. But what about the 1800s peaked American interest in the holiday?
The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city’s first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America.
In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status. Irving’s fictitious celebrants enjoyed “ancient customs,” including the crowning of a Lord of Misrule. Irving’s book, however, was not based on any holiday celebration he had attended—in fact, many historians say that Irving’s account actually “invented” tradition by implying that it described the true customs of the season.
The North and South were divided on the issue of Christmas, as well as on the question of slavery. Many Northerners saw sin in the celebration of Christmas; to these people the celebration of Thanksgiving was more appropriate. But in the South, Christmas was an important part of the social season. Not surprisingly, the first three states to make Christmas a legal holiday were in the South: Alabama in 1836, Louisiana and Arkansas in 1838.
In the years after the Civil War, Christmas traditions spread across the country. Children's books played an important role in spreading the customs of celebrating Christmas, especially the tradition of trimmed trees and gifts delivered by Santa Claus. Sunday school classes encouraged the celebration of Christmas. Women's magazines were also very important in suggesting ways to decorate for the holidays, as well as how to make these decorations.
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, America eagerly decorated trees, caroled, baked, and shopped for the Christmas season. Since that time, materialism, media, advertising, and mass marketing has made Christmas what it is today. The traditions that we enjoy at Christmas today were invented by blending together customs from many different countries into what is considered by many to be our national holiday.
1600's: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols.
