Prakash Advani's Blog

The administration of the Swiss canton of Bern has decided that, in principle, software developed by or for public administrations should be made freely available. Using open source software helps to reduce the canton’s dependence on software vendors and in the long-term will reduce ICT costs, the Bern administration writes on 23 October. It has accepted a similar motion submitted this summer by six council members.

Read More: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/canton-bern-tax-funded-software-must-be-made-open-source

Couldn’t agree more. I wish all the countries should follow a similar strategy.

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich announced today that the world’s biggest chip manufacturer will collaborate with open-source hardware platform Arduino. Together, they will work to foster innovation in the “maker” and educational communities.

Krzanich, speaking at the Maker Faire in Rome, Italy, also introduced the Galileo development board that will become the foundation of open source hardware platforms. Intel is donating 50,000 of the Arduino-compatible Intel Galileo boards to more than 1,000 universities worldwide over the next 18 months. The exploding “maker” community is a do-it-yourself technology movement.

Read More: http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/03/intel-teams-up-with-arduino-to-promote-open-source-hardware-community/

Netflix has developed s Asgard, a web interface that lets engineers and developers manage their AWS infrastructure using a GUI rather than a command line.

Netflix Asgard is open source.

Paypal a big user of OpenStack has ported Asgard to OpenStack.

Read More: http://gigaom.com/2013/10/02/paypal-has-rebuilt-netflixs-cloud-management-system-for-openstack/

I have been thinking of why people should put their Disaster Recovery (DR) site in the cloud. This makes perfect sense, here is why.

Typically a DR site cost as much as the primary data centers. This is because organisations need to replicate every component of their data center. Match every server with the same specifications: CPU, memory and storage.

DR is necessary because you need business continuity when disaster strikes.

But you will invest all that in a DR and disaster may never strike. Is DR worth the investment then ?

Solution is to put the DR in the cloud. Advantages are as follows:

• You create exact replica of your setup in the cloud.
• You fire up the DR in the cloud, only when Disaster strikes. Which when there is no disaster you are only paying for the disk space usage.
• You only pay for the full cloud instances when disaster strikes.
• You not only save money but you are also more environment friendly because you are not unnecessarily keeping your servers running.
• The cloud providers also do their own DR, which means you even enhance your redundancy further.

Are you worried about putting your data in the public cloud? Then a few companies can get together and setup their own private cloud DR.

Indian enterprises are already adoption DR in the cloud.

In Silicon Valley, tech startups typically build their businesses with help from cloud computing services — services that provide instant access to computing power via the internet — and Frenkiel’s startup, a San Francisco outfit called MemSQL, was no exception. It rented computing power from the granddaddy of cloud computing, Amazon.com.

But in May, about two years after MemSQL was founded, Frenkiel and company came down from the Amazon cloud, moving most of their operation onto a fleet of good old fashioned computers they could actually put their hands on. They had reached the point where physical machines were cheaper — much, much cheaper — than the virtual machines available from Amazon. “I’m not a big believer in the public cloud,” Frenkiel says. “It’s just not effective in the long run.”

Read More.

Amazon CDN (Content Distribution Network) service CloudFront is now in India. They have launched with edge servers in Mumbai and Chennai.

If you are already using CloudFront, you don’t need to do anything. Now users in India will get faster services through the CloudFront.

Read more on the announcement.

From Forbes:

Cost savings… elasticity….  scalability….  load “bursting”….  storage on demand…  These are the advertised benefits of cloud computing, and they certainly help make for a solid business case for using either third-party services or a virtualized data center.

But after the agreements are signed, systems and processes are set up, and users are retrained, something unexpected happens. The  initial use cases are realized, but then additional benefits begin to emerge — sort of like the icing on the cake, but often, these unforeseen benefits provide far more value to the business than initially planned.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2013/07/21/5-benefits-of-cloud-computing-you-arent-likely-to-see-in-a-sales-brochure/

IBM is backing Cloud Foundry the Open Source PaaS platform.

By teaming up with Pivotal and Cloud Foundry, IBM wants to help developers focus on getting apps to the cloud without having to worry about whether the underlying technology will be compatible.

The first product of the IBM-Pivotal partnership is IBM WebSphere Liberty, a lightweight version of IBM’s WebSphere Application Server that helps developers respond to enterprise and market needs more quickly by getting less complex, rapid development and deployment of Web, mobile, social and analytic applications using fewer resources, according to IBM.

Read More: http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/240158905/ibm-pivotal-partner-to-push-cloud-foundry-paas-development.htm

According to an article published on Thursday by the British newspaper, internal National Security Agency memos show that Microsoft actually helped the federal government find a way to decrypt messages sent over select platforms, including Outlook.com Web chat, Hotmail email service, and Skype.

The Guardian wrote that Snowden, the 30-year-old former systems administrator for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, provided the paper with files detailing a sophisticated relationship between America’s intelligence sector and Silicon Valley.

Read More: http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/

Computer scientists have made a working model of multi million pound cloud computing technology using just Lego bricks and a handful of 20 mini computers.

The University of Glasgow’s Raspberry Pi Cloud project links together 56 Raspberry Pi computer boards in racks made from Lego, which mimic the function and modular design of commercial cloud computing infrastructure.

Read More.

 Public cloud services market in India is forecast to grow 36 per cent in 2013 to total $443 million, research firm Gartner today said.

The public cloud services market stood at $326 million in 2012, Gartner said in a statement.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), including cloud compute, storage and print services, which was the fastest- growing segment, grew 22.7 per cent in 2012 to $43.1 million.

It’s expected to further grow 39.6 per cent in 2013 to $60.2 million, Gartner said.

Software as a service (SaaS), which is the largest segment of the cloud services market in India, comprised 36 per cent of the total market in 2012.

Gartner expects that from 2013 through 2017, $4.2 billion will be spent on cloud services in India, of which $1.6 billion will be spent on SaaS.

Read More.

The recent controversy about the AICTE offering about 7.5 million Office 365 accounts in Indian technical education institutions is based on the A2 plan, which Microsoft is offering free of cost. But then, what is the catch?

Reaad More.

My friend Kiran from HasGeek has got coverage at the FirstPost.

The idea for HasGeek came to him after experiencing first hand the travails of sustaining community-driven events.

“Community events were just not sustainable. Proto, Barcamp, LUG (the Linux Users Group), MoMo (Mobile Monday) Bangalore and OCC (Open Coffee Club) were all community-driven events that died in one way or the other. Not because there was no need for them, because learning from your peers in a bottom-up, community-driven manner still has value. But because its tough for a few committed volunteers alone to keep organising those events year after year,” he says.

What if someone could take away the pain of actually organising the events, leaving the community free to learn from one another?

“I realised then that if you do these events as a full-time commercial activity, they can become sustainable. HasGeek came in not as a representative of the community, but as a “community service provider”,” he says.

HasGeek events are based on an unsubsidised user-pays model with prices ranging from Rs 1000-2000 per day of attending. Sponsors’ funds are used in non-core areas like T-shirts, swag or upgrading the quality of food served. “Doing this has freed us from being sponsor-driven, which is a radical achievement in the events space. For our last two major events, the majority of our revenue came in from participants, something unheard of,” says Jonnalagadda.

Read More.

Despite everyone’s high hopes for Windows 8 reviving the slumping PC market, Microsoft’s operating system has exacerbated its losses instead. Windows 8 has been met with mixed reviews, and is often criticized for its steep learning curve and hybrid system of tiles optimized for touch-screen devices.

Bleak numbers from research firm IDC strongly suggest that the release of Windows 8 has contributed to the current free fall of the PC market. For the first quarter of 2013, IDC estimated that global PC shipments declined 13.9% year-on-year to 76.3 million units, worse than the 7.7% decline that it had previously forecast. U.S. PC shipments dropped 12.7% year-on-year. The Asia-Pacific region declined 10.3% year-on-year, with China and India posting the steepest drops.

Global PC shipments have declined for four consecutive quarters. This was also the PC market’s worst decline since IDC started tracking the PC market’s performance in 1994. Total quarterly shipments, at 14.2 million, also dropped to their lowest level since the first quarter of 2006.

Read More.

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While looking for a 3G dongle, I came across the Huawei E355 and found it a very useful device. With this device you can share one 3G plans with up to 5 devices including tablets, laptops and phones there by saving on multiple 3G plans.

Here is what I liked about it.

• You can use any Unlocked 3G SIM inside and it just works. I tried with 2 different services providers and it configured on its own.
• Up to 5 devices can share the device through WiFi, if you include USB you can have 6. One laptop/notebook can use the device as a USB dongle.
• You can save money on your multiple 3G plans specifically if you are on international roaming.
• You can add a MicroSD card and it becomes a USB drive.
• The device size is a small enough, just a little wider than a USB dongle/pen drive.
• It has simple 2 LEDS one for WiFi and one for Mobile connection. The connection LED changes colour to denote 2G or 3G.

Here is what I find is the limitation.

• It doesn’t have any battery built in, however you can power it from any USB port on laptop or USB battery or a USB charger.
• It  supports only 5 devices. Which may be enough now, but if multiple users are sharing, then it is a limitation. 

Note: The default WiFi password is given inside. You need to slide open the cover to see. Once you connect, you can type 192.168.1.1 as the IP and change the default settings.

Available on Amazon and Flipkart.

Overall a good product at a good price.

[amazon_enhanced asin=”B008TH3VH0″ container=”” container_class=”” price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]

Google unveiled a “patent pledge” that it hopes will shield cloud software and big data developers from the type of litigation that has engulfed the mobile phone industry. The pledge, which is like a non-aggression pact, covers ten patents related to Google’s MapReduce technology.

The pledge, which Google announced on Thursday, says that developers are free to use or sell the technology described in the patents without fear of future lawsuits. The shield applies, however, only to projects based on open source software that is available to all

The ten patents included in Google’s pledge include a controversial one issued last year that covers a form of parallel processing known as MapReduce. The patent gave rise to fears that Google would be able to monopolize tools like Hadoop, which is an integral part of the so-called “big data” revolution that is fueling a wide range of new products and services. Google’s pledge appears intended to allay that fear.

Read More.

Cloud computing represents a fundamental shift in the way technology services will be delivered to enterprises, forcing IT firms to re-look at how they operate now, according to Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of VMware, which provides software that enable creation of cloud computing infrastructure within corporate premises.

Gelsinger is convinced that not all major IT firms (including Indian ones) will survive this wave of technology transition. Change may mean sacrificing revenue in the short term said, Gelsinger, an Intel veteran rumoured to replace the retiring incumbent Intel CEO Paul Otellini, a rumour he denied.

Read more.

Do you want a better open source email client ? Do you like Shotwell ? Yorba, the organisation behind Shotwell is looking for raising funds using crowd sourcing to create their next generation email application called Geary . Yorba’s goal is to create world class open source desktop application. Go help them if you think they are doing the right thing. Even if you donate a few dollars that will help. They also have a PPA for an early version if you want to give it a try. Go for it!

Berlin filmmaker Sam Muirhead is attempting to live a completely open source life for one year. Here’s why.

The phrase ‘Open Source’, to many people, means ‘software you don’t have to pay for’—but really it’s so much more than that. It’s a way of thinking and working focused on transparency and collaborating with others. It’s about sharing ideas, plans, and developments for the benefit of the commons. And it’s definitely not just software.

I’ve been following open source closely over the last few years, but as a filmmaker, I never felt like I had skills to contribute to the movement’s development.

But then I realized that everyone, whether librarian, beekeeper, or mechanic, everyone can use the abilities they have in some way to make the world a little better, to help out a cause or an interest they feel is worthwhile. I felt sure that open source could use a filmmaker.

So I’ve started a somewhat insane plan to spread the word about open source, to get others thinking and talking about these ideas of collaboration, transparency, and modification—to show how far open source has come and how far it could go. This will be my Year of Open Source.

For one year I am trying to go as open source as possible, in all aspects of my life—the shoes I wear, the phone I use, even how I get around. I’m not buying any proprietary or traditionally copyrighted products unless all other options are exhausted. I’m looking for and switching to more open, transparent products which are replicable by others, trying to highlight the benefits of treating others as collaborators rather than competitors. I’ll be investigating how the open source philosophy might apply to different areas of life, where it fits well, and where it might not work. Is anybody working on an open source microwave? What would open insurance be like?

Follow his progress on his site.