We had switched to a Reliance broadband internet connection recently from our Asianet connection. Reliance connections requires you to authenticate via http to get connected to the Internet. This was a minor inconvenience since we wanted to connect and remain connected without having to login manually. For this we created a script that will login automatically to the Reliance broadband connection and will also reconnect automatically if the connection is dropped. The script that we created has been released via our github account as Free Software under GPL.

Ubuntu 11.10 has been released and the usual buildup of excitement in the Ubuntu community is evident in terms of articles and reviews around the same popping up all over the place. Ubuntu Manual team has taken this opportunity to release an installation guide for Ubuntu 11.10. As Ubuntu installations are becoming more and more easier (as with any other GNU/Linux installations) I hope more people are going to try out and switch to Ubuntu (or one of the many GNU/Linux distros).

Zyxware had earlier joined the drupal association and now we have paid for one associate membership for the CEO, viz myself :-).

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We (Zyxware) started working on Drupal around two and a half years ago. I had selected drupal as the platform to work with after countless hours of review of other solutions. Ever since we started working with drupal, I used to pull up Drupal Association and toy with the idea of joining the association because I wanted to do more than contribute code to drupal. Finally I took the plunge and signed up Zyxware as a formal member of Drupal Association

If you have worked with Free Software at some point of time in your career then you would definitely have come across this question from some quarters. How does Free Software work. Although it is theoretically possible to make money with Free Software not too many people are doing this. That is because quite a lot of people work for Free Software because of what Free Software is and because of the community behind Free Software. I am presenting here a graphical representation of the Free Software Ecosystem.

I have been toying with the idea of somehow utilizing the countless hours wasted by the thousands of MCA students across the country, through their off-the-shelf MCA projects and paid-to-do MCA projects, to contribute to Free Software Development. I have aired this idea several times at different venues and with people high up in the IT department in the state but nothing has come off till now. I have decided to do what I can do to get the ball rolling regarding this. I have invited MCA students for doing their final year MCA projects at Zyxware. Through this initiative I am hoping to contribute to two or three selected Free Software projects this year.

I had the privilege to go and give a talk on Free Software to the medical doctors and medical students at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology on Saturday. The talk was organized by Dr. Biju Soman who is an ardent GNU/Linux user. There were between 30-40 people who attended the talk and we distributed GNU/Linux cds to those who committed to try it out. It was very interesting to note that most people were very eager to try it out and I had to field a barrage of intelligent questions from the crowd.

When you work in the software industry, either in the services sector, or in the products sector, you never get to see the harmony, the cooperation and the amiability that, you find in the Free Software Community. I am not claiming that, it is all friendly, harmonious and amiable, but you get to feel it very often, and in quite a lot of communities, and when you do, it is bliss. I had earlier written on the monetary aspects of Free Software development. Today I will share one of my personal experiences in getting a feel of the bliss mentioned above.

I was asked by the magazine editor of College of Engineering Trivandrum to prepare an interesting article on Free Software covering the various aspects around it. The article is supposed to go into the CET College Magazine. I have prepared a reasonably elaborate article and have posted it in my longer and philosophical blog. It would be great if you can please chip in and review the article here - Making Money with Free Software

I am sure that there are quite a few out there who would like to do what I have done, only that they might not have the courage and determination to do so. Yes I taught Kerala Police a lesson this week. As a matter of fact, it was not just one but really a handful.