I was just browsing through net and I came across this article. I was a little shocked on reading just the title. Why would anyone want to leave GNU software ? .. So it sparked my interest and I spent next 30 minutes reading the whole article (or rather technical viewpoint of KDE team). That did not convince me though in anyway.

I agree that autotools are very old but so is gcc and so are other basic tools that come with all distros. Reading the article convinced me of one thing, not many people on the KDE team know much about autotools. They have used one small part (Makefile) of it but they don’t know what exactly the autotools are and how they work. I even somehow got a feeling that many KDE developers are scared of autotools. Reason: autotools have a longer and hard learning curve. It is true, I agree. I was able to write a CMakeLists.txt in just a day, right from the scratch without any book or help except the online documentation available at their web-site, while with autoconf, the story was different, even after 2 days of work, I was unable to came with with anything. Autoconf manual felt like a classic GNU manual written in the spirit of GNU by people who are extremely technical. It pinned me, it binned me and it made my heart bleed. Are most of KDE developers scared of autotools ? I don’t know and after reading their reasoning , I will say yes. Most of them wanted a short and less painful path to software building: here come Scons and CMake.

I was also just put off by the technical-expertise either required as a prerequisite or being used to read the manual but was I scared …… hell no…. . Say no to the hell and yes to the reasoning and rationality. There glows the bulb on my head, the people who write these kind of manuals are very good at basics , they are the people who have gotten their fundamentals straight, with experience. Reading their manuals always gives you an insight into the things. This is what exactly what you will learn from Newsgroups.

I am not saying that KDE people need to switch back to autotools. No, I am not agreeing on that. All I am saying is, switching to a different tools needs to be based on purely technical reasons, not on the basis that people can’t learn them because they are scared. I really wonder they are not trying waf, which actually does not try to fix the problems of other tools but rather built as a software-construction framework.

I, myself, want to use waf but then I have to learn Python in order to debug my scripts which I don’t want to do. If I ever get time to learn a new language, I will learn Common Lisp. So rather I will start learning autotools again and will see what people are scared of.

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.

One or two years ago, I paid $4500 to Optima Resources for H1B visa. You heard right, they were selling H1B for $4500. I had a talk with a woman named Richa (I am not sure but may be her actual name is Ankita) who sent me an email on this and initiated this visa contract. She told me this at that time:

“We will process your H1 VISA and if you are able to get it, you will pay 20% of your salary for 18 months as our fee and your $4500 will be returned back to you in that same 18 months period. If your VISA application does not get approved, we will cut 25,000 INR from the amount you paid and will refund the rest.”

Now, my VISA was not approved and hence they cut 25,000 rupees and refunded me the rest. If there were no friend of mine in USA, I am sure they may not have refunded my money. My friend actually paid them the money, he lives in US and hence may be they did not have any option other than to return the money. I think I learned 2 lessons:

1. I think they send emails to almost everyone in the India and lets say they get 1000 applications then they process some applications of say 3-10 applicants (just a wild guess) and get them the VISA and cut 25,000 rupees in the name of expenses from rest of the 990 applicants. That makes: 25,000 x 990 = 2,47,50,000 of rupees , That is a big money my friend.
2. If you want to have a visa, go by real, legal rules. Don’t ever try to use either illegal or legal but stupid means. Always respect the hard-earned money of yours and especially of your parents.

If you feel trouble believing that Optima Resources is actually a fraud, you can see this list of 25 domain names that trace back to the IP address of Optimaresources:

Optimaresources.com
Optimaresourcesapplicationdevelopmentandmaintainence.com
Optimaresourcesbusinessconsulting.com
Optimaresourcesclients.com
Optimaresourcescontactus.com
Optimaresourcescorecompetencies.com
Optimaresourcescorevalues.com 0 listings
Optimaresourcescurrentopenings.com
Optimaresourceshome.com
Optimaresourceshouseofexcellence.com
Optimaresourcesmission.com
Optimaresourcesofferings.com
Optimaresourcesoverview.com
Optimaresourcesprocess.com
Optimaresourcesqms.com
Optimaresourcesquality.com
Optimaresourcesranddcenter.com
Optimaresourcessitemap.com
Optimaresourcesstrength.com
Optimaresourcestechnology.com
Optimaresourcestechnologyinfrastructureservices.com
Optimaresourcestestimonials.com
Optimaresourceswhy.com
Optimaresourcesyou.com

go and map the IP addresses (I used http://dawhois.com/ ). No genuine company keeps so many domain names mapping back to same IP address. When I asked Richa about this, she said “This is none of your business”. Well, I say, it is your business because you are paying lacs of rupees to them. 2nd, you will always have to call them from India to US at your own expanses, they never call you. I never heard any company doing like that. Now many of my friends are placed in countries like Australia, Canada and Switzerland, all of the time, companies called them, they mailed them, they never asked my friends (their future employee) to call back. 3rd, when I told Rich that I do know C++ and Linux and I do have C++ skills but I don’t have any industry experience. She asked if I can get some fake experience/certificate or something. is this how a corporation works ? Even after years of this I am still wondering how did they get the accreditation of Better Business Bureau in a country like US ?

you can see lots of threads on fraudwatchers for the other companies who do this kind of fraud business. Keep your mind open and you will be saved.

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.

Here is the implementation of a LIFO in C using Singly-Linked list. Remember pop() may look different than what you will read in an academic book. Actually, I think if my program malloc()s some memory then its my responsibility to free() it while some others may not agree on that and will stress that pop() should only give the element, not free() it. Based on my experience with programming I completely disagree, when you give someone a program and tell him what it does, the other person uses it like a black-box, he does not know what is inside the program or how it is working, he just needs to know what this programs requires as input and what is its output. In the end, the only thing he needs to know is it should work fine without giving any strange errors on his LCD monitor. Thats it, and that shifts all the responsibility of handling the program back to the programmer, not the user, which is inherently a good idea I think. If you are a C programmer and you don’t know where your memory is going and what the pointers are doing and where they are at one point in your program, you should forget working in C. As usual, you can always find the original discussion on Usenet.

/* A Stack implementation of a singly linked list with 4 operations: Pop, Push, Top and Print elements in the list.
 *
 * VERISON 0.4
 *
 */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

enum { STACK_ARR_SIZE = 10 };  

struct my_stack
{
  char arrc[STACK_ARR_SIZE]; /* Thar array must not have more than (STACK_ARR_SIZE - 1) elements */
  struct my_stack* next;
};

struct stack_list
{
  struct my_stack* head;
};

struct stack_list* push( struct stack_list*, const char* );
struct stack_list* pop( struct stack_list* );
struct my_stack* top( struct stack_list* );
struct my_stack* make_null( struct stack_list* );
struct my_stack* is_empty( struct stack_list* );

struct stack_list* stack_new( void );
void stack_print( const struct stack_list* );
void stack_print_element( const struct my_stack* );
struct stack_list* stack_free( struct stack_list* );

int main( void )
{
  struct my_stack* p = NULL;
  struct stack_list* ms = NULL;
  ms = stack_new();

  stack_print(ms);

  push(ms, "comppppppppppppppppp");
  push(ms, "(dot)");
  push(ms, "lang");
  push(ms, "(dot)");
  push(ms, "c");

  stack_print(ms);

  pop(ms);
  p = top(ms);

  stack_print(ms);
  stack_free(ms);
  free(ms);
  ms = NULL;

  return 0;
}

struct stack_list* push(struct stack_list* s, const char* c )
{
  struct my_stack* p = malloc( 1 * sizeof *p );

  if( NULL == p )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "malloc() failed\n");
      return s;
    }

  /* If use gave us more characters than what we want, then its his problem */
  if( strlen(c) < STACK_ARR_SIZE ) strcpy(p->arrc, c);
  p->next = NULL;

  if( NULL == s )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "Stack not initialized ?\n");
      free(p);
      return s;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head )
    {
      /*      printf("Stack is Empty, adding first element\n"); */
      s->head = p;
      return s;
    }
  else
    {
      /*      printf("Stack not Empty, adding in front of first element\n"); */
      p->next = s->head;
      s->head = p;  /* push new element onto the head */
    }

  return s;
}

struct stack_list* pop( struct stack_list* s )
{
  struct my_stack* p = NULL;

  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("There is no stack list ?\n");
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head )
    {
      printf("There is no element on the stack\n");
    }
  else
    {
      p = s->head;
      s->head = s->head->next;
      free(p);
    }

  return s;
}

struct my_stack* top( struct stack_list* s)
{
  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("There is no stack list ?\n");
      return NULL;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head )
    {
      printf("There is no element on the stack\n");
    }

  return s->head;
}

/* Make a Stack empty */
struct my_stack* make_null( struct stack_list* s )
{
  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("Can not make NULL when there is no Stack List\n");
      return NULL;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head )
    {
      printf("Stack is already Empty\n");
    }
  else
    {
      stack_free(s);
    }

  return s->head;
}

struct my_stack* is_empty( struct stack_list* s )
{
  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("There is no Stack\n");
      return NULL;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head )
    {
      printf("Stack is Empty\n");
    }
  else
    {
      printf("Stack is not Empty\n");
    }

  return s->head;
}

/* ---------- small helper functions -------------------- */
struct stack_list* stack_free( struct stack_list* s )
{
  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("Can't free a NULL stack list\n");
    }

  while( s->head ) pop(s);

  return s;
}

struct stack_list* stack_new( void )
{
  struct stack_list* p = malloc( 1 * sizeof *p );

  if( NULL == p )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "malloc() in Stack Initialization failed\n");
      exit( EXIT_FAILURE );  /* There is no point in going beyond this point */
    }

  p->head = NULL;

  return p;
}

void stack_print( const struct stack_list* s )
{
  struct my_stack* p = NULL;

  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("Can not print an Empty Stack\n");
    }
  else
    {
      for( p = s->head; p; p = p->next ) stack_print_element(p);
    }

  printf("-------------------------- \n");
}

void stack_print_element(const struct my_stack* s)
{
  if( s ) printf("arrc = %s\n", s->arrc);
}

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.

A Queue is a FIFO based data structure. I tried to create one and got lots of advices and improvements from comp.lang.c folks. I am posting it here, in case someone gets benefit from that. I believe in Open Sharing of source code, it helps the community, it helpes the poor people like me who either did not have money to join some course or did not have enough of experience or a Master’s degree to get a job. Working on an Open Source software greatly improves the ability of the people to write quality code and also (as a side-effect) consumer always gets a robust product, a piece of software that they can trust. I am defnitely sure, you can’t trust a proprietary software, no one knows what its doing on your computer (except of the compnay who created it). MNCs are only intersted in making money and taking control of the market and doing a dishonest business always makes more money than doing an honest business. Having secrets of other corporations delievered to your doorstep always helpes in building a monopoly and I think proprietary software is a brilliant concept to spy on other companies and homes of general public. Never ever forget the Russian gas piple-line scandal. Perhaps reading some news will help.. You can even check amazon. Whether you are a government or an organization or an individual, you can not trust a piece of proprietary software, you don’t know what it does, you will never know.

I have seen people writing poor quality C code for years. They wrote poor C programs when they were 23 ( starting their Master’s degree) and when they were 25 (first day of the job) and now they are 29 and after 4 years of experience they still write poor quality code (Mostly these people are also the ones who have passed their professional degree in first division). Its because they are working in proprietary software based business company because of which they can not share their code. No critics and hence no improvement and in their spare time they never tried to read comp.lang.c archives though they do get time to shake beer glasses with their friends sometime or joke about the habist of their fellow team-mates or their boss or whetever they like but they never get time to read comp.lang.c

. You can always find the original duscussion of my program on Usenet.

/* This Queue implementation of singly linked list in C implements 3
 * operations: add, remove and print elements in the list.  Well, actually,
 * it implements 4 operations, lats one is list_free() but free() should not
 * be considered the operation but  a mandatory practice like brushing
 * teeth every morning, otherwise you will end up loosing some part of
 * your body(the software) Its is the modified version of my singly linked
 * list suggested by Ben from comp.lang.c . I was using one struct to do
 * all the operations but Ben added a 2nd struct to make things easier and
 * efficient.
 *
 * I was always using the strategy of searching through the list to find the
 *  end and then addd the value there. That way list_add() was O(n). Now I
 * am keeping track of tail and always use  tail to add to the linked list, so
 * the addition is always O(1), only at the cost of one assignment.
 *
 *
 * VERISON 0.5
 *
 */

#include  <stdio.h>
#include  <stdlib.h>
#include  <string.h>

struct my_struct
{
  int num;
  struct my_struct* next;
};

struct my_list
{
  struct my_struct* head;
  struct my_struct* tail;
};

struct my_list* list_add_element( struct my_list*, const int);
struct my_list* list_remove_element( struct my_list*);

struct my_list* list_new(void);
struct my_list* list_free( struct my_list* );

void list_print( const struct my_list* );
void list_print_element(const struct my_struct* );

int main(void)
{
  struct my_list*  mt = NULL;

  mt = list_new();
  list_add_element(mt, 1);
  list_add_element(mt, 2);
  list_add_element(mt, 3);
  list_add_element(mt, 4); 

  list_print(mt);

  list_remove_element(mt);
  list_print(mt);

  list_free(mt);   /* always remember to free() the malloc()ed memory */
  free(mt);        /* free() if list is kept separate from free()ing the structure, I think its a good design */
  mt = NULL;      /* after free() always set that pointer to NULL, C will run havon on you if you try to use a dangling pointer */

  list_print(mt);

  return 0;
}

/* Will always return the pointer to my_list */
struct my_list* list_add_element(struct my_list* s, const int i)
{
  struct my_struct* p = malloc( 1 * sizeof(*p) );

  if( NULL == p )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "IN %s, %s: malloc() failed\n", __FILE__, "list_add");
      return s;
    }

  p->num = i;
  p->next = NULL;

  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("Queue not initialized\n");
      return s;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head && NULL == s->tail )
    {
      /* printf("Empty list, adding p->num: %d\n\n", p->num);  */
      s->head = s->tail = p;
      return s;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head || NULL == s->tail )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "There is something seriously wrong with your assignment of head/tail to the list\n");
      free(p);
      return NULL;
    }
  else
    {
      /* printf("List not empty, adding element to tail\n"); */
      s->tail->next = p;
      s->tail = p;
    }

  return s;
}

/* This is a queue and it is FIFO, so we will always remove the first element */
struct my_list* list_remove_element( struct my_list* s )
{
  struct my_struct* h = NULL;
  struct my_struct* p = NULL;

  if( NULL == s )
    {
      printf("List is empty\n");
      return s;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head && NULL == s->tail )
    {
      printf("Well, List is empty\n");
      return s;
    }
  else if( NULL == s->head || NULL == s->tail )
    {
      printf("There is something seriously wrong with your list\n");
      printf("One of the head/tail is empty while other is not \n");
      return s;
    }

  h = s->head;
  p = h->next;
  free(h);
  s->head = p;
  if( NULL == s->head )  s->tail = s->head;   /* The element tail was pointing to is free(), so we need an update */

  return s;
}

/* ---------------------- small helper fucntions ---------------------------------- */
struct my_list* list_free( struct my_list* s )
{
  while( s->head )
    {
      list_remove_element(s);
    }

  return s;
}

struct my_list* list_new(void)
{
  struct my_list* p = malloc( 1 * sizeof(*p));

  if( NULL == p )
    {
      fprintf(stderr, "LINE: %d, malloc() failed\n", __LINE__);
    }

  p->head = p->tail = NULL;

  return p;
}

void list_print( const struct my_list* ps )
{
  struct my_struct* p = NULL;

  if( ps )
    {
      for( p = ps->head; p; p = p->next )
	{
	  list_print_element(p);
	}
    }

  printf("------------------\n");
}

void list_print_element(const struct my_struct* p )
{
  if( p )
    {
      printf("Num = %d\n", p->num);
    }
  else
    {
      printf("Can not print NULL struct \n");
    }
}

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.

Its been more than a year (since 2007) that I am using a a Linux distro running on text-based system configuration. The idea was difficult to adopt in the beginning but it look intelligent to me. So friends here is my Linux box running on Arch . There is no way you can edit any network or printer configrations from the Administration menu of GNOME in Arch. If yuo want to configure then go edit the text file. My colleagues who are still using Ubuntu struggle with the unknown and unrasonable problems everyday but they stick to Ubuntu, its Administration menu, the GUI based system to configure the system settings and they are stil there. Even after several years of usage they get mentally handicapped when some problem arises. They ask stupid questions to each other. Here is some conversation:

Ubuntu User 1: My system is not booting properly in Ubuntu. What should I do ?

me : whats the problem ?

Ubuntu User 1: I don’t know, Ubuntu is showing some error.

me : What kind of error. Is root file system geting mounted.

Ubuntu User 1: I don’t know.

me : Let me check

Ubuntu User 1: Don’t worry, I will reinstall Ubuntu.

Later I found out, fsck was showing some error on mounting /home partition and was throwing the user into maintenance shell to do fsck but he kep on pressing the Reset button instead.

Ubuntu User 1: I have Ubuntu but I need to play 3D games. Ubuntu does not play them as good as Windows XP.

Ubuntu User 2: Install Sabayon, you can play good games on it.

me : What playing games has to do with either Ubuntu or Sabayon (or even Debian) ?

Ubuntu User 2: Debian does not have any games.

me : Debian has largest collection of packages among all the distros. You only need to install a game using apt-get. Even if the package is not there, then you can download and install it.

Ubuntu User 2: With Debian I have to configure GNOME manually to run, eve after install it. I don’t want to configure GUIs.

me : Debian comes auto-configured. You just install something, e.g. X, and it configures it automatically.

Ubuntu User 2: No, Debian does not play games.

I really don’t understand this, if there is Open Source game, and the package is not available for Debian then you can compile it form source. But my friend does not say that he can’t compile, he says “Debian does not run games”. See the difference ?

Ubuntu User 1: I will not use Fedora, my sound system does not work in Fedora. It works in Ubuntu. So I will use Ubuntu.

me : your statement does not make any sense. Both Ubuntu and Fedora are Linux distros, you can check the sound module of your card and load it in Fedora.

Ubuntu User 1: you don’t want listen to me. I said, there is no sound coming in Fedora.

me : you need to run the lspci to check for what hardware you have and the see lsmod on Ubuntu to know the name of the kernel module being used for sound. Also check for Linux kernel version.

Ubuntu User 1: I will ask some one else who can solve my problem, you just don’t understand it.

Ubuntu User 2: Why go so deep into Linux. He can just reinstall Ubuntu if he gets problems.

… and they got angry. No.. I am serious, they are angry now.

I can show you thousands and millions of Linux users like this, who don’t want to know how to solve problems . First I thought, they don’t like the black screen of command line (I too don’t like it) or even the white background of X-terminal (which I do like), then I thought no one likes to type some words, you just need a mouse click and even these days companies are creating mouses with which we can type characters using clicks. Then I came to know the problem is more fundamental than Linux issues. The problem is of pain, finding the cause of some problem is a painful process (whether Linux or real life), even when you want to build a new house or put the wash-basin at some place in yoru house , it takes some amount of understanding and familiarity with how the houses are constructed and used by people. Putting time into understanding the house when your retired Father is finally building his sweet home , takes energy and the ability to take pain (mental exhaustation ?). All of colleagues are not running away from Linux, they are running away from pain the Linux gives. No one wants pain, everyone wants joy. Yeah.. me too. I want happiness and peace of mind.. the joy of life. The why do I believe in struggling with problems in Linux for days and nights when a 45 minutes Ubuntu reinstall will solve the problem. Why do I get into pain ?

To answer that question I have to go back to my earlier days, the day before I even installed Linux, the day my friend Dinesh mentioned the word Linux to me. Its all about happiness. So let me answer the question I have aksed: Why did I install Linux, because I trusted my friend, I knew he is intelligent than me, Its matter of friendship, the trust and respect you give to your friend based on his ability to creeate angels and daemons on hardware. Moreover I accepted my incompetence in front of him. Dinesh knew it wil be painful for me (a typical Windows User) to install Linux but he never helped me, he never said that he will want to help me. It was like the Cat’s kid, the Cat does not pick up her kitten when he falls while walking on some fence. She does not help her children because she wants them to learn to face the reality of life (quite in contrast to Human Mothers). I think thats why Cats grow out to be so intellgent. It is natural process of how cats grow their kittens. Kitten feels pain but that is required to successfully walk the fence, he needs training and his Mother gives him proper. Same way Dinesh behaved like. In the World of Linux, he was Cat and I Was his kitten and he handled me well. I am proud of having a friend like him who belives in letting people learn themselves rather than spoonfeeding them, a typical Hacker behavior.

Now when I struggle with the problems for days, then I am learning, I am looking for the final happiness, the long-term hapinnes, rather the short-term happiness caused by reinstallation. My friends have based their Linux learning on short-term happiness, thats the whole point. Their definition of hapinnes and my definition of happiness are different. They want quick-fix (cocaine ?) and I Want to drink Milk for 2-4 years continuouly everyday becayse only after years of this daily routine I will be in a good health. Their source of happiness is 2 hours ( Bade Miyan Chote Miyan ?) , my source of happiness is solving problems ( The Money Masters ?). and thats the source of everyone’s way of living this life. If you are still reading, good and if you are still reading and understand it too, well, congratulations, you can be the one you want to become. As a final note, I have edited the subtitle that comes with Ubuntu:

Linux for Idiot Beings

or need I say: Linux for Windows Beings, for Windows and Ubuntu users don’t have any identity of their own, they have let Microsoft shaped their way of thinking about software. They are no longer original but just copies of the way the Windows is designed.

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice, and the copyright notice, are preserved.

I was wandering on #freebsd and #openbsd some days ago and was pretty much amazed when people did not like GNU way. Then I read FreeBSd and OpenBSD FAQs and foud that BSD folks are very keen on replacing any GPLed code in their system with newly written BSD licensed code. OpenBSD even says that GPL is acceptable as last resource.

what the heck ?

I was very much interested in installing OpenBSD and using it as my daily OS but after this I was literally hurt. I decided not to spend any time on BSD, rather using that time to understand the GNU software. The current situation of software demands proper attention, commitment and dedication to copyleft ideals, otherwise proprietary software companies will keep on getting stronger and stronger and will keep on eating the society in the name of business and it will affect the Free Software community as whole, whether BSD or whether GPL or whether Apache people. It will affect all of us, after all we make together free software community). Free Software is about our responsibility to help society grow better , to make technical innovations that will help removing misery and pain from this planet while proprietary software people are totally committed the other way, make money on the cost of society. Earth is the place where out kids grow, where our loves ones and friends live, and where we see people like us trying to help each other, proprietary software supporters, intentionally and indirectly do not want, they want control of economy and by writing BSD code BSD people help them in gaining control over society and hence themselves (Windows has some BSD code), BSD license is like giving someone a sharp knife, telling him that he can use it to cut vegetables and fruit so that he can make his health better but that person uses that knife to stab you , in the face…

What people like me do, we don’t give such people the knife, we give them GPL, they can’t attack us back. Whose responsibility this society is ? Who wants to stand for his country, for people need to grow out of misery and pain and lower level of poor life to get better education, better health and a better future. if software is the tool then who will accomplish this ? If software is the key in creating a society of liberated, educated and technical people who can take leadership and responsibilities in their own hands then what will you do ? .. Now don’t say “Oh.. please, we write software, don’t include politics here”..

Well, why Niels Bohr (if you have read Science then must be knowing him), a great scientist was flown in a small and risky 2 seat airplane from, IIRC, Denmark to Britain. He literally stopped breathing because of some of technical problem in the plane. British people have to revive him when the airplane landed. It was one of the operation of World War 2. Now why a non-violent scientist came under the World War 2 plan. Its because he was extremely technical when it comes atomic science. If Hitler could have him then Atomic Bombs would have fallen on USA and UK, not Nagasaki and Hiroshima and your people, your friends, your loved ones will be saying “Heil Hitler” instead of “this time I’m free“. Niels Bohr has the tool to a Free Society and same way in year 2009, the Free Software is the key to a free society where no one is judged on the basis of his religion, his race, his color or his cast. In the world of free software we judge people based on their programming skills and we believe that Information needs to be free for society needs to grow and remove the pain and misery from the lives of their fellow people.

I think writing BSD licensed code means helping the greedy business to establish the control over us. Don’ do that, if you love your freedom. I Love the Hacker’s ideals and from experience I can say that Hackers can become great politicians, and great Leaders who can turn the direction from where human lives are heading today to a better and prosperous future where the government will support people to help themselves and then will get out of their way to let them grow. Its the Free Society, where anyone can assume his responsibility for his countrymen then he will lead, GPL is the key in doing that, if you loose it, you loose the quality. you loose the peace that a man wants in his entire life. Accept the truth and truth will set you free.

Copyright © 2008, Arnuld Uttre, #331/type-2/sector-1, Naya Nangal, Distt. – Ropar, Punjab (INDIA) – 140126

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