Turning to Free Software
BASH
International Public Software meeting
León Lacourt p. 12
Ricardo Hernández p. 18
María Inmaculado Sanseverino p. 6
VOL I N10
ENGLISH VERSION
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editorial
About Public Software, Google, Latinux and Japanese cherry trees Several interesting topics are
te and "control" the world's informa-
it were an orchid, at the end of May.. "
covered in this edition of Latinux Magazine. Since digital television, through the CLAD meeting in Caracas related to Public Software International (SPI for its acronym in Spanish), to a great poster of the June news item, the World Cup. The SPI is continuing to consolidate in Latin America. After the recent meeting of the CLAD held in Caracas, the project is expected to expand and to incorporate new members. Excellent work from the teams of Corinto Meffe (Brazil), Johanan Pacheco (CLAD) and Raul Zambrano (UNDP). Google continues to work in order to put information technologies within the reach of as many people as possible, in an easy way. Now, they are making a major effort to consolidate the penetration of its operating system Android, by including it in a variety of common devices such as cell phones and more recently, television. It can be seen as the sale of phones based on Android, beat the iPhone in the first quarter of this year and there is no doubt that the new Google Box TV, based on Android will have a major impact on how we interact with digital TV and the Internet. In recent days, I have held interesting informal talks about the benefits and dangers of such an organization able to integra-
tion. This is an issue that must be addressed more carefully in future issues of Latinux Magazine. As a Bamboo, Latinux has been creating solid roots preparing for an inevitable growth. The Latinux cluster continues to grow in a sustained way and the certifications in free technologies, including Linux are consolidated and expanded. The use of social networks are not immune to this growth, which is why we dedicate more time and resources to interact with our allies and readers through Twitter (@latinuxorg, @latinuxmagazine, @latinuxcom) and Identi.ca (with latinuxmagazine latinuxorg and identifications). While composing this text, there comes an email from the Simón Bolívar University list of professors (this is a technological university located in Venezuela where I teach), it did a little tweaking to this editorial and I want to share it with the readers of Latinux Magazine. In the email, its author, Professor José Luis Palacios mentions what happened with the three Japanese
Professor Palacios concluded his message by saying: "The bloomed Japanese cherry tree it is a metaphor to illustrate the possibilities to continue to produce results even in the most adverse conditions." and that is the message I want to rescue which "magically" connects the various themes in this editorial. Producing results is not easy, but less when conditions are not right or are even adverse. However, the team behind the SPI, Google and Latinux have the spirit of that Japanese cherry. I do not doubt that each one inside its context, are and will be successful.
cherry trees planted in the vicinity of the main library. He says: "They never grew much, and indeed two of them died. But the third has been kept alive ..." and continues further "This stubborn and obstinate tree not only refuses to die, but it just bloomed ..."," I realized that the tiny cherry has a handful of delicate pink flowers. This is almost a miracle because in their natural environment of four seasons, cherries bloom in late March and early April. Here it did as if
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1
content
editorial
basic notions
About Public Software, Google, Latinux p. 1 and Japanese cherry trees Ricardo Strusberg
Turning to Free Software León Lacourt
p. 12
post
p. 14
events Internacional Public Software Meeting María Inmaculada Sanseverino
p. 4
technology kiosk OLED Screens Marina Bello Alex Pérez
p. 16
Diffusion Zone Digital Television: convergence Jorge Cabezas
Towards
Interactive Digital Television Martín Olivera
TIPS & TRICKS
the p. 6
BASH Ricardo Hernández p. 10
In touch César Vilchez Inga María Inmaculada Sanseverino
Page Page
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p. 10
p. 18
p. 18
content
Comicnology
Calendary
p. 20
p. 21
Directory
p. 22
SOCCER POOLS
p. 23
Editor in chief Ricardo Strusberg Associate Editor Gustavo Maggi Editor María Inmaculada Sanseverino Illustrator and Graphic Designer Marina Bello Administrative Assistant Yeliana Villalobos Translation Martha Romero Administration Jacqueline Pérez de Strusberg For local contacts: brasil@latinuxmagazine.com chile@latinuxmagazine.com colombia@latinuxmagazine.com puertorico@latinuxmagazine.com republicadominicana@latinuxmagazine.com mexico@latinuxmagazine.com peru@latinuxmagazine.com uruguay@latinuxmagazine.com usa@latinuxmagazine.com venezuela@latinuxmagazine.com
LATINUX CLUSTER Sponsored by: Latinux Cluster The Cluster Latinux is an enterprises, educational institutions and consultants network specialized in solutions based in free technologies, including consulting and training for these solutions.At the same time, it focuses in consulting, support, maintenance, developing and enterprises solutions installation services based in free technology worldwide. Inside business opportunities opened from Latinux, one is to cover the no satisfied demand from organizations, companies and governments related to free software development and the chance to take advantage of products and services with a specific local success or in a whole conglomerate acting area.All Latinux participant enterprises are well established in their own working area and all have a long experience with free technology.
LATINUX PRESS Published by: Latinux Press, a Latinux Inc. division. Address: Av. Samuel Lewis, Edificio Central, PH. Panamá, República de Panamá.. Teléfono: + 1 305 517-1853 E-mail: info@latinuxpress.com Latinux Magazine is not responsible for the content posted. The information referred to is the responsibility of the authors and / or associates mentioned herein.
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Events
International Public Software Meeting Seven Latin American countries met to discuss proposals and set goals May the 20th and 21st were essential for the Public Software International evolution (SPI for its acronym in Spanish) . The meeting was held in Caracas, Venezuela, at the headquarters of the Latin American Center for Development Administration (CLAD for its acronym in Spanish), with the presence of Corinto Meffe, Brazil's Government Innovations in Technology manager, Eduardo Santos, Brazilian Public Software Portal (SPB for its acronym in Portuguese) technical coordinator and Fausto Alvim, consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The three participants from Brazil were responsible for introducing the regional project entitled Public Software International, which is based mainly on Brazil's experience.
They explained that the public software or public good, having been developed by public law institutions was materialized during the VIII International Free Software Forum in Porto Alegre, on April 12, 2007 with the launch of the Brazilian Public Software Portal (www.softwarepublico.gov.br), which in less than a month had more 3,000 members registered. The purpose of this site is to promote an ecosystem in which users, developers and service providers collaborate. It currently offers about 20 public sector computer solutions in various areas to over 29,000 valid users, facilitating the implementation of new tools, promoting the integration between the federal units and, by making available a to society a set of public services based in the software
Corinto Meffe presents the SPB project
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product. The project of the Collaborative Network of Free and Open Software (RCSLA for its acronym in Spanish), a UNDP initiative, works to expand and internationalize the SP concept. To do this, it will translate into Spanish and will launch the most useful release of SPB between the countries of the region in the International Public Software portal. Representatives of the other six countries are committed to this initiative are Ivan Patricio Astorga Veloso, from the Chile Digital Strategy Executive Secretariat; Eduardo Araya Fernandez, from the Digital Government of Costa Rica Technical Secretariat, David Grau Merconchini from Cuba's Information Center and Techno-
Eduardo Araya Fernรกndez by Costa Rica
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by the UNDP.
from the Presidency of Paraguay ICT
and Eizabeth Sierraalta from the Venezuelan National Center of Information
Policy Division; César Vilchez Inga
Technology. Also present were Joha-
from the Peruvian Government National Bureau of Electronic and Information Technology, and Rosa Maria Gil Cano, Carlos Gonzalez, Nestor Rondon
nan Pacheco, a consultant on Information Technology and Electronic Government by the CLAD and Raul Zambrano, Senior ITC Policy Advisor
country presented proposals and took at least a commitment to make possible the SPI portal. Paraguay and Brazil are working on the creation of the Government Community Management System,
logy Management, Nicolas Caballero
Corinto Meffe de Brasil and Iván Patricio Astorga from Chile
in order to have a developer community, Cuba will create the I3Geo's Generalization Office in that country, Chile and Costa Rica will made the implementation plan for its local portal, Peru will provide the collaborative platform
Iván Patricio Astorga, Fausto Alvim, Cesar Vilchez Inga y Corinto Meffe
of its website and in the same way that Venezuela, which will integrate the SPI to exchange users. Finally, all countries agreed a project's virtual meeting scheduled for July 7 this year, and the Second Interna-
Second day of the meeting at the headquarters of CLAD in Venezuela
At the end of the meeting each
tional Public Software Project Meeting during the Latinoware to be convened early in the last quarter of 2010.
All participants who were present at this meeting of SPI
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Diffusion zone
By Jorge Cabezas Twitter: @jkbezas
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Since - near the 1930s -, the first BBC broadcasts cut through the ether, leading to homes synchronized image and sound transmitted by means of electromagnetic waves, television was incorporated as a central communication medium in modern societies.
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Those first cumbersome appa-
pressing the signal, with the consequent
happens in the analog TV system, con-
ratus, equipped with cathode ray tubes
reduction in bandwidth required for
fers TDT an incontestable superiority.
which flashed quickly in black and whi-
transmission, which is much lower compared with that required for analogue television and offers a more efficient use of the radiolectrical spectrum. Also, through a process called multiplexing, which consists of a combination of several channels in a single transmission medium, it is extended the spectrum utilization capacity, because the same space that was previously used to transmit a single channel can now be used for many more. Thus, in the digital system, the channels, now called "digital programs", are multiplied, diversifying the signals' supply by means of the " digital multi-channel" or "multiplex" and allowing a release of the remaining part of the spectrum for its other uses. The ratio of compression applied to the process will determine, ultimately, both the number of programs that can be transmitted in each multi-channel, as the possibility of television broadcast signals in HD (High Definition or HD, for its acronym in English), whose bandwidth requirement is higher than the standard definition. Another benefit to consider is the picture and sound quality at the time of the reception which is achieved by the digital encryption provision. The difference between the quality of the analog and digital is because, although both share the same nature, - both being electromagnetic signals - and being equally susceptible to interference from electrical or magnetic fields, the weather or other similar causes, the fact that the digital signal image and sound are encoded in a logical manner and not in proportion to the initial information sources, like it
logical algorithms that allow the recipient to identify and correct distortions, delivering a signal similar to the original, regardless of the interference that it had suffered. This results in an overall improvement of the reception of signals. The digital TV allows to receive more channels, a better quality of signal reception translated into the sound and the received image display. In addition, digital technology incorporates advanced transmission techniques to avoid interference and screen distortions, both analog system common problems. In addition, digital TV standards allow interactive services besides television programming, i.e, to view content in a program guide , to access radio channels, to enjoy multi-camera vision (for sports events in particular), and to receive the signal in portable and mobile equipment (receivers on public transport or cellular), among other benefits. Transmission There are several transmission systems for Digital Television transmission, which are classified according to the signal reception form at home: Satellite, Cable or, which is the subject of this article: Digital Terrestrial Television. Like conventional analogue TV, TDT is transmitted by electromagnetic waves and the signal ground is received with a common TV antenna, unlike the media used for transmitting and receiving digital TV via satellite or cable, which require the installation of a satellite dish or coaxial cable.
te occupied the center of the domestic scene, and displaced the radio receiver in a short time which was, until then, the main media of mass communication. For decades, the evolution of TV focused on the development and innovation of the receptor, rather than the modes of transmission, and this led to the dizzying succession of increasingly lighter and powerful equipment, until reaching the current LCD screens that promise to be the novelty, throughout Latin America of the World Cup new edition. Or at least that was thought until the announcement of the beginning of the transmission of digital terrestrial television (TDT for its acronyms in Spanish), the technology that is revolutionizing the way we used to see and listen to audiovisual information flows. The television signal digitization -with the real possibility of being fully interactive -it is already a reality in our region, with varying degrees of progress in its implementation and a still open debate on the convenience of the type of standard to adopt. In this article, we'll see the main features of this new technology, which dramatically will transform the data, images and sound transmitting methods. Digital TV Unlike conventional analog TV, TDT is based on the TV signals binary encoding, so that the transmission of moving images and associated sound is made by a digital signal and through a network of terrestrial repeaters. The advantage of television signals digital encoding is the possibility of com-
The digital encoding follows
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7
Diffusion Zone While digital TV Satellite or
another, in countries that have adopted
create standards that then can be radia-
Cable, which are currently available as a paid service offered by private compa-
digital TV, lasted on average 10 years.
ted to the countries under its sphere of
While the deadlines for the "analogue
influence, thereby constituting a geopo-
nies, TDT arises in general as a system that governments put in place to offer their citizens a wide range of high quality free signals without the need, for the moment, to change the receiver, since when adding a decoder, our old TV can receive digital signals without any problems. Free-air television service users can receive the new digital signal into their existing TVs and enjoy a better transmission through these devices that convert digital signals coming from a particular media to analog, so in case there is not an integrated digital TV receiver, there is not need to change the current TV to access the digitization. Remember, in digital TV, image, audio and data are converted into bits, zeros and ones, allowing transmission errors to be corrected and with no interference or distortion on the screen. In this way, is guaranteed an excellent picture and sound quality (similar to the one a CD provides) and high-definition (HD) transmission services are enabled . To this advantage is added the possibility to see more channels, because the current analog technology only allows transmission of a single TV program per channel, but digital television, through a single channel is able to transmit multiple programs with a picture and sound quality similar to that of a DVD. This will continue until the socalled 'analogue switch' occurs, it will involve the cessation of emissions of this type, from which time the former receivers definitely will fall into disuse. In this regard, let's make it clear that the process of transition from one system to
switch� differ from one country to another, there is a general consensus in the region for the coexistence of analogue and digital until the conditions are ripe for everyone to receive the digital signal. Relating to this, and given that the transition from analogue to digital TV will be gradual and long term, while making the necessary adjustments is due to transmit simultaneous in both forms, so that users can continue to watch regular TV -both those who receive the analog signal as those who already receive the digital signal -, until all have migrated to the new technology. But perhaps the most fascinating challenge of this technological breakthrough lies in the digital television interactive services capacity through of which viewers can interact with television programming, access to information about broadcast content, view content in a program guide, access to radio channels, enjoy multi-camera vision – especially in sporting events -,
litical map of the distribution of the different existing standards: ATSC from the U.S., DVB in Europe and the Japanese ISDB-T. Thus, the U.S.' ATSC is used, among other by the United States, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and South Korea. The standard Japanese-Brazilian ISDB-T is used in Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador and Costa Rica. The European DVB-T is used in the European Union, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Uruguay, Panama, Colombia and Turkey. China uses the DTMB (formerly DSM-T/HDSM), which is being tested in other countries, like Cuba and Nicaragua. As can be seen, the standard ISDB-T (Integrated Services Broadcasting-Terrestrial), developed in Japan by the Digital Broadcasting Experts Group (DiBEG) has been adopted by most South American countries. Bolivia and Paraguay, and even Uruguay – which years ago had adopted the European standard -, are debating the adoption of this standard. And this is explained by their unique characteristics, which make it a robust and reliable standard for transmitting audio, video and data to fixed and mobile receivers. The requirements DiBEG took into account in its development were: - The ability to provide a variety of video, audio and data services - Its sufficient robustness against any interference and multipath fading for portable or mobile reception - The possibility of have separate receptors dedicated to television, sound and data, as well as fully integrated receivers
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and receive the signal on laptops and mobile phones (receptors in public transport or cellular), among other benefits. It will even be possible to develop platforms linked to different themes, such as education, advocacy, cultural or religious diversity, among many others. The ISDB-T standard Obviously, the transmission of TDT is carried out following the technical parameters established by different technological standards. The debate over the standard adopted, therefore, is closely related to the ability of states to
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- Flexibility to accommodate different services configurations and flexibility in the use
Farewell to the analog era
of transmission capacity
By: MarĂa Inmaculada Sanseverino
- Covers a large enough area to ensure the satisfaction of possible future requirements - Allows the generation of single frequency networks (RFU) - Use vacant frequencies efficiently and is compatible with existing analogue services and is compatible with other digital services Compared with other existing standards, the ISDB-T standard is the only one offering the possibility of mobile reception of TV signals in HD, overcoming the European and the U.S. limitation at this point. All other features, such as fixed reception in High Definition and Standard Definition, Data Broadcasting (text, photos, programming), TV signal reception with mobile phones with Internet access, are equally shared by the European. American and Japanese standards. In addition, other features have shifted the preferences of countries in the region towards the standard, as the fact that it has been adopted by the major power bloc, Brazil, where adjustments were made so it became the ultimate standard . Also the fact that adoptive countries can participate in decisions, gives the ISDB-T a democratizing global profile that contrasts sharply with the centrality of its competitors. Another high impact factor in the adoption of the standard Japanese-Brazilian was without a doubt, its free license, a factor critical to the emerging countries, without having to pay for its use, will benefit from the superior quality of the signal, without interference or duplication, as well as expanding the number of channels and variety of qualities transmitted on a single frequency.
Holland: It was the first country to complete the so-called analog switch off process. In 2006, the number of households was over seven million and cable television service dominated with a little over 89%, which facilitated the migration to digital. The analogue switch-off takes place on December 11, 2006. Andorra: It made the second Europe's analogue switch-off, only behind the Netherlands. It took place on September 25, 2007, and offered viewers more than 30 digital channels belonging to DTT in Spain and France, mixed with some international channels. Finland: In May 1996, the Government decided to begin the analog shutdown process in the country, also establishing new open business licenses concessions, nationwide, for radio and television. In June 1999 the first eight DTT licenses were awarded for a period of ten years. Dealers emissions were officially launched in August 2001 and in 2006, a progress report published by the TV 2007 Working Group, noted that the conditions had been completed to make the analog shutdown. This included the deployment of transmission networks with a coverage for the entire territory, the availability of digital broadcast receivers and a wide range of programs and services. Thus, this explains the Finnish blackout in September 2007. Sweden: The process of analogue switch-off in this country took place gradually in five phases. The Swedish Administration proposed the creation of a Digital Television Commission to take charge of this migration project. In December 2004, the Commission decided that the transition will begin between September and December 2005 in three areas chosen for their
technological geographic and demographic characteristics,. Six months later, the Commission on Digital Television, SVT, TV4 and Teracom, defined the analogue switch-off should be completed before February 1, 2008, but the migration process concluded much earlier, in October 2007. United States: In 1996, Congress gave the authorization to broadcast an additional channel to each broadcast TV station in order to begin the implementation of DTT, and established that in February 17, 2009, all stations should stop broadcasting its analog signal . The date was subsequently changed to June 12, 2009, the day when the country fully migrated to digital technology. Spain: though the first commercial DTT platform, Quiero TV, began operating in 2000, it lacked profitability and ceased its broadcasts in 2002. Three years later, on November 30, 2005 the project was revived for TVT. In 2007, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, presented a transition plan, which determined the end of analog broadcasts as gradual, with the March 30, 2010 deadline. The blackout took place that day in Spain with the exception of a few municipalities who waited until April 2. Japan: This Asian country adopted the ISDB-T standard for commercial broadcasting in December 2003. Convinced that this is a high quality and low costs system, which offers stability despite interference and wireless transmission, Japan will stop transmitting analog TV on July 24, 2011, the day scheduled for the outage.
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Diffusion Zone
By: MartĂn Olivera molivera@solar.org.ar Ginga Community from Argentina http://comunidad.ginga.org.ar (Argentina)
High definition, greater resistance to noise and better use of bandwidth Digital TV as well as improving image quality - high definition, greater resistance to noise - and win extension of the spectrum - more efficient use of bandwidth allowing more channels in the same spectrum "space" - also allows new forms of interaction with viewers. Ginga is the middleware (software agent) that enable this interactivity which is accessed via dedicated buttons on the remote control, mediating among recipients of ISDB-T Digital TV and users. Ginga middleware specification is part of the Japanese-Brazilian standard ISDB-T. The middleware Ginga is a Brazilian innovation and its specification was adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) using the ITU-T J.200 standards (Ginga Architecture and Ginga Common Core), J.201 (Ginga-NCL), J.202 (Ginga-J) for Digital Terrestrial Television and in 2009 was approved the ITU-T recommendation H.761 which positions Ginga-NCL as the first environment ITU interactive endorsement applicable to IPTV (television over IP networks / Internet.) Interactivity Interactivity can be classified
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into the digital TV into three types: local, with return data, or data exchange. Local interactivity is the one in which the user interacts with his/her digital TV receiver (set top box or integrated TV receiver) without having a returning channel to the station data. Second, the interactivity with the return of data requires an additional return channel through which to send data from the viewer to the station, this can be done via cellular network, SMS, telephone line or transmitting data over the line energy supply, for example. The third option of interactivity with data exchange requires a two-way return channel where the user can send and receive specific data, thereby enabling a kind of "interactive navigation�, obtaining detailed data on demand. In this case, it will be required a network or Internet connection (broadband, 3G, wi-fi) To better understand the different types of interactivity,as an example, some local interactive applications may be programming menus, the deployment of additional information on broadcast content (I.e. info from the movie which is being seen, previous results in a sporting event, or additional educational information on a documentary), the targeted advertising - by geo-
graphical area, by type of content as it was pre-configured by the viewer synchronized with the transmission, offline or trivia games. You can also interact with the various services offered by each receiver that can be accessed using Ginga. But it is the interactivity with return or exchange of data which opens up a whole new range of applications for television and its contents. In the case where only simple data return to the station is available, it can be thought about collecting records (public vote, opinion, television content receiving "approval" from the viewers, and so on). For scenarios where data exchange is available, the picture opens up further, enabling for example, new learning forms of interactive TV (T-learning), services' payment or T-commerce via interactive ads, and also a host of community connectivity options, such as activation of new social networks and multi-directional communication through TV. Ginga The Ginga name identifies both a specification - defined by the ITU standards - and the software that implements it. In the reference imple-
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mentation, developed by the Telemídia
be extended and modified by redefining
LAR for its acronym in Spanish) and
Laboratory of the Pontifical Catholic
the functions of data structures using
the Industrial Technology National Ins-
University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
meta-tables. Lua supports higher-order
titute. The deployment of Digital TV in
and released under GPL license, there is a common platform called Ginga Common Core, which contains the basis of the middleware itself. On the Ginga Common Core there are two possible environments for running applications, a declarative one called Ginga-NCL - also established by the PUC-Rio - and another imperative environment called Ginga-J, which uses Java as development language, the work result of Lavid University of Paraíba (Brazil). In Ginga-NCL is used the declarative language NCL: Nested Context Language. It is a modular language - following the principles of the W3C – XML based which allows to create comprehensive hypermedia documents according to the Nested Context Model with timing relationships between its components. It identifies the hypermedia components relations as entities through the definition of hypermedia connectors, and can specify arbitrary semantics for a hypermedia composition using the concept of composite templa-
functions and garbage collection. Combining all of the above, you can use Lua in object-oriented programming. Bridging the divide, we might think that the duo NCL/Lua works for the interactive digital television, just as does the couple HTML/JavaScript on the web. Ginga applications (NCL/Lua or Java) can be sent by digital TV stations through the data carousel provided
Argentina, with a strong government push, led to the active participation of the Argentine public universities in developing the project, in particular the National University of La Plata's LIFIA laboratory which has adapted the Ginga Common Core and Ginga-NCL to the Set Top Boxes hardware to be distributed by the Argentine government. In line with the reference implementation of PUC-Rio, LIFIA contributions are also released as free software under GPL license. The potential opened by the interactive digital TV is just shown as timid and probably will change as users themselves define what kind of interaction they prefer and what it could be used for. It is a good time for the curious and enthusiastic free software developers begin to internalize the benefits available in today Ginga, not only to be used creating and sharing interactive DTV applications that can be distributed over the network and TV stations, but thanks to the free nature of Ginga, can join to participate in the communities to dream and build new features and applications that not even imagined today.
tes. NCL modules can be incorporated into other standard web languages such as XLink and SMIL. Applications to Ginga-NCL may also be extended to the procedural scripting language Lua. Lua is a compact language that can be used on different platforms. In Lua, the variables have no type, only data and may be logical, integer, floating point numbers or strings. Data structures like arrays, sets, hash tables, lists and records can be represented using the only Lua data structure: the table. The Lua's semantics can
by the ISDB-T standard, from there they are taken by the recipient and run over its Ginga local environment. In this way applications can operate synchronously with transmission events, such as giving the user an option when a given scene is shown on the screen. In the receivers providing other access ways (USB, internal drive, Ethernet, wi-fi) the user can also transfer directly Ginga applications such as games or similar applications not requiring synchronization with the live broadcast of the TV. Free software Communities Ginga reference implementations have been developed as free software and are promoted by the Brazilian government through the Brazilian Public Software Portal, which houses both the repository of software available for download, as the Brazilian Ginga community forums, wikis and other collaborative development tools. As a result of the adoption of the ISDB-T standard in several countries of Latin America, it was established in 2009 the Argentinian Ginga Community with the support of the Free Software Argentinian Asociación (SO-
Advantages Advantages Uses bandwidth transmis- Usesaa smaller smaller bandwidth for for transmission sion - More digital digital channels programs can can be More channelsor or programs transmitted be transmitted -ItIt emits emits high television signalssighighdefinition definition television - The remaining spectrum can be devoted nals to other uses The remaining spectrum can be devoted - Itother improves to usespicture and sound quality
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Basic Nociones Notions Bรกsicas
UBUNTU IS AN AFRICAN WORD MEANING "HUMANITY TO OTHERS" OR "I AM WHAT I AM FOR WHO WE ALL ARE"
It has beeen talk abouut it for a long tim me, but most off tho ose who use computers care little abo out their exiistence, about the sam me as the possibility of developing carpal tunnel synd drome by a poorly designed cheap mouse. Some even pass as ignorant when tallking about it without ever having approached Firefox, others fear or think k that anything which is free is good, or that a costly side effect com mes with it.
By: Leรณn Lacourt
To all these and others who just want to try something different functional, and above all FREE, the way to free software can turn into a self discovery journey with a very happy and economic ending. Free Software intends to go against the system, leaving the four uncomfortable walls that often represents paid software. It is important to understand that free software also offers a lifestyle perhaps frowned upon, a nonconformist lifestyle, different, and especially fiery and adventurous. We can not think less of those who develop this software and use it with a big smile on his face, after all, the history of software and operating systems, can not
PaGE Pรกgina Page
tell us otherwise. There are over 50 years in which any type of computer system has cost money, are past the 30 in the presence of Microsoft, the leading software vendor in the world. Change the paradigm and dogma imposed by Microsoft and many others are not near done, and it may never happen, but today advances are increasingly successful. Today when the world struggles with economic crisis, global warming, overpopulation, wars and terrorist attacks, it would be
good to give a chance to free software, because the philosophy about all people having access to information through the use of a computer and the Internet could make a better world, who knows. If you have an old computer in a forgotten corner of your house serving as a dust accumulator, transform
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it in the beginning of your new compu-
crosystems. Openoffice has a word pro-
viruses or the disabling of the program
ter independence. Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu, will give
cessor, one program for presentations and other tools for calculations in the
itself and including your computer's operating system.
new life to your old processor at speeds never reached using any other operating system, and the best will happen when you see a simple interface in your language and 100% functional. Forget about viruses and other disruptive evil that used to disturb your chat with your friends in any of the instant messengers, to which you will have access as usual. No need to worry because your old files do not work, all of them, including your accumulated Microsoft Office files, will be recognized for an integrated solution called Openoffice, developed and marketed by Sun Mi-
style of Excel. You can also import all your audio and video files without further complication than to updated some codec. The advantages are numerous and when you think there is not software that help you accomplish a task such as editing video, or develop databases, simply access the free software searcher and voila!. Ready! Free solution and within minutes, a few clicks away. It is clear that propriertary software should not be seen as the enemy of your existence, without a doubt it is indeed necessary and irreplaceable in many cases, but with free software you'll find a warm welcome not having to pay or to be buying pirated software that has consequences such as
Not everything is rosy in the path to free software, there are still improvements underway, and yes, there are programs to run all kinds of tasks, but not all tasks in the best way nor the best possible interface. Remember, free software is an alternative, a response to problems and approaches as to why the only way to access the technology needs to be possessing certain purchasing power. Those times and that thought have come to an end.
Pรกgina PaGE Page Pa age 13 13 13 ww ww.la atin nuxm magazine.com www.latinuxmagazine.com
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technology Kiosk
OLED Technology One of the most advanced technologies of this era is ready to invade very soon and with great speed, the gadgets’ market. They are Organic Light Emitting Diode, also known by its acronym OLED, which through the reaction and movement of electrons that are located
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in the "organic layer", generates light by itself. The creation of different types of OLED, each with its special properties, depends on the various electrons and materials used for the outer layers. With advantages such as its low power consumption, lightness, flexibility, transparency, high contrast and possibi-
lity of projecting 3D images, the different types of OLED can be included in computer monitors, televisions, phones, watches, mp3 players, among a myriad of possible applications. Also, they can be used as light sources in household consumption, retail and offices, mimicking the natural light.
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Through this technology, users are able to interact with the "illuminating OLED" through touch. For example, there will be stickers pasted to the walls to illuminate them, which is a pretty interesting alternative in the interior design area. The AMOLED TV screens (Active Matrix OLED) are extremely thin and light, making them much easier to handle, although, at present, AMOLEDs televi-
sions are not easily acquired due to their high cost, technology is moving quickly to minimize and improve its accessibility. There are also laptops that have monitors with this new technology, the screens are transparent and will soon be marketed. It is easy to imagine that in the near future OLED transparent glasses could be created, to serve as monitors for the implementation of augmented
reality. Three-dimensional images could be projected in the goggles and merge with reality. Marina Bello Alex PĂŠrez
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tips & tricks
BASH
By Ricardo Hernanez Venezuela
This shell is an interface in which commands are written with a predetermined syntax which run them, resulting in a specific outcome In any operating system, you need tools tallowing users or other programs to interact with the operating system kernel, including for example, the file system management, network protocols routing and control, programs' compilers, among many other functions. One of these vital tools inside systems is the shell or command interface to interact with the kernel and its programs. These orders are often programs necessary to fulfill a lot of tasks such as checking the amount of free RAM memory, checking used disk space, modify a file system on a device, and many more. Do not confuse the command interface (CLI) with the graphical user interface (GUI), in many cases the GUI uses the CLI to execute actions without having to write a program already created. In general, a shell is a macro program that is composed of several small programs (shell built-ins). These programs allow you to extend the operation of this interface and represent the main difference between various types of consoles or shells in Unix environments. In the first specifications of Unix, the console 'sh' was used, it is pretty basic and doesn't have many features found in today's ones. Currently, the most commonly used are: ksh, bash, zsh, csh and tcsh, though the latter are used less and less because ksh, bash and zsh also add, beside their own features, those that are attractive from the other shells. The most common GNU / Li-
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nux is 'bash', created by the GNU project, and is present in nearly all existing Linux distributions and even can be used in some BSD. In addition bash is a very powerful and very flexible shell, including a very useful programming language. To start using bash, you must use a terminal. The terminal can be graphical or not. Formally these programs are called, terminal emulators, because they mimic a computer that was connected to a Mainframe and sent commands to be executed. To access the graphics terminal, it depends on the desktop environment used. In the case of GNOME, gnome-terminal application: Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. And in KDE, the konsole application: KDE Menu -> System -> Terminal. To access no-graphical terminals, press Ctrl + Alt + F1, Ctrl + Alt + F2, and so on until F6, to have a maximum of 6 graphics terminals or login's terminal. Although graphics terminals will be used here, the performance is equivalent for non-graphical terminals. When you start a terminal program, it also begins a bash session and the first thing we find is the following: ricardo@ latinuxmag~ $ This information is called the prompt and by default (in most distros) it includes: -ricardo -> user name -latinuxmag -> computer name (hostname) where the user is working -~, Tilde -> it refers to the current working directory
- $ → it indicates that the current user is a regular user, not root or super user (administrator) The symbol '~' is a diminutive of / home / user, meaning it always represents the user home directory at that time. The prompt can be modified to suit the user and the administrator. The configuration files the bash reads to specify default values (environment variables) and actions to execute when you start a bash process, are: - /etc/profile - /etc/bashrc - ~ /.profile - ~ /.bashrc The files found in /etc apply to all system users. The files located in '~', namely, each user's home are the settings for each individual user. Both within profile files as bashrc files are placed default values to be taken into account when starting any bash session. The difference is that the bashrc files only take into account the graphics terminal (or "not login" ones) and the profile files take into account both graphic and non-graphical terminals ("login" ones). To edit a single file and maintain these changes for any type of terminal, it is common to only edit the bashrc profile while into the profile is placed a line to read everything that the bashrc has.
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César Vilchez Inga Cesar Vilchez Inga is an electrical engineer from the “Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima”, Peru, with graduate studies in Systems Engineering. He specializes in Electronic Government, has extensive experience in the development and use of ICTs in the Peruvian State and currently serves as coordinator of the National Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology.
Maria Immaculada Sanseverino: It is to be held the eighteenth edition of one the most important technology events in Peru, the National Congress of Students of Computer and Systems Engineering (CONEISC for its acronym in Spanish). What is your relationship with it? César Vilchez Inga: I am part of the organizing committee, I am precisely an advisor to the central committee chaired by young computer systems and engineering people. Here, beside other colleagues, are advising on how to carry out the organization of the event, topics, search for exhibitors and the lectures thematic, among other issues. MIS: What are the expectations for this year? CVI: This is the edition number eighteen and here we want to make a distinction between what it was and what it is this System Engineering Students'
Congress. For example, previously it had two conference rooms to provide simultaneous lectures and most of our exhibitors, about 18 or 20 - were local. Now we are inviting international speakers who will give lectures simultaneously in six rooms. This year there are over 100 exhibitors from home and abroad, that is the reason we're making a very strong campaign throughout the region. MIS: How many people are expected to attend this event? CVI: We expect the minimum assistance between 2,000 and 3,000 students in average, but we want to reach 4,000 or 5,000 people, and though the event is near, we believe that the greatest number of registrations will be made in June .
CVI: Between 1500 and 2500 approximately. The assistance is going to be multiplied. MIS: Some advanced about the event?
information
CVI: We want it to be the ICTs' great celebration related to young people; thus we will promote new values on Free Software technologies that are hidden and are not well known in Peru, these tend to be young entrepreneurs who have their small and medium enterprises which are growing ... That's what we want to be known and we believe that it is good because it will motivate students nationwide.
MIS: How many people did attend this conference in previous years?
The CONEISC is the largest technology event in Peru. This year it will celebrate its eighteenth edition from August 2-7 and will be organized by the Universidad Nacional del Callao - UNAC (for its acronym in Spanish), with the support of the Peruvian Association of Computer and Systems Engineering (APEISC for its acronym in Spanish). This event annually brings together nearly three thousand students and future engineers and professionals in the careers of Systems Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science and related disciplines.
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calendary
June Mon
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Ubuntu user day The sixth edition of CNSL Pto. Fijo, Venezuela
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The sixth edition of CNSL Barquisimeto, Venezuela
V National Seminar on Emerging Technologies in Telecommunications and Telematics Cauca, Colombia
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Linux Day Santiago, Chile
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The sixth edition of CNSL Maracaibo, Venezuela
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The sixth edition of CNSL San Juan de los Morros, Venezuela
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Campus Party Bogotรก, Colombia
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directory
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