Hyperion Reactor The Middle Child of History

The default way a VirtualBox machine connects to the network is using NAT. Since it’s connected to a private network, you can connect to the outside world but other machines cannot contact you (this holds true even for the host machine). NAT is the easiest and most lightweight way of connecting your virtual machine to the network. VirtualBox also supports others ways of connecting to the network such as a bridge adaptor.

In 1997 Mahabir Pun set out to provide Internet access to the students of Himachal High School. The teachers and students of Billanook College gifted him with a few old computers. His aim was to enable the students communicate with each other using email. This simple dream changed the way of life for a number of people living in small villages. In 2003 a student in Los Angeles got a grant from the Donald Strauss Foundation, which helped make this dream a reality. The World Bank recently granted $20,000 to extend and improve the existing network. Nepal’s largest Internet Service Provider, World-Link has helped build infrastructure.

The AirJaldi mesh network is located in and around Dharamshala. The network can be considered as one of the largest mesh networks in the world. It covers over a hundred kilometers of rough terrain with a number of mountains and hills. Most of the network is situated in the foothills of the western Himalayan ranges. The network has already provided Internet access to over 2000 computers. The backbone is comprised of 30 nodes. More information on mesh networks and infrastructures in Dharamshala will be furnished in a follow-up article.

AirJaldi is a summit which strives to bring affordable internet access in rural communities. AirJaldi focuses on issues and advantages of setting up such networks, how it enhances the quality of life, education, health care, and improve the economy.

We all have benefited by the power of the internet, it is time that we share this with the rest of mankind. The conference starts off on 22nd of October, I am planning on staying as long as I can.

And who knows if we are lucky the Dalai Lama may just crash our party :)

Update

We have finally stopped accepting applications for the internship program. Now this is where the grunt work begins. We have started the phone interview process. The application turn out was better than expected, we got about 57 entries. I will be spending the weekend generating some nice charts and stats about the people who applied (age, locations etc).

If you need any information please stop by #drupal-india on irc.freenode.net.

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A while back I was in Delhi, with Richard Stallman. FSF India and the CPIM were working together on the removal of software patent.

A friend just sent me the url that we have finally succeeded in doing so :) I am really happy for this, and glad that I was a part of this.

You can read the whole article here

Finally I made it to GNUnify! My scheduled talks are on “Getting involved in the FLOSS Movement”. I really hope it goes good since I did not have the time to make a presentation or even come up with the points to speak about. But I did manage to scribble down something on my way over here.

Hoping to give a join talk on Ruby with Premshree may be if i get some time even talk about Ruby On Rails.

Today Richard Stallman and I were at the India Internation center. Vandhana Shiva and a couple other organizations and political parties organized a meeting to counter the Patents issue that India is faced with currently.

Stallman and I were there to shed light on the issue of software idea patents. We also talked about how if software idea patents would affect the growth of the entire country.