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<title>TUX&GNU@school - 4th edition</title> |
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<h1>TUX&GNU@school - 4th edition</h1> |
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<p><i>Every month the column <a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tgs.html">TUX&GNU@school |
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[2]</a> reports about free software, a homepage on the topic |
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and an easy to implement idea. This month I talk about <a |
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href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/">Ghemical [3]</a>, |
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modelling und computing molecules, about <a |
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href="http://www.seul.org/edu">seul.org/edu [4]</a>, the |
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education portal of SEUL - Simple End-User Linux and about |
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the idea "word games generated rapidly".</i></p> |
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<p>Welcome to the 4th edition. As I promised last time, there |
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are some news today. This is the first edition released under |
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the roof of the <a href="/">Free |
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Software Foundation Europe [5]</a> and <a |
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href="http://www.gnu.org">GNU [6]</a>. In this context |
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TUX&GNU@school will be released in different languages in |
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the future but right now only in German and English. At this |
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point I want to thank Christian Selig and Kristian Rink for |
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their support with writing and translating. Unfortunately |
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there is no report about a school using GNU/Linux and/or Free |
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Software in this edition. I hope that next time I find |
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somebody and I likewise will upgrade the <a |
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href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=99">Questions Page |
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[7]</a> and translating of course. And again, sorry for the |
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latenese. The reason is easy: It a lot of work (too much for |
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a hobby) promoting and installing (!) GNU/Linux at Swiss |
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schools. But now we're talking about a topic everyone loves: |
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Chemistry.</p> |
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<h3>Ghemical - Modelling and computing molecules</h3> |
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<p><a href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/">Ghemical |
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[3]</a> is a free program for chemistry, which is relatively |
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easy for modelling and computing molecules. I tssted the |
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version 0.82 under <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian |
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GNU/Linux 3.0 [8]</a> and <a href="http://www.kde.org">KDE |
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2.2.2 [9]</a>. You can easy install the program under Debian |
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with the command <tt>apt-get install ghemical</tt>. Version |
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0.90 is up to date and if you can trust the homepage, they |
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want to release the version 1.0 in this summer (that's |
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becoming scarely) or autumn. The program is (and was) |
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developed by several people, all listed alphabetically on the |
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homepage.</p> |
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|
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<p>Before I begin with the introduction to Ghemical I want to |
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mention yet: Unfortunately my last chemistry teacher took my |
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interest for this subject so I can't interpret all terms |
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correctly. But who is bothering intensifiedly with this |
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subject will understand it much better. That's the reason why |
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I'm not going in the depth of each term and function.</p> |
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|
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<p>Starting the program a window quite similar to the first |
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screenshot will appear. That's the main window from where you |
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appoint what will be the project you work on. Up to now |
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quantum and molecular mechanic models and reduced protein |
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models are available whereas the last one isn't completely |
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implemented yet. When you start Ghemical it is most useful |
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doing this out of a terminal because it is still necessary to |
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make some in- and output on the terminal. But this feature |
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shall disappear with the version 1.0. Working with the |
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program the menu panel and the popup menu are the most |
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important aids. The menu panel owns three items: <i>File</i>, |
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<i>Windows</i> and <i>Help</i>. It's important to mention now |
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the program isn't really translated to German. There are only |
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scattered terms, words and descriptions in German. In the |
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menu item <i>File</i> you can open projects, load already |
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existing ones and exit the program. At <i>Windows</i> it is |
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possible to choose between the following three MDI modes: |
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<i>Notebook</i>, <i>Toplevel</i> and <i>Modal</i>. And |
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finally in the last item <i>Help</i> you find either general |
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information about Ghemical or a link to the |
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documentation.</p> |
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<p><img src="./img/ghemical.en.png" |
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alt="Screenshot 1: Ghemical with aspirin" width="800" |
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height="600" border="0" /><br /> |
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</p> |
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<h5>Screenshot 1: Ghemical with aspirin</h5> |
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<br /> |
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<br /> |
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<p>If you decided for a project at the left brink are a lot |
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of modification possibilities to work with. These differ from |
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different rotation and translation directions over the |
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zooming unless the erasing and adding of atoms and bindings |
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of course. Clicking on the prompt window for the molecules |
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with the right mouse button a popup menu appears which |
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contains different items depending on the project. To mention |
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are for instance the different presentation possibilities. |
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Proceeding the single atoms can be indexed differently. |
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Surely it's interesting too that you can plot the molecules |
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in different ways among others there is a display for 3D |
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glasses build in. This popup menu contains then too the basic |
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functions for saving and closing the projects. The choice |
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between between different elements and bindings is possible |
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here too. Beneath these simple function there are more |
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complex ones too. <b>Where the correct adding of hydrogen |
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atoms every reader still understands menu item as |
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"ESP-colored vdW-surface" isn't only imcomprehensible for the |
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author.</b> At this item the interested user and ongoing PhD |
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will hopefully understand it. Principally there is a huge |
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number of different engines and algorithms for studying and |
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changing the molecules. They seem to be quite professional |
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for me as layman. The possibility of generating DNA molecules |
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out of an easy "ACGT code" is absolutely noticeable for |
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me.</p> |
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<p><img src="./img/ghemical2.en.png" |
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alt="Screenshot 2: Van der Waals image of acetylsalicyl-acid" |
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width="800" height="600" border="0" /><br /> |
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</p> |
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<h5>Screenshot 2: Van der Waals image of |
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acetylsalicyl-acid</h5> |
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<br /> |
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<br /> |
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<p>At the end some tips (mainly from the <a |
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href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/">homepage [3]</a>) |
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that can help you with the daily usage.</p> |
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<ol> |
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<li>For the generation of a quantum mechanic model |
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principally it is more meaningful to generate a molecular |
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mechanic one first which then you can transform in a |
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quantum mechanic one.</li> |
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<li>All menu panel are freely relocatable and placeable |
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outside of the main window too.</li> |
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<li>There are a lot of import and export formats available |
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for molecular mechanic models.</li> |
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<li>If you are forced using Windows at work then you can |
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find a <a |
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href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/cygwin.html">detailed |
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description [10]</a> about the usage of Ghemical under |
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Windows.</li> |
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</ol> |
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And for those who are still wondering at the end of this |
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short description how you have to pronounce "Ghemical" can |
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find an answer in the statement of an developer which says |
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that generally everybody can pronouce it as he or she want |
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but the "G" comes from "GNU" and/or "GNOME". <br /> |
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<br /> |
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|
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<p>But now continues to the home of Simple End-User |
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Linux.</p> |
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<h3>seul.org/edu, the education portal of SEUL - Simple |
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End-User Linux</h3> |
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<p><a href="http://www.seul.org/edu">SEUL/edu [4]</a> |
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subproject of <a href="http://www.seul.org">SEUL [11]</a> |
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stands for "Simpel End-User Linux". The goal of SEUL is |
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making available an as easy as possible GNU/Linux system for |
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every user. Thereby qualitatively good software shall arise |
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which preferably will be released under the terms of the <a |
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href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU GPL [12]</a>. |
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To manage and assist this the site is hosting a lot of <a |
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href="http://www.seul.org/pub/hosting.html">projects [13]</a> |
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and makes available mailing lists for the coordination of the |
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work. Main language in this project and on the website too is |
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English.</p> |
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The subproject school and education was founded in 1998. Doug |
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Loss is the leader at the moment and Karl Peña is managing a |
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lot of stuff on the <a href="http://www.seul.org/edu">website |
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[4]</a>. Beneath these two there are a lot of other |
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freelancers too. In principle SEUL/edu mainly consists of a |
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mailing list whose access is already described on the |
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frontpage and you can subscribe right there too. <br /> |
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<br /> |
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<p><img src="./img/seul-edu.en.png" |
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alt="Screenshot 3: The homepage of SEUL/edu" width="800" |
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height="600" border="0" /><br /> |
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</p> |
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<h5>Screenshot 3: The homepage of SEUL/edu</h5> |
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<br /> |
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<br /> |
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<p>The homepage of the project is devided in seven sections. |
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They are: <i>Current projects</i>, <i>Existing software</i>, |
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<i>Case studies</i>, <i>Documentation</i>, <i>Regular |
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reports</i>, <i>List archive</i> and <i>Links</i>. There is |
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only one <a href="http://seul.org/edu/projects.html">project |
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[14]</a> now under the first item whose goal it is making |
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available an ISO-Image containing a counterbalanced |
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collection of education software. But the development stands |
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still at the beginning and we will see what will happen with |
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it. However the database with already <a |
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href="http://richtech.ca/seul/">existing software [15]</a> is |
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remarkable by all means and I never saw such a big one in the |
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internet yet. At the moment the database contains 518 |
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software projects arranged by categories believe it or not. |
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There is a short description for each entry. Additional and |
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optional information are: version, date, author, homepage, |
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download URL and the used license of course. Accessorily it |
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is possible showing only predetermined data as the license or |
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a the short description. Important for the further growth is |
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the easy way to enter new software which is accomplished |
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through a <a |
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href="http://richtech.ca/cgi-bin/seul/seuladd0.pl">form on |
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the website [16]</a>. You can search the entries either for a |
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destined application or a pretermined word. But don't forget |
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there is not only Free Software in this database. Because the |
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people of SEUL/edu collected and catalogued already so much |
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software it would possibly make sense that other projects use |
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this database too, integrating it in their webpages and |
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expand it. A translation in other languages would expand the |
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circle of possible users again.</p> |
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|
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<p>They who are searching reports about schools using |
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GNU/Linux and/or Free Software making a find here too. |
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SEUL/edu offers <a |
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href="http://casestudy.seul.org/cgi-bin/caseview0.pl">reports |
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[17]</a> of more than 50 schools worldwide. There are a few |
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from Cuenca in Ecuador to Marl in Germany. It is possible to |
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easy make new entries with a <a |
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href="http://casestudy.seul.org/casestudy.html">form [18]</a> |
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on the website. Under <a |
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href="http://seul.org/edu/docs/">documentation [19]</a> you |
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don't find as much at the moment. There is already a |
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classification for the documenation in the future which |
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contains sections as the <i>Users guide</i> or the |
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<i>Teachers guide</i>. Even a category helping |
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decision-makers and people who want to persuade schools of |
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GNU/Linux and/or Free Software is available. But SEUL/edu |
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lists <a |
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href="http://seul.org/edu/docs/relateddoc/index.html">foreign |
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documentation[20]</a> in the same structure too. At the |
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moment there is a helping description for people who want to |
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write documentation for one of the named categories.</p> |
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<p>The project itself releases an extensive report about the |
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situation of GNU/Linux and Free Software in and at schools at |
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least twice a month. The since the beginning of 2000 |
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published reports are of course archived on the site <a |
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href="http://seul.org/edu/reports.html">[21]</a> so that |
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everyone can read them at any time. Because SEUL/edu mainly |
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works and communicates over the mailing list they made an |
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archive of the list available <a |
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href="http://archives.seul.org/seul/edu/">online [22]</a> |
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too. And finally under the last item you can find an |
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extensive <a |
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href="http://seuldat.seul.org/cgi-bin/link/urlview.pl">links |
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collection [23]</a> to further sites about the theme |
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"GNU/Linux, Free and Open Software in and at schools".</p> |
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|
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<p>But now, let's continue with the idea of this month.</p> |
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<h3>"Word games generated rapidly"</h3> |
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<p>For the last idea, concedely a little skinny one, I didn't |
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receive any implementation because of this continues to the |
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idea of this edition. Because the ideas introduced until now |
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were always more or less for learning or teaching at the hard |
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everyday school life I want to present an idea for loosing |
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today. Riddles, an invention fascinating and entertaining |
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humankind since billions of years, can prettify school a |
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little. Even children find pleasure and happiness with |
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riddles and guessing games. I think about a quite special |
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kind which seems to be rather simple to implement and program |
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too. What I mean is a letters huddle containing different, |
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mostly thematically coherent words. The task is to search and |
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find these words in the mix-up. Mostly the letters are |
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disposed in an rectangle in which the to finding words are |
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placed horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Thereby the |
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searching words can be written forward or backward.</p> |
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<p>Perhaps there is already a piece of software generating |
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such riddles. And if not such a thing would be implementable |
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in short time, isn't it ? A little bash script putting words |
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of a definite category into a letters huddle. Writing this |
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letters sequence with some <a |
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href="http://www.latex-project.org">(La)TeX [24]</a> commands |
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into a text file and translating it would result in a quite |
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good-looking riddle for pupils her excercices already |
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finished. And the best, if you select correlatively the word |
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collection pupils even learn the correct orthography or |
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understand the context between the single word families. |
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Anyway I'm curious about the ideas you will create. Farther |
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ideas were for instance that words are written correctly and |
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wrong in the letters mix-up or you make the whole thing with |
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numbers.</p> |
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<p>Once again at this place the calling to send <a |
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href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">me [1]</a> ideas which you think |
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are easy to implement or you didn't find comparable software |
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yet, then I will report about them at this place in one of |
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the next editions. And perhaps there are firms, schools or |
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single persons offer a reward for an implementation.</p> |
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<p>But now continues to a new section.</p> |
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<h3>News and up to date program versions</h3> |
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<p>In the future I will report in this section about news of |
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GNU/Linux and Free Software at school. Beneath I will list |
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actual program versions of free education software for the |
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moment only of the programs I already reported about in |
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TUX&GNU@school. Software whose version changed since the |
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last edition will be highlighted in red.</p> |
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<h4>DebianEdu:</h4> |
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<p>On 6th of september Raphael Hertzog announced the birth of |
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DebianEDU a subproject of <a |
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href="http://www.debian.org">Debian [8]</a>. Interim goal of |
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the project is it making Debian the best available |
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distribution school purposes. At the moment they impetuously |
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dicuss on the <a |
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe">mailing |
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list [25]</a> how they want to go on the first tasks and what |
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has priority. You can find more information under <a |
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href="http://wiki.debian.net/DebianEdu">[26]</a>.</p> |
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<h4>Up to date program versions</h4> |
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<ul> |
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<li><a href="http://edu.kde.org/ktouch">KTouch</a> 1.0 - |
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Type writing course under KDE 3.0.3 (<a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tagatschool1.html">TGS |
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1</a>)</li> |
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<li><a href="http://www.ofset.org/gcompris">GCompris</a> |
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1.1.0 - Education plattform with different boards (<a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tagatschool2.html">TGS |
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2</a>)</li> |
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<li><a href="http://edu.kde.org/kgeo">KGeo</a> 1.0.2 - |
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Geometry program under KDE 3.0.3 (<a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tagatschool3.html">TGS |
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3</a>)</li> |
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<li><a |
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href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/">Ghemical</a> |
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0.90 - Chemistry program for modelling and computing |
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molecules (<a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tagatschool4.html">TGS |
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4</a>)</li> |
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</ul> |
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<br /> |
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<br /> |
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<p>That's it for this month up to the next.</p> |
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<h3>Links:</h3> |
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<p>[1] <a href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">Criticism, questions, |
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comments, ideas and more please to: foxman@lugo.ch</a><br /> |
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[2] <a |
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href="/activities/tgs/tgs.html">Homepage |
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of TUX&GNU@school: |
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fsfe.org/activities/tgs/tgs.en.html</a><br /> |
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[3] <a href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/">Homepage |
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of Ghemical: bioinformatics.org/ghemical/</a><br /> |
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[4] <a href="http://www.seul.org/edu">Homepage of SEUL/edu: |
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www.seul.org/edu</a><br /> |
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[5] <a href="/">Homepage of the Free |
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Software Foundation Europe: fsfe.org</a><br /> |
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[6] <a href="http://www.gnu.org">Homepage of the GNU |
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project: www.gnu.org</a><br /> |
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[7] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=99">Questions |
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for a possible using of GNU/Linux and/or Free Software at |
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school</a><br /> |
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[8] <a href="http://www.debian.org">Homepage of Debian: |
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www.debian.org</a><br /> |
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[9] <a href="http://www.kde.org">Homepage of KDE: |
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www.kde.org</a><br /> |
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[10] <a |
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href="http://bioinformatics.org/ghemical/cygwin.html">Description |
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about using Ghemical under Windows</a><br /> |
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[11] <a href="http://www.seul.org">Homepage of SEUL: |
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www.seul.org</a><br /> |
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[12] <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU |
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General Public License</a><br /> |
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[13] <a href="http://www.seul.org/pub/hosting.html">List of |
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projects hosted by SEUL</a><br /> |
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[14] <a href="http://seul.org/edu/projects.html">ISO-Project |
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of SEUL/edu</a><br /> |
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[15] <a href="http://richtech.ca/seul/">Database with |
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education software for GNU/Linux</a><br /> |
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[16] <a |
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href="http://richtech.ca/cgi-bin/seul/seuladd0.pl">Form for |
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entering new software to the database</a><br /> |
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[17] <a |
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href="http://casestudy.seul.org/cgi-bin/caseview0.pl">Reports |
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of schools using GNU/Linux and/or Free Software</a><br /> |
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[18] <a href="http://casestudy.seul.org/casestudy.html">From |
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for entering new reports</a><br /> |
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[19] <a href="http://seul.org/edu/docs/">The |
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documentation-project of SEUL/edu</a><br /> |
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[20] <a |
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href="http://seul.org/edu/docs/relateddoc/index.html">Foreign |
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documentation on seul/edu.org</a><br /> |
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[21] <a href="http://seul.org/edu/reports.html">Archive with |
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the regular reports of SEUL/edu</a><br /> |
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[22] <a href="http://archives.seul.org/seul/edu/">The lists |
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archive of SEUL/edu</a><br /> |
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[23] <a |
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href="http://seuldat.seul.org/cgi-bin/link/urlview.pl">Link |
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collection of SEUL/edu:</a><br /> |
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[24] <a href="http://www.latex-project.org/">Homepage of |
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LaTeX: www.latex-project.org</a><br /> |
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[25] <a |
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href="http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe">Mailinglists |
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of the Debian project</a><br /> |
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[26] <a href="http://wiki.debian.net/DebianEdu">Current |
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homepage of DebianEDU: wiki.debian.net/debianedu6</a><br /> |
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</p> |
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|
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<h4>About the author:</h4> |
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|
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<p>Mario Fux finished 1999 the PrimarlehrerInnenseminar in |
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Brig after he made up mathematical and natural scientifical |
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matura. In a body with two colleagues he founded the <a |
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href="http://www.edux.ch">"ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe Linux an |
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Schulen"</a> (Swiss work group for linux at school). |
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Meanwhile he studies at the <a |
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href="http://www.ethz.ch">Swiss Federal Institut of |
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Technology Zurich</a> <a |
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href="http://www.ee.ethz.ch">informations technology and |
|
electrical engineering</a>. And if he once doesn't spend his |
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time in front of the PC, he sits at his nature pond in the <a |
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href="http://www.randa.ch">mountains</a>.</p> |
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|
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<p align="center"><i>Copyright (c) 2002 Mario Fux. Permission |
|
is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
|
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version |
|
1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software |
|
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, |
|
and no Back-Cover Texts.<br /> |
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