Why Freeware is Free?

Many computer users have probably pondered why there are so many free programs – also called freeware – available? Why would freeware programmers spend countless hours for free at all? And for their dedication, users are happy to see so many available programs suiting their needs without having to pay a single paisa. Freeware also competes with commercial products and sometime are even better, but costs nothing. Continue reading…

Little Things Journalists Can Do

I know as a journalist the happy moment is when somebody talk back about something s/he has written. Even better is when somebody acts positively after the writing appears. Same happened to Deepak. He wanted to write about a girl in Magaltar, Kavre who has been tied whole time since she was senseless – unable to reason. I accompanied Deepak for the tour, and he wrote from the angle which I loved. There were stories about such patients being tied up and always the angle used to be about the girl or boy’s right; they always criticized the parents for doing so and not providing treatment. Deepak thought from the point of view of parents. As a parent, what can you do other than putting her in chain after several of your treatment missions failed? I think I never complimented Deepak for the angle but I loved it.

After the story was published, a lady doctor provided treatment to the girl free of cost and Deepak has come up with that in his blog. Giving a New Life is about his writing helping the girl. He has photos of the girl before and after treatment.

And, lo and behold, she is now freed from chain. I came to know that she’s also cured from epilepsy. The before and after pics tell you a lot. Here, I would like to thank Dr. Aruna Uprety and Rural Health and Education Service Trust (RHEST) for being Good Samaritans.Hats off to you. I am also thankful to blogger and The Katmandu Post reporter Ujjwal Acharya and photojournalist Bikash Karki for accompanying me to the place. They didn’t complain when I had less-than-enough money to support the travel expenditure.

There are little things our writing can do.

Along with the happiness to seeing the new photo of the girl, I was made sad by two photos at UWB! that presented relatives of the killed policemen. The result of violence – I wonder when the conflict will end and we will be able to live in peace.

The Nepali Irony: Living in Darkness

Nepal is the second richest country in the world (after Brazil) yet we are forced to spent a few hours everyday under darkness. Anbika Giri, in UWB!, writes about loadshedding in the town.

Nepal is second richest country in water resource in the world. Sounds good but reality? We are facing load shedding, we have no drinking water, and we should have to depend on sky raining for our croups. We are rich?

Deelip talks about a story in the religious ceremony that he heard and ask if the moutains are made up of somebody’s bone. The story of Swasthani, read daily for a month of Magh (current under Nepali calendar), has it. Deelip feels its ridiculous.

Lord Bishnu put them [two demons] on trap [by asking a promise] and said,” So i wanna kill you guys, You guys have did swear remember”.
They finally agree with him and bishnu killed them. then their blood made oceans , their bones made himalaya , their muscles made land . Then their was made a environment for living beings. Then Lord Bramha started to produce living beings.

Deepak gets lucky as a journalist because his medical fees for the checking of his knee pain has been waived for his story about doctors. Sounds great!

He said: “Don’t charge him, he’s our great friend.” I blushed in his compliment.

Among Nepali language blogs, NepalBlogs has an entry written by journalist Harihar Singh Rathore about Internal Security in Conflict Journalism. He enlists a few website useful for journalists working on conflict area and says that both the state and rebels have started avoiding fair local journalists.

Umesh has a video Prachanda, the rebel leader talking on an Indian channel. Chij had videos and news gathered about the New Buddha. I myself wrote about the Buddha Boy after visiting his place a few weeks ago. BloggerNepal writes about mismanagement in the National Football League in the country.

Nepal’s District in Saudi Arabia!

Confused! Well, a news entry in Laliguras says that Nepalis from Rauthat district living in Damam of Saudi Arabia have formed a committee and held the first assmebly. I know that many Nepalis are seeking jobs abroad dur to lack of employment opportunities and conflict in the country but didn’t thought that so many from even a district (Nepal is divided into 75 districts) would gather to a city in a Gulf country to held an assembly and form a 13-member committee.

Tajim accounts his experience of coming back to Nepal and how people are being cheated by Internet Service Providers in his hometown Butwal. Deepak describes his day – pain on his knees and wait to meet Sister Nirmala.

Changing Trends in Online Media

… of Nepal (obviously)!

It looks life Year 2006 will redefine the online media in Nepal. With the popularity of blogging growing in 2005 and Google Adsense giving a few bucks to the website owners (even there is rise in the online advertising), mainstream news sites are also trying to go up in competition.

On the eve of 2006, a few mainstream news sites were launched including promising NepalEyes.com and NewslineNepal.com. Both of them do not have the backing of any established print media as in case of newsofnepal.com or rajdhani.com.np or thehimalayan.com. The earlier two are nothing more than the online version of their print editions while the latter updates regularly. There are many more online sites of newspapers. But I would love to see Newsline and NepalEyes doing good because they offer fresh opinions and interviews or articles. In the case of news, I don’t think they can do much.

I didn’t mentioned Kantipuronline.com which has been newly re-launched as ekantipur.com. On the day of new year, ekantipur was re-launched but sadly it was the launch of design rather than content. With so much resources available with them, ekantipur could have left all other far behind, but that’s not the case. NepalNews.com contines to dominate the online media market.

Talking about blogging, 2005 was a year that saw blogs rising from a position of non-existent. Its good to see more Nepali language blogging than English language and I hope they will further grow to form a thicker and louder blogosphere. Currently, I believe there are around two dozens regular blogs operated by Nepalis. Its good to see citizens coming forward establishing participatory media but none-the-less I am not satisfied with the way they have focused on the disseminating current affairs only and they surely lack the personal ‘subjective’ touch which I feel is a most for blogs.

The most interesting development on online media in the new year though is the registration system implemented by Nepalitimes.com. The popular weekly magazine’s online version is now subscription service. For now, you can register for free for a year’s service. I see this as a step forward to establish a pay-online media. Surely, Nepali Times wanted to count on how many regular visitors they have and will surely be forwarding emails asking if they are ready to pay in coming days.

It looks like online media is taking shape in Nepal and the coming years could see more of such newsites emerging.

Journalists in Conflict

Aha! It’s sad to read such experience but journalist Nagendra Upadhyay’s writing in BloggerNepal after being freed from 166 days of prison reflect how difficult the condition is for the journalists outside Kathmandu. Upadhyay recalled how the Maoists forced him to accompany them in the ambulance to the hospital and how the security system in the country reacted after knowing that he accompanied them.

It is not just Upadhyay’s tale but the experience of every reporters employed in Maoist affected area. The entry is in Nepali and I hope someone will translate it into English so that the world could read how hard its for a journalist in Nepal.

And Deepak wrote yesterday about his hectic schedule as a journalist.

Nepal Info has an interesting fact. Compared to the world’s richest country’s president George Bush, King Gyanendra of Nepal earned 10 times more. Our King earning is Rs. 619,100,000 annually which is 19,878 times more than the average earning of a Nepali.

I missed it but Ratnapark, another Nepali blog, is being updated regularly.

To conclude, HK Nepal published a new about suicide commited by a 14-year-old girl in Kanchanpur. The reason: she was denied living with her lesbian friend!

Picture of True Nepal

I am undecided after seeing two pictures posted by Tajim with a question: Which is true Nepal?

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Above two pics shows the actual reality of today’s nepal . Those in ‘called Catmandu’ rock there night with high voltage sound parties and the one in villages have to face the brutality of rebels.

United We Blog! too has a photoblog with recent photos making news from around the country. Pradeep Chand writes a short entry on Nepal’s IT scenario.

Laliguras reports a Losar celebration in Saudi Arabia. I am really happy that the organizers awarded a letter of appreciation to Laliguras for its contribution in disseminating news from the Arab. Blogs are being recognized! Umesh Shrestha has a video blog of his new year celebration in Pokhara.

Deepak Adhikari has begun jogging early in the morning for health. He quotes a popular saying: Early to bed and early to rise, makes man healthy, wealthy and wise. But for someone like me who surf internet aimlessly until its at least 12:00 night, rising early in the morning is a dream. I wish I could do something for my increasing body weight.

Wikipedia: Gratis, Brobdingnagian & Popular

wikipedia-logo-en-4306577Wikipedia is the free online encyclopedia. You’re free to use it, and moreover, you’re free to edit it. It’s proud to introduce itself as the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Users’ ability to add new to or edit the existing articles has not only made this five-year old project a huge success but has also drawn a lot of criticism. Since anyone can edit it, the critics of wikipedia believe the information is not as accurate as it should be. A recent article by the popular Nature magazine compared 42 science articles of wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica and found that the open-source had 143 errors whereas the hugely popular paper encyclopedia had 123. It was considered a victory for wikipedia and proof that having expert editors and specialized writers doesn’t ensure accuracy.

Criticize it or praise it, but wikipedia today is the popular online resource for many, giving the updated information free of cost. The English section contains 902,000 articles and there are more than 200 other language versions of it (of course, with fewer articles than in English). There is even a Nepali version, http://ne.wikipedia.org, which has only 55 articles with 69 registered wikipedians – the volunteer editors who write and edit the articles.

More than 83,000 users have registered for wikipedia and their contributions have made wikipedia, now run by the non-profit organization Wikimedia, the world’s largest source of encyclopedic information.

Wikipedia was founded as an offshoot of Nupedia, a now-abandoned project, to produce free encyclopedias. Nupedia hoped to use highly qualified writers to produce free encyclopedias but didn’t progress much. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Nupedia, decided to use wiki, a collaborative site allowing users to edit the contents. Nupedia used wiki on January 10, 2001 – exactly five years ago. Five days later, due to resistance on the part of Nupedia’s editors and reviewers, the wiki project was named wikipedia and launched on its own domain.

As a wiki page, wikipedia has to resist the users who “vandalize” the contents. In response to the criticism and vandalism, wikipedia has now a system that allows users to visit the earlier versions of any article, allowing reverting of the vandalism.

The nature of wikipedia makes it weak in some areas. The radical openness may mean that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state, such as in the middle of a large edit, a controversial rewrite, or recently vandalized.

The propellers of open source and free expression nevertheless see wikipedia as free from the western points of view. The critics look at articles on some controversial topics. However, wikipedia is nevertheless a valuable resource on the Internet, full with links that help users to immediately access further resources on any given topics.

(This is a piece I wrote for The Kathmandu Post‘s City Post. City publishes a cyber post every Tuesday, and I hope to contribute regularly.)

What India Says?

United We Blog! has the transcript of the interview given by Indian Ambassdor to Nepal Shiva Shankar Murkherjee to Vijay Kumar for the Kantipur Television talk show – Frontline. Today’s main news on The Kathmandu Daily is based on the interview. Kantipur daily published Nepali version of it.

What we do not agree with is a monarchy that is political player that is competing for political powers with political parties. That role should belong in multiparty democracy to the political parties and representatives elected by the people of Nepal.

Nepal Info had an article based on an interview with popular human rights activist Krishna Pahadi. He talked about the current situation in the country. BloggerNepal says they are planning to go podcasting and has a podcast about the conflict in Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

Umesh Shrestha has an entry about how the people in Dharan used (misused?) technology to vote for a local in a television program called Nepal Star similar to the American Idol or Indian Idol. Deepak Adhikari bids adieu to his editor in Au Revoir, Sudheer!

You have probably heard about blogs as a citizen media. Here is an informative entry about four types of citizen journalism.

Right Tool To Blog

Nepali blogosphere is spreading.

Surely there are people hoping to begin blogging soon. But blogging for a non-technical person is not that easy (when I used the internet for the first time in 1999, I didn’t even knew that there is button called refresh.) For their aid, here I am linking to some of the articles that helps them blog and choose the right tool for blogging.

Online Journalism Review has an article about it and a comparision chart for various functionalities of the best available tools.

If you plan to run your blog on your own server, this site lists some popular blogging software, free ones, which can be tested on their site. You can test bBlog, BLOG:CMS, Blur6ex, BoastMachine, FireBlog, LifeType, Loudblog, Nucleus CMS, Pixelpost, Serendipity, Simplog, Textpattern, TruBlog and Wheatblog. For me, WordPress is the best.

If you don’t have your server, you can use some of the following sites to run your blogs free of cost. Blogger is the most popular run by Google, blogsome.com and wordpress.com both uses WordPress as internal engine. More are listed on Let’s Blog page.

Happy Blogging!