11.27.13
Posted in News Roundup at 11:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
Python, the programming language, is an open source, volunteer-driven project. Historically viewed as a scripting language (think: slow), the Python of today has developed into a robust and responsive language for the enterprise and other open initiatives around the world—with a Foundation to boot that reinvests money into the community and works to attract newcomers.
-
There is no doubt that the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s (OLCF’s) Titan, the nation’s most powerful supercomputer, gets its kick from its 18,688 GPU accelerators. On Titan, GPUs operate in tandem with CPUs to simulate groundbreaking scientific research at breakneck speeds. Now, the OLCF is working with Mentor Graphics, a leading electronic design automation company, to bring accelerated computing to a broader audience.
-
The API originally came as a limited developer preview, which was only open to Glass-owners, Google said, because “to develop great experiences and effectively test them, you need to have Glass”.
-
For the fourth year in a row, Google has organized its Code-in contest for pre-university students to contribute to open source projects.
-
Most devs end up using a huge amount of open-source code in their projects, so giving back to these projects only makes sense.
-
-
-
-
I leave out .NET on my own philosophical grounds where I believe you should not be tied to an operating system, particularly one of a monopolist. If you can get past that objection then I would add it to the list since a lot of civic governments IT departments are currently Windows shops. Look I understand you know and love {insert favorite tech here} but if your goal is to really help civic governments, then make life easy for them, not for you.
I put PHP first because it is everywhere and easy for people to pick up and use. There are a bazillion books on it, there are tutorials all over the web, there are plenty of hosting providers, and it is easy to find people who know it outside of the tech hubs in the US. Java is next because most Computer Science departments teach their students Java, it is stable, there are tutorials for it all over the web, it is used by large enterprises and small shops so it may be in the government IT shop already, and there are libraries for almost anything you want to do. Finally, I put Python in the list because it meets the needs of those who like dynamic languages, it is mature and stable, it is the programming language to extend quite a few desktop applications, it is relatively easy to read and learn, plus there are tons of books and tutorials, and it also has a lot of libraries to carry out almost any function you want.
-
Last year Intel proposed a tool to auto-convert C++ code into C++11 compliant code. The last time I wrote about this automatic code migrator it was called the C++11 Migrator and was still making steady progress, but that was months ago. Today we have an update on this useful utility now known as the C++ Modernizer and can auto-convert large amounts of code.
-
Coders are the new rock stars! And next week, 25-30 November, is Europe Code Week. Today a guest blog from Alja Isaković, one of my young advisors from Slovenia – plus my video message welcoming all those taking part.
“I have this great business idea, but no technical skills to build it.” This is exactly what I kept hearing all over again when reading hundreds of applications from women, age 14 to 64, who signed up for Rails Girls in Ljubljana and were eager to learn more about how the internet works. Can you imagine what would happen if we gave even a small percentage of those ideas a chance to see the light of the day?
-
Gambas is an open-source development environment based on a Basic interpreter and with support for object extensions. It’s been compared to Visual Basic, but Gambas supports Linux and is GPLv2 software.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 10:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.26.13
Posted in News Roundup at 4:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
-
Besides shipping a large Team Fortress 2 update for Linux gamers this weekend, Valve also released another Dota 2 update on Friday.
-
-
-
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.25.13
Posted in News Roundup at 8:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
-
-
-
…earlier beta releases of the Linux version have been disappointing. The latest beta sees this cross-platform video editor finally starting to live up to its promises.
-
-
Snappy is an open-source movie player that has become part of the GNOME project and is powered by GStreamer and features a user-interface written in Clutter. The project has been around for a while but releases are rare, except for a new update this week.
-
-
-
-
-
Everyone knows that keeping regular backups of our data is the No. 1 best insurance against mishaps. The No. 2 best insurance is smart partitioning on your Linux PC that puts your data on a different partition from the root filesystem. Having a single separate data partition is especially useful for distro-hoppers, and for multi-booting multiple distros; all your files are in one place, and protected from mad installation frenzies. And why not distro-hop and multi-boot random distros? Unlike certain inexplicably popular expensive fragile, low self-esteem proprietary operating systems it’s easy and fun. No hoops to jump, no blurry eleventy-eight digit registration numbers, no mother-may-I, no phoning your activities home to the mother ship: just download and start playing.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
11.23.13
Posted in News Roundup at 5:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
That’s what happened at the 2013 edition of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) Doc Camp. A group of 20 open source enthusiasts gathered together in the middle of October and wrote not just one but three books in the span of five days.
-
-
-
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 4:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 3:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
-
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will place you in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM. As the XCOM commander, you will defend against a terrifying global alien invasion by managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.
-
I’ve teased about Steam, speculated about Steam and even bragged about Steam finally coming to Linux. Heck, check out the screenshot for just a partial list of games already running natively under our beloved OS. Little did I know that the folks at Valve not only planned to support Linux, but they’re also putting a big part of their future behind it as well!
-
Underdog microconsole Ouya is facing increased competition with the release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this month, but the company will have its own new hardware this holiday season with a limited edition white version of the tiny device. The new Ouya doubles the internal Flash storage of the base model to 16GB, otherwise the two machines appear to be identical. But that new color and extra storage come at a price: the white Ouya is $129.99, $30 more than the original. The limited edition is available for pre-order now for those in North America. However, it remains to be seen whether a new coat of paint will lure many consumers to the struggling console, especially with the added cost. While Ouya recently boasted that it now offers more than 500 games, few of those are notable exclusives, and even those that are, like Towerfall, will soon be available on other platforms.
-
In their latest efforts to support independent content developers, OUYA has created a $1 million matching fund for game developers at http://freethegamesfund.com, which will double kickstarter pledged funds up to $250,000.
-
Abrash will be immediately followed by Joe Ludwig heading up a “Virtual Reality and Steam” session, wherein Valve will detail its plans to both support and promote VR gaming through the Steam store. The company behind the hallowed Half-Life series has already added support for Oculus Rift gameplay to Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, and Ludwig describes Valve’s relationship with Oculus as friendly and collaborative. Still, much as with the Steam Machine itself, Valve appears unwilling to sit back and let all the hardware design be done by others. While Valve will only be showing off its prototype headset to a selection of developers and publishers, it does mark an effort to expand the VR development and support ecosystem.
-
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 2:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
-
Speaking to members of a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Courts subcommittee, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy has urged that potential barriers to digital content delivery should be addressed in order to ensure the development of distribution platforms. Exorbitant statutory damage awards for copyright infringement could chill innovation, the executive warned, adding that the Internet should remain a non-discriminatory and open platform to maintain consumer choice.
-
Last week, Judge Denny Chin handed down the latest opinion in the now-eight year battle between Google and the Author’s Guild (among others) over Google’s massive book scanning project. If the Author’s Guild fails to overturn the Judge’s decision on appeal, it will mark an enormous watershed in the ability of Web site owners to display copyrighted works without the prior permission of the owners of those works.
At issue was the appropriate application of the “fair use” doctrine under U.S. law to the Google project, a rationale that allows certain types of copying to be permissible that would otherwise be actionable. As applied by Judge Chin, the scope of that doctrine has seemingly been expanded by orders of magnitude. Indeed, in the case at hand, the judge has broadened its scope so dramatically that it’s difficult not to conclude that he was struggling to find sufficient legal precedents to justify a favorable outcome for Google. Many will contend that he fell short in that effort, and that his intent was instead to rebalance, if not rewrite, the doctrine itself in order to bring it into the Internet age.
-
Remember the notorious ‘Instagram Act’? If you recall, clauses smuggled into April’s Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act (ERRA) – in the name of allowing reuse of orphan works – paved the way for the Government to grab your photographs and other visual images, in breach of international conventions.
The mechanics of the scheme were promised for later in the year, to be detailed in a statutory instrument (SI).
-
Pirate Parties International (PPI), the international umbrella organization for dozens of Pirate Parties worldwide, has been granted observer status by the World Trade Organization. PPI will join a host of major international players during the upcoming conference in Bali next month. The WTO’s decision is a major breakthrough for the political organization, which hopes to influence decision making on key issues related to copyright and privacy on the Internet.
-
The International Olympic Committee is pushing for the most concerted effort yet to ensure that pirate coverage of the 2014 Olympic Games reaches as few unauthorized screens as possible. In order to protect four major local media companies and others internationally, the IOC has issued demands for the creation of a “rapid response team” authorized to remove or block infringing content and links “within minutes.”
-
One of the bizarre side notes to Hollywood’s big lawsuit against the cyberlocker Hotfile was a countersuit against Warner Bros. by Hotfile, for using the easy takedown tool that Hotfile had provided, to take down a variety of content that was (a) non-infringing and (b) had nothing to do with Warner Bros. at all (i.e., the company did not hold the copyright on those files). In that case, WB admitted that it filed a bunch of false takedowns, but said it was no big deal because it was all done by a computer. Of course, it then came out that at least one work was taken down by a WB employee, and that employee had done so on purpose, annoyed that JDownloader could help possible infringers download more quickly.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
Content is available under CC-BY-SA