04.07.14
Posted in News Roundup at 3:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Before installing a Linux system even in a dual boot install, make sure you back up all your files in case something goes wrong! There are many different versions of Linux. I have one computer with a recent version of Ubuntu, which is one of the more popular versions of Linux.
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Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP in a week’s time, on the 8th of April 2014. The number of users who still use Windows XP is astonishing. Let’s be honest – XP was the best and the most stable of all the releases of that Redmond corporation.
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There is an alternative to tossing your computer or paying for expensive upgrades. The solution I’ve been talking about for at least a decade is to make the switch to a GNU/Linux operating system. Now, you’ve got a reason to make that switch and it’s never been easier.
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Windows XP usage on the web is decreasing as the venerable operating system edges ever closer towards its “end of life” from Microsoft support next week.
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MORE INQUIRER READERS that have Windows XP will switch to Linux than Windows 8 when support for Windows XP ends next week.
In The INQUIRER’s recent poll we asked, “Which operating system will you use after Windows XP support ends on 8 April?”
One third will move to Windows 7, which according to latest Net Applications figures still has nearly half of the PC market.
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The support for Windows XP is ending on April 8 and the operating system from Microsoft will be slowly killed and suffocated by viruses and malware. It’s conceivable that some of those users will chose a Linux OS and everybody know that they are hundreds of options.
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Posted in News Roundup at 3:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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The Linux land has a reputation, especially among developers used to Windows, of being – let’s say – somewhat savage, uncivilized. We’ve all heard the ghost stories: things being downright broken, lack of documentation and general despair; people coming, exclaiming: “what the fuck?!” and going right back.
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In little over a year since the first stable version of Steam for Linux emerged, the number of Linux-supported games continues to grow at a rapid pace. Valve’s digital game distribution currently hosts 376 games for Linux, with many quality commercial titles such as Shadowrun: Dragonfall, System Shock 2, and Europa Universalis IV to name-drop just a few of our favorites. With more game engines being natively ported to Linux, this trend is going to continue. For example, the CryEngine technology has recently been natively ported to Linux, so we could see ports of games like Ryse: Son of Rome and Crysis 3.
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Every month Valve publishes a comprehensive hardware and software survey that reflects what is being used to run the Steam client. It’s been pretty accurate until now, but a couple of months ago Valve made a few small modification and eliminated most of the inconsequential entries for various other distros.
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In the past I had a look at 17 free games available for Linux, overviewed here and here. In this article I will have a look at five more completely free and open-source games available to install in any distribution out there.
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Shipwrecked. Captured. Betrayed. Forced to perform for an audience of cats? Yes, all that and more when you unlock BattleBlock Theater! This game just sounds funny!
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It has only been a week since we let you know about Icebound, but it’s now been released! Icebound is a dark fantasy visual novel that takes place in a steampunk world locked in the depths of an ice age, where alchemists possess supernatural powers.
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Star Gem and Gaijin Entertainment’s inter-galactic MMORPG, Star Conflict, is celebrating its two year anniversary with a pretty hefty update that will see it gain Oculus Rift and Linux support.
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We’re extremely excited that Epic is porting Unreal Engine 4 to Linux — see the official announcement or some press here and here. Once we heard UE4 Linux was coming we pretty much dropped everything to ensure vogl can handle UE4 callstreams. The latest code on github now supports full-stream tracing/replaying and trimming of UE4 callstreams in either GL3 or GL4 mode. UI support for UE4 is still in the early stages, but now that we can snapshot/restore UE4 and continue to play back the callstream without diverging it’s only matter of time before the UI comes up to speed.
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FaeVerse Alchemy, a puzzle game developed and published by Subsoap, has been released on Steam for Linux with a small 9% discount.
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Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, a point and click adventure developed and published on Steam by Artifex Mundi sp. z o.o., has also received a Linux version and a sizable discount.
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Harvester, a disturbing adventure video game developed by DigiFX Interactive and published by Night Dive Studios, is now available on Steam for Linux.
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While the voglperf code has been public for some time within Git, the first initial release of Voglperf was tagged on Tuesday evening by a Valve developer.
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Getting games to stream properly from Windows to Linux seems to be the main focus of the Valve developers and many of the patches deal strictly with this feature. It’s unlikely that In-Home Streaming will exist the Beta stages too soon, but the developers might surprise us with the next stable release.
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One month after releasing Unreal Engine 4 and talking about Unreal Engine 4 Linux support, Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4.1 preview today and it’s paired with first-rate Linux support.
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The Unreal developers from Epic Games have expressed their support before for the Linux platform, but now they actually made it possible with the latest update for the Unreal Engine 4.
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Good news for gamers who’ve been eyeing Valve’s upcoming Steam Machines: Unreal Engine 4.1 will support the Linux-based SteamOS after a pending update. In a blog post today, Epic Games’ Mike Fricker announced that the source code now includes “initial support for running and packaging games for Linux and Steam OS.” This means that upcoming UE4 titles like Daylight and Fortnite could be ported to the systems.
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Unreal Engine 4, the newest version of the game engine that powers many a AAA gaming title, just got a feature that may prove quite important in the near feature: the ability to build games that run on Linux.
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Posted in News Roundup at 3:41 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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The latest GCompris 14.03 version is quite extensive and the developers have managed to implement a large number of fixes and new features. For example, support has been implemented for multigraph languages in click_on_letter by GunChleoc, a font selector has been added in the config dialog box and it has replaced the skin selector, the torta py pastel has been replaced in the Spanish text exercise, and support has been added for localized sound.
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The Wine development release 1.7.16 is now available. What’s new in this release (see below for details): – More regression test fixes. – String arrays better supported in the IDL compiler. – Initial stubs for DirectX Video Acceleration. – Various bug fixes.
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XBMC is a home theater application which runs in fullscreen, has a beautiful, modern interface, support for pictures, music and video collections and playlists, television and radio.
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Midori 0.5.8 features updates to its WebKit2 rendering engine and AdBlock support (for those web users that unfortunately deprive web publishers of their income… including here; if you appreciate this site, please disable AdBlock or become a Phoronix Premium subscriber to support this site that takes 80+ hours of my week for the past ten years in providing always the latest Linux/open-source news and Linux hardware reviews, etc).
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Posted in News Roundup at 3:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Wifislax is a Slackware-based LiveCD designed for wireless hacking and forensics. Though it is designed for use as a LiveCD, it is possible to install it to a hard disk drive (HDD) and run it just like a standard desktop distribution.
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04.06.14
Posted in News Roundup at 11:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Mentor and AMD
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With a just-announced agreement between AMD and Mentor Graphics, embedded linux developers will have free access to Mentor Embedded Linux Lite with AMD’s upcoming Steppe Eagle and Bald Eagle platforms. Embedded developers will also have access to Mentor Embedded Linux and Sourcery CodeBench Lite as a GNU-based C/C++ development/debugging tool-chain.
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As a Yocto Project™ compatible product, Mentor® Embedded Linux will now bring standardized features and tools, and ensure quick access to the latest Board Support Packages (BSPs) for AMD 64-bit x86 architecture beginning with the upcoming AMD Embedded G-Series system-on-a-chip (SoC) (codenamed: “Steppe Eagle”) and AMD Embedded R-Series APU/CPU (codenamed: “Bald Eagle”). Embedded systems developers will have comprehensive access to the Mentor Embedded Linux development platform for customized embedded Linux development and commercial support, as well as a no-cost Mentor Embedded Linux Lite derivative providing all the essentials to evaluate Linux on AMD embedded processors.
Cars
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Although big names like Google and Apple are now starting to move into the space, they have just as much of a learning curve as the other players in the market, meaning there is an opportunity for any company of any size to become a leader. With such fierce competition among organizations to dominate this field, I expect we will see some revolutionary new approaches and technologies. Already we are seeing open source technologies like Linux, Tizen, and Android being leveraged for new automotive products.
Chromecast
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Google’s Chromecast remains their hottest selling device. At $35 a piece and an ever increasing list of supported apps, the little dongle has put many set-top boxes and sources of digital media out of business. While many have expressed their love for the device, designer Sam Dirani of Raleigh, NC, feels like there could be a more modern look to the revolutionary device, and he has now revealed his take on it.
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People in UK have good news coming their way. So far, those who wanted to lay their hands on Chromecast had to import one from the United States. But it won’t be necessary anymore. It has been reported in Android Police website that starting Wednesday, interested buyers can source it from a retailer.
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Roku announced a new streaming media stick that’s compatible with standard HDMI ports, in hopes of slowing the growing momentum of Google’s Chromecast.
Amazon
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Rumors have been swirling for a while now that Amazon might release a device similar to the Apple TV. But TechCrunch reports that Amazon’s set top box might actually be similar to Google’s Chromecast device. Is Amazon about to copy Google?
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This week Amazon unveiled the Fire TV as a small network appliance primarily for HD video streaming and complemented by some gaming and mobile app capabilities. The Fire TV is powered by Amazon’s Android-based Kindle Fire OS so in this weekend review are my initial impressions of this Linux-based media system after using it the past two days.
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Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It’s the easiest way to enjoy Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, low-cost video rentals, and more. With instant access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, plus all your favorite subscriptions and streaming services, you can watch what you want, when you want. If you’re a Prime member, you get unlimited access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, including exclusives like Downton Abbey, The Americans, Alpha House, and Under the Dome.
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Amazon unveiled Amazon Fire TV, a $99 multimedia and gaming oriented TV companion box running Android 4.2 on a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC.
Internet of Things (Surveillance Inside Homes)
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There are several definitions of open source. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) website contains a very useful and detailed definition, which goes beyond access to the source code and includes ten specific criteria concerning the distribution terms of open-source software. We will not enter here into the ongoing debate concerning the differences between open source and free software, as the OSI website provides a short review of the terms.
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Linux Foundation believes it has the code for unlocking Internet of Things and bringing success
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THE NUMBER of connected devices will rise to 26 billion by 2020, according to one analyst, with the market around the Internet of Things (IoT) worth a hefty $300bn.
Research house Gartner revealed its IoT predictions on Tuesday, advising that the growth would have a knock-on effect on data centres, as firms are tasked with collecting and managing the additional data created by these billions of devices and sensors.
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Marvell has reached its Indiegogo goal for “Kinoma Create,” a Linux- and JavaScript-based hardware/software platform for quick and easy development of IoT gizmos.
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If you want to be up to date on what’s going down in embedded Linux, there’s no place like ELC, as in the Embedded Linux Conference. The Linux Foundation has just posted the 90-session presentation line-up for the U.S. show, scheduled for April 29 through May 1 at the San Jose Marriott. The European version (ELCE) ran last Oct. 21-25 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Echelon introduced its IzoT Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) framework for peer-to-peer networking of embedded controllers last October. At that time, the building automation and smart grid networking vendor released the IzoT multi-protocol stack in an ARM-ready beta version and reference implementation optimized for the Linux-based Raspberry Pi SBC. Since then, support has extended to the BeagleBone Black.
Raspberry Pi
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Meet Ellie, a six week old robot weighing 100 lbs who can launch a two foot diameter exercise ball over 10 feet in the air! Ellie even has eyes: a webcam fitted to the front of her chassis that uses code written in Python running on a Raspberry Pi to process images. Ellie’s main code is written in Java and allows her mecanum wheels to drive, her claw to catch exercise balls, and her kicker to launch balls into the air. In just a few weeks Ellie will be competing along with more than 50 other robots in her first competition.
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Rather than partner with a computing company and badge up another machine, Furber believes the BBC would do better helping teachers to learn to program and provide education tools for students to use. He also believes that Linux would be the answer. He feels using Linux would help get children away from the accepted familiarity of a Windows or OS X environment and would help make them question, probe and investigate a lot more.
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The Raspberry Pi has been out for just over two years now, and has been one of the biggest tech success stories in recent times. With millions of Raspberry Pi’s in the wild and countless more millions raised for various charities and open source projects, the foundation has been able to do more than originally expected.
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We reveal some of the people and things you’ll be able to see at the Linux User Raspberry Jam on 5 April in Poole, Dorset
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Having recently co-authored a book about building things with the Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi Hacks), I’ve spent a lot of the last couple of years talking about this credit-card-sized Linux computer and seeing fun things people have used it for.
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As I was reconnecting the Raspberry Pi to our TV set yesterday evening (it bounces back and forth between connection on my desk and to the TV), I realised that I haven’t had this much plain old fun with computing in a very long time.
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Raspberry Pi celebrated its second birthday last week. Since its debut on February 29, 2012, Raspberry Pi has ushered in a whole new generation of tiny, inexpensive, single-board computers. Numerous Raspberry Pi based DIY project ideas are popping up over the web, and there are many use cases of Raspberry Pi as low-cost learning media in the developing world. Celebrating its second birthday, I am going to share in this post several interesting facts about Raspberry Pi.
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Probably, the best use you could do with a Raspberry Pi would be turning it in a full-fledged media center. With some tuning, a Raspberry Pi can become indeed a device that audiophiles will love, or a tiny board that can empower you television to become a 2014-like smart TV. All you need is some Unix tools (or Win32DiskImager for Windows OSes) to flash your SD Card, and the need to connect your nerdiness to multimedia-related things. This is why in the last week I kept going around the web, spotting the best projects for a Raspberry Pi, to turn it in my personal media center of choice.
Arduino
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There’s no shortage of tiny, low-power single-board computers that can run Android, Ubuntu, or other operating systems. What helps set the pcDuino line apart is that these little developer boards also support the Arduino ecosystem which means you can add Arduino shields to extend the capabilities of the little device and use Arduino programming tools.
RTOS
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Wind River has bagged a 2014 Network Intelligence Award for its Wind River Intelligent Network Platform. The awards from the Network Intelligence Alliance (NI Alliance) recognize telecom operators and suppliers that have used network intelligence technology to develop and deploy innovative services and products.
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3M has released Android 4.x and Linux 3.x kernel patches for its multitouch displays, supporting screens up to 46 inches.
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Enea(R) (NASDAQ OMX Nordic:ENEA) signs a software license agreement with a global Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturer to deliver the operating systems Enea Linux and Enea OSE together with an OSE Compatibility Platform for running OSE applications in Linux. The total value of the agreement is estimated to 3 million USD over a period of four years. The deal covers software for both ARM and PowerPC processor architectures.
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Today Linux dominates the control plane and simple executives are increasingly called on to perform packet processing functionally in the data plane of network equipment. Specialized multicore network processors are displacing other hardware technologies and their vendors often have their own software enablement strategies. Competition for the software layer in telecom has never been more heated.
TI
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TI released Sitara Linux SDK 7.0, now based on the mainline Linux kernel. The SDK supports the Sitara AM355x, and coming soon, the new Sitara AM4x and AM5x.
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AIS has launched a 7-inch, WSVGA multitouch panel PC that runs Android or Linux on TI’s Sitara AM3354 SoC, and offers a camera and PoE support.
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Android Support
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Like Huawei, ZTE is a major Chinese telecom equipment provider that has more recently moved aggressively into mobile devices. They primarily serve up Android phones and tablets, but ZTE has also been the major hardware vendor behind Firefox OS, along with China’s TCL/Alcatel, recently announcing the Firefox OS based ZTE Open C and Open II. Now it’s expanding its Android portfolio with two very different TV set-top boxes (STBs): the FunBox and the MeBox.
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A Cubestormer 3 robot based on a Galaxy S4 Android phone and eight Linux-driven Lego Mindstorms EV3 bricks aims to beat the Rubik’s Cube solving record.
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Haoyu Electronics announced a sandwich-style $60 “MarsBoard RK3066″ SBC equipped with Rockchip’s 1.6GHz dual-core RK3066 SoC, and running Linux and Android
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NanoPC launched a $69 mini-PC and $67 SBC based on a quad-core Samsung Exynos4412 SoC, with SD, HDMI, USB, camera, and Ethernet, and running Linux and Android.
Silica
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Silica has introduced a development board in its ArchiTech range, which has been optimised for Linux based designs incorporating the Renesas RZ/A1H microcontroller.
It has been optimised to have a small memory footprint together with a BSP (Board Support Package) for the on-board peripherals, minimising development time.
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SILICA, an Avnet company, has launched a new ArchiTech development board that offers a low-cost streamlined platform for Linux-based designs. The ArchiTech Hachiko board is supplied with a Linux kernel optimised for the Renesas RZ/A1H MCU, to work with a small memory footprint together with a BSP (Board Support Package) for the on-board peripherals, minimizing development time.
Development
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Jason Kridner is the co-founder of BeagleBoard.org, where he has helped create open source development tools such as BeagleBone Black, BeagleBone, BeagleBoard, and BeagleBoard-xM. Kridner is also a software architecture manager for embedded processors at Texas Instruments (TI).
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The Yocto Project’s open source toolset helps developers build a custom embedded Linux distribution on any hardware architecture by automating the low-level details of the build process. Thus, developers who use Yocto become super heroes, vanquishing Frankenstein and restoring their projects.
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Digia announced Qt Enterprise Embedded in October as a commercial distribution for enterprises. Like the Qt 5.2 cross-platform framework it’s based on, Qt Enterprise Embedded supports Android, as well as Linux. The platform combines Qt’s drag-and-drop GUI builder with an IDE based on Qt Creator and Ubuntu, as well as a Boot to Qt embedded stack for Android and Linux targets.
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Avnet announced a COM based on Xilinx Zynq-7000 ARM/FPGA SoCs, and supported by an optional baseboard, power module, FPGA mezzanine card, and Linux BSP.
Misc.
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Some financial firms are looking into Linux, a free, open source operating system. Currently, 30% of all electronic POS systems at U.S. gasoline stations and convenience stores use Linux.
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Building systems that combined a front-end user interface with real-time processing has often led to awkward and complex trade-offs in performance, architecture and costs.
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Nvidia unveiled a $192 Linux-based “Jetson TK1″ SBC based on the 2.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 Tegra K1 SoC, and demoed its use in a self-driving Audi.
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Keepod has developed a Linux-based operating system that can act as a portable hard drive by plugging it into the USB port of any recent PC (going back about 8 years, said Pfeffer). “For the first time, we are separating the ‘brains’ of the computer from the hardware, allowing users to take their ‘computers’ with them on a small, cheap device that will enable them to keep their data safe, secure, and accessible,” he said.
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Debugging embedded software can be a challenging, time-consuming and unpredictable factor in the development of embedded systems. Detecting errant program execution begs the question “How did the software reach this state?”
What combination of inputs and timing resulted in the error, and why? Tracing can often provide the answer.
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The free embedded Linux Buildroot project released a quarterly update, featuring enhanced internal and external toolchains, 67 new packages, and bug fixes.
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Posted in News Roundup at 10:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Arduino
Novena
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We’re launching a crowdfunding campaign around our Novena open hardware computing platform. Originally, this started as a hobby project to build a computer just for me and xobs – something that we would use every day, easy to extend and to mod, our very own Swiss Army knife. I’ve posted here a couple of times about our experience building it, and it got a lot of interest. So by popular demand, we’ve prepared a crowdfunding offering and you can finally be a backer.
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Speaking at the Embedded Systems Conference today, Andrew “Bunnie” Huang introduced a project dubbed Novena. He said that the hardware and software specs for the machine will be made available for anyone to use.
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Earlier this year, the two Singapore-based engineers fashioned a laptop made almost entirely from open source hardware, hardware whose designs are freely available to the world at large. They called it Project Novena. Anyone could review the designs, looking for bugs and security flaws, and at least in theory, that meant you could be confident the machine was secure from top to bottom, something that’s more desirable than ever in the post-Edward Snowden age.
Minnowboard Max
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Intel has beefed up its open source single-board computer and cut its price in half.
The Minnowboard Max features an open hardware design and is targeted at software application development pros and enthusiasts who want to code for the “deeply embedded” market.
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Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source – you can check out the firmware and software here – and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor.
The board’s schematics are also available for download and the Intel graphics chipset has open-source drivers so hackers can have their way with the board. While it doesn’t compete directly with the Raspberry Pi – the Pi is more an educational tool and already has a robust ecosystem – it is a way for DIYers to mess around in x86 architected systems as well as save a bit of cash. The system uses break-out boards called Lures to expand functionality.
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Posted in News Roundup at 9:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Looting
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No, there won’t be a global campaign against global inequality. The wealthy have written the rules to guarantee it
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Environment
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The gonads of thick-lipped grey mullets are becoming increasingly feminised in the estuaries of Spain’s Basque Country, according to research carried out by members of the Cell Biology in Environmental Toxicology group from the University of the Basque Country. The cause of this feminisation is thought to be due to certain pollutants, which are increasing oestrogen levels in the fish.
UK
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Homes in south London had to be evacuated last night as a river of brown, murky water swept through the area. Initial reports suggested a sewage pipe had sprung a leak.
Religion
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Yes, even the radical televangelist thinks young-earth creationist Ken Ham is ridiculous VIDEO
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Significantly fewer Republicans believe in evolution than did so four years ago, setting them apart from Democrats and independents, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. But behind this finding is a puzzle: If the views of the overall public have remained steady, and there has been little change among people of other political affiliations, how does one account for the Republican numbers? Shouldn’t the marked drop in Republican believers cause a decline in the 60% of all adults who say humans have evolved over time?
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Apparently the assailant isn’t the only person who thinks hitting people over a “Happy Holidays” greeting is ok. According to the news report, some Walmart shoppers interviewed after the event said “It’s understandable how people can get offended.”
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Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pontiff, elected nine months ago, was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2013, leaving whistleblower Edward Snowden in second place, the magazine revealed on Wednesday.
Science
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It’s alarming that few girls or students of color are taking computer science classes.
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Here’s the thing, though: Americans actually fared better than Europeans who took similar quizzes — at least when it came to the sun and Earth question. Only 66 percent of European Union residents answered that one correctly.
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LOOK up at the sky tonight and count how many stars you can see. Ten? A couple of dozen? Then you’re in good company. Several hundred thousand stars should be visible on a clear, moonless night. Yet 75 per cent of the world’s population has never seen the majesty and wonder of the star-strewn Milky Way – and they never will.
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Other Curious News
From beginning of of this year
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Tomorrow, the House of Lords will debate Labour’s proposed amendment to the children and families bill, a piece of legislation that would result in compulsory sex and relationships education being taught in all English schools. It is, I believe, a matter of some urgency, not only because Labour says that violence in teenage relationships is increasing, but also because of the many ways in which online porn’s dominance is affecting sexual relationships and behaviour in the real world. You might say that this is not the case, of course. The links have not yet been convincingly drawn, and until they are, it’s my word against yours. So here they are: my words.
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120-year old city without government functions just fine
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Shortly after Occupied America was published in1972, I attended a historians’ conference. In a session I was asked why I wrote with so much emotion. I replied that I was not a prostitute; I did not make love without emotion. How can a person write about lynching and injustices and not get emotional? For me it was like a personal relationship, which should mean something.
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The vast majority of feature-length silent films made in America have been lost due to decay and neglect over the past 100 years, allowing an original 20th century art form to all but disappear, according to a study released Wednesday.
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A few events this week showed how EU support is helping innovation help the lives of millions.
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Posted in News Roundup at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Advocacy
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The APC Chris Nicol FLOSS Prize recognises initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free/libre and open source software (FLOSS). The prize will be awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FLOSS accessible to ordinary computer users.
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Imagine a world with fewer queues in banking and retail, and more self-service options. Imagine no longer relying on one cubical or terminal for service. Sounds unreal? This world is now a possibility in South Africa thanks to the partnership between LSD and Cashware.
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Essentially, an open-source software or OSS is a kind of computer software which has its source code made available and licensed by virtue of such a license agreement which authorizes the copyright holder to study, modify and distribute the software to anyone, without any further charges and for any purpose whatsoever.
Open-sourcing
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As part of the ROS team the engineers at Willow Garage wanted a low price point entry available for new programmers. The TurtleBot’s SDK contains a collection of programs that range from basic to advanced. Instructions show how to set up the bot, operate with a keyboard, operate with a joystick, and fully utilize the Kinect camera data. There’s also a cleverly titled section about maintenance called TurtleBot Care and Feeding.
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Cisco may be a multi-billion entity that was built around a proprietary operating system, but if recent moves are any indication, a wave of open interoperability has been steadily reshaping how Cisco is bringing next-generation IT infrastructure to market.
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A few months ago we wrote about Linksys Reviving The WRT54G Router In 802.11AC Form. Belkin, which owns Linksys, has begun releasing code for this new router — the WRT1900AC — but with this early code is still some glaring problems.
Misc.
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XBMC, an open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media that is available for multiple platforms, has just reached version 13.0 Beta 3 and is now available for testing.
Events
Apache and Nginx
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Two of the world’s most widely deployed web servers have both recently been updated to fix security vulnerabilities.
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With so many Apache Hadoop distributions on the market, what sets them apart? MapR is hoping that bringing feature-rich open source searching to its Big Data platform via integration with Elasticsearch will help draw users by making Big Data analytics and business intelligence faster and more comprehensive.
Mozilla
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Mozilla and the Rust community are pleased to announce version 0.10 of the Rust compiler and tools. Rust is a systems programming language with a focus on safety, performance and concurrency.
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If you’ve ever done any web development work, you are probably intimately familiar with the fact that what you build on the web may show up fine in one browser, yet be completely broken in another. It used to be that this problem simply meant testing sites and pages across popular desktop browsers, but in the age of mobile technology, you now have to test your creations across mobile devices, too.
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While Mozilla has mostly been in the headlines this week for news related to contributions made by its new CEO Brendan Eich, another piece of meaningful news regarding the company is largely being ignored: Google Chrome has moved past Firefox to take second place in desktop browser market share, according to web traffic stats from Net Applications. In March, Chrome grabbed 17.5 percent of desktop brower traffic, while Firefox sat in third place with 17.2 percent. This is a first for Chrome, according to Net Applications’ data, and is possibly driven by Google’s extensive advertising for Chrome and Mozilla’s new focus on Firefox OS and mobile technology.
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The latest Mozilla Firefox nightly builds have begun enabling the generational garbage collector to better compete with Google’s Chrome on performance grounds.
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In an exciting collaboration with Mozilla and Google, Intel is bringing SIMD to JavaScript. This makes it possible to develop new classes of compute-intensive applications such as games and media processing—all in JavaScript—without the need to rely on any native plugins or non-portable native code. SIMD.JS can run anywhere JavaScript runs. It will, however, run a lot faster and more power efficiently on the platforms that support SIMD. This includes both the client platforms (browsers and hybrid mobile HTML5 apps) as well as servers that run JavaScript, for example through the Node.js V8 engine.
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Thimble is actually a subset of Mozilla’s Webmaker project, which is aimed at teaching all kinds of web literacy and development skills.
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Many, many people have noticed that if we had a way to reliably record program execution and replay it later, with the ability to debug the replay, we could largely tame the nondeterminism problem. This would also allow us to deliberately introduce nondeterminism so tests can explore more of the possible execution space, without impacting debuggability. Many record and replay systems have been built in pursuit of this vision. (I built one myself.) For various reasons these systems have not seen wide adoption. So, a few years ago we at Mozilla started a project to create a new record-and-replay tool that would overcome the obstacles blocking adoption. We call this tool rr.
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We support the Mozilla community and the vital work they’ve done—and must keep doing—for the open Internet. EFF has been following the discussions around the choice of Brendan Eich as Mozilla’s CEO, including the announcement that he is stepping down.
As partners to Mozilla in campaigns that have included the fight against SOPA/PIPA, the StopWatching.US Coalition against mass surveillance, the effort to Encrypt the Web, the battle to prevent non-consensual online tracking, and ongoing work to make Firefox a more secure browser, we appreciate the frank and honest discussion that the community has undergone over this issue and respect the openness of the process. In that respect, as in many others, the difference between a closed and an open community is profound.
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McAvoy clearly appreciates his ability to speak his mind without fear of retribution. But he also demands the termination of employment of a person that he disagrees with.
That sounds like hypocrisy, and intolerance, to me.
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The worst of what I’m seeing is this – people who have steadfastly supported gay rights (and minority rights in general) but don’t like seeing how Eich is being treated are being called bigots and worse by their colleagues.
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Chrome(ium)
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Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop app beta is released for invite-only. Chrome Remote Desktop allows you to set up your computer for secure remote access. This includes setting up your computer so that you can access it later from another machine; or you can also use the app to let a friend remotely access your computer temporarily, perfect for times when you need help solving a computer problem.
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Last April we introduced Blink as the new rendering engine for Chromium. Since then, the project has grown to include over 200 active contributors, and code complexity has been reduced significantly. We’ve also made encouraging progress on our top priority for 2014: mobile web performance.
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