OpenSource
gregladen | January 6, 2008Accepting his 2006 TED Prize, Cameron Sinclair demonstrates how passionate designers and architects can respond to world housing crises. The motto of his group, Architecture for Humanity, is "Design like you give a damn." Using a litany of striking examples, he shows how AFH has helped find creative solutions to humanitarian crises all over the globe. Sinclair then outlines his TED Prize wish: to create a global open-source network that will let architects and communities share and build designs to house the world
gregladen | January 4, 2008Its name is, unfortunately, "Open Paleontology Journal." Reminds me of the Soviet/Communist Era in Asia, where such a journal might have been named "The People's Paleontology Journal."
Details are here.
gregladen | January 3, 2008A good way to make Microsoft Office software not interact with other software, thus forcing users to either shun the alternatives or to use only the alternatives would be to start blocking the use of all older file formats. Let's hope Microsoft does not think of this nasty little trick.
"In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some…
gregladen | January 3, 2008Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales will launch the OpenSource search engine on January 7th, according to the Washington Post.
You must know that at at any given moment at Google, there are countless technical experts working on tweaking and refining the Google search engine, to the extent that it is a very good search engine, and it is much more than a search engine.
It makes sense that if you enter the phrase "hypnotic clam sauce" you will get some kind of result that has to to with clams, perhaps in a hypnotic state, with sauce. That is what a search engine does.
With Google, you can also…
gregladen | December 21, 2007Firefox 3 Beta is released...
From Mozilla:
Firefox 3 Beta 2 is now available for download.
New features and changes ... include:
Improved security features such as: protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, version checking for insecure plugins.
Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable…
gregladen | December 20, 2007Reminder: NY to pick between ODF and OOXML:
"In August of 2007, the State of New York passed legislation requiring its CIO, Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, to gather information on the advantages and disadvantages of adopting either ODF or OOXML as a document standard, and to report her findings by 15 January 2008. As part of her duties under that legislation, the CIO issued a Request For Public Comment to get feedback on the topic. The deadline for that public comment is 28 December 2007
New Creative Commons License
CC+ is a protocol providing a simple way for users to get rights beyond the…
gregladen | December 19, 2007A SiCortex SC648 supercomputer and a Linux cluster of 648 CPU's and a TB of main memory woudl draw about 1,200 watts. That's gotta widen your Carbon Footprint!
Unless, of course, you are a bunch of crazy MIT students withe bicycles, and you've got generators attached to the bikes.
A team of ten MIT students powered a supercomputer for twenty minutes by pedalling bicycles. They duly claimed the world record for human-powered computing (HPC).
...
An SC648 chip, with six processors on it, draws around 8 watts of power, which compares to a typical notebook computer CPU needing 100 watts,…
gregladen | December 19, 2007"After going premium and suffering some community fragmentation, the OpenOffice.org open source office suite is being taken in a new direction by a company named Ulteo. A brainchild of Gael Duval, founder of Mandriva Linux, Ulteo's mission is to serve as a platform for putting applications onto the web. Using this approach, Ulteo has released a public beta of Online OpenOffice.org, which quite literally puts OpenOffice.org inside a browser."
[source]
The community fragmentation referred to here is a bit disturbing but not too surprising. You have to figure that Sun is in the OpenSource…
gregladen | December 18, 2007Owing to public presure, the BBC iPlayer is now going to support Linux. But if you are a student in Newville, Pennsylvania who is into OpenSource, you may serve detention! (or NOT, see update below)
From Slashdot:
After previously limiting their iPlayer to only the Windows platform ... the BBC's content is now available to UK-based users of Linux and Mac OS X. From their site: 'From today we are pleased to announce that streaming is now available on BBC iPlayer. This means that Windows, Mac and Linux users can stream programs on iPlayer as long as their computer has the latest version of…
gregladen | December 17, 2007Today, in conjunction with the Creative Commons 5th Birthday celebration, Science Commons announces the Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data ("the Protocol").
The Protocol is a method for ensuring that scientific databases can be legally integrated with one another. The Protocol is built on the public domain status of data in many countries (including the United States) and provides legal certainty to both data deposit and data use. The protocol is not a license or legal tool in itself, but instead a methodology for a) creating such legal tools and b) marking data already in the public…
gregladen | December 14, 2007I must say, that when I was asked to be a Scibling, one of the "cons" was switching from an open source platform that I was very familiar with (WordPress) to a non-Open Source platform (Movable Type). But when I looked into it, I found out that there was a plan to switch Movable Type to open source. Well, the day has arrived.
As of [Dec 12th 2007] and forever forward, Movable Type is open source. This means you can freely modify, redistribute, and use Movable Type for any purpose you choose.
...
Like many of us on the team, some of you have been waiting for this moment for years. For a…
gregladen | December 13, 2007The conflict between Microsoft and the Rest of the World, this time represented by the widely loved if somewhat cultish Opera Browser, is being played out int the EU. Opera Software ASA has filed a complaint with the European Commission asking regulators to force Microsoft to allow users a choice of Internet software to use with it's operating system.
Oper also alleges that MS was stifling developing efforts in the area of interooperability by not following accepted web standards. Microsoft did not comment.
Norway-based Opera said it was asking EU regulators to apply the principles of their…
gregladen | December 11, 2007Proposed legislation that would mandate the use of the Open Document Format (ODF) across the entire Dutch government has infuriated Microsoft. A group promoting open standards sees no threat, however, and has invited Microsoft to join its ranks.
On Wednesday the Dutch parliament will discuss a plan to mandate use of the Open Document Format (ODF) at government agencies. The proposal is part of a wider plan to increase the sustainability of information and innovation, while lowering costs through the reuse of data.
Read the rest here.
gregladen | December 6, 2007Better than what you may ask? Better than:
-Older versions of LInux ... it is always improving.
-Windows. Hands down.
-Apple's operating system before Apple chose, essentially, Linux (a Unix variant) to run its eye candy and development environment on
But why, specifically, is it better?
One reason, apparently, is because the Linux Kernel does not have a stable API.
So what, you ask, is a Kernel and/or an API? Very simple: The Kernel is the guts, the most basic part, the way-down way-down of the operating system. What is the API? That stands for Application Programming Interface. The…
gregladen | December 2, 2007Ten things you can do to help open source
If you're happy just using open source, then no problem. But if you want to contribute, because you have a problem that nobody else is fixing -- or simply because you want to do your bit in exchange -- it can be difficult to know where to start. The following suggestions might just inspire you to join in.
Then this post goes on to give some suggestions. Most important two: use OpenSource software, and note that you don't need to run Linux to use OpenSource software ... there is lots available for the Mac and that other system as well.
gregladen | November 20, 2007I want to point out an interesting opinion piece about the threat of black boxes and the roll of OpenSource software in math.
A key part of the message:
Increasingly, proprietary software and the algorithms used are an essential part of mathematical proofs. To quote J. Neubüser, "with this situation two of the most basic rules of conduct in mathematics are violated: In mathematics information is passed on free of charge and everything is laid open for checking."
In other words, the difference between using proprietary software and OpenSource software for mathematical research is that for…