-
-
A Credit Card-Sized Linux Computer
Olimex Ltd., a Bulgarian electronic design and PCB fabrication company, has just raised the bar on powerful microcontroller development platforms, to the joy of DIYers around the world. Two new PCBs, cryptically named LPC-2478STK and PIC-LCD3310, are ready to rock your next embedded project.
I want one! Olimex Ltd., a Bulgarian electronic design and PCB fabrication company, has just raised the bar on powerful microcontroller developmen... more -
A Tiny Laptop With a Difference - No Hard Drive - NYTimes.com
This computer is like having an itouch or any other device similar to that but without the hassle of trying to type on a small screen. In other words, it's personal computer meets personal device. This computer is like having an itouch or any other device similar to that but without the hassle of trying to type on a small screen.... more
-
The History of Linux
This short mockumentary details the humble origins of Linux.
-
Google + Linux = LOVE
According to this article posted over at Linux by an IDG staff writer, it seems that Google has been working behind the scenes supporting the Linux operating system. I recall when there was talk that the gOS that was being offered on some computers being sold by Wal-Mart, was being supported by Google. So in reading this article about Google working closely with the gOS team, it may become clearer why Microsoft is fearing a Linux surge.
According to the article, it states:
With an eye for larger adoption of Linux, Google is actively working with open-source developers to integrate its applications in the OS, a Linux developer said on Tuesday.
By working with developers, Google may be trying to push more of its applications in netbooks, low-cost laptops designed to run basic applications for Web surfing and e-mail, said David Liu, Good OS Founder and President, at the Linuxworld conference in San Francisco.
Google’s software offerings includes Web-based applications like Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Gadgets, mini-applications that sit on desktops to perform small desktop functions. Although in their infancy, shipments for netbooks are expected to explode in the next few years.
Google and Good collaborated to pre-load Google’s Gadget mini-applications on GOS Gadgets 3, Good’s upcoming Linux distribution, Liu said. The mini-applications allow users to play games and check system applications like battery power and the strength of a wireless network signal.
Google Gadgets from gOS 3 Gadgets uses the Ubuntu linux distribution:
gOS 3 Gadgets instantly launches Google Gadgets for Linux on startup, introducing over 100,000 possible iGoogle and Google Gadgets to the desktop.
Google Documents, Calendar, and Mail launch in Mozilla Prism windows to closer resemble desktop applications.
The newest release of WINE 1.0 is included to now support thousands of Windows software for our advanced users.
gOS 3 Gadgets is based on the solid Linux distribution base of Ubuntu 8.04.1.
Interesting. So it appears that Google is supporting gOS 3 Gadgets along with Linux Ubuntu for a stable environment to be used by the new netbook laptop computers. According to this article posted over at Linux by an IDG staff writer, it seems that Google has been working behind the scenes support... more -
£100 Notebook Threshold Busted
The Elonex One: Its a sub-notebook with a detachable screen that can be used as a tablet pc. Its cheap, its available and its on sale now.
Developed by a Bromsgrove company on the back of the one computer per child project and following the immense success of the Asus Eee PC and Pocket Surfer PS04, this is the first flash drive sub-notebook to hit the UK markeplace at under one hundred pounds sterling.
Running Linux on a 2Gb flash drive, the Elonex One is no storage monster, but it does come with wifi, bluetooth, enough USB ports to wedge those additional memory sticks, is robust and light enough to allow the kids to back-pack to school, and with correct addin software could even run Skype.
For further information see the linked BBC video report, or the company website:
http://www.elonexone.co.uk
Interested? Will this become the new electronic organiser, replacing those fiddly web browser cellphones for getting at your email or checking the news?, or is this just another fad childrens' product for the 2008 Christmas wishlist? The Elonex One: Its a sub-notebook with a detachable screen that can be used as a tablet pc. Its cheap, its available and its on sale... more -
Open Source Electronic Voting | News - Security - CNET News.com
It is pretty much agreed that electronic voting systems need to provide a paper receipt for auditing, but what if instead the electronic voting system printed out a unique ballot that could be scanned and tallied before the leaving the voter left the polling station?
On Thursday Alan Dechert, President and CEO of the Open Voting Consortium, Brian J. Fox and Parker Abercrombie of The Okori Group, and Brent Turner, met with CNET News and offered a sneak peek at a different kind of electronic voting system to be demonstrated live at this year's LinuxWorld in San Francisco.
Currently private companies provide electronic voting machines and services throughout the country, among them Premier Elections Solutions (formerly Diebold), and Sequoia Voting Systems. But doubt exists on the accuracy of these systems, in part, because the companies refused to allow third-party scrutiny. In 2007, the California Secretary of State Debra Bowen instituted a third-party review of the electronic voting systems used in the state and found various irregularities. In 2004, former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelly decertified several voting systems under increasing concerns over the integrity of those systems.
The Open Voting Consortium advocates the use of open source tools to provide election officials with accurate electronic voting systems, systems which they say will save countries nearly 90 percent of the cost of current electronic voting machines. They are currently concentrating their efforts within California. They hope to announce soon adoption by at least one large country in the state and perhaps be in a position to provide services to the entire state in time for the 2012 Presidential Elections.
The Orkori Group has designed a Web-enabled service for county officials to create their ballot design, with templates for multiple candidates, yes or no proposition, and other contests likely to appear in an election. Drawing upon a database of eligible local candidates and issues, an election official creates a ballot with the Orkori Group's online tool.
-----------------------------------
Clink the link for the rest of the story. It is pretty much agreed that electronic voting systems need to provide a paper receipt for auditing, but what if instead the electron... more -
Internet Point Linux - Rototom SunSplash 2008
La cassa dell' internet point allestito e gestito dall' ALP - Aquileia Linux Project futuro GLP - GNU / Linux Project al festival reggae Rototom Sunsplash 2008... protagonisti Ale e Salva. La cassa dell' internet point allestito e gestito dall' ALP - Aquileia Linux Project futuro GLP - GNU / Linux Project al fes... more
-
How I got a Windows Vista refund from HP | equiliberate
My laptop was stolen, so I went down to Best Buy and picked up an HP dv6815nr since it was on sale for $599.99+tax. After powering it up, I was confronted by the Microsoft Windows Vista EULA and the HP EULA:
If you take the time to read the Microsoft EULA it is disturbing to say the least. But I won't get into that here - many others have bashed this EULA to bits. Notice that there is no option to not accept their terms - you agree, or else... Or else what? I stared at the screen, and decided it was time to take the leap to Linux.
I found an 800 number on the HP website and made Phone Call #1: My laptop was stolen, so I went down to Best Buy and picked up an HP dv6815nr since it was on sale for $599.99+tax. After powering it ... more -
Add Laptop Location Tracking Security, for Free
A new open source project allows computer users to add surreptitious location tracking to their systems. Windows, Mac and Linux versions are available.
Adeona, from researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, anonymously sends data to servers on a free storage system called OpenDHT. The data, which is encrypted, includes IP addresses, information about neighboring routers, and so forth. If your notebook ever gets stolen you can log into the system from another computer, access the data and notify authorities with it. Working with ISPs they should be able to locate it. The Mac version also uses a freeware program called isightcapture to take a picture of whoever is using the system.
Commercial versions of such products, such as CompuTrace's LoJack for Laptops, have been available for a long time. Typically they also offer a remote wiping function, which would seem to be a major advantage, at least for businesses.
It's not clear whether the location tracking information in the commercial products is any different from this free version. The ultimate version would use GPS hardware, but this is not typically included in notebook computers. Perhaps it should be. A new open source project allows computer users to add surreptitious location tracking to their systems. Windows, Mac and Linux versio... more -
This generation's 1984, download it for free
From the book:
Marcus, aka "w1n5t0n" is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and howto work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of his networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high schools intrusive but clumsy security systems.
But his whole world changes when, having skipped school, he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison, where they're mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state, where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: Take down the DHS himself.
Can one teenage hacker take fight back against a government out of control? Maybe, but only if he's really careful... and very, very smart.
"A wonderful, important book... I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year" - Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and American Gods.
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell’s 1984, Cory Doctorow’s LITTLE BROTHER is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." - Brian K Vaughn, author of Y: The Last Man
"Scarily Realistic... Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophiles civil protest". - Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox
"Read this book. You'll learn a great deal about computer security, surveillance and how to counter it, and the risk of trading off freedom for 'security'. And you'll have fun doing it." - Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media.
This is one of my favorite books if not my favorite book. Everyone in this generation should read it, because we might need it should things go wrong. From the book: ... more -
Internet Point Rototom SunSplash
Fra pochi giorni, il 3 luglio, aprirà le danze la 15esima edizione del Rototom SunSplash, festival reggae presso il parco del Rivellino ad Osoppo (Udine).
L' associazione ALP - Aquileia Linux Project da diversi anni ormai gestisce l' internet point al festival sopra citato.
L' internet point è costruito basandosi su azioni di trashware, ovvero riciclo di hardware e pc ormai obsoleti e riutilizzati con GNU/Linux e Free Software.
Il video mostra il backstage e la sala macchine dove noi di ALP ci organizziamo, allestiamo e configuriamo le macchine e testimao l' hardware per poi portarlo al SunSplash.
ALP - Aquielai Linux Project http://www.alproject.org
Rototom SunSplash http://www.rototom.com Fra pochi giorni, il 3 luglio, aprirà le danze la 15esima edizione del Rototom SunSplash, festival reggae presso il parco del Rivellin... more -
Google Gadgets 0.9.3 per Ubuntu Hardy [deb] « pollycoke :)
Chi li ama, chi li odia... a me ad esempio non interessano, non uso nemmeno i widget su Mac Os X ! E voi che ne pensate?
-
Fast Banshee Media Player Hits 1.0
The Linux jukebox media software, Banshee, has reached stable 1.0 status. Banshee often takes a backseat to Amarok in the Linux music player world, but if you’re using GNOME the latest version of Banshee blows Rhythmbox (the default music player in many distros) out of the water.
The biggest news in Banshee 1.0 is the massive speed improvements. Banshee isn’t technically a native Linux app since it uses .NET and runs as a managed app via Mono (F-Spot, the default photo organizer in GNOME, also uses .NET). In the past the overhead has made Banshee a bit slower than other options — especially with large music libraries.
But 1.0 is much snappier and performed as well as Rhythmbox in Ubuntu 8.04 with some 25,000 MP3s. In addition to the speed gains, Banshee 1.0 packs in a number of new features. Among the improvements are:
* album browser with cover art (one downside, there’s no GUI support for adding your own album covers, everything is automated)
* Better last.fm integration — one of Banshee’s standout features, this is about the best last.fm integration you’re going to find.
* Video searching and playback
* Optional auto-rip on insert
* Shuffle by song, artist or album
* Mini mode
* Podcast support
Banshee unabashedly borrows much of its feature set from Apple’s iTunes, but cuts out the Apple Store bloat, so if you’re looking for the features of iTunes without the DRM nastiness, Banshee makes an appealing choice.
Depending on which Linux distro you use, it might take some time for the Banshee 1.0 release to hit your repositories, but the Banshee download site has packages for most major Linux distros, including the latest versions of Ubuntu and Fedora. The Linux jukebox media software, Banshee, has reached stable 1.0 status. Banshee often takes a backseat to Amarok in the Linux music ... more -
Firefox3 - Download Day 2008 - Guinness World Record Event
For the upcoming release of Firefox 3, Mozilla is preparing Download Day 2008: a campaign to set a world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. Participants are asked to pledge to download Firefox 3 on the day that it's launched. The exact date hasn't been scheduled yet, but everything seems on track for June.
Click Below mentioned Logo to Become a Part of Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. With the backing of firefox community.
Registered Firefox Guinness World Record Community
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node&id=225833&t=2... For the upcoming release of Firefox 3, Mozilla is preparing Download Day 2008: a campaign to set a world record for the most software ... more -
Linux brings open source to the .car era
"Wind River is joining Intel to develop an open source Linux platform to your car and shake up the auto industry by bringing greater innovation, efficiency and development speed to the emerging in-car infotainment market.
It's a radical effort to force automakers -- which tend to favor evolutionary, not revolutionary, R&D - to embrace open source as a way to speed up development. If Wind River and Intel pull it off, it would be a crucial step toward spurring innovation and cooperation in the growing but fractured in-car multimedia market.
"To have an open system that allows, say, navigation providers to write code and software is a milestone idea if it works the way it's being talked about," says Thilo Koslowsk, an analyst with Gartner. "But we'll have to see how open it really is."
And how open the automakers are to playing along.
Wind River will make the specs and code for the platform available on the open source vehicle infotainment site Moblin.org in August. The idea is to have vendors and Linux users collaborate on software, contribute code and debug programs. The platform is optimized for Intel's new Atom processor, which Wind River says is perfect for in-car applications that require intensive multimedia and graphic support in a low-power environment.
Automakers have been known to work with one another when it suits their purposes, but they aren't known for taking a collective approach to anything. And their tendency to be cautious means things tend to happen at a snail's pace -- exactly the opposite of what happens in the electronics and software industries. But BMW and mega-suppliers Bosch and Delphi have lined up behind Wind River, which says the platform will offer plug-and-play compatibility for products like Nuance's voice communications, Parrot's Bluetooth applications and Gracenote's music management system.
"Mobile infotainment products are undergoing a dramatic technology shift as multimedia, communications and consumer devices converge in the automobile," says Robert W. Schumacher, head of advanced products and business development at Delphi. He says a Linux-based open source platform "breaks down silos of adjacent industries" and could hasten the marriage of consumer electronics to the automobile.
Koslowski concedes the auto industry's insular nature is the biggest impediment to an open source platform, but he says automakers need some helping keeping up with the pace of development for in-car gadgetry and software. "You have to have reliable solutions as a vehicle manufacturer," he says. "In the car things have to work, and not just 'good enough,' the way people are used to with portable devices."
But it's that need to have things work perfectly that might make automakers leery of an open source approach. Koslowski says Wind River will have to prove the automakers can count on an open source platform isn't going to be more trouble than it's worth. "They have to demonstrate that you're not giving up reliability in exchange for opening up the system," he says.
Companies like Microsoft, which has made huge investments and major inroads in the auto industry recently with Ford's wildly popular Sync system, aren't likely to be happy competing against Linux in another arena". "Wind River is joining Intel to develop an open source Linux platform to your car and shake up the auto industry by bringing grea... more -
Meet the OLPC's $75 laptop
Even with the price of what used to be known as the "$100 laptop" still hovering closer to the $200 mark, the organization behind the XO laptop design is at work on a next-generation device with an even lower target price: $75. To get there, it's counting on advances in software technologies and in hardware development, including work on processors and displays.
Hence the typing experience depicted here in the One Laptop per Child organization's XO-2 mockup, where the standard laptop keyboard has been replaced by a QWERTY touch screen. That reconfiguration would also allow for customizable keyboards, the OLPC said Wednesday, with younger children using a simplified keyboard and older ones able to use designs specific to various applications and multiple languages.
Credit: One Laptop per Child Even with the price of what used to be known as the "$100 laptop" still hovering closer to the $200 mark, the organization b... more -
kloeri: Announcing Exherbo!
L’ex sviluppatore Gentoo Bryan Østergaard ha annunciato la creazione di una nuova distribuzione chiamata Exherbo: in costruzione da qualche mese, l’ultima arrivata nel mondo delle distribuzioni riflette idee ed esperienze maturate da Østergaard e soci durante il periodo di collaborazione con Gentoo. L’ex sviluppatore Gentoo Bryan Østergaard ha annunciato la creazione di una nuova distribuzione chiamata Exherbo: in costruzione da qu... more
-
Flash Player 10: Dazzling Effects, Better Performance, Runs on Linux
The next generation of the Flash Player is here. Adobe has released a beta version of Flash Player 10, which promises better performance, improved text handling, custom photo effects filters and native 3D animations. It's available as a free download at the Adobe Labs website.
Adobe Flash is the most widely-used presentation technology for video, audio and animated user interfaces on the web. The current version of Flash Player is installed on roughly 95% of the world's internet-connected PCs. It also runs on a number of phones and mobile devices, though the percentage of such Flash-capable hand-helds is much smaller. In an effort to speed the adoption of Flash across mobile devices, Adobe recently lifted many of the licensing requirements necessary to develop for the platform.
As Tom Barclay, senior product marketing manager for Adobe’s Platform Business Unit told Wired.com in a telephone interview, many of Flash Player 10’s improvements are based on feedback the team has received from the development community. He says that most of the features in this release were included in direct response to their demands. By aiming to transcend specific limitations within the previous versions of the Flash player, Barclay hopes to help developers push the envelope and extend their online applications even further than was previously capable.
Once piece of welcome news is that Adobe is releasing the Flash Player 10 beta for all major platforms — Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe has even upped the Linux ante with a new installer specially tailored for Ubuntu users. Barclay says that Adobe considers Linux a major platform and will continue to make all Flash releases simultaneous across platforms.
Flash Player 10 beta packs a slew of new developer-centric features, but the most visible change for users will be the speed boost, which comes from new hardware acceleration tools that can offload some rendering tasks to your graphics card rather than relying solely on the CPU. That means your favorite sites using Flash interfaces will be much snappier.
Video playback gets a boost in Flash Player 10, as well. Although it only works with video streaming from Flash Media Server, the new Flash Player can new detect and modify bitrates on the fly, automatically adjusting video quality as bandwidth fluctuates. That could mean much smoother streaming without the annoying pauses or stuttering that happens when you watch videos online.
It might be some time before these new feature make to your favorite sites, especially given that this is only beta release. But don’t expect to wait too long, the last Flash Player update (which wasn’t even a major update) managed to reach 62 percent of users in the first three months. That may not be a wide enough adoption for sites as big as YouTube, but it’s great news for nimbler sites looking to push the envelope a little bit.
One place where Flash developers are really pushing the envelope is online photo editing -- taking tasks usually reserved for desktop apps like Photoshop and making them available in the browser. Indeed, this is one area where Flash Player 10 can make a significant impact.
Users of online photo editors like Picnik may one day benefit from Flash's new custom filters and effects for tweaking and enhancing images. While Creative Suite 3, Adobe's software suite for building Flash presentations, ships with a wide range of effects, the new tools will allow Flash developers to come up with their own effects. Adobe is even planning to set up an exchange site where developers can swap filters. Developers can create custom filters and effects using Adobe Pixel Bender (formerly code named Hydra) which is also the engine behind many of the special effects found in Adobe’s After Effects video editing software. Pixel Bender is a free download and can be found on Adobe Labs.
LINK: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/ The next generation of the Flash Player is here. Adobe has released a beta version of Flash Player 10, which promises better performan... more -
I pledge to never wine about drivers for Linux again.
I’m a big reader of anything Linux, I read Linux publications, I’m very loyal to all the Linux blogs, and seek out all the Linux news I can get my hands on. In almost all cases inevitably someone will bring up how Linux doesn’t have the driver for this piece of hardware or that piece of hardware. I’m a big reader of anything Linux, I read Linux publications, I’m very loyal to all the Linux blogs, and seek out all the Linux news ... more
-
The Unexpected (good) side effect of using Ubuntu
I am a Ubuntu believer, as one of those total converts for almost two years now Ubuntu has answered my every computing need. Even Ubuntu games are coming of age and I find myself not even using Wine but sticking to the native Linux games. Sure I knew the power of Ubuntu and run many of the critical applications my company relies on, on that very platform. Then something happened that I never expected. I am a Ubuntu believer, as one of those total converts for almost two years now Ubuntu has answered my every computing need. Even Ubun... more
-
related topics
Linux
Contributors (100)
Linux
