Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

The larger the garment industry has become, the more apparel companies have operated opaque businesses and employed questionable (if not abominable) practices in order to keep up with the goliath scale of manufacturing. At this point, most consumers have at least partial awareness of the perilous conditions of sweatshops, but the majority of clothes still come from behind a veil; and because consumers know how limited our choices are for goods with a transparent backstory, we don't always choose to try to see what's behind that closed source.

In the past, Microsoft has said that its ASP.NET AJAX (Atlas) framework could be used sans Microsoft development tools. Particularly, the client-side library in ASP.NET AJAX can interact with several web-based programming languages as it consists of nothing more than JavaScript. That being said, one industrious Microsoft dev has gone ahead and created a library called "PHP for Microsoft AJAX Library" that allows PHP developers to easily interact with Microsoft's rich client framework.

An engineer from Advanced Micro Devices has reportedly released source-code of BIOS (basic input/output system) for a mainboard by Gigabyte Technology. The move allows die-hard Linux followers to reprogram BIOS according to their needs, for instance, to get better overclocking functionality.

IBM is not ready to guarantee that its computer programs are compatible with Oracle Corp.'s recently launched version of the Linux operating system, an IBM spokesman said on Friday. This means that if IBM software programs turn out to be incompatible with Oracle Enterprise Linux, then it will be up to Oracle -- and not IBM -- to resolve the issue, said IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon.

As part of Mozilla Corporation's ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 1.5.0.10 and Firefox 2.0.0.2 are now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download from getfirefox.com. Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to these latest releases.

Free software does not mean getting it for free, it means the freedom to choose, deploy, run and make changes according to the needs of the user, said Biman Bose, the politburo member and state general secretary of CPI(M). Soon state schools will have teachers who have the necessary training to teach the various facets of free and open source software to secondary and higher secondary students.

Python is a unique programming language that is widely used in places like Google, NASA and many other companies for mission critical applications. I'm reporting from the 2007 Python conventionpyCon in search of healthcare possibilities. I'm finding some but it seems as though straight Electronic Medical Record work has gone dormant. Tim Cook's efforts with FreePM which is now TORCH and Andrew Ho's work with Zope and OIO are the only examples that come to mind but it doesn't appear that Python has significant EMR software. That does not appear to be the case with PHP/MySQL which has a thriving community. Why?

Although the GPL is considered the most widely used license in open source projects today, plenty of commercial open source projects choose to use a Mozilla Public License (MPL) variant instead. Open source enterprise content management firm Alfresco used to be one such commercial vendor. But as of today, Alfresco is moving from an MPL license to the GPL.

One of the good things about OpenOffice.org is its ability to use different database engines. Just give it the right driver, and OpenOffice.org can connect to virtually any database system, including MySQL. However, deciding what database driver to use and configuring a connection between MySQL and OpenOffice.org can be a bit tricky. Let's walk through the process.

Alcatel-Lucent isn't the only winner in a federal jury's $1.52 billion patent infringement award against Microsoft this week. Other beneficiaries are the many rivals to the MP3 audio-compression format.

It's no secret that Linus Torvalds, Linux's founder, dislikes the GNOME desktop. In 2005, for example, Torvalds posted on the GNOME-usability list that "I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE."

The KDE project announces the availability of the third development snapshot of the upcoming KDE 4. This snapshot is meant as a reference for developers who want to play with parts of the new technology KDE 4 will provide, those who want to start porting their applications to the new KDE 4 platform and for those that want to start to develop applications based on KDE 4. This snapshot is not for end users, there is no guarantee that it will be stable, the interfaces are subject to changes at any time.

With the introduction of the Tux/Stick, the company offers customers a solution to connect her notebook of secure ways with different networks by using special communication profiles. To cover those Ad-hoc connections and to simplify the configuration SSV Embedded Systems has developed a new Linux-based micro computer. This tiny system called Tux/Stick comes in the case of a USB stick and works as a gateway between a host PC and different networks.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Microsoft v. AT&T concerning liability for patent infringement for the distribution of software outside of the United States. Although the case is officially about arcane details of a 1984 revision to patent law, the decision could have broader significance if it helps to shed light on the patentability of software, a question the Supreme Court hasn't addressed in a quarter century.

To support more than 650,000 villages and one half billion youths who need education, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) created a nonprofit organization called Shiksha India in 2001. One of Shiksha's primary initiatives was the creation of a collaborative online Web portal, which the president of India launched in a formal ceremony last month. The new e-learning and collaboration portal uses open source technology such as Moodle, Drupal, and MediaWiki.

Open source vendor Novell has asserted that there is no truth in speculations of it losing out on the General Public License (GPL) to sell Linux operating system software. Following Novell's collaboration with software giant Microsoft to provide customers choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Linux and Windows, rumors were ripe in the industry about the Free Software Foundation (FSF) reviewing Novell's right to sell new versions of Linux software.

Japan's Turbolinux Inc. today begins dispatching the first batch of its Wizpy handhelds to people who ordered them from its Web site. The flash-based multimedia player contains a version of Linux, so it can be used to boot a PC into the operating system, allowing users to access their files in their own working environment on almost any PC.

The National Open Centre (NOC) holds its official launch, hosted by John Hemming MP, in the Houses of Parliament on the 26th February 2007. Nearly 100 individuals from the ICT industry: small business, multi-nationals, proprietary and the open source community, public sector, education and the media have accepted the invitation to this landmark launch.

The Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) organization is sponsoring a new open-source license intended for hardware components. Authored by lawyer John Ackermann, the Open Hardware License (OHL) is a share-alike license that developers can apply to documentation and schematics associated with hardware projects. The license stipulates that those who distribute products based on OHL-licensed hardware specifications may not file patent infringement lawsuits against others who use the same hardware specifications.

The Fedora Project Board met this week to discuss issues surrounding the upcoming release of Fedora 7 (F7). Though originally scheduled for release on April 26, that date has now been moved back to May 24, dashing the development team's plan to debut the final release at this year's Red Hat Summit. One thing that Summit attendees will see, though, is the artwork that has been selected as Fedora 7's new theme.