Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

In recent memory, there has never been a week like the last one for community leadership on the Linux Planet. Leaders of the Fedora Linux project, Ubuntu Linux and Gluster all announced that they were leaving the communities they lead.

LXer Feature: 25-May-2014

In the news this week, the Gmail app crosses one billion downloads, never leave an unused Java file laying around, China bans Windows 8 in retaliation of Microsoft stopping XP support, Red Hat's new model, Linus Torvalds and the cult of personality in technology, the growing role of UEFI and a reborn FOSS laptop. Enjoy!

While Scratch may seem like a very simplistic programming language that’s just for kids, you’d be wrong to overlook it as an excellent first step into coding for all age levels. One aspect of learning to code is understanding the underlying logic that makes up all programs; comparing two systems, learning to work with loops and general decision-making within the code.

In this article we’ll be using Node.js and the Duino library to get real-time CPU data and display it with a series of LEDs. We’ll also look into adjusting the brightness of those LEDs with a potentiometer, and running the app as a background process with Forever.js.

AMD’s “Bald Eagle” R-Series processors offer four 3.6GHz “Steamroller” cores with Heterogeneous System Architecture support, plus Mentor Embedded Linux. AMD has a dual-platform strategy for embedded: G-Series on the low end and R-Series on the high end. Now, the chipmaker has launched a second generation of AMD Embedded R-series processors in both CPU and APU (accelerated processing unit) variants, with the latter offering integrated, rather than optional discrete AMD Radeon graphics. AMD tipped its Bald Eagle R-Series processors last September, and has launched sales for five new variants. The new R-Series CPUs are designed for gaming machines, digital signage, medical imaging, industrial control and automation, and communications and networking infrastructure, says AMD.

Tobii announced a Linux-based eyewear device with advanced eye-tracking software that lets market researchers see what’s capturing the viewer’s attention. At first glance, Tobii Glasses 2 may look like another Google Glass competitor, but there’s more — and less — here than meets the eye. First, this is not a casual date: the glasses cost a whopping $14,900, and the Premium Analytics package goes for $29,900. Second, the eyewear is not designed for snapping photos of checking the Internet on the move. Instead, it lets researchers see what is captivating a test subject’s interest. The device can be used to watch what you’re looking at on a website, a TV screen, or signage, or when walking into a store or restaurant. They can analyze how you drive a car, train on equipment, or even play sports.

What is an OpenStack superuser? Or perhaps more aptly, who is an OpenStack superuser? As OpenStack continues to mature and slowly make its way into production environments, the focus on the user is continuing to grow. And so, to better meet the needs of users, the community is working hard to get users to meet the next step of engagement by highlighing those users who are change agents both in their organization and within the OpenStack community at large: the superusers.

In the wake of Heartbleed, can a free smartphone-based two-factor authentication system offer peace of mind for the Linux user?

Not long ago, the working definitions of "open government" and "open data" barely overlapped. Open government was all about holding up government to public scrutiny via Watergate-era methods—namely, making sure that meetings were held in public and that agencies responded to requests for information. Open data was about providing information in formats that computers can understand. Today, open government and open data overlap so substantially that it's routinely necessary to explain that they're different.

Digia has upgraded its bootable, Linux and Android ready Qt Enterprise Embedded GUI with Qt 5.3, Qt Cloud support, Qt WebEngine, and Qt Quick Compiler. Digia announced its commercial embedded version of Qt — Qt Enterprise Embedded — last October. The company updated it in early March with optimized Yocto recipes, a faster emulator, and a virtual keyboard.

J. R. R. Tolkien, perhaps best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was, in his academic life, a scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and literature. After a delay of 90 years, his translation of Beowulf will finally be published today. Through this newly available translation, readers will have the opportunity to visit (or revisit) King Hrothgar's mead hall and experience Beowulf's battles against Grendel and Grendel's mother without having to learn to read Anglo-Saxon, or as it is also known, Old English.

With the increasing prevalence of open-source implementations and the expansion of personal computing device usage to include mobile and non-PC devices as well as traditional desktops and laptops, combating attacks and security obstacles against malware is a growing priority for a broad community of vendors, developers and end users.

COM pioneer Congatec unveiled its first SBC: a Linux-ready Mini-ITX motherboard, with AMD’s G-Series SoC, extensive I/O, and PCIe and mini-PCIe expansion. Long-time computer-on-module vendor Congatec AG is now moving into single board computers and OEM services, starting with the “Conga-IGX,” its first industrial Mini-ITX motherboard. The board is designed for “cost-sensitive visualization and control applications,” says the company.

Open government isn't a new concept. Thanks to the proliferation of the printing press, the Age of Enlightenment blasted through Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries and brought demands for new rights: free speech, assembly, and, of course, the freedom of the press.

In 2007, Colin Drane wanted to know more about the crime that was happening in his Baltimore neighborhood. Utilizing the momentum of the open government movement, he founded SpotCrime, a public facing crime mapping and email alert website that collects public crime data from police agencies around the world. Today, SpotCrime is even more than that. The technology is used to advocate for open, equal, and fair access to crime information driving open data in the public safety sector.

Scandals, mismanagement, and back-room deals; the City of New Orleans has long endured a legacy of opaque policies and decision-making processes closed to its citizens. A historic disconnect caused by the city’s lack of available information has led to generations of disenfranchised residents.

Sometimes using Windows is a necessary evil. A lot of office environments still use Windows, and sometimes you’ll need Windows- specific applications and software if you want to work from home. There’s also the problem of developing cross-platform apps – constantly switching between operating systems is time- consuming and can, frankly, get tiring. The solution to a lot of these issues is to never dual- boot in the first place, but instead to virtualise Windows on your machine.

Recently, the Fedora Infrastructure Development team announced the new version of PackageDB — a tool especially for packagers — was available for use. Fedora currently distributes over 16000 packages, and PackageDB is the application that manages the permissions (who can update what, who is the bugzilla assignee, etc) for packages.

The OpenStack Juno Summit last week in Atlanta was a source of many new and exciting announcements, from both vendors and the OpenStack Foundation itself. One of the more interesting of such announcements was of a new OpenStack Marketplace. For those looking to explore their options in commercial offerings of OpenStack, from training to distributions to public clouds and more, the Marketplace is designed to help users better understand what resources are available.

One of the most controversial things that happened on the Linux Planet over the course of the last week has been a series of stories in the Wall St. Journal taking aim at Red Hat. The first story alleged that Red Hat will not support its' Linux customers who choose to run a non-Red Hat OpenStack distribution. It's an allegation that Red Hat denies.