MetaFilter posts tagged with OpenSource

A Long, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Free Software

Monday, stony Monday — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:00:07 -0800

In Two Bits (full-book in html) , Christopher M. Kelty investigates the history and cultural significance of Free Software, revealing the people and practices that have transformed not only software, but also music, film, science, and education. The author encourage his readers to modulate the book. Sadly, Two Bits has not been endorsed by Richard Stallman. There have been reviews, notably in MIT's Technology Review and Inside Higher Ed. It also has provoked interesting reactions from readers, including this story about the early Korean Internet, and this (title-inspiring) comment from Thomas Lord. [via LtU]

EyeWriter Initiative

brundlefly — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:32:53 -0800

"The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people, who are suffering from ALS, with creative technologies." From the site:

Members of Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group communities have teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named Tony Quan, aka TEMPTONE. Tony was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. This international team is working together to create a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that will allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes. The long-term goal is to create a professional/social network of software developers, hardware hackers, urban projection artists and ALS patients from around the world who are using local materials and open source research to creatively connect and make eye art.

Chrome megaphone barks / Autumn presents First Alpha / The Spring of Haiku

filthy light thief — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:05:36 -0800

BeOS has been reborn a number of times, often without significant success but things are looking up. Starting in 1991 with the production of an all-in-one hardware/software home multimedia computer (the BeBox, the first of which was available to the public in 1994), the possible purchase by Apple was at the height of success for BeOS (instead Apple chose to buy NeXT in 1996), and the low point of being when BeOS was bought by Palm for $11 million in 2001, where it became part of the Palm OS Cobalt that nobody wanted. In 2002, news of BeOS' rebirth as yellowTAB came out, with another shift as yellowTAB became magnussoft ZETA, which finally folded in 2007, as their figures were far below expectations. From here, fans and enthusiasts took over, with a number of attempts to re-create BeOS from scratch. Most failed, but Haiku (previously) has survived, and today they announced that the first alpha version of the Haiku operating system is available for download (direct download or through torrent), and a preliminary review sounds positive. Starting on the AT&T Hobbit processor, the early BeBoxen then changed to two PowerPC processors running at 66 or 133 MHz. Be, Inc. made the decision to port BeOS to Intel chipsets in a hope to broaden their market with the R3 release in March 1998, finally giving away the OS for personal use (which was later modified by users after there was no official support), shifting gears and retooling the OS for internet appliances (BeIA). None of this helped enough, and Palm's final purchase price of $11 million was a fraction of the $200 million Be hoped to get from Apple in the years before (Apple was only willing to pay $125 million). The BeOS interface is well recognized, and many people have copied the design into themes and skins for modifiable programs. The release of this alpha was also covered on Slashdot, where a commenter noted it's usable, but lacking in wifi support. A follow-up noted [t]he wireless stack is a work in progress (see also: Haikuware Blog), based on the FreeBSD 8.0 WLAN stack. There is a bounty for this goal. Haiku was chosen as the project name because of the intended simplicity of the project, and as a tribute to the error messages from NetPositive (which also lead to the FPP title). Before anyone tells me it's not Autumn yet, I'm claiming this falls under the meteorological Autumn for the northern hemisphere.

Japan's Media Environment

armage — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:21:13 -0800

Japan -- Media Environment Open; State Looms Large (August 2009, PDF) A detailed, 67-page overview and analysis of Japan's traditional and new media environment published by the Open Source Center, an office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Spacehack

chrismear — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:52:07 -0800

Spacehack "A directory of ways to participate in space exploration. Interact and connect with the space community."

Standing out in the crowd.

chunking express — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:07:03 -0800

Standing out in the crowd. Kirrily Robert's keynote from OSCON. She discusses diversity in opensource communities and projects. Her follow up post links to some 'interesting' discussions.

Apollo 11 Source Code

chunking express — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:48:15 -0800

The Apollo 11 Command Module code (Comanche054) and Lunar Module code (Luminary099) have been open sourced.

Open Source Religion

homunculus — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:21:09 -0800

Open to Revisions. "Some religious entrepreneurs have adopted an 'open source' model, where rituals and doctrines can be rewritten as easily as computer code."

Vogue.

lazaruslong — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:47:47 -0800

When Kevin Atkinson gets home from a long day, he likes to play with his balls. "For those new to the blog, I've written a dataflow framework for real-time video effects, plus a number of effects implemented within that framework (some of which are demoed in the above video). In this post I'm announcing that I'm open-sourcing that framework."

Open Source Disclosure: Improving Congressional Transparency

filthy light thief — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:17:51 -0800

The Sunlight Foundation's open source development team, Sunlight Labs, have announced the winners of the first annual Apps for America contest. Over 40 entries were judged, with Filibusted (Hold senators accountable for blocking legislation) getting top marks. Legistalker (The latest online activity of Congress Members) got second, and there was a 4-way tie for 3rd. [via mefi projects] The Sunlight Foundation have been featured on the Blue before, and Sunlight Labs was previously seen on the Blue with Capital Words, allowing you to see what the most often used word was on any given day in the U.S Congress. They have a few other projects posted that didn't make it to the Blue.

Open Platform

netbros — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:31:11 -0800

Somewhat quietly within the past couple weeks, two major newspapers, on each side of the Atlantic, have opened up their data and content APIs. Last month, on their Open blog, the New York Times introduced their Developer Network. Then just yesterday, on their DataBlog and OpenPlatformBlog, the Guardian launched Open Platform. Insiders at the Guardian are talking about the Data Store and the Content API. Even Members of Parliament are duly impressed. The Times will be at SXSW this week to talk about opening up as an information platform. The Information Age is truly coming of age.

Stealing Your Library

mecran01 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:32:20 -0800

OCLC, owners of WorldCat, are getting greedy. It's now demanding that every library that uses WorldCat give control over all its catalog records to OCLC. It literally is asking libraries to put an OCLC policy notice on every book record in their catalog. It wants to own every library. It's not just Open Library that's at risk here -- LibraryThing, Zotero, even some new Wikipedia features being developed are threatened. Basically anything that uses information about books is going to be a victim of this unprecedented power[ ]grab. It's a scary thought. Open Library provides a free alternative to WorldCat, provided it doesn't get sued into oblivion.

Personal Genome Project

thatbrunette — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:20:31 -0800

Volunteers from the general public working together with researchers to advance personal genomics. 10 volunteers, among them noted author and cognitive psychologist Stephen Pinker, have open sourced (so to speak) their genetic information. The belief is that current privacy issues surrounding genetic information is leading to a decline in research. With a hoped for 100,000 participants the idea is to give a boost to medical research involving the human genome. Pinker and the 9 other volunteers have posted up their medical history, and will add information such as tastes and preferences, ethnic backgrounds. Future volunteers will do the same, along with photographs, allergies- even television habits. Want to join?

..an 19MB small, 56k modem capable, opensource, multiplayer Shooter

blue_beetle — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:43:06 -0800

AssaultCube is a free first-person-shooter. Set in a realistic looking environment, it's fast and arcade-like. Available for Windows, OS X, and Linux (via)

Open-source online exhibit platform

Miko — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:40:31 -0800

Omeka is a newly available, open-source web platform, bringing good-looking, functional online exhibitry within reach of smaller museums, libraries, and arts groups. From the Center for History and New Media.

Je me souviens ... l'accord de partage de l'utilisateur

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:53:09 -0800

Facil, an open-source community based in Québec, is suing the Québec government for buying Microsoft software when free alternatives are available. Facil's press release says, in part, "From February to June 2008, FACIL has noticed sales of proprietary software for more than 25 million dollars. These purchases were made for products offered by large multinational enterprises, with no regard to suppliers in Quebec. ... While most of the developed countries have started, a few years back, migrating their technological infrastructures to Free Software, Quebec's public administration is far behind." Some applaud Facil's move. Others, not so much.

The Open-Source Train Moves Forward

Artful Codger — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:04:42 -0800

What could be less important to the blue than a news item involving model railroading and Java? Yet in an important decision, a U.S. Appeals court has ruled that that the terms of the Artistic License are enforceable copyright conditions. "For non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important but this is huge," said Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig. The Java Model Railroad Interface is an open-source project of software in Java for use in controlling model railroads. For the past few years, according to the JMRI website, the project and its leader have been under legal attack by a commercial competitor, who has allegedly used project code in a commercial product in violation of the license terms, has received a patent without proper disclosure of prior art, and has engaged in litigation against the JMRI project and its chief maintainer. Is this an important victory? Lawrence Lessig seems to think so.

The story of a giant rabbit

tellurian — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:14:50 -0800

Big Buck Bunny - a fantastic animation. It's also on YouTube, but the download is so much better.

Are laws public domain?

msalt — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:05:11 -0800

In the spirit of those who have patented living organisms, the State of Oregon Legislative Counsel Committee is demanding $30,000 from Justia.com for the right to publish Oregon Revised Statutes -- the laws of Oregon -- on their website for two years. To be exact, the committee does not claim copyright in the laws themselves, but "a copyright in the arrangement and subject-matter compilation of Oregon statutory law, the prefatory and explanatory notes, the leadlines and numbering for each statutory section, the tables, index and annotations and other such incidents as are the work product of the Committee in the compilation and publication of Oregon law." The correspondence. That's the same theory that West Law Co. has used to maintain a monopoly over legal decisions for years, though their power is eroding. Criticism: Citizen Media Law Project -- The Patry Copyright Blog ("Oregon goes wacka wacka huna kuna") -- ars technica -- The Washington Times -- Info/Law Support (sort of): Oregon Legal Research (blog)

Open Champion

Abiezer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:03:13 -0800

"Open Source Living is a community-driven dynamic archive of Open Source software spanning all major platforms."

Linux radio show

finite — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:22:43 -0800

LugRadio is a fortnightly British radio show that takes a relaxed, humorous look at Linux and open source.

Wubi: Ubuntu the easy way

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:09:41 -0800

Ubuntu has quickly become the number one Linux distro for the desktop. Not only is it free, but it has also made Linux easier to use than ever. Now, Wubi enables Windows users to install Ubuntu just like any other application, so you no longer have to mess around with partitions, burning CDs, etc. Be advised that Wubi is just an installer, i.e. it still has to download Ubuntu, ca 700 MB in size, from the web. The software is still beta. Interesting info from the Wubi FAQ:

What are the system requirements? 256 MB RAM and an 1 GHz or faster Intel/AMD processor is recommended for optimal performance, though Xubuntu might work on less. As for disk space, the installation requires a minimum of 4GB. This space is mostly used by the virtual hard disk file. Most computers purchased within the last 3 years should be able to run Ubuntu fine, and Xubuntu is suitable for older computers. What platforms are supported? Wubi will run on on all Windows versions from Windows 98 to Windows Vista, more platforms to come soon. 64-bit builds are possible but not yet available. Linux/*nix/*BSD are supported through Lubi (download location and guide), and Mac OSX will eventually be supported through Mubi (developers still needed). How does Wubi work? Wubi adds an entry to the Windows boot menu which allows you to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed within a file in the windows file system (c:\wubi\disks\system.virtual.disk), this file is seen by Linux as a real hard disk. Is this running Ubuntu within a virtual environment or something similar? No. This is a real installation, the only difference is that Ubuntu is installed within a file as opposed to being installed within its own partition. Thus we spare you the trouble to create a free partition for Ubuntu. And we spare you the trouble to have to burn a CD-Rom. What flavor of Ubuntu will I get? Most flavors, including Ubuntu (default, with GNOME), Kubuntu (with KDE), Xubuntu (with XFCE for older computers), Edubuntu (good for schools and younger users) and UbuntuStudio (for multimedia workstations). Contact us if you would like your own flavor to be available for installation via Wubi. How do I run Ubuntu? You have to reboot and choose "Ubuntu". How do I run Windows? You have to reboot and choose "Windows". How do I uninstall it? You uninstall it as any other applications. In windows go to the control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs", then select Wubi and uninstall it. You can also use the uninstaller that you find in C:\wubi\uninstaller.exe.

Movable Type is Open Source

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:02:31 -0800

Movable Type has gone open source.

the future is open {

localhuman — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:53:43 -0800

Papervision3D 2.0 released yesterday. Papervision3D is an open source 3D Engine for flash which provides a lightweight, browser friendly platform for rendering 3d content in your browser window. Papervision (some examples of PV3D in use: 1, 2, 3 (this third one might be awhile to load...), however, is only the tip of the iceberg which is a very committed and talented open source flash community. for reference, I've not been involved in any way in the development of any of these projects- just a fan... want deep linking for flash? want an awesome open source flash remoting solution? want an awesome tweening engine? want a flash communication server (usually in the 10's of k's) for free? want to compile your flash documents without using flash? option 1 (actionscript 2), option 2 (actionscript 3) want an awesome external flash code editor? (sorry mac users) want a javascript deally that makes sure your flash documents display correctly across browsers? check these projects out if you get a chance, and never forget that the future is open {

I think the dragons be somewhere on the other side of Mordorsoft Mountains.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:59:09 -0800

The Web Is Agreement: a poster (large, huge) designed by Paul Downey.