MetaFilter posts tagged with open

Open Toronto

GuyZero — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:37:45 -0800

Toronto's Open Civic Data. The city of Toronto has released its data to the world via the new Open Toronto initiative: geographic data for a variety of civic divisions, lists of licensed business, public transit stops, routes & schedules, a SOAP-based geocoding API and more.

unbump.

kaibutsu — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:11:50 -0800

SAGE is a free, open-source computer algebra system. SAGE is notable for bringing together a number of existing (and extremely fast) open source projects under a single umbrella, and religiously avoiding redundant code. The idea is to create a free alternative to closed-source systems like Mathematica, Maple, and MATLab. In spite of its buffet-style approach to computation, it already runs considerably faster than Mathematica in many situations. Importantly, open-source software is easier to ethically cite in academic papers, since the code is available for review. As a result, a number of researchers (including me) regularly use SAGE in their work, using its massive computational power to find new results to prove.

Know Thy Congressman

sciurus — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:29:45 -0800

Know Thy Congressman (an Apps for America Project of Sunlight Labs) provides a handy bookmarklet that lets you get a quick overview of Congresscritters that you might not be familiar with. The winners for Round Two of Apps for America (focusing on data.gov) were announced yesterday.

Round 1 submissions for Apps for America (previously)
Round 2 submissions for Apps for America
Round two winners:
- DataMasher - Create your own mashups. Want to know how many unemployed people there are per square mile? Find out here.
- GovPulse - Browse & filter the Federal Register.
- This We Know - Discover what data the government has on your community.

I am a strange loop.

loquacious — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:30:41 -0800

Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has been recorded as a series of video lectures for MIT's Open Courseware project.

When is a door not a door?

nthdegx — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:48:25 -0800

Open Doors - a puzzle game.

The Androids are coming!

loquacious — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:37:00 -0800

Google's Android goes live for demo. Lots of video and stills. Cache.

WARNING: This page may be altered in transit!

loquacious — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:44:51 -0800

ArsTechnica is reporting on the practice of altering and editing web-traffic enroute from the server to your client/browser. Is your ISP, work or connection path altering your requested documents? Find out here.

Yeah...but where are all the chicks?

allkindsoftime — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:35:23 -0800

These webcams were found automatically through a variety of clever search techniques and update several times a day. Their owners may or may not have intended for them to be public, but they obviously are. Via Opentopia. That's just the most popular cams in the US, btw. There's plenty more to browse through. Looked pretty SFW to me, but I guess there's potential.

Freely-available textbooks

Upton O'Good — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:35:44 -0800

Open Text Book: a blog which lists freely-available online textbooks. These textbooks include ones for basic and advanced math (warning: giant PDF), engineering, electronics, and philosophy, among others.

The revolution will be hard-bound and highlighted

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:00:48 -0800

"The [textbook] industry charges outrageous prices for new textbooks while simultaneously doing everything it can to make older versions unusable or obsolete. There is simply no reason that a new calulus textbook should cost $157. The study of calculus, at least the type of calculus that most of us need to study in high school or undergraduate programs, has not changed significantly in decades." - Textbook Revolution.

Closer to the heart

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:42:21 -0800

"In 2003, Americans spent an estimated US$5,635 per capita on health care, while Canadians spent US$3,003... Canada’s single-payer system, which relies on not-for-profit delivery, achieves health outcomes that are at least equal to those in the United States at two-thirds the cost." What do wealthy, educated Americans living in Canada think?

Open Medicine Journal

furtive — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:22:26 -0800

The inaugural edition of Open Medicine, a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access medical journal is now available online. The online medical journal launched in the aftermath of a rift last year between some editors and the publisher of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Among the first interesting articles? a review of studies which suggests that health outcomes may be superior in patients cared for in Canada versus the United States (but differences are not consistent), even though spending is higher south of the border.

Flash Friday Tutorials

localhuman — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 12:07:59 -0800

Kirupa.com is a resource for designers who want to become better developers. Whether you want a tutorial to help you make a Flash zoom motion blur, some help with php and html, learn object oriented programming, or use photoshop well, kirupa might be of assistance to you.

Open source classics

hoverboards don't work on water — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:27:03 -0800

You've heard of ScummVM and MAME, but harvest time is approaching in the field of reverse-engineered open source re-implementations of other classic games too:
OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon), LinCity (Sim City), Advanced Strategic Command (Battle Isle), Freeciv (Civilization), Enigma (Oxyd), Widelands (Settlers), OpenArena (Quake 3), Spring (Total Annihilation), JJFFE (Frontier First Encounters), Vega Strike and Oolite (Elite), FreeOrion (Master of Orion), Pingus (Lemmings), Stratagus (Warcraft II et al.), CloneKeen (Commander Keen), Exult (Ultima VII), FreeCNC (Command & Conquer), REminiscence (Flashback), LGeneral (Panzer General), Pioneers (Settlers of Catan), and Freedoom (Doom).

In the future will everything be open source?

MrMerlot — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:52:37 -0800

Can you build an open source car? Or a three-dimensional printer? Or a new kind of handheld computer? Can open source ideas thrive in the physical world? Or is there something fundementally different? Are we seeing a new type of production or just a filip for hobbyists and dreamers?

Open source markets

localhuman — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 08:17:34 -0800

Prediction markets trade uncertainty for collective wisdom, and have been proven to be more accurate than other mechanisms for predicting outcomes such as polls. Many corporate entities (HP, Intel, Google, Yahoo, Siemens, etc.) are said to be using them internally. Several successful prediction markets already exist, such as Hedgestreet, NewsFutures, the Iowa Electronic Markets, Hollywood Stock Exchange, and Inkling Markets. A spinoff of DARPA's Policy Analysis Market, prediction markets might be to markets what open source was to software.

"And now on BBC 2 - the Open University".

greycap — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:32:03 -0800

The Open University was founded in 1971 in the "white heat" of the communications revolution. Late-night lectures delivered over the television would revolutionise education - but they quickly became a much-loved/much-mocked UK icon, ideal for insomniacs (it was all that was on telly at that time of night), and replete with kipper ties, beards and Periodic tables. They also helped to inspire some affectionate piss takes and spoofs. This weekend the OU will broadcast its last ever TV documentary - from now on they will be sticking to DVDs and the internet. Last link goes to embedded BBC News video.

Taking Open Source to the Next Level

PreacherTom — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:26:00 -0800

Taking Open Source to the Next Level Linux? Firefox? Bah! German Markus Merz scoffs at these posers. Instead, he steps up to offer the OScar project, whose goal is to develop and build an open source *car*. While not in the same class as a Range Rover or Hummer, they hope to make something more simple and functional. This isn't the only example of hardware-based open source projects. Others include Zero Prestige, which designs kites and kite-powered vehicles, and Open Prosthetics, which offers free exchange of designs for prosthetic devices.

Emo and Proog

growabrain — Fri, 19 May 2006 16:09:39 -0800

Elephants Dream - A computer-generated movie made using open source applications

DTV for Mac Beta

signal — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 11:37:57 -0800

DTV beta for Mac is now live. DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video. The goal here is to make sure that internet TV is open and independent. Free, open source software and open standards mean anyone can watch and everyone has a voice.

CommonTunes

signal — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:05:45 -0800

Today Norway, tomorrow - Ultima Thule!

tannhauser — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 06:05:31 -0800

Norway's Ministry for Modernisation has declared for Open Source formats. Speaking at eNorge, the Norwegian Minister for Modernisation, Morten Andreas Meyer, has said that "proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government". Although he did not mention Microsoft by name, he did say that this was the last time he would be streaming his speech using the current (WMP-based) technology.

The Ministry for Modernisation may sound quaint, but it was founded in 2004 with a broad remit, and 200 employees, not a small number in a nation of less than 5 million souls. Although Norway's spending on IT may not be great compared to the US or China, as one of the wealthiest and most technologically developed nations on Earth (not to mention the emphasis on long-distance communications robustness created by a large country with terrible weather) it sets a precedent about what a tech-savvy first-world nation might do with Open Source, not because it cannot afford proprietary formats but because it does not want them. Microsoft, meanwhile, might be wondering why it bothered to translate Office into Sami. Will this be the first domino, or can it be written off as the actions of an oil-rich rogue state that will soon be brought back into the global consensus?

Open Source Culture

rzklkng — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 11:16:54 -0800

Culture by the people, for the people. We all know that there are a gazillion blogs out there, with people talking about anything and everything, frequently to an audience of one. Those same text based blogs are incorporating video as well. People are beginning to organize their internet not through search engine algorithims, but by their own tags. There's also a dedicated cadrey of partisan and non-partisan "amateur journalism" sites. Then you have full fledged communities focused to specific subjects, holding an unbelievable depth of knowledge and opinions. With entire encyclopedias available online, and with smaller topic-centric wiki's available, can the creation and dissemination of audience authored content be far behind? Witness the growth of Flickr, the probable success of Vimeo, people programming their own radio stations and/or shows, the increasing awareness and use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by plain ol' citizens, the courting of TiVo by Google and Yahoo (to share homemovies and pictures, perhaps?), open source news sites like Take Bake the News, NowPublic (for royalty free images to accompany content), Downhill Battle, Our Media ( a place to store your content), and open-source sounds and sights. Could there eventually be enough worthwhile content to break us free of a corporate-delivered culture?

HACKEM MUCHE

felix — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:51:10 -0800

Asidonhopo hits! --more--


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A false is false, of course of course

cavalier — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 09:49:12 -0800

New Firefox build fixes IDN toggle Hear about the IDN debacle yesterday? Last night's build of Firefox fixes it. Download and install over your existing Firefox. The Mozilla tree is fixed too. [instructions inside]