The
<video tag>, as defined by the HTML5 spec, is an element "used for playing videos or movies". Which
codec those videos or movies are in is currently undefined, with the two contenders being the free open source
Ogg Theora and the proprietary
H.264. With the unveiling of
Internet Explorer 9 both Microsoft and Apple are supporting H.264 in their browsers, and
comparisons of the standards seem to bear out H.264 as the better of the two. However Mozilla have taken a stance against incorporating H264 into Firefox on the grounds that it is
patented and has to be licensed. Arguments are now being made
for and
against Mozilla sticking to its ideals.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball points out that Firefox already supports proprietary formats such as GIF.
Um, perhaps not the best example.
posted by Artw
on Mar 21, 2010 -
140 comments
The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media. You may know them from such projects as
How to build a fake Google Street View car,
public domain donor stickers,
internet famous class, the
first rap video to end with a download source code link, or their numerous
firefox add-ons (such as
China Channel,
Tourettes Machine, or
Back to the future). FAT members have been hard at work standardizing various open source graffiti-related software packages, including
Graffiti Analysis,
Laser Tag,
Fat Tag Deluxe and
EyeWriter [previously] to be
GML (Graffiti Markup Language) compliant.
Fuck Google.
Fuck Twitter.
FuckFlickr.
Fuck SXSW.
Fuck 3D. FAT Lab is
Kanye shades for the open source movement.
posted by finite
on Mar 13, 2010 -
8 comments
Revolution OS [1h25m Google Video]
is a 2001 documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf. [more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Mar 11, 2010 -
68 comments
From the newly launched
OpenSource.com comes
a pointer to the
Open College Textbook Act of 2009. This bill, currently stuck in committee, calls for the adoption of openly licensed and freely distributed electronic textbooks. It is hoped that this will lower costs, level the playing field and even help restore overseas confidence in the U.S. educational system.
[more inside]
posted by cedar
on Jan 26, 2010 -
26 comments
Do you want to personally verify climate science? You can, with open source data and algorithms.
OpenTemp.org: An Open Analysis of the Historical Temperature Record.
Clear Climate Code: Python reimplementation of GISTEMP, the NASA GISS surface temperature analysis.
EDGCM: a research-grade Global Climate Model (GCM) with a user-friendly interface that can be run on a desktop computer.
posted by stbalbach
on Jan 15, 2010 -
42 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 14, 2009 -
59 comments
Spacehack "A directory of ways to participate in space exploration. Interact and connect with the space community."
posted by chrismear
on Aug 4, 2009 -
6 comments
Open to Revisions. "Some religious entrepreneurs have adopted an 'open source' model, where rituals and doctrines can be rewritten as easily as computer code."
posted by homunculus
on Jun 11, 2009 -
54 comments
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. [more inside]
posted by mecran01
on Nov 13, 2008 -
40 comments
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)
posted by blue_beetle
on Oct 12, 2008 -
27 comments
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.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing
on Aug 28, 2008 -
47 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by Artful Codger
on Aug 15, 2008 -
41 comments
LugRadio is a fortnightly British radio show that takes a relaxed, humorous look at Linux and open source.
posted by finite
on Mar 11, 2008 -
2 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis
on Jan 21, 2008 -
82 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by localhuman
on Dec 5, 2007 -
11 comments
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.
posted by localhuman
on Dec 16, 2006 -
18 comments
Raising for Ryzom. Saga Of Ryzom's parent company is having some sort of undisclosed trouble, and a group of users are raising funds to purchase the source code and art assets. So far, they've raised 60k in euros.
posted by ®@
on Dec 1, 2006 -
3 comments
Ballmer: Linux Users Owe Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle yesterday, that Linux infringes upon his company's intellectual property. Does this signal preparations for all out war against the
open source community? Microsoft's recent
acquisition of Novell was seen as an ominous sign. Or perhaps it's a sign that user friendly versions of linux such as
Ubuntu threaten sales of Microsoft's
problematic new VISTA OS, scheduled for release Nov. 30th for businesses and Jan. 30, 2007 for consumers?
posted by Skygazer
on Nov 17, 2006 -
79 comments
To work around the proprietary whims of digital audio software developers and laptop processor limitations during the mid- and late-1990s, a small band of technically-minded people, including the electronic musician
Blitter, pulled together in the late 1990s to engineer the open-source
OPEN DSP EZ-Kit platform, a 16-bit computer designed entirely with a focus on low cost and extensible control and DSP arithmetic capabilities. While this project and
similar commercial offerings never seemed to gain the critical mass needed to sustain long-term interest, perhaps the new
Arduino hardware project from MIT's
Processing hardware group may gain a foothold with
Processing and
Pure Data audio software hobbyists and artists alike, allowing the creative community to extend, enhance and share inventive uses of new technology. Arduino's use has
already begun in
fascinating museum installations around the world, and has become a part of this year's
SONAR and
Ars Electronica festivals.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Aug 12, 2006 -
10 comments
Ndiyo systems consist of a central PC running Linux, serving a bunch of ultra-cheap, ultra-thin VNC-ish clients over 100Mbit Ethernet connections. The developers hope that mass production will soon make the clients cost as little as a typical video cable.
posted by flabdablet
on Jan 16, 2006 -
32 comments
