Many years ago I had great visions of open source concept evolving into something much bigger, and leaving it’s software grassroots.. My own ideas are along the lines of Open Engine, Open Vehicle, Open Space Shuttle. I think that could be a serious boost to humanity in terms of getting things done in this super commercial world where everyone has their own interests closest, and standards seems to be more of a marketing thing than actual leverage for development and intergration.

Those that have yet to wrap their head around the notion of open source hardware may want to mosey on over to the MAKE blog, which has put together a quick primer that attempts to clear things up for you and set you off on the right foot. Among other things, it sorts out the partially open source hardware like D-Link’s WRT54GL router from the truly open source gear like MAKE’s own Daisy MP3 player (pictured above), and provides a few suggestions to ensure that your own open source hardware creations remain as such. True to its nature, the primer is also admittedly a work in progress, so you know what to do if you see room for improvement.

• MAKE offers up open source hardware primer – Engadget

So your creative mind is tired lately? No problem, designs are all over the Internet.. Just grab some ideas (or all of them!) and crank those wicked design out..

• Engadget
• DanskRap

Scott MacGregor of Team Thunderbird writes in with news of the release of Mozilla Thunderbird 2: “Thunderbird 2 is now available for download on Windows, Mac and Linux in over 35 languages. Thunderbird 2 offers easy ways to manage and organize your email with message tags, advanced folder views, message history navigation, find as you type, and improved new mail alert notifications. Thunderbird 2 also includes a refreshed user interface and support for Microsoft Vista.

“Thunderbird 1.5.0.x users will be offered Thunderbird 2 via software update at a later date. Those wishing to upgrade now are therefore advised to download and install Thunderbird 2 manually.

“The Thunderbird 2 features page has more details about the new features in Thunderbird 2. The Thunderbird 2 Release Notes have more specific information. The Rumbling Edge has a list of notable bug fixes in Thunderbird 2.

“We also want to extend a huge thanks to everyone in the MozillaZine community for their help and support with Thunderbird 2 over the past year. We wouldn’t have been able to release Thunderbird without you. A special thanks to the awesome forum moderators who spend so much time answering questions and to the folks who help organize and participate in our weekly test threads here at MozillaZine.”

• MozillaZine: Mozilla Thunderbird 2 Released

The system that launched a thousand games …

When it was unveiled 22 years ago, the Commodore Amiga was instantly recognized as a groundbreaking multimedia machine.

The computer’s consumer price point belied the Amiga’s prowess as a rendering tool for realistic audio and eye-popping visuals. Its usefulness in the field of animation — from Babylon 5 and Wallace & Gromit to Andy Warhol’s You Are the One — was equaled only by the smoothness and realism the computer brought to games.

The heyday for Amiga games was the late ’80s and early ’90s. The computer’s custom chipset and advanced (for the time) graphics capability led to sumptuous 2-D titles in a variety of styles, and even some basic 3-D games. Here’s a look at some of the more innovative entries in the Amiga game canon.

By Simon Carless

• Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games