Warping it up! » open

Open source hardware

Fini Alring — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:28:58 +0000

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

OpenDocument goes ISO

Fini Alring — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:42:53 +0000

The OpenDocument format has reached the staging phase of ISO standardization, and is now an official ISO Standard Format for advanced office documents. The format has mainly been developed within the OpenOffice.org project scope, but already many other office applications have or will be adopting the format. Microsoft which is dominating the market with their proprietary formats have now also accepted that open formats are not going away, but of course Microsoft has decided to contribute with their own version of an open office format… As far as I am aware it is not as open as they would have you think, however when its finalized as an ECMA standard i guess we will see, and hear much more about this topic…

The OpenDocument standard has been developed by a variety of organizations and is publicly accessible. This means it can be implemented into any system, be it free software/open source or a closed proprietary product, without royalties.

Slashdot | OpenDocument Now Published ISO Standard

Open Source gaining substantial popularity

Fini Alring — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 23:17:27 +0000

“IT services provider Atos Origin has predicted a forthcoming change in the software landscape based on the results of a survey it has carried out in conjunction with the UK’s National Computing Centre. The survey, which was compiled through over 140 web-based questionnaires completed by senior UK IT professionals in May and June, indicated that over 60% believe open source will either increase its presence in certain business areas
or be a fundamental component in core IT systems, while
73% expect open source to develop within their organizations’ IT strategy over the next five years.”

Slashdot | Atos Origin Predicts Open Source Landscape

Release: WordPress 1.5.2

Fini Alring — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 20:48:28 +0000

WordPress 1.5.2 is out, featuring security fixes, improvements to plugin API as well number of bugfixes.
An easy upgrade guide can always be found at the WordPress Codex.

WordPress Development Blog – WordPress 1.5.2

Copyfight!!

Fini Alring — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:03:51 +0000

Still have holliday? Well then, book a flight and attend the Copyfight festival / convention. It’s in Barcelona, Spain 15/16/17 July 2005. So hurry hurry!!

p.s.: I will sadly not attend, since I have postponed hollidays for the not-so-near future.

COPYFIGHT

Inkscape 0.42: Scalable Vector Graphics Editor

Fini Alring — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 21:36:18 +0000

Ok! Why did I not know about Inkscape before today??! It looks amazing and it’s said that the new version is a major feature update, and although I haven’t tried it out yet, from the screenshots it’s pretty easy to see that this tool is also for the big boys, it works with SVG which makes even more happy, since I was about to begin some SVG experimenting anyways soon, and it’s soo boring to draw complex vector drawings by handcoding, believe you me!!

Here’s the intro text from the Inkscape Website:

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool with capabilities similar to
Illustrator, Freehand, and CorelDraw that uses the W3C standard scalable vector graphics format (SVG). Some supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, and grouping. In addition, Inkscape supports Creative Commons meta-data, node-editing, layers, complex path operations, text-on-path, and SVG XML editing. It also imports several formats like EPS, Postscript, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

Inkscape’s main motivation is to provide the Open Source community with a fully W3C compliant XML, SVG, and CSS2 drawing tool. Additional planned work includes conversion of the codebase from C/Gtk to C++/Gtkmm, emphasizing a lightweight core with powerful features added through an extension mechanism, and the establishment of a friendly, open, community-oriented development process.

* Inkscape.org – Draw Freely

* Slashdot | Inkscape 0.42: The Ultimate Answer

Open Sourced Beer

Fini Alring — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 08:58:51 +0000

darkonc writes “The CBC has notes and an interview with Dane Rasmus Nielsen who decided to reduce the confusion between ‘free as in speech’ and ‘free as in beer’ by making a beer free — in speech. The result is Vores Ã˜l, an open source beer. The CBC site includes the recipe for the beer which is made with Guarana beans, and gives it a bit of a caffeine-like hit. The danish site downloads include the label for the beer (which is also Open Source).”

* Slashdot | Free Beer That’s Free as in Speech

Major Blow to Opponents of Software Patents in EU

Fini Alring — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 09:25:06 +0000

/. Sanity writes “According to a FFII report, and a Financial Times article, proponents of software patents have just won a significant victory against smaller software companies and open source software proponents as the EU’s legal affairs committee rejected most of the effective amendments that were proposed to the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, which is widely perceived to usher-in U.S.-style software patents in the EU. All is not yet lost as the rejected amendments can be re-tabled when the entire European Parliament has the opportunity to vote next month. If you value the freedom to code without worrying about getting sued, and you live in the EU, now is the time to take effective action.” And JasonFleischer writes “Richard Stallman has a piece in The Guardian
which does a nice job of explaining the problems with the EU patent directive that will be voted on next month (and for that matter software patents in general), using literary examples.”

* Major blow to opponents of Software Patents in EU – Ian Clarke’s blog

Open Source Molecules

Fini Alring — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 16:37:43 +0000

* PubChem – Public Chemical Database

* Slashdot | Open Source Molecules

OpenSolaris.org now open for business

Fini Alring — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:48:48 +0000

The Solaris operating system is being released under the terms of the OSI-approved, Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) Version 1.0. Millions of development hours worth of code and over 1,600 patents are being contributed to the open source community. We know that innovation happens everywhere. And we’re going to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. To push Solaris. And see how far we — together — can take it.

The opensolaris.org web site will be the center for OpenSolaris activity. The source code for one of the Solaris operating system’s most advanced features â€“ Dynamic Tracing (DTrace) is available here. And there’s more to come. We invite you to take a look. Expect to see buildable Solaris code here in Q2 2005.

* OpenSolaris.org