Items tagged with open-source
Google is making a big shift in how it manages the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which it has been maintaining for over a decade, alongside its internal branch. AOSP has allowed for a lot of flexibility with how third parties could make use of the operating system. Moreover, it took in code from outside...
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While EA is making AI a key pillar of how its studios make future titles, it hasn’t forgotten about its back catalog of popular games. Its latest efforts have seen the company open source code for several games from the Command and Conquer franchise. It’s a massive win for game preservation that should earn the...
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One of the biggest issues facing any social media platform is that a few toxic users can ruin the experience for many, quickly turning thel space into an environment no one wants to spend time in. In an effort to company situations like this, Discord is adding a new tool for users to better manage bad actors, and...
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Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have made a breakthrough by creating a large language model (LLM) running on custom hardware that only sips a mere 13 watts, which is the equivalent of a modern LED light bulb. The researchers say this new LLM is 50 times more efficient that other LLMs running on...
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I guess the Notepad built into Windows is fine, but it could be better. It could have more features, cleanliness, and could simply just be iterated on as an improvement. Thankfully, there is Notepad++, a free and open-source Notepad replacement and code editor, which has become incredibly popular. With this...
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Losing a pet can be one of the hardest things to go through, but with the help of modern technology, that may be a problem of the past. Creator and inventor Sahas Chitlange has created FindMyCat, an open-source pet tracking solution, not terribly unlike Apple’s AirTags, designed specifically for your favorite feline...
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Over the years there have been many a recommended piece for the computer technician's software toolkit. Very few have managed to stand the test of time as well as Memtest86+. As of October 24, 2022, nine whole years after the last release, it looks like it will continue to be the case as Memtest86+ v6.0.0 has been...
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NVIDIA's relationship with the open-source community has historically been a tale of intense on-again-off-again interactions. In recent years, the company has embraced open source more closely as of late, but its past refusal to open-source its graphics drivers, citing trade secrets and proprietary technology, has...
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Back in February of 2020, Netflix began streaming AV1 feeds to the Android mobile app, which brings with it some notable benefits. Now Netflix says plans on extending AV1 streaming to include a bunch of TV models as well, and also at least one game console. More on those in a moment.
AV1 is a high-efficiency...
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Skate 3 running on RPCS3 emulator.
Owing to its ease of access as a development platform, there are dozens upon dozens of console game emulators for PCs. Besides their grey-market application of allowing PC gamers to play console games, these applications serve a vital role in the purpose of game preservation—that...
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In 2020 a study showed the IT industry spent an estimated $2 trillion in software development associated with debugging code. The study also showed that 50 percent of IT budgets were allocated to debugging code alone. Intel hopes to change those numbers by making its ControlFlag tool open-source.
ControlFlag is an...
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AI is spreading, and not in the creepy sci-fi dystopian kind of way, but by way of programs to help manage large tasks in critical business sectors, such as healthcare, finance, and defense. Now, Microsoft is releasing a tool called Counterfit, an “automation tool for security testing AI systems as an open-source...
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Microsoft has done something that might surprise a bunch of people out there, it has open sourced the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) to make it easier for Windows users to run Linux distributions. The WSL sample that is now open source allows distro maintainers to build WSL packages for the Microsoft Store and to...
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Microsoft wasn't always particularly pro-open source. In fact, for much of its history, the software giant was very much focused on its own offerings often to the detriment of anything open source. That isn't the case today with Microsoft contributing to open source projects and developing versions of its popular...
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Did you ever wonder what happened to Comma One? George Hotz (a.k.a geohot), the developer of Comma One and the owner of the company Comma.ai, announced on Twitter that his creation is now open-source. It has been renamed “Open Pilot”.
Comma One is an autonomous driving aftermarket add-on. It would grant certain...
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Decidedly in the "Don't be Evil" column (and giving all new meaning to the term "hot hardware"), Google has developed a tablet device for use by workers battling Ebola in Sierra Leone. The Sony Xperia tablet comes with an extra protective shell, can withstand chlorine dousing as well as exposure to the high humidity...
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Although the 3D printing market has and will continue to grow rapidly, there are still some capabilities that the market needs that we take for granted on the paper printing side of things. For instance, you have to convert those excellent 3D models into a printable format, and that can be tricky. Enter Slic3r, a free...
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DARPA, a wing of the U.S. Department of Defense, has developed quite a few technological innovations for the military that wind up trickling down to us civilians, and now the agency is open sourcing some of its projects with an eye toward fostering even better R&D. The DARPA Open Catalog is a “curated list...
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The Raspberry Pi can be used for all sorts of applications, including sweet mini desktop builds, and it can also be used as a personal cloud server with arkOS. The arkOS project has been crowdsourcing funds, and it has already pushed past its $45,000 goal with 5 days to go in the campaign. The open source arkOS...
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Is there anything a smartphone can’t do these days? Apparently, they now double as spectrometers, at least when you add a special kit that’s been developed by collaborators at Public Labs. The Public Lab Smartphone Spectrometer is a small injection-molded plastic device that you can adhere to a smartphone...
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Ultimaker is releasing its latest 3D printer, the Ultimaker 2, and the new machine features significant redesigns from the first iteration of the Ultimaker. The company says that the new version is more accurate, more efficient, and it’s even quieter at 49dB. Specifically, the Ultimaker 2 has a new CNC-milled...
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Distributed manufacturing is most definitely evolving thanks in large part to innovations in the 3D printing world, and a company called Mebotics is looking to take things a step further with the Microfactory, an all-in-one machine that etches, 3D prints, and mills. The unit is small and light enough to rest on a...
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