Items tagged with open-source
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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Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, in conjunction with CircuitCo, is developing a low-cost, embedded-type motherboard based on the Intel Atom processor called the MinnowBoard. The whole affair is very charming (complete with a cartoon minnow logo), and it’s being marketed as a sort of fun...
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Time was, a lecherous fellow could make strangers on the street feel uncomfortable by making eye contact and offering a little wink and a smile. Now, they can crank the creep-o-meter up several notches, because soon Google Glass wearers will be able to snap photos with that same saucy wink. Google Glass developer Mike...
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Even though Google is a bastion of open source technologies (a statement some may disagree with), the company holds a king’s ransom in patents, and therefore, the power to sue the bejesus out of other people and companies should it see fit. (The search giant also has the deep pockets necessary to outlast most...
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As the weekend approaches and the itch to tinker with something crawls up the spine of nerds everywhere, open source hardware projects like this one scratch it like nothing else: There’s a card called an Arduino GSM Shield available now, which essentially lets you add GPRS/GSM connections to your projects. In other words, you can build...
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Although Canonical is still hunting for OEM partners to develop handsets for Ubuntu on smartphones, the OS is alive and well, running smooth and pretty on prototype handsets at CES 2013. The Canonical folks were kind enough to give us a demo, which you can see below: Note in particular the lack of any hardware button...
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Now that Ouya open source gaming consoles have shipped to developers, we’re getting a look at what the Ouya interface looks like and how the little unit performs. Developer Codezombiegames posted some videos on YouTube unboxing the package, looking at the parts, and fiddling with the interface. Ouya has already done a video unboxing,...
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