The Quotable Linus Torvalds, Live Onstage at TED

By

-

February 18, 2016

Linus-TED [As a kid] I was into computers, I was into math, I was into physics. I don’t think I was particularly exceptional. My sister said my biggest exceptional quality was that I would not let go.

Q. During the development of Linux itself, that stubbornness brought you in conflict in other people. Is [stubbornness] essential?

A. I don’t know if it’s essential. Sometimes I’m, shall we say, myopic, when it comes to other people’s feelings … and I’m not proud of that. “I’m sorry,” wherever the camera is.

An introduction to Linux activity/event trackers

By

Falko Timme

-

February 18, 2016

Most modern GNU/Linux distributions use some kind of a software service that tracks the user activities and events. These events can be anything, from the opening of a document file, to the chat conversation. This isn’t happening for the purpose to monitor the user and sell this usage data information to 3rd parties, but to help users enjoy a more user-friendly and unified experience across their applications. For example, if you want to quickly locate that document that you opened last weekend, chances are that you will easily and promptly find it after opening your file manager and going to the “Recent” folder.

IBM Moves to Advance Blockchain in the Enterprise

By

eWeek

-

February 18, 2016

IBM delivers Blockchain-as-a-Service for developers and commits to making the technology ready for business,

IBM has put its considerable weight behind blockchain to advance the technology in the enterprise, including offering blockchain as a service to developers. Blockchain is a permissionless distributed database based on the Bitcoin protocol that maintains a continuously growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision, even by its operators. The initial and most widely known application of blockchain technology is the public ledger of transactions for Bitcoin.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to Ship with Full Support for Vulkan in Mir Display Server

By

Softpedia

-

February 18, 2016

ubuntu-16-04-lts Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) is going to integrate full support in Mir for the latest Vulkan 1.0 specifications.

Vulkan is stealing all the headline in the Linux world and with good reason. Itâ€™s an incredible leap forward for the open source platform, even if Vulkan is technically aimed at all the major operating systems, including Windows, Android, and even Tizen. From the looks of it, even if the hardware industry was well aware of the schedule for the release of Vulkan 1.0, there were some people surprised by the announcement and companies were not ready from the get-go with drivers and proper support…

Spark 2.0 Will Offer Interactive Querying of Live Data

By

The Linux Foundation

-

February 18, 2016

The next version of Apache Spark will expand on the data processing platform’s real-time data analysis capabilities, offering users the ability to perform interactive queries against live data.

The new feature, called structured streaming, will “push Spark beyond streaming to a new class of application that do other things in real time [rather than] just analyze a stream and output another stream,” explained Matei Zaharia, Spark founder and Databricks chief technology officer, at the Spark Summit East, taking place this week in New York. “It’s a combination of streaming and interactive that isn’t really handled by current streaming engines.”

Google Green-Lights Go 1.6

By

InfoWorld

-

February 18, 2016

The new version features HTTP/2 support, improved garbage collection, and ports to Android and Linux.

Google has released version 1.6 of the Go open source programming language, featuring improvements to HTTP/2 backing and garbage collection. “Go 1.6 adds transparent support in net/http package for the new HTTP2/protocol,”release notes state.

Version 1.6 also features experimental ports to the Android platform on 32-bit x86 processors and Linux on the 64-bit Mips platform. Google has been experimenting with the use of Go for building Android and iOS applications via NDK (Native Development Kit).

Meet Linux’s Little Brother: Zephyr, A Tiny Open Source IoT RTOS

By

LinuxGizmos

-

February 18, 2016

zephyr The Linux Foundation has launched the Zephyr Project, to foster an open source, small footprint, modular, scalable, connected, real-time OS for IoT devices.

Normally we think of the Linux Foundation as being all about Linux. But as the organization has matured, it has expanding its scope to embrace an ever-wider range of open source standards and software. Despite the existence and widespread use of minimalistic Linux implementations including uClinux, OpenWrt, Brillo, and Ubuntu Core, the exponential proliferation of smart, connected devices â€” such as light bulbs, thermostats, security cameras, sensors, and many others â€” has fueled intense interest in minimizing the power, space, and cost budgets of IoT hardware.

Intel to Bring Heavy Dose of IoT Offerings to Embedded World

By

eWeek

-

February 18, 2016

The chip maker will introduce a range of tools to help developers build devices and services for the IoT, from developer kits to software offerings.

Intel officials at the upcoming Embedded World 2016 show will roll out a broad array of hardware and software that will make it easier for developers to create new products for the Internet of things.The chip maker will unveil new developer kits, software tools and modules that will reduce the complexity around creating Internet of things (IoT) devices and services and cut the time it takes to bring them to market, according to the company.

Top 4 Open Source Issue Tracking Tools

By

OpenSource.com

-

February 18, 2016

Life is full of bugs.

No matter how carefully planned, no matter how much time went into design, any project is going to have unforseen issues when the rubber hits the road in the implementation stage. And that’s okay. Perhaps the best measure of resiliency for any organization is not how well they handle things when everything is functioning as planned, but rather, how they handle the speed bumps when they come along.

X Prize and IBM Announce a $5 Million Artificial Intelligence Competition

By

The Verge

-

February 18, 2016

The X Prize Foundation and IBM have just announced a new global X Prize competition with a focus on artificial intelligence. Teams from around the world can take part in the “IBM Watson A.I. X Prize: A Cognitive Computing Competition,” as it’s being called, in hopes of taking home part of a $5 million purse to be awarded at the TED conference in 2020. Registration will open at the end of May.