Group items tagged

"We found that refugees in the transit camps were not being registered or provided with any way of alerting family members of their whereabouts. With no registration system in place, we decided to build one ourselves linking laptop computers and satellite phones to export our information to a United Nations refugee registration database. M"

"In a previous article, I looked at four web-based alternatives to Evernote. I realize, however, that not everyone wants or needs to have their notes available on the web. Many people just want to do everything locally on their computers. That's not a problem since there are more than a few open source note taking applications for your desktop. In this article, I take a look at four of those applications."

"The Hello World project is a time-honored tradition in computer programming. It is a simple exercise that gets you started when learning something new. Let's get started with GitHub! You'll learn how to: Create and use a repository Start and manage a new branch Make changes to a file and push them to GitHub as commits Open and merge a pull request"

"Technology is advancing so rapidly that we will experience radical changes in society not only in our lifetimes but in the coming years. We have already begun to see ways in which computing, sensors, artificial intelligence and genomics are reshaping entire industries and our daily lives."

"Last updated on May 31, 2016 Authored by Dennis Turpitka 4 Comments Device drivers are parts of the operating system that facilitate usage of hardware devices via certain programming interface so that software applications can control and operate the devices. As each driver is specific to a particular operating system, you need separate Linux, Windows, or Unix device drivers to enable the use of your device on different computers. "

"Jul 06, 2016 By Doc Searls in Community Identity kernel Privacy I believe the best and worst thing about Linux is its hard distinction between kernel space and user space. Without that distinction, Linux never would have become the most leveraged operating system in the world. Today, Linux has the largest range of uses for the largest number of users-most of whom have no idea they are using Linux when they search for something on Google or poke at their Android phones. Even Apple stuff wouldn't be what it is (for example, using BSD in its computers) were it not for Linux's success. "

"Most people probably have an idea about what a hacker looks like. The image of someone sitting alone at a computer, with their face obscured by a hoodie, staring intently at lines of code in which their particular brand of crime or mischief is rooted, has become widely associated with hackers. You can confirm this by simply doing an image search for "hackers" and seeing what you come up with"

"Data Wiping Software DBAN is free erasure software designed for the personal user. It automatically deletes the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. This method prevents identity theft before recycling a computer. DBAN is also a commonly used solution to remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations. DBAN users should be aware of some product limitations, including: No guarantee of data removal (e.g. DBAN does not detect or securely erase SSDs) No audit-ready reporting for regulatory compliance Limited hardware support (e.g. no RAID dismantling) No customer support or regular software updates"

"Fonts, like any other digital asset on your computer, come with their own rules for licensing."

"Our IT organization is continuing to evolve as we engage more in open source. Whether it be what we use for distributed processing, for databases, or to accelerate our compute power or data visualization, we continue to expand the number of open technologies we explore."

[The market for open-source software-uncopyrighted, freely reproducible computer programs-is not well understood by economists. A central source of surprise is that innovation can thrive in a market without traditional intellectual property (IP). But as we argued in a 2005 unpublished paper, "Perfectly Competitive Innovation," as a matter of theory there is no reason to believe that monopoly power through IP is needed for innovation. The market for open-source software is the poster child for this perspective.] ...

[New hacker ethics Steve Mizrach of the dept. of Anthropology, University of Florida, analyzed several recent hacker texts in the paper Is there a hacker ethic for 90s hackers? (1997). He summarizes his findings in a new set of ethical principles. Above all else, do no harm. Do not damage computers or data if at all possible. Much like the key element of the Hippocratic Oath.]

"This course will use social network analysis, both its theory and computational tools, to make sense of the social and information networks that have been fueled and rendered accessible by the internet."

"Linux is perhaps the most versatile OS available. Capable of being installed on a variety of devices, the open source operating system is used in a variety of uses, from running self-driving cars and web servers to desktop computing and gaming."

"Literacy used to be the domain of scribes and priests. Then the world became more complicated and demanded that everyone read and write. Computing is also a form of literacy, but having it only understood by a priesthood of programmers is not going to be enough for our complex, online world. "Learn to code" has become a mantra for education at all ages. But after clearing away the hype, why do people need to learn to code? What does it get us exactly?"

"The term "open source" refers to something that can be modified and shared because its design is publicly accessible. While it originated in the context of computer software development, today the term "open source" designates a set of values"

""Showing the total economic value of free/libre and open source software helps move from the perception of free software being community theater, and clearly shows it is professional," said Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism Computer. "The benefit for software developers is that they can point to cash value for their software released under free licenses.""

"When does the wisdom of crowds give way to the meanness of mobs? In the 1990s, Jaron Lanier was one of the digital pioneers hailing the wonderful possibilities that would be realized once the Internet allowed musicians, artists, scientists and engineers around the world to instantly share their work. Now, like a lot of us, he is having second thoughts. Mr. Lanier, a musician and avant-garde computer scientist - he popularized the term "virtual reality" - wonders if the Web's structure and ideology are fostering nasty group dynamics and mediocre collaborations. His new book, "You Are Not a Gadget," is a manifesto against "hive thinking" and "digital Maoism," by which he means the glorification of open-source software, free information and collective work at the expense of individual creativity."

Still 30-below! lol

it's a balmy -11 now, breaking out the beach shorts tomorrow

Objective. Sociologists of technology propose that not only a technological artifact, as such, but also patterns of usage should be considered when studying the social implications of technologies. Accordingly, we explore how people's online activities are influenced by users' socioeconomic status and context of use. Methods. We analyze data from the Allensbacher Computer and Technology Analysis (ACTA) 2004 survey with uniquely detailed information about people's Internet uses and context of usage to explore this relationship. Results. Findings suggest that highstatus and low-status individuals cultivate different forms of ''Internet-in-practice.'' High-status users are much more likely to engage in so-called capital-enhancing activities online than are their less privileged counterparts. Conclusion. Results suggest differential payoffs from Internet use depending on a user's socioeconomic background. Digital inequalities might be mitigated by improving people's Internet equipment and digital experience, but they do not account for all the status differential in use.