Group items tagged

"Linux best bets: There's a desktop distro just right for you The key question is: "What do you want to use Linux for?" Once you know that, everything else is easy."

"February 16, 2014 Knowing how to develop a bibliography and cite the resources you drew on in your research papers are two elemental skills for any student researcher. Correct and accurate citations do not only augment the credibility of your research but also help other interested researchers use your citations for reference mining and thus building on your work."

"It's nice to think that we behave rationally, making calculated decisions about what to do, buy, and eat. Study after study shows that this isn't the case, however. We're not Spock-like creatures in an economist's dreamworld. You probably know from your own trips to the grocery store that picking out a snack involves much more than a calculated selection of something caloric and palatable."

" How do you know if you are a potential candidate to become a Linux user? It's this simple: What's the first app you fire up after booting into your system? If you said 'browser', then you are a potential Linux user."

"There are four rules to understand when building products out of open source software. "

"Hi, my name is Albert Westra. Back when I was around 12 years old, my best friend introduced me to the operating system we all know and love (and grieve for) Mandrake."

"New to open source? Opensource.com wants to help. Browse our collection of resources so you can learn more about the open source way, locate projects or applications that embrace it, or attend events that celebrate it. Know another open resource? Share it with us today."

""This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness" - Naomi Klein. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system. If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society."

"First, you should observe that there are two distinct domains - the descriptive domain and the predictive domain - and that data and information belong to the descriptive domain. I like Davenport and Prusaks' (1998, pp 2-3) definition of data as being "a set of discrete, objective facts existing in symbolic form that have not been interpreted". The symbolic form may be text, images, or pre-processed code. Data is usually organised into structured records, however it lacks context. The declaration 'Iron melts at 1,538 degrees Celsius.' is a data statement because it has no context. In this model when data is enriched by adding context it may become information. Information is data with a message, and therefore has a receiver and sender. It is data with relevance and purpose that is useful for a particular task, and is meant to enlighten the receiver and shape their outlooks or insights. Information results in an action that allows the data to be applied to a specific set of circumstances and to be employed effectively. Data only becomes information after it has been interpreted by the receiver. Furthermore information is descriptive. For example the statement 'Newcastle steel-mill's smelter temperature has been set at 2,300 degrees Celsius.' conveys information because it has been enriched by context. The enrichment from data to information is a 'know what and how' procedure that results in an understanding of relationships and patterns. However, information by itself remains descriptive and without additional data or information it cannot be used to predict an event or outcome."

"Half a billion people around the world spend more than 20 hours a week "wearing" avatars, that is, using digital representations of themselves. Did you know that a virtual representation of a politician could be more convincing than the politician himself? That your heart beats just as fast when your girlfriend winks at you from your computer screen as when she walks into the room? That if you make your onscreen surrogate mimic your friend's head movements, he's more likely to do what you say? Within three years, many online interactions will not simply involve passages of text typed on a keyboard but will instead be rich exchanges involving sophisticated representations of ourselves. Those digital beings are called avatars, and today at least half a billion people around the world are routinely socializing through them over the Internet, for example in online games."

"Open is about sharing and collaboration. It's the idea that "we" is more powerful, more rewarding and fulfilling than "I". I can't promise jobs, but I do know that open is becoming very big. Governments and funders are pushing the open agenda, even though academics are generally uninterested or seriously self-interested."

"You've probably heard it before: The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Detectives use it to deduce who's the likeliest suspect in a murder case -- you know, the butler did it. Doctors ­use it to determine the illness behind a set of symptoms."

"The FOSS Force Poll Inquiring minds wanted to know, so we asked. When choosing what to run on a machine - we're talking computing machines running GNU/Linux here - what's more important, the choice of distro or which desktop environment to run? We began asking"

"We all know how it's preferable to walk around with our guards up rather than be hurt or taken advantage of, but what is the long term cost of trusting nobody?"

"There is a common belief among non-Linux users that there aren't any good creative applications from the open source camp. In truth, this is absolutely false. The key is knowing which applications are needed to complete a specific task. In this article, I'll share my recommendations for the top open source creativity apps."

"Knowing what motivates people's work could apply well beyond software development. by Roheeni Saxena (US) - Nov 18, 2015 1:20pm CET"

David Both: My open source story "Here I am, almost 20 years into my own crazy open source story, and it shows no sign of abating. And my problem is that I like to know how things work and to fix things."

"by Joshua Gay - Published on Jan 06, 2016 02:42 PM The world of computer hardware products is in many respects a dark and dismal place when it comes to computer user freedom: graphics processors, network controllers, and even the low-level boot systems of most computers use proprietary software. However, we know that this situation is not due to a lack of demand from users for hardware that respects them. People want this, but in the absence of options, have just resigned themselves to accepting mistreatment. "

" Ernesto on December 23, 2015 C: 143 Breaking The pirated screener of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" has been traced back to a copy sent to a top Hollywood executive. The FBI is currently investigating the breach, which is part of series of leaked screeners that appeared online in recent days. Meanwhile, The Hateful Eight has been shared more than a million times through various unauthorized channels."

" Ernesto on December 23, 2015 C: 143 Breaking The pirated screener of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" has been traced back to a copy sent to a top Hollywood executive. The FBI is currently investigating the breach, which is part of series of leaked screeners that appeared online in recent days. Meanwhile, The Hateful Eight has been shared more than a million times through various unauthorized channels."

"Ken Starks The Heart of Linux In this story, Microsoft is the cunning spider and Linux the intended victim, the fly. Everyone knows how the story begins. 'Will you walk into my parlour?' said the Spider to the Fly."