Open-source
OpenOfficeMouse promises to be quite a handful
By Jeff Salton
17:49 November 9, 2009 PST

WarMouse is to release an 18-button mouse with an analog joystick which the company says supports up to 52 key commands. The OpenOfficeMouse, billed as the first multi-button application mouse designed for a wide variety of software applications, including Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, and OpenOffice.org 3.1 (plus a few games), is intended to provide a faster and more efficient user interface for many common complex software applications than the conventional icons, pull-down menus and hotkeys. Read More
Frankencamera: Digital cameras get the open source treatment
By Darren Quick
02:15 September 4, 2009 PDT

Open-source started with the Netscape Navigator browser and has expanded to include operating systems for PCs (Linux) and mobile phones (Android). Now photo scientists at Stanford University are out to bring the advantages of open-source development to digital photography with the creation of an open-source digital camera giving programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks. Read More
Self-destructing online messages could save your job, your relationship, your bacon
By Jeff Salton
23:40 July 23, 2009 PDT

If you’ve got nothing to hide there’s no need to read to any further. But if you’re worried about someone digging up something from your past – and we’re talking non-criminal here – which may influence or damage job prospects, relationships, your social or professional life, then good news is at hand. The University of Washington (UW) has developed Vanish – a prototype system that places a time limit on information uploaded to any web service through a web browser. Electronic communication sent using Vanish - such as e-mail, posts on social networking sites and chat messages - would have a brief lifetime and then self-destruct, becoming irretrievable from all websites, inboxes, outboxes, backup sites and home computers. The University says that not even the sender could retrieve them. Read More
The Android handset war begins in 2009
By Loz Blain
15:45 March 16, 2009 PDT

While Apple's iPhone has enjoyed enormous success using a highly controlled, locked-down handset, operating system and application store, Google's touchscreen smartphone platform takes the opposite approach. Android is a completely open-source operating system, meaning that developers can write whatever abilities they want into it - and Google doesn't make or recommend any particular handsets. The HTC Dream (AKA the T-Mobile G1) gave Android a start in the market - but several big-name competitors are working on Android smartphones to be released sometime this year. The battle for Android handset supremacy is about to begin - let's take a look at the challengers. Read More














Sam Munro
- November 26, 2009 @ 08:08 UTC