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Topics - Edvard [ switch to compact view ]

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126
Living Room / Berkeley scientists make pictures from brainwaves
« on: October 05, 2011, 04:33 AM »
University of California, Berkeley, scientists have managed to create a close approximation of what our thoughts look like. First they mapped brain wave response to 18 million seconds of random YouTube videos. Then, patients viewed a series of videos, and those brain waves were matched with the correlating visuals from the first test.



from something I read somewhere and somebody else reminded me about it.

127
Living Room / Windows 8 Secure Boot may lock out Linux
« on: September 22, 2011, 05:31 AM »
Well, not Linux specifically, but this certainly has the potential to put an end to dual-booting another OS with your off-the-shelf OEM Windows boxes.

From InterNetNews.com:
http://www.internetn...as-a-linux-risk.html
Microsoft's next major OS is set include a secure boot. The system will prevent any executable from loading unless they are signed by a specific set of keys. The problem with that is non-key signed executable - say Linux - might not be able to put on a piece of hardware that has been built for Windows.

That's a problem.

From the source:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html
The UEFI secure boot protocol is part of recent UEFI specification releases. It permits one or more signing keys to be installed into a system firmware. Once enabled, secure boot prevents executables or drivers from being loaded unless they're signed by one of these keys.
...
A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will not boot a generic copy of Linux.

o_O

128
Living Room / Linux game devs pirate their own game
« on: September 21, 2011, 03:16 AM »
Linux game devs upload their own game to Pirate Bay; Strangely, it increases sales.
To counter the piracy problem, Tiny Build Games who released NTTE a few days back, uploaded their own game on Pirate Bay. But there is a difference between this version and the original game that you can buy from the game website...



from somewhere, I forget exactly...

129
Living Room / U.S. East coast quake - Everybody OK?
« on: August 24, 2011, 06:54 AM »
Shout out to all the DC'ers on the sunrise end of the country...  :tellme:
http://www.usatoday....-Seaboard/50114870/1

Head count and status report, plz  :o

130
Looks like good 'ol GCC and pals are getting some good ol' fashion comp-o-tition...

EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite going open source with support available
Wilmington, Delaware June 13th, 2011

PathScale announced today that the EKOPath 4 Compiler Suite is now available as an open source project and free download for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. This release includes documentation and the complete development stack, including compiler, debugger, assembler, runtimes and standard libraries. EKOPath is the product of years of ongoing development, representing one of the industries highest performance Intel 64 and AMD C, C++ and Fortran compilers.
...


So what is it?

http://www.phoronix....path4_open&num=1
EKOPath 4 is a high-performance compiler that up until now has been proprietary and costs nearly $2000 USD per license, but now it's open-source and can sharply outperform GCC in many computationally-intense workloads.
...
EKOPath 4 carries full support for the SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, and AVX instruction sets. The run-time is GNU compatible and with the GCC tool-chain, provides optimized C/C++ debugging, excellent multi-core support, provides the PathDB debugger, a PathAS assembler, and supports OpenMP 2.5. The PathDB debugger was previously open-sourced and ported to FreeBSD on GitHub as the Path64 debugger.

So, what does it all mean?
Not sure at the moment.
I DO know that it means a previously very expensive compiler suite targeted to supercomputer environments will now be freely available for the average Linux/BSD/Solaris user to play with, that has been touted as a "CUDA Killer" for GPU code crunching, is blazingly fast, and produces optimized executables that in many (not all) cases run more efficiently and faster.

Discussion here:
http://phoronix.com/...th-4-Compiler-Suite/

Download here (nightly build):
http://www.pathscale...opath-compiler-suite

For now, it's only available for 64-bit Linux/BSD/Solaris environments.
However, the download page says Windows and Mac Betas will be available "Q1 2011"; any idea when that is?

* Edvard downloading now...


from Phoronix.com

131
Found Deals and Discounts / Angry Birds free for Chrome
« on: June 11, 2011, 02:22 PM »
Don't know what kind of deal they got worked out, but if you haven't played this already, welcome to your new addiction...

Birds! Slingshots! Destruction! Feathers! Fun!



from a friend of mine

132
Living Room / Kaydara - 55 minute Matrix Fanfilm
« on: May 25, 2011, 05:00 AM »
Kaydara, a bounty hunter who is living separately from the Human Resistance Group, does not believe in the prophecy of 'the One.' He sees this so-called saviour as a threat to the awakening of Man's self-awareness and considers him an enemy. If their paths cross, Kaydara will not hesitate to confront him.



from QuietEarth

133
Living Room / Now you're REALLY screwed...
« on: May 16, 2011, 10:35 PM »
California inventor Donald Scruggs came up with the idea, and now has a patent for it. From the patent application: "[the] burial containers...provide low cost internment methods with hermetic sealing, security locking, plaque and memorial markers and built in flower and flag receptacles." Nice.

But you're screaming, "why?" Good question. Again, from the patent application: "[the coffins] greatly reduce excavation labor and burial costs...they also decrease the land space required for each burial and provide for burials in normally unused areas within the cemetery."


From Wired:
The image that keeps creeping nightmarishly into my mind is that of a giant, robotic Bugs Bunny, lurching into these now densely packed graveyards and uprooting the giant metallic carrots, one by one.
;D


from Admit-One.net

134
Did you love dungeon-crawling with your arcade buddies in Gauntlet?
Did you find the Legend of Zelda series fun and challenging, and never complained about it's "cutesy"-ness?
Do you like the social interaction and character-building aspects common in most modern-day MMORPGs, but aren't basement-bound geek enough to take them seriously?
Are you short on cash?
Do you want all this and have a ton of fun while you're at it?

Come, join up with the Spiral Knights and explore the ever-changing Clockworks world!

You have crashed.
You are stranded.
But you are not alone.
The Spiral Knights have awoken on an alien world. Their equipment stores have been raided and their starship, The Skylark, will not recover from the crash. Now they must work together to survive on a journey that will take them to the very core of this strange world.


It's written by Three Rings, the creative hooligans behind Puzzle Pirates and an upcoming Doctor Who game, in conjunction with Sega.
Most of the artwork has been perpetrated by Ian McConville, the creative genius behind the Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul webcomics.
It's browser-based, written in Java (which means it's Linux-compatible  :-*), and offers very creative gameplay that seems to borrow from a fistful of enjoyable predecessors.
It's free-to-play, which means you can sign up and have access to everything you need.
You get 100 units of Energy every 24 hours (EVERYTHING you do costs Energy, some things very little, some a little more...), and at first sign-up they give you a free 100-unit bonus tank for the first time you run out.
I recommend playing as much as you can with the free energy to learn the best energy-conserving tricks, get used to the game mechanics and trading system, then buy some extra Energy for extended play.
The energy pricing is fair and not terribly expensive (you can spend as little as 2 bucks) and they take PayPal as well as the traditional options (they even take a check in the mail :huh:).
I've been playing for a couple weeks now, and having a blast even though I can only spare an hour or two at a time, which is just about perfect.

I don't know enough about the game yet to give it a comprehensive review (there's just so much to it...) but here's a good overview from Giantbomb.com:
http://www.giantbomb...al-knights/61-34489/
And if you search "spiral knights review", you'll find most of the reviews to be quite positive.
http://www.google.co...piral+knights+review

I also recommend the Wiki as your first stop; it's well-written, comprehensive and updated often.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com
Go through the Starting Out page first, to get an idea of what to do when you get around to signing up (don't forget to hit all the links at least once):
http://wiki.spiralkn...hts.com/Starting_out
... then read through the New Player Briefing to get a good overview of gameplay mechanics that you will experience:
http://wiki.spiralkn.../New_Player_Briefing

Whether your cup of tea is engaging in fast-paced combat, building your character, or interacting with others via trading or chit-chatting, it's all possible within this game world, and I highly recommend it for the "fun" gamer in you...
Ready? Good!

https://www.spiralkn...register/register.wm :D

135
For all you audio manipulation freaks...

This is a program for stretching the audio. It is suitable only for extreme sound stretching of the audio (like 50x) and for applying special effects by "spectral smoothing" the sounds.
http://hypermammut.s...rge.net/paulstretch/

Check it out stretching the Jurassic Park theme 1000%!!
http://soundcloud.co...rk-theme-1000-slower  8)

th_screenshot1.jpg


from http://admit-one.net

136
Living Room / JVGS: a minimalistic platform game
« on: January 14, 2011, 02:48 PM »
This game takes place in a world much like ours, which has started fading away. At a point where nearly everything has gone, a poet finds himself, alone in a strange world of danger. He starts a journey along the broken stream of thoughts that’s left.


Gameplay video -->http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=UauZgrnKp0c
Loosely based on the XKCD webcomics, has a NIN soundtrack and contains Velociraptors.
Distributed under the WTFPL.
Enjoy.


from PenguSpy

137
Novell sold for 2.2 Billion:
As Microsoft-led consortium sweeps up 882 Novell patents.

Microsoft's intellectual property vault has been bolstered with some 882 more software patents after open source vendor Novell was acquired for US$2.2 billion (AU$2.2 billion) late yesterday.

What's Microsoft's role in the Novell-Attachmate deal?
Seattle-based Attachmate Corp. is buying Novell for $2.2 billion, the companies announced on November 22. At the same time, Novell announced the “concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation, for $450 million in cash.”


Microsoft refuses to specify what it bought from Novell

Microsoft issued a formal statement today that confirms its deal with Novell but sheds no light on what exactly it purchased.

Every.
Damn.
Time.
 >:(

138
Living Room / Software... Heal thyself!
« on: November 01, 2010, 10:07 AM »
It's kinda old news, but interesting nonetheless:
Software That Fixes Itself
A new tool aims to fix misbehaving programs without shutting them down.



from: I don't know... I was looking for Robot Simulators 0_0

139
Living Room / WTH... Steam is NOT coming to Linux?!?
« on: August 27, 2010, 08:59 PM »
With the recent brouhaha over Valve software's Steam content delivery service possibly being ported to Linux, this latest bit of news is a bit of a puzzler for many:
Question: Final question, and one I’m sure you’re not super-keen to answer, but I promised one of our tech guys I’d ask it. What truth is there to rumours that you’re also working on a Linux version of Steam?

Doug Lombardi: There’s no Linux version that we’re working on right now.
:huh: :huh: :huh:
As Digitizor and others report, the dream is over...


...or is it?

140
I don't know whether to be scared or angry.
This had better go down in flames or I'm out of this Orwellian nightmare as soon as I get a passport to Belize...
The Federal Trade Commission says it wants to save journalism. I'm not sure who asked it to.

In a just-released "staff discussion draft" of "potential policy recommendations to support the reinvention of journalism," the agency only circles its wagons around old newspapers and their fading business models.


Read an abstract here:
http://blogs.reuters...sm-with-an-ipad-tax/
and the gory details here:
http://www.ftc.gov/o...staff-discussion.pdf

 :o >:( :o >:(

from the tinfoil hat department

141
Living Room / It's official: Steam is coming to Linux
« on: May 14, 2010, 11:29 AM »
OK, I admit, I'm not a gamer.
I've played a few games on Linux and there's fun to be had, rest assured, but if I had a dime for every time I've heard somebody say "I'll totally switch to Linux when I can play my favorite games on it.", I would be a VERY rich man..
So now this news comes along and despite a lack of personal excitement, I know this IS going to be a big deal for the Linux universe.

REALLY big.

First a little history...

Guess what happened this Wednesday?

The UK Telegraph broke the news of Valve porting the Steam client to Mac OSX.
OK, whatever, BUT in a sentence at the bottom of the announcement we read:
Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months.
:o :tellme:

Phoronix nearly wet themselves with excitement and now the news is everywhere:
http://www.google.co...linux+steam+official

w00t!!

142
Living Room / Simple Desktop Wallpaper
« on: February 15, 2010, 09:50 PM »
I admit that, like many of us, I go on a wallpaper-gawking spree once a month or so.
This month it wasn't the latest digital swirls-and-clouds eyeball saccharine that caught my attention...
No, this month it was something... simpler.

Do you often find yourself spending time looking for something that isn't a beautiful photograph but also isn't a gradient and drop shadowed mess with a little lens flare and some annoying copyright information in the corner?

Do you want less, but not boring? Then you want Simple Desktops.

Simple Desktops: a collection of bling, drop shadow, and gradient free desktops to help keep you stay focused but also provide just enough eye candy to not be bored.


And if that's a little too minimalist, check these out from Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Mike Swanson.

I've been asked many times if there is central location for my wallpaper images. So, instead of posting them in individual blog entries, I've assembled the collection here. Each is available at 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio, "widescreen") and 1600 x 1200 (4:3 aspect ratio, "standard"). Some of them are also available at 2560 x 1600 (which is also a 16:10 aspect ratio).

from http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/

143
I don't have a big anti-Google soapbox, but I'm not their biggest fan either.
The fact that these guys don't record ANY information got my eyebrows up, but now they've gone a step further...

Who the heck is Ixquick? and what are they on about?
Read on...

January 28, International Data Privacy Day 2010

Ixquick, the world's most private search engine, and its U.S. brand, Startpage.com, today announced the release of a new proxy service that allows users to surf the web with complete privacy. The proxy lets users browse websites safely and anonymously, without passing on any private, personally identifiable information to the websites they view.
...
The proxy service is covered by the same privacy policy that has made Ixquick the industry leader when it comes to search engine privacy. Ixquick does not record IP addresses, make a record of users' searches, or record details about proxy usage. The company's data collection practices are third-party certified with the "European Privacy seal" and widely considered the best in the industry.

The proxy service is being launched today, January 28th, to celebrate international Data Privacy Day.


Proxy service explained: http://startpage.com/proxy/eng/help.html
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=Luovo73Bjqc
Read some stuff: http://www.ixquick.c...protect-privacy.html

I've actually had decent returns searching with startpage.com (ixquick's US portal) for the past week or so.
I get a noticeably larger signal-to-noise ratio.
Maybe because they scrape a handful of other search engines (Google obviously not invited to the party) and ranking hits by globbing the results.
I also like that you can do encrypted searches by simply using the https:// prefix
Check it out...


from somewhere, I don't recall exactly...

144
Living Room / The Third & The Seventh - Beautiful CG short film
« on: January 21, 2010, 10:53 AM »
A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects
are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.


Loss for words...


from a friend

145
In case nobobdy's noticed, the state of video editing in Linux is mediocre to deplorable.
Kino and Cinelerra were the only things that worked on my box, the former being barely adequate and the latter being just short of wretched.
The only thing that saved these two at all was the fact they actually ran and could load video from my son's camera.
All others choked, gagged and slipped into a coma on my box (which may be part of the problem...  :-\ )

Imagine my joy at coming across this juicy bit of news...

VideoLAN Project to launch VLMC video editor.
The VideoLAN Project developers behind the popular open source VLC Media Player are expected to officially announce the addition of a new video editing project by the end of the month.
Originally the announcement was expected during the VideoLAN Dev Days meeting in Paris, now concluded. The VideoLAN Movie Creator, also known as VLMC, will be a free cross-platform video editing tool that offers the "features to realise semi-professional quality movies", while remaining "simple and user-friendly".


Be sure to check out the Homepage and the Demo Video!!


from the H-Open

146
Living Room / Zero Percent Contained - California fire time lapse video
« on: September 03, 2009, 04:23 PM »
At the same time I'm watching this thinking how cool it is, I get thrown back in my chair thinking of the devastation this is causing.
My heart goes out to you folks living there.
Incredible time lapse photography of the Station fire in Southern California shot by Brandon Riza.



from Admit-One.net

147
Living Room / Fancy Fast Food
« on: August 20, 2009, 06:41 PM »
I'm not quite sure whether to heave or drool, but here goes...

Did somebody say...
Fancy Fast Food?

These photographs show extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants. No additional ingredients have been added except for an occasional simple garnish.


And just what is the recipe for the Tapas de Castillo Blanco above?
Click here to find out...
whitecastle.jpg

  • 1 White Castle Sack Meal #1, with cheese and bacon (four bacon cheeseburger Slyders, a box of french fries, and a medium Coca-Cola)
  • 1 White Castle Sack Meal #8 (two chicken sandwiches, a box of onion rings, and a medium Hi-C Poppin’ Pink Lemonade)
  • 1 order of fried clams
  • packets of tartar sauce and ketchup
  • parsley (for garnish)

 :sick:



from Admit-One.net

148
Living Room / Plans Unfolding - New and different paper PIM
« on: August 14, 2009, 11:17 AM »
If you liked PocketMod or D*I*Y Planner, you're going to love this one.
PLANS UNFOLDING is a new software program for creating a pocket-sized paper organizer and planner customized for the layout and content that you want. Both letter and A4 paper sizes are supported. Choose from among several standard page types supported by the interface, or create custom page designs and share them online. Use background images downloaded from the image gallery or use your own photographs. Print the output on a color printer, make a few folds and one cut, and you have a convenient booklet with every one of its 16 pages accessible. It's easy and convenient, and it's free.

The Plans Unfolding software provides a complete, convenient user interface to arrange and maintain your organizer data. It's backed by the powerful LaTeX typesetting engine coupled with the TikZ vector drawing package to create professional-quality letter-size or A4 output. Cross off entries and pencil in new ones as you go. Print out a new, updated one whenever you feel like it.



from a google search for the "treasure map" PocketMod mod...

149
Living Room / DIY Vacuum tubes
« on: August 03, 2009, 06:15 PM »
I could watch this for days...

Check out this absolutely mesmerizing (17 minute!) video of a French amateur radio operator who rolls his own vacuum tube triodes! I love the ease with which he performs these rather high-end skills (like glass forming), the gestural flourishes (like it's hand magic), and the Zelig-esque soundtrack.


Not only does he make his own vacuum tubes, it looks like much of his equipment is hand-made as well.
Mesmerizing.
The win... you can smell it.

from Make via Electronics Lab who got it from http://paillard.claude.free.fr/

150
Every once in a while, I try out some new thingamabob to make my desktop experience easier.
This time it's ObjectDock. It looks nice, works well and it's free.

As always, I got annoyed with the backgrounds that were supplied for me because I prefer something a lot more conservative than the "teh @wesum" skins that litter the wincustomize forums.
However, every time I search for "object dock skinning tutorial howto" I get a hundred results on "how to change your background" which is what I don't need, and I can't find a damn thing on the Stardock website.
The closest I've found is Creating a Zoomer Dock Part 1 on the Wincustomize wiki, but it cops out at the last minute when it gets to the .ini file.  >:(

Grr...

What I really want is a step-by-step walkthrough of the "background.ini" file that goes in the folder with the images, which is where the magic happens.
Any takers?

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