Cassette tapes are the future of big data storage

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THE cassette tape is about to make a comeback, in a big way. From the updates posted by Facebook’s 1 billion users to the medical images shared by healthcare organisations worldwide and the rise of high-definition video streaming, the need for something to store huge tranches of data is greater than ever. And while hard drives have traditionally been the … Read More

Ping-pong robot learns to play like a person

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A ROBOT that learns to play ping-pong from humans and improves as it competes against them could be the best robotic table-tennis challenger the world has seen. Katharina Muelling and colleagues at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany suspended a robotic arm from the ceiling and equipped it with a camera that watches the playing area. Then Muelling physically … Read More

Welcome Windows 8 to a Post-Desktop World

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A lot has changed in the three years since the last major Windows announcement. Netbooks were on the rise. The iPad wouldn’t be introduced for another six months and Nokia still had the lead for most smartphone sales in the world. Only 172 million smartphones were sold in 2009 vs. an estimated 146 million units in just one quarter of … Read More

KDE Releases Plasma Active 3

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Plasma Active 3 offers new apps and improved performance. KDE has released a new version of Plasma Active. According to the announcement, the Plasma Active user interface is touch-friendly and works well across a range of devices, giving users a natural way to organize and access their applications, files, and information. Version 3 features an enhanced and expanded set of … Read More

A New Era of Operating System Competition Dawns

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Microsoft is out with Windows 8 this week, and the operating system–which straddles standard Windows interface conventions and touchscreen-style conventions–is being described as the company’s biggest gamble in years. That seems like an apt thing to call the new OS, since Microsoft has a tough sell in convincing users that they need new versions of Windows. But many analysts are … Read More

A New Tablet Puts Microsoft in a Delicate Position

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Microsoft, the world’s best-known software company, is now in the business of making its own computers. That could get complicated. The delicate balancing act Microsoft must perform was apparent at two events it held on Thursday in New York to introduce two major products. At the first event, it showcased devices made by Samsung, Dell and other hardware partners that … Read More

Dear Microsoft, Thanks for Windows 8! Love Linux

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Dear Microsoft, Thanks for Windows 8! Love Linux By Sean Michael Kerner   |    October 25, 2012 From the ‘End of the Traditional Desktop’ files: Microsoft has a big launch event today in New York City for Windows 8. Surprisingly I got invited, but no I won’t be there. Linux users like myself however really should thank Microsoft though, Window 8 is … Read More

The People Who Support Linux: A College Student By Day, Red Hat Developer By (Late) Night

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In his few short years as a developer, 19-year-old Sam Kottler has racked up what seems like a decade’s worth of Linux experience. After starting a small web consultancy building Drupal sites as a high school student in Connecticut, he dabbled in systems administration for Drupal, worked in hosting engineering at Acquia, then joined mobile payment startup Venmo as a … Read More

Open Source Cloud News Roundup: Week of Oct. 22

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This week’s top open source cloud headlines raised a few interesting questions. Does OpenStack need a Linus Torvalds?  This week’s top open source cloud headlines raised a few interesting questions. Does OpenStack need a Linus Torvalds? And can Eucalyptus be the next billion-dollar open source company? Announcements from Rackspace and OpenNebula are also featured, along with an inside look at Cisco’s … Read More

John Mark Walker: 5 Reasons You Should Come to the Gluster Workshop

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As you finalize your plans for LinuxCon Europe, you may find yourself needing to plot out your schedule for each day of the event. After all, in addition to the main conference, there are an abundance of co-located events throughout the week, including the Embedded Linux Conference Europe, the KVM Forum, the oVirt and Gluster workshops, and even a few more With all that going … Read More

Follow Red Hat’s Lead to be the Next Billion-Dollar Open Source Company

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Ever since it was apparent that Red Hat would become the first billion-dollar Linux company, fans of free and open source software have held the company up as the poster child for Linux’s business success. That milestone was officially achievedearlier this year, but somehow the good news about Red Hat just keeps on coming. Case in point: On top of the … Read More

The Next Battleground for Open vs. Closed? Your Car

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It all seems upside down: a major toy company releases its first tablet; a major search company works on its first car. Yet all of this makes sense when you realize everyone just wants to be – or may already be – in the mobile device business. Including car companies. A friend recently showed me his shiny new luxury sports … Read More

Reiser4 Benchmarked On Linux 3.5 Against EXT4, Btrfs, XFS, ReiserFS

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While the Reiser4 file-system has been in-development for the better part of the past decade, it still hasn’t been merged into the mainline Linux kernel. Reiser4 is still out-of-tree, doesn’t see much new development activity by its limited developers, and the file-system remains tarnished due to its founder, Hans Reiser, being a convicted murderer. However, Edward Shishkin the former Namesys … Read More