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Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Technology Academy Finland has announced that Linus Torvalds is one of two finalists for the Millennium Technology Prize. "Technology Academy Finland has today declared two prominent innovators, Linus Torvalds and Dr Shinya Yamanaka, laureates of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize, the prominent award for technological innovation. The laureates, who will follow in the footsteps of past victors such as World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, will be celebrated at a ceremony in Helsinki, Finland, on Wednesday 13 June 2012, when the winner of the Grand Prize will be announced. The prize pool exceeds EUR 1 Million." The Linux Foundation has also put out a press release about the prize.

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Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 19, 2012 16:30 UTC (Thu) by grobian (guest, #83608) [Link] (11 responses)

If you have ever wondered how his workplace looks like
just watch the home movie posted by the academy...

http://footagebank.imagemaker.fi/MTP2012/Torvalds_H264_19...

Warning: large videos (for both meanings of 'large')

Posted Apr 19, 2012 17:51 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (guest, #24648) [Link] (9 responses)

Be advised, 730 MB download (but thanks for the link!).

Also, not that this matters to most, but 1920×1080 videos bring my dinosaur of a computer to its knees! :-(

One last general comment - Linus' European accent has almost totally disappeared. Sounds as if he's totally been assimilated. ;-)

Warning: large videos (for both meanings of 'large')

Posted Apr 19, 2012 21:25 UTC (Thu) by Tobu (subscriber, #24111) [Link] (8 responses)

That plays well with mplayer on the first model of Athlon64 (although 1080p with higher compression would require -lavdopts lowres=1:fast=true:skiploopfilter=all); this footage is just 8 minutes and barely compressed.

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 19, 2012 22:27 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (7 responses)

Could anyone just post it to youtube or a similar service and post the link? Thanks!

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 1:13 UTC (Fri) by Tobu (subscriber, #24111) [Link] (2 responses)

Here is a smaller file (joined and shrunk to 17M with handbrake).

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 21:08 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (1 responses)

This one has sound, but it is lost at about the same point that the youtube version started. Weird. Thanks to both of you!

And the "European" (Finnish) accent is not washed out yet, perhaps not the pronunciation but the intonation is still there.

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 21, 2012 9:00 UTC (Sat) by Tobu (subscriber, #24111) [Link]

It's just three questions + silent “B-roll” footage, they were in separate files initially. Not enormously interesting, but since I had it I was happy to save people a bit of bandwidth.

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 9:59 UTC (Fri) by nelljerram (subscriber, #12005) [Link] (1 responses)

There is also a youtube link on the academy's web page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1MCvuDvCaQ. (It doesn't stand out because it's not marked up as a link.)

I'm guessing this is the same as the 730Mb download, because it's about 8 minutes long and shows Linus's home office towards the end.

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 10:48 UTC (Fri) by grobian (guest, #83608) [Link]

Na, that's old footage from his former house...

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 11:48 UTC (Fri) by grobian (guest, #83608) [Link] (1 responses)

For the poor souls

Posted Apr 20, 2012 21:02 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Thanks, but for some reason I can't hear the sound (apparently the sound track is there but empty).

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 2:01 UTC (Fri) by scientes (guest, #83068) [Link]

gosh, he should really put that monitor a little higher, so he can sit higher. (otherwise his setup is pretty ergonomic, although I expected him to have [far] more monitors)

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 19, 2012 23:19 UTC (Thu) by bluss (guest, #47454) [Link] (6 responses)

More than a finalist, he's one of the two being honored. If you're reading this far you already understood this, but the 'finalist' thing is confusing.. it doesn't say settled and prize delivered to me.

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 0:04 UTC (Fri) by xanni (subscriber, #361) [Link]

Poor translation from the Finnish? I agree, the headline is misleading and should be updated.

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 3:39 UTC (Fri) by jake (editor, #205) [Link] (4 responses)

> More than a finalist, he's one of the two being honored.

Maybe that's true, but it didn't look that way to me from the announcement. It sounded like one of the two would be chosen in June in the part I quoted, at least that's how I read it. And all the other winners mentioned were singular, though there is mention of other laureates (runners-up I guess?) in other years.

It's fairly confusing, at least to me.

jake

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 7:33 UTC (Fri) by tjaalton (subscriber, #54012) [Link] (3 responses)

they both get awarded, but the way the prize is split will be announced in June..

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 13:18 UTC (Fri) by jake (editor, #205) [Link] (2 responses)

> they both get awarded, but the way the prize is split will be announced
> in June..

From: http://www.technologyacademy.fi/millennium-technology-prize/

The 2008 Millennium Technology Prize Winner was Professor Robert Langer for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration. Other Laureates for the 2008 Prize were Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, Dr. Andrew J. Viterbi and Professor Emmanuel Desurvire, Dr. Randy Giles and Professor David N. Payne.

The 2010 Millennium Technology Prize Winner was Professor Michael Grätzel for his invention and development of dye-sensitized solar cells, known as 'Grätzel cells'. Other Laureates for the 2010 Prize were Professor Sir Richard Friend and Professor Stephen Furber.

Which seems to indicate one winner (at least in other years), with other runners-up ...

jake

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 20:23 UTC (Fri) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] (1 responses)

Nevertheless, this year it definitely is split. See http://www.technologyacademy.fi/blog/2012/04/19/laureates/.

I checked also its Finnish version at http://www.technologyacademy.fi/fi/2012/04/19/laureates/, which leaves no doubt, saying "... jotka molemmat palkitaan ..." ("... who both will be awarded...").

Linus Torvalds is a finalist for the Millennium Technology Prize

Posted Apr 20, 2012 20:28 UTC (Fri) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link]

Ouch. Missed a bit from the text. You are right, there will be a single "grand prize" winner: "...Wednesday 13 June 2012, when the winner of the Grand Prize will be announced." One of the times I wish I could delete own comments at LWN...


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