Announcements
Brief items
ColorHug drops remote disable
The ColorHug open-source colorimeter comes with a remote disable feature; see this article from January for details. As of the next software release, though, that feature will no longer be present. "Of the 350 packages I've sent so far, 3 packages have been lost, and none of them have triggered the blacklist feature. I think open-source people are more honest than my bank manager thought they would be. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and all that."
Linux Audio Conference 2012 at CCRMA
The conference proceedings and videos from the Linux Audio Conference, which was recently held at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University in California, are available.
Articles of interest
Fair use or "first excuse"? Oracle v. Google goes to the jury (ars technica)
The first phase of Oracle's lawsuit over the use of Java in Android has gone to the jury ars technica reports. The question in the first phase is whether 37 Java APIs were illegally copied by Google into Android, though there are some other issues as well. "Oracle is "not even in the ballpark" when it comes to proving similarities between the 37 Java APIs it claims ownership of, and Android's own APIs. And, he [defense lawyer Robert Van Nest] emphasized, Oracle isn't accusing Google of copying code—because it can't. After designing a computer program to analyze Android's millions of lines of code, Oracle found only nine lines of copied code in a function called rangeCheck(). That code, accidentally inserted by a Google engineer who testified last week, has been removed from all current versions of Android. "Other than the nine lines of code in rangecheck, everything in Android is original," said Van Nest—created entirely by Google engineers, or with Apache open source code." The verdict is expected later this week, but the judge has reserved the right to determine that the APIs aren't copyrightable, which could potentially overturn the jury's decision.
Is open hardware creating a more open world? (isgtw)
International science grid this week covers some open hardware projects. "The Village Telco project has created a cheap and partially open-source device, with a range of between 300 and 400 meters, that enables anyone to communicate freely over a Wi-Fi network using a phone. The device is called a Mesh Potato. “We weren't thinking that much about open hardware when we started. Our priority was simply creating affordable access in Africa,” said Stephen Song, who founded the project." (Thanks to Paul Wise)
New Books
Developing Web Applications with Haskell and Yesod--New from O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media has released "Developing Web Applications with Haskell and Yesod" by Michael Snoyman.The dRuby Book--New from Pragmatic Bookshelf
Pragmatic Bookshelf has released "The dRuby Book" by Masatoshi Seki.Fitness for Geeks--New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media has released "Fitness for Geeks" by Bruce W. Perry.Node: Up and Running--New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media has released "Node: Up and Running" by Tom Hughes-Croucher and Mike Wilson.
Upcoming Events
Presentation List for Akademy 2012 Tallinn
The program for Akademy 2012 has been announced. The 2012 KDE conference, Akademy, will take place in Tallinn, Estonia June 30-July 6.PyCon Australia 2012 Early Bird registration
Early bird conference registration for PyCon Australia is open. PyCon Australia will be held August 18-19, 2012 in Hobart, Tasmania. "Early bird registration will be extended to the first 60 confirmed conference registrations, or until Friday 1 June, whichever comes first."
C Conference reverse call for proposals
C Conference takes place August 28, 2012 in San Diego, California, co-located with LinuxCon. The reverse cfp is open for ideas and proposals for talks.Events: May 3, 2012 to July 2, 2012
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol