The US copyright lobby has long argued against open source software – now Indonesia’s in the firing line for encouraging the idea in government departments.
Traveller on a beach, Indonesia. Photograph: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty
February 19th, 2010
40 Linux Facts
1. Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel while still a student at the University of Helsinki in 1991.
2. Last year, 75% of Linux code was developed by programmers working for corporations.
3. In December 2009, IBM announced a new mainframe system designed for Linux.
4. IBM chose Linux for what is expected to be the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Sequoia, due in 2011.
5. Linux powers 446 of the world’s top 500 supercomputers.
6. Some 95% of the servers used by Hollywood’s large animation studios are powered by Linux.
7. The first major film produced on Linux servers was 1997’s Titanic
8. Director James Cameron again chose Linux servers for box-office smash Avatar.
9. Google runs its web servers on Linux.
10. Google has contributed about 1.1% of the code in the current Linux kernel.
February 19th, 2010
A New Era for Videogame Graphics?
Videogames are about to get a whole lot better-looking. Thanks to a new algorithm created by Morgan McGuire, Williams College assistant professor of computer science, and Dr. David Luebke, senior research manager at Nvidia, videogames will achieve film-quality graphics in the near future, or so the pair promises.
McGuire took a year sabbatical from Williams College to work with Dr. Luebke at Nvidia Research, where they created Image Space Photon Mapping, a fast new method to produce light effects and light sources in 3D worlds. The pair’s paper, “Hardware-Accelerated Global Illumination by Image Space Photon Mapping,” won the Best Paper award at the recent Conference on High Performance Graphics. In a statement, McGuire described their achievement:
The computer-generated 3D graphics in films like Avatar are visually indistinguishable from real objects. They are hard to compute, however: the Photon Mapping algorithm used in most film productions requires about one day to compute every second of film. Our new Image Space Photon Mapping transforms that algorithm to a space where it can be evaluated in a fraction of a second. This enables nearly cinema-quality lighting for interactive applications like videogames.
McGuire is no stranger to gaming: He worked on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Xbox 360. Because videogames have to compute images more quickly than movies, he said, Image Space Photon Mapping will be invaluable to game developers. The algorithm, and the advanced graphics it helps developers create, should begin appearing in games within the next two years.
January 23rd, 2010
YouTube and Vimeo Ditching Flash for HTML5
YouTube and Vimeo is kicking Adobe’s Flash to the curb in favor of the sharp new HTML5.
Both YouTube and Vimeo have announced that they are launching HTML5-based players on their video streaming
sites, thus booting out the long-standing champ of multimedia delivery, Adobe Flash. With recent security issues plaguing Adobe products, it’s no surprise that media giants such as YouTube are jumping ship. What makes HTML5 special is that the new Web standard doesn’t require Adobe’s software to stream content to viewers.
January 20th, 2010
Italian mafia finds UK good for business
London firms act as fronts for drug-dealing and money-laundering and provide hideouts for fugitive gunmen, says anti-mafia investigator
The tentacles of the mafia are spreading to the UK, as British cities become key locations in the mob’s vital money-laundering operations, according to Italy’s leading expert in organised crime, Francesco Forgione.
Last week Britain’s Gambling Commission suspended the licence of Paradise Bet Ltd, a company based in the west London suburb of Hounslow that operates paradisebet.com. The company was shut down when its assets were frozen by Italian police as part of their operation to break up the criminal Parisi clan from the southern Puglia region, whose members are accused of attempted murder, drug smuggling and money-laundering.
Savino Parisi, the 48-year-old head of the clan, as well as politicians and businessmen, were believed to be among 74 people arrested this month by Italian officials in the city of Bari, where Paradise Bet has an operating office. Police raids in Italy, aided by Britain’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency, seized 227 properties, 680 bank accounts, 61 luxury cars, nine stables, 71 horses and 35 businesses said to be worth £200m in an operation code-named “Domino”.
