Posts Tagged Open Source
POSIT: UCOSP Team Blog Post
Posted by sfung in Android, FOSS, Information Technology, opinion on November 8, 2011
Hi, I am Stanley Fung. I am a 4th year Computing Science student from Simon Fraser University. I am currently working on POSIT as part of the UCOSP team for the Fall Semester. I choose to work on POSIT because I think it has a lot of potential to benefit others on an engaging technology and platform. I appreciate the idea that the user interface and workflows have a huge impact on real users who come from a range of backgrounds. This is one thing I try to keep in mind while working on POSIT.
For the first half, of the project I have been mainly testing the application and creating patches for bugs. Through these helpful exercises, I have gotten familiar with many aspects of the application. This was especially useful since I am completely new to the Android environment. Many times, simple tasks became important introductions to core Android concepts. I feel that slowly absorbing in the project is less overwhelming then suddenly diving in. With every task, I gain more knowledge about how Android applications work, and how POSIT works. It is also a good way to contribute to the project and gaining intimate knowledge on how application is currently working. I feel that through the testing, I gained some insight on what functionality the current application can benefit from and I carry this knowledge onto the next phase.
During the last two weeks, I have working on creating my own feature for the project. My primary goal is to create a useful and functioning extension to the project. My current idea is to enable expose Finds to more casual stakeholders who might not be actively checking through the POSIT applications. The foundation I have built in the first two months is helping me towards this goal.
Random Hacks of Kindness New York City
Posted by trishan in Android, Beyond CS, Development, FOSS, Humanitarian, nptech on December 8, 2010
Hackontest — 24 hour coding marathone
Posted by ram in FOSS, interesting articles on June 4, 2008
As announced on Slashdot, a 24 hour free software coding contest known as Hackontest will pit free and open source projects against one another. As of today there are 180 users 34 registered projects, including Sahana and OpenMRS, two of the projects that our summer internship program is supporting.
The goal of the Google-sponsored contest is “to enhance Free Software projects according to user needs and to make visible how enthusiastically open source software is being developed.”
Here’s how it works. Users and developers of FOSS submit, rate, and comment on submit feature requests. On August 1 a jury of well known FOSS contributors will pick the top three teams who will be flown to Zurich for the September 24/25 contest. The contest will be part of Open Expo, the Swiss conference and trade show for Free and Open Source Software. The teams will compete for 24 hours inside an etoyTANK, a hacking equipped cargo container, complete with pizza–of course. Visitors to the Expo will be able to observe the teams and the computer screens and team members will be able to communicate with virtual team members throughout the world, I guess. A total of $8500 in prizes will be awarded.
Sounds like fun!
Microsoft gets bright spark to give away their development tools to students
Posted by trishan in Computing Education, Development, FOSS, venting on February 20, 2008
According to a AP release “Microsoft giving away developer software” Microsoft is letting students download their development studio and server applications for free. Is it a strategic move attempting to position themselves against the trend of web developers going with the free open source LAMP stack or an additional choice for web developers, as Bill Gates explains in the article.
“Gates said students will want to try Microsoft’s tools because they’re more powerful than the open-source combination of Linux-based operating systems, the Apache Web server, the MySQL database and the PHP scripting language used to make complex Web sites.”
Will this have an impact on the open source movement? Would this simply expand the options available for development. Once the application is developed could it be distributed under an open source license, or would the embedded Microsoft technologies pose a stumbling block. According to a Computer world.com article: Analysis: Popularity of open-source, Adobe tools on campus prods Microsoft’s giveaway to students. the free software is intended for educational purposes, and not for commercial software development or software-for-hire basis. The article goes on to quote Joe Wilson, Microsoft’s senior director of academic initiatives for developer and platform evangelism.” But Microsoft has no plans to enforce those terms, Wilson said.” Would this pose a threat to open source development platforms such as JavaBean from Sun or IBM supported Eclipse. Time will tell.