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In this article, Ciarrai Cunneen and I describe how to do a paper-based usability test, using an early redesign of the GNOME Settings app as an example. The updated Settings features in GNOME 3.26, released on September 13. When writing open source software, we often obsess about making our logic elegant and concise, coming up with clever ways to execute tasks and demonstrate ideas. But we sometimes forget a key fact: Software is not useful if it is not easy to use. read more

And then filtering out all the stuff he doesn't need to read Emacs enthusiast Artur Malabarba has put the text editor to work taming Slack.…

The Mirai botnet attack that enslaved poorly secured connected embedded devices is yet another tangible example of the importance of security before bringing your embedded devices online. A new strain of Mirai has caused network outages to about a million Deutsche Telekom customers due to poorly secured routers.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) mean different things to different people, but the newest approaches have one thing in common: They are based on the idea that a program's output should be created mostly automatically from a high-dimensional and possibly huge dataset, with minimal or no intervention or guidance from a human. Open source tools are used in a variety of machine learning and artificial intelligence projects. In this article, I'll provide an overview of the state of machine learning today. read more

Google's top-of-the-line Chromebook Pixel is coming back with a new name and better specifications.

Wi-Fi is one entry-point hackers can use to get into your network without setting foot inside your building because wireless is much more open to eavesdroppers than wired networks, which means you have to be more diligent about security.

Unikernels are small and fast and give Docker a run for its money, while at the same time still giving stronger features of isolation, says Florian Schmidt, a researcher at NEC Europe, who has developed uniprof, a unikernel performance profiler that can also be used for debugging.

In Linux, there's a concept of users (those who use the system), and then there's the concept of groups, which is basically a logical mechanism to manage a collection of users. To give you a basic idea, groups make it easy to manage users with, say, same security and access privileges.

Firefly’s “RK3399 Coreboard” compute module features Rockchip’s hexa-core RK3399 with up to 4GB RAM and 16GB eMMC, and is supported with a new dev board. Firefly has taken the guts of its Rockchip RK3399 based Firefly-RK3399 SBC and squeezed it onto a computer-on-module.

According to Droid Life, on October 4, Google will release the first new retail version of the Chromebook Pixel since 2015, the Pixelbook. The Chomebook Pixel was the Rolls-Royce of Chromebooks. It was faster, more powerful, and came with a better display than any other laptop in its day. Thanks to Chromebook Pixel fans, Google has elected to start selling this luxury Chromebook again.

For years I've been jealous of folks with iOS devices who could just send their phone screens to their Apple TV devices. It seems like the Android screen-mirroring protocols never work right for me. My Sony Xperia has multiple types of screen mirroring, and none of them seem to work on my smart TVs or Roku devices.

Octavo’s OSD335x-SM is a 40 percent smaller version of its AM335x based OSD335x SiP that adds an EEPROM and more I/O. There’s also an open-spec dev board. Last year, Octavo Systems added a new twist to BeagleBone development when it released its 27 x 27mm OSD335x System-In-Package (SiP) module. The OSD335x, which went on to […]

Pipewire — a new project of underlying Linux infrastructure to handle multimedia better — has just been officially launched. The project’s main goal is to improve the handling of both audio and video. Additionally, Pipewire introduces a security model to... Continue Reading →

Abstractions and metadata are the future of architecture in systems engineering, as they were before in software engineering. In many languages, there are abstractions and metadata; however, systems engineering has never adopted this view. Systems were always thought of as too unique for any standard abstractions. Now that we’ve standardized the lower-level abstractions, we’re ready to build new system-level abstractions. read more

The Linux Foundation is highlighting some of those who have recently passed the certification examinations. In this article, recently certified engineer Georgi Yadkov shares his experience.

Adlink’s MVP-6010 and MVP-6020 embedded computers run Linux or Windows on Intel 6th Gen CPUs, and offer 4x PCI/PCIe slots, 6x USB ports, and 4x COM ports. If Adlink’s new MVP-6010/6020 Series looks familiar, that’s because it’s a modified version of the recent MVP-5000 and last year’s MVP-6000 industrial PCs.

Companies of varying sizes across many industries are implementing innersource programs to drive greater levels of development collaboration and reuse. They ultimately seek to increase innovation; reduce time to market; grow, retain, and attract talent; and of course, delight their customers. In this article, I'll introduce innersource and some of its key facets and examine some of the problems that it can help solve. I'll also discuss some components of an innersource program, including metrics. read more

There are times when, despite your best efforts, you have little choice but to put a quick workaround in place. Reconfiguring network-border firewalls or moving services between machines is simply not an option because the network’s topology is long established and definitely shouldn’t be messed about with.

Inclusivity is the quality of an open organization that allows and encourages people to join the organization and feel a connection to it. Practices aimed at enhancing inclusivity are typically those that welcome new participants to the organization and create an environment that makes them want to stay. read more

Titus SDR’s Android-based “Titus II” Software Defined Radio receiver has a 7-inch touchscreen, a WiFi hotspot, and support for FM, AM, DRM, DAB, and DAB+. Titus SDR is prepping an Android-based wideband digital RF receiver with Software Defined Radio (SDR) capabilities and a hi-fi amplifier. Built around a 7-inch Android tablet, the portable, battery-powered Titus […]