Thursday, 20. August 2009, 09:16:09
robotics, Programming, operating system
The UBot whizzes around a carpeted conference room on its Segway-like wheels, holding aloft a yellow balloon. It hands the balloon to a three-fingered robotic arm named WAM, which gingerly accepts the gift.
The robots were just two of the multitude on display last month at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Pasadena, California. But this happy meeting of robotic beings hides a serious problem: while the robots might be collaborating, those making them are not. Each robot is individually manufactured to meet a specific need and more than likely built in isolation.
This sorry state of affairs is set to change. Roboticists have begun to think about what robots have in common and what aspects of their construction can be standardised, hopefully resulting in a basic operating system everyone can use. This would let roboticists focus their attention on taking the technology forward.
Source:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327206.300-robots-to-get-their-own-operating-system.html
Thursday, 21. May 2009, 11:40:56
network, Cloud, operating system, Computer
Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, is preparing to launch a new Web service called Ubuntu One, which will bring cloud synchronization and collaboration features to the Linux desktop. The service is under heavy development, but it is expected to be ready for widespread use when Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, is released in October.
Canonical began inviting Ubuntu community members to participate in a closed beta test on Monday. Ars took it for a spin to see how it performs, also speaking with Canonical engineer Elliot Murphy and product manager Matt Griffin, who described the technology behind Ubuntu One and provided some insight into Canonical's future plans for the service.
Ubuntu One will support tight desktop integration.
To achieve that goal, the developers are building client software that will make the service a seamless part of the desktop experience. The software is currently available to beta testers in an Ubuntu Personal Package Archive (PPA) hosted on Launchpad. The source code will be released soon under open licenses and is said to be usable on other Linux distributions.
Source:
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/05/hands-on-canonical-aims-for-the-cloud-with-new-ubuntu-one.ars
Friday, 12. December 2008, 08:23:50
desktop platform, Programming, operating system, Computer
...
The OpenSolaris development community launched version 2008.11, its second release ever, recently. The new version boosts hardware compatibility and brings some impressive improvements that illuminate the potential of OpenSolaris as a desktop platform. It's still not capable of replacing Linux on the desktop, but it shows promise.
OpenSolaris is Sun's desktop-oriented open-source distribution of the Solaris operating system. It is designed with a strong emphasis on ease of use and is intended to provide a fully functional desktop system right out of the box. It includes the latest software and offers a diverse assortment of applications ranging from development tools to multimedia players.
OpenSolaris emerged from Project Indiana, an effort to reinvent the disparate open-source Solaris bits as a cohesive desktop solution that could be installed from a Live CD.
Source:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081204-hands-on-opensolaris-2008-11-a-major-step-forward-for-sun.html
Thursday, 19. April 2007, 10:07:58
operating system, web 2.0, internet
Xcerion is a Swedish Internet startup whose founders include ex-Microsoft employees Lou Perazzoli and John Connors. The company will make headlines later this year when they officially unveil what they call an "Internet OS" dubbed XIOS that runs in a web browser. We took an early look at the XIOS concept and had the chance to talk about the project with the company's CEO, Daniel Arthursson.
The "operating system" (more on the scare quotes later) is based on XML, and using AJAX it connects to multiple back-end servers running Ubuntu Linux. XIOS is not an applet or a plug-in. Instead, the "OS" is really a complex AJAX-based system, and Arthursson says that it can be viewed as a virtual machine for XML applications.
How does it work? After downloading a couple of megabytes of code, a user can "boot up" XIOS in a web browser and start running the OS and applications Xcerion is developing. Xcerion says that XIOS and its default applications will be free, and the applications themselves will be open-sourced so that users can modify them to suit their own needs. Furthermore, XIOS is a development platform that will allow coders to create their own applications, so it's not just limited to productivity applications.
Source:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070408-dreaming-in-the-cloud-with-the-xios-web-operating-system.html
WIDGETIZE