Today we are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family. Through this website, we will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities. The site will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.
Tag: technology
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NASA’s Plan for Code – open.NASA
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♫ Etienne De Crecy: All Right
There’s just something amazing about 3D animated cubes, especially when coupled with a thumpin’ track. 🙂
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The picts, they are a changin’
The very first light fields were captured at Stanford University over 15 years ago. The most advanced light field research required a roomful of cameras tethered to a supercomputer. Today, Lytro completes the job of taking light fields out of the research lab and making them available for everyone, in the form of the world’s first Lytro Light Field Camera.
Via Science Inside | Lytro. Found through Nick.
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Swiss gov’t study: downloading leads to sales, so we’re keeping it legal
The Swiss government commissioned a study on the impact of copyright-infringing downloading. The independent study concluded that downloaders use the money they spend to buy more legitimate entertainment products. So they’ve concluded to maintain Switzerland’s extant copyright law, which makes downloading for personal use legal.
Via Boing Boing.
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International Startup Festival 2011 Video Recap
http://www.vimeo.com/32223825
Very nice video recap of Montreal’s first International Startup Festival, which happened immediately after WordCamp Montreal 2011.
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Google’s privacy principles conundrum
One of the line in this Privacy Principles video confused me a tad. It says “[…] and we don’t sell user information to other companies” (at 1:43). Technically, isn’t that just what Google does with AdSense, going as far as using the notorious DoubleClick DART cookie.To be fair, they’re still one of the best companies when it comes to managing your privacy settings, so I’m not that worried about it. Just like when I walk in the street, I expect a certain loss of privacy when I’m online, especially when/if I opt-in to use a company’s services. Technically, it’s actually far easier to manage or control one’s privacy online than it is walking in said streets nowadays (CCTV, etc).
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Quantum levitation IRL
Video courtesy of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), representing the science center and museum field worldwide. To learn more, visit http://www.astc.org/.
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Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera
The camera is thrown into the air and captures an image at the highest point of flight – when it is hardly moving. The camera takes full spherical panoramas, requires no preparation and images are taken instantaneously. It can capture scenes with many moving objects without producing ghosting artifacts and creates unique images.
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Face Substitution
See Face Substitution on Vimeo for more info.
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Canadian Copyright Law: Modernized: Maybe. Improved: Nope.
From The Gazettes View: Bringing copyright law into the 21st century:
It is unlikely that there will be many prosecutions under this article as long as violations are committed in the privacy of people’s homes and not for any commercial purpose, but it is still a niggling restriction that caves in to the U.S. at the expense of the right of average Canadians to do what they wish to with their own property for their own enjoyment.
Read out of context, one might have thought that this excerpt was about marijuana (which is how it’s dealt with here in Canada). But one would be wrong. That is what is expected if the new copyright bill is passed.
Another hilarious point is:
Specifically in this respect the law would legalize everyday consumer practices that are currently prohibited, such as using a personal video recorder to record a TV show for later viewing, or copying music from a purchased CD to an iPod.
This is not a knee-slapper on its own, but when coupled with:
Less welcome, and the sticking point in previous attempts to pass this bill, is the blanket provision against breaking digital locks, even for purposes of personal use. This includes picking a lock on a DVD purchased overseas to watch at home, or transferring a purchased e-book to read to another personal device. The bill provides for $5,000 fines for even the smallest such violations.
Given the steady switch of the entire media industry to all things digital, they can slap DRM on any future format (as they have been doing), therefore entirely canceling the right you were given…
That bill might modernize our copyright law, but calling it an improvement would be quite a stretch, really.
And just like our drug laws, they’re essentially “made in the U.S.A”. Have our politicians no respect, for even themselves, as Canadians? Oh, sorry, that’s a dumb question. We know they don’t…