Open source education software unveiled by Google

Online education startups such as the Khan Academy, along with new efforts by MIT, Stanford, and Harvard have helped spur interest in and add legitimacy to the notion of remote learning. Now Google is lending its brainpower to the rapidly growing area by releasing a tool called Course Builder, open source software designed to let anyone create online education courses.


The Course Builder project came by way of another program Google ran earlier this year called Power Searching With Google. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which attracted approximately 155,000 students from 196 countries, allowed Google to marry some of the practices now common to online instruction with the company's robust array of collaboration and communication tools. A new Power Searching session begins in two weeks.

According to the introductory video (above), presented by Peter Norvig, director of Google Research, usage of the software won't require high-level programming skill, and should be accessible to anyone with the ability to build and maintain their own website.

"The Course Builder open source project is an experimental early step for us in the world of online education," Norvig said. "It is a snapshot of an approach we found useful and an indication of our future direction. We hope to continue development along these lines, but we wanted to make this limited code base available now, to see what early adopters will do with it, and to explore the future of learning technology."
In addition to offering a new platform for empowering educators, the effort is also a unique opportunity to connect with Google's research team. Over the course of the next two weeks, Google plans to directly interact with Course Builder users via Google Hangouts. The Course Builder support site is already live and the free software download has already received its first update. For those unsure about their level of skill in relation to use of the software, Google's Course Builder Checklist offers a reassuring primer on how to get started and exactly what to expect.

VirtualBox 4.2.0 Beta 1

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software.

Some of the features of VirtualBox are:

Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.

Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.

Black Hat Hacking Hotel Doors With Open-Sou0ce Arduino

By using open-source Arduino tools, security researchers are exposing security gaps in door-lock systems used by millions of hotels.

For millions of travelers and road warriors, the ubiquitous hotel key card is the primary, and essentially the only, way to access their rooms at the end of day. However, security researcher Cody Brocious believes the current systems used to secure hotel doors throughout the United States and elsewhere are severely flawed.

Speaking at the Black Hat security conference here, Brocious demonstrated how locks from Onity—a company that sells security products to hotels and other businesses—can easily be bypassed. At the show, Brocious detailed the primary security flaws that allowed him to bypass Onity locks and gain access to rooms.

Brocious used an open-source tool known as Arduino, a portable programming platform. Arduino was used as a substitute for the commercial portable programmer that an Onity lock would typically require. Brocious explained that the Onity locks have a serial hardware connection that is easily accessible, as well.

In addition to the Arduino tool, Brocious used an oscilloscope that allowed him to see what was happening in the lock whenever a key card was put in and the door opened or closed. He was able to determine through his research that the underlying firmware on the lock does not require any form of authentication to arbitrarily access the memory of the lock.

This means it is possible to read out every bit of information that is on the lock, which makes it possible for anyone to gain access or make a key.

In theory, programming for the lock should go over a secure channel, rather than doing direct unencrypted memory access, said Brocious. The problem, according to his research, is that the existing Onity lock design does not easily allow for that, and there is no easy way to update the firmware.

Another potential option is to actually provide physical security on the door lock. For example, the company could make the serial port harder to access. However, with 5 million of these locks in use today, Brocious said this would be an expensive and challenging way to add additional security.

The actual door locks are only half the problem exposed by Brocious. The card keys are also at risk. Typical card keys in the Onity system use only 32-bit key encryption making them easy to decrypt, according to Brocious.

"The system is broken at every layer," said Brocious.

The severity of the issue and its high impact is what led Brocious to choose to release his research at Black Hat. In addition to his research, he is also releasing a software tool so that others can continue or expand on his efforts.

"Something needs to be done about this problem, and I didn't want to put it out there in a way that could be defeated by process," said Brocious. "No doubt, this vulnerability has been found before, and it has been in the locks for years."

Brocious added: “I'd be surprised if this hasn't been used by malicious actors in the past.”

What Brocious is hoping to achieve from this disclosure is not a mass string of hackers getting unauthorized access to hotel rooms, but rather some kind of fix and industry response.

"I'm saying that this is what you're vulnerable [to], so come up with a way to solve the problem," said Brocious.

Naace calls for 'open source' approach to ICT

ICT association Naace believes the overhaul of ICT lessons in English schools should be treated as an opportunity to develop an "open source" approach to teaching the subject.

In comments reported by Computing.co.uk, the body's chair Miles Berry said a "wiki curriculum" could be adapted and enhanced by various participants as a collaborative project to ensure the best possible teaching framework.

He suggested the approach used by existing open source software companies should be applied to "see what we can learn and apply to the curriculum".

Mr Berry, who was speaking at the Westminster Education Forum, added: "People can bring whatever they want into it, into this big, wide-open space and choose from that what they want to us."

His comments come after the Department for Education confirmed that the current approach to teaching ICT will be scrapped from September this year to make way for a new curriculum, which is expected to place greater emphasis on computer science.

In response to the announcement, Naace claimed it is currently "an exciting time for ICT in schools".

Cut the Software expenses

Somewhere in the annual spending of almost every household and small business today is an item that might not have been there just 10 years ago: software purchases. Along with Google and Wikipedia, buying software has become as inevitable as death and taxes.

For the most part, that's fine. Programming is the sort of eye-glazing, rear-numbing work many of us prefer to avoid, and the people who do it well deserve to be well-compensated. But there are times when buying new software seems a bit much:

Your child's room parent upgrades to the latest Microsoft Word, and now you have to, too, or you can't read the classroom volunteer schedule.
The company that makes your home or small-business accounting software cuts off support for your version in an attempt to force everyone to upgrade to the latest edition.
Your teenager announces her future in design for web and print and requires immediate purchase of Adobe's CS6 Master Collection (list price $2,599, though educational discounts are available).
Fortunately, there are alternatives out there, and they're free. That's right -- free. What's known as open source software is part of the "gift economy," an alternative to markets or barter where people just put what they make out there, free for the taking. Why programmers would do this may seem a mystery; one study at the University of North Texas found that these programmers like the prestige they earn but also are interested in "learning for the joy of learning and collaborating with interesting and smart people." Imagine a world where people did their work for reasons like that!

The gift economy and open source movement extend way beyond the world of software. But the place to start is with your computer.

1. OpenOffice and LibreOffice

OpenOffice can edit spreadsheets, presentations and similar work in this free suite of programs. OpenOffice can read and write Microsoft's formats. OpenOffice has this multilingual capability, and it includes all the bells and whistles. It's free for download at OpenOffice.org. The same goes for its colleague, LibreOffice, a similar suite of programs produced by The Document Foundation.

2. GIMP
Pretty much everyone needs some kind of image-processing program these days. Photoshop could get an image into a computer. The next generation is going to consider this open source program its standard.

3. WordPress
Many people need a website, and maybe more than one. For nonprogrammers, the easiest way to create this is to buy a domain name and hosting service, then install WordPress (many website providers will even do it for you). From there, starting to customize your new website takes minimal skill. By one estimate, more than one out of five new sites uses this free software, often jazzing it up with the many templates that are free or inexpensively priced on the web.

The key, though, is to know this choice is available. Whatever you want to do on your computer, before you buy new software, try a search for open source alternatives. You'll be supporting a whole community of programmers who've been writing code just for the interest of it. And you can't beat the price.

Checklist For Choosing Open Source Software

As a small business owner funds are tight, so the last thing you want to do is invest in lots of new software. Fortunately, you may not have to.

A growing movement in the online world is the Open Source Movement. Open Source developers write programs, plugins, and internet scripts and distribute them, and the source code used to create them, for free. Chances are you’ve already heard of some of them. For example, Wordpress is open source, as is Open Office (an open source clone of Microsoft Office).

As a small business owner open source software can be a tremendous asset. Because it is free it gives you a chance to spend your limited resources elsewhere, instead of investing in expensive software. However, open source software isn’t without it’s drawbacks. Here are 5 things you should always check when investigating a promising piece of open source software:

1. Does it have the features you need? Because open source software is developed by individuals or small organizations, it often does not have all the same features as similar commercial applications. If you don’t need those features, then this isn’t an issue. But don’t take the time to download, install, and learn a new software if it isn’t going to meet your business needs.

2. Does it have good documentation? Another result of the part-time nature of open source development is that even some of the best open source softwares do not have complete documentation. When looking at a new open source project, take a good look at the documentation offered and try to get a feel for whether it will answer your questions about using the software. Other things to look for are project forums, wikis, and FAQ’s. All these places can provide answers to questions you may have, or allow you to ask your own. If you can’t find enough documentation for an open source project, it may be worth looking elsewhere. No matter how good a program is, it’s worth your time if you can’t figure out how to use it.

3. How easy is the program to edit? What do programmers have to say about the code? One of the greatest strengths of open source programs is that the source code comes with them. This means that if you find a piece of software that you really like, but need just one more feature, chances are good you can hire a programmer to add that feature for you. Be aware, however, that some programs are written better than others. If the source code you get is messy, inefficient, or just hard to understand it may not be worth your money to hire a programmer to make even small modifications.

4. How does it communicate with other programs or formats your business uses? Even if a program does exactly what you need it to do, it may not communicate with other programs your business has to use every day. For example, a word processor would not be much use if it could not read and save Microsoft Word Documents. If there are programs or certain formats that everybody in your business or industry uses, be sure the open source program you are looking at supports them.

5. Finally, What do other users think of the program? Take some time to browse the web and look for reviews, critiques, or discussions about the software you’re looking at using. Sometimes open source programs may look good, but be filled with bugs. Others may work, but have poor user interfaces that make it hard to work with them. The best way to get an idea of whether an open source program is worth using in your business is to find out what others are saying about it. If you find lots of positive reviews, especially from people in a similar industry to yours, than you’re likely on the right track. If all you find are complaints, steer clear.

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Open Source Maintenance Software in Php and Mysql Development

While launching a website, too many things have to be taken into consideration. One of them is of course php mysql development. But that is not all. As we prepare to launch the website the heavy cost of proprietary software will always create a doubt in our mind.

Open Source Code Software’s

But if we opt for php and mysql programming language then we can always avail the option of
Open Source Code software’s. This programming language ensures object oriented application structure. This application is of great importance because it makes the process of coding simple and prevents the system from developing technical problems with the growth of the database. Moreover, with php mysql web development one can easily separate the codes from HTML, storing them eventually in the specific libraries.

Maintaining Software

In PHP programming because of open source coding the large community of programmers always assist each other with codes. But this data has to be preserved in a proper manner for future reference. Therefore, the maintenance management software’s helps plan and execute various methods involved in the operation of a company. This process involves the supplying of the source code to the buyers along with the maintenance management software.

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Open Source Help Desk Software

Service Management is the new hype in both local and global companies. It is all about delivering services that support business needs instead of just showing them how to use file sharing and outlook. Service Management requires Help Desk software among other things to be able to register support requests, incidents, change, and problems and so on. These software solutions are most often very expensive and quite cumbersome to configure. For global organizations, an expensive service management solution could be the way to go, because they will be dependent on vendor support, but for smaller ITIL based organizations, open source help desk software is adequate and much cheaper. One of the best solutions is a PHP helpdesk system that can be modified to fit almost any organization and since it is open source, it is the PHP programming language that sets the limit for how much you can customize the software. If you already have a PHP based intranet and have experience with either ITIL 3 or ITIL version 2, this software is very easy to implement and can be managed by a single employee.

If you are in need to a service management product that are not open source but still cheap, I suggest you look into Heat Help Desk. Because of its price, easy of use and customization options, this tool is a very good competitor to the open source selections.

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Google's open-source Android now actually open

Less than a year after announcing Android, the open-source phone operating system intended to jump-start the mobile Internet, Google began sharing the project's underlying source code.

The Android Open Source Project site includes a project list, a feature description, guides to the roles people can have in the project and how to contribute, and of course the Android source code itself.

Google has one team of programmers building the software and another professional services group to help support phone makers building Android phones. Now, though, as T-Mobile's G1 arrives on the market, Google hopes to multiply that by drawing upon the collective energy of outside contributors to the project.

"Our plan is a launching point for a much more vibrant open-source community," said Rich Miner, manager of Google's mobile platforms group. "For the past almost four years, this has been a large effort between Google and our partners. There have been a lot of people working on the code, but that's going to be multiplied by several orders of magnitude." Read More..

Sphinx: Open Source SQL Full Text Search Engine

Sphinx is a full-text search engine. It is a standalone search engine, meant to provide fast, size-efficient and relevant full-text search functions to other applications. Sphinx was specially designed to integrate well with SQL databases and scripting languages.

Currently built-in data source drivers support fetching data either via direct connection to MySQL, or PostgreSQL, or from a pipe in a custom XML format. Adding new drivers (eg. to natively support some other DBMSes) is designed to be as easy as possible. Read more...

Setting up PHP in Windows using Abyss server

Reason behind installing another server to your system
Whichever platform you have been working with must using a server. For .NET developers, IIS eases all the pain. So, what is now if you must install PHP in your system side by side .NET. I suggest you not to install PHP in the same server the .NET is working in. So, install another server which will work with all burdens of PHP stuffs.

Why Abyss?
The reasons behind choosing this server is Abyss is free, easy to configure, very lightweight, and small to download at only 344KB. It also has a preconfigured PHP version for them with all official extensions. Reading Continue..

Beginners in Freelance Web Development

Today Freelance Web development in India stands as one of the most moving field to be in. Apart from the regular companies offering web development in India, there are several freelance Web developers in India.

These freelance website developers jump into the field by creating their own website. Later they volunteer to create sites for others. This volunteering eventually let them find their customers. Slowly people approach them to do sites for them. Though the money would not be much appreciable in the beginning, it will help one get acknowledged in the field.

Freelance Web development does not require one to fulfill conditions. They don’t need to include high tech equipment, high speed internet, or a computer science degree to stand up in the crowd. Moreover, they don’t necessarily know all the world knowledge. For example, one can also farm out for the technology they don’t understand.

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A practical Use Of Open Source Code Softwares

As we started the project of a web site, we knew that the proprietary software costs would be too high for the financial resources. The only option then was to make use of Open Source Code softwares.

However, within the Open Source Code there are lots of softwares to choose from, and it’s up to the system analyst/programmer to pick the ones that best suit the project goals.

In this case, we picked Linux as the operating system. However we faced a big question: Which Linux distribution ? There are dozens of linux distributions, each one with specific advantages, sometimes with or without paid services.

We chose linux Slackware because we thought that it would suit better our needs, in terms of stability and reliability. Slackware is a conservative distribution, meaning that it only offers in its distribution package kernel versions and third party libraries, once it’s been proved to be stable and reliable. As a result, Slackware is one the most stable Linux operating system on the market. If the user wishes the most recent Linux kernel and libraries, we recommend to look for a different distribution.

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First Version of an Open Source API for Multiplayer Flash Games Development

There are times that you may want to use collections library other that the one provided by Java natively. Here are some alternative.

Commons-Collections seek to build upon the JDK classes by providing new interfaces, implementations and utilities. There are many features, including:

Bag interface for collections that have a number of copies of each object

Buffer interface for collections that have a well defined removal order, like FIFOs

BidiMap interface for maps that can be looked up from value to key as well and key to value

MapIterator interface to provide simple and quick iteration over maps

Type checking decorators to ensure that only instances of a certain type can be added

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The best open source programming language

Is Perl, PHP, Python, or Ruby best? Do Java and JavaScript count?

Then we wondered whether it was fair to compare system-level programming languages with scripting languages. We went on to wonder whether various individual languages qualified as open source. It's clear that Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tk/Tcl are open source languages; it's not so clear whether Java and JavaScript are. Is it enough for a subset of a language to have an open source repository and an ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) or ISO standard, or should we consider only languages that are completely open source and have community-driven development cycles?
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Oracle ADF Faces Goes Open Source

Oracle is pleased to announce the donation of ADF Faces, a rich set of UI components based on the JavaServer Faces specification, to the Apache Software Foundation. This donation will be licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. What this project will be called in the future will soon be determined by the Apache MyFaces community. By supporting JSF and MyFaces Oracle is hoping that more vendors are going to join and strengthen the Faces community. This is going to give a boost to the JavaServer Faces technology as well as the MyFaces project. The donated code comes with great functionality out of the box such as: file upload support, client-side validation, partial rendering of a page (AJAX-style), data tables, hierarchical tables, color/date pickers, progress indicators, menu tabs/buttons, internationalization and accessibility. This donation starts with more than 100 components which have already been thoroughly tested and come with high quality documentation.

Why should open source software be used in schools?

It is indeed a strange world when educators need to be convinced that sharing information, as opposed to concealing information, is a good thing. The advances in all of the arts and sciences, indeed the sum total of human knowledge, are the result of the open sharing of ideas, theories, studies and research. Yet throughout many school systems, the software in use on computers is closed and locked, making educators partners in the censorship of the foundational information of this new age. This software not only seeks to obscure how it works, but it also entraps the users' data within closed, proprietary formats which change on the whim of the vendor and which are protected by the bludgeon of the End User License Agreement. This entrapment of data is a strong, punitive incentive to purchase the latest version of the software, regardless of whether it suits the educational purposes better, thereby siphoning more of the school's limited resources away from the school's primary purpose. The use of such closed software in education may be justified only where no suitable open source solution exists. Read More...

Php is an Open Source Server Side Programming Language

PHP stands for PHP: Hyper Type Preprocessor. PHP is a very famous open source server side language. If has gained high popularity in few year. Besides no strong backing from big corporate, PHP has proved that it can deliver serious programming concepts and thereby can big web application can be build on PHP. These days PHP is getting string support from many big companies who believe the open source is the better way to deliver software knowledge. Companies like Sun Micro systems, IBM, Red Hat, etc has developed full working programming environment based on PHP on their operating systems.

PHP has been designed to make is a very fast and quick deployment web programming language. Other competitors of PHP are JSP, ASP, Cold fusion, etc. They all have big support from companies like Sun Micro systems and Microsoft.

PHP has been design using the design structure of C++ and JAVA. If someone is familiar with any of these programming he or she can learn PHP in very short time. There are many companies, government houses that are using PHP exclusively. Few companies that are using PHP extensively are NASA, US Military, Lufthansa, YAHOO, etc. Such big name proves that PHP code has strong capabilities and can deliver extraordinary products. PHP gives it best performance when it is combined with Linux, Apache and MySQL.

Who uses Open Source?

Until recently OSS was reserved for academic / scientific centres and IT enthusiasts. A condition to use this software was rich IT expertise and experience. Lack of vast commercial support caused little interest in Open Source software among business circles.

For several years there has been a dynamic increase in the interest in OSS projects in administrative and business environments. Governments of many countries (especially members of the European Union) insist that the offices subordinate to them use OSS. Open Source software is more and more willingly used in business (e.g. in big banks) and military centres. The main reasons for the interest in Open Source software are as follows:

The market of commercial solutions is monopolized heavily. The concerns producing Closed Source systems demand high price for the possibility to use their products. OSS gives the same products for much less money. An additional advantage of OSS is its independence from the product's supplier and guarantee of permanence.

The extent of hacking and misuses in the world wide web in the recent years has revealed the dark side of the Closed Source software - low quality of the code (known only to the producer) contributed to many gaps in the safety of systems.

The code of Open Source programs is reviewed already during their development by many people interested in it. The OSS project is constantly audited by its users - errors found in it are deleted almost immediately (by the author of the application or by third parties that have full access to the source code). As an effect, the reaction time for a "hole" is measured in hours and not in days/months, as in the case of Closed Source software (it sometimes even happens - although less frequently - that the producer denies the existence of a discovered error).

Scandals related to introducing a spying code to Closed Source software (extorted from producers for example by military agencies) undermined the sense of using such a solution in strategic applications. The possibility of auditing and monitoring the code is priceless in these areas where safety is the ultimate condition. Therefore, the governments of many countries (now mainly European) put pressure on the army and administration not to use Closed Source solutions (currently mainly of American origin). For instance, the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Finland, and the Netherlands use OSS in central government systems (eg. insurance systems). The official website of the Dutch government encouraging OSS usage can serve as an example. There are more and more big companies on the market that support Open Source projects. Giants such as IBM, HP, SGI and Novell willingly install advanced and free Linux software on their servers. These companies obtain profit not from the distribution of software but from the sales of hardware and services.

Many advanced technologies deriving from commercial and closed operating system are made available by their owners for free and introduced into the Linux kernel. A great file system XFS created by Sylicon Graphics, Inc. and derived from the Irix system can be an example here. Now the Linux system is developed not only by enthusiasts but also by teams of engineers representing such companies as Intel, SGI, IBM, and Novell.

More and more small and medium size companies also offer commercial support of Open Source Software as far as implementation, modification and servicing are concerned. This creates favourable conditions to the application of Open Source Software in solving business problems.

Open Source Software – Useful or not ?

The aim of this paper is to acquaint the reader with the idea underlying the distribution of Open Source Software and to compare the main features of this solution with the features of commercial software. Particular emphasis is placed on describing the usefulness of Open Source in business applications.

Open Source ideology

The idea of Open Source Software (OSS) has existed for many years. Its main purpose is to hand over with the program its source code and the right to use the program and its code for free. This condition refers to all kinds of program distribution - both commercial sale and free distribution.

Open Source Software originates from non-commercial environments underlining the quality and availability of a program and not striving to maximize the sales profit by all means. These were university students, groups of geek programmers, and companies combining science with business that contributed to the popularization of this program distribution form. GNU projects and open kernel system UNIX -Linux project played a very important role.

The most popular and most commonly used version of Open Source license is GNU GPL. On the basis of this license most free software is distributed worldwide (including the Linux kernel). This license - in comparison with commercial licenses - protects the user's rights and not the rights of the producer.

The Open Source Initiative is a big problem for the companies selling commercial software with a closed source code. Such companies are geared towards gaining profit from the sale of their products. In order to be profitable they usually try to make their clients dependent on them. The financial policy or the desire to outrun competition often lead to launches of imperfect products. Arguments against OSS put forward by the closed source software providers are seemingly right: Lack of responsibility for an OSS product, lack of support, anonymous authors. In fact it's just marketing illusion and an attempt to protect one's own business. Why? Responsibility for the product and OSS support can be bought as an additional service provided by a number of third parties and the case of author's anonymity is solved by the openness of the code - anyone can control and modify OSS either on their own or with the help of freely chosen suppliers. It makes the client independent from the supplier after completing the transaction/buying the product. The client can but doesn't have to cooperate with the subject that sold him the program.

Open standards

Commercial software suppliers use different techniques to make their client product-dependant. The most popular technique is using closed and undocumented standards, i.e. file format known only to the producer.

The nature of OSS makes such dealings impossible - the openness of the source code doesn't allow the program to hide its mechanisms. Open Source licenses (e.g. GNU GPL) make it impossible to enter reserved codes to Open Source projects, e.g.. these under licensing fees. Therefore, there is no possibility that some third parties in the future will have claims towards any persons using an Open Source program made available on the basis of such a license.

While developing OSS programs the programmers often use popular, well documented and free of charge technologies - open standards. Open standards make it possible to use software supplied by different companies and make possible to the buyer to avoid dependency on the conditions dictated by one supplier. As a result, the client can choose the solution with the best ratio of price to quality. Open standards provide great flexibility, important in combining different IT solutions, and contribute to permanence and availability of information.