Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Khronos Unveils Vulkan Graphics API (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The Khronos Group has announced "Vulkan", its next generation API for high performance 3D graphics and GPU-based computation. Vulkan, previously known as Next Generation OpenGL or just GLnext, is designed to be a low-overhead API that facilitates multithreaded 3D development, enabling different threads to simultaneously prepare batches of commands to send to the GPU. It gives developers greater control of generating commands, putting tasks such as memory and thread management in their hands rather than relying on video drivers to handle these responsibilities. In so doing, it greatly reduces the amount of work that the driver must perform. The new API was created to make it a better fit for modern hardware: GPUs are complex, highly programmable devices, and CPUs have abundant cores and multithreading support. Shader compilation will adopt the Direct3D approach: instead of compiling from source on every run, programs will be stored as precompiled bytecode in a form called "SPIR-V". At least for now, OpenGL won't go away either, and Khronos will continue its development on the side.

Submission + - Linux and multiple internet uplinks: a new tool

Submitted by Alessandro Zarrilli
Alessandro Zarrilli writes: Linux is able do multipath routing since a long time: it means being able to have routes with multiple gateways and to use them in a (weighted) round-robin fashion. But Linux misses a tool to actively monitor the state of internet uplinks and change the routing accordingly. Without it, on a LAN perspective, it's like having a RAID0 on network: just one uplink goes down and all of your LAN-to-WAN traffic goes down too. Documentation and examples on the subject are lacking, existing solutions are few and deeply integrated in firewall/routing specific distributions. To address these issues, a new stand alone tool was just released: Fault Tolerant Router. It also includes a complete (iptables + ip policy routing) configuration generator.

Submission + - European Data Protection Reform is Badly Broken (edri.org)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: New leaked documents show that European countries, pushed by Germany, are systematically working to destroy the fabric of European privacy legislation. Under the current proposals, far from being provided with security fit for the digital age, Europe’s citizens right to data protection would be devoid of meaning.

According to the leaked proposals, crucial privacy protections have been drastically undermined, including the right to be asked for consent, the right to know how your data are used and the right to object to your data being used, minimum standards of behaviour for companies exploiting individuals’ data. In several places, the text would not likely pass judicial scrutiny under Europe’s human rights framework.

Submission + - Khronos Group Announces Vulkan to Compete Against DirectX 12.

Submitted by Phopojijo
Phopojijo writes: The Khronos Group has announced the Vulkan API for compute and graphics. Its goal is to compete against DirectX 12. It has some interesting features, such as queuing to multiple GPUs and an LLVM-based bytecode for its shading language to remove the need for a compiler from the graphics drivers. Also, the API allows graphics card vendors to support Vulkan with drivers back to Windows XP "and beyond".

Submission + - Why I'm Saying Goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft (medium.com)

Submitted by DrJimbo
DrJimbo writes: Dan Gillmore says; "When I became a technology columnist in the mid-1990s, the public Internet was just beginning its first big surge. Back then, I advised my readers to avoid the semi-political, even religious battles that advocates of this or that technology platform seemed to enjoy. Appreciate technology, I urged, for what it is—a tool—and use what works best.

So why am I typing this on a laptop running GNU/Linux, the free software operating system, not an Apple or Windows machine? And why are my phones and tablets running a privacy-enhanced offshoot of Android called Cyanogenmod, not Apple’s iOS or standard Android?"

Submission + - Could Tizen be the next Android? (dailydot.com)

Submitted by MollsEisley
MollsEisley writes: Right now, Tizen is still somewhat half-baked, which is why you shouldn’t expect to see a high-end Tizen smartphone hit your local carrier for a while yet, but Samsung’s priorities could change rapidly. If Tizen development speeds up a bit, the OS could become a stand-in for Android on entry-level and mid-range Samsung phones and eventually take over Samsung’s entire smartphone (and tablet) lineup.

Submission + - Black Lab Linux KDE 6.0 SR1 Released (pc-opensystems.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today we are announcing that back by popular demand is the KDE release of Black Lab Linux. We have a long history with KDE and it has always been one of our more popular releases and the KDE desktop is the most requested desktops for our custom build service. With this release we are bringing it to the general public. With this release we made many changes to the KDE desktop to make it more friendly to novices as well as power users alike. The KDE release like all of our releases of Black Lab Linux is based on the LTS version of Ubuntu and so you can be rest assured of continued support by us and by Canonical

Submission + - Systemd's Lennart Poettering: "We Do Listen To Users" 1

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: Systemd is ambitious and controversial, taking over a large part of the GNU/Linux base system. But where did it come from? Even Red Hat wasn't keen on it at the start, but since then it has worked its way into almost every major distro. Linux Voice talks to Lennart Poettering, the lead developer of Systemd, about its origins, its future, its relationship with Upstart, and handling the pressures of online flamewars.

Submission + - Linus Torvalds: Apple's HFS+ is probably the worst file-system ever (itworld.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: It’s been long since we heard a good rant from Linus Torvalds. Linux doesn't rant much, but when he does he hits the nail and he doesn't mince worlds and this time he targeted Apple's HFS+. Linus says, "The true horrors of HFS+ are not in how it’s not a great filesystem, but in how it’s actively designed to be a bad filesystem by people who thought they had good ideas."

Submission + - Legal developments show the importance of FOSS is growing (opensource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The year 2014 continued the trend of increasing importance of legal issues for the FOSS community. Intellectual property attorney Mark Radcliffe takes a look back at how GPLv2, EU's FOSS policy changes, Android litigation, and other legal issues shaped the direction of open source in 2014.

Submission + - Archive.org adds close to 2400 DOS games

Submitted by Bugamn
Bugamn writes: Archive.org added a new library of DOS games. The games are playable on the browser through EM-DOSBOX, a port of the DOS emulator. The games are provided without instructions, so some experimentation (or search for old manuals) might be necessary. The library does not mention any copyright concerns, although some of the games can be found for sale on sites such as Steam and GoG.

Submission + - Male sperm count in Western industrialized countries dropping at alarming rate (ispub.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There have been a number of studies over the past 15-20 years, which suggest that sperm counts in man are on the decline. Since these changes are recent and appear to have occurred internationally, it has been presumed that they reflect adverse effects of environmental or lifestyle factors on the male rather than, for example, genetic changes in susceptibility. If the decrease in sperm counts were to continue at the rate that it is then in a few years we will witness widespread male infertility. To date it remains unknown why this is happening and the available preventative measures, which can be taken to avoid a continuation of this trend, are not common knowledge.

Submission + - AMD Catalyst Linux Driver Catching Up To & Beating Windows (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Along with the open-source AMD Linux driver having a great 2014, the AMD Catalyst proprietary driver for Linux has also improved a lot. Beyond the open-source Radeon Gallium3D driver closing in on Catalyst, the latest Phoronix end of year tests show the AMD Catalyst Linux driver is beating Catalyst on Windows for some OpenGL benchmarks. The proprietary driver tests were done with the new Catalyst "OMEGA" driver. Is AMD beginning to lead real Linux driver innovations or is OpenGL on Windows just struggling?

Slashdot Top Deals

The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse time. -- Merrick Furst

Close