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Submission + - Coverity Annual Report: Open Source quality on par with Proprietary (coverity.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The 2011 Coverity Scan Report (registration req'd) found that open source quality "is on par with their commercial peers, particularly for codebases of similar size." Another key finding was that "Open source quality for active projects in Coverity Scan are better than the industry average." Their announcement includes a detailed examination of the Linux kernel, PHP, and PostgreSQL; includes a case study of BRL-CAD where 1600 defects were eliminated in five days; and is summarized on their blog. Last year's report made headlines after identifying bugs in the Android kernel. The Coverity Scan Initiative has been providing static code analysis for select open source projects since 2006.
Power

Submission + - Electric Cars Could Fill Up at the MetILs Pump (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: A flow battery is a rechargeable fuel cell that pumps a solution of charged metals dissolved in an electrolyte through a membrane to convert chemical energy into electricity. Flow batteries can be rapidly "recharged" by replacing the electrolyte liquid while simultaneously recovering the spent material for external recharging. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Defense's Sandia National Laboratories have discovered a new family of metal-based liquid salt electrolytes, for use in just such flow batteries. The electrochemically reversible Metal-based Ionic Liquids (MetILs) could lead to batteries packed with 3-10 times the energy density of other available storage technologies.
Math

Submission + - Is Poor Numeracy Ruining Lives?

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "BBC reports that that millions of people struggle to understand a payslip or a train timetable, or pay a household bill as government figures show that almost half the working population of England have only primary school math skills and research suggests that weak math skills are linked with an array of poor life outcomes such as prison, unemployment, exclusion from school, poverty and long-term illness. "We are paying for this in our science, technology and engineering industries but also in people's own ability to earn funds and manage their lives," says Chris Humphries, chairman of National Numeracy whose organization seeks to emulate the success of the National Literacy Trust, which has helped improve reading and writing standards since it was set up nearly 20 years ago. The Department for Education wants the vast majority of young people to study math up to 18 within a decade to meet the growing demand for employees with high level and intermediate math skills. "It is simply inexcusable for anyone to say 'I can't do maths'," adds Humphries. "It is a peculiarly British disease which we aim to eradicate""
PHP

Submission + - Open source less buggy than proprietary software (coverity.com)

Submitted by
morrison
morrison writes: "Just published, the Coverity 2011 Open Source Integrity Report (registration req'd) compares the defect densities of open source projects participating in the Open Scan Initiative with proprietary software. The first key finding: "Open source quality for active projects in Coverity Scan are better than the industry average." Looking across all projects, they found that open source quality is on par with their commercial peers, particularly for codebases of similar size. Included in the report is a detailed examination of the Linux kernel, PHP, and PostgreSQL along with a case study of BRL-CAD where 1600 defects were systematically eliminated in five days. More details are in their press release and on their blog."
Science

Submission + - Artificial 'Womb' Unlocks Secrets of Early Embryo Development Artificial 'Womb'

Submitted by smoothjazz
smoothjazz writes: Pioneering work by a leading University of Nottingham scientist has helped reveal for the first time a vital process in the development of the early mammalian embryo. A team led by Professor of Tissue Engineering, Kevin Shakesheff, has created a new device in the form of a soft polymer bowl which mimics the soft tissue of the mammalian uterus in which the embryo implants.
Science

Submission + - Computer Programmers Only 5th Most Sleep Deprived Profession (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
garthsundem
garthsundem writes: "As described in the New York Times Economix blog, the mattress chain Sleepy's analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey to find the ten most sleep deprived professions. In order, they are Home Health Aides, Lawyer, Police Officers, Doctors/Paramedics, Tie: (Economists, Social Workers, Computer Programmers), Financial Analysts, Plant Operators (undefined, but we assume "factory" and not "Audrey II"), and Secretaries. ."
Space

Submission + - ESA Summer of Code in Space (esa.int) 1

Submitted by
morrison
morrison writes: "Following the previous announcement [1], the European Space Agency's Summer of Code in Space (SOCIS) pilot program has announced their mentoring organizations [2] and is now open for submissions from students enrolled at EU institutions (alas, ESA requirement for the pilot) through July 27th. SOCIS is modeled after the highly successful Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program but targets "space-related" open source software. The selected mentoring organizations range from notable GSoC veterans like BRL-CAD [3] and ffmpeg [4] to relatively unknown space software like ORSA [5] and Open Mission Control [6].

[1] http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/06/29/0313212/
[2] http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis2011/
[3] http://brlcad.org/wiki/ESA_Summer_of_Code_in_Space/Project_Ideas
[4] http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=FFmpeg_/_Libav_Summer_Of_Code_In_Space_2011
[5] http://orbit.psi.edu/~tricaric/SOCIS.html
[6] http://openmissioncontrol.wordpress.com/socis/"

Comment BRL-CAD (Score 1) 152

by morrison (#36768958) Attached to: The Best Unknown Open Source Projects

BRL-CAD is a great project with an extensive legacy that doesn't get nearly enough developer attention. With hundreds of staff years effort invested across tons of functionality, it's really the *only* open source CAD system viable for production use, yet it's still in need of devs to help improve the interface and usability.

You'd think the massive market size of the CAD/CAM industry (estimated around $8B annual) would help, but that really just attracts LOTS of users. Thousands a month. Many understandably get put off by the steep learning curve and UNIX-style design or cry for features implemented in their favorite commercial CAD system that took loads of manpower.

The project is crazy active with the dozen or so devs that already do contribute, but the open source developer community at large doesn't seem to know about the project. Some are probably put off by the size of BRL-CAD (1M+ loc), but that's actually rather tiny for a production CAD system. The project deficiencies are well known (usability, interface!), but takes lots time and effort to make things better. Takers?

Comment Applied mathematics (Score 1) 283

by morrison (#33871832) Attached to: Grad Student Looking To Contribute To Open Source

You're an applied mathematics student, so look for applied math projects. That way, you're newbie skills will be best put to use leveraging what you already know. There'll still be plenty you'll have to learn along the way, so put what you know to good use. Instead of projects like boost, sage, or octave, look for projects that have heavy applied math requirements like BRL-CAD, Blender, CGAL, and many many others.

Pick a community that interests you. Download the source code, compile and run the software, find their bug list, start fixing bugs. Introduce yourself when you have something useful to contribute (not just vaporware) or if you get stuck and need help.

Plenty of math-specific projects at http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Software/ too.

Submission + - Ohloh visualizes version control system use (ohloh.net)

Submitted by morrison
morrison writes: The fine folks at Ohloh have implemented a new tool comparing open source repositories. Is the debate over centralized versus distributed version control indicative of a vocal minority or a growing trend? Both? Neither? The usage landscape can now at least be graphically visualized. Ohloh has been covered before here, now reporting statistics on nearly a half-million open source projects.

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