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Submission + - Mozilla plan seeks to debug scientific code (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: An offshoot of Mozilla is aiming to discover whether a review process could improve the quality of researcher-built software that is used in myriad fields today, ranging from ecology and biology to social science. In an experiment being run by the Mozilla Science Lab, software engineers have reviewed selected pieces of code from published papers in computational biology.The reviewers looked at snippets of code up to 200 lines long that were included in the papers and written in widely used programming languages, such as R, Python and Perl. But some researchers say that having software reviewers looking over their shoulder might backfire. “One worry I have is that, with reviews like this, scientists will be even more discouraged from publishing their code,” says biostatistician Roger Peng at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. “We need to get more code out there, not improve how it looks.”

Submission + - Progress on the Open Laptop (bunniestudios.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last October, we discussed Andrew 'bunnie' Huang's effort to build a complete open hardware laptop, called the Novena. bunnie has now posted a progress report on the laptop's design and construction, showing the latest revision of the board, the display, and a hack to use it as a secure router. bunnie says, 'At the end of the day, we’re having fun building the laptop we always wanted — it’s now somewhere between a python-scriptable oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and a laptop. I think it will be an indispensable tool for hacking, particularly for doing signal analysis which requires coordination across multiple protocol layers, complex trigger conditions and/or feedback stimulus loops. As for the inevitable question about if these will be sold, and for how muchonce we’re done building the system (and, "done" is a moving target — really, the whole idea is this is continuously under development and improving) I’ll make it available to qualified buyers. Because it’s open-source and a bit quirky, I’m shy on the idea of just selling it to anyone who comes along wanting a laptop. I’m worried about buyers who don’t understand that "open" also means a bit of DIY hacking to get things working, and that things are continuously under development.

Comment Re:iTunes + Airport Express (Score 1) 438

by konu (#30018916) Attached to: Simple, Cost-Effective, Multiroom Audio?

I started using JustePort for a couple of years ago and it does the job, but given that my primary computing environment is Linux, an Airport Express with JustePort isn't optimal. For example, in order to configure the Airport Express, I have to use Windows.

In my view, a setup such as the one described here is appealing, though without first-hand experience, it's hard to judge.

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It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.

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