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EpiSurveyor and the Call For Open Source Mobile Healthcare Applications

Have you ever heard of EpiSurveyor? It's an open source tool designed to allow anyone in the world to create handheld data entry forms, use them to collect data on mobile devices, and transfer the data to other devices for analysis. Developed by Dr. Joel Selanikio (shown), it's widely used in public health efforts all around the world, for disease surveillance and collecting public health data. Today, the Lemelson-MIT Program has announced?that Selanikio is the recipient of its 2009 $100,000 Award for Sustainability for his contributions to public health. Here is what's significant about EpiSurveyor, and how there is room for open source apps like it.


Mozilla Delivers Firefox 3.5, Beta 4, and It's Snappy

Mozilla has finally released Beta 4 of Firefox 3.5 (formerly called Firefox 3.1), and this beta is fast and stable enough that I'm using it as my primary browser. You can download it here. As we've noted several times, TraceMonkey technology for faster Javascript performance has been one of Mozilla's goals with this browser since the beginning, and it's in place in this beta. Beta 4 is very fast, and it includes Private Browsing Mode, and Location Aware Browsing, for the growing number of geo-location based applications that are arriving. Here's more on what you get and don't get in Beta 4.


HP Is Putting SUSE Linux on Business Notebooks: A Good Sign?

Today, Hewlett-Packard--the world's number one PC vendor--has announced a new line of notebook computers called ProBooks, with one shown here. The systems fall into the prosumer space (professional/consumer) and are bigger and more fully stocked than most netbooks. Notably, HP is offering SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 as an operating system choice on the ProBooks, in addition to Windows Vista and XP. HP's arch-rival Dell is also continuing to ship portable computers with Linux installed, and is seeing many users satisfied with Linux. Can Linux remain a fixture on portable systems?


EFF Takes On Apple Over DMCA Takedown Notice

I can't help, when hearing more of the details about the EFF and OdioWorks joint lawsuit against Apple, thinking that the whole situation is just broken from any angle. The DMCA isn't without issue and the fact that it was applied to an online discussion about reverse engineering possibilities is a disturbing first. Even more backwards is the idea that a company producing wildly popular devices that are unsupported on an operating platform that's attracting an increasing number of tech- and gadget-happy people would not expect (or tolerate to some degree) discussion about reverse engineering.

Let's put the legal issues aside for a moment -- or the idea that any copy protection systems were going to be stripped and copyright laws would be violated left and right. Wouldn't having a device your company produces but will not (or can not) support on some platforms reverse engineered so that it is able to work on (and with) a larger pool of software going to make your device more desirable?



Boxee Media Center Is Out In a New Linux Version: Speaks Hulu

As reported on DeviceGuru and the Boxee blog, there is now a new Linux version of the Boxee open source media center application, including support for Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04). The new release adds many of the features that have already made it into the Mac OS X and Windows versions of Boxee, including App Box (a Boxee application store), Pandora and RadioTime for radio, and a customized browser that offers support for what Boxee officials have said is the number one form of requested content on its platform: Hulu. With Boxee out in rich, flexible versions on multiple platforms, there could be even more opportunities for hardware bundles and other commercial opportunities than ever.?


As Oracle Becomes Java's Steward, It's Also a Big Player in Mobile Tech

When Oracle announced its intent to acquire Sun Microsystems, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Java is the single most important software we've ever acquired. Since he made that statement, though, there has been a lot of second-guessing regarding Oracle's true intent with Java. The DevXtra Editor's Blog, for example, suggests that ?as Oracle seeks to get a $1.5 billion contribution to its profits in its first year with Sun, Oracle may start pulling staff and funding from Sun Java projects that don't immediately contribute to the bottom line or at least show promise of contributing in the near future. While that's possible, I'm more inclined to believe that Oracle will extend much of what Sun has done with Java, and one big reason for that is that Java makes Oracle an important player in the fast-growing market for mobile technology.


Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)

Even as a child, I knew that Pixie Sticks were just trouble. The paper tubes loaded with colorful yet mysteriously flavorless sugar weren't particularly tasty, and too many of them led to mom and dad either threatening to pull the car over or hinting ominously about what would happen if they had to tell me again. Parents today know that in addition to the traditional side effects, Pixie Sticks aren't terribly good for USB ports, either.

 

That's not the case with the other sort of Sugar. Sugar, the kid-friendly open source desktop that was featured first on the OLPC XO laptop is now available (in a beta release) as a liveUSB image. The Sugar on a Stick environment is powered by Fedora 11 and features familiar Sugar desktop applications and functions, as well as new educational and collaborative tools, such as the InfoSlicer online content editor, remixer, and delivery application.



OStatic Buffer Overflow...

Samsung asks if the i7500 is the Android you have been looking for. The company's Android phone has a touch screen, built-in GPS, WiFi support, a 5-megapixel camera, and 8GB of internal memory.

Report: First Android Netbook to cost $250. The Alpha 680, designed by Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies, is going through final testing now.

Ubuntu-Studio 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope screenshot tour. It's a multimedia-geared derivative of Ubuntu.

Desktop Linux: Why it may have lost its chance. After 18 years, Linux is still struggling to gain a foothold on the business desktop.

The rise and fall of Sun Microsystems. Here's a slideshow on nearly 30 years of Sun history.



The Trials and Tribulations Of Taking Open Source Public

We've written on numerous occasions about open source adoption in government and education. The ways that open source solutions make sense in (and even philosophically complement) these areas are many, and often make any obstacles involved seem less critical. But for reasons that are frequently unrelated to the utility or appropriateness of open source software, adoption in the public sector has been slow.

It is on the increase, however. The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, New York, recently ran a piece detailing the reasons why the public sector has been hesitant about -- but not entirely resistant to -- adopting open source software.



Smart Installer Pack Delivers Solid Open Source and Freeware Apps

I've written before about PortableApps and MacLibre, which offer free, single downloads that deliver bushels of top-notch open source applications to Windows and Mac users, respectively. With them, you can almost instantly populate a computer or even a USB thumb drive with useful applications ranging from AbiWord (word processor), to Blender (animation and graphics), to GIMP (graphics), to Adium (instant messaging), to Cyberduck (FTP client), to Firefox (browser). As DownloadSquad notes, Windows users have a similar free option in Smart Installer Pack. ?Here's what you get for free with it.


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