Researchers at the University of Oviedo in Spain have estimated that the cost of replicating the development embodied in the Linux kernel at over €1bn. The two academics, Jesús García-García and Isabel Alonso de Magdaleno, estimated the cost of replacing the kernel at current European prices using the Constructive Cost Model 81 algorithm, often used to estimate the cost of traditional commercial software projects.
According to their calculations, it would take almost 1,000 developers approximately 14 years to recreate the open source operating system, at an average salary of just over €31,000. Interestingly, the cost of development has risen sharply in recent years, growing from around €100m in 2005 to €225m in 2008. This reflects both the growing complexity of kernel development, and the general rise in software development costs throughout the Eurozone.
The researchers end with the claim that the thought experiment is not intended to determine the actual value of the software, but to give policymakers a greater appreciation of the potential benefits of community-based collaboration.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
IHC@Madurai
Its happy to say that the motto of IHC is being spread at various places in TN colleges.
We need to embed and also imbibe basic qualities of both technical and also non technical information mainly through informal meetings or discussions.
I wish a good luck to IHC chennai and its team members, being the first innovative centre established at D.G.Vaishnav college. I request you to share all knowledge that u have to others and get as much as info from all, and again for sharing. With your friendship, we like to grow and make you too grow. So lets join or hands to build a good society.
from,
IHC team,
Madurai
We need to embed and also imbibe basic qualities of both technical and also non technical information mainly through informal meetings or discussions.
I wish a good luck to IHC chennai and its team members, being the first innovative centre established at D.G.Vaishnav college. I request you to share all knowledge that u have to others and get as much as info from all, and again for sharing. With your friendship, we like to grow and make you too grow. So lets join or hands to build a good society.
from,
IHC team,
Madurai
Google Executives Convicted in Italy
An Italian court has convicted three Google executives for privacy violations on Wednesday. The three, which included Google's senior vice president David Drummond, former chief financial officer George Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, were convicted for allowing a video of an autistic boy being abused to be posted on Google's YouTube video service. The three convicted individuals received a suspended six-month sentence.
While Google has said that this trial is a threat to Internet freedom because it would make it necessary to "screen" each and every video posted on YouTube - a task which is virtually impossible - the prosecutors counter that the trial was not about imposing censorship - but about balancing freedom of expression with the rights of an individual.
All the three officials continue to assert that they had no role in the production or uploading of the video and that it was the complete responsibility of the uploaders. The prosecutors, however, said that Google could have removed it as it was in no time, a very popular video and was in the "most watched" list as well - a thing that cannot be easily missed. The charges against Google were sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome.
Google, on its part, claims that it had taken the video offline as soon as the contents were revealed and it started receiving complaints. The perpetrators of the crime too very then caught and convicted - using the same video footage.
While Google has said that this trial is a threat to Internet freedom because it would make it necessary to "screen" each and every video posted on YouTube - a task which is virtually impossible - the prosecutors counter that the trial was not about imposing censorship - but about balancing freedom of expression with the rights of an individual.
All the three officials continue to assert that they had no role in the production or uploading of the video and that it was the complete responsibility of the uploaders. The prosecutors, however, said that Google could have removed it as it was in no time, a very popular video and was in the "most watched" list as well - a thing that cannot be easily missed. The charges against Google were sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome.
Google, on its part, claims that it had taken the video offline as soon as the contents were revealed and it started receiving complaints. The perpetrators of the crime too very then caught and convicted - using the same video footage.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Notion Ink
This is an awesome product on paper. As an Indian, I am also thrilled to cherish the moment it comes to market.
As the global tech media waits for Notion Ink to unveil the Adam at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we decided to hop across to Hyderabad and catch them before they caught the flight to MWC! It’s finally time to put an end to all the ’spec speculation’ around the Adam. We still don’t know what the Adam’s price will be, though we have been told that it will be competitively priced.
We also have some exclusive pics of the Adam , from our shoot yesterday at the BVRIT Innovation Center in Hyderabad. The pictures show the final dimensions the Adam, which has changed since the prototype was first shown at CES.
TCS BEING HACKED!!!
TechCrunch.com had a post up sometime last night claiming that India’s largest software company Tata Consultancy Services’ website, www.tcs.com had been ‘hacked’. The update to the post confirms that only some users are seeing the compromised version of the home page ie. this is a classic DNS hack and only certain name servers seem to be affected. The WHOIS page for TCS lists the following nameservers:
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.TRACOM.NET 216.15.130.71
NS2.TRACOM.NET 216.15.130.72
NS3.TCS.COM 203.101.69.159
NS4.TCS.COM 219.64.33.98
NS5.TCS.COM 208.44.114.53
A domain name server is basically a centralized online directory/database which keeps a list of IP addresses corresponding to the domain names that we type into our browser. If it’s compromised, typing in a URL could take you to a completely different site as intended by the hacker, often (though not in this case) with dangerous consequences. When twitter.com recently fell victim to such an attack, the perpetrators could have got access to twitter usernames and passwords if they’d put up a fake login page so that users would think they were entering the information into twitter.com as usual. Luckily it was just a political statement by Iranian hackers.
In this case it seems likely that one (or both) of TCS’ website registrar ie. Network Solution International’s name servers has been compromised though we’re still awaiting an update from TCS on whether any of theirs were tampered with too. If TCS is to blame at all here, it should be for poor housekeeping. I mean, which large company, especially in tech, lists third parties (honeybeetechnology.com doesn’t even look legit?? as its “administrative & technical contacts” on the WHOIS page? Certainly not TCS’ competitors! See Infy’s WHOIS page here and Wipro’s here.
Nevertheless this is going to be a bit of a headache for the TCS PR team, especially since publications like the Washington Post syndicate TechCrunch content, lending the news an air of credibility in the Indian company’s primary market. Also, one can always bank on a few idiots to give a racist slant to this news. Luckily, one of them on TechCrunch got a great retort
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