USENIX Invited Talks Podcast

Second Life

Sun, 4 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Rob Lanphier and Mark Lentczner, Linden Lab

]]> Rob Lanphier, Linden Lab's Open Source Busybody, and Mark Lentczner, who directs a software engineering studio at Linden Lab, will talk about the release of the Second Life viewer source code: what that means, what it might mean, and what it doesn't mean. He'll provide a brief overview of the technology and history of Second Life, discuss the astronomical growth in use of Second Life, and explain what Linden Lab is doing to cope with the ever-increasing stress on the system. He'll discuss some key improvements Linden Lab is making in the protocols used by the product—utilizing a Web services model to increase scalability and to decouple versioning between clients and servers, as well as server-to-server communication.

Crossing the Digital Divide: The Latest Efforts from One Laptop per Child

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:00:00 PST

Mary Lou Jepsen, One Laptop per Child

]]> This effort emerged as a way to capture the endless momentum of Moore's Law and create a laptop for those far on the other side of the digital divide—the poor children of the world and their families. In fact, the vast majority of the world lives without so many of the things we consider essential, not least of which is access to education and information. This year, we intend to launch with millions of laptops simultaneously in Rwanda, Pakistan, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Libya, Nigeria, and Thailand. The children themselves will own these laptops, which will be distributed to them by the Ministries of Education. They should last for five years and are cheaper than five years' worth of textbooks in the average developing country.

Open Source Software and Its Role in Space Exploration

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:00:00 PST

DJ Byrne, Software Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

]]> Open source developers and NASA have a lot in common. Both are dedicated to expanding the pool of information floating freely through society. Both are focused on the cutting edge, creating new tools and capabilities. Open source software explores our solar system and observes the universe. For example, software on and around Mars today was built with gcc out of a CVS repository stored in AFS, using Kerberos authentication. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, DJ is privileged to be writing flight software for the 2009 Mars rover's landing radar. He has written ground system software for Voyager, Galileo, Magellan, and other missions. He's been a System Administrator for several projects and sections on a variety of operating systems. He's been JPL's kerberos admin (10,000 principals), AFS administrator (200 users), public-domain tool builder (set of ~700 for 3 platforms), a Knowledge Management System Engineer, and postmaster (~3000 mailboxes).

Hollywood's Secret War on Your NOC

Thu, 1 Nov 2007 09:00:00 PST

Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer, co-editor of Boing Boing, and former Director of European Affairs for the EFF

]]> The entertainment industry has tried to ban every new technology from the record player to the VCR, but when it comes to the Internet and the general-purpose PC—the battleground of the war on copying—Hollywood has far grimmer plans. Under a variety of legislative, standards, policy, and treaty negotiations, the people who brought you Police Academy n–1 are working to prohibit open source, make open ports a crime, and turn Web 2.0 into AOL 0.9b. You can fight this—you can put a stake through its heart. If you don't, kiss everything you love about the Internet goodbye.