If you happen to own a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, you already have a robot in your life. (I have a Roomba, and highly recommend it--available at Target.) Roomba is a classic example of how a robot doesn't have to be humanoid to be useful. In the open source community, though, there are several efforts to develop robots that look and/or act like humans, performing interesting and useful tasks.

SCO Chapter 11 Trustee Edward Cahn has now reported to the bankruptcy court that he's closed on the loan from Ralph Yarro and his friends, and now Cahn wants to pay most of the bills in the bankruptcy from SCO's numerous professionals. And he wants to sell the Java patent, since SCO's never used it and has no use for it going forward.

Some critics say Asterisk — the open source IP PBX — is for hackers rather than real telephony customers. EUS Networks begs to differ. The New York-based solutions provider, which works closely with Digium, has launched an Asterisk-based IP telephony solution for a hedge fund client’s trading room floors. Here’s the scoop.

"If you try to sell a machine that can copy itself you have a problem: you'll only sell one," says Dr Bowyer. "So we're giving the entire design and all the software away free like Linux and Firefox."

This web log entry notes the ongoing software liberation process of Scott Carpenter. Scott is still currently dependant upon some non-free programs but is learning of the ways of living in liberty.

Looking for a cheap DIY Linux robot? This is the Linux PC robot project. The objective of LinuxPCRobot is to build a fully functional robotic development platform for $500 or less using linux, commonly available components, a little skill, and some good old fashioned scrounging.

During the night of July 16th, while Amazon Kindle owners slept, Amazon was quietly deleting their copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm.

I like to run the latest software, so every 6 months when a new Ubuntu debuts I upgrade my system. To keep everything running smoothly I like to start with a clean install, but I always find myself repeating the same modifications. Some of these modifications are essential to get certain features to work, one of them is something I couldn't do without.

I love placing all the shortcut icons and files on my Desktop. On the other hand, I also have a passion for clean desktop. Apparently, having a lot of desktop shortcuts and a clean beautiful desktop together is not quite possible. I need a solution.