Indian student develops Web app to help citizens track cleanliness levels
A computer science student from Jharkhand has developed a new Web application that helps citizens track and report the cleanliness levels across India. Dubbed as My Clean India, the app is aimed at keeping the country clean and promoting the Swachh Bharat campaign. “I have been seriously watching places around me for a while,” said 20-year-old Sourav Badami. “I noticed that not everyone is careless about the hygiene of our surroundings – there are some people who care. So, I designed a mock-up that could help individuals report and track cleanliness levels as well as help organisations to monitor the places they need to take care of,” he added.
The My Clean India app works as a medium application to collect raw data from end users and show the facts geographically on a map. Jamshedpur-based Badami used the Python language and Django framework to build the core of the app, while the entire front end is based on JavaScript and some third-party libraries. The code is available on a GitHub repository to receive contributions from the worldwide developer community.
“We released the code as open source with the hope of getting some help from the developer community,” Badami told Open Source For You in an email interaction.
Instead of merely providing a simple cleanliness tracker, Badami’s My Clean
India app allows users to select their locality and then add a status marker that can be Clean, Severe or In-progress. This development provides a single platform to users and organisations to report and track different cleanliness levels. “The application can be used hassle-free on desktop computers over a Web browser to add a status marker on the map of India and let users see all the previous reports,” Badami explained.
Badami used a trial server by Heroku to save on server costs and domain charges. Also, open source technologies and various developer tools such as the Google Maps API helped in delivering sustainability.
However, some technical challenges did emerge involving the app’s architecture and model design. “We follow an MVT design pattern in our application. Initially, I designed the mocks and then started implementing the application from the base. But after that, I realised the need for a solid framework that can control the application’s flow. I then switched to Django,” said the student developer.
Apart from the technical challenges, the cleanliness app is facing a significant issue in attracting people from the Indian region. “There has been no major success so far in terms of the audience. We have only received minor traffic and some sessions so far,” Badami acknowledged.
Going forward, Badami and his team, which includes his friend and codeveloper Rahul Lama, are set to release a mobile version of the My Clean India app. There are also some plans to release the application’s features via an API.
Badami told Open Source For You that he is in talks with some organisations to expand the usage of his app. This would encourage more users to bring about cleanliness across the country.
Latest Linux kernel improves support for AMD Radeon graphics
The open source community has received Linux 4.9.2 as the latest kernel. This new Linux version has come with improved support for AMD Radeon graphics and includes various performance improvements.
Linux maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman revealed in an email announcement that Linux 4.9.2 includes 141 file updates. To be precise, there are 1,031 insertions and 438 deletions.
The update has added better support for AMD Radeon HD 8000 series. Also, there are tweaks for Nouveau, Intel i915, InfiniBand, DVB, MMC, SCSI, thermal, staging and TTY drivers. The Linux kernel additionally comes with bug fixes for Atheros and Realtek hardware.
You can download Linux 4.9.2 by visiting kernel.org. Arch Linux and many other Linux distributions are likely to receive the newest update in the coming days.
The fresh Linux kernel emerges just after Kroah-Hartman announced the endof-life-cycle for Linux 4.8 systems. The Linux team is seemingly promoting and encouraging its users to opt for the Linux 4.9 series, over its predecessors.
GitHub tool to search encrypted keys goes public
A tool that has been designed to find encrypted keys on GitHub is now available online. Called TruflleHog, this tool obtains results from Git repositories. “It searches through Git repositories for high-entropy strings, digging deep into commit history and branches,” reads the description of TruffleHog on GitHub.
To bring out results, TruffleHog enters into the commit history of each branch, checks each diff from commit and evaluates the Shannon entropy. It assesses both the base64 char set and hexadecimal char set for every blob of text greater than 20 characters of each diff. If a high-entrophy string is found to have less than 20 characters, the tool automatically prints the string to the screen.
Based on Python, TruffleHog uses the GitPython library to investigate diffs from commits. The same module is reportedly being used to search GitHub for private keys related to Amazon Web Services.
Microsoft enhances Bash on Windows to attract Linux fans
In 2016, Microsoft designed its Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in the form of a Bash to deliver a partial open source experience. But just months after its original release, the proprietary tool has now received a major update to bring a complete Linux flavour right to your Windows 10 system.
With the release of Windows Insider build 15002, Microsoft has brought about a large number of changes to its Bash, a.k.a. Linux command line interface. “A long list of improvements and fixes for Bash/WSL arrived in this build, resulting in even more compatibility, performance and stability of your favourite Linux tools and technologies,” wrote Rich Turner, senior program manager, Microsoft, in a blog post.
Through the latest release, all Bash sessions were created at the same permission level, and admin and non-admin consoles were restricted to operate simultaneously. Additionally, there are features such as the logging function and fixes for the truncated Windows path in WSL to mesh Linux with Windows 10.
The updated Bash on Windows comes with support for kernel memory overcommits. The way the process commit is calculated during a process fork has also been tweaked. Further, Microsoft has fixed the error code generation and enhanced VPN access through the command line tool.
While the latest Windows Insider preview brings about several enhancements, it also addresses some widely known issues on Bash. You are no longer able to use Ctrl-C in a Bash session. Turner stated that the console and Bash work just like two trains running on different tracks. Hence, the Ctrl-C command is now incompatible with Windows’ Bash.
Bash is one of the first major developments by Microsoft to step into the world of open source. Debuted back in April 2016, the command line tool runs a standard Ubuntu distribution. It is available through Windows Insider releases.
Renault leverages open source to build electric car projects
Renault has announced its partnership with entities including OSVehicle, ARM, Pilot and Sensoria to develop its open source-powered electric car projects. At Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017, Renault-Nissan Alliance chairman and CEO, Carlos Ghosn, showcased a prototype of the ongoing developments.
Based on the existing electric car model Twizy, Renault has developed its very first open source model called POM. This new vehicle will be initially available to startups, independent laboratories, researchers and private customers. The French automaker has also allowed third parties to copy and modify the software behind the latest solution to develop customisable electric vehicles.
“Sharing common hardware platforms with everyone is a new co-creative and horizontal approach that can disrupt this industry, significantly lowering costs and time-to-market,” said Tin Hang and Yuki Liu, founders of OSVehicle, in a joint statement.
In addition to the open software approach through OSVehicle, Renault’s partnership with ARM will make the Twizy software and hardware architecture public. The ARM ecosystem for advanced vehicle technology includes support for ADAS (advanced driver assistance system), IVI (in-vehicle infotainment), autonomous driving, advanced cockpits and connected cars.
“The automotive industry will increasingly focus on the specific functionality that owners want, such as comfort levels and entertainment. By providing this platform, Renault is paving the way for innovation in these areas,” said Richard York, vice president of embedded marketing, ARM.
Qualcomm to help bring Meizu’s Android offerings globally
Settling the existing patent disputes, Qualcomm has reached a patent-licensing agreement with China’s Meizu. The latest development will help the chip maker expand its presence in the world of Android devices and take on Chinese competitors including MediaTek.
As per the terms of the agreement, Qualcomm has granted Meizu a worldwide royalty-bearing patent licence to develop, manufacture and sell devices with CDMA2000, WCDMA and 4G LTE technologies. The San Diego-headquartered company has assured that the latest partnership resolves all of its patent disputes with Meizu in China, Germany, France and the US. Besides, both the companies are set to “take appropriate steps to terminate or withdraw” their patent infringement litigation and other invalidity proceedings.
“Qualcomm is pleased to sign this licence agreement with Meizu, and to help enhance Meizu’s product line and generate strong growth for the company, both in China and globally,” said Alex Roger, president, Qualcomm Technology Licensing, in a joint statement.
Based in southern China’s Guangdong province, Meizu aims to counter homegrown players like OnePlus, Vivo and Xiaomi. The company already has plenty of Android running options in its portfolio that would now be expanded across the globe. This is likely to give the company a boost in the European and US markets.
“We are confident that this cooperation with Qualcomm will add tremendous value to our users, channels, shareholders and employees,” stated Bai Yongxiang, president, Meizu.
With the latest deal, Qualcomm is reaching licensing agreements with as many as 10 of the largest Chinese smartphone companies. This demonstrates the domination of the chip maker in a market that once had Intel as an important player and has MediaTek as the next big name.
This latest development has emerged just a few weeks ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that will be held in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2017. Meizu is expected to unveil its Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered global offerings at this annual event.
Jove emerges as a replacement for Vim editor
Linux users already had some choices with regard to choosing an editor. But following the footsteps of Emacs, Jove has emerged the closest alternative to the iconic Vim editor.
Developed by open source contributor Jonathan Payne, Jove (Jonathan’s Own Version of Emacs) is a small yet powerful Emacs version. It is capable of handling your day-today needs and comes with all built-in features that were previously available on Emacs.
If you are a first time Jove user, you might feel that some functions are missing. It could either be because of Jove’s limitations or because you are not using Lisp anymore. However, this minimalistic utility tool is sufficient to make editing text much easier on Linux.
Jove offers customisations through some simple lines of code. Besides, it has the option to search all possible commands in an easy way. These features make the tool a good replacement for Vim.
Initially, the Jove package was available on Debian and Fedora. But you can rebuild its package to match your distribution. The package executive is 150K in size.
Shooter game Postal becomes open source after two decades of release
Ahead of reaching its 20th anniversary, Arizona based Running With Scissors has released the code of popular video game Postal. The isometric shooter game was released back in September 1997. “It was an instant hit, grabbing the attention of gamers, parents and politicians across the country, and we have been supporting and updating it ever since. But now, (almost) 20 years later, we are entrusting our fans with the future of our game, by releasing its source code to the public,” the developer team at Running With Scissors wrote in a blog post.
However, this is not the first time that Postal has reached out to the open source community. Running With Scissors announced the release of its code in 2015 on the condition that it will port it to the Sega-made Dreamcast console. Later, its source code even reached a community developer who brought it to Linux for the OpenPandora handheld.
Developers can learn a lot from the open source release of Postal. Game developers can reuse the code in their own projects and build something iconic for the gaming world.
The source code of Postal is available on Bitbucket under the GPL2 license. It comes with the complete documentation to help you utilise the release effectively.
Facebook open sources its Atom tool
Facebook has released the code of its native Atom-based tool called Atom in Orbit. The latest development is aimed at providing developers a remote development environment that can run right in a browser.
Based on the Nuclide IDE, Atom in Orbit offers a standard user base and some extensions to help developers examine their code without any integrated development environment (IDE) on their desktop. The tool has the same keyboard shortcuts that were previously supported by Atom. This is a good experience for developers who are quite familiar with the open source desktop editor.