In this talk, Morton will describe how the Linux kernel actually comes to be, how features are chosen, and how the develop/test/release cycle is managed. He'll explain how commercial Linux distributions such as Red Hat and SuSE fit into this process. More generally, he'll consider what motivates kernel developers, and
It took 20 years of dreaming, planning and ingenuity to create Toy Story, the world’s first computer animated full-length feature film, in 1995. It represented a significant departure from the long-established methods of animation, where artists would hand draw characters frame by frame, and painstakingly incorporate m
Reid Dennis, founder of Institutional Venture Partners, and Franklin “Pitch” Johnson, founding partner of Asset Management, review their combined 100 years of venture capital experience and observation, from the major mistakes to the spectacular successes. How does venture capital affect innovation? What have we learne
In this talk, Perens will consider the economics of Open Source. Says Perens: Many people don't understand how Open Source could be sustainable, some may even feel that its effect upon the proprietary software industry is an economic detriment. Fortunately, if you look more deeply into the economic function of software
Computers have revolutionized image media. Richard Lyon, one of the current pioneers of digital cameras, has found that several generations of pioneers in this field have been entangled with the terms “picture element” and “pixel” and that studying the history of the terminology is a fruitful approach to the history of
In regard to the role of cooperation and collective action in human enterprise, our level of knowledge is scarcely higher than knowledge about disease before the discovery of microorganisms. Descartes decreed that a “new method” was required to think about the physical world: from that new method of thinking, scientifi
All of our panel members have participated in the storage industry's efforts to provide continual improvements in data storage products, industry standards, and system reliability. Their leadership has made possible much of the computer industry's movement to more flexible interconnection of storage products and system
In 1991, Guido van Rossum made his creation, the Python programming language, open source. Today, Python is one of the three P-languages which enjoy massive popularity among developers as part of the open source LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python). In this retrospective, Guido looks back on the ea
Few of us dispute the importance of providing access to our cultural heritage. Yet we still seem years away from fulfilling the promises of access: opening long-dormant archives, enriching culture and begetting creativity, and turning cultural consumers into producers. What can we do, and what are we now doing, to reso
In the 1970s, the world of information security was transformed by public-key cryptography, the radical revision of cryptographic thinking that allowed people with no prior contact to communicate securely. “Public key” solved security problems born of the revolution in information technology that characterized the 20th
