Off the Beat: Bruce Byfield's Blog

ScanTWAIN, Proprietary Companies, and Free Software

Mar 13, 2009 GMT

Kodak's recent announcement about the release of ScanTWAIN, a desktop application for scanners, was quickly picked up by the free and open source software (FOSS) media. After all, here was another large company now supporting the cause. Moreover, Kodak was doing so with TWAIN, the standard protocol on most operating systems, rather than just SANE, the FOSS protocol developed for scanners when TWAIN support for free operating systems was unavailable. The announcement seemed too good to be true -- and, unfortunately it was. Instead of being a minor cause for celebration, it raises the perennial question: When will traditional companies get serious about porting their products to FOSS? ...

Eagle Mode: A practical Zoomable User Interface

Mar 07, 2009 GMT

As I begin this new blog, I can't think of a better first topic than the future. Or, to be exact, a possible future. Specifically, I am talking about Eagle Mode, a proof of concept project by Oliver Hamann designed to show the possibilities of a zoomable user interface (ZUI). Using Eagle Mode, you may take a while to get past the sheer novelty, but, once you do, you may find the concepts behind it intriguing. Released under the third version of the GNU General Public License, version 0.7.3 of Eagle Mode is available as source code, or a downloadable Live CD based on the Slax distribution if you prefer not to compile for yourself. To start Eagle Mode, either run the eaglemode.sh script...