Software

The console Gamebuino (Photo courtesy Aurélien Rodot. All rights reserved)

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Gamebuino is a project to create a retro videogame console, like the old-fashioned 8-bit ones such as the Nintendo Game Boy, based on Arduino, an electronic platform with circuit diagrams that are distributed as free hardware with a software kit too free as well. The fundraiser with the crowdfunding method on the Indiegogo website, which started on March 12, 2014, is having a great success and will continue until April 28, 2014.

Sergey Orlovskiy testing Oculus Rift

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Facebook has announced it has reached an agreement for the purchase of Oculus VR, Inc., producer of the virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift, for a total of about $2 billion. The figure includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock. The agreement also includes an additional $300 million in cash and shares based on the achievement of certain goals that weren’t specified in the press release.

Brendan Eich Mozilla Foundation official photo

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The Mozilla Foundation board of directors announced that Brendan Eich has been appointed Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. Eich is one of the co-founders of the foundation and in recent years has been working as Chief Technology Officer. He replaces Gary Kovacs, who almost a year ago announced his intention to leave his office.

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In June 2013, the President of the U.S.A. Barack Obama announced measures to limit the phenomenon of “patent trolling”, which is the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money through legal action or through agreements following threats of such actions. Yesterday came the announcement of the opening of a section of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website, which is the organism that handles patents, containing information useful for anyone who has been accused of violating someone else’s patents.

Satya Nadella at LeWeb 2013

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The rumors of the past few days have been confirmed with the official announcement that Satya Nadella is the new Microsoft CEO. His predecessor Steve Ballmer remains on the company’s board of directors. Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, is leaving his role of President of the board of directors to John Thompson to take on the special role of technology adviser.