Debian, an operating system and distribution of Free Software, celebrated its 24th birthday this week. One of the biggest announcements of Debian this year was the release of Debian 9, codenamed Stretch, which adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems.
Security support for the old Debian 8 release is expected to be available until around June in 2018. Other Debian happenings this year includes the annual Debian conference, which was held in Montreal.
Also, the Chinese language team has been relaunched with new contributors, and the Debian Installer, many pages in the Debian website, and other documents are being updated and translated into Chinese. Debian is currently looking for team members to join this effort.
Google acquires AI vision developer AIMatter
Google has acquired AI vision developer AIMatter, creators of a facial recognition neural network and SDK for recognizing and processing photos.
AIMatter received around $2 million in funding earlier this year for their Fabby app, which uses their technology to apply effects and filters to selfies.
Details of the deal are scarce at the moment, and it’s unclear where Google plans to use the Belarus-based AI startup’s technology. But reports suggest that Fabby will survive the acquisition and that most of AIMatter’s employees will be joining Google’s staff.
AIMatter currently employs workers in Minsk, the Bay Area and Zurich.
Quest launches Toad Edge
Quest Software launched Toad Edge, a new commercial database toolset that makes it easy for development teams and DBAs to develop and manage their open source database environments. The first release supports MySQL and it minimizes the MySQL learning curve, mitigating risks that can be associated with building applications on an open source database platform, according to Quest.
“One limitation that many of these open source technologies have is the lack of a coherent toolset for development, management, and in some cases migration of their databases,” Olofson continued. “Organizations will need these tools to effectively and holistically develop and maintain their data systems, and ensure a seamless migration process. A smart move would be to choose a commercially -available toolset that delivers the necessary end-to-end solutions to help support their investment in these new platforms.”
Toad Edge also offers core database development management functions with a toolset, which includes schema compare capabilities, file system synchronization, DevOps process integration, and JSON editing.
Code.org Releases State Computer Science Planning Toolkit
Non-profit computer science advocator Code.org has released the State Computer Science Planning Toolkit to help educators implement computer science courses in K-12.
The toolkit is available as a Google Doc, and is broken down into six sections outlining methods for things like training existing faculty to teach computer science, what to look for when hiring new teachers and defining standards.
The toolkit is aligned with the Code.org Advocacy Coalition’s policy recommendations.
According to the coalition, only 33 states allow students to count computer science courses towards high school graduation and there are over ten times as many vacant computer science positions as there are students graduating from computer science courses.
