Despite the proliferation of open source tools like Databricks’ AutoML Toolkit, Salesforce’s TransfogrifAI, and IBM’s Watson Studio AutoAI, tuning machine learning algorithms at scale remains a challenge. Finding the right hyperparameters — variables in the algorithms that help control the overall model’s performance — often involves time-consuming ancillary tasks like job-scheduling and tracking parameters and their effects. That’s why scientists at LG’s Advanced AI division developed Auptimizer, an open source hyperparameter optimization framework intended to help with AI model tweaking and bookkeeping. It’s available from GitHub.
Source: Venture Beat
LG open-sources Auptimizer, a tool for optimizing AI models
Google Open Sources its Cardboard VR Platform
Low-cost virtual reality (VR) platform Google Cardboard is now available as an open source project to let developers create new VR-powered apps and adapt existing ones to new devices. Google’s announcement comes a few weeks after the discontinuation of its Daydream VR platform.
Source: InfoQ
Rust 1.39.0 released
Version 1.39.0 of the Rust language is available. The biggest new feature appears to be the async/await mechanism, which is described in this blog post: “So, what is async await? Async-await is a way to write functions that can ‘pause’, return control to the runtime, and then pick up from where they left off. Typically those pauses are to wait for I/O, but there can be any number of uses.”
Source: LWN
Red Hat Advances Java on Kubernetes Project
Red Hat today achieved a 1.0 milestone in its efforts to make an instance of Java available for Kubernetes via the open source Quarkus project. Mark Little, vice president of engineering for Red Hat, says Quarkus 1.0 advances an effort to create a more efficient means for building and deploying Java applications on Kubernetes by reducing the size of the Java virtual machine (JVM). The JVM used today assumed that the JVM would include the code required to write once and deploy anywhere. However, in a container environment, portability issues are addressed by Docker containers and Kubernetes. That creates an opportunity to shrink the JVM in a way that will make Java applications running on Kubernetes run faster, notes Little.
Source: Container Journal
CNCF Adopts Longhorn Storage Project from Rancher Labs
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) announced this week that a Longhorn block-based storage software for Kubernetes clusters developed by Rancher Labs has become an open source CNCF sandbox project. Rancher Labs CEO Sheng Liang says Longhorn will make it significantly easier to deploy stateful applications on top of Kubernetes clusters by eliminating the need for specialized drivers.
Source: Container Journal
Partnering with Nutanix to run Windows and Linux desktop apps on GCP
Google Cloud is extending its partnership with Nutanix with Xi Frame on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), now generally available. Frame provides a cloud-native, simple and powerful solution to run Windows or Linux remote desktop applications on any device. Enterprises can now run virtual workspaces on GCP and take advantage of the GCP’s flexible resources.
Source: Google Cloud
With Kubernetes, Ceph Provides A Near-Infinite Capacity For Sustainable Growth
Ceph is a modern data storage platform, working across a variety of hardware and technologies used for cataloging, aggregating, and analyzing data. Some of the advantages of Ceph, said Jason Van der Schyff, COO of SoftIron, include the ability to run on standard x86 hardware, the ability to create multiple copies or erasure coding, which reduces the need for additional data protection methodologies like RAID, and the ability to serve multiple storage protocols from a single storage platform.
Source: TFiR
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 adds live Linux kernel patching
RHEL 8.1 8.1 now has full support for live kernel patching. You can now update your Linux kernel for Critical or Important Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) without needing to go to the trouble of a system reboot. This keeps your system up and running even serious security bugs are patched behind the scenes.
Source: ZDNet
Chrome OS 78 Rolls Out to Chromebooks with Improved Linux Support, Virtual Desks
The wait is over, Google’s latest Chrome OS 78 Linux-based operating system is now rolling out to supported Chromebook devices with a ton of new features and enhancements. Google has released today the Chrome OS 78 operating system for Chromebooks, a release that will arrive to users over the next several days and which brings several exciting new features, such as the Virtual Desks functionality we reported the other day, allowing Chromebook users to be more productive.
Source: Softpedia
Microsoft to participate in open source Java
Microsoft has climbed aboard the OpenJDK project to help with the development of open source Java. In a message posted on an OpenJDK mailing list, Microsoft’s Bruno Borges, principal product manager for Java at the company, said Microsoft’s team initially will be working on smaller bug fixes and back ports so it can learn how to be “good citizens” within OpenJDK. Microsoft and subsidiaries are “heavily dependent” on Java in many aspects, Borges said. For one, Java runtimes are offered in Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
Source: InfoWorld