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Monday, February 12, 2007

Cars drove home the big prize last night, from the 34th Annual Annie Awards. The animation industry’s highest honor, ASIFA-Hollywood’s Annies recognise contributions to animation, writing, directing, storyboarding, voice acting, composing, and much more.

As mentioned, Pixar took home the big prize last night, after facing stiff competition from four other Happy Feet, Monster House, Open Season, and Over the Hedge.

But the biggest winner of the night didn’t get a “Best Animated Feature” nod at all. Flushed Away won five feature animation categories including Animated Effects (Scott Cegielski), Character Animation (Gabe Hordos), Production Design (Pierre-Olivier Vincent), Voice Acting (Sir Ian McKellan as Toad), Writing (Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan, and Will Davies).

Over The Hedge won awards for Directing (Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick), Storyboarding (Gary Graham), and Character Design (Nicolas Marlet).

Of little surprise, Randy Newman won an Annie for Cars in the “Music in an Animated Feature Production” category. Newman has won many Oscars for his movie music, and has a nomination this year for the song “Our Town”. Newman didn’t attend the Annies, instead picking up a Grammy for “Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media”.

DisneyToon Studios’ Bambi II won “Best Home Entertainment Production”, while “Best Animated Short Subject” went to Blue Sky Studios’ No Time For Nuts, which is based on Ice Age.

“Best Animated Video Game” went to Flushed Away The Game, while a United Airlines ad named “Dragon” won a “Best Animated Television Commercial” Annie for DUCK Studios.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Quebec, Canada premier Jean Charest has called a provincial election for September 4. After meeting with Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne to officially drop the writ and dissolve parliament, he made the public announcement yesterday in front of Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, stating the airport represents a “bridge to the north”, in reference to his government’s plan to develop natural resources in northern Quebec.

Charest is the leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, has held his position as premier since 2003, and has been a member of the National Assembly since 1998. He has now won four consecutive elections in his riding of Sherbrooke, first becoming the leader of the official opposition, then becoming premier for three terms. At this time, polls show no clear winner for the upcoming election.

This election comes in the midst of widely reported student protests against a raise in university tuition, which is expected to be one of the major issues of the elections. One other party, the Coalition Avenir Québec, is in favour of the tuition increases, while the Parti Québécois, Option nationale, and Québec solidaire oppose the tuition increases.

The Quebec Liberal Party is federalist, meaning it supports Quebec being part of Canada, while the other major parties are separatist, meaning they support Quebec becoming a sovereign state. During his speech, Charest reaffirmed his position on tuition fees and was quoted as saying he was representing the “silent majority.”

Monday, December 14, 2020

On Tuesday, US-based software company Red Hat announced their plans to shift their focus away from CentOS in favour of CentOS Stream.

In the blog post Chris Wright, the Chief Technological Officer of Red Hat said Red Hat had informed the CentOS governing board that Red Hat was “shifting our investment fully from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream”. At least five of the nine CentOS Governing Board listed on the project are Red Hat employees.

Started in 2004, CentOS has been a free-of-cost free/libre open source software which provided binary-code compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) — Red Hat’s GNU General Public Licensed paid operating system. CentOS was absorbed into Red Hat in 2014, with Red Hat gaining the trademark rights of “CentOS”.

Red Hat also sponsors the Fedora operating system. Red Hat even gives the software engineering interns laptops with Fedora on it. Till now, software development took place on Fedora, which was later adopted in RHEL, which the Red Hat maintained and provided support for, for those customers who had RHEL subscription. CentOS would then follow RHEL to provide the same features free of cost, but without the support.

Stream was announced in September 2019, just two months after Red Hat was acquired by IBM. CentOS Stream’s development cycle had new features added to it before the features became a part of RHEL. Stream receives more frequent updates, however, it does not follow RHEL’s release cycle.

With CentOS Stream, developments from the community and the Red Hat emplyees would take place beforehand on both Fedora, and Stream as a rolling release, before those features are absorbed into RHEL. CentOS followed the release cycle of RHEL and therefore it was a stable distribution. Features available in CentOS were tried and tested by Fedora, and then RHEL maintainers. Stream, on the other hand, has features added to it before those features become a part of RHEL. That implies Stream would be ahead of RHEL’s development, containing new features which are not yet tried and tested by RHEL developers, and not be binary code-compatible with RHEL.

Writing “The future of CentOS Linux is CentOS Stream”, Wright further wrote in the announcement, CentOS Stream “provides a platform for rapid innovation at the community level but with a stable enough base to understand production dynamics.” Wright also said, “CentOS Stream isn’t a replacement for CentOS Linux; rather, it’s a natural, inevitable next step intended to fulfill the project’s goal of furthering enterprise Linux innovation.”

Since the announcement was made, many people expressed their anger on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Reddit and CentOS project’s mailing list. CentOS 8’s End of Life (EOL) has been moved up from May 2029 to December 31, 2021, while CentOS 7 is expected to receive maintenance updates through June 2024, outliving CentOS 8.

Gregory Kurtzer, who had started the CentOS project, announced a new operating system, Rocky Linux. Rocky Linux describes itself as “a community enterprise Operating System designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Enterprise Linux”. The project said “Rocky Linux aims to function as a downstream build as CentOS had done previously, building releases after they have been added to the upstream vendor, not before.” The project maintainers have not decided a date for when the operating system will be released.

Kurtzer explained the reason to call the OS as Rocky Linux: “Thinking back to early CentOS days… My cofounder was Rocky McGaugh. He is no longer with us, so as a H/T [hat tip] to him, who never got to see the success that CentOS came to be, I introduce to you…Rocky Linux”.

Wikinews reached out to the members of the CentOS project, Pablo Greco and Rich Bowen, to discuss this move, its implications as well as the future of CentOS. Greco is a maintainer of armhfp (32-bit processors) and is a part of the CentOS’ quality assurance team. Bowen — who unlike Greco, works for Red Hat — is the community manager of the CentOS project.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The central government of Taiwan’s attempts to remove symbols referring to Chiang Kai-shek from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, have led to a major debate between the Pan-Green and Pan-Blue coalitions and the public. The Ministry of Education wants to remove the title from the “Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness” along the Hall. Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang (part of the pan-Blue coalition) was the leader of the national government from 1928 to 1975, and the Hall was built as a Memorial after his death.

Officials from Taipei City Government and Pan-Blues firmly opposed the plan, but relatives and survivors from the 228 Incident (a Taiwanese uprise that started on February 28, 1947 that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-Shek) and Pan-Greens are in favor.

In fact, members from “League of Redress White-terror in 1950’s” claimed in a press conference: “The slaughterer [referring to Chiang Kai-shek and relatives] should admit and apologize for his faults so that we can consider on forgiveness,” and stressed: “DAMN IT! Why is the public still supporting the slaughterer and autocrat? How can an autocrat’s virtues be eulogized? The public in other countries can trace on the truth from history and jury for the slaughterer, why can’t it be so in Taiwan?”

The debate has become a topic in the 2008 Taiwanese Presidential elections. Kuomintang Candidate Ying-jeou Ma said: “If I win this election, I’ll put the title back!” After the current President of the Republic of China Shui-bian Chen heard those words, he replied: “Did he mean on Lian-ying Li‘s?” But the Vice President Annette Lu said: “Depend on what Frank (Hsieh) will say.”

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Peter Costello’s budget announcement has led to rejoicing for small businesses, but the lack of joy for those pushing for radical corporate taxation reform has led to many businesses asking “what about us?”

Personal taxation and small business have been the big winners after this year’s federal budget. Although dampened by the twin economic threats of rising interest rates and petrol prices, there should be a reasonable amount of real income savings for both low and high income earners, with those receiving Medicare, or a superannuation benefit, privy to an even lower level of taxation (0% for those on super benefits).

Small business also has benefited from the Howard government’s 11th annual budget, with them receiving a higher level of reducing depreciation, leading to a higher level of deductions in the years following the uptake of new technology or other capital. They are also privy to a AU$435 million dollar tax cut to compensate for their changing accounting requirements under the government’s new AIFRS reporting standards, as well as increasing the uptake of both the small business tax relief scheme and CGT (Capital Gains tax) Concessions.

The budget was not a complete loss for big business however, as superannuation laws have been tweaked to streamline contribution and payment rules previously impeding those with multitudes of staff.

But this is not enough, says Big 4 accounting firm Ernst & Young. In their newly published paper “Taxation of Investment in Australia: the need for ongoing reform”. In it they lead the charge for a greater streamlining and organization of the corporate tax system in Australia, submitting that it will lead to reductions in “disincentives to work save and invest in Australia [as well as improving] the international competitiveness of Australian businesses.” This follows from a recent report brought out by Mr. Costello himself about the need for tax reform in Australia.

A budget night Mr. Costello was notably coy about any future reform of corporate tax in Australia. He alluded to the report by his ministers but kept from outlining the government’s plan precisely.

Tuesday, March 8, 2005Genetic abnormalities behind the premature aging disease Progeria have been corrected in cells in a step towards gene therapy for the condition.

Affecting about one in eight million children, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria (HGP) causes sufferers to rapidly experience symptoms of old age.

The average life expectancy of those afflicted is just around 14 years, with many dying from such age-related conditions as heart disease.

The disease is known to be caused by a mutation in the gene lamin A.

The mutation is thought to adversely affect the expression of genes by preventing appropriate genetic “editing.”

The inappropriate editing cuts exons—”sentences” of genetic information—too short.

Tom Misteli and colleagues of the US National Cancer Institute have now found a way to correct the editing error.

They did this using synthetic molecules called morpholino oligonucleotides that Misteli likens to a “molecular Band-Aid.”

The researchers say the discovery could aid the development of gene therapy for Progeria.

The research is reported in the journal Nature Medicine.

• Paola Scaffidi & Tom Misteli. “Reversal of the cellular phenotype in the premature aging disease Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome” — Nature Medicine, March 6, 2005
• “Ageing disease ‘gene clue’ found” — BBC News, March 7, 2004

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Heavy rainfalls have caused massive floods in Southern Bavaria, Western Austria and Central Switzerland.

In Southern Bavaria authorities have declared a state of emergency. The city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is cut off from the outside world. Near Augsburg a freeway had to be closed because a bridge was on the verge of collapsing after water had damaged the foundation.

In the Austrian states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg authorities are battling with floods that intensified during the night with record rainfall. In Vorarlberg a brook broke into a house and caused a gas explosion injuring six people. One person is missing after he and his car were swept away. In the capital of Tyrol, Innsbruck, all bridges over the Inn had to be closed. In Western Tyrol, landslides killed one man and injured another.

In Switzerland the cities of Bern and Lucerne were partially flooded. Mudslides killed two firefighters who were trying to evacuate a farm. In the canton of Zürich one man drowned, and a woman in Graubünden is missing after she too fell into a stream. The Swiss government estimates the floodings caused a damage of at least US$79 million.