Apple uses Mesos, 3D printed syringe, and more news

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In this week's edition of our open source news roundup, we look at Apple joining the party to use open source infrastructure technology, 3D printing and open design to improve healthcare, and more open source news.

Open source news for September 12 - 18, 2015

Apple turns to Mesos

Derrick Harris covers news for Fortune about Apple using open source technologies for a growing number of its consumer software products. Harris points to a report that points out Apple has long relied on open source, and how it is developing a platform to power its web services such as iCloud and iTunes, based on the open source infrastructure software Mesos.

Is Apple late to the party? Infrastructure technology like Mesos has been playing a key role at Google, Twitter, Facebook, and others.

3D printing and open design for health

How does one overcome the cost of scientific equipment, which can overwhelm budgets? Joshua Pearce, who leads a 3D printing class at Michigan Technological University has a solution. He proposes we develop open source tools that are upgradeable and transformable.

Allison Mills reports on this story for Phys Org. A good example of open source aiding science is the accessible syringe pump, which Pearce and his group created through 3D printable models. A normal syringe pump costs between a few hundred and a thousand dollars, but Pearce's design can be manufactured for $97 US! If you are interested in the design of the pump, they are available on Youmagine, and licensed CC-BY-SA.

Mozilla on coding and power of open source

Adam Shepard writes for IT Pro about Mozilla's Michelle Thorne on the importance of teachers and open source coding.

Thorne, who is Mozilla's director of web literacy programmes, says programming is just one part of a wider skillset, which also includes computational thinking. She also mentions tools and programs, now utilized as 'code to learn' philosophy. This means, "learning to code, unlocking other skills, like computational thinking and problem solving." So where to start? With the basic web languages, HTML, CSS, and Javascript, being a superb starting point according to Thorne.

“When we're teaching code, privacy, and other web literacy skills to students, we should be teaching the importance and power of open source, as well."

Let's Encrypt signs first certificate

Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority. It is backed by organizations such as Cisco, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and more. Let's Encrypt passed a milestone this week as their first certificate went live on their demo page. The certificate authority has filed applications to root programs for Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. General availability is expected at the week of November 16.

White House releases redesigned College Scorecard

In a press release by the White House, President Obama announces the redesigned College Scorecard, a website helping students, parents, and their advisers to make better college choices. The redesign includes comprehensive and updated data. And, according to The Next Web, the data covers over 7,000 colleges going back 18 years. It also includes customized tools for students.

CollegeScorecard.ed.gov has been "redesigned with direct input from students, families, and their advisers to provide the clearest, most accessible, and most reliable national data on college cost, graduation, debt, and post-college earnings."

In other news

Thanks, as always, to Opensource.com staff members and moderators for their help this week. Make sure to check out our event calendar, to see what's happening next week in open source.