[Updated Feb. 8] — A vendor of pocket-sized mobile desktop servers powered by Debian Linux has announced four finalists for its programming contest and bug hunt. Realm Systems will award a grand prize of $50,000 at the OSBC (Open Source Business Conference) next week in San Francisco.

The contest centers around Realm's BlackDog plug-and-go server, a mobile device with its own processor, RAM, and biometric authentication system. The BlackDog is a development version of Realm's MPS (mobile personal server), which aims to provide roaming workers such as doctors with a secure computing environment they can carry in their pocket.

Finalists include:

• Security category — Michael Chenetz, for work on “Machine of last resort” used to scan machines “when virus hell has broken out”
• Entertainment category — Michael King, for “Simon Tatham's Puzzles,” a collection of native games and puzzles for the BlackDog, based on Simon Tatham's software
• Productivity category — Terry Bayne, for work on “kibble,” a tool for distributing applications between PC hosts and the Blackdog, using SOAP (gSOAP-based) RPC (remote procedure call) mechanisms to send arbitrary (LUA) code to be executed on the host PC from the client (BlackDog device)
• Dogpile category — Paul Chandler, for “BDLauncherPlus,” a biometric-enhanced application launcher aimed at preventing unauthorized users from launching unsafe applications

Winners in a separate “bug hunt” competition included Terry Bayne ($2,500), Michael Wozniak ($1,500), and Michael King ($1,000).

Realm CEO Rick White stated, “We understand and respect all the hard work that has gone into developing this community.”

The BlackDog development community can be found here.

 
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