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You can use the marching cubes algorithm. You can go from a cloud of points to a 3d object that you can transform like you want. I think they use that in MRI imaging. I used the 2d version (marching squares) to optimize a metablob routine a long time ago.

see: http://www.exaflop.org/docs/marchcubes/index.html

Every graphics engine since Quake 1, that John Carmack has made, has used OpenGL. In his latest .plan update he makes many comments about using OpenGL, though the most obvious is this: "Trying to keep boneheaded-ideas-that-will-haunt-us-for-years out of Direct-X is the primary reason I have been attending the Windows Graphics Summit for the past three years, even though I still code for OpenGL." Anyway, if an interesting read is his .plan update when he was first experimenting with OpenGL in quake. Basically, there are not as many problems with DirectX anymore, but he still uses OpenGL. Personally I like OpenGL better because of its design philosophy and because it's cross platform. Anyway, some links are below for those interested.

http://www.bluesnews.com/plans/1/

http://www.exaflop.org/docs/d3dogl/d3dogl_jc_plan. html

And alcohol distillation. But wait, that was running Linux I think.

Or perhaps a new and improved x86 still.

I had a look at this document expecting to find loads of stuff to to contradict but instead I find a well writen article and my respect for Tim Sweeney growing. It's all to common particuarly with games programmers for these kinds of documents to be little more than a grind stone for a given set of ideas. Most of what is said concerning the development of programming languages is easy to agree with although the type of language construct he is talking about may be a little far of than he realizes.

For a long time their has been the argument of which weather or not C++ is slower than C, in reality C++ is slower in some situations, in others it is no diffrent from C. In 'C' a variable is a variable and a function call is a function call, in C++ and other OO languages functions can be virtulized (without you realizing it) createing extra layers of indirection. A 50k line peice of software using all your latest multiple inheritance, operator overloading etc. my be easier to develop and debug debug next to the 200k line pure 'C' version, but there is a good chance all that extra function call overhead and indiretion will total up into a signifcant performance hit. Aside from applications like games where processor load is high and performance is near the top of priority list language discisions become a little more vague. Richard Matthias makes a convincing argument in favour of laguages like Visual Basic in this article. In games however, as the article correctly states performance is the key, the kind of functionality Tim is looking for is going to produce even indirection etc. That's not to say it won't happen, after all one of the things I have noticed in the latest generation of x86 processors is that indirection and function all overhead seem to be less of a performance drag.

Most of the other things we deal with like the hardware accelerators, processors and development tools have changed radicly in the last 5 years but we are still using the same programing laguages, so prehaps it is time for the language department to catch up.

Well, things are starting to get a bit out of hand. Before I mumble on about real issues I would like to ask a question. What is the best way to protect your personal possessions from theft, 1) Buy good locks for your doors and windows, or 2) Leave the door open and sue anyone who steals anything.

This is no longer about Jon Johansen, or the cracking of DeCSS, this is about Abuse of privilege. In any country the legal system is paid for by the people and is there to protect the people and other legal entities (including corporations). The legal system is not there to replace adequate safe guards, do we complain when prisoners start law suits at the publics expense because they got the wrong kind of peanut butter? Do we complain when able-bodied people call an ambulance to take them for a checkup? The answer to this is yes (I hope) because it's abuse of the system. In the same way we should protest that entities like the MPAA think they can throw their weight around at the public's expense due to little more then their own failings, yes I know they pay for their own lawyers but the courts etc. all come from the taxpayer.

The issues surrounding the right to access legal acquired information etc. have been covered in other posts, but I would like to bring to people's attention another abuse of the CSS system. The CSS system is there to protect against piracy and to enforce the region coding system. I am angered by the abuse of the region coding system, a DVD disk costs about twice as much in the UK as it does in the US, and quite often does not have as many added extras (interviews, clips etc..). The region coding system forces us to buy often inferior products at always exaggerated prices. Naturally a booming market in imported DVD's and 'chipped' players sprung up but the MPAA lobbied the British government into a large scale crackdown of the 'Grey imports'. Once again taxpayer money wasted in support of big business screwing over the overage joe.

For these reasons I will continue to host a mirror at http://www.exaflop.org and urge other mirror owners to email me and pass on their URLs to aid in the construction of a larger list of mirrors. The MPAA and it's members need to learn three lessons, 1) Attempting to control legal use of a legally purchased product is futile, 2) They cannot continue to abuse privilege, 3) There is no putting of the baby back into the womb once it has been born.

Well, things are starting to get a bit out of hand. Before I mumble on about real issues I would like to ask a question. What is the best way to protect your personal possessions from theft, 1) Buy good locks for your doors and windows, or 2) Leave the door open and sue anyone who steals anything.

This is no longer about Jon Johansen, or the cracking of DeCSS, this is about Abuse of privilege. In any country the legal system is paid for by the people and is there to protect the people and other legal entities (including corporations). The legal system is not there to replace adequate safe guards, do we complain when prisoners start law suits at the publics expense because they got the wrong kind of peanut butter? Do we complain when able-bodied people call an ambulance to take them for a checkup? The answer to this is yes (I hope) because it's abuse of the system. In the same way we should protest that entities like the MPAA think they can throw their weight around at the public's expense due to little more then their own failings, yes I know they pay for their own lawyers but the courts etc. all come from the taxpayer.

The issues surrounding the right to access legal acquired information etc. have been covered in other posts, but I would like to bring to people's attention another abuse of the CSS system. The CSS system is there to protect against piracy and to enforce the region coding system. I am angered by the abuse of the region coding system, a DVD disk costs about twice as much in the UK as it does in the US, and quite often does not have as many added extras (interviews, clips etc..). The region coding system forces us to buy often inferior products at always exaggerated prices. Naturally a booming market in imported DVD's and 'chipped' players sprung up but the MPAA lobbied the British government into a large scale crackdown of the 'Grey imports'. Once again taxpayer money wasted in support of big business screwing over the overage joe.

For these reasons I will continue to host a mirror at http://www.exaflop.org and urge other mirror owners to email me and pass on their URLs to aid in the construction of a larger list of mirrors. The MPAA and it's members need to learn three lessons, 1) Attempting to control legal use of a legally purchased product is futile, 2) They cannot continue to abuse privilege, 3) There is no putting of the baby back into the womb once it has been born.

I was going to do this myself but one of my co-webmasters got there first. The files in question are now avalable at www.exaflop.org, here is the text of my friends news posting.

"Well, the MPAA doesn't want you to see it but we do. Here is a list of the files they don't want you to get hold of. It's still unclear if this silly injunction can actualy hold long term, knowbody seems to know if this software is actualy breaking any rules. However here in the true land of the free they certainly are not illegal, that more extradition red tape and a little something we like to call the atlantic meen these files are likely to stay up for some time to come. I would really love to see a CA state judge pass an injunction against a UK website."

As requested, here is the revised edition with scenic backdrop.

See! it's all so frustraiting I cant even get the url right! "Time Paradox"

I have been hosting www.exaflop.org with Alabanza for several years and I've generaly found them to be pretty good. When we first signed up with them they were far nicer, it was a small outfit and they would bend over backwards to make us happy. These days they are huge and we have had a couple of troubles with them. We asked recently for a couple of new Apache modules to be installed, primarily mod_expires and we were told it just wasn't possible.

Can anybody tell me why mod_expires isn't compiled in by default, it seems like a pretty fundamental peice of functionality to me.