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According to Futures wiki article, most 3D films take about 3 hours per frame. The most complex special effects scenes in real movies (like the Superpunch in the Matrix Revolutions) take 20 hours.

An average movie is around 150000 frames. Assuming 3 hours per frame, this means that a full render will cost under half a million dollars. I don't know how many times you need to render the frame on average (taking into account previsualisation, test runs, reedits, etc.), but even if you need to do it 10 times (in full quality - you don't need a cluster to render a rough version), you costs would not exceed 5 millions. Not really that expensive. In reality, I think it would be closer to 1-2 millions. Which is peanuts for a Pixar feature film budget.

I'm not sure, but my guess is that they're intending to use the parallel capabilities of the system to provide what is basically super-cheap physics.

Physics is mostly "local interaction." You drop a pen, it falls on the ground underneat it. Wind moves around. Hair is connected to a nearby head.

With the exception of missiles flying across the world at super-high speed, which can gum things up, it's local interaction.

Since it's local interaction, it's highly parallelizable. Just like graphics rendering.

The trend is for GPUs to be more programmable. It's sort of like being able to programmatically build a factory assembly line. Perhaps the PS3 will feature these things? If the rumors about the Cell (based on actual patents,...) and apply to the PS3, then I think this is exactly what we'd see.

I'm working on a thing called "Local Names."

It points names to URL's, but you can use that for identifying purposes. Especially if you mix & match with FOAF.

There are no central registries.

Names are based on the community namespace, rather than some central server.

(That means you don't have to pay me $25, and can address your friends by their first name.)

Here's my set of software predictions. Some more detail to fill in for that other guy's blog entry.

Here we go:

• Refactoring Browsers - let you change the name of a class, method, whatever- and have perfect replacement across the project. This is important, because it means that our API's can feature consistent naming schemes, without a whole lot of upfront planning. These exist today, but not in common use.
• Spatial Code Browsering - The ability to organize our textual code in a shared diagram, so that we can arrange it the way that we think of it. Most of our code is text, for various reasons. But we tend to think of spatial relationships between blocks of code. There's no reason why we can't lay out the files spatially, share those spatial layouts, and browse those spatial layouts.
• Replay Debugging - You can make programs run in a virtual machine that tracks deltas over time, or keeps time slices. You can "rewind" or "fast forward" a test execution, introspecting into the state of variables at different points of time. If your debugger is smart enough, it can answer the question: "now how did THAT come to happen?" "Why did you do X? Why didn't you do Y?"
• Publish-Subscribe - Is it just me, or is publish-subscribing becoming more important? That's because we're going to component systems.
• Tuple Space(s). By my limited understanding, this is a model of programming where you have: A gigantic data store, and little micro-programs that pull and push data to the store. For example: Let's say you have a web-app. The web server receives a request, and pushes it into the store, in the form of a graph. So, for instance, you get the "request" node, and it links up to a node representing the time it was received, and it links up to the URL, and it links up to the response to be filled out, etc., etc.,. Then if a program knows how to fill out the response, it starts filling out the response as much as it can. For things that aren't at it's level of abstraction, it leaves for other programs. When things are fleshed out enough for those programs, they automatically jump into play, and fill out the rest. When it's all fleshed out, the web server recognizes that the "done" flag's set, takes the whole thing, ships it out, and then clears everything. What's new here is that what triggers programs/procedures is the state of the tuple store, the shared graph- programs register states that they can metabolize, and then when conditions are right, the programs are invoked. Your programs are collections of traps. Mixes declarative programming with imperative programming, in step with development of the semantic web.
• Non-boxy interface, Deep visualization - Our GUI tools are all "boxy," and there haven't been any real UI advances since MFC, and I do blame the API. It's easy to imagine API's that allow you to specify call-outs, how icons that contain icons are specified, the ability to compose and connect icons, etc., etc.,. But we're still in the images, rectangles, buttons, and tree views days, as far as easy-to-use API's are concerned. As SVG matures, I believe that our API's will get less rectangular, and give us visual and interactive power on the cheap.
• Social Help Documentation - I think we'll see integrated help documentation linking up with things like wiki and programmer's forums. So you'll be able to read a function's documentation, and see 17 examples of real use of the function and commentary. It won't be a seperate open-a-web-browser and search thing, it'll be easily available and connected with the deployed documentatio

It makes sense to me.

We're making an Internet Hive Mind.

It's started with commited group efforts like Free Software. As communications technology develops, we start seeing things like Wikipedia.

As it develops further, we will see things like the project-space network, and local economies and sharing networks. As it develops still further, local governments will be mediated over by well organized electronic communities online.

Really, if this all seems strange to you, you have no idea the power of communications technologies.

Before "wiki," a piece of software, there could be no wikipedia. After that piece of software, it's almost impossible for there not to be a wikipedia. Details could be different, but the basic idea is almost an inevitabilitiy.

We are not done. There's still a hoard of communications software in the pipes. We're just now getting our event systems online. We'll start seeing things like "OverHear," allowing you to hear your friends' public conversations, with voice even. As we get the ability to index the world's voice conversations (with voice-to-text software), we'll be able to ask, "Who in the last 5 minutes said this world," we'll see that the online world will become one gigantic OpenSpace conference. We'll see the conferences, we'll see the group affiliations, we'll see the projects, we'll see it all.

I predict that between 2015 and 2020, the Hive Mind (by some other name) will be a recognized and powerful force. It will also recognize itself and it's own power. We could call this the day that the Hive Mind achieves "self-awareness."

It may even have a military force- I don't know what else to call a gigantic networked mess of sympathetic hackers, chemists, biologists, and lawyers. It is not unthinkable that "the Internet" may become it's own "sovereign nation," of sorts, lack of an independent land be damned.

So, connecting the idea of the UN and the Internet is not all that strange. I mean, what else? What else could it possibly be?

Our next generation "communications software" isn't so much about making it so that messages can be sent from person to person in different ways, but about organizing the existing communications, and about organizing ourselves. We're putting in individual-to-group affiliations, and affiliations amongst groups with each other.

There's no reason to believe that our communications will stop networking and developing.

People do not have their attention on our trajectory. They see half the people downtown walking around with cell phones stuck to their ears, but they don't think that anything can "come next." But it will. There's much much more on the way.

The "Hive Mind" will look less rediculous, I think.

In 5 years, VoIP will be mature, and have basically taken over. Online group VoIP conferences may be primitive, but some ordinary people will be using them. Semantic web technologies like RDF will be in mainstream understanding and use (like XML right now), and our computers will be noticably "smarter" than the information desplay we have today. Tablet's will be cheap and accessible, and we'll tighten up the "I drew something"-to-"There it is on the web" loop. In short, our conversations will be full of napkin diagrams, Visual Language will take off beyond web comics. Our user interfaces will have transcended (finally) the box-ish interfaces, because graph data-structures have taken on new-found importance, and with the new interfaces, we'll see component lan

You may be interested in LocalNames, which allows people or groups to keep their own keyword lists.

You can default LocalNames lists to other LocalNames lists- so, if people make a particularly good or useful set of names, other people can choose to use them as well.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

You can do just this with Local Names.

You (and others) can maintain a list of corporate names, and bind them to URLs. Then you publish the list.

People can then default their own names lists to the list of corporate names.

If they look up a name (in their browser address bar,) and it's not on their own list, it will automatically default to the corporate names list.

If the name was defined in both their own list and in the corporate list, then resolution goes to their own name. If they specificly want to go to the corporate list, then they can type "corp/Coke", instead of just "Coke," and get to the corporate names list.

The technology exists now, to do it. Here, I tell it to make a new space... There. I've just made a working namespaces.

Now to set up URL forwarding... There.

http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/ is now bound to the names description, so you can just go to a URL like http://localnames.taoriver.net/corp/Coca-Cola and you'll be taken straight to the Coca-Cola website.

Using FireFox foo, you can make it so that just typing "corp Coca-Cola" will take you straight to the Coca-Cola corporation's website.

And if you make your own LocalNames list, you can just add the Corporation list as a defaulting target, and the names will all pass through.

Ta daaa!

But it's not just for web browsing; You can use this in any wiki that supports InterLinks, and you can use your names in WordPress blogs as well...

In the future, we'll write mail client plugins, mailing list plugins, instant messenger plugins, all sorts of beautiful things, so that, combined with good link organizers, you Never Ever Ever have to look at a URL ever ever again.

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

• e-mail
• instant messages
• bulletin board posts
• blog posts
• wiki posts
• ...and in your address bar.

"So, I was on [[Slashdot]] the other day, and I saw [[invisibility cloak][an incredible invisibility cloak!]]"

"So, I was on Slashdot the other day, and I saw an incredible invisibility cloak!

You might want to investigate DingDing, an Event System.

It supports XML-RPC, Query -based Subscription, and Transparent Messaging.

I'm in the middle of working v5 of it, which has a more consistent API, security and privacy features, and more "exhibition" as well- you can look at the server, and see who's subscribed, get a whole lot of other data as well. It also has an ULI port, so it's easy to query from Jabber, IRC, the command line, wherever you can communicate a line.

You might want to investigate DingDing, an Event System.

It supports XML-RPC, Query -based Subscription, and Transparent Messaging.

I'm in the middle of working v5 of it, which has a more consistent API, security and privacy features, and more "exhibition" as well- you can look at the server, and see who's subscribed, get a whole lot of other data as well. It also has an ULI port, so it's easy to query from Jabber, IRC, the command line, wherever you can communicate a line.

You might want to investigate DingDing, an Event System.

It supports XML-RPC, Query -based Subscription, and Transparent Messaging.

I'm in the middle of working v5 of it, which has a more consistent API, security and privacy features, and more "exhibition" as well- you can look at the server, and see who's subscribed, get a whole lot of other data as well. It also has an ULI port, so it's easy to query from Jabber, IRC, the command line, wherever you can communicate a line.

You might want to investigate DingDing, an Event System.

It supports XML-RPC, Query -based Subscription, and Transparent Messaging.

I'm in the middle of working v5 of it, which has a more consistent API, security and privacy features, and more "exhibition" as well- you can look at the server, and see who's subscribed, get a whole lot of other data as well. It also has an ULI port, so it's easy to query from Jabber, IRC, the command line, wherever you can communicate a line.

I made a thing called a "Personal Log" (plog) a while back.

I was surprised to see my little program had reached Slashdot!

Please visit the Paper Talk wiki to organize around making Open standards and implementations of this sort of technology, or just to watch.

A digital camera can be a scanner, and automatically pull out digital information.

You can encode computer data inside of big letters, readable by humans.

You can do a lot with this technology.

In the Wiki world, we've been thinking about ideas such as having Local Names.

In Wiki, you can name a page just by putting "[[ ]]" marks around it, and it links to the page. Recent advances such as the NearLink have made it so that you can refer to pages on "nearby" wiki, even without naming the wiki. If the word you are linking to isn't defined on the immediate wiki, but it is defined on a near wiki, then the word links to it's definition on that nearby wiki.

But we're carrying the concept even further. With Local Names, we want to be able to link not just to wiki pages, but any sort of page. For example, you could bind [[Slashdot]] to http://slashdot.org/ .

But wait! There's more! We want to store these bindings in a "Local Names Server", which you could then tell people about, or store in your person preferences server, or a FOAF file. Then, when you post to a website, or slashdot, or whatever, and refer to something that it doesn't know about, it can look it up in your personal local names server. Of course, Slashdot would have to know what local name servers are, and would have to know to look at them.

At the end of the day, what you effectively have, is a world without URL's- just lots of local names. You'd have a mechanism for "picking up" and "giving away" local names. So, for example, if someone refers to something by a name, and you like it, you can "pick it up" into your own local names server. There are all sorts of possibilities here.

In the Wiki world, we've been thinking about ideas such as having Local Names.

In Wiki, you can name a page just by putting "[[ ]]" marks around it, and it links to the page. Recent advances such as the NearLink have made it so that you can refer to pages on "nearby" wiki, even without naming the wiki. If the word you are linking to isn't defined on the immediate wiki, but it is defined on a near wiki, then the word links to it's definition on that nearby wiki.

But we're carrying the concept even further. With Local Names, we want to be able to link not just to wiki pages, but any sort of page. For example, you could bind [[Slashdot]] to http://slashdot.org/ .

But wait! There's more! We want to store these bindings in a "Local Names Server", which you could then tell people about, or store in your person preferences server, or a FOAF file. Then, when you post to a website, or slashdot, or whatever, and refer to something that it doesn't know about, it can look it up in your personal local names server. Of course, Slashdot would have to know what local name servers are, and would have to know to look at them.

At the end of the day, what you effectively have, is a world without URL's- just lots of local names. You'd have a mechanism for "picking up" and "giving away" local names. So, for example, if someone refers to something by a name, and you like it, you can "pick it up" into your own local names server. There are all sorts of possibilities here.

In the Wiki world, we've been thinking about ideas such as having Local Names.

In Wiki, you can name a page just by putting "[[ ]]" marks around it, and it links to the page. Recent advances such as the NearLink have made it so that you can refer to pages on "nearby" wiki, even without naming the wiki. If the word you are linking to isn't defined on the immediate wiki, but it is defined on a near wiki, then the word links to it's definition on that nearby wiki.

But we're carrying the concept even further. With Local Names, we want to be able to link not just to wiki pages, but any sort of page. For example, you could bind [[Slashdot]] to http://slashdot.org/ .

But wait! There's more! We want to store these bindings in a "Local Names Server", which you could then tell people about, or store in your person preferences server, or a FOAF file. Then, when you post to a website, or slashdot, or whatever, and refer to something that it doesn't know about, it can look it up in your personal local names server. Of course, Slashdot would have to know what local name servers are, and would have to know to look at them.

At the end of the day, what you effectively have, is a world without URL's- just lots of local names. You'd have a mechanism for "picking up" and "giving away" local names. So, for example, if someone refers to something by a name, and you like it, you can "pick it up" into your own local names server. There are all sorts of possibilities here.

Why don't they make heartwarming movies about exploiting autistic savants anymore? The Wizard, Rain Man... is that the end of the genre?

I hear Adam Sandler is still making movies, if you'll count that.

d. Taylor Singletary
experimental music

d. Taylor Singletary, reality technician
experimental music

d. Taylor Singletary, reality technician
experimental musician

Beyond that, I'd love to see Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense in an IMAX theater, Dark City, Felini's Juliette of the Spirits, and the Garbage Pail Kids movie....

d. Taylor Singletary, reality technician
(experimental music)

--
Experimental music

My boyfriend and I (or me?) love the Harry Potter books and are glad that the received such an award. When our daughter was born, we started reading Harry Potter to her. We are looking forward to The Order of Phoenix so we can continue. Congrats JK Rowling!

Actually, you are right on the "fruit" note. That word's been stuck in my head ever since a particular joke my girlfriend pulled over me... {;D}=

Sorry to be so blatant.

I've seen people do so many silly things, make so many foolish arguments, all for the sake of their beloved status symbol, the Palm Pilot.

Don't you on with your "Luddite" name-calling! I happen to be a software developer, with hoards of languages behind me, and I'm young (25). I know all about what technology can and can't do, and I Love nothing more than to see good tech advance..

And I'm saying that this here PDA thing is a load of CRAP. Give it 10-15 years, and I'll look at it again. But right now, there's no good reason to shell out $150 for something that's going to pull you backwards in your education.

I had a student once who insisted on spending hoards of time loading his books for class into his Palm Pilot. He copiously took notes into his Palm- a couple sentances by the end of a four hour lecture, and we'd have to hold up class so that he could cram them in there with his stylus. He'd go on and on about the amazing advantages and all the things it could do. While I Love this guy, and he's a good friend- What a fruitcake! He bought the whole Tech=Good thing hook, line, and sinker. Held up class, and held up his own learning. All over a technology fetish.

PDA's are a fad, for the most part. Sure, there are valid uses, and they can really help out in certain areas in our life. But for the most part, it's a fruity fad.

Want to advance your education? Buy your books, and then write in them.

Want to advance your education? Learn, and then think about the things you learned.

TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED YEARS ago, Confucius had all the technology he needed to wisely note that studying without thinking is a waste, and thinking without study is a disaster.

If you can so much as get students to think about what they learn and connect it with the world they live in, you'll be far better off than you will by having them nonsensically scribbling on a palm, and they'll learn far more.

Thank you Slashdot once again for reminding me why I'm home schooling my daughter.

I have an unfortunate bias; I work at a video game middleware company, and we're strictly C++, as is most of the game industry.

My Java is very very very rusty, and I can't responsibly teach it.

My career has been entirely C, C++, and Objective-C. (I've used Python and Perl for a few scripts.) Maybe I'm just weird, but I haven't used JAVA professionally once, and my coworkers and friends haven't either. WEll, they may have, but it just hasn't come to my attention.

People are into Java servlets, but beyond that, I'd be at a loss to say where they are being used; perhaps you could help me out here? I know that our local metro uses Java to display bus schedules, but that's because it was a university project.

If my students got stuck away doing maintenance on 5 year old systems, I don't think they would mind to much; it beats a lot of their current jobs. They'd continue to come to the classes to further learn, and develop their skills, provided that they didn't have to move away. Once they get to a certain level, they feel comfortable teaching themselves and learning on their own, as a few of my students have done. They can keep developing, and get out of the maintenance positions.

One of my students wants to do embedded work; He learns C from me, and teaches himself Ada. I don't think Java will do him too much good. Then again, I don't know much about embedded stuff.

I've noticed a disturbing trend in the replies; That is, most of them focus on language features.

For example, they say, "Oh, they should use this, because it has good OO," or, "Oh, use [C/ASM], because it's low level, and good programmers know how low level stuff works", or, "Use [C++/Java], because that's what the industry uses", or "Use XYZ because it's got a good set of libraries," etc., etc.,.

These folks have obviously never taught people who haven't programmed before.

These are people who are going to struggle with variables. These are people who can't write a for loop to save their lives. They can't use a function, much less a method.

OOP, pointers, bits&bytes, libraries; None of that matters for at least 3-6 months.

This is why I highly recommend either LOGO or Python as a first language. These are interactive interpreters. You need to be able to say, "X=4", and then say, "what is X?", and then reassign X. You need these basic things.

Once the concepts of variables, loops, and functions are in place, then you can easily map to other languages. I know this because I've taught it. I also know this because I've consoled students crying over their Java homework (quite literally) at the end of the semester, incapable of using a for loop. These are good students.

As programmers, we take a lot for granted.

So forget all this "X features OOP, Y has a good lib, Z is low level," and think: Variables, Flow Control, Functions. The rest will follow naturally after these are ingrained and easily used.

I teach free programming classes in Seattle. Since I teach classes for free, I don't have the economic pressure to teach JAVA or C++. I could write whole articles about the damage that certification programs do to people. Another problem is that people look at the Jobs page, discover that most industry programmers are doing something called "JAVA" or "C++". They open up the university catalog and see, "Learn JAVA in 3 months!!!" ($1500), right next to the A+ certification houses. Since the ads are all over the place, they figure that it must be the way. They take a class, and drop out halfway through. The experienced programmers with CS degrees taking JAVA to learn a new language make the newcomers feel pathetic, and they decide programming isn't for them. If only I could copy the experiences in my mind for y'all... It's really bleak.

College is a different situation. I think the reason the profs teach JAVA is because they actually bought (and contributed to!) the hoop-lah about OOP, in a theoretical rather than economic way.

I teach my students in the following order:

1. Python. They learn to use variables, flow control, and functions in Python. Lists, Strings, Tuples, Dictionaries, Integers, and Files.
2. C. They learn what bits and bytes are, binary logic, pointers, and some OS details.
3. Python. They learn what classes and objects are. More importantly, we go over Design Patterns book, full of designs that extend in scope well beyond OOP.
4. C++. They use classes and objects in C++.
5. Python. Functional notations such as filter and map.
6. Python. How to interface between C and Python.

It is with great sadness that I teach my students OOP, as it is over-hyped, and people believe in it religiously and without question. I teach it in order to prepare them for the world that will hire them.

The primary value in OOP, as far as I can tell, is thinking about the data first, and language features supporting polymorphism. Also, the book "Design Patterns" is the most (and quite possibly only) valuable piece of literature from the OOP community. I stress that it doesn't require a particular language or ideology to implement polymorphic behavior, or to think about the data first, or to implement a common pattern. (Device drivers and web servers are great examples of objects exhibiting polymorphism and encapsulation. In Non-OO speak, that's the product of paying attention to coupling and cohesion, which takes us right back to... The Unix Philosophy.)

I teach C so that they see low level stuff, and Python, for reasons to numerous to list. I teach C++ so that they can get hired.

One of the reasons for listing Python: They can start writing programs from day 1, second 1. No fussing with heavy class notations, like Java forces you to. (Just look at Java's hello world.) To believe that new students learn about OOP by using Java is hopelessly naive. Most students I've seen working with Java as a first language struggle with making for loops, while loops, and using variables. (Of course, several students will defend their teacher and difficult learning by give you the rhetoric that OOP is the way, and that Java is great because it's... OOP! You can feel the difference!)

This is a good question, and I'll see if I can answer to you, and your peers, satisfaction.

Let's see... Well, I linked to Sakura ("that child", my daughter) because I wanted to show that I do indeed have a daughter.

A lot of the time, people who are fearful of sex, "stretched bodily holes", any threat to their authority/concept of decency, children learning the truth about sex, and Harry Potter, suggest that people who are into unrestricted Internet access don't have kids of their own.

I want to show that that is not the case. When Sakura can hold a mouse and click links, she can look at any page she wants to. Oh no! What if she sees porn on the Internet?! Since she's already seen hentai (I'd link to something better, but fear the slashdotting...) on the TV/VCR (she doesn't bat an eye), she shouldn't be all that surprised. I don't think the better resolution will have a huge affect on her.

You may believe and teach your children that sexual material is harmful, evil, and fearful; I, however, will not.

By all means, DO IT!

I work at LithTech. I work, probably technically illegally, on OpenSource/Free Software at home. I have contributed to various game projects in minor ways. One thing that other Free/OpenSource game programmers say to me is, "You work at a game company?! How Cool! That's a dream job." Not once have I heard, "Die Fascist Proprietary Software Developer!" Almost all of them want to be game developers, or wish they were.

I also teach free classes on programming (Seattle/Kirkland,WA). I have some exceptional students. One understands C very well, and regularly reads FreeBSD Kernel source. My students are all looking for jobs in programming; I encourage them to write OpenSource code. That way, their code and work is visible, rather than hidden. It's not just games companies that should be looking for coders in the Open/Free communities.

Open/Free software and Proprietary houses have a symbiotic relationship. I believe that it has always been that way. By all means, please, look into the very eager, very motivated, Free Software programmers pool. They want to work professionally on games. Hey! You can look at what their code is actually like before you even talk with them..! It's a win-win.

By all means, DO IT!

I work at LithTech. I work, probably technically illegally, on OpenSource/Free Software at home. I have contributed to various game projects in minor ways. One thing that other Free/OpenSource game programmers say to me is, "You work at a game company?! How Cool! That's a dream job." Not once have I heard, "Die Fascist Proprietary Software Developer!" Almost all of them want to be game developers, or wish they were.

I also teach free classes on programming (Seattle/Kirkland,WA). I have some exceptional students. One understands C very well, and regularly reads FreeBSD Kernel source. My students are all looking for jobs in programming; I encourage them to write OpenSource code. That way, their code and work is visible, rather than hidden. It's not just games companies that should be looking for coders in the Open/Free communities.

Open/Free software and Proprietary houses have a symbiotic relationship. I believe that it has always been that way. By all means, please, look into the very eager, very motivated, Free Software programmers pool. They want to work professionally on games. Hey! You can look at what their code is actually like before you even talk with them..! It's a win-win.

All in all, I found what was said to be rather accurate, and it is interested to see Microsoft moving itself towards a Shared Source model. 2 years ago, I never saw any source. I found it kind of humerous that they included their "samples" as a significant contribution of source code, and that they boasted that "100 universities" had the source code. But all in all, it was rather rational.

This is coming from a guy who volunteered for the GNU booth at LISA (sysadmin conference), writes GPL'ed software at home, advocates Free and Open Source software at work, and teaches free classes on programming twice a week in his free time. Honestly, this article seems like a nice concise representation of the issues that we are facing in the technical world, and the licensing tradeoffs as well. It is a remarkably centered piece, especially considering that it's coming from Microsoft. Maybe it's coming from their Biz department, rather than Marketting.

However, I wouldn't take the article as a sign of the impending doom or non-use of GPL'ed software. As another /. reader said, it's good to view GPL'ed and OpenSource software as software belong to a single company (GNU?), namely, the company consisting of all contributors.

I believe quite strongly that Free and OpenSource software will overcome Microsoft.

First, the very thing that allowed Linux to exist in the first place, the life blood of Free/OpenSource Software, namely, communication, is becoming cheaper and easier. We are watching a bandwidth and connection revolutions. As barriers to communication come down, the success of Free and OpenSource software will increase.

Second, as more and more people become involved in the computing world (and they are coming, they are definitely coming- just look overseas) and the online world, the # of Free and OpenSource developers will increase. I believe that our numbers as Free/OS software developers are, and will, increase faster than the # of employees at Microsoft.

That KDE and GNOME (particularly KDE) would cease development because OS/Free software isn't a viable business model would be a faulty conclusion. KDE is not a business. Go to the KDE web page and tell me that they're running a business. It's very clearly a community.

We can build our own operating system, and as developers, it's just sort of our nature to do so.

Anyways, Kudo's to MicroSoft for a well written summary, and a "Yay" if they actually follow through on their commitment to share their source.

Back to my side of the fence: Yay KDE! Yay GNOME!

I owe Philip Greenspun a lot. Philip Greenspun is personally responsible for changing how I looked at technology, programming, as well as changing how I looked at Life.

My students owe Philip Greenspun a lot as well; If it weren't for his article on software professionalism, I don't know that I would be teaching free programming classes to the public.

It's terrible and saddening to see ArsDigita becoming just another silly company.

On the upside ("Long Live the King"), I look forward to seeing where he decides to turn his life next. Maybe this is actually a turn for the better. Maybe he'll be a little more humble, not just in thought and deed, but also speech. Maybe he'll write about his trip to India. Maybe he'll become a spokesperson for Nikon. Maybe he'll just relax, read, and mull over some books.

Regardless, I feel very priveledged to have been able to read what he has written, and to have heard him lecture, and look forward to his new life.

Unfortunately, the web page I had with all the visualizations on it went down about a year and a half ago when I move to Seattle.

Call me up or otherwise contact me to hassle me about getting them online if you'd like to see them; I'll try remembering to dig them up.

In brief, the binary operator looked like a doctors stethascope, with the two prongs attached to points, and the long prong pointing to a final point. The picture (and icon) for closure was a sort of wiggly loop (the set) with the stethascope (3 lines and an arrow) having it's two inputs coming from within the set, and the output going back into the set.

Associativity looked like... uh... Hard to describe with words. It looked like a U with a U under it, and an upside down U with an upside U under it, attached in the middle; very hard to describe.

Identity: Draw the set with all the points lined up on the edge, and take one special element and put it on the interior. That's the icon form; for the complete picture, you add in the binary operator, one end on the identity, one end on an element, and the output going to the element.

Inverses... I'll skip to commutivity, since it's the easiest to draw; it looks like an X. The two elements on the top can switch places (the elements reversed on the bottom). It's a little rounded to show the "trajectory" of the two elements; that they cross over.

This is not very fruitful; I'll just have to put them back online... =^_^=

I agree; Your right, integration of knowledge is a higher problem. A friend of mine getting his PhD in Physics in Berkeley related a number of papers to me that said that even graduate physicists would resort back to Aristotilian models of the world (forced, natural, and animate motion, but mostly "forced motion") when confronted with problems that didn't match the ones they tackled in books.

But I think people who had a clear grasp through intuition and pictures would be better equipped to tackle the integration challenges.

One of my students came to class, and I asked him, "How's math going?" He replied, "Good, I just did great on a test on the Pythagorean theorem." I said, "Oh really? Did you show the teacher the proof I taught you?" He sort of looked puzzled, and said, "Hunh?" And I said, "Yeah, remember, 'Asquared + Bsquared + 2AB yadda yadda...'?" He said, "That's the Pythagorean Theorem?!"

The thing is, he knew this proof that I had shown him left and right, forward and backwards, inside and out. We'd gone over it several times. But since I didn't call it "The Pythagorean Theorem," he didn't have that link, and hadn't linked it up.

I also asked him, "If you have a spaceship at (5,3), and a missle headed toward it at (1,1), what's the distance between them?" He couldn't answer it. Then I gave him a triangle and asked for the length of the hypoteneus. He could do it. But he wasn't able to integrate the two ideas together until I manually showed him how. I remember having the same difficulties myself, a long time ago.

I think as humans, we're just really bad with our internal communication/thought and crossreferencing. It takes a certain degree of feeling like you have "ownership" of an idea, like you are holding it in your hand, and you are going to weild it like a weapon against all the other ideas and situations in the world. "Knowing how to get the length of a hypoteneus, how can we approach the problem of the distance between two points (positions specified by orthogonal vectors)".

I guess the thing is to make sure to ensure that students build a framework of interconnected ideas. I think the constructivist school of thought is a good idea; I wonder if there is a way to teach this a little more explicitly.

What kind of game are you working on?

I've been playing with SDL on and off for about a year and a half now. Long ago, I wrote a VisualC-SDL intro, and submitted a bug fix. I've worked on BumpRace, and am working on a game that I plan to port from ClanLib to SDL soon, just to chop the dependencies down and ditch C++.

It sounds like you are talking about a home game programming project. If that's the case, then SDL should more than meet your need. In my experience, home game programmers tend to dramatically over-estimate their performance needs. Focus more on making your game do something interesting first.

I don't meant to say SDL doesn't perform well; Hyperion ported Shogo to Linux using SDL (so, yes, companies other than Loki commercially using it), and Loki ported Tribes 2 and a zillion other games to Linux with SDL...

As for the user community for SDL; it's huge, and quite friendly. There are a lot of projects out there that build on SDL, and there are bindings for Python, Perl, and many other languages. (For casual readers: SDL itself is in C.)

I really don't know what more you could ask for, except for it to become the world standard and have a dedicated hotline for support (DirectX). Other than that, it's all pretty much there.