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Flash, Meet Sparkle

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the anything-you-can-do dept.

Robert writes "Microsoft finally released more information about their Sparkle product on a Channel 9 MSDN video. Sparkle is vector based XAML system for doing applications that may have traditionaly been done in flash. Ars Technica's Josh Meier has a few things to say about it, too."

20 of 493 comments (clear)

  1. I'm disrespectful to dirt! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you see I am serious!

    Get out of my way, all of you!

    This is no place for loafers.

    Join me or die.

    Can you do any less?

    For lucky best wash, use Mr. Sparkle.

    1. Re:I'm disrespectful to dirt! by lonasindi · · Score: 2, Funny

      yay for culture. This was literally the first thing that popped into my head after reading this item and I though 'Oh-ho! I shall be clever and post an oblique reference to The Simpsons!'

      Alas, I have been vanquished!

  2. Oh, great. by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I'm gonna need SparkleBlock as well as FlashBlock. More browser plugin bloat.

    1. Re:Oh, great. by red_dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

      You know, I'm beginning to doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
    2. Re:Oh, great. by MBraynard · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's pretty appealing. If I get certified as a sparkle engineer, am I qualified to apply the glitter to Shakira's bare mid-rift before live performances?

  3. I'm disrespectful to dirt! by MiKM · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mr. Sparkle: A joint venture of Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern

  4. Product Demonstration by Frogbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    Product Demonstration here

  5. Microsoft Naming Department by Nikkos · · Score: 2, Funny

    Flash, Sparkle, what's next, Twinkle?

  6. Sparkle by psydad · · Score: 2, Funny

    I remember in the late '80s / early '90s. I used to get my pr0n (600 baud - thank you)The executable would always say "waiting for sparkle". I do remember that the quality of the video (remember folks this was 286 territory) was very good. Actual video, not pixelated bitmaps.
    I wonder...

  7. How can you vouche for the security of this? by CyricZ · · Score: 3, Funny

    No offense, sir, but you seem quite convinced that this will become a major security flaw in Windows Vista.

    Does your opinion have any technical merit? Have you inspected the source code to the implementation of this technology? Can you provide clear examples of malicious uses?

    Or is your opinion based solely upon the past actions of Microsoft, with regards to similar technology?

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
    1. Re:How can you vouche for the security of this? by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

      "historical performance is a reasonable basis for prediction."

      Ah, this is an interesting rule. Well, in that case, I'd like to point out that next year will not be the year for Linux on the desktop.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:How can you vouche for the security of this? by ultranova · · Score: 2, Funny

      Fact is, IE7 is going to be far more standards compliant,

      Fact is that version 2.0 of Firefox will perform and in-depth psychological analysis of the designer of the web site based on the site to figure out what he meant to do, so it can always render it correctly. It will also detect the evil bits to prevent all possible trojans, viruses, spam popups and other malware from working. Linux kernel 3.0 will also use this technology to prevent any program from crashing or misbehaving, ever, however it will be facing heavy competition from GNU Hurd, which will have risen to dominate the desktops everywhere after the Mach got torn out and replaced with an interpreted Bash script providing a huge performance boost.

      and IE8 is likely to be more compliant than FireFox.

      On what do you base this estimation ? And do you refer to the current state of Firefox, or to th state it is going to be in when IE8 comes out ?

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  8. Re:Not flash killer. by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 3, Funny

    >Sparkle sounds...girly.

    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!

  9. Re:What sort of security vulnerabilities.. by KillShill · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes.

    --
    Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
  10. Re:XAML? by killjoe · · Score: 4, Funny

    "XAML" Microsoft for "XUL".

    Instead of taking an open spec like XUl and joining it, bettering it, and implementing it they chose to go their own way. Nothing to see here, runalong now and leave the evil people to their own devices.

    --
    evil is as evil does
  11. Re:XAML? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    On OS X, there was this program floating around on Versiontracker that would convert any picture into an html document by converting each pixel into a table-cell that was styled 1px by 1px and colored. This prevened easy downloading of the image, but caused what might have been a 100k image to take up 4 megs in an html file.

    Morons. Haven't they ever heard of run-length encoding? Compress those images ... with colspan=!

  12. the C. P. Snow Divide of Sciences and Humanities by Gaurang · · Score: 1, Funny

    It is strange to see so many comments in this story criticizing Microsoft, even though they are making a commendable, and somewhat innovative product.

    It seems like Slashdot has become completely blind to its prejudices, and will criticize Microsoft whatever it does.

    Commenting that "Flash and Powerpoint are bad things" is to me indicative of a parochial, extremely narrow-minded worldview; a view that is completely ignorant of half of the world's desires and life-cultures.

    If people really think that Microsoft makes crappy products, do you think Bill Gates would have been the richest man in the world for 11 straight years? (And also the biggest philanthropist the world has ever seen?) Can you do that for me please? Why do you think the whole world uses Microsoft products? Do you think that if Microsoft would have used fairer marketing strategies giving fair chance to each competitor, their products would have died out, and the company wiped out because of their low quality products?

    This anti-flash, anti-ease-of-use, anti-glamour, anti-aesthetic, anti-comfort, anti-authoritian attitude reminds me of the C.P.Snow divide between the Sciences and Humanities.

    I feel the need for our coming together.

    --
    I have found a solution to Riemann's Hypothesis, but have run out of spac
  13. Re:Not flash killer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    > Yet, here it is, with a name that sounds exactly like it's directly competing with Flash. Along those lines, why Sparkle? Flash sounds cool, but Sparkle sounds...girly.

    Yeah, I'm sure many a developer will be worried about tarnishing their macho, manly image.

  14. What?! No more Flash-based Microsoft Ads? by Seraphnote · · Score: 2, Funny

    What?! No more Flash-based Microsoft Ads?

    I mean I so enjoy seeing Microsoft advertise their development tools using Flash based ads on Slashdot!
    It just makes me laugh everytime I see one!
     
    Will they now be Sparkle-based?!

  15. Re:Often programmers know very little... by Darth+Liberus · · Score: 2, Funny
    The only way for a firm to become truly effective is for individuals to focus on one task, and to do that one task extremely well.

    The day this happens is the day I change careers.

    --
    Beauty is just a light switch away.