He IS talking about SUSE, namely Suse Linux Enterprise Server, SLES for short. It can setup it all from gui, and then you can use SUSE 9.x Professional as clients by simply pointing them to the SLES server's LDAP and Kerberos. But I think the problem here is that many people wants these tools in a "Free as in beer" way...
From the FAQ on Scaled website, they state that the engine can be stopped and restarted many times (even if it's not all that useful since the max burn is about 90 seconds IIRC).
On SpaceShipOne however there's no provision for engine throttling. They don't state if this is because it has been considered not useful for SpaceShipOne mission profile, or if it can't be done with their tecnology.
Their engine works (from their site) mixing liquid N2O with HTPB rubber at high temperature. it would be useful to know if in such reaction controllig N2O flow or temperature can achieve throttling or not.
> Moreover, they are using a solid propellant > rocket motor. They would have to switch to > liquid engine to go suborbital, and that > implies a heck of a lot more mass
Why a liquid propellant engine is necessary for (sub?)orbital flight? From their webpages, I understand that their engine uses "hybrid" solid/liquid propellants and is restartable a certain number of times...
Are there other things I should know regarding liquid engines features but I don't because I'm not a rocket engineer?:-)
It's from Trust, and it was cheap either. The feeling of the ball is nice, and you can also "reverse" it in hardware with a key combo to use the ball for the cursor and the mouse to scroll windows:-)
Actually, you can do what you say only on a NT 4 IIS (default) installation: there the IIS runs as SYSTEM and can modify files.
On 2000 and on system where some non-stupid admin did the initial installation (but not maintenance;-) the IIS runs as a user that can't "patch" itself or overwrite "interesting" system files.
> If the US government tried to implement that,
> we would be kicking and screaming about
> government control of the Internet,
Erm... In Europe the governments know who is collecting data and for which purposes, but they do NOT have access to those data. And if you're about to collect sensitive data (about religion, politics beliefs, sexual practices...) you need to obtain a special authorization: they check what uses you'll do with that data.
Moreover, the company that collects data is responsibile for them, so that even if these data "accidentally" leak to someone else, the company is responsible for what happens.
We don't have privacy policies, we have privacy LAWS.
... has a lot of solutions _almost_ ready for streaming. Notice the enphasis on "almost".
They have a quicktime/mpeg player for linux, a library to read and write quicktime format files, and a low-bitrate MPEG encoder, not compatible with MediaPlayer (i.e. noone wrote a codec for it, at least until now).
I'm not sure about streaming support, but given the library and the quicktime standard, I'd say this should be easy to implement.
If you have the option of paying some developers to write some code, maybe this could be a solution (you'll need a MS WMP codec based on MPEG 2-movie and libmpeg2)
To expand on my problems (and on my level of knowledge), I know a little japanese (some grammar, hiragana and katakana and very few kanjis).
I'd like to be able to use a computer dictionary to speed up my 'reading time' of a Japanese web page, and with that improve my understanding of the language using real world examples of it. Using the dictionary I can copy-paste the kanji in the right place in the dictionary program, and avoid the long search time on a paper dictionary (I do have a very good memory for symbols, but I need to be able to do something "interesting" while studying, or I get bored:)
I've already tried kinput2 on a SuSE 6.4 with KDE 1.1, but with little success: when the kinput2 is active and configured (I've used cannaserver), nothing happens even with the kterm (self compiled) or with the Kanji dictionaries.
Maybe SuSE's X isn't compiled for extended input methods? Or maybe kinput2 doesn't work with XFree 4.0? Guess I'll have to check specfiles and docs for X.
I'll also check the various link you provided me for answers to my dilemmas;), many thanks again!
A thing that many people (including the author of the article) doesn't get at all is that Linux has a "change rate" that (poetic license;) beats the shit out of Windoze or MacOS.
I see many here saying: "use RedHat and not SuSE", "No, debian with apt-get" is better" and so on.
Well, I also could join the game and say that SuSE is better. 7.0 has about 10 pre-made configurations that allow you to choose the main use of your machine, has a graphical X configurator that works very well (SAX or SAX2, are the names), and another ton of nice, fast setup options.
So? Is SuSE better than RedHat, Debian & Co.? I'll say "I don't know": I don't use RedHat or Debian, I didn't see their last versions, and I'm NOT going to say "xxxx sucks get SuSE". What you know well is always better than something you saw for some (limited?) time 2 years ago.
Reality is that, in every distributions, important flaws (including setup ones) get fixed in 6/8 month or less. So, in a year, Windows will have a hard time keeping its "easier to use" tag if M$ doesn't start to run NOW. And my impression is that they are running, but in the wrong direction (see Media Player 7...;-)
Final silly note for the article author: how much time does he usualy spend installing and configuring a "full windows workstation", like one doing the things he lists at the end of the article?
In my own experience, it takes at least twice than a Linux setup, and this is if the wonderful Windows Plug & Play doesn't blow up in your face.
The time spent in installations, updates and reinstalls is a huge hidden cost in Windows. With Linux a company would be able to save much more than the M$ license fees.
In EU there are no laws, al least up until now, that make it illegal to buy and use Zone 1 DVD.
Things like DMCA, that makes illegal "circumventing digital protection methods" even when you have all the rights to see/use the content (since you paid for it) are still drafts at best, and with little chances to become effective.
The European Trade law forbids any and every barrier in protection of goods or prices across the borders of the EU member states.
So, if a french consumer gets sued for buying a Zone 1 DVD from Italy, Germany or UK, he can countersue against the French State at the European Court in Strasbourg. And he will definitely WIN, because no member state can have laws that protect its industry from the other states' ones. If Zone 1 DVD are legal elsewhere in the EU, then they must be available for inter-state sale in France.
The only way the French state has to enforce this law is by having it approved by the European Parliament.
Am I the only one thinking that using YABASIC we'll be able to understand PS2's internals well enough that someone will start porting your favorite kernel to it?
The only major problem could be Sony exploiting of some of the 'features' of the Artistic License under which YABASIC is available (mainly: libraries, linked function and 'embedded version') but given a stable interface with YABASIC, it's only a matter of time before someone will be able to understand how to use these libraries to understand how PS2 BIOS and/or HW work (for an exaple, look at how the windows CODECS for AVI, ASF and DivX are used in linux/unix multimedia players).
Excuse me, but do you think that if there were astronauts on the Polar Lander, the landing engine couldn't possibly fail as it did for the unmanned vehicle?
And the usual argument "if there were men on board they would work more toward security" doesn't work, unless you're willing to say NASA likes throwing away huge amount of money and lose its face only because "it's an unmanned probe, who cares?"
If you can send men securely, you can send a probe as securely, spending a lot less.
Let's save that money for when we'll really NEED men (and women) on Mars, that is when and if we know for sure there is something that deserves the creative mind and freedom of action a probe will never have.
Ciao,
Rob!
Re:The only Notes client is W32 !!! b'leeevit
on
IBM Releases SashXB
·
· Score: 3
Well, there are a couple of things to consider:
1 - The idiotic individual that was Lotus President and that steered Lotus in the direction of Microsoft has been removed (he cheated on his military and academic careers, IIRC)
2 - Wine works GREATLY. I've been using the Notes Client with it for the last 8 month, and with the 20000801 release virtually all problems are solved. I'm sure IBM could try a Wine port of their Windows client, but even without that things seems pretty good.
As far as this new technology is concerned, the announce is too sketchy to understand what is it, and I have no time to spend on the study of such a thing. Seems to me, however, that is a way to use HTML/web to assemble application based on native components (Win32 on Windows, Gnome on Gnome), so it won't give us windows components/applications via browser.
I'm from Italy and, speaking of Crusade, I have only seen the pilot episode "A call to arms".
Now, for the anime connection, I think (and a lot of friends of mine agreed) that the story in this pilot is a rip off of Starblazers (Uchuu Senkan Yamato).
You have fast ships, powerful main guns (but if you use them your ship drift without energy for a while...) and at the end we have the lonely ship on a timed mission to save Earth, by means of adventuring into unexplored space.
I was almost expecting them to display the countdown like in the first Starblazers series...;-) "hurry up Starblazers! You have only 300 days left to save Earth!!!" [retranslation from italian...]
Ok, I understand your point about the attitude of many users, but I think it depends a lot on how you are going to use a product. As an examples, to earn my food:) I've been working in the last 8 years as a Lotus Notes programmer. Notes (or Domino, as they call the main technology behind it now) is based on some very bright ideas, but has tons of stupid defects and plain bugs. More than once I've found bugs that stopped me dead in the track, but that were so easy to understand and to fix that I've found myself screaming bloody murder for not having access to sources or developers.
I do agree that this is not the main reason behind so many people requesting open source here on/.;) but the problem is: if you are betting your company on a software (or any other tool) you have to be able to fix it as soon as possible, with the lowest possbile expense. That's basic business practice. In the software market, given the huge numbers of morons that do write code (skill shortage, remember?:), having the source is often the only option you have in such cases. I'm not saying I want the program or the source for free, obviously, but don't charge me 10 to 20 times the price for source access, as is always the case (I've been told by a Sun exec that Mossad did buy, check and compile it's own version of Solaris, but they have deeeeep pockets;).
Back to the still-to-be-written program: if it will become a useful thing for everyone, then I could think to put up a separate company to sell *support* for it, but with these kind of products (very complex and often in need of deep customizations) I'll never attempt to sell it directly: managing the program and all its variations in a close manner is going to cost so much that the sale price for the program will be many times the maximum 'sane' sale price that could allow you to gain a decent market share.
I've used and seen a large number of displays, beginning with the first 8.4 STN displays in the first hafo of the '90.
One thing you can be sure of, is that the final quality of the screen depend a lot on the manufacturer also: last year I've seen DSTN from Toshiba look better that TFT used on Compaq (Acer) laptop.
Regarding HPA, I have one of these now. It's far worse that the previous Toshiba DSTN I had (in contrast, color quality and angle of view) but I can watch movies (anime:) on it, while on the Toshiba display this was impossible. If your chief will mainly use the laptop monitor, and stare at it for long periods, then buy a TFT. If he'll be able to work with a CRT, buy a good DSTN. I'd recommend HPA only for cheap multimedia enabled PC, and obviously only if you can't afford TFT.
BTW, to our general director we just bought a Toshiba Portege that has a screen that's awesome.
Ciao, Rob!
Disclaimer: I don't work for Toshiba, but I do like their products a lot:)
I really don't think so, since at least Japanese animation industry is still very strong in that kind of animation.
Obviously, introducing new technologies such as 3D models, particle effects, digital FX and so on helps a lot, but it's not 3D or 2D, its *good* writers with something to say (or at least a clue on how to write on something they don't care for;) versus suckers like Bill Mechanic that gives a sci-fi movie already started to Don Bluth, who did animated mice for his whole life.
Too bad good writers usually have to agree to the decisions of the Bill Mechanic do-jour.
Ciao, Rob! P.S. Are you the heroine behind Broadcast 2K? If so, good job!:)
While I usually share your view that many Linux users want too much for free, in this case I think you are the one that can't see in the right perspective.
How many animation studios/customers do you think there are for such a program, or worse, for Animo that costs UKP 10.000? The animation software/hardware system price tag for an animation shop with say 10 animators is in the $65.000 - $100.000 range, depending on which kind of hardware, O.S. and software you decide to use: this cuts out a very large number of people, myself and friends included.
Since I can't afford a commercial program but I'd like to try producing something, I'm considering writing an animation program, and releasing it under the GPL: this allow me to save *years* of development thanks to the many tools available for integration in my programs (think for example Autotrace), and to have other people working on the project for their own interest.
Since my goal is to sell animation and not to sell software (which is and should be considered as a tool), animation is where I'll earn the money to pay for food and bills. As I see it, producing a good show thanks to the program will make me much more money than selling the program and support for it, mainly because the *market* for animation gives you many more chances that the software market.
According to some research I made in the last few months, there's nothing.
I'm planning to start such a project right about now, and posted an Ask Slashdot on the subject on the 28 of June. It's still in the queue, but CmdrTaco says it's normal:-?
I've also set up a project on SourceForge, but for now it still lack an home page. There is a M/L that you can subscribe to from http://sourceforge.net/projects/anitoolbox.
If you have or want informations on Free projects regarding animations, or even if you know of some good "building blocks" (for example Autotrace to do the bitmap to vector conversion) to create such a thing , drop me an email.
I'm really curious: at the Annecy International Animation Festival during the 'premiere' of Titan A.E. Bluth/Fox was giving away an 'animation magazine': the opening article was written by Bluth himself, and detailed quite well how he became involved with the Titan A.E. project (was asked to 'take over' the work of two other directors, that worked on the film for more than a year) and why he accepted even if he never worked for a sci-fi film ('Hollywood requires you to do these kind of thing", and thus it was a good thing for he to accept).
By chance, isn't it that these two "Anonymous Directors" are/were working for Blue Skies studios?;-)
The sad thing is that, from a marketing point of view, saying that *does* make sense: I'm sure many people will be interested in spending some bucks in a film that's "buzzword compliant", than in some more standard animation.
Also, from the p.o.v. of the "failed animators" putting the thing that way is very handy: "look, it's not our fault, it's the 2D! Give us bucks to work with 3D!".
For what it's worth, I like *STORY* and *GOOD CHARACHTERS*: seeing them in 3D, 2D or even 1D (as "the line" guy by Osvaldo Cavandoli) doesn't matter.
IBM OS/2 had an Object oriented user interface that was going to do exactly all the kind of things you mention in your post.
The problem is that it never really worked very well (buggy code, clumsy user experience). They were planning on expanding it, trying to add CORBA support and BENTO functionality, being BENTO == japanese lunch box == many kind of things (food, documents, objects) laid out inside a container.
Too bad all of this got canceled, and the implementation you can find today in OS/2 is limited, buggy and not worth a try.
On the brighter side of things, GNOME's bonobo is trying to do something that could very well give us something similar to an OOUI. It's still beta and a long way from stable, but it's exactly what IBM, Apple and others tried to do without success in the Taligent project.
Without wine, that is its developers and the masses of linux users who tested it (gratis), Corel wouldn't be able to develop anything for Linux, due to the very high costs involved (code forking + 50% rewrite, maybe). Releasing the FIRST VERSION of their first linux products for free can be seen as a gift to the community that helped them.
After that, if you need the new versions (remember, noone will force you to upgrade to linux 2001 with new and incompatible syslibs) you can buy them, if you're done with the old one, fine.
Slashdot Mirror
He IS talking about SUSE, namely Suse Linux Enterprise Server, SLES for short.
It can setup it all from gui, and then you can use SUSE 9.x Professional as clients by simply pointing them to the SLES server's LDAP and Kerberos.
But I think the problem here is that many people wants these tools in a "Free as in beer" way...
Thenks for the reply! :-)
From the FAQ on Scaled website, they state that the engine can be stopped and restarted many times (even if it's not all that useful since the max burn is about 90 seconds IIRC).
On SpaceShipOne however there's no provision for engine throttling. They don't state if this is because it has been considered not useful for SpaceShipOne mission profile, or if it can't be done with their tecnology.
Their engine works (from their site) mixing liquid N2O with HTPB rubber at high temperature. it would be useful to know if in such reaction controllig N2O flow or temperature can achieve throttling or not.
Ciao,
Rob!
> Moreover, they are using a solid propellant
:-)
> rocket motor. They would have to switch to
> liquid engine to go suborbital, and that
> implies a heck of a lot more mass
Why a liquid propellant engine is necessary for (sub?)orbital flight? From their webpages, I understand that their engine uses "hybrid" solid/liquid propellants and is restartable a certain number of times...
Are there other things I should know regarding liquid engines features but I don't because I'm not a rocket engineer?
Ciao,
Rob!
Sorry? How much more free than "open protool" and "GLPed libraries and command line client" do you want it to be?
Ciao,
Rob!
It's from Trust, and it was cheap either. :-)
:-p
The feeling of the ball is nice, and you can also "reverse" it in hardware with a key combo to use the ball for the cursor and the mouse to scroll windows
But under X 4.3 it scrolls only to the left
Ciao,
Rob!
Actually, you can do what you say only on a NT 4 IIS (default) installation: there the IIS runs as SYSTEM and can modify files. ;-) the IIS runs as a user that can't "patch" itself or overwrite "interesting" system files.
On 2000 and on system where some non-stupid admin did the initial installation (but not maintenance
Ciao,
Rob!
> If the US government tried to implement that,
> we would be kicking and screaming about
> government control of the Internet,
Erm... In Europe the governments know who is collecting data and for which purposes, but they do NOT have access to those data. And if you're about to collect sensitive data (about religion, politics beliefs, sexual practices...) you need to obtain a special authorization: they check what uses you'll do with that data.
Moreover, the company that collects data is responsibile for them, so that even if these data "accidentally" leak to someone else, the company is responsible for what happens.
We don't have privacy policies, we have privacy LAWS.
Ciao,
Rob!
... has a lot of solutions _almost_ ready for streaming. Notice the enphasis on "almost".
:-)
They have a quicktime/mpeg player for linux, a library to read and write quicktime format files, and a low-bitrate MPEG encoder, not compatible with MediaPlayer (i.e. noone wrote a codec for it, at least until now).
And the fact their address is http://heroines.sourceforge.net should tell you something about the license(s) they use...
I'm not sure about streaming support, but given the library and the quicktime standard, I'd say this should be easy to implement.
If you have the option of paying some developers to write some code, maybe this could be a solution (you'll need a MS WMP codec based on MPEG 2-movie and libmpeg2)
Ciao,
Roberto.
To expand on my problems (and on my level of knowledge), I know a little japanese (some grammar, hiragana and katakana and very few kanjis).
:)
;), many thanks again!
I'd like to be able to use a computer dictionary to speed up my 'reading time' of a Japanese web page, and with that improve my understanding of the language using real world examples of it. Using the dictionary I can copy-paste the kanji in the right place in the dictionary program, and avoid the long search time on a paper dictionary (I do have a very good memory for symbols, but I need to be able to do something "interesting" while studying, or I get bored
I've already tried kinput2 on a SuSE 6.4 with KDE 1.1, but with little success: when the kinput2 is active and configured (I've used cannaserver), nothing happens even with the kterm (self compiled) or with the Kanji dictionaries.
Maybe SuSE's X isn't compiled for extended input methods? Or maybe kinput2 doesn't work with XFree 4.0? Guess I'll have to check specfiles and docs for X.
I'll also check the various link you provided me for answers to my dilemmas
Ciao,
Roberto.
A thing that many people (including the author of the article) doesn't get at all is that Linux has a "change rate" that (poetic license ;) beats the shit out of Windoze or MacOS.
;-)
I see many here saying: "use RedHat and not SuSE", "No, debian with apt-get" is better" and so on.
Well, I also could join the game and say that SuSE is better. 7.0 has about 10 pre-made configurations that allow you to choose the main use of your machine, has a graphical X configurator that works very well (SAX or SAX2, are the names), and another ton of nice, fast setup options.
So? Is SuSE better than RedHat, Debian & Co.? I'll say "I don't know": I don't use RedHat or Debian, I didn't see their last versions, and I'm NOT going to say "xxxx sucks get SuSE". What you know well is always better than something you saw for some (limited?) time 2 years ago.
Reality is that, in every distributions, important flaws (including setup ones) get fixed in 6/8 month or less. So, in a year, Windows will have a hard time keeping its "easier to use" tag if M$ doesn't start to run NOW. And my impression is that they are running, but in the wrong direction (see Media Player 7...
Final silly note for the article author: how much time does he usualy spend installing and configuring a "full windows workstation", like one doing the things he lists at the end of the article?
In my own experience, it takes at least twice than a Linux setup, and this is if the wonderful Windows Plug & Play doesn't blow up in your face.
The time spent in installations, updates and reinstalls is a huge hidden cost in Windows. With Linux a company would be able to save much more than the M$ license fees.
Ciao,
Roberto.
In EU there are no laws, al least up until now, that make it illegal to buy and use Zone 1 DVD.
Things like DMCA, that makes illegal "circumventing digital protection methods" even when you have all the rights to see/use the content (since you paid for it) are still drafts at best, and with little chances to become effective.
Ciao,
Roberto.
The European Trade law forbids any and every barrier in protection of goods or prices across the borders of the EU member states.
So, if a french consumer gets sued for buying a Zone 1 DVD from Italy, Germany or UK, he can countersue against the French State at the European Court in Strasbourg. And he will definitely WIN, because no member state can have laws that protect its industry from the other states' ones. If Zone 1 DVD are legal elsewhere in the EU, then they must be available for inter-state sale in France.
The only way the French state has to enforce this law is by having it approved by the European Parliament.
Ciao,
Roberto.
Am I the only one thinking that using YABASIC we'll be able to understand PS2's internals well enough that someone will start porting your favorite kernel to it?
The only major problem could be Sony exploiting of some of the 'features' of the Artistic License under which YABASIC is available (mainly: libraries, linked function and 'embedded version') but given a stable interface with YABASIC, it's only a matter of time before someone will be able to understand how to use these libraries to understand how PS2 BIOS and/or HW work (for an exaple, look at how the windows CODECS for AVI, ASF and DivX are used in linux/unix multimedia players).
Ciao,
Rob!
Excuse me, but do you think that if there were astronauts on the Polar Lander, the landing engine couldn't possibly fail as it did for the unmanned vehicle?
And the usual argument "if there were men on board they would work more toward security" doesn't work, unless you're willing to say NASA likes throwing away huge amount of money and lose its face only because "it's an unmanned probe, who cares?"
If you can send men securely, you can send a probe as securely, spending a lot less.
Let's save that money for when we'll really NEED men (and women) on Mars, that is when and if we know for sure there is something that deserves the creative mind and freedom of action a probe will never have.
Ciao,
Rob!
Well, there are a couple of things to consider:
1 - The idiotic individual that was Lotus President and that steered Lotus in the direction of Microsoft has been removed (he cheated on his military and academic careers, IIRC)
2 - Wine works GREATLY. I've been using the Notes Client with it for the last 8 month, and with the 20000801 release virtually all problems are solved. I'm sure IBM could try a Wine port of their Windows client, but even without that things seems pretty good.
As far as this new technology is concerned, the announce is too sketchy to understand what is it, and I have no time to spend on the study of such a thing. Seems to me, however, that is a way to use HTML/web to assemble application based on native components (Win32 on Windows, Gnome on Gnome), so it won't give us windows components/applications via browser.
Ciao,
Rob!
Funny you mention Crusade in an Anime thread...
;-) "hurry up Starblazers! You have only 300 days left to save Earth!!!" [retranslation from italian...]
I'm from Italy and, speaking of Crusade, I have only seen the pilot episode "A call to arms".
Now, for the anime connection, I think (and a lot of friends of mine agreed) that the story in this pilot is a rip off of Starblazers (Uchuu Senkan Yamato).
You have fast ships, powerful main guns (but if you use them your ship drift without energy for a while...) and at the end we have the lonely ship on a timed mission to save Earth, by means of adventuring into unexplored space.
I was almost expecting them to display the countdown like in the first Starblazers series...
Ciao,
Rob!
Ok, I understand your point about the attitude of many users, but I think it depends a lot on how you are going to use a product. As an examples, to earn my food :) I've been working in the last 8 years as a Lotus Notes programmer. Notes (or Domino, as they call the main technology behind it now) is based on some very bright ideas, but has tons of stupid defects and plain bugs. More than once I've found bugs that stopped me dead in the track, but that were so easy to understand and to fix that I've found myself screaming bloody murder for not having access to sources or developers.
/. ;) but the problem is: if you are betting your company on a software (or any other tool) you have to be able to fix it as soon as possible, with the lowest possbile expense. That's basic business practice. :), having the source is often the only option you have in such cases. I'm not saying I want the program or the source for free, obviously, but don't charge me 10 to 20 times the price for source access, as is always the case (I've been told by a Sun exec that Mossad did buy, check and compile it's own version of Solaris, but they have deeeeep pockets ;).
I do agree that this is not the main reason behind so many people requesting open source here on
In the software market, given the huge numbers of morons that do write code (skill shortage, remember?
Back to the still-to-be-written program: if it will become a useful thing for everyone, then I could think to put up a separate company to sell *support* for it, but with these kind of products (very complex and often in need of deep customizations) I'll never attempt to sell it directly: managing the program and all its variations in a close manner is going to cost so much that the sale price for the program will be many times the maximum 'sane' sale price that could allow you to gain a decent market share.
Ciao,
Rob!
I've used and seen a large number of displays, beginning with the first 8.4 STN displays in the first hafo of the '90.
:) on it, while on the Toshiba display this was impossible.
:)
One thing you can be sure of, is that the final quality of the screen depend a lot on the manufacturer also: last year I've seen DSTN from Toshiba look better that TFT used on Compaq (Acer) laptop.
Regarding HPA, I have one of these now. It's far worse that the previous Toshiba DSTN I had (in contrast, color quality and angle of view) but I can watch movies (anime
If your chief will mainly use the laptop monitor, and stare at it for long periods, then buy a TFT. If he'll be able to work with a CRT, buy a good DSTN. I'd recommend HPA only for cheap multimedia enabled PC, and obviously only if you can't afford TFT.
BTW, to our general director we just bought a Toshiba Portege that has a screen that's awesome.
Ciao,
Rob!
Disclaimer:
I don't work for Toshiba, but I do like their products a lot
I really don't think so, since at least Japanese animation industry is still very strong in that kind of animation.
;) versus suckers like Bill Mechanic that gives a sci-fi movie already started to Don Bluth, who did animated mice for his whole life.
:)
Obviously, introducing new technologies such as 3D models, particle effects, digital FX and so on helps a lot, but it's not 3D or 2D, its *good* writers with something to say (or at least a clue on how to write on something they don't care for
Too bad good writers usually have to agree to the decisions of the Bill Mechanic do-jour.
Ciao,
Rob!
P.S.
Are you the heroine behind Broadcast 2K? If so, good job!
While I usually share your view that many Linux users want too much for free, in this case I think you are the one that can't see in the right perspective.
How many animation studios/customers do you think there are for such a program, or worse, for Animo that costs UKP 10.000? The animation software/hardware system price tag for an animation shop with say 10 animators is in the $65.000 - $100.000 range, depending on which kind of hardware, O.S. and software you decide to use: this cuts out a very large number of people, myself and friends included.
Since I can't afford a commercial program but I'd like to try producing something, I'm considering writing an animation program, and releasing it under the GPL: this allow me to save *years* of development thanks to the many tools available for integration in my programs (think for example Autotrace), and to have other people working on the project for their own interest.
Since my goal is to sell animation and not to sell software (which is and should be considered as a tool), animation is where I'll earn the money to pay for food and bills.
As I see it, producing a good show thanks to the program will make me much more money than selling the program and support for it, mainly because the *market* for animation gives you many more chances that the software market.
Ciao,
Rob!
According to some research I made in the last few months, there's nothing.
:-?
I'm planning to start such a project right about now, and posted an Ask Slashdot on the subject on the 28 of June. It's still in the queue, but CmdrTaco says it's normal
I've also set up a project on SourceForge, but for now it still lack an home page. There is a M/L that you can subscribe to from http://sourceforge.net/projects/anitoolbox.
If you have or want informations on Free projects regarding animations, or even if you know of some good "building blocks" (for example Autotrace to do the bitmap to vector conversion) to create such a thing , drop me an email.
Ciao,
Rob!
I'm really curious: at the Annecy International Animation Festival during the 'premiere' of Titan A.E. Bluth/Fox was giving away an 'animation magazine': the opening article was written by Bluth himself, and detailed quite well how he became involved with the Titan A.E. project (was asked to 'take over' the work of two other directors, that worked on the film for more than a year) and why he accepted even if he never worked for a sci-fi film ('Hollywood requires you to do these kind of thing", and thus it was a good thing for he to accept).
;-)
By chance, isn't it that these two "Anonymous Directors" are/were working for Blue Skies studios?
I'd be really glad if this turn out to be true.
Ciao,
Rob!
The sad thing is that, from a marketing point of view, saying that *does* make sense: I'm sure many people will be interested in spending some bucks in a film that's "buzzword compliant", than in some more standard animation.
Also, from the p.o.v. of the "failed animators" putting the thing that way is very handy: "look, it's not our fault, it's the 2D! Give us bucks to work with 3D!".
For what it's worth, I like *STORY* and *GOOD CHARACHTERS*: seeing them in 3D, 2D or even 1D (as "the line" guy by Osvaldo Cavandoli) doesn't matter.
Ciao,
Rob!
IBM OS/2 had an Object oriented user interface that was going to do exactly all the kind of things you mention in your post.
The problem is that it never really worked very well (buggy code, clumsy user experience). They were planning on expanding it, trying to add CORBA support and BENTO functionality, being BENTO == japanese lunch box == many kind of things (food, documents, objects) laid out inside a container.
Too bad all of this got canceled, and the implementation you can find today in OS/2 is limited, buggy and not worth a try.
On the brighter side of things, GNOME's bonobo is trying to do something that could very well give us something similar to an OOUI. It's still beta and a long way from stable, but it's exactly what IBM, Apple and others tried to do without success in the Taligent project.
Ciao,
Rob!
Without wine, that is its developers and the masses of linux users who tested it (gratis), Corel wouldn't be able to develop anything for Linux, due to the very high costs involved (code forking + 50% rewrite, maybe).
Releasing the FIRST VERSION of their first linux products for free can be seen as a gift to the community that helped them.
After that, if you need the new versions (remember, noone will force you to upgrade to linux 2001 with new and incompatible syslibs) you can buy them, if you're done with the old one, fine.
Ciao,
Rob!