A twitter-like system could be built on top of xmpp. In much the same way that a gmail-like system can be built on top of SMTP/POP. That doesn't mean that SMTP/POP are web-based.
XMPP is what Jabber is based on. Jabber, for those that don't know, is a chat protocol. It's used by Google Chat, Livejournal Chat, and vast numbers of other chat systems - all of which are interoperable, because built in to the underlying system is the idea of message passing from server to server.
If someone connected to a gmail jabber server sends a message to andrewducker@livejournal.com then google chat automatically connects to the livejournal jabber server and passes the message over.
You can see how this could be extended to allow federations of application servers to communicate. Heck, you could reimplement email over this without massive difficulty.
Which makes it very clear that there are good technological reasons for dropping it. Or, at least, it's going to be such a huge amount of work to bring it natively to Intel that it's not worth it to MS.
I mean, sure, some people at MS may be happy about it vanishing, but it doesn't sound like a conspiracy to me...
Large open-plan area with about 80 people in it. It's great in many ways, as I can easily see who's in, who's busy, when people become free, and it encourages communication. Not so good for just getting your head down and coding, but that's what headphones are for, and people quickly realise that "headphones on" means not to talk to people with less important things.
In addition, just being able to hear the conversations around you can frequently be useful, as you overhear problems that you might be able to help out with, and there's a much higher level of teamwork.
Security through obscurity is not obscurity - tell anyone and you've told everyone. Information wants to be free. Even when said information is a photo of you lying unconscious next to a keg.
I've been wanting one of these to play the few games that were PS2 only that I really wanted- Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Rez and a few others. $99 is pretty much irresistible.
Was that it didn't work easily. I'd happily pay $10 a month to listen to all music, everywhere. No qualms at all. And so I tried Napster.
But making it work with my various different music devices was just too much of a pain. I didn't mind the DRM per se - I very much mind that there isn't DRM that works seamlessly across a whole range of devices.
$10 a month to listen to music anywhere - no problem. $10 a month to listen to music at my computer - no chance.
It's not about Open in its Open Source meaning - it's about Open in its Open Standards meaning. OpenSocial is a standard that applications can be written to which will allow them to run on any web platform that supports it. So far that looks to be lots of smaller platforms (Ning, Orkut, etc), but together they add up to a fair chunk of the market.
The big question is whether Facebook can be pushed into supporting this API...
Step one - applications that work in a social network. e.g. Facebook apps. Step two - applications that work on lots of different social networks using certain common features. This is where OpenSocial is taking us. Step three - applications that work across multiple social networks, so that they can include your contacts from Facebook, Livejournal, Slashdot and LinkedIn. Step four - roll-your-own sites that allow you to provide your own basic social infoamtion (using FOAF, OpenID, etc.) so that you don't need to be a member of a social site to produce or consume social network information.
We're a way off yet - but it looks like we're moving in the right direction.
Flash costs seem to be halving each year at the moment, while hard drive capacity is going up by a smaller amount.
Flash may eventually max out, still more expensive than hard drive space, or it may eventually overtake it. I'm not convinced that there's anything inherently more expensive about flash construction techniques in the long term.
I get overtime as a coder. And I have no compunction about saying "Sorry, I'm busy this weekend, I can't do any overtime." when asked (not that I turn it down all the time, but I like to have my time off...off).
You crazy Americans with your 5 days holiday a year, 80 hour working weeks and complete lack of overtime.
I'm at work. We run XP. With IE6. This _may_ change in the next, ooh, three years, but being a big financial company we tend to move with appalling slowness when it comes to our machines.
Looking around, it seems that you're cutting off somewhere between 25 and 50% of users from the system. I don't know what the stats are like for/. itself, but I'd be surprised if it was much less than 30%.
Slashdot Mirror
A twitter-like system could be built on top of xmpp. In much the same way that a gmail-like system can be built on top of SMTP/POP. That doesn't mean that SMTP/POP are web-based.
XMPP is what Jabber is based on. Jabber, for those that don't know, is a chat protocol. It's used by Google Chat, Livejournal Chat, and vast numbers of other chat systems - all of which are interoperable, because built in to the underlying system is the idea of message passing from server to server.
If someone connected to a gmail jabber server sends a message to andrewducker@livejournal.com then google chat automatically connects to the livejournal jabber server and passes the message over.
You can see how this could be extended to allow federations of application servers to communicate. Heck, you could reimplement email over this without massive difficulty.
Except that XMPP isn't a web technology.
It's funny how in the article he mentions both several useful examples of microkernels and his refutation with the memory spaces argument.
NT was designed to be networked from the first version. I'm really not sure what fundamental security flaws you're referring to.
He wants them to throw away all the backward compatibility that all of the big corporate customers really care about.
And he wants them to sell a version that doesn't play music out of the box.
Is it me or are these both _really stupid_ ideas?
Has anyone actually read the original explanation for why Office 2008 isn't getting VBA?
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/
Which makes it very clear that there are good technological reasons for dropping it. Or, at least, it's going to be such a huge amount of work to bring it natively to Intel that it's not worth it to MS.
I mean, sure, some people at MS may be happy about it vanishing, but it doesn't sound like a conspiracy to me...
For three minute clips I'm fine with the low-res experience.
Actual TV/movies get downloaded (or watched from DVD/VoD)
My only question is - is there anything ODF doesn't do that businesses actually need their documents to do?
And do they support a scripting language?
Which is just one site that does things in Flash that I certainly _do_ find useful...
I'm fairly sure I don't want to see evidence that slashdotters have sex...
Large open-plan area with about 80 people in it. It's great in many ways, as I can easily see who's in, who's busy, when people become free, and it encourages communication. Not so good for just getting your head down and coding, but that's what headphones are for, and people quickly realise that "headphones on" means not to talk to people with less important things.
In addition, just being able to hear the conversations around you can frequently be useful, as you overhear problems that you might be able to help out with, and there's a much higher level of teamwork.
Security through obscurity is not obscurity - tell anyone and you've told everyone.
Information wants to be free. Even when said information is a photo of you lying unconscious next to a keg.
I've been wanting one of these to play the few games that were PS2 only that I really wanted- Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Rez and a few others. $99 is pretty much irresistible.
Was that it didn't work easily. I'd happily pay $10 a month to listen to all music, everywhere. No qualms at all. And so I tried Napster.
But making it work with my various different music devices was just too much of a pain. I didn't mind the DRM per se - I very much mind that there isn't DRM that works seamlessly across a whole range of devices.
$10 a month to listen to music anywhere - no problem.
$10 a month to listen to music at my computer - no chance.
It's not about Open in its Open Source meaning - it's about Open in its Open Standards meaning. OpenSocial is a standard that applications can be written to which will allow them to run on any web platform that supports it. So far that looks to be lots of smaller platforms (Ning, Orkut, etc), but together they add up to a fair chunk of the market.
The big question is whether Facebook can be pushed into supporting this API...
Step one - applications that work in a social network. e.g. Facebook apps.
Step two - applications that work on lots of different social networks using certain common features. This is where OpenSocial is taking us.
Step three - applications that work across multiple social networks, so that they can include your contacts from Facebook, Livejournal, Slashdot and LinkedIn.
Step four - roll-your-own sites that allow you to provide your own basic social infoamtion (using FOAF, OpenID, etc.) so that you don't need to be a member of a social site to produce or consume social network information.
We're a way off yet - but it looks like we're moving in the right direction.
Flash costs seem to be halving each year at the moment, while hard drive capacity is going up by a smaller amount.
Flash may eventually max out, still more expensive than hard drive space, or it may eventually overtake it. I'm not convinced that there's anything inherently more expensive about flash construction techniques in the long term.
I get overtime as a coder. And I have no compunction about saying "Sorry, I'm busy this weekend, I can't do any overtime." when asked (not that I turn it down all the time, but I like to have my time off...off).
You crazy Americans with your 5 days holiday a year, 80 hour working weeks and complete lack of overtime.
Is which console sold the most games last months.
It doesn't matter if everyone is buying console X if that market only buys one game a year for it...
The Doom Bears:n t_Ninja_Turtles_organisations#Doom_Bears
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Teenage_Muta
I can get to my mail folders from a variety of places using a common standard...
USB ports are turned off.
We're a financial company. Paranoid doesn't begin to describe how we feel about users being able to run off with data.
Doesn't mean they _can't_ but all of the really obvious routes are locked down.
Installing our own software is a sacking offense.
:->
And non-IS staff don't even have that option, as their own C drives are forbidden to them.
At home, of course, I use Firefox
I'm at work. We run XP. With IE6. This _may_ change in the next, ooh, three years, but being a big financial company we tend to move with appalling slowness when it comes to our machines.
/. itself, but I'd be surprised if it was much less than 30%.
Looking around, it seems that you're cutting off somewhere between 25 and 50% of users from the system. I don't know what the stats are like for