I don't know where you found this info, and I never heard anything about it (and I actually have born and live in Torino). Also there are no "cliffs" around Torino, and Torino has nevere been a citystate in ancient times: in fact it was born as a Roman military camp.
But I digress. Just because a phone is locked down by a carrier doesn't mean that its hard to remove the restrictions -- it's usually as simple as a bit of Googling and following a step-by-step guide. Given that it's almost always a one time thing and that phones purchased from your carrier tend to be subsidized, it's not a bad idea to do a bit of research first.
Keep doing that, and you'll get more locks on the next device.
Stop buying locked device, and maybe something will change.
ECMA standards are a joke, bot the win32 api and directx api are ecma standards, but they changed them multiple times anyway (updating the standards on the way...).
Processing is a java subset (but you can use full java if you wish) geared toward "visual computation". You can see some great examples here http://complexification.net/gallery/ or on flickr (just search for "processing" tags). Project home page is here http://processing.org/
I already used it to teach something to my nephew (12yo) and he finds it great, mainly because he can have some "cool" effects and stuff on the screen and can instantly see what his code does.
Indeed, why fight? Third party apps should be seen as a prize given to the best platform and to the best manufacturer policy. Apple has never been friendly to anyone. Why bother? There are other more interesting and more open platforms like Android, OpenMoko, Maemo.
I don't think GCC works that way. Actually, it does. You can use "gcc -S" to write the assembly output on a file. I find it very instructive, and you can see the effects of the various optimization options...
Every programmer should know something about assembly. It gives you a better insight on what the compiler does for you, on how a function is invoked, on how an array is accessed, and so on.
Why should developers FIGHT against the hardware manufacturers? Independent developers are doing a huge favour providing interesting apps on a platform. If the manufacturers don't want that, why bother? There are tons of other open and interesing platforms out there, Android being only the latest...
Like? (I'm genuinely interested. Got some links for further reading?) The algorithms currently used by all the graphic cards are perfectly fine, with the help of shadow mapping, ambient mapping, reflection mapping and all sort of tricks that let you generate a plausible image, even if it is not "physically accurate". All the auxilliary maps can be efficiently generated on the fly.
Even in non-realtime renderings (ie: pixar movies) ray tracing is used VERY sparingly in very special situations when it cannot be avoided. They use a completely different approach wich (again) is based mostly on maps. See the papers on http://graphics.pixar.com/ and especially http://graphics.pixar.com/Reyes/paper.pdf
I really think that most enthusiasm for ray tracing comes from people who saw some ray-traced animation on the amiga 15 years ago and have not bothered to find out if something better is available.
Java offers such a featureful API that the programmer isn't forced to learn the basics. He is able to simply use a Hashtable, a Sort, a LinkedList, or whatever he needs without understanding why it works. But he could reimplement all those data structures as an exercise, and he should be asked to do so. The problem is in the CS programs, not in the language.
I keep finding people who think that ray tracing is some kind of "perfect" rendering algorithm.
Actually I think of ray tracing as of the bubble-sort of computer graphics. It is absurdly naive, completely inefficient, and totally not necessary, especially for real time graphics. There are lots of different approaches to rendering that are much more flexible, efficient, and feasible.
The SI units just don't work. They can't work. They will never work. That's because people think that units are for measuring hardware. They are not. They are meant to be a measure for quantities of information which are entirely abstract and not related on the hardware you put it into. Quantities of information are something you do math with, and are best expressed in powers of ten.
The hardware vendors can (and should) just use the correct prefix. That's already happening. I've seen the KiB and MiB prefixes used both on memory modules and disks.
Actually this is not even a new application. Here in Torino (Italy) there are at least three such parkins, and all of them are at least 10 years old...
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know where you found this info, and I never heard anything about it (and I actually have born and live in Torino). Also there are no "cliffs" around Torino, and Torino has nevere been a citystate in ancient times: in fact it was born as a Roman military camp.
There is nothing new in this... the laws of offer and demand are always the same
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand
But I digress. Just because a phone is locked down by a carrier doesn't mean that its hard to remove the restrictions -- it's usually as simple as a bit of Googling and following a step-by-step guide. Given that it's almost always a one time thing and that phones purchased from your carrier tend to be subsidized, it's not a bad idea to do a bit of research first.
Keep doing that, and you'll get more locks on the next device.
Stop buying locked device, and maybe something will change.
In this house we observe the laws of thermodynamics.
C# is an ISO/ECMA standard, Java is not.
ECMA standards are a joke, bot the win32 api and directx api are ecma standards, but they changed them multiple times anyway (updating the standards on the way...).
Processing is a java subset (but you can use full java if you wish) geared toward "visual computation". You can see some great examples here http://complexification.net/gallery/ or on flickr (just search for "processing" tags). Project home page is here http://processing.org/
I already used it to teach something to my nephew (12yo) and he finds it great, mainly because he can have some "cool" effects and stuff on the screen and can instantly see what his code does.
Project homepage is here: http://www.truecrypt.org/
Release notes here http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=version-history
(Btw, these links should be in the article, instead of an external (sponsored?) one).
Also, 'b' is for 'bit' (used especially for transmission rates, like 54 kbps) and 'B' is for 'byte'.
One scenario where this would be VERY useful is (tah dah!) DRM.
It all depends on WHO has the keys...
"Aliens being likely" does not mean that it's likely we will ever meet one (or be successful in either sending or receiving any communication).
Indeed, why fight? Third party apps should be seen as a prize given to the best platform and to the best manufacturer policy. Apple has never been friendly to anyone. Why bother? There are other more interesting and more open platforms like Android, OpenMoko, Maemo.
Also, compilers are written by people, and compilers' output is assembly code.
Every programmer should know something about assembly. It gives you a better insight on what the compiler does for you, on how a function is invoked, on how an array is accessed, and so on.
Why should developers FIGHT against the hardware manufacturers? Independent developers are doing a huge favour providing interesting apps on a platform. If the manufacturers don't want that, why bother? There are tons of other open and interesing platforms out there, Android being only the latest...
Where are my modding points when I need them? Your comment is insightful, interesting, and (most important) correct.
windows 95, 98 and ME were all version 4.something
XP is 5, Vista is 6.
(I'm genuinely interested. Got some links for further reading?) The algorithms currently used by all the graphic cards are perfectly fine, with the help of shadow mapping, ambient mapping, reflection mapping and all sort of tricks that let you generate a plausible image, even if it is not "physically accurate". All the auxilliary maps can be efficiently generated on the fly.
Even in non-realtime renderings (ie: pixar movies) ray tracing is used VERY sparingly in very special situations when it cannot be avoided. They use a completely different approach wich (again) is based mostly on maps. See the papers on http://graphics.pixar.com/ and especially http://graphics.pixar.com/Reyes/paper.pdf
BTW the software from pixar was used for most cg you ever saw in movies. See https://renderman.pixar.com/products/whatsrenderman/movies.html for a list.
I really think that most enthusiasm for ray tracing comes from people who saw some ray-traced animation on the amiga 15 years ago and have not bothered to find out if something better is available.
I keep finding people who think that ray tracing is some kind of "perfect" rendering algorithm.
Actually I think of ray tracing as of the bubble-sort of computer graphics. It is absurdly naive, completely inefficient, and totally not necessary, especially for real time graphics. There are lots of different approaches to rendering that are much more flexible, efficient, and feasible.
The hardware vendors can (and should) just use the correct prefix. That's already happening. I've seen the KiB and MiB prefixes used both on memory modules and disks.
s there any reason to use Miro rather than VLC or BS Player?
No. Actually, I switched back to VLC almost instantly. It's totally unusable and awfully bloated.
Actually this is not even a new application. Here in Torino (Italy) there are at least three such parkins, and all of them are at least 10 years old...
it was the only game in the FPS category that you could complete without killing anyone
when I played it, I was so used to the "classical" fps approach that I killed every single enemy...