The point of using (now and even after Chrome is released) Stainless is its nifty "parallel sessions" feature (i.e. log into the same site with different accounts simultaneously) -- something Chrome, FF and Safari don't have.
Traditional revenue models for pushing consumers to retail are beginning to show their age esp. in their transition to mobile, but app developers are already exploring location-based delivery of coupons and promotions that can be scanned at point of sale (e.g. on the iPhone: CardStar, Coupon Sherpa). Things are changing fast and the consumer, as usual, is poised to win.
Chromium (the open source basis for Chrome) is available to download and compile, and you can also download unofficial binaries if you're really dying to see how Chrome for OS X is coming along.
And if you want to experience what a one-process-per-tab feels like on the Mac, you can check out the Chrome-inspired OS X browser, Stainless.
Seems like an apropos article to throw tangential news at: the WebKit based Stainless (for Mac only, Leopard req.) introduced a completely new browser innovation yesterday, which IMHO is more important than raw speed:
From MacNN: Version 0.5 of Stainless introduces the concept of "parallel sessions," which let users log into a single site with multiple simultaneous accounts. In accessing Gmail for example, three different inboxes can be loaded across three separate tabs. The content is further integrated into bookmarks, allowing several site logins to be loaded in short order.
Abstract from the paper: The success and failure of Infocom, a company founded by members of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, resulted from a combination of factors. Infocom succeeded not only because it made Zork, a text-adventure game, available on personal computers, but also because it developed an effective system for supporting new platforms, maintained an engineering culture that excelled at writing computer games, and marketed its products to the right audience. Similarly, Infocom did not fail simply because it decided to shift its focus to business software by making Cornerstone, a relational database. Infocom failed for many reasons that were closely tied to how the company managed the transition to business products. Behind the scenes, the transition created a litany of problems that hurt both the games and the business divisions of the company. Combined with some bad luck, these problems--not simply the development of Cornerstone--ultimately led to Infocom's downfall.
a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 - when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes
By the time we were playing games at home on machines such as these, the video game industry -- and game design -- were already well established on arcade platforms. Arcade games at the time were burned into ROMs, and given the expense of hardware and memory, the more reasonable factors for "level based" game design are 1) it was hideously difficult to design a complex game with such constraints, 2) the economics of the arcade industry relied on short entertainment bursts, hoping to "hook" the player into using another quarter to play again (or the utterly genius notion of "continue"), 3) the first arcade game players couldn't understand complex games (e.g. the failure of Computer Space vs. the success of Pong).
Both of these factors led to simple "one level" showy games (e.g. using memory to maximize graphic and sound effects) that would simply progressively get harder. Each level was in many ways just a sped up version of the previous level. Once this routine was in place and proven (via weekly receipts of Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man, etc.) it was hard to break out of this mold. Games such as Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac Man were groundbreaking in the sense that instead of one true "level" of play, multiple levels were rotated to increase the playability of the game (and deal with their customers' ever-increasing sophistication at undesratnding how video games worked). The next modification came in games such as Phoenix and Xevious, where a "boss level" was introduced as a goal for players to reach. But nearly of the biggest revenue generating video games were level based.
As to why: perhaps the human brain is simply wired to prefer short-term goal attainment?
Interestingly, by enforcing digital signing Apple is guaranteeing the survivial of an iPhone developer's "underground" -- instead of writing hacks to jailbreak and unlock iPhones, they'll be writing hacks to get unsigned apps running on the iPhone.
If Microsoft would license their excellent hardware (mice, XBox, er, mice) to other companies, I and a handul of people I know would buy them up in a snap. Really, the dominance of the Zune betrays Microsoft for what it really is -- a hardware company. License the hardware and drop the software and they could finally get some movement on that lackluster stock. C'mon Microsoft, I want your hardware but don't want to abandon my pricey software to use it.
Yes, it's BS. The iPhone by default sets check mail to "Manually" (e.g. every time you open the Mail application). One has to override the default to set it to auto-check email.
The IRS will likely consider this taxable event, so young Mr. Hotz is going to be out some serious cash to cover his tax bill. I read somewhere that most game show winners of "free cars" end up selling them to cover the taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
The point of using (now and even after Chrome is released) Stainless is its nifty "parallel sessions" feature (i.e. log into the same site with different accounts simultaneously) -- something Chrome, FF and Safari don't have.
if (you == BALLMER)
throw CHAIR;
Bank on it...
Traditional revenue models for pushing consumers to retail are beginning to show their age esp. in their transition to mobile, but app developers are already exploring location-based delivery of coupons and promotions that can be scanned at point of sale (e.g. on the iPhone: CardStar, Coupon Sherpa). Things are changing fast and the consumer, as usual, is poised to win.
Luck and prodding aren't likely to result in a Universal binary: V8 isn't going to be ported to PPC anytime soon.
Chromium (the open source basis for Chrome) is available to download and compile, and you can also download unofficial binaries if you're really dying to see how Chrome for OS X is coming along.
And if you want to experience what a one-process-per-tab feels like on the Mac, you can check out the Chrome-inspired OS X browser, Stainless.
...that this professor's research is funded by the American Bacon Association (interestingly one of the largest recipients of pork project earmarks).
Seems like an apropos article to throw tangential news at: the WebKit based Stainless (for Mac only, Leopard req.) introduced a completely new browser innovation yesterday, which IMHO is more important than raw speed:
From MacNN:
Version 0.5 of Stainless introduces the concept of "parallel sessions," which let users log into a single site with multiple simultaneous accounts. In accessing Gmail for example, three different inboxes can be loaded across three separate tabs. The content is further integrated into bookmarks, allowing several site logins to be loaded in short order.
Original article here.
The Future of Apple Safari
Cool. I first played Zork on a VAX at Bell Labs, right before Infocom was formally formed in 1979.
There's a great student paper (research project?) from MIT that quite nicely recounts the history of Infocom, the making of Zork, and their fall etc.:
http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/infocom/infocom-paper.pdf
(yeah, PDF sorry)
Abstract from the paper:
The success and failure of Infocom, a company founded by members of MIT's Laboratory
for Computer Science, resulted from a combination of factors. Infocom succeeded not only
because it made Zork, a text-adventure game, available on personal computers, but also
because it developed an effective system for supporting new platforms, maintained an
engineering culture that excelled at writing computer games, and marketed its products to
the right audience. Similarly, Infocom did not fail simply because it decided to shift its
focus to business software by making Cornerstone, a relational database. Infocom failed
for many reasons that were closely tied to how the company managed the transition to
business products. Behind the scenes, the transition created a litany of problems that hurt
both the games and the business divisions of the company. Combined with some bad luck,
these problems--not simply the development of Cornerstone--ultimately led to Infocom's
downfall.
Stainless (multi-process browser) + WebKit Nightly frameworks (SquirrelFish Extreme) = a decent preview of Chrome on OS X
If the number of rated charge cycles isn't over 800, these things are going to die way too quickly.
The new MBP battery is rated for 1000 recharge cycles, or 5 yrs of typical use.
Goodbye eWorld -- Hello web!
object[] finalBoard = System.Math.KnightsTour(64);
Mac users (well, Leopard Mac users) who want a one-tab-per-process browser can use Stainless while they wait for Chrome:
stainlessapp.com
It makes no sense at all.
It sounds like it made a lot of cents.
For those of you stuck in setting up the iGoogle sandbox due to broken links in the Getting Started Guide:
After signing up for iGoogle sandbox access, you need to add the developer tools tab to your sandbox page. Then, read the developer guide to get started. If you already have an OpenSocial app, you can add it using the "My Gadgets" gadget included with the developer tools.
And if you're looking for an OpenSocial app to try out, feel free to try ours.
If that 7.6 billion year figure is correct, 3D Realms will just miss their delivery window.
a throwback to the era of the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 - when games were stored on cassette tapes, and memory was measured in kilobytes
By the time we were playing games at home on machines such as these, the video game industry -- and game design -- were already well established on arcade platforms. Arcade games at the time were burned into ROMs, and given the expense of hardware and memory, the more reasonable factors for "level based" game design are 1) it was hideously difficult to design a complex game with such constraints, 2) the economics of the arcade industry relied on short entertainment bursts, hoping to "hook" the player into using another quarter to play again (or the utterly genius notion of "continue"), 3) the first arcade game players couldn't understand complex games (e.g. the failure of Computer Space vs. the success of Pong).
Both of these factors led to simple "one level" showy games (e.g. using memory to maximize graphic and sound effects) that would simply progressively get harder. Each level was in many ways just a sped up version of the previous level. Once this routine was in place and proven (via weekly receipts of Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man, etc.) it was hard to break out of this mold. Games such as Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac Man were groundbreaking in the sense that instead of one true "level" of play, multiple levels were rotated to increase the playability of the game (and deal with their customers' ever-increasing sophistication at undesratnding how video games worked). The next modification came in games such as Phoenix and Xevious, where a "boss level" was introduced as a goal for players to reach. But nearly of the biggest revenue generating video games were level based.
As to why: perhaps the human brain is simply wired to prefer short-term goal attainment?
How about "parent process" of UNIX?
Interestingly, by enforcing digital signing Apple is guaranteeing the survivial of an iPhone developer's "underground" -- instead of writing hacks to jailbreak and unlock iPhones, they'll be writing hacks to get unsigned apps running on the iPhone.
If Microsoft would license their excellent hardware (mice, XBox, er, mice) to other companies, I and a handul of people I know would buy them up in a snap. Really, the dominance of the Zune betrays Microsoft for what it really is -- a hardware company. License the hardware and drop the software and they could finally get some movement on that lackluster stock. C'mon Microsoft, I want your hardware but don't want to abandon my pricey software to use it.
Yes, it's BS. The iPhone by default sets check mail to "Manually" (e.g. every time you open the Mail application). One has to override the default to set it to auto-check email.
The IRS will likely consider this taxable event, so young Mr. Hotz is going to be out some serious cash to cover his tax bill. I read somewhere that most game show winners of "free cars" end up selling them to cover the taxes.
No, but ZDNet does.