"I suppose the best option would be to have a standard codec for vector video. "
Well, to be fair, it's already there. Granted, it's not an open standard, but it's out there and anybody can use it. (Isn't there an open one in the works?)
Here's the problem, Flash doesn't have any real defect being exploited here. It has a feature set. Even if it didn't have the feature set, it's still got the attractive option of having very high quality animation capabilities that can work in a very low bandwidth environment. So if this codec is done simply as an.avi'esque codec, it can still be used to annoy people. If bandwidth were higher,.AVI's would be used for it. If Flash disappears, the demand to make these stupid intrusive ads is going to be the same, if not higher. They'll find a way to do it.
That's why I'm so against this "oh it'd be great if Flash broke!' attitude that some people here have. I'm sorry that Flash has annoyed you that bad, (is it really that bad?) but the problem you have is with the people who use it, not the technology itself. Remove Flash, and other technologies will very quickly pop up in its place.
"If you want to make a movie, use a standard codec. MPEG works fine pretty much anywhere."
Sounds like a good suggestion, until you think about the bandwidth and video quality involved. Ninjai episodes run at about 2.5 megabytes per minute of footage. The footage is at 700 by 350 pixels. There are no artifacts, the imagery is quite crisp. DivX is arguably the best at getting high quality footage per bit. To get similar quality to what you get with Flash, the data rate would be roughly 7.5 megabytes per minute.
So yeah, MPEG (DivX is based on MPEG 4...) is a great alternative to Flash if you want to triple the bandwidth requirements and remove all interactivity. I won't even bother preaching about the scalability of vector based graphics that raster video simply doesn't have.
"You have to remember that the Civic Hybrid has a lot of features that are only available in a Civic EX, including antilock breaks (which save on insurance), side airbags, and alloy wheels. Also, the hybrid has a few features which the Civic EX doesn't, including folding side mirrors, climate control, and a nicer interior. The only thing that the Hybrid is missing that the Civic EX has is a moon roof."
Your comparison is different from mine. I apologize for not being clearer. I wasn't looking at a Civic EX. I was looking at an LX. (I think it was an LX.. it was the mid-range one.) I didn't want alloy wheels or folding side mirrors or climate control. I couldn't get a hybrid without all that garbage. So, in essence, there was a $5,000 price gap between the hybrid and the car I wanted. So yes, you're right about the price difference, but in my case I woulud have been forced to buy features I didn't want. Again, I apologize for not being clearer, didn't mean to sound like I was spreading FUD.
For the record, I wasn't aware of the $2,000 tax deduction. That might have made a difference, but that's not a guarantee.
I considered hybrid back in the summer of 2002. I went shopping for a Honda Civic. For $5,000 more I could have gotten the hybrid version. I did a math projection for 5 years, and I simply did not save $5,000 in gas. (It's worth noting that I only drive 10 miles a day.) My memory's fuzzy on the details of my math, but I remember thinking gas prices would have to at least double in order to break even. There are probably other ways to justify that cost, but that's what stood out for me and why I didn't go hybrid.
Also, here in Oregon, there were complaints that with higher fuel efficiency, there is fewer tax dollars coming from gas to repair roads with. So they cranked up the registration fees of hybrids. That's another cost I would have to have endured.
You should take some time to do some math. How much does gas cost now? How much is it likely to go up for the period you plan on having your car?What's the cost difference in buying it today? Is there any real benefit?
Short of some disaster that destroys or cuts off our oil supply, I can't think of a reason not to go with a traditional gas guzzler.
"i don't see how a 3d desktop can be usefull to anybody. movies, games and simulation are the only things that bennevit from this. "
That would be easy to debate. Unfortunately, everybody suddenly becomes a minimalist when their precious CPU cycles are spent doing snazzier UI effects. Anything the UI does to tell you what the computer is doing is good. Remember when Win2k came out and the menus faded in and out? That was good. Did it use CPU cycles? Yes. Did it take longer for the menu to come up? Yes. Is it bad? No. When that menu fades in, you have a moment to realize the new thing that just popped up. Little animations like that give the mind something to respond to. This means that using your computer becomes a reflect. Efficiency is achieved. You'd be surprised as to the subtle things people notice and respond to, like screen refreshes, etc. I can understand the argument that not everybody wants to spend the CPU cycles or the actual time to make those menus fade in/out. Instead of seeing it for what it is, they label it as 'bloat'. Sadly, it's often ignored that Microsoft was kind enough to put in a little "turn it off" feature along with a "Detect how powerful this machine is and turn it off if it's going to be to slow" feature.
Okay, so we understand that UI cues are useful, right? A stereoscopic display could turn into a huge desktop 'must-have'. Imagine stereo-scopic window management. You've not got a new variable of information for your brain to cue off of. The desktop is awlays in the distant background. The start menu is in front of everything. Windows are in between. When a window loses focus, it moves into the background while the new focus moves into the foreground. Are you using a form on a web page? No problemo, the textbox's depth moves a little closer to you without actually changing the physical size of it. No more confusion about which field you actually have selected!
As a 3D artist, I in particular would love to have a good 3D screen. I've been working on a project for the last month that has become rather complex. My machine can barely handle it. I noticed something interesting while working on this project. I spend quite a bit of time studying my model by making it rotate subtley. Sadly, the frame rate is so slow that it's a painful experience, but I do it anyway. As it slowly rotates, I have an idea from the paralaxx what is going on with the mesh. It occured to me that what I was doing was compensating for the lack of depth information. A stereoscopic display would have saved me a good deal of time here, plus it wouldn't have needed all that much more processing power!
Stereoscopy, if done in such a way that it doesn't induce headaches, will be a much bigger hit than people think. It's not just a gimmick. It's an extra dimension.
On another note, the best display I've seen wasn't exactly stereoscopic, but it did have 2 layers. It was a pair of LCD screens, one in front of the other, and the forerground one was transparent. No "you gotta have your head right HERE." No "you need funny glasses!" None of that stuff. It did, though, have a very clear foreground and background. I remember wishing I had one on my desktop.
"Mental Ray is supposedly working on it. Larry Gritz's company, Exulna was bought out by NVidia after Pixar sued them into oblivion for patent infringement. Hmm... wonder what NVidia wants a top of the line Renderman complient renderer for? (Yes, they are working on it)"
That would be pretty cool. Imagine buying multiple 'renderer' cards to put in a machine. Imagine being able to use your computer for other stuff while the cards are rendering. That's one of the reasons I work on dual proc machines.;)
"There are some concerns with the concept I have, but I get the chance to ask them Tuesday. "
"on the other side, a fully open, unpatches, nothing turned off redhat 8 server serving webpages on the net has never been rooted because it was behind a firewall."
Intrestingly enough, it was behind a very tough firewall maintained by an expert. I just built the server as a learning exercise, not the whole network.
"Actually, the video card has absolutely *ZIP* to do with the actual rendering."
No, the video card doesn't provide any bits that get put into the final image. However, a very significant portion of rendering is the setting up of the scene. You can spend hours upon hours getting your animation just right for render. That's where the video cards help 3D animators with productivity.
By now you've probably already heard something to this effect heh.
"Pehraps its commonly used for pirating, but its not the ONLY use.. "
Maybe Slashdot should have a "legit use of Kazaa" story.
I, for one, will set up Kazaa right now to host several free apps and Linux distros in order to save developers money on web hosting costs. The only catch is I want to be 100% legit.
"We should instead try to foster a more security mindeded friendly community to educate the Linux sysadmins out there. This is a problem, that should not be lightly dismissed."
You are right. I've read a lot of anti-MS babble here that has me a little spooked. Evidently, when Linux is more secure than Microsoft, the impression is generated that you can install a Linux based webserver and you're instantly secured. That's what I did. Being a Linux newb, I set up a Redhat/Apache server and within 2 weeks it was rooted. We had to have our sysadmin build us a new one. (It was a project for me to grow...)
It only takes one exploit to destroy your server. Vigilance is absolutely necessary on either platform. Maybe it's time to end the anti-MS pissing contest and focus on good practices in general for whatever OS you're using.
"The FLUDD pack does NOT add all that much to the game, and it is blindingly obvious to anyone who can actually open their eyes. "
Hey dude, just a thought, the pump is the central focus of the game. You use it to get around to anywhere in the map. It's 'blindingly obvious' that it really changes the mood of the game over Mario 64.
Get out of 'argument mode' and think about it for a sec. I realize AnonV's got ya kind of wound up (he can be a real ass sometimes) but now you're saying stuff that doesn't make all that much sense.
That's not what I meant, but it does sound that way. I'm sorry. Hard to express yourself clearly when you're trying to get it typed out before the rendering is complete.:)
"An African nation that fired an ICBM at the US would have 80 missiles targeted to melt it into a puddle before their single shot even reached the Atlantic. Any non-suicidal African dictator who wishes to nuke America will transport the bomb by SUV, not ICBM. "
However, if the missiles were dismantled, then the button could be pushed from the comfort of your own continent. Chicken and egg, yadda yadda yadda.
In any case, technology makes it easier and easier to lob destruction over great distances. Wasn't it just a week or two ago that Slashdot had a story about an RC plane making a trans-atlantic flight?
I'd rather be one step ahead of the bad guys and have all kinds of weapons laying around than no weapons at all. Yes, the world needs missiles.
Just had an amusing thought of what the title of this article would have been if there was a pic of somebody stationed on the ISSS mooning the Hubble scope.
Slashdot Mirror
"I suppose the best option would be to have a standard codec for vector video. "
.avi'esque codec, it can still be used to annoy people. If bandwidth were higher, .AVI's would be used for it. If Flash disappears, the demand to make these stupid intrusive ads is going to be the same, if not higher. They'll find a way to do it.
Well, to be fair, it's already there. Granted, it's not an open standard, but it's out there and anybody can use it. (Isn't there an open one in the works?)
Here's the problem, Flash doesn't have any real defect being exploited here. It has a feature set. Even if it didn't have the feature set, it's still got the attractive option of having very high quality animation capabilities that can work in a very low bandwidth environment. So if this codec is done simply as an
That's why I'm so against this "oh it'd be great if Flash broke!' attitude that some people here have. I'm sorry that Flash has annoyed you that bad, (is it really that bad?) but the problem you have is with the people who use it, not the technology itself. Remove Flash, and other technologies will very quickly pop up in its place.
"If you want to make a movie, use a standard codec. MPEG works fine pretty much anywhere."
Sounds like a good suggestion, until you think about the bandwidth and video quality involved. Ninjai episodes run at about 2.5 megabytes per minute of footage. The footage is at 700 by 350 pixels. There are no artifacts, the imagery is quite crisp. DivX is arguably the best at getting high quality footage per bit. To get similar quality to what you get with Flash, the data rate would be roughly 7.5 megabytes per minute.
So yeah, MPEG (DivX is based on MPEG 4...) is a great alternative to Flash if you want to triple the bandwidth requirements and remove all interactivity. I won't even bother preaching about the scalability of vector based graphics that raster video simply doesn't have.
"You have to remember that the Civic Hybrid has a lot of features that are only available in a Civic EX, including antilock breaks (which save on insurance), side airbags, and alloy wheels. Also, the hybrid has a few features which the Civic EX doesn't, including folding side mirrors, climate control, and a nicer interior. The only thing that the Hybrid is missing that the Civic EX has is a moon roof."
Your comparison is different from mine. I apologize for not being clearer. I wasn't looking at a Civic EX. I was looking at an LX. (I think it was an LX.. it was the mid-range one.) I didn't want alloy wheels or folding side mirrors or climate control. I couldn't get a hybrid without all that garbage. So, in essence, there was a $5,000 price gap between the hybrid and the car I wanted. So yes, you're right about the price difference, but in my case I woulud have been forced to buy features I didn't want. Again, I apologize for not being clearer, didn't mean to sound like I was spreading FUD.
For the record, I wasn't aware of the $2,000 tax deduction. That might have made a difference, but that's not a guarantee.
I considered hybrid back in the summer of 2002. I went shopping for a Honda Civic. For $5,000 more I could have gotten the hybrid version. I did a math projection for 5 years, and I simply did not save $5,000 in gas. (It's worth noting that I only drive 10 miles a day.) My memory's fuzzy on the details of my math, but I remember thinking gas prices would have to at least double in order to break even. There are probably other ways to justify that cost, but that's what stood out for me and why I didn't go hybrid.
Also, here in Oregon, there were complaints that with higher fuel efficiency, there is fewer tax dollars coming from gas to repair roads with. So they cranked up the registration fees of hybrids. That's another cost I would have to have endured.
You should take some time to do some math. How much does gas cost now? How much is it likely to go up for the period you plan on having your car?What's the cost difference in buying it today? Is there any real benefit?
Short of some disaster that destroys or cuts off our oil supply, I can't think of a reason not to go with a traditional gas guzzler.
"It might actually be nice, to force Web AdminDUHstrators to not rely upon plugins for everything."
I bet I'm not the only artist who despises comments like these.
"The death of flash would be the most wonderful day in web browsing history since it's inception."
+5 Insightful?!
"i don't see how a 3d desktop can be usefull to anybody. movies, games and simulation are the only things that bennevit from this. "
That would be easy to debate. Unfortunately, everybody suddenly becomes a minimalist when their precious CPU cycles are spent doing snazzier UI effects. Anything the UI does to tell you what the computer is doing is good. Remember when Win2k came out and the menus faded in and out? That was good. Did it use CPU cycles? Yes. Did it take longer for the menu to come up? Yes. Is it bad? No. When that menu fades in, you have a moment to realize the new thing that just popped up. Little animations like that give the mind something to respond to. This means that using your computer becomes a reflect. Efficiency is achieved. You'd be surprised as to the subtle things people notice and respond to, like screen refreshes, etc. I can understand the argument that not everybody wants to spend the CPU cycles or the actual time to make those menus fade in/out. Instead of seeing it for what it is, they label it as 'bloat'. Sadly, it's often ignored that Microsoft was kind enough to put in a little "turn it off" feature along with a "Detect how powerful this machine is and turn it off if it's going to be to slow" feature.
Okay, so we understand that UI cues are useful, right? A stereoscopic display could turn into a huge desktop 'must-have'. Imagine stereo-scopic window management. You've not got a new variable of information for your brain to cue off of. The desktop is awlays in the distant background. The start menu is in front of everything. Windows are in between. When a window loses focus, it moves into the background while the new focus moves into the foreground. Are you using a form on a web page? No problemo, the textbox's depth moves a little closer to you without actually changing the physical size of it. No more confusion about which field you actually have selected!
As a 3D artist, I in particular would love to have a good 3D screen. I've been working on a project for the last month that has become rather complex. My machine can barely handle it. I noticed something interesting while working on this project. I spend quite a bit of time studying my model by making it rotate subtley. Sadly, the frame rate is so slow that it's a painful experience, but I do it anyway. As it slowly rotates, I have an idea from the paralaxx what is going on with the mesh. It occured to me that what I was doing was compensating for the lack of depth information. A stereoscopic display would have saved me a good deal of time here, plus it wouldn't have needed all that much more processing power!
Stereoscopy, if done in such a way that it doesn't induce headaches, will be a much bigger hit than people think. It's not just a gimmick. It's an extra dimension.
On another note, the best display I've seen wasn't exactly stereoscopic, but it did have 2 layers. It was a pair of LCD screens, one in front of the other, and the forerground one was transparent. No "you gotta have your head right HERE." No "you need funny glasses!" None of that stuff. It did, though, have a very clear foreground and background. I remember wishing I had one on my desktop.
"Beer, is there anything it can't do?"
So far it hasn't been able to get you laid. The experiment's still running though...
"Mental Ray is supposedly working on it. Larry Gritz's company, Exulna was bought out by NVidia after Pixar sued them into oblivion for patent infringement. Hmm... wonder what NVidia wants a top of the line Renderman complient renderer for? (Yes, they are working on it)"
;)
That would be pretty cool. Imagine buying multiple 'renderer' cards to put in a machine. Imagine being able to use your computer for other stuff while the cards are rendering. That's one of the reasons I work on dual proc machines.
"There are some concerns with the concept I have, but I get the chance to ask them Tuesday. "
I dind't understand this comment, clarify pls?
"on the other side, a fully open, unpatches, nothing turned off redhat 8 server serving webpages on the net has never been rooted because it was behind a firewall."
Intrestingly enough, it was behind a very tough firewall maintained by an expert. I just built the server as a learning exercise, not the whole network.
"I wonder if this means that all phone conversations will become the intellectual property of the phone company."
I wonder if this means I'll be able to set the copy protection bit on my phone convos.
*Sticks his tongue out at the local law enforcement HQ*
"Actually, the video card has absolutely *ZIP* to do with the actual rendering."
No, the video card doesn't provide any bits that get put into the final image. However, a very significant portion of rendering is the setting up of the scene. You can spend hours upon hours getting your animation just right for render. That's where the video cards help 3D animators with productivity.
By now you've probably already heard something to this effect heh.
"Since the primary purpose of Kazaa is to tarde pirated music,"
I agree, Kazaa excels at making sure pirated music gets to you late.
"Pehraps its commonly used for pirating, but its not the ONLY use.. "
Maybe Slashdot should have a "legit use of Kazaa" story.
I, for one, will set up Kazaa right now to host several free apps and Linux distros in order to save developers money on web hosting costs. The only catch is I want to be 100% legit.
"But once I see FOUR-dimensional acceleration, /then/ I might upgrade."
You'll get your chance when stereoscopic monitors come out.
"We should instead try to foster a more security mindeded friendly community to educate the Linux sysadmins out there. This is a problem, that should not be lightly dismissed."
You are right. I've read a lot of anti-MS babble here that has me a little spooked. Evidently, when Linux is more secure than Microsoft, the impression is generated that you can install a Linux based webserver and you're instantly secured. That's what I did. Being a Linux newb, I set up a Redhat/Apache server and within 2 weeks it was rooted. We had to have our sysadmin build us a new one. (It was a project for me to grow...)
It only takes one exploit to destroy your server. Vigilance is absolutely necessary on either platform. Maybe it's time to end the anti-MS pissing contest and focus on good practices in general for whatever OS you're using.
This would have made a great story on the front page. Granted, it's about games, but the discussion could have branched out nicely.
"The FLUDD pack does NOT add all that much to the game, and it is blindingly obvious to anyone who can actually open their eyes. "
Hey dude, just a thought, the pump is the central focus of the game. You use it to get around to anywhere in the map. It's 'blindingly obvious' that it really changes the mood of the game over Mario 64.
Get out of 'argument mode' and think about it for a sec. I realize AnonV's got ya kind of wound up (he can be a real ass sometimes) but now you're saying stuff that doesn't make all that much sense.
That's not what I meant, but it does sound that way. I'm sorry. Hard to express yourself clearly when you're trying to get it typed out before the rendering is complete. :)
I wonder if a glass CD would be appropriate. Or maybe that's not the bit that decays...
I just remember hearing the term 'glass master' when talking about music CDs.
Oh.. duh. I get it now.
Glad I didn't translate that, woulda been charged with a DMCA violation.
"I think you need to lighten up about troll mods. "
Unfortunately these troll mods deter people from making creative humorous comments. You're supposed to according to the FAQ.
Chalk up another offtopic for me. Never mind that moderation is very much a part of any topic.
*annoyed*
"An African nation that fired an ICBM at the US would have 80 missiles targeted to melt it into a puddle before their single shot even reached the Atlantic. Any non-suicidal African dictator who wishes to nuke America will transport the bomb by SUV, not ICBM. "
However, if the missiles were dismantled, then the button could be pushed from the comfort of your own continent. Chicken and egg, yadda yadda yadda.
In any case, technology makes it easier and easier to lob destruction over great distances. Wasn't it just a week or two ago that Slashdot had a story about an RC plane making a trans-atlantic flight?
I'd rather be one step ahead of the bad guys and have all kinds of weapons laying around than no weapons at all. Yes, the world needs missiles.
Just had an amusing thought of what the title of this article would have been if there was a pic of somebody stationed on the ISSS mooning the Hubble scope.