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User: MenTaLguY

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Comments · 1,497

  1. Re:Apple is scared of write once run anywhere on How the iPad Is Already Reshaping the Internet (Sans Flash) · · Score: 1

    We're rapidly approaching the point where pretty much any app or game can be written in pure HTML5/JS. Most recently, Quake 2 was ported to it, (though the port currently only works in Chrome and edge WebKit).

  2. Re:Very little apparently on What Normal Users Can Expect From Ubuntu 8.10 · · Score: 1

    It's XFree86 still. XFree86 left the codebase and architecture in such a mess that it's taking this long for Xorg to get this stuff straightened out in the codebase they inherited.

  3. Re:I would rather they fixed the flash/pulse probl on Mozilla Nixes Firefox EULA Requirement · · Score: 1

    Installing libflashsupport doesn't address the issues for you?

  4. Re:This and G8... on France Seeks To Push 3-Strikes Law Across Europe · · Score: 1

    The main problem with the consolidation of power in super-national governing bodies like the EU is that it creates a single point of failure for freedom.

  5. Re:MOD PARENT UP on Does an Open Java Really Matter? · · Score: 2, Informative

    To be fair, there's always Jython. Python the language, on the JVM.

  6. Re:'polished turd' on Processing Visualization Language Ported To Javascript · · Score: 1

    And of course, by the time Flash is using Tamarin, so will Javascript be (at least in Firefox).

  7. Re:Age an issue. on MacGyver Film In the Works? · · Score: 1

    In RDA's case he's got knee problems that forced him into semi-retirement.

  8. Re:Great on Adobe Opens the FLV and SWF Formats · · Score: 1

    A lot of the ActionScript stuff (in the newer version of the players) should be covered by Adobe's Tamarin project, which is open source.

  9. Re:For those of us who like to make annotations... on Xerox Demos Self-Erasing, Eco-Friendly Paper · · Score: 1

    That would certainly work -- you just need a UV LED in the tip I think. I'm not aware of anyone planning to make one at this point though.

  10. For those of us who like to make annotations... on Xerox Demos Self-Erasing, Eco-Friendly Paper · · Score: 1

    The paper isn't going to be very reusable if you want to make notes on it. Which is the main advantage to printing things out in the first place (the other advantage being the ability to spread loose paper out on a table or any other large, flat surface).

  11. Re:i for one... on Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can only assume you don't do much graphical UI development. "Widget" is a standard technical term used to refer to an element of a GUI. See for instance GUI Widget on Wikipedia.

    The Safari text boxes are compound widgets (or metawidgets, if you like), which include a "resize handle" widget in their corner.

  12. Re:i for one... on Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, no, it's actually a little widget that you interact with via the mouse. I don't know what else it could legitimately be called.

  13. Re:I Wonder on Laptops Can Be Searched At the Border · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can't carry drugs or bombs in paper files either. Except maybe LSD.

  14. Re:The real question is... on HD Video Editing with Blender · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unless they've changed things in the newer versions, you don't need the "ADD" part (though you do need IPO to set volume); all of the audio tracks are mixed automatically.

  15. Re:Forums? on Google Crawls The Deep Web · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately a lot of developers misuse GET requests for actions which modify state. (I suppose this'll teach them...)

  16. Re:Squid = awesome on The Squid's Beak May Revolutionize Engineering · · Score: 1

    Well, that and (in the comic) the web shooters are attached to a bracelet-type thingy. Assuming the bracelet were strong enough, he'd mainly have to be concerned about not tearing off his thumb at the base.

  17. Re:No, they will not on China to Use Silver Iodide & Dry Ice to Control the Weather · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hubris.

  18. Re:Moral of the story on New Rules Created For OOXML Vote · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It has more to do with the significance of the thing destroyed in this case.

  19. Re:Wii Cracked! on WiiWare Week Round Up · · Score: 0

    Sort of. You still need a Twilight Princess disc.

  20. Re:Based on my experience with FF2 on Firefox 3 May Be More Memory Efficient Than Either IE or Opera · · Score: 1

    Note that the XPCOM cycle collection stuff is opt-in, so it may take a little while for add-ons to adopt it. But it will certainly solve an awful lot of add-on memory problems in the long run.

  21. Re:Like we were expecting something else on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    The proof is a trivial proof by demonstration. :)

  22. Re:What do the people that make the software say? on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    A proper raytrace implementation will automatically account for things like the shadow penumbra (soft shadows), indirect lighting (light bounces, aka radiosity), and ambient occlusion. We're definitely not talking about the raytracers of yesteryear, which were very functionally limited.

    Those additional techniques used by modern "ray tracers" to avoid the limitations of pure ray tracing are not ray tracing (the term has a very specific meaning). They belong to a different family of algorithms.

    I suppose the argument isn't even really about raytracing vs. not. It's about whether it's worthwhile to brute force the problem (thereby keeping the solution elegant and simple) with sheer CPU power, or to try and fake your way to good visuals via ever more convoluted "fake" solutions.

    Yes, that's a better way of looking at it.

  23. Re:Like we were expecting something else on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    No. Ray-tracing solves a small subset of the rendering equation, based on a purely particle-oriented approximation of photon behavior. It is not at all a suitable technique for modeling photon wavefronts (the interaction of which gives us interference patterns). If you want to model photon wavefronts, you need to use other techniques.

  24. Re:What do the people that make the software say? on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    Well, sort of. Raytracing isn't a complete solution to the rendering equation -- you'll still need hacks to get nice soft shadows, indirect lighting, and ambient occlusion.

  25. Re:Like we were expecting something else on NVIDIA Doubts Ray Tracing Is the Future of Games · · Score: 1

    Ray tracing is based on tracing the paths of particles, not wavefronts.