Although I understand your bias towards "Web 2.0" sites from a general point of view, I tend to disagree. This whole browser fiasco is forcing more and more "mainstream" websites to implement Flash... and THAT drives me nuts.
I would prefer a "Web 2.0" website over anything done all-Flash.
Have you ever tried to use a terribly designed (very common) Flash site? The thought of seeing more and more of those sites is making my stomach turn...
I completely agree with the overall developer response. The point isn't to call the company a "devil" and walk away from their products... the overarching sentiment is one of protest.
I myself am working on a site and its getting to the point where its completely absurd that IE simply cannot follow the standards. I've been hacking my way around IE and, yes, it takes a great deal of time. I myself won't consider using their other offerings - who knows what traps may lay in wait in Silverlight?
Sometimes I wish Microsoft didn't fully support the TCP/IP standard, either. Then we wouldn't have to deal with this kind of nonsense.
-MCS
As many have already noted, Dvorak is always wrong. Why do we still read his article? I haven't even wasted my time with this one! People, if you really want to know what will happen in the not-so-distant future, why not go check out Robert Cringley's articles? Waste your time reading the thoughts of someone who is actually often right!
Although using FPGAs for reconfigurable computing applications still has a number of drawbacks, utilizing FPGAs for embedded applications is some really cool stuff.
For example, an entire system can be dynamically built right into the FPGA -- including processor, OPB, memory buses, and any other devices such as interrupt controllers, timers, etc. Aside from RAM and Flash, you almost have an entire embedded system built right into a chip.
Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to work on a project that required this very embedded setup. Using the MicroBlaze soft-processor from Xilinx built into the Spartan3 FPGA and only 8MB of SDRAM, I got uCLinux running -- completely tailored to my hardware setup!
I can't tell you how much time and money would have been wasted trying to design and fabricate the same setup on a PCB.
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Although I understand your bias towards "Web 2.0" sites from a general point of view, I tend to disagree. This whole browser fiasco is forcing more and more "mainstream" websites to implement Flash... and THAT drives me nuts.
I would prefer a "Web 2.0" website over anything done all-Flash.
Have you ever tried to use a terribly designed (very common) Flash site? The thought of seeing more and more of those sites is making my stomach turn...
I completely agree with the overall developer response. The point isn't to call the company a "devil" and walk away from their products... the overarching sentiment is one of protest.
I myself am working on a site and its getting to the point where its completely absurd that IE simply cannot follow the standards. I've been hacking my way around IE and, yes, it takes a great deal of time. I myself won't consider using their other offerings - who knows what traps may lay in wait in Silverlight?
Sometimes I wish Microsoft didn't fully support the TCP/IP standard, either. Then we wouldn't have to deal with this kind of nonsense.
-MCS
As many have already noted, Dvorak is always wrong. Why do we still read his article? I haven't even wasted my time with this one! People, if you really want to know what will happen in the not-so-distant future, why not go check out Robert Cringley's articles? Waste your time reading the thoughts of someone who is actually often right!
Although using FPGAs for reconfigurable computing applications still has a number of drawbacks, utilizing FPGAs for embedded applications is some really cool stuff.
For example, an entire system can be dynamically built right into the FPGA -- including processor, OPB, memory buses, and any other devices such as interrupt controllers, timers, etc. Aside from RAM and Flash, you almost have an entire embedded system built right into a chip.
Earlier this spring I had the opportunity to work on a project that required this very embedded setup. Using the MicroBlaze soft-processor from Xilinx built into the Spartan3 FPGA and only 8MB of SDRAM, I got uCLinux running -- completely tailored to my hardware setup!
I can't tell you how much time and money would have been wasted trying to design and fabricate the same setup on a PCB.