Those links are here and here. Sorry, I was using the URL while still referring to the local server (I type in www.people instead of www.people.virginia.edu because it's on the LAN and I'm lazy).
'Tis a pity...it got slashdotted. I realized this only after the thumbnails page was loaded, so I could only get snapshots of the thumbnails...they are here and.
Get Your Graphics On: OpenGL Advances with the Times
ACM Queue vol. 2, no. 1 - March 2004 by Alexander Wolfe, Science Writer
Because so much compute power is required, render farms usually run offline. The Old Graphics API OpenGL, the decade-old mother of all graphics application programming interfaces (APIs), is getting two significant updates to bring it into the 21st century.
Accurately billed by its supporters as the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications, OpenGL comes equipped with a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and visualization functions.1 Faced with increased competition on the desktop from Microsoft's DirectX and D3D offerings, however, OpenGL is getting a bit long in the tooth.
Accordingly, the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (the independent consortium chartered in 1992 to guide the future of the API, which was originally developed and is still owned by Silicon Graphics2) has pushed ahead on the desktop and workstation front to provide a programmable implementation dubbed the OpenGL Shading Language.
Meanwhile, a spin-off organization called Khronos3 has been formed to extend the OpenGL brand into the emerging world of downsized devices such as cellphones and handheld gaming devices. There, it's taking the form of a new API called OpenGL ES, for "embedded systems."
HANDHELD ACTIVITY SPURS NEW SPEC The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held this past January in Las Vegas, constituted the public coming-out party for Khronos. The OpenGL ES 1.0 spec itself was actually disclosed in July 2003 at Siggraph in San Diego.4 But CES saw the release of the first products to execute apps taking advantage of the spec, thus moving it from vapor status to a real, 3D-embedded engine.
Initially, ES support is coming in the form of software engines. Texas Instruments5 and Symbian6 have developed the 3D Graphics Library plug-in based on OpenGL ES 1.0 for Symbian OS-based mobile phones equipped with TI's OMAP digital signal processors. In addition, Fathammer has integrated OpenGL ES into its X-Forge game software development kit (SDK),7 which is used to develop apps for Nokia's N-Gage handheld wireless game unit.8
In keeping with its embedded design goal, these ES engineers are keeping a tight footprint--on the order of 100 kilobytes resident on the target platform.
Such software will be followed later this year by faster, dedicated integrated circuits and cores (the latter being intellectual property ready to be transformed into working silicon) now under development at ATI, NeoMagic, Takumi, and 3Dlabs itself.
OpenGL ES's proponents see it moving rapidly into a vacuum in the embedded space. To date, Java-compliant 3D graphics have come in the form of the Java 3D API. Many developers, however, believe Java 3D is at too low a level. An initial indication that ES may see service in the Java arena comes via the news that Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics plan to cooperate in developing bindings from the mobile J2ME runtime environment9 into OpenGL ES.
For its part, Microsoft is developing a competitive offering in the form of D3D Mobile. That API is an embedded version of DirectX; however, it's expected that D3D Mobile will be very closely tied to Microsoft's embedded operating system offerings such as Windows CE and Smartphone. As such, it could be a good while before it migrates to Java-based devices of Symbian cellphones.
If this seems like a swipe at Microsoft, consider at the same time that Redmond may be in a better position when it comes to tools support. Microsoft can easily fold D3D support into Visual Studio and the.NET Framework. In contrast, the OpenGL Architectural Review Board won't be a one-stop shop in charge of building support for OpenGL ES into any of the popular IDEs (integrated development environments). Rather, such support will come in multiple plug-ins from third parties, such as the vendors offe
So when WinFS does get on the network, will linux be able to recognize it? What will become of Samba?
Samba will continue. Not everyone will upgrade to Whistler or Blackcomb. Remember, Microsoft is STILL! trying to push users off Windows 95, 98, and NT, and it's already been several years since XP was released. Imagine the uphill battle in several years to get businesses off 2000...
This seems like a not so sneaky move by Microsoft to shut out interoperability between linux and windows platforms.
So what? Microsoft Windows Professional (2000/XP) and NT Workstation/Server, as far as I know, have generally included downgrade options. So in 2006, build your next PC with an OEM license for "Whistler" (just get the Pro edition) and use your Windows 2000 media.
Read the OEM EULA. Note that this does not apply to retail versions unless you do volume licensing with Microsoft.
Same goes for Server versions, if you're into that kind of thing. I, however, for one, have given up on Windows servers and have moved to Linux/Samba already. Reason: Microsoft may say the TCO for Windows is much lower than Linux, but they neglect all the other software you need to buy for Windows to make it actually do something (antivirus, mail server, more antivirus, defrag programs, database servers, and so forth).
The biggest mistake that can be made is to use the Home version of Windows. It not only is a crippled version of the Professional version (at least, when you define crippled as having certain features, e.g., logging in to a network), but it doesn't have any downgrade rights AT ALL.
I don't know anything about the WinFS network formats, and if they will include the ability of backwards compatibility with other OS types on the network.
If Microsoft all of a sudden turns off backwards compatibility, businesses will cry foul. If Windows isn't backward compatible, then what's the point of keeping it on a corporate network?
Either businesses will stick to their "legacy" Windows 2000 and XP or begin migrating to other platforms. I can envision the former in many small businesses without dedicated techs and the latter in larger corporations.
---
Offtopic, if there are/.ers reading this who I conversed with in a post a while back, I am now planning to mix Linux/*BSD boxes with my Windows boxes in our desktop environment. We'll see, if I can get Unix to sync easily with Samba and vice versa, my family's home network (used for school, work, and a whole lot more) could shift a bit more towards *nix.
Gambling is illegal in most states (except for Nevada, I think). If the federal govt were to all of a sudden say, "Okay, online gambling is legal everywhere!", it might set a precedent upon which state gambling laws would be overturned.
(Note that then the state govts would lose the advantage they have in that the only legit gambling ops are lotteries.)
While Apple's competitors have embraced WMA, they hardly relish the thought of their business becoming heavily dependent on another standard that Redmond controls.
So they're going to give up one proprietary standard (Microsoft's WMA) for another one (Apple's AAC)?
Correct me if I'm wrong about AAC being proprietary.
Woah. My LiDE 30 is completely supported! Interesting...
Not sure yet though if I want to give up MSOffice, especially since I also use it for working on projects from home (Publisher... it's a proprietary file format, I know.) and the Office OEM license came with this computer.
Now, if I could run WinXP and OfficeXP within some sort of emulator on the Linux box, then I could probably transition pretty easily.
I'm part of that group. I occasionally feel like playing a game (Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, etc. and YES, Solitaire/Minesweeper:P), but I don't feel like it's worth spending the money on a dedicated system considering I wouldn't be using it that much.
If you put a Windows machine on a network, you just made your network insecure.
On an unsecure network like the Internet or anything connected to wireless, perhaps..
If it's a family network that's entirely wired Ethernet, I think it's probably fine. That's what ours is, right now.
If I get a wireless 802.11g card, though, I think I better take some steps to actively secure the wired portion of our network. (That probably will involve building a *BSD or Linux box that connects the three networks together, i.e., the internal wired LAN, the wireless LAN, and the "DMZ"/connection to the Internet via the router, and manages and monitors the traffic between them.)
Any system that is improperly secured (Linux included) is unsafe to put on a network these days. Windows, unfortunately, comes improperly secured. That's why when I load systems, I take steps to configure the systems with some level of security.
Someone should not be required to keep an RFID tag on something valuable just because they may have to get warranty service on it someday.
That's right. Warranty service should be redeemable on a product regardless. However, there are some manufacturers (Netgear comes to mind) who require that you register with them or you don't have a warranty.
It's just like having an RFID tag, imo...
RFID is good technology, with a lot of potential and a number of legitimate uses.
Gotta agree with you there. Some of the potential applications where I think it will be VERY much welcomed include inventory control and shipping (imagine if your FedEx package is tracked by computer instead of having to be barcode scanned)...
Every technology has its upsides and downsides, good uses and bad uses.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't VNC broadcast passwords in clear-text?
You could also set up a *nix box with Shoutcast (or some other streaming server) and SSH into it from elsewhere. Might be a bit zippier than VNC (which for us was slow even with a fully switched 100Mbps network).
Because you allow port 80 outbound in your hardware firewall, don't you?
Yes, I believe so, in order for client systems to browse the Web.
I'm the only one in my family with access to the Administrator account (well, my sister has it too when I'm not directly onsite at our house, but I keep watch on what she does) and I generally check out software before I install it. I'm reasonably sure most of our software is fine. Most of the software we're running is what we've been using for some time and I generally know what phones home and what doesn't.
Things like: Office 97, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, whatever open-source programs I run now (we're replacing a lot of proprietary programs with open-source, mostly due to the licensing hassle), etc.
I know that AOL phones home, but I don't really care too much. We don't use Outlook, although it's installed.
Everyone else is running with normal user privileges, which, in Windows, I believe, do not allow the user to install applications. Even I run under a regular account for daily use.
No, I haven't. I'm not quite that "advanced" a user.
Care to tell as to how to do this? I think some of the Linksys firewalls were Linux-based, or at least that's what I read a while back. Is this even possible?
See other post that says: "I'm thinking of putting a *BSD or Linux box in between the Linksys firewall and custom-building that system myself."
We used FreeSCO at one point but then discovered that it had some nasty vulnerabilities.
I probably could replace MSOffice with OpenOffice, and there's probably a Java debugger and compiler for *nix systems. MathCAD? No idea where to replace that. Rise of Nations is MS-only (dammit), and there probably is Palm Pilot interfacing software for *nix. Have no idea if my Canon scanner is supported, but it need to use it. Well, if they're making a poor choice, that's too bad, but in the meantime, I have to get work done, so I just try and make do.
That is true. Problem is, ZoneAlarm is kinda bloated these days and sometimes (just like Norton Antivirus) it will randomly stop working on a computer.
I may have mentioned this in another post, but I'm thinking of putting a *BSD or Linux box in between the Linksys firewall and custom-building that system myself.
Yes, firewall software was the one that was compromised, I think. I used to trust ZoneAlarm, but then I figured that hardware firewalling is probably a safer bet than software firewalling, especially if the software firewall is running on a Windows box.
Slashdot Mirror
Those links are here and here. Sorry, I was using the URL while still referring to the local server (I type in www.people instead of www.people.virginia.edu because it's on the LAN and I'm lazy).
'Tis a pity...it got slashdotted. I realized this only after the thumbnails page was loaded, so I could only get snapshots of the thumbnails...they are here and .
What about this one? ...or
So how long til we see this?
...or any of those other famous blunders with Microsoft Windows error screens on large publicly-viewed digital billboards...
Get Your Graphics On: OpenGL Advances with the Times
.NET Framework. In contrast, the OpenGL Architectural Review Board won't be a one-stop shop in charge of building support for OpenGL ES into any of the popular IDEs (integrated development environments). Rather, such support will come in multiple plug-ins from third parties, such as the vendors offe
ACM Queue vol. 2, no. 1 - March 2004
by Alexander Wolfe, Science Writer
Because so much compute power is required, render farms usually run offline.
The Old Graphics API
OpenGL, the decade-old mother of all graphics application programming interfaces (APIs), is getting two significant updates to bring it into the 21st century.
Accurately billed by its supporters as the premier environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications, OpenGL comes equipped with a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and visualization functions.1 Faced with increased competition on the desktop from Microsoft's DirectX and D3D offerings, however, OpenGL is getting a bit long in the tooth.
Accordingly, the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (the independent consortium chartered in 1992 to guide the future of the API, which was originally developed and is still owned by Silicon Graphics2) has pushed ahead on the desktop and workstation front to provide a programmable implementation dubbed the OpenGL Shading Language.
Meanwhile, a spin-off organization called Khronos3 has been formed to extend the OpenGL brand into the emerging world of downsized devices such as cellphones and handheld gaming devices. There, it's taking the form of a new API called OpenGL ES, for "embedded systems."
HANDHELD ACTIVITY SPURS NEW SPEC
The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held this past January in Las Vegas, constituted the public coming-out party for Khronos. The OpenGL ES 1.0 spec itself was actually disclosed in July 2003 at Siggraph in San Diego.4 But CES saw the release of the first products to execute apps taking advantage of the spec, thus moving it from vapor status to a real, 3D-embedded engine.
Initially, ES support is coming in the form of software engines. Texas Instruments5 and Symbian6 have developed the 3D Graphics Library plug-in based on OpenGL ES 1.0 for Symbian OS-based mobile phones equipped with TI's OMAP digital signal processors. In addition, Fathammer has integrated OpenGL ES into its X-Forge game software development kit (SDK),7 which is used to develop apps for Nokia's N-Gage handheld wireless game unit.8
In keeping with its embedded design goal, these ES engineers are keeping a tight footprint--on the order of 100 kilobytes resident on the target platform.
Such software will be followed later this year by faster, dedicated integrated circuits and cores (the latter being intellectual property ready to be transformed into working silicon) now under development at ATI, NeoMagic, Takumi, and 3Dlabs itself.
OpenGL ES's proponents see it moving rapidly into a vacuum in the embedded space. To date, Java-compliant 3D graphics have come in the form of the Java 3D API. Many developers, however, believe Java 3D is at too low a level. An initial indication that ES may see service in the Java arena comes via the news that Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics plan to cooperate in developing bindings from the mobile J2ME runtime environment9 into OpenGL ES.
For its part, Microsoft is developing a competitive offering in the form of D3D Mobile. That API is an embedded version of DirectX; however, it's expected that D3D Mobile will be very closely tied to Microsoft's embedded operating system offerings such as Windows CE and Smartphone. As such, it could be a good while before it migrates to Java-based devices of Symbian cellphones.
If this seems like a swipe at Microsoft, consider at the same time that Redmond may be in a better position when it comes to tools support. Microsoft can easily fold D3D support into Visual Studio and the
Would setting the e-mail client to render e-mails as TEXT-ONLY by default help, perhaps?
So when WinFS does get on the network, will linux be able to recognize it? What will become of Samba?
/.ers reading this who I conversed with in a post a while back, I am now planning to mix Linux/*BSD boxes with my Windows boxes in our desktop environment. We'll see, if I can get Unix to sync easily with Samba and vice versa, my family's home network (used for school, work, and a whole lot more) could shift a bit more towards *nix.
Samba will continue. Not everyone will upgrade to Whistler or Blackcomb. Remember, Microsoft is STILL! trying to push users off Windows 95, 98, and NT, and it's already been several years since XP was released. Imagine the uphill battle in several years to get businesses off 2000...
This seems like a not so sneaky move by Microsoft to shut out interoperability between linux and windows platforms.
So what? Microsoft Windows Professional (2000/XP) and NT Workstation/Server, as far as I know, have generally included downgrade options. So in 2006, build your next PC with an OEM license for "Whistler" (just get the Pro edition) and use your Windows 2000 media.
Read the OEM EULA. Note that this does not apply to retail versions unless you do volume licensing with Microsoft.
Same goes for Server versions, if you're into that kind of thing. I, however, for one, have given up on Windows servers and have moved to Linux/Samba already. Reason: Microsoft may say the TCO for Windows is much lower than Linux, but they neglect all the other software you need to buy for Windows to make it actually do something (antivirus, mail server, more antivirus, defrag programs, database servers, and so forth).
The biggest mistake that can be made is to use the Home version of Windows. It not only is a crippled version of the Professional version (at least, when you define crippled as having certain features, e.g., logging in to a network), but it doesn't have any downgrade rights AT ALL.
I don't know anything about the WinFS network formats, and if they will include the ability of backwards compatibility with other OS types on the network.
If Microsoft all of a sudden turns off backwards compatibility, businesses will cry foul. If Windows isn't backward compatible, then what's the point of keeping it on a corporate network?
Either businesses will stick to their "legacy" Windows 2000 and XP or begin migrating to other platforms. I can envision the former in many small businesses without dedicated techs and the latter in larger corporations.
---
Offtopic, if there are
It's not gonna happen.
Gambling is illegal in most states (except for Nevada, I think). If the federal govt were to all of a sudden say, "Okay, online gambling is legal everywhere!", it might set a precedent upon which state gambling laws would be overturned.
(Note that then the state govts would lose the advantage they have in that the only legit gambling ops are lotteries.)
While Apple's competitors have embraced WMA, they hardly relish the thought of their business becoming heavily dependent on another standard that Redmond controls.
So they're going to give up one proprietary standard (Microsoft's WMA) for another one (Apple's AAC)?
Correct me if I'm wrong about AAC being proprietary.
Woah. My LiDE 30 is completely supported!
Interesting...
Not sure yet though if I want to give up MSOffice, especially since I also use it for working on projects from home (Publisher... it's a proprietary file format, I know.) and the Office OEM license came with this computer.
Now, if I could run WinXP and OfficeXP within some sort of emulator on the Linux box, then I could probably transition pretty easily.
I'll look into it.
Well, it would be newsworthy if it were a pre-alpha release of Duke Nukem Forever.
I'm part of that group. I occasionally feel like playing a game (Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, etc. and YES, Solitaire/Minesweeper :P), but I don't feel like it's worth spending the money on a dedicated system considering I wouldn't be using it that much.
Interesting...now that's just stupid and dangerous from a security point of view.
Well, ideally, RFIDs should be disabled on property after purchase by the consumer, otherwise yes, a lot of information would be leaking.
If you put a Windows machine on a network, you just made your network insecure.
On an unsecure network like the Internet or anything connected to wireless, perhaps..
If it's a family network that's entirely wired Ethernet, I think it's probably fine. That's what ours is, right now.
If I get a wireless 802.11g card, though, I think I better take some steps to actively secure the wired portion of our network. (That probably will involve building a *BSD or Linux box that connects the three networks together, i.e., the internal wired LAN, the wireless LAN, and the "DMZ"/connection to the Internet via the router, and manages and monitors the traffic between them.)
Any system that is improperly secured (Linux included) is unsafe to put on a network these days. Windows, unfortunately, comes improperly secured. That's why when I load systems, I take steps to configure the systems with some level of security.
Someone should not be required to keep an RFID tag on something valuable just because they may have to get warranty service on it someday.
That's right. Warranty service should be redeemable on a product regardless. However, there are some manufacturers (Netgear comes to mind) who require that you register with them or you don't have a warranty.
It's just like having an RFID tag, imo...
RFID is good technology, with a lot of potential and a number of legitimate uses.
Gotta agree with you there. Some of the potential applications where I think it will be VERY much welcomed include inventory control and shipping (imagine if your FedEx package is tracked by computer instead of having to be barcode scanned)...
Every technology has its upsides and downsides, good uses and bad uses.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't VNC broadcast passwords in clear-text?
You could also set up a *nix box with Shoutcast (or some other streaming server) and SSH into it from elsewhere. Might be a bit zippier than VNC (which for us was slow even with a fully switched 100Mbps network).
Because you allow port 80 outbound in your hardware firewall, don't you?
Yes, I believe so, in order for client systems to browse the Web.
I'm the only one in my family with access to the Administrator account (well, my sister has it too when I'm not directly onsite at our house, but I keep watch on what she does) and I generally check out software before I install it. I'm reasonably sure most of our software is fine. Most of the software we're running is what we've been using for some time and I generally know what phones home and what doesn't.
Things like: Office 97, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, whatever open-source programs I run now (we're replacing a lot of proprietary programs with open-source, mostly due to the licensing hassle), etc.
I know that AOL phones home, but I don't really care too much. We don't use Outlook, although it's installed.
Everyone else is running with normal user privileges, which, in Windows, I believe, do not allow the user to install applications. Even I run under a regular account for daily use.
No, I haven't. I'm not quite that "advanced" a user.
Care to tell as to how to do this? I think some of the Linksys firewalls were Linux-based, or at least that's what I read a while back. Is this even possible?
See other post that says:
"I'm thinking of putting a *BSD or Linux box in between the Linksys firewall and custom-building that system myself."
We used FreeSCO at one point but then discovered that it had some nasty vulnerabilities.
I probably could replace MSOffice with OpenOffice, and there's probably a Java debugger and compiler for *nix systems. MathCAD? No idea where to replace that. Rise of Nations is MS-only (dammit), and there probably is Palm Pilot interfacing software for *nix. Have no idea if my Canon scanner is supported, but it need to use it. Well, if they're making a poor choice, that's too bad, but in the meantime, I have to get work done, so I just try and make do.
:P)
(and on the side, I tinker with Linux...
That is true. Problem is, ZoneAlarm is kinda bloated these days and sometimes (just like Norton Antivirus) it will randomly stop working on a computer.
I may have mentioned this in another post, but I'm thinking of putting a *BSD or Linux box in between the Linksys firewall and custom-building that system myself.
Score! That's definitely great to hear...
Yes, firewall software was the one that was compromised, I think. I used to trust ZoneAlarm, but then I figured that hardware firewalling is probably a safer bet than software firewalling, especially if the software firewall is running on a Windows box.
*inserts comment about "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!"*
sure, I have so much good karma now I can throw away a bit.