Search will probably eventually become what they're least known for
But search needs to get much better soon too. We need a leap equivalent to the leap from pre-Google to Google. Something that begins to understand what it's reading, knows the difference between an article text and the clutter around it. Can differentiate between the word 'review' and an actual review. Get's you closer to what you want without wondering which combination of serach terms will cut out the crap at the top of the results. If someone sent me a link tomorrow that did some of that I'd probably never go back to Google. While they're spreading out, their core is looking increasingly fragile.
The person you're referring to is Larry Gritz, who left Pixar a few years back to found ExLuna, and released the Renderman-compliant Entropy renderer. Entropy had features way ahead of PRMan at the time. Pixar sued ExLuna, Entropy and BMRT were withdrawn. ExLuna was bought by Nvidia, and became its film division, that have just released Gelato, a new renderer codebase.
There are open source Renderman-compliant renderers, but as none of them are close to the closed source versions in terms of speed or completeness, they aren't likely to be used at the high end. Sure PRMan is expensive, but not compared to more boxes running slower renderers.
There was a panel about the role of custom software development in VFX houses. Though it seems like a good idea on the surface, none of the four big houses represented seemed particularly keen to move towards open source. Most of reasons come down to competition - sure they are all building the same things, but the differences between how well and rapidly they build them determine whether they win contracts over their competitors. Simple business, just as all the big competing auto manufacturers are building the same type of components, but they're not rushing to share their designs...
And the benefits are not as clear as it would seem - the best case seems to be OpenEXR, but the ILM guy was disappointed by the lack of community contributions, that most of the work on the new version had to come from within ILM, and the initial packaging work had cost them more than expected.
Also mentioned were the risks associated by opening their source, particularly the patent issues. I'm sure SCO has persuaded a few companies not to open sources just in case they get involved in that kind of opportunistic farce.
So, in some idealistic collaborative future, a lot could be done with open source, but in the real competitive one, it will be slow progress...
Slashdot Mirror
For the number of incorrect restatings and appraisals of an article?
Plugging in the Molex power connection tool 13 seconds, again a long time for the same reasons above.
The art of sprint installation! I'm imagining guys installing this stuff on timer mats like the cup-stacking people.
I'll try and shave off seconds from tasks I do several times an hour in an editor, but as long as installing doesn't take hours I don't really care.
Search will probably eventually become what they're least known for
But search needs to get much better soon too. We need a leap equivalent to the leap from pre-Google to Google. Something that begins to understand what it's reading, knows the difference between an article text and the clutter around it. Can differentiate between the word 'review' and an actual review. Get's you closer to what you want without wondering which combination of serach terms will cut out the crap at the top of the results. If someone sent me a link tomorrow that did some of that I'd probably never go back to Google. While they're spreading out, their core is looking increasingly fragile.
To wreck a nice beach...
Err, that wasn't how that story ended...
The person you're referring to is Larry Gritz, who left Pixar a few years back to found ExLuna, and released the Renderman-compliant Entropy renderer. Entropy had features way ahead of PRMan at the time. Pixar sued ExLuna, Entropy and BMRT were withdrawn. ExLuna was bought by Nvidia, and became its film division, that have just released Gelato, a new renderer codebase.
There are open source Renderman-compliant renderers, but as none of them are close to the closed source versions in terms of speed or completeness, they aren't likely to be used at the high end. Sure PRMan is expensive, but not compared to more boxes running slower renderers.
There was a panel about the role of custom software development in VFX houses. Though it seems like a good idea on the surface, none of the four big houses represented seemed particularly keen to move towards open source. Most of reasons come down to competition - sure they are all building the same things, but the differences between how well and rapidly they build them determine whether they win contracts over their competitors. Simple business, just as all the big competing auto manufacturers are building the same type of components, but they're not rushing to share their designs...
And the benefits are not as clear as it would seem - the best case seems to be OpenEXR, but the ILM guy was disappointed by the lack of community contributions, that most of the work on the new version had to come from within ILM, and the initial packaging work had cost them more than expected.
Also mentioned were the risks associated by opening their source, particularly the patent issues. I'm sure SCO has persuaded a few companies not to open sources just in case they get involved in that kind of opportunistic farce.
So, in some idealistic collaborative future, a lot could be done with open source, but in the real competitive one, it will be slow progress...