Nintendo - shooting ourselves in the foot since 1990...
Like they did with the DS right? 2 screens, the touch screen, wifi and the mic where all just pathetic gimics right? There are no good games for it, Nintendogs and it's ilk are just a fabrication of our colective imagination. It's also not outselling the PSP at all, the figures we have are just lies fabricated by Nintendo's marketing department.
Do you honestly believe that?
As a disclamer I will state that I am a Nintendo fan, but not an old one. I became one when I played some of the games on the GameCube (Monkey ball, SmashBro, Zelda). Out of the 3 consoles it is by far the most fun and that ultimatly is the most important aspect of any console. So here again I cannot agree with you that they are 'shooting themselves in the foot'.
With the Revolution they are doing exactly what they did with the DS. They are pushing the boundry of what is possible in a console. None of the features are 'new' technology, they have all been done previously in some form or other. What Nintendo has/is doing is refining these technologies and integrating them into it's products then using them in a few games as a kind of 'proof of concept'. The shear potential for fun games that they are creating is causing a lot of people in the gaming industry's mouths to water.
They also have a very good marketing campaign aimed towards the hardcore gamers. I mean look at the press they are generating by NOT telling us what is in the new controller. They have hung the proverbial carot out in front of us so to speak. Bastards.
As for this new feature it's probobly something they have done before as an extension, but have refined and integrated this time round. Something like onboard memory to store save games/settings or maybe a microphone? How about a small screen? a touch screen maybe? Either way, this console is going to sell like hot-cakes and I will be pre-ordering mine on the day the pre-orders open.
'shooting themselves in the foot.. - I really don't think so.
How about minimal server-side XML + Client side XSLT?
Requirements:
minimal http server (There is bound to be BSD licensed code for this somewhere on the net)
Code to generate simple (possibly flat?) XML file. You don't need a library for this, you could just pretend it's a text file if the XML is simple enough.
XSLT and CSS stylesheets
Now all you have to do is serve the XML and stylesheet, attach the stylesheet to the XML file and watch any XSLT-aware browser do the heavy work of transforming that simple XML into beautiful XHTML (or HTML) for you.
Benefits:
server side code is farely minimal (just a mini-http server and xml generation code) and some of that (mini-http server) can probably be re-used from elsewhere.
Full content/UI seperation. Client doesn't like the UI? just change the XSLT/CSS till he does, no need to re-write code. You could also write small client program that uses the XML data if client doesn't like using a browser, again no need to re-write code.
Less time-consuming than writing a full-scale UI
Problems:
Requires XSLT-aware browser. Mozilla and Opera support it no probs. IE supports it aswell, but has a few glitches (suprise!).
Why re-invent the wheel writing C++ UIs and stuff when there is plenty of simpler ways out there.
But isint the only difference between an M and an AO rating is thatyou have to be 17 to buy a M rated game and 18+ to buy an AO rated game? Why is that year difference such a big deal? We all know there is not a whole hell of a lot of difference in a year. Especially when its between 17 and 18.
Doesn't make sense does it? That's because you know what the ratings mean, a parent doesn't. Let's say a parent comes into the store to buy a game for thier kid. If a game is rated 'M' for mature the parent might consider his/her child mature enough to play it sinse after all it's 'only a video game'. On the other hand if the same parent saw the game was rated 'AO' they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
Thus 'M'-rated games have a larger consumer market than AO-rated games, so more game producers produce M-rated games.
Nothing wrong with knowing stuff about Access provided you hate it passionatly.
That said I have found from personal experience it is hard know something about Access and NOT hate it passionatly. So if you started mentioning how you hate access with a passion, you'd probably need to be modded 'redundant'.;)
Since I havn't experienced such problems on the Firefox installs I've done in the past, I'd still say the problem lies with something else you've installed, not Firefox itself. Might be the flash plugin, might not.
You can't say the plugins not at fault because when you had a page open with no flash the problem still occured because this is not the only time the plugin code is called. For instance all plugins are probably probed on startup, if the problem was there then your Firefox instance was doomed from the very start.
The only true way of finding out what is causing your problems is to install from the ground up Firefox and all your plugins, testing along the way for this memory leak.
Er.. no. the IE binary and the Mozilla binary are different. The plugin architectures are completely different for a start. Ofcourse they share the same code, but parts differ, so there is plenty of room for a memory leak.
And even if they were the same the correct experimental procedure to test whose fault this is would be to run Firefox without the plugin for a specific period of time, then run Firefox with the plugin for the same period and compare the results. All variables other than the one we are testing should remain as identical as possible.
You know, I hate it when post like the parent and grand-parent get modded insightful, because well, they are not. Since when has it been the browser's fault when 3rd party plugins fail to work?
Not only is Flash a 3rd party plugin, so it has nothing to do with the Firefox team, but it is also Proprietary and close source, which means even if the Firefox developer wanted to fix it, they couldn't.
Quite frankly your arguments sound alot like those people who blame windows for running slowly and having adverts pop-up when they install a 'cool new search bar'. Place your blame where it lies, not on the first thing you see
In other words if you want your Firefox to stop crashing you may a) uninstall flash, b) install flashblock(not sure if that'll work. it might) or c) Bitch loudly at macromedia until they release a version that doesn't.
On the question of memory usage, there you have a valid point and it is being addressed. Firefox 1.5RC3 seems to play alot nicer with my memory on my system (linux), than 1.0 did.
Site overloaded. Either this has been linked from somewhere with heavy traffic, or you're experimenting with a clever script to try and mess with the pictures. Come back later, or stop it.
Not exactly what I wanted to see, but slightly amusing none the less.
FTA mentions it briefly, but due to light pollution most of us won't be able to do this easily. If you live anywhere near a big city chances are the brightest thing in the sky will be Plasma screen adverts bouncing off it.
Pity really, it would be a pointless thing to do, but at least you could boast about it in your old age...
Re:Slashdot has really gone down hill :(
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· Score: 1
Wow, we're sharing links now? What is this, the early nineties?
Well... considering the well known fact that/.'s readership is mostly consisted of 14yr olds and we are now in 2005 I guess most of us were 5yrs old then and missed it last time round.
well, you missed out the ubuntu sites
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· Score: 2, Informative
Sure, Autodesk haven't been completely friendly with OSS in the past. I seem to remember that their mapping software didn't work well with Firefox... But TFA states that it has just been OSed, so maybe that bug will be fixed. And a company that OSs stuff must have embraced Open Source to some degree or other. That doesn't mean the are about to open source AutoCAD yet though...
On a side note Microsoft has also embraced Open source to a limited degree and has released a few thing under OS licenses, they just also happen to be running a dirty marketing campaign agianst thier main competitiors aswell. They might spread FUD and try to confuse consumers with marketing speach, but don't make the mistake of thinking their R&D departments are run by fools.
Well, Microsoft IS trying to "extend their influence". Just like any good company should.
Personaly I think this is good news, since it seems that MS is attempting to address one of it's perceived weeknesses against OpenOffice which already supports lots of languages. Competition is always good and the fact that MS are doing this means they are taking the OO.o threat very seriously indeed.
I doubt they can win in this area though (unless they are willing to spend a lot of money), because the Open Source model is far better for this sort of thing than a proprietary model. EG OSS translations get done if there is a need for the product, MS translations get done if there is a visible market for a product. And since there is a requirement before there is a market, OSS will tend to beat MS to the door on this one. Ofcourse this won't always be the case, but still...
Uhm... so what do you think '3D' on modern PCs is then?
Well ultimately it's all the same, but the difference lies where the abstraction is done. With modern 3D programming you tend to specify object dimensions, their colour and where the light is coming from, then you let the libraries do the rest. You don't manualy control the gradients on each of the wall faces when the camera angle changes.
I'm not sure how Firefox draws this, but it probably has nothing to do with SVG. And as far as SVG performance goes, but I'm not sure about this, Firefox uses cairo on Linux to render SVG and possibly this aswell. (And if it doesn't, well, atleast librsvg can still do it, which is used across GNOME.) And Cairo has an OpenGL backend.
Those rectangles with gradients look like they could be done with SVG, so I suspect somewhere in the background the same XPCOM objects are used. Why write twice the amount of code, when you can re-use what has already been writen? As for a Cairo OpenGL backend... if it's there it's not being used.
It's all Microsoft's fault and not one that's liable to be fixed with a software patch either.
Personaly I'd call a console(or a PC for that matter) faulty if it requiered to be suspended in the air for it to work properly. I understand some means of heat exhaust is nessisary, but please...this is just...well, stupid.
I just hope MS doesn't get away with this like they usualy do.
Talking of overhead. If you look at the code you will find that it isn't actual 3D either, just emulated 3D using math and gradients. Add to this that it running in entirely in software. No hardware rendering at all. No wonder it's so slow.
As a proof of concept it isn't bad, but current implementations of the technology(SVG in this case I believe) do not make decent use of available hardware, which is a pity. If the browser used the GFX chip for rendering this I imagine it would be a lot faster.
Best stick to uncomplicated 2d stuff like tetris for now.
Slashdot Mirror
Like they did with the DS right? 2 screens, the touch screen, wifi and the mic where all just pathetic gimics right? There are no good games for it, Nintendogs and it's ilk are just a fabrication of our colective imagination. It's also not outselling the PSP at all, the figures we have are just lies fabricated by Nintendo's marketing department.
Do you honestly believe that?
As a disclamer I will state that I am a Nintendo fan, but not an old one. I became one when I played some of the games on the GameCube (Monkey ball, SmashBro, Zelda). Out of the 3 consoles it is by far the most fun and that ultimatly is the most important aspect of any console. So here again I cannot agree with you that they are 'shooting themselves in the foot'.
With the Revolution they are doing exactly what they did with the DS. They are pushing the boundry of what is possible in a console. None of the features are 'new' technology, they have all been done previously in some form or other. What Nintendo has/is doing is refining these technologies and integrating them into it's products then using them in a few games as a kind of 'proof of concept'. The shear potential for fun games that they are creating is causing a lot of people in the gaming industry's mouths to water.
They also have a very good marketing campaign aimed towards the hardcore gamers. I mean look at the press they are generating by NOT telling us what is in the new controller. They have hung the proverbial carot out in front of us so to speak. Bastards.
As for this new feature it's probobly something they have done before as an extension, but have refined and integrated this time round. Something like onboard memory to store save games/settings or maybe a microphone? How about a small screen? a touch screen maybe? Either way, this console is going to sell like hot-cakes and I will be pre-ordering mine on the day the pre-orders open.
'shooting themselves in the foot.. - I really don't think so.
You mean it wasn't endangered before we found it, but now that we have it's DOOMED! Right?
Small? Cat-sized? Carnivorous? Sounds more like these guys to me. Run while you still can!
How about minimal server-side XML + Client side XSLT?
Requirements:
Now all you have to do is serve the XML and stylesheet, attach the stylesheet to the XML file and watch any XSLT-aware browser do the heavy work of transforming that simple XML into beautiful XHTML (or HTML) for you.
Benefits:
Problems:
Why re-invent the wheel writing C++ UIs and stuff when there is plenty of simpler ways out there.
Doesn't make sense does it? That's because you know what the ratings mean, a parent doesn't. Let's say a parent comes into the store to buy a game for thier kid. If a game is rated 'M' for mature the parent might consider his/her child mature enough to play it sinse after all it's 'only a video game'. On the other hand if the same parent saw the game was rated 'AO' they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
Thus 'M'-rated games have a larger consumer market than AO-rated games, so more game producers produce M-rated games.
Nothing wrong with knowing stuff about Access provided you hate it passionatly.
That said I have found from personal experience it is hard know something about Access and NOT hate it passionatly. So if you started mentioning how you hate access with a passion, you'd probably need to be modded 'redundant'. ;)
Since I havn't experienced such problems on the Firefox installs I've done in the past, I'd still say the problem lies with something else you've installed, not Firefox itself. Might be the flash plugin, might not.
You can't say the plugins not at fault because when you had a page open with no flash the problem still occured because this is not the only time the plugin code is called. For instance all plugins are probably probed on startup, if the problem was there then your Firefox instance was doomed from the very start.
The only true way of finding out what is causing your problems is to install from the ground up Firefox and all your plugins, testing along the way for this memory leak.
That or use a debuger ^_^
Er.. no. the IE binary and the Mozilla binary are different. The plugin architectures are completely different for a start. Ofcourse they share the same code, but parts differ, so there is plenty of room for a memory leak.
And even if they were the same the correct experimental procedure to test whose fault this is would be to run Firefox without the plugin for a specific period of time, then run Firefox with the plugin for the same period and compare the results. All variables other than the one we are testing should remain as identical as possible.
You know, I hate it when post like the parent and grand-parent get modded insightful, because well, they are not. Since when has it been the browser's fault when 3rd party plugins fail to work?
Not only is Flash a 3rd party plugin, so it has nothing to do with the Firefox team, but it is also Proprietary and close source, which means even if the Firefox developer wanted to fix it, they couldn't.
Quite frankly your arguments sound alot like those people who blame windows for running slowly and having adverts pop-up when they install a 'cool new search bar'. Place your blame where it lies, not on the first thing you see
In other words if you want your Firefox to stop crashing you may a) uninstall flash, b) install flashblock(not sure if that'll work. it might) or c) Bitch loudly at macromedia until they release a version that doesn't.
On the question of memory usage, there you have a valid point and it is being addressed. Firefox 1.5RC3 seems to play alot nicer with my memory on my system (linux), than 1.0 did.
FTA mentions it briefly, but due to light pollution most of us won't be able to do this easily. If you live anywhere near a big city chances are the brightest thing in the sky will be Plasma screen adverts bouncing off it.
Pity really, it would be a pointless thing to do, but at least you could boast about it in your old age...
Erm...no. The title fits the article.
Sure, Autodesk haven't been completely friendly with OSS in the past. I seem to remember that their mapping software didn't work well with Firefox... But TFA states that it has just been OSed, so maybe that bug will be fixed. And a company that OSs stuff must have embraced Open Source to some degree or other. That doesn't mean the are about to open source AutoCAD yet though...
On a side note Microsoft has also embraced Open source to a limited degree and has released a few thing under OS licenses, they just also happen to be running a dirty marketing campaign agianst thier main competitiors aswell. They might spread FUD and try to confuse consumers with marketing speach, but don't make the mistake of thinking their R&D departments are run by fools.
"So tell me again, why is it your right hand is so much more developed than your left?" *cough*
Well, Microsoft IS trying to "extend their influence". Just like any good company should.
Personaly I think this is good news, since it seems that MS is attempting to address one of it's perceived weeknesses against OpenOffice which already supports lots of languages. Competition is always good and the fact that MS are doing this means they are taking the OO.o threat very seriously indeed.
I doubt they can win in this area though (unless they are willing to spend a lot of money), because the Open Source model is far better for this sort of thing than a proprietary model. EG OSS translations get done if there is a need for the product, MS translations get done if there is a visible market for a product. And since there is a requirement before there is a market, OSS will tend to beat MS to the door on this one. Ofcourse this won't always be the case, but still...
Well ultimately it's all the same, but the difference lies where the abstraction is done. With modern 3D programming you tend to specify object dimensions, their colour and where the light is coming from, then you let the libraries do the rest. You don't manualy control the gradients on each of the wall faces when the camera angle changes.
Those rectangles with gradients look like they could be done with SVG, so I suspect somewhere in the background the same XPCOM objects are used. Why write twice the amount of code, when you can re-use what has already been writen? As for a Cairo OpenGL backend... if it's there it's not being used.
It's all Microsoft's fault and not one that's liable to be fixed with a software patch either. Personaly I'd call a console(or a PC for that matter) faulty if it requiered to be suspended in the air for it to work properly. I understand some means of heat exhaust is nessisary, but please...this is just...well, stupid. I just hope MS doesn't get away with this like they usualy do.
Talking of overhead. If you look at the code you will find that it isn't actual 3D either, just emulated 3D using math and gradients. Add to this that it running in entirely in software. No hardware rendering at all. No wonder it's so slow.
As a proof of concept it isn't bad, but current implementations of the technology(SVG in this case I believe) do not make decent use of available hardware, which is a pity. If the browser used the GFX chip for rendering this I imagine it would be a lot faster.
Best stick to uncomplicated 2d stuff like tetris for now.