OSNews:

OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/20574/On_the_Death_and_441-Year_Life_of_the_Pixel Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:15:09 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Comment by BSDfan http://osnews.com/thread?338106 http://osnews.com/thread?338106 You dare trick us with a broken link?

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BSDfan) Comments RE: Comment by BSDfan http://osnews.com/thread?338107 http://osnews.com/thread?338107 Works fine for me, and is a very interesting read.

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JLF65) Comments 441? http://osnews.com/thread?338122 http://osnews.com/thread?338122 I'd always thought the logical precursor to the pixel is the mosaic which dates back to the 4th century B.C.

If that's so then I think their count is a little off... Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (wakeupneo) Comments RE: 441? http://osnews.com/thread?338124 http://osnews.com/thread?338124 Yeah, I thought about mosaic art too... Although it wasn't always pixellated, most of it was tesserated. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Buck) Comments I would suggest pointillism http://osnews.com/thread?338125 http://osnews.com/thread?338125 Pointillism is a popular late 19th century technique of painting with quite large (5-10mm) adjoining coloured dots. A dozen or so different colours are normally used. Up close you just see the dots but they form a nice image at arms length. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (unclefester) Comments RE: I would suggest pointillism http://osnews.com/thread?338127 http://osnews.com/thread?338127 But they are not on a grid, right? That's a huge difference. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Daniel Borgmann) Comments RE: 441? http://osnews.com/thread?338128 http://osnews.com/thread?338128 methinks a mosaic is more 'free-style' - it's not like the stones are arranged in a matrix with equal numbers per line; or without straight lines of stones all together. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Googol) Comments No surprise there http://osnews.com/thread?338129 http://osnews.com/thread?338129 This is not surprising to me at all. Digital technologies were there for hundreds of years - just look at Jacquard loom. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (asgard) Comments Yes, there were 24 letters in the Latin alphabet... http://osnews.com/thread?338133 http://osnews.com/thread?338133 Just in case you did a double-take on that alphabet image in the article, there were indeed 24 letters in the (medieval) Latin alphabet (no J or U) - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_alphabet Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rklrkl) Comments RE: No surprise there http://osnews.com/thread?338137 http://osnews.com/thread?338137 To be even more precise, J.M. Jacquard "only" automated the pattern transfer into the fabric by using a mechanical device with punched cards.
Manual creation of such fabrics existed for over two thousand years. To make any such fabric, a sketch is necessary, since it is impossible for a weaver to make complex designs out of his/her head.
The "pixels" in textile sketch are rectangular, to reflect the density of weaving. So pixels can also be square, but more often they are not.
Weaving of carpets also requires the same kind of pixel-based sketch.
Check the wikipedia entry on tapestry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapestry
for some pictures of old tapestries. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dpeterc) Comments RE[2]: No surprise there http://osnews.com/thread?338139 http://osnews.com/thread?338139

Weaving of carpets also requires the same kind of pixel-based sketch.

As does needlepoint. A friend of mine got me into needlepoint (briefly) some years back, claiming that it was "relaxing". Unfortunately, I did not find it so. It's essentially turtle graphics. Invariably, during a session, I would make a mistake, and then do about a hundred more stitches before I noticed... at which point I would have to tediously back the "turtle" up 100 stitches to correct the error and then redo them all correctly. If I wasn't in an aggravated state at the start of the session, I was surely so by the end.

Latch-hook rug making might be more to my liking. I had not considered it before, thinking it similar to needlepoint. But rug making is essentially raster graphics with random access to individual points. Maybe I should try it out?Edited 2008-11-23 18:11 UTC Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE: No surprise there http://osnews.com/thread?338140 http://osnews.com/thread?338140 It sort of reminds me of the article I read once about the Egyptians somehow "using" Pi to construct their pyramids. Turned out that they didn't have direct abstract knowledge of Pi, but were rather using measuring wheels to set the massive construction dimensions. The wheels then forced Pi's relationships into the pyramids. Here you have a craftsman faced with the challenge of making an image from interconnected yet discrete pieces. He does the (repeatedly) logical thing, and bam! You have "pixels".

I wonder if he thought, "Wow! This would look great on a properly-designed OLED screen!"

Nihil nova sub sola. Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (diskinetic) Comments RE: Yes, there were 24 letters in the Latin alphabet... http://osnews.com/thread?338163 http://osnews.com/thread?338163 Actually there was no J or W in the Latin alphabet. Hence the letter W is called (and often written as) 'double U'.

Italian doesn't use J either. The letter G is pronounced like the English letter J. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (unclefester) Comments WW2? http://osnews.com/thread?338167 http://osnews.com/thread?338167

When you're diving into the history of computing and its concepts, you rarely have to look much further back in time than the Second World War.

You forgot quantum mechanics.
No quantum mechanics, no modern computing. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:05:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments One less patent ... http://osnews.com/thread?338172 http://osnews.com/thread?338172 I wonder if this is one of the patents Microsoft has claimed they innovated. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PortResi) Comments RE: One less patent ... http://osnews.com/thread?338173 http://osnews.com/thread?338173 "I wonder if this is one of the patents Microsoft has claimed they innovated."

No, this patent is held by ISI. Google is your friend... Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DrillSgt) Comments The death of pixels? http://osnews.com/thread?338187 http://osnews.com/thread?338187 Fascinating, but I missed the part where pixels are dying? I guess I don't keep up with technology news enough. Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (lykwydchykyn) Comments RE: The death of pixels? http://osnews.com/thread?338189 http://osnews.com/thread?338189

Fascinating, but I missed the part where pixels are dying?

Looks to me like there are far more pixels on earth than ever before. I think the author means that they are so small that we no longer have to care about them, or exactly how they are positioned. Right... Then why are are the OSNews right side bar fonts so grainy when I view them in Opera? And why do we argue back and forth about whether antialiased fonts are better or just blury? And why do we use things like subpixel smoothing? And why did the otherwise seemingly non-technical woman ahead of me in line at Whataburger yesterday make a casual comment about her 1080p TV? Far from dying, nontechnical people are *learning* about pixels. About megapixels, even. It seems to me that pixels are poised to rule the world, or at least demand the vote. ;-)Edited 2008-11-24 17:01 UTC Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments