Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 15th May 2008 13:38 UTC, submitted by gonzo
On his blog, Miguel de Icaza announced the first public releases of Moonlight. Moonlight is the open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight, the company's Flash competitor. Moonlight is not yet free of bugs, though.
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RE[2]: Comment by satan666
by TechGeek on Thu 15th May 2008 14:59
in reply to "RE: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2006-01-14
No, coming from Microsoft doesn't make it bad from a technical point. It makes it bad because Microsoft is openly campaigning against the Linux platform. There is NO patent protection in using their platform. FOSS is better off steering clear of this technology. Adobe on the other hand, is opening the specs on their products so that GPL'd versions (Gnash and others) will actually work right without having to reverse engineer everything. There are also opening up their development tools to Linux. When Microsoft actually starts working with open standards and file formats, then it will be time to consider their technology.
RE[3]: Comment by satan666
by CodeMonkey on Thu 15th May 2008 15:17
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-09-22
There is NO patent protection in using their platform.
If I understand it correctly (and I very well may not), the patent protection was one of the big things in the Novell-Microsoft agreement. It was essentially an agreement of patent and lawsuit protection between both parties. Perhaps I could be wrong but that was my understanding of it after reading it.
Edited 2008-05-15 15:18 UTC
RE[3]: Comment by satan666
by JeffS on Thu 15th May 2008 16:40
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-07-12
MS has opened the specs of the .Net CLR, C#, and Silverlight. In fact, MS has been helping the Mono guys do Moonlight, with docs, support, etc.
I get as mad as anyone at Microsoft for their business tactics, and some of their software being crap, and not being totally customer focused. But some software MS does is very good, and MS isn't always evil. So a little level headed balance is in order.
Always proceed with caution when dealing with MS tech compatibility. But don't reject it outright.
RE[3]: Comment by satan666
by Hiev on Thu 15th May 2008 17:04
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-09-27
"It makes it bad because Microsoft is openly campaigning
against the Linux platform."
It is bad for vulnerable people to patent FUD.
Is bad for people with an anti-ms agenta.
But is fine for:
People who knows patent FUD is just that, FUD.
People who wants functionality and have a life.
So, there is your answer.
RE[3]: Comment by satan666
by tomcat on Thu 15th May 2008 20:31
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2006-01-06
It makes it bad because Microsoft is openly campaigning against the Linux platform. There is NO patent protection in using their platform.
Red herring. Microsoft has made public guarantees that it will indemnify customers from patent issues (as long as you're not suing them, yourself) when using its technologies.
RE[2]: Comment by satan666
by Matzon on Thu 15th May 2008 16:11
in reply to "RE: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-07-06
RE[3]: Comment by satan666
by CodeMonkey on Thu 15th May 2008 17:39
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-09-22
RE[2]: Comment by satan666
by aliquis on Thu 15th May 2008 17:42
in reply to "RE: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-07-23
RE[2]: Comment by satan666
by evangs on Thu 15th May 2008 18:16
in reply to "RE: Comment by satan666"
Member since:2005-07-07
Sure .NET is slower than native code in most cases and sure it uses more resources than native code in most places. But the rapid application development it allows for while simultaneously supporting such diversity has not really been achieved with much else.
So that's why Tracker, a project that started out much later than Beagle with a lot less funding has more features, is more stable, consumes less memory and indexes faster? Given the so called Mono flagship applications of Beagle, F-Spot and Muine, how many people actually prefer them to their natively written counterparts?
People who criticize GTK+ have a point. However, when given the chance users will never ever tolerate an application that runs in a VM (even if there is a JIT). Such applications start up slower, take more memory and frequently run slower than their native counterparts.
It would be better to come up with GTK+ v3 or something and try to bring GTK+ inline with the clean Qt4 API.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-09-22
Unlike most .NET supporters, I don't think .NET is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It is a pretty good thing though. Just because Microsoft comes up with something doesn't instantly make it "BAD". .NET brings an entire set of easy to use and fully capable APIs along with countless different languages can use those APIs to create OS agnostic (but perhaps limited to x86 and x64) applications. Sure .NET is slower than native code in most cases and sure it uses more resources than native code in most places. But the rapid application development it allows for while simultaneously supporting such diversity has not really been achieved with much else.
From a corporate standpoint .NET is a fantastic platform for in house development. Development time is crucial so the RAD is a huge plus. And with the advent of Mono most .NET applications can be easily deployed to Windows and Linux servers both 32 and 64 bit all with a single build.
Silverlight / Moonlight simply brings this same environment to a browser.
While there are countless situations where .NET is simply not an appropriate choice, the same can be said for virtually any other software development technology.