Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 6th Jan 2010 20:01 UTC
It would appear that Microsoft will finally take standards compliance in the browser world seriously, after dragging its feet for years. Back in November 2009, the Redmond giant already revealed that Internet Explorer 9 would come with CSS3 and HTML5 support, and now the cup runneth over, as Microsoft has requested to join the W3C's SVG Working Group.
Thread beginning with comment 402930
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-11-29
Assuming you live in a Windows only world; what about those on non-Windows machines?
Silverlight is available on OSX and Linux (using Moonlight). Silverlight is also coming to Windows Mobile 7 and Symbian (so far)
what about those who then end up creating non-portable Silverlight applications by using the new COM feature (in Silverlight 4) to call native code?
Using COM interop in Silverlight really is like using COM interop in .NET. Used only in extremely specific situations. I highly doubt it will be this widespread thing.
With that said, I don't like it. However it was apparently a really requested feature.
If everyone was a first class citizen on Silverlight because Microsoft gave a crap about more than just the Windows implementation then I'd be happy to jump on the Silverlight bandwagon but when non-Windows users are relegated to second class citizenship (both plugin and development tools)
I can certainly see your point, but I think that with Silverlight4 its not an issue. For OSX Silverlight parity is like 0.9999999:1 with Windows. The exception being COM support.
However with Silverlight being given Full Trust Out of Browser support it is really a Cross Platform implementation of the .NET Framework.
It will all be up to how the developers use the technology, and I think that the developers using Silverlight do not act in lock step with whatever alleged diabolical scheme Microsoft has to lock people into COM+Silverlight apps.
There is a pretty pervasive mentality in the .NET scene where COM hatred is widespread. Personally I cringe whenever I have to do interop and think the entire idea is an abomination.
Besides for 99% of RIA work with Silverlight, you dont need COM at all.
As for the dev tools, I agree they need to be cross platform. A glimmer of hope being that Expression Blend is a 100% WPF application which offers some potential for being ported to Silverlight+Full Trust OOB in the future.
VS2010 is mixed mode, but more and more of it is being written in WPF opening up the future for it to go down that path as well.
one is stuck between either the abortion of a RIA called Flash or Silverlight where all non-Microsoft platforms are second class citizens.
I think they've done a commendable job of keeping OSX in the loop. In fact, if you stop to think, besides the COM automation, they have a spotless record of cross platform with OSX.
Member since:2005-07-06
Silverlight is available on OSX and Linux (using Moonlight). Silverlight is also coming to Windows Mobile 7 and Symbian (so far)
The current implementation of Moonlight is behind what Microsoft has provided - couple that with crap/non-existant development tools on non-Windows computers, if you're a developer and on a non-Windows platform you going to be shit out of luck.
Using COM interop in Silverlight really is like using COM interop in .NET. Used only in extremely specific situations. I highly doubt it will be this widespread thing.
With that said, I don't like it. However it was apparently a really requested feature.[/quote]
What are the chances that one is going to see it get widely used by developers too lazy to create a .NET framework required for his Silverlight project? It wouldn't be so bad if it was possible to bundle com and so forth using a technology like mainsoft to achieve compatibility between platforms - but Microsoft hasn't provided it.
[q]I can certainly see your point, but I think that with Silverlight4 its not an issue. For OSX Silverlight parity is like 0.9999999:1 with Windows. The exception being COM support.
However with Silverlight being given Full Trust Out of Browser support it is really a Cross Platform implementation of the .NET Framework.
It will all be up to how the developers use the technology, and I think that the developers using Silverlight do not act in lock step with whatever alleged diabolical scheme Microsoft has to lock people into COM+Silverlight apps.
There is a pretty pervasive mentality in the .NET scene where COM hatred is widespread. Personally I cringe whenever I have to do interop and think the entire idea is an abomination.
Besides for 99% of RIA work with Silverlight, you dont need COM at all.
As for the dev tools, I agree they need to be cross platform. A glimmer of hope being that Expression Blend is a 100% WPF application which offers some potential for being ported to Silverlight+Full Trust OOB in the future.
VS2010 is mixed mode, but more and more of it is being written in WPF opening up the future for it to go down that path as well.
With that said, I don't like it. However it was apparently a really requested feature.[/quote]
What are the chances that one is going to see it get widely used by developers too lazy to create a .NET framework required for his Silverlight project? It wouldn't be so bad if it was possible to bundle com and so forth using a technology like mainsoft to achieve compatibility between platforms - but Microsoft hasn't provided it.
[q]I can certainly see your point, but I think that with Silverlight4 its not an issue. For OSX Silverlight parity is like 0.9999999:1 with Windows. The exception being COM support.
However with Silverlight being given Full Trust Out of Browser support it is really a Cross Platform implementation of the .NET Framework.
It will all be up to how the developers use the technology, and I think that the developers using Silverlight do not act in lock step with whatever alleged diabolical scheme Microsoft has to lock people into COM+Silverlight apps.
There is a pretty pervasive mentality in the .NET scene where COM hatred is widespread. Personally I cringe whenever I have to do interop and think the entire idea is an abomination.
Besides for 99% of RIA work with Silverlight, you dont need COM at all.
As for the dev tools, I agree they need to be cross platform. A glimmer of hope being that Expression Blend is a 100% WPF application which offers some potential for being ported to Silverlight+Full Trust OOB in the future.
VS2010 is mixed mode, but more and more of it is being written in WPF opening up the future for it to go down that path as well.
What Microsoft need to do is provide development tools for Mac and OpenSolaris - and I can assure you that very few would keep hanging around with Adobe for longer than necessary. The problem is that Microsoft is short sighted and I simply don't see the changes required actually happening.
I simply don't trust developers from refraining from using COM having see how lazy developers are when push comes to shove. I understand you don't need COM at all but that isn't going to stop developers from making extensive use of it when made available. It is like the win32 extensions to Java - sounds like a nice idea in theory but we can all imagine what will happen in reality.
I think they've done a commendable job of keeping OSX in the loop. In fact, if you stop to think, besides the COM automation, they have a spotless record of cross platform with OSX.
Yes, but Linux is behind the eighth ball for example, there are no development tools for Linux or Mac. I really want Microsoft to beat Adobe into a bloody pulp but it won't happen if they're refusing to provide the necessary tools for developers. I want to use Silverlight and learn how to exploit its power but I'm stuck here with a Mac unable to do it.
RE[5]: Comment by Kroc
by BluenoseJake on Thu 7th Jan 2010 03:04
in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by Kroc"
Member since:2005-08-11
RE[6]: Comment by Kroc
by StaubSaugerNZ on Thu 7th Jan 2010 06:51
in reply to "RE[5]: Comment by Kroc"
Member since:2007-07-13
There is nothing stopping somebody else from implementing COM on Linux or any other platform, it is just a specification for implementing interfaces to binary objects, no different from CORBA.
Except that COM represents the memory model of an i386 with the specific layout of little-endian MS VS C++. Not the same as cross-platform CORBA really. Certainly no where near as portable as SOAP webservices for remote operations. So, no wonder nobody wants to waste time implementing the archaic, obsolete and cumbersome COM system. Sure they could do it, but the community came up with and standardised vastly superior ways of doing IPC/RPC.
Edited 2010-01-07 06:52 UTC
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 »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2005-07-06
Nice additions sure, but its not the end of the world. Flash just gives plugin based RIAs a bad name, Silverlight runs circles around it performance wise.
Silverlight still does things faster than every browsers Javascript implementation, especially with the GPU support in Silverlight3.
Assuming you live in a Windows only world; what about those on non-Windows machines? what about those who then end up creating non-portable Silverlight applications by using the new COM feature (in Silverlight 4) to call native code? If everyone was a first class citizen on Silverlight because Microsoft gave a crap about more than just the Windows implementation then I'd be happy to jump on the Silverlight bandwagon but when non-Windows users are relegated to second class citizenship (both plugin and development tools) one is stuck between either the abortion of a RIA called Flash or Silverlight where all non-Microsoft platforms are second class citizens.
Edited 2010-01-07 00:28 UTC