A quick round up of various web-related news items. First up, a new open source product entitled the "Highgate media suite" will bring OGG video decoding to Silverlight. Microsoft have just joined the SVG working group (arguably 10 years late, but it's better than nothing). Adobe promise significant improvements in Flash 10.1, including Core Animation rendering on OS X and lowered CPU usage. Finally, CoperLicht--a WebGL JavaScript 3D engine (Quake in JS will be here one day)
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Member since:2006-01-04
Member since:2005-11-10
VfE is just a simple template (an obvious one at that)--it's free for anybody to modify. I won't put Silverlight into it (as before, the plan is to remove things, not add them), but anybody could quite easily add Silverlight to it, I won't stop them.
But a WinMo device should play the MP4 file download anyway, if it supports it. HTML5 video is just literally handing a video file to a browser and saying 'here, play this'. Why anybody would want to then wrap that simple process in a plugin architecture, and framework system, I don't know--especially on a mobile device of all places. Simplicity and the fewest number of levels between the video and the hardware the better. That is why MS don't get the web. HTML5 Video is the solution to video on mobile devices, period. If MS write Silverlight into WinMo, but not HTML5 video they are truly shooting themselves in the foot, and as said before, yet more proof positive that Microsoft are against an open web.
Member since:2010-01-06
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2009-10-04
Are you joking? I also love C# (especially), Windows 7, and Office, but I despise Silverlight (when used for video). I wouldn't mind it being used for online games, where it is definitely superior to Flash, but you would have to be out of your mind to use it over HTML5 for video.
Member since:2005-11-29
So let's cater to iPhone 2.0, but catering to Windows Mobile and IE is an unforgivable sin?
Silverlight and HTML5 video tags really have nothing to do with each other. One is a RIA framework which happens to play video, and the other is simply a mechanism for playing video.
There are obvious advantages on both sides, but claiming that one is preventing the other, or is in place only to prevent the other, is stupid.
Look at the majority of Silverlight apps, they are usually LOB RIAs and not video streaming solutions. That's just one facet of the platform.
It is counterintuitive to suggest that Microsoft is opposed to HTML5 when it co-chairs the W3C HTML working group.
Member since:2006-12-28
I'm afraid that is just not the case. In fact, MSs past behaviour and their unwillingness so far to implement HTML5 support in IE suggests the it is counter-intuitive to think anything else.
Silverlight shows all the signs of the usual MS behaviour, i.e. their implementation of a partner's technology in a cheap bid to hook more people to their platform. What they are doing with Silverlight is nothing new and has been repeated ad nauseum throughout their history. I just don't understand how people can't see that.
Member since:2005-11-10
We've heard about Microsoft departments trying to do each other in, and Silverlight / IE is one of those areas of divide when it comes to Microsoft.
I do hope that IE9 is an awesome browser with Canvas, SVG and Video, but Microsoft have committed to nothing other than rounded corners and anti-aliasing; what a joke.
The more IE supports the standards, the more that conflicts with Silverlight which is trying to usurp those standards. This doesn’t sound like a company that understands the web very well.
Instead of making Silverlight at all, they should have first maxed out standards support in IE, then developed professional friendly design tools much like Flash studio that compile into HTML/JS/CSS/SVG and so forth; and anything they wanted to do that couldn’t be met by the standards, implement them in IE only and submit those features to become part of the standards. Both Canvas and Video (and Img by the way) were proprietary first and then accepted by other vendors and turned into standards.
"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.
"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.
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.""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?
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.
"The key takeaway we've reached (after two less than 24 hours playing with the iOS 7 Beta release) is this - every App must consider even basic updates to its UI to survive in a post-iOS 6 world." Great. Telling developers to update their entire application - user interface and behaviour alike - to target a look and behaviour that isn't final yet. Seems like potential for a lot of wasted work here."Overall the app is really basic, and designed for on the go editing. Microsoft says it's not planning to create an iPad version, noting that tablet users can utilize the Office Web Apps instead. We'd like to see some additional options for editing, including more clear options for text formatting and the ability to insert and change images, but it's a solid attempt for something you're only really going to use for editing in emergencies." A resounding meh can be heard from all over the world."Today, most people are using modern browsers that support the majority of the latest web technologies. Better yet, the usage of legacy browsers is declining significantly and newer browsers stay up to date automatically, which means the leading edge has become mainstream. Given these factors we've decided to retire Chrome Frame, and will cease support and updates for the product in January 2014." Eh.The Next Web: "First of all, many of the new icons were primarily designed by members of Apple's marketing and communications department, not the app design teams. From what we've heard, SVP of Design Jony Ive (also now Apple's head of Human Interaction) brought the print and web marketing design team in to set the look and color palette of the stock app icons. They then handed those off to the app design teams who did their own work on the 'interiors', with those palettes as a guide. We've also been hearing that there wasn't a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari. And that there were multiple teams inside each group that were competing with various designs, leading to what some see as inconsistencies in icon design. Those may well be hammered out in days ahead." What. Reminds me of how Microsoft does (used to do?) things.
"The German Parliament, the Bundestag, has introduced a joint motion against software patents. The resolution urges the German government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer programs. In the resolution, the Parliament says that patents on software restrict developers from exercising their copyright privileges, including the right to distribute their programs as Free Software. They promote the creation of monopolies in the software market, and hurt innovation and job creation." After New Zealand, we now have one of the most powerful economies in the world moving to ban software patents for all the reasons smart people have been outlining for years. also: "The government should also push to ensure that software is covered by copyright alone, and that patent offices (including the European Patent Office) stop granting patents on software." Germany is not a country the EU can ignore. Very good news, this.
Member since:
2005-11-10
1. I don’t want to help make Silverlight the next Flash.
2. OGG in Silverlight is only good for IE users, and IE users already have Flash.
3. It would bloat the code, and the goal is to make it smaller over time as we ditch layers (QuickTime can go once iPhone OS 2.0 is gone)
By 2012 the smart phone market is going to be a solid part of society. The Olympics are going to be broadcast online using Silverlight. This is inherently incompatible with a lot of smart phones, by which time Microsoft may use this fact to sell a lot of WinMo7 phones.
Microsoft don’t want an open web. They want the same web they had in 2001. Silverlight is their ticket back there by making interoperability require Microsoft at every stage. I’m not going to touch Silverlight with a barge pole.