Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 10th Jun 2010 22:59 UTC
It's been a very long wait, but the release is finally here: Adobe has released Flash Player 10.1. Since Flash has come under increasing scrutiny, there's a lot at stake here for Adobe. This release is supposed to use far less resources while still being faster, more stable, and more secure. Update: No 64bit Flash player for now - on any platform. The Linux beta has been axed.
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RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by Neolander on Fri 11th Jun 2010 09:17
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2010-03-08
Actually, uses a large but close to perfectly documented set of APIs which are native on windows and not on other platforms. It explains very simply why it runs faster.
.Net, WPF... All of this is loaded at bootup and optimized on Windows, since parts of the system use them...
Edited 2010-06-11 09:22 UTC
RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by darknexus on Fri 11th Jun 2010 12:21
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2008-07-15
"If it's Apple's fault, why does Silverlight run so well?
I suspect Microsoft has internal undocumented APIs which it uses for making Silverlight run faster on windows. "
Except that we're talking about Silverlight for Mac here, not the Windows version at all. Sl on the Mac actually performs well, even when Flash doesn't. Perhaps try reading the entire thread first?
RE[5]: Comment by zoinksbob
by Oliver on Fri 11th Jun 2010 12:40
in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2006-07-15
That's nonsense, Flash is just a piece of crap. Flash operates on RGB data!
http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2008/05/flash_uses_the_gpu.html
"Unfortunately, the Flash Player can not easily make use of this since Sorenson, On2, or H.264 video data -- even though it is decoded as YUV -- has to be converted to RGB and possibly combined with other graphical elements."
Therefore it is slow like hell.
RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by Stratoukos on Fri 11th Jun 2010 12:23
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2009-02-11
RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by apoclypse on Fri 11th Jun 2010 12:33
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2007-02-17
RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by bousozoku on Fri 11th Jun 2010 16:05
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2006-01-23
I suspect Microsoft has internal undocumented APIs which it uses for making Silverlight run faster on windows.
On Mac OS X?
You really have to give Microsoft credit. (I never thought I'd see myself writing that.) They've done something for Mac OS X that's positive.
What's that axiom about the enemy of my enemy being my friend?
Edited 2010-06-11 16:07 UTC
RE[4]: Comment by zoinksbob
by Nelson on Fri 11th Jun 2010 17:21
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by zoinksbob"
Member since:2005-11-29
Besides the undocumented APIs spoken of (MILCore) is just a light wrapper around DirectX to make it easier for WPF to talk to DX (And I'm not even sure if SL uses it at all, traditionally SL shuns some of the more obscure features like BAML, a compiled form of XAML. It actually just parses it really fast, which explains why SL apps are more sensitive to a heavy visual tree especially on startup perf.)
And things like .NET (In the Desktop sense) and the WPF font cache (which is optimized on startup) have nothing to do with Silverlight because SL doesnt actually use any of them. The Plugin itself is a reimplementation of the CLR.
So no, Silverlight just runs better than Flash. Period. On Windows, on OSX, on Windows Phone, on Symbian, and using Moonlight, on Linux.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.More News »
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2009-12-18
I suspect Microsoft has internal undocumented APIs which it uses for making Silverlight run faster on windows.