Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 11th Jan 2011 22:21 UTC, submitted by Kroc
The WebM project - a VP8 video stream and a Vorbis audio stream wrapped in a Matroska container re-branded as a WebM container - launched by Google, openly supported by every major chip maker, is going to be the major codec for Google's Chrome web browser. Yes, Google is dropping H264 support from the Chrome web browser.
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RE: Stop looking at this through stupid glasses...
by Oliver on Wed 12th Jan 2011 12:18
in reply to " Stop looking at this through stupid glasses..."
Member since:2006-07-15
Some people call this behaviour of yours "Stockholm-Syndrom". But apart from that, Google doesn't spread presents! You pay with your very data and they get whatever they want from the Open Source community.
Webkit == Apples fork of KHTML (KDE/Konqueror)
The community made it possible to use Chrome on Linux or even 64bit. The first Chrome wasn't 64bit clean, also a community effort.
So please stop this "be quiet, they give us presents"-nonsense, it's just nonsense.
RE[2]: Stop looking at this through stupid glasses...
by galvanash on Wed 12th Jan 2011 13:31
in reply to "RE: Stop looking at this through stupid glasses..."
Member since:2006-01-25
RE[2]: Stop looking at this through stupid glasses...
by segedunum on Wed 12th Jan 2011 17:01
in reply to "RE: Stop looking at this through stupid glasses..."
Member since:2005-07-06
Some people call this behaviour of yours "Stockholm-Syndrom". But apart from that, Google doesn't spread presents! You pay with your very data and they get whatever they want from the Open Source community.
Wow. I wasn't aware that we'd been kidknapped by Google.
So please stop this "be quiet, they give us presents"-nonsense, it's just nonsense.
Nobody is saying that I'm afraid. People are happy that Google has done at least one thing right that will benefit the web and help software and hardware developers.
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:
2006-01-25
It is really frustrating reading some of the responses in this thread and all over the internet to this news...
Do people not realize that Google has to pay to incorporate h.264 into Chrome? This is a product that they give away for free. Why do you think they bought On2 in the first place? How anyone can be remotely surprised by this is beyond me - this was obviously the plan since day one when they announced webm.
This has absolutely nothing to do with open source, morality, doing the right thing, vindictiveness, conquering the internet, propping up Adobe, or any of the other stupid conspiracy theories people using to explain this... Its about money (promoting an actual open standard is simply a nice bonus for the rest of us). Google is simply protecting itself from the inevitable - which is being bent over and screwed by MPEG-LA.
MPEG-LA has the entire technology world by the balls, and everyone wants to pretend it aint so. The royalty free licensing that they have promised to offer in perpetuity (assuming they keep that promise) doesn't do anything for the Googles of the world - they still have to pay to implement support in their products. And pay, and pay, and pay...
Here is the real, unadulterated truth about the whole situation: MPEG-LA has a licensing model which generates revenue by having companies carry the burden for their end users. It is the users that benefit from the product, not the companies who use the technology.
There is nothing unusual about with this, many commercial products are licensed in similar ways. However, if you are a company that gives away your product - how the hell are you supposed to justify paying for such a license when there is a perfectly good alternative that doesn't cost you money? Math is an awfully powerful motivator when it comes to financial reality...
I say this to all the people whining about Google "screwing the internet", how about you pay for the use of h.264? It is you that benefits from it anyway, not Google... Go negotiate your own license which allows you to encode all your videos in h.264 so that you can get your oh so precious 20% better quality or whatever, instead of screaming about it. Google is simply not interested in carrying your financial burden anymore - stop freeloading and pay up people.
Any takers?
Edited 2011-01-12 00:37 UTC