Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 14th Mar 2012 19:37 UTC
Ever since it became clear that Google was not going to push WebM as hard as they should have, the day would come that Mozilla would be forced to abandon its ideals because the large technology companies don't care about an open, unencumbered web. No decision has been made just yet, but Mozilla is taking its first strides to adding support for the native H.264 codecs installed on users' mobile systems. See it as a thank you to Mozilla for all they've done for the web.
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Member since:2007-09-23
Well, it's not like you could create an OS from scratch that could seriously compete in today's market without a shitload of funding anyway. Joe Coder and a group of his friends are not going to build something that rivals Windows or OSX in their spare time.
It wasn't long ago humanity believed we couldn't learn more about physics. If there's something we know for sure it's that we never know for sure what we may come up with in the future. Any limitations put upon our own innovative capacity should always be carefully considered. For our own good.
30 years ago it might've been possible, but the tech has gotten immensely more complicated since then. Even Linux wouldn't be where it is today without the financial backing of large companies.
When you seek funding from VCs and business angels you have to look at potential costs. This will only make it harder to get that funding.
Look, I'm not saying that patents are a good thing, or that someone shouldn't be able to create something and put it out in the wild with an investment of $0, but most things cost money to get off the ground.
Just because most people are poor doesn't mean more people should be. It's not logical to make things worse because they are bad.
Seriously... if you have a good idea, you can probably get somebody with a lot of cash to invest in it.
It always take more than just a good idea. Putting more limitations on potential upstarts will be costly. Sure, it may be a minor inconvenience on the whole but it still isn't worth the costs IMO. It's simply too little benefit for a too high price.
And anyway, this is a patent on a specific codec - not exactly the same thing as patenting 'swipe to unlock'.
Just because it's a codec doesn't mean it should be patentable. I have yet to see any clear and confirmed evidence that software patents have increased software innovations, or that lack of software patents hinder software innovations. It is not logical to impose mechanisms which have clear costs but unproven benefits.
Member since:2005-11-13
It wasn't long ago humanity believed we couldn't learn more about physics. If there's something we know for sure it's that we never know for sure what we may come up with in the future. Any limitations put upon our own innovative capacity should always be carefully considered. For our own good.
Hey, I'm not saying building a competitive OS from scratch can't be done, just that you're gonna need an army of developers to pull it off, and probably working full-time.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."More News »
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Member since:
2005-11-13
Well, it's not like you could create an OS from scratch that could seriously compete in today's market without a shitload of funding anyway. Joe Coder and a group of his friends are not going to build something that rivals Windows or OSX in their spare time.
30 years ago it might've been possible, but the tech has gotten immensely more complicated since then. Even Linux wouldn't be where it is today without the financial backing of large companies.
Look, I'm not saying that patents are a good thing, or that someone shouldn't be able to create something and put it out in the wild with an investment of $0, but most things cost money to get off the ground. Seriously... if you have a good idea, you can probably get somebody with a lot of cash to invest in it. And anyway, this is a patent on a specific codec - not exactly the same thing as patenting 'swipe to unlock'.