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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Saturday, July 17, 2004And the DOOM 3 details just keep on coming...Time: "From the title you'd think Doom 3 was a sequel to the earlier Doom games, but you'd be wrong: It's actually a wholesale reimagining and retelling of the original Doom scenario. You're a Marine posted to a fancy-pants research facility on Mars. You show up, something goes really, phenomenally wrong, and suddenly you're squaring off against a crapload of demons. The similarities to the original Doom end there. Doom 3 runs on all-new technology, and let's not mince words: there has never been a game that looks this good. I'm not sure what does it — the highly detailed textures, the fancy colored light and shadow-play, the all-new physics models, the "normal mapping" (whatever that is) — but id has created a virtual environment that's more compelling and immersive and realistic than really seems possible. Get up close to one of the demons and look at his skin: it gleams with a dull, matte, scaly sheen that's disturbingly lifelike. Warning: staring at demon skin up close may result in you being gutted like a fish."GameSpy: "Shortly after DOOM 3 was unveiled two years ago, John Carmack disclosed that the game's multiplayer component would support a peer-to-peer networking model and was being geared towards a max of four players per game. This created a bit of a buzz in the gaming community, since id has basically made a living over the past few years with multiplayer giants like Quake III, supporting far more players and allowing gamers to jump on and off servers at will -- all of which appeared would no longer be possible in DOOM 3. Over the past two years, however, we'd heard rumors that the specifics of the game's networking could change, which were seemingly confirmed this week by id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead in a brief online exchange with UKGamer. Looking for more clarity, we turned to id Software programmer Robert Duffy, who was kind enough to provide us with a few quick answers, confirming that DOOM 3's multiplayer is no longer based on a peer-to-peer model, and while it's still designed around 4 players, that's by no means the limit to what mod developers can do with it." [ Posted at 6:51 PM | Permalink ]
George Romero's 'Land of the Dead' OfficialBloody-disgusting.com: "Variety reports that George Romero is set to direct 'Land of the Dead,' a horror film that picks up on the zombie saga he hatched with 'Night of the Living Dead' and continued with 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead.' [The movie], from Romero's own script, is being co-financed by Atmosphere Entertainment and Paris-based Wild Bunch. Production will begin in October in Winnipeg or Pittsburgh. Latter was the site of shooting for Romero's original 1968 zombie trilogy ... In Romero's new pic, the zombies having taken over the world and those left alive are confined to a walled-in city that keeps out the corpse corps. Anarchy rules the streets, with the wealthy insulated and living in fortified skyscrapers. Drama revolves around a group of scavengers who must thwart an attempt to overthrow the city while the dead are evolving from brainless slow-moving creatures into more advanced creatures."Woo! I'm a huge fan of the "Dead" movies specifically, and zombie movies generally (heck, I even really enjoyed "Resident Evil"), so this is great news. On the other hand, there's almost no chance this movie will be any good. That said, I'll be first in line to see it. [ Posted at 6:47 PM | Permalink ]
iPodWorld Magazine bites the dust I haven't seen anyone discussing this for some reason, but IDG's high profile launch of iPod Magazine (a monthly? a standalone issue?) has fizzled earlier than expected. At last week's MacWorld Expo in Boston, we attended the MacWorld Mardi Gras party, where we were treated to plastic hurricane glasses with a logo for something called "Turn It Up! MacWorld Digitial Music Special." The thing is, the logo was on a sticker. Under the sticker was the logo for "iPodWorld." I noted to Keith that the iPodWorld Magazine idea was thus likely dead in the water. And sure enough, that's true: Visit www.ipodworld.com and see what happens. Yawn.
To be fair, I think I understand the issues here. Obviously, the success of the iPod and iTunes is due mostly to their availability on Windows, and the title "MacWorld" will be of no interest to most commputer users. However, if IDG were to call it iPodWorld, a number of problems arise: First, they'd have to license the name from Apple, and if this year's MacWorld Boston is any indication, the relationship between the two companies isn't exactly rosy right now, so don't be surprised to discover Apple had a little ... reluctance ... in giving them naming rights. Second, using a unique name like that suggests that there will be more than one issue, and my suspicion (based on real world experience, actually) is that right now isn't a great time to launch a new magazine. Third, how much can anyone actually write about the iPod, iPod accessories, and music related issues on a regular basis? Most people who buy iPods aren't part of a vibrant community like that Mac users enjoy; instead, they just want to listen to music (and, apparently, be trendy. But that's a different story). It all adds up to a simple fact: iPodWorld Magazine was a stupid idea. [ Posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink ]
Download Picassa version 1.6 for free!Picassa: "Picassa is now part of Google. Picasa. Everything you need to enjoy your digital photos in a single software product: Auto-transfer photos from your digital camera. Organize and find pictures in seconds. Edit, print, and share photos with ease. Create slideshows, order prints and more! The download itself contains only the Picasa software. Picasa will not uninstall other programs or add any non-Picasa programs or files to your computer."This is a fantastic (Windows-only) application that I highly recommended when you had to pay for it. Now, of course, it's a no-brainer. Good stuff. [ Posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, July 16, 2004Linux in Government: GNU/Linux Clears Procurement HurdlesLinux Journal: "In the first quarter of 2004, sales of GNU/Linux servers increased 56.9% over the same period in 2003. That performance follows six consecutive quarters of double-digit growth for the free operating system, according to a report by IDC. Although Linux currently has the best growth rate of any operating system globally and has cleared major procurement hurdles for government entities, Linux gains remain limited compared to those of other government vendors ... Linux usage in government and education in the United States remains small at best. Microsoft still owns an astounding 95% of the market. In spite of logic and reason, government decision makers cannot pull themselves away from Microsoft, even in the face of US government warnings."Thanks Sam. This is an interesting article, and while I agree with most of this, the author's weird focus on Windows rebooting all the time (the "Windows two-step," he calls it) is a bit disingenuous. My many XP desktops rarely reboot, unless of course they've automatically downloaded and installed a critical security patch that requires them to do so. The real problem with Windows is security, not reliability. And the author seems to realize this; why he focuses on the non-issue of rebooting is beyond me. By focusing on a cute phrase he hopes to see adopted as a common reference, he's engaging in the same narrow-minded generalizations that he accuses the mainstream media of. (One might ask, What's the "Linux two-step"? When you have try and make some feature work properly using a Byzantine command line sequence?) In any event, it's pretty clear to me that governments, like businesses, should be evaluating Linux more often to see if this is a solution that makes sense for them. More and more, I suspect, it will be. [ Posted at 2:06 PM | Permalink ]
Deepnet Explorer: New Browser, Super ChargedDeepnet Explorer: "Deepnet Technologies announces the launch of Deepnet Explorer, a powerful Web, P2P and News browser that allows users to surf the web faster, share and download files on the Gnutella P2P network, and view the latest RSS news and weblogs. Deepnet Explorer seamlessly integrates three web technologies into one application: web browsing, P2P file sharing and RSS news reader. The Web browser allows users to view multiple web pages with its tabbed interface and it has a collection of innovative features that increase web browsing productivity, such as the pop-up blocker, direct search, keyword navigation, auto login, form filler, multiple start pages, mouse gestures, super drag and drop and more. Deepnet Explorer’s built-in peer-to-peer file sharing technology enables the user to browse the web while sharing and downloading files on the Gnutella P2P network in the background. Users can search for different file formats including audio, video and documents." [ Posted at 12:38 PM | Permalink ]
AirPort Express arrives ... initial thoughtsMy AirPort Express arrived today ("Designed by Apple in California; Assembled in Taiwan with other articles of foreign origin as marked thereon"). This is a device I really need on the road, but I'm curious how others will use it (probably as a primary base station, I guess). In the guise of seeing how it works, I tried to set it up here today.I tried first from my main Windows laptop, which is wirelessly connected. I have three wireless networks at home; two are 54g (one 54g only and one 54g/11b shared) and one is 802.11b only. According to the AirPort Setup, I might have problems because a third party application is controlling the wireless functionality (which isn't the case, actually), and sure enough, I had problems: Windows couldn't see the AirPort Express at all. It just wouldn't work. I'll try from other Windows machines later. So I moved to the Mac. Unlike the Windows version, ironically, the Mac setup application required a reboot (ahem). After reboot, however, it found the AirPort Express (APX) no problem. There are a number of options you get when setting up the APX. You can create a new network, connect to an existing network, or extend an existing network. I wanted to try the latter, but it requires a feature called WDS (Wireless Distribution Service), which Apple supports on their AirPort devices. My routers either don't have this feature (in the case of the Microsoft 54g and 11b units), or, can't work because they don't broadcast their SSID (with my Linksys 54g unit) and the APX setup program offers no way to connect to a wireless network that doesn't broadcast its SSID. Hey, way to go guys. So I chose the second option, connect to an existing wireless network, and that works. I guess. Because I haven't yet tried plugging a USB printer or analog audio cable into the little box, I can't really say for sure. I'll do that after I get some work done this morning. So the short version goes like this: A little buggy on Windows, a little under-developed software-wise, but decent. I'll try and test it more later today and over the weekend, but I'm not hugely disappointed so far. UPDATE: Kyle tells me that a second bundled AirPort configuration utility will let me connect to non-broadcasting base stations. I'll try that, but this stuff should be a lot more clear. [ Posted at 10:19 AM | Permalink ]
Slackware 10: First ImpressionsOS news: "My first experience with Slackware Linux came with version 9.1, after 4 years of using various versions of Red Hat and SUSE Linux. I disliked the general direction these distributions were moving in and didn't see their increasing focus on the 'big end of town' as auguring well for either myself or clients of my small one-person IT consultancy business. I quickly became a Slackware convert and have since used it exclusively for all my server deployments ... Slackware 10 is a well-rounded distribution that will continue to make a first-class Linux server platform. Changes in the new release are incremental, not radical, and Slackware remains one of the most stable, reliable and flexible distributions available today. True to tradition, Slackware 10 is refreshingly free of the convoluted and confusing 'enhancements' often added by other Linux vendors that can make straightforward system administration tasks a real pain if you don't use their GUI tools. If you build and manage Linux server systems, I certainly recommend trying a Slackware solution" [ Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, July 15, 2004Google Acquires Picasa for Online Photo ManagementNewsFactor: "Google has acquired Picasa, which makes software for organizing digital photos and sharing them over peer-to-peer networks. Google previously had announced that Picasa's Hello software would be incorporated into Google's Blogger service. ... The Picasa deal marks Google's efforts to compete with rivals AOL Latest News about AOL Time Warner, Yahoo Latest News about Yahoo and Microsoft Latest News about Microsoft in developing Web services, a strategy that it has pursued through acquisitions. The acquisition of Picasa follows last year's acquisition of Blogger.com from Pyra Labs to create Google's free Web-based service for publishing text and images on the Internet." [ Posted at 5:11 PM | Permalink ]
Sunbird gets customizable ToolbarsSimon's MOZBLOG: " Cool news from the Sunbird front. Michiel van Leeuwen just checked in support for customizable toolbars for Sunbird. There are still some bugs, for example small-icons-mode, text-only-mode, and icon-only-mode do not work at the moment, thanks to bug 250867. But still this is a great step forward and will become even more important when the new theme becomes a reality. Thanks mvl! It should also be noted that this won't give customizable toolbars in the xpi's for Firefox or Thunderbird. This change is Sunbird-only." [ Posted at 3:19 PM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, July 14, 2004Uptake rates of Linux for client PC market remain low, says IDCDigiTimes: "Although Linux has become the second largest OS in the global server market, penetration rates in the client PC market remain low, according to Avneesh Saxena, IDC (International Data Corporation) Asia/Pacific director of computing systems. The Chinese government has put its weight behind Linux and related software in the server market for three years, said Saxena, adding that China’s effort has helped the open source operating system gradually penetrate other markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Saxena went on to say that in order to accelerate Linux’s adoption in the client PC market, governments would have to be more aggressive in their support. The Linux-based server market in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) is expected to grow to US$733.7 million by 2008; a 7.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2003 to 2008, according to IDC." [ Posted at 11:43 PM | Permalink ]
In the beginning was WordIndependent.co.uk: "When schools buy software, there seems to be only one choice: Microsoft. Why don't more of them use Linux? It can do most of the work, it's more secure and it's free. In the past week there's been a lot of talk about 'choice' in relation to schools. But there's one area where children, and schools, don't see much choice: the software they use. It's likely, for example, that children leave school thinking that Microsoft Word is the only word processing program. That Excel is the only spreadsheet. And Internet Explorer the only web browser." [ Posted at 11:34 PM | Permalink ]
Apple's 3rd-Quarter Profit Beats EstimatesAssociated Press: "Apple Computer Inc. posted stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit and revenues Wednesday on heavy sales of its computers and portable music players. For the three months ended June 26, Apple said it earned $61 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $19 million, or 5 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenues increased 30 percent to $2.01 billion ... Apple shipped 876,000 Macintosh computers in the quarter, up 14 percent from the year-ago period. The segment accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue growth, Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview. He said most of the Mac growth was driven by higher laptop computer sales, as 'the world is going more mobile.' Also, Apple shipped 860,000 iPod portable players, bringing the product's lifetime total to 3.7 million units, Oppenheimer said."Good stuff, marred only by some BS about the iPod Mini, whose sales Apple execs referred to as "staggering" and "unprecedented" without, of course, offering any specifics. Ah well. [ Posted at 11:01 PM | Permalink ]
HP and Dell: No Windows Mobile 2003 SE upgradeInfoSync: "The two largest Windows Mobile handheld makers have both confirmed that they will not be releasing OS upgrades for their existing models, although future units will use the new OS. In separate announcements, both HP and Dell have confirmed that they will not be releasing upgrades to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for existing handhelds. HP, far and away the largest Windows Mobile licensee, had claimed to be 'investigating' an upgrade possibility for some time. However, it has now concluded that it will not offer such an upgrade, although it did not state its reasoning. However, it did say that it will offer Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) support as an update for selected models."Boo. Hiss. Boo. Hiss. [ Posted at 3:51 PM | Permalink ]
Differnet.com: "Think Different"Different.com is an interesting Web portal set up by Mac co-creator Andy Hertzfeld. [ Posted at 3:48 PM | Permalink ]
DOOM 3 completed!Todd Hollenshead: "This is the official word that DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing! It won't be long now until the anticipation ends and the PH34R begins ;-) We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. Thanks to everyone for their patience (yeah right! =) and for everyone at id, Activision and our numerous partners for helping us create what I believe is absolutely the best game we have ever made. So, the next question is release dates. Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd. The official street date is actually August 5th in the U.S.A., but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first. Check with your local retailer for that information." [ Posted at 2:53 PM | Permalink ]
Apple Ships New AirPort Express with AirTunesApple: "Apple today announced it has begun shipping AirPort Express, the world’s first 802.11g mobile base station that features wireless Internet connections and USB printing that can be used at home or on the road to bring wireless freedom to hotel rooms with broadband connections. AirPort Express also features both analog and digital audio outputs that can be connected to a home stereo, and together with AirTunes music networking software gives users a simple and inexpensive way to wirelessly stream music from iTunes on their Mac or PC to any room in the house. Apple has received more than 80,000 pre-orders for AirPort Express, which was introduced last month."Shipped today, yes, but from Tawain. That means the device won't arrive here until the day after tomorrow, making the "next day delivery" claim a bit bogus. Ah well, I can wait. [ Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink ]
Reasons to love AppleNewsobserver.com: "Let's talk a minute about Apple's fortunes in a Microsoft-dominated world. It's true that running out of inventory just as people are getting ready to make purchases for the coming school year hits Apple hard, because education is a key market. Apple called it an 'inconvenience' to its customers, but it's a punch in the gut to the company ... And although attention has been on the success of the iTunes online music venture, not to mention the phenomenal sales of the iPod, Apple's biggest source of revenue is still computers ... Consider the superb Mac OS X operating system, whose latest version was just previewed at a developer's conference in San Francisco. Apple can surge ahead on technology like this precisely because its market share is low and because it retains tight control over Macintosh hardware. Every OS X upgrade can focus on breakthroughs, while Microsoft has to spend countless programmer hours worrying about compatibility issues with different kinds of equipment and add-on devices. A nimble company can sometimes get the drop on Bill Gates. So yes, I like Apple, even though I don't use a Mac."I don't know why it amazes me when I see a bit of insight from an unexpected source, but this guy hit Apple's advantages right on the noggin: Because it is a (relatively) small company with a tiny installed base, it can deliver software breakthroughs much more quickly than a behemoth like Microsoft. That is one of the reasons I like Apple as well, though of course it's more complicated than that. [ Posted at 11:09 AM | Permalink ]
In absentia, Jobs still towers over MacworldCNET: "Despite the fact that Apple Computer Chief Executive Steve Jobs chose not to attend the ongoing Macworld conference, the company's mercurial founder still managed to remain at the center of the show's attention. When Apple announced its decision not to participate in the Macworld Boston conference it became clear Jobs wouldn't occupy his traditional role as the event's opening keynote speaker. Instead, show organizer IDG World Expo put together a reunion of the design team that built the first Macintosh desktop computers at Apple more than 20 years ago. And rather than giving Jobs credit as a key member of that effort, the panel of designers used the event to repeatedly deride the executive, saying his style of management had threatened the Mac's very existence. The group even parodied Jobs' taste in clothes, draping the executive's trademark black turtleneck and jeans over a chair on the stage to stand in the CEO's place. 'He killed the (Mac) project three times,' said Jef Raskin, one of the so-called fathers of the Mac, who began the project that led to the computer's eventual launch in 1984. 'We kept the project going in secret.'"This article is a good overview of this session, which I attended and found fascinating. I'll try to write up more later, but the short version goes like this: David Pogue, who moderated the event, was horrible, unprofessional and unfunny. The four ex-Apple employees were all fascinating, including the much-maligned Raskin, who, despite his rough ways, is probably right about much of what he says. Anyway... No time now, but I'll address this event's topics later if possible. [ Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink ]
Ian Hickson Weighs InDavid Hyatt (Safari developer, Apple employee): "Ian Hickson comments on Apple's HTML extensions and points out that all of the solutions suggested so far are inappropriate. I'll be eagerly awaiting the responses of both Tim and Eric to this entry. Ian also takes Apple to task for inventing new tags without discussing them in a standards forum first. I think Ian has gotten his wires crossed a bit. For whatever reason, he (and others) are equating a beta release of Tiger with a shipping release of Tiger. Until Apple actually ships Tiger, then we have not yet extended HTML. What you see in the Tiger beta is a proposal. The syntax of these tags is not frozen, as is evidenced by the fact that I'm willing to move them into a completely different namespace! The documentation delivered to Dashboard authors during WWDC even warns that the syntax of these tags has not yet been finalized. To criticize Apple for not discussing the syntax of tags prior to releasing a piece of beta software is unfair. We are willing to discuss these elements in an open forum like the WHAT-WG. You can see our proposal for canvas and for the new form controls, since we released the complete source of these extensions in WebCore-146, and anyone can download it to view the current APIs. I believe we are being quite open in our process regarding these extensions." Thanks Kyle. [ Posted at 9:04 AM | Permalink ]
Sun Rising on JDSInternet News: "While writing Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop for O'Reilly & Sons, Sam Hiser and Tom Adelstein realized that Sun's Java Desktop System (JDS) was underrated by many desktop users. And even its creators. So to try and garner some industry-wide JDS respect, the authors Monday launched JDShelp.org. 'We were monitoring the Sun JDS forum and saw that there were users of the software that were outside the scope of what Sun's enterprise distribution and support channels are designed to accommodate,' said Hiser. 'Sun's documentation was not so great; it was the typical rush job to do the software, and they didn't document it so completely,' Hiser said. 'Also, their documentation seems to be written for each other, not for your mom.'" [ Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, July 13, 2004More on new Firefox featuresNeil's world: "I did a post yesterday about this but today I’ve downloaded a nightly branch build and so here’s the lowdown on what’s new ...Update notifications. When I first launched Firefox after installing the nightly, it told me that Tabbrowser Extensions and Gmail Notifier had been updated, and offered to download them for me. New ‘Web features’ option pane. The Web Features pane of the options dialog has been changed, largely to accommodate the new ‘Allow web sites to install software’ option. Information bar. This feature is borrowed directly from IE6 SP2. If a popup or XPI install is blocked, then the information bar appears, telling the user what has happened, as opposed to merely showing a non-obvious icon in the status bar. With the popup message, you can click on the bar and it will let you show the popup, unblock the site, or let you configure the popup whitelist. Find toolbar. This appears at the bottom of the browser window (above the status bar) when you press ’ (for link text) or / (for all text) outside of a text area, and works like Find As You Type did, except it’s a bit more intuitive. Status bar re-organisation. All status bar icons are now on the right-hand side, and each has its own box to live in (in the default theme). Livemarks. Livemarks are a cross between aggregation channels and bookmarks - Live Bookmarks if you like. If a page has an RSS feed, a lightning icon appears in the fourth box on the status bar, and clicking on it lets you choose a Livemark to add to your bookmarks. Secure sites. If you’re connected to a secure site, then the address bar will have a padlock by the arrow on the right and the background will turn yellow. Bookmark Manager update. The Bookmarks Manager now has a folder pane on the left, which should make it easier to navigate." [ Posted at 7:39 PM | Permalink ]
Windows vs. Linux security: No unbiased reportsNewsForge: " Forrester Research published a report last March that came to the unlikely conclusion that Linux is no more secure than Windows. Last month, Danish security firm Secunia compared security across operating systems and concluded that Windows was more secure than many people think. Both studies are easy to counter with a little research and common sense, but that still leaves us without any meaningful third-party operating system security assessment ... A rash of articles recently claimed Linux was less secure than Windows because the total number of security alerts for Linux outnumbered those for Windows. Once again, the articles failed to address any meaningful data, such as the severity of the flaws reported, whether the flaws counted against Linux were actually flaws in applications or programming environments that run on both Linux and Windows (such as the Apache Web server or PHP programming language), and so on ... There is a fatal flaw in the Secunia data, at least as it is presented for public consumption ... Secunia tells you the percentage of vulnerabilities can be exploited by remote users, and the percentage of vulnerabilities which allow the cracker to escalate privileges possibly to administrator level, the graphs do not tell you where the data for these figures intersect. It should be self-evident that the most serious type of vulnerability is one that makes it possible for an anonymous user to gain administrator privileges and seize control of your system via the Internet. After all, which is more dangerous to your organization, a flaw that can only be exploited by someone with a valid user account and physical access to your machine, or a flaw that is exposed to every hotshot cracker in cyberspace?" [ Posted at 7:35 PM | Permalink ]
Announcing Fedora Core 3 Test 1Linux Today: "Yes, it's time for the [number] test release of Fedora Core [number]. Fedore Core [number] includes various new features, such as KDE [version], GNOME [version], and the [version] kernel. [call for testing]. [admonition about production use]. Problems with Fedora Core [number] test [number] should be reported via bugzilla." [ Posted at 7:34 PM | Permalink ]
DOOM 3. Everything we know.IGN: "It looks more and more like id's scary shooter will safely land on store shelves the first week of next month. So says a number of sources, including a marketing sheet released on the net late last week. Playing off the whole 'when it's done' line, the sheet states 'it's done.' Based off the sheet's claims, it's hard to ignore the August 3 or August 4 release dates that have been posted both on online retailer sites and in-store displays ... For those who came late, Doom 3 is a retelling of the original game, albeit with a few changes. The basic setup is this: you're a marine tasked with protecting the Union Aerospace Corporation research facility located on Mars. The Corporation's been doing lots of work in the field of teleportation and you're just there to provide an extra level of security. But after a short jaunt away from the facility, you return to find that hell has literally broken loose and you're the only one who can set it right ... Given the length of the development cycle, the team has done a great job anticipating the current state of graphics and remaining on the cutting edge. Rather than pushing polygons and colors (which was the trend when the game was announced), the developers have opted instead to focus on lighting and normal mapping as the real tools supporting the game's visual presentation. You can see the effect of the shadows in the screenshots. What you can't see is how natural and smooth they look in motion. Shadows play across every surface in the game, pooling in every crevice and alongside every ridge in the game's architecture." [ Posted at 7:10 PM | Permalink ]
Macworld's Back in BeantownWired: "No, Steve Jobs isn't going. Nor is anyone officially from Apple, Microsoft, Macromedia or Adobe. But nevermind, visitors to Macworld Boston this week will still party like it's 1773. Instead of tea, the assembled 10,000 Mac aficionados will likely be downing more festive fare. Because, for many, it matters not that the biggest vendors in the Apple universe are missing from this week's Macworld -- the first in Beantown for six years. The event is about the community, anyway."I'm at the Boston Convention Center as I write this, and while it does seem like a small show so far, it should be OK. Like some others, I think Apple made a mistake in forsaking this show. [ Posted at 9:53 AM | Permalink ]
AirPort Express shipsI received a notification from Apple today that my AirPort Express has shipped and will arrive tomorrow. An Apple product that shipped on time? Is this a planet ruled by apes? [ Posted at 9:47 AM | Permalink ]
Monday, July 12, 2004100M songs downloaded on iTunesCNN Money: "Apple Computer Inc. said Monday that more than 100 million songs have been purchased and downloaded from the computer maker's iTunes Music Store, and that the man who bought the 100 millionth song won a PowerBook. The 100 millionth song, 'Somersault (Dangermouse remix)' by Zero7 was purchased by Kevin Britten, 20, of Hays, Kansas on Sunday, July 11, according to a company press release. For his buy, Britten will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for his iPod and the opportunity to create his own Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store, according to the statement." [ Posted at 11:31 AM | Permalink ]
IPod mini delayedMac Music: "Few days ago we were proud to announce the release of the iPod mini in Europe on July 24th. Unfortunately Apple announces that because of a tremendous amount of pre-orders, its portable audio player will only be available with a 4-week delay. This strange Apple business strategy is growing more and more frequent and annoying for the image of Apple Inc. Once more, Apple can't ship its new products on the scheduled timetable. Beware Apple !! The iPod clients aren't Mac clients, they are much less faithful and lose patience much faster. What a shame, it is precisely these same new clients that Apple had to appeal to !!"Fractured English, yes, but an all-too common story these days. [ Posted at 9:12 AM | Permalink ]
Extending HTMLHixie's Natural Log: "So Apple decided to make up some new tags. To be precise, they invented a new element, a new attribute, and a new value. The new element is canvas, an element that does nothing except provide a DOM interface for graphics drawing; the new attribute is composite, a presentational attribute that can be applied to images; and the new value is search on the type attribute of input elements, which provides a control for incremental search interfaces. These new tags are to be used in several places. One of these is Dashboard, where applications written in an HTML-like interpreted language are executed in a runtime environment similar to a Web browser's. The response to this announcement from a number of people in the industry seemed to be outrage... about the syntax. Hello? Here is Apple introducing their own proprietary markup to the Web, without going through any sort of standardisation first (not even unofficial standardisation like the WHATWG), and what people complain about is the syntax? ... So let me get this right. It's ok to send proprietary non-standard markup over the Web, so long as the angle brackets are XML angle brackets and not HTML angle brackets? This makes no sense. Proprietary markup is proprietary markup, whether it is HTML-based, XML-based, or any other language such as PDF, Microsoft Word, XAML, or Flash. It's not the exact order of the angle brackets that matters, it's the lack of open, consensus-driven specifications, the lack of interoperability" ... The real solution is to bring these proposals to the table, get some consensus between the relevant vendors and other interested parties, and then use that ... Apple were probably concerned that by talking about this stuff, they would have tipped their hand about Dashboard. WHATWG is the perfect cover, though. Apple could have put forward their proposals, discussed them, got concensus, and everyone would have thought they were just planning these features for the Web Application space. In fact, they did do this [with] the new range value for the type attribute of input elements ... Here, Apple did the right thing ... So why did they not do this with the other extensions?"Why indeed. Obviously, Apple knew that there was going to be outrage over them ripping off yet another small Mac OS X developer, and the company probably figured that if it wrapped the announcement in the feel-good aura of the WWDC, the commotion would be minimal. Throw in the usual cadre of Apple apologizers to explain, in great detail, why Apple did not, in fact, rip off anyone, but was actually just making a new version of a decades-old OS feature that no one wanted anymore (ahem), and maybe, just maybe, the hub-bub would be gone for good by the time Tiger ships in mid-2005. There's just one problem, which is apparent in this post. The folks working on next-generation Web standards are as young, active, and opinionated as Apple backers. And they're not amused at Apple pulling a Netscape and inventing new extensions to HTML outside of the normal standards process. And they're not going to stop complaining about it. [ Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink ]
iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDsZDNET: "When a copy-protected CD hit No. 1 on the U.S. music sales charts last month, it marked a breakthrough for the antipiracy technology in all but one sense: The music still wouldn't play on Apple's iPod. Now the two companies responsible for most copy-protected CDs are scrambling to create new versions of their technologies that are compatible with Apple's popular digital music player. In the process, they're both making substantial changes in the way CDs are digitally locked, changes that could ultimately be a setback to recent Microsoft strides into the music business. 'If you look at the 500 or 600 customer service comments we've gotten, you see that 80 percent of them have to do with iPod compatibility,' said SunnComm International Chief Executive Officer Peter Jacobs, whose technology was loaded on last month's chart-topping Velvet Revolver disc. 'The rest are, Why can't I do what I want with my music. And a lot of those are really iPod questions too' ... For the past several years, both SunnComm and rival Macrovision have worked to put two different versions of songs on each protected album. The first set of tunes is a locked-down version of the CD's content. The second set consists of digital tracks that can be transferred to a computer or to some portable music devices. That 'second session' has been filled, to date, with songs in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format. Both companies chose the WMA format because it's supported by virtually every PC on the market, and a large number of different portable players ... But the subsequent meteoric rise of the iPod--which does not play Microsoft-formatted music--has forced a change in plans: no more reliance on Microsoft's technology, no more second session and an appeal to Apple for compatibility ... ndeed, if Apple is able to license its digital rights management technology for use on copy-protected CDs, it could be a promising new revenue source, depending on the terms. Apple declined to comment on the issue."Or, you know, Apple could just supply WMA compatibility, which it actually rips out of its iPods before shipping them to customers. Just a thought. [ Posted at 8:56 AM | Permalink ]
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