Matt Croydon::Postneo

Busy making things: @mc, notes, tinycast, github, links, photos.

  • Quake II .NET

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    Via Clemens Vasters, Vertigo Software has ported Quake II to managed C++:

    Now, in July 2003, Vertigo Software, Inc. is releasing Quake II .NET, a port of the C-language based engine to Visual C++ with a .NET managed heads-up display. We did this to illustrate a point: one can easily port a large amount of C code to C++, and then run the whole application as a managed .NET application using the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR) without noticeable performance delays. Once running as a .NET managed application, adding new features is easy and fun.

    The radar feature is pretty slick!

  • Shoe News

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    In other news, Nike purchased Converse today:

    NIKE, Inc. announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Converse, Inc., the globally recognized footwear brand with nearly a century of sports heritage. The total price to be paid for 100 percent of the equity shares is approximately $305 million plus the assumption of certain working capital liabilities at the time of the transaction’s consummation.

  • Table Tennis Reloaded

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    I’m sure they’re making the rounds, but Scoble pointed out a really amusing video: table tennis, Matrix-style [windows media].  Here’s another version for those that don’t have the Windows Media option.

  • Duron to be Renamed Athlon FX

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    The Register:

    Farewell, Duron. Hello, Athlon FX.

    That’s the name AMD will adopt for its future low-end processors, if unnamed sources cited by DigiTimes are anything to go by.

    The Athlon FX will be based on the Thorton core, essentially a version of the top-end Athlon XP’s Barton core with half the cache: 256KB instead of 512KB.

    Somebody in marketing finally realized how stupid Duron sounded.  Tech geeks have known that since day 1.  Move along.

  • EPAL: Enterprise Privacy Authorization Language

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    Information Week:

    IBM has developed a programming language for building software that automatically enforces privacy rules. The vendor, which unveiled the new Enterprise Privacy Authorization Language (EPAL) on Wednesday at the Catalyst Conference in San Francisco, says the language is more sophisticated than current privacy technology, including the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) specifications.

    Another item for acronym soup.  I hope that it helps and doesn’t just add another layer of complexity.

  • Feed Validator: Now With Pie

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    Here’s an update from the validator formerly known as the RSS Validator and now known as the Feed Validator:

    The validator is now known as the “Feed Validator”, because it now supports multiple syndication formats with different names. (Previously it only supported the seven different formats called “RSS”.) Specifically, there is now preliminary support for Pie, based on the July 1 snapshot. As the format evolves, the validator will be updated to support it.

    Sweet!  Check out what’s new for the new version of the validator:

    It includes 225 new test cases for Pie, as well as the existing 326 test cases for RSS.

    This is definately a step in the right direction.  It’s good to have an authoritative answer on what consititutes a good feed, be it RSS, RDF, or pie (not echo).

  • Ultra Liberal Feed Parser

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    Mark Pilgrim has added support for the 7/1/03 snapshot of the format that shall not be called echo in his latest version of his now ultra-liberal feed parser:

    Handles RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Pie feeds

    You may now commence your consumption of pie/necho in Python.  Yum.

  • Panther Server Gets JBoss, Tomcat, and Axis

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    TheServerSide:

    Apple has decided to embed JBoss with the upcoming “Panther” release (v10.3). This is an interesting development, as we have seen other vendors bundle various application servers. For example, Solaris & Sun ONE, HP/DELL & WebLogic, and AIX & WebSphere. Panther will also include Apache products (web server, tomcat, and AXIS)

    I can’t say that I’m particularly thrilled about JBoss, but it’s excellent to see Tomcat and Axis bundled in with the OS.

  • Guido Leaves Zope

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    Slashdot:

    Guido van Rossum, the author of the Python programming language, announced at OSCON last night that he’s leaving zope.com, to work for a new startup called ‘Elemental Security’, founded by Dan Farmer (known from several security tools such as Satan).

    Good luck, Guido.

  • if python.has_key(‘absurd’):

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    Rafe Colburn:

    Python is absurd.

    Yes, yes it is.  *Muahaha*

  • Yes, We Buy More Music. Please Leave Us Alone

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    BBC News states the obvious:

    Music fans who download songs from the internet go on to buy more albums, a survey has suggested.

  • Netcraft: FreeBSD is Reliable

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    Netcraft has released their fastest and most reliable hosting company list for June.  Here’s an interesting note:

    Intriguingly, all of the Top 5 placed sites run the FreeBSD operating system, but in other respects the Top 10 come from all segments of the industry from shared hosting through to high end colocation services.

  • Action on Small Devices

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    I didn’t notice it until today, but java.sun.com released a tutorial in June: Designing and Writing Java Action Games for Small Devices:

    This article explains the essentials of Java action game development: it shows how to design, implement, and tune Java games for small devices such as cell phones. We start with a quick discussion of common types of games, followed by the challenges presented in developing these games. Then, we work through two in-depth examples of game development, starting with a simple stand-alone game, followed by a more intricate, networked game. Section two covers the stand-alone game, while the third Section discusses the networked game. For both games, we start with a description of how to play the game, followed by an explanation of the game’s design choices, and, finally, we look at the details of the implementation of each game.

    It’s more in-depth than your tipical ‘hey look at this’ article.  Screenshots and working code abound.

  • VIA Introduces Antaur Mobile Processor

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    El Reg:

    VIA launched itself against Intel’s Centrino mobile platform today when it unveiled Antaur, a mobile version of its C3 desktop processor.

    We say ‘mobile version’ but we’re really just talking about little more than a rebranded C3. The C3, particularly in its latest incarnations, based on the Nehemiah core, has been targeted at low-power applications, and VIA has often touted its strengths in fanless, zero-noise systems.

    I have a C3 533MHz board sitting next to me running Red Hat 8.0.  The C3 seems to be great for running stuff like word processing, browsing, SSH terminals and the sort.  It does tend to choke on more processor-intensive tasks.  The first time I noticed this was when decoding a speex file.  It brought the system to a halt and produced a couple of unusable files.

    I wouldn’t try to do realtime audio or video on the 533MHz C3, but for day to day stuff, it’s fine.

  • Going For a Classified PHD

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    I read the following article over Honey Nut Cheerios this morning:

    Sean Gorman’s professor called his dissertation “tedious and unimportant.” Gorman didn’t talk about it when he went on dates because “it was so boring they’d start staring up at the ceiling.” But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Gorman’s work has become so compelling that companies want to seize it, government officials want to suppress it, and al Qaeda operatives — if they could get their hands on it — would find a terrorist treasure map.

  • Move the Discussion to the Wiki

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    Dave Winer:

    Interesting timing. Mark Pilgrim shuts off discussion in a thread, just as the light is beginning to shine, clear and bright.

    Mark Pilgrim posted an example implementation of the RESTian (not)Echo API.  He also posts an XML-RPC implementation for comparison.  He turned off comments for a reason.  I think he was trying to get people to go over to the wiki and post their comments/questions/improvements rather than start a flamewar on his weblog.

    Which one is more constructive?

    Moderators: Please don’t mark this -1 (Flamebait).  It really shouldn’t be.  Granted, the flamable keywords are there: Winer, Pilgrim, Necho, REST, XML-RPC; but that’s not my intent.  Take the political aspect out of it (if that’s possible).  It’s all just angle brackets anyway.  It’s not worth getting upset over.

  • A Blip on the Radar: The Blogging Together Alliance

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    There’s not any content of note yet, but things are happening at bloggingtogether.com.

    blip!

  • Panther to be 32-bit/64-bit Hodgepodge?

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    El Reg via MacNN:

    Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther, will not be a 64-bit operating system, despite running on a 64-bit processor, the PowerPC 970 aka the G5.

    Instead, the next major release of the Mac operating system will be a hybrid, much like version 10.2.7, codenamed ‘Smeagol’, which Apple has running on its pre-production Power Mac G5 machines and with which it will almost certainly ship production units.

    If this is anything like the Carbon Finder Fiasco, we’re in for a good one.

  • Rendezvous IS Open

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    Steve Gillmor via Hack the Planet:

    Now if we can get Apple to open up Rendezvous across the Net.

    From what I recall, Rendezvous is completely open.  You can download Apple’s reference implementation at their website under the Apple Public Source License.  All the information is at the Rendezvous project page.  Also of note is the Rendezvous developer page.  It’s also known as ZeroConf outside of Mac circles.

    Rendezvous is open indeed.

  • Leave of Absence

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    To Sam Gentile: take care.  I hope we’ll see you again.