Category Technology

Shuttleworth's Interview at Open Season

There is a very interesting interview with Mark Shuttleworth, the guy that started and funds Ubuntu development through his company, Canonical. The interview is interesting for several reasons: First it exposes what many linux users don't get: compiz fusion and the eyecandy is nothing but the icing on the (missing) cake. There needs to be additional effort to turn all this amazing technology into coherent, useful software. Second, it demonstrates some of the issues behind Open Source development and some ways that they can be resolved. Finally, it covers the major problems facing OpenOffice.org, tries to explain why they're there and takes a look at the rest of the industry and its relations to Ubuntu and linux. Worth listening.

Downloadable fonts and CSS

One of the main gripes of designers and users alike about the Web is its inherent dependence on the few, largely mediocre (e.g. Trebuchet, Times New Roman, Courier New) or poor (Arial, Comic Sans, Verdana etc.) fonts that Microsoft commissioned or designed more than a decade ago. This year CSS turns ten and along with it comes yet another proposal on the Web's Typographic liberation. Or sort of. This time it might work, although scores of technical and legal questions remain. A List Apart has the details.

No Really. It's up to you

Checkmate from Radiohead. One of the bands with the highest artistic integrity from the early 1990s to date, redefine music distribution by offering their new album In Rainbows on their site at a price specified by the buyer, ala Magnatune. No Really. Radiohead Rock!

Guitar Rig 3 is out!

Guitar Rig 3New amps, new effects, new presets and some new features. Woot! If this is anything like the upgrade from version 1 to 2 then we're in for a rockin' upgrade. :) The order has been placed (the 'software edition' obviously as the new Kontrol is somewhat pointless if you have the previous version). A review is forthcoming, when I get some free time that is...

National Broadband Strategy

Or how to say 'Market Failure' loudly. The FCC is waking up to the fact that the US lacks both the infrastructure and the mechanisms that would allow for its development and keep the country ahead (or even on par) with the rest of the world. Hopefully the realisation will translate to practical incentives to telcos and ISPs and regulations that would liberate the market from the ruling oligopoly and spur competition as well as a comprehensive benchmark that will guide the market towards some reference point. Alternatively, the temporary euphoria of WiMAX induced activity of the near future will probably mask the deep and basic problems with telecommunications in that country.

The Era of Cheap Pixels

Just a few weeks after Tiger was announced in 2004, I was chatting with a friend about how I thought Core Image could revolutionise the bitmap editing capabilities of applications on Mac OS X and, of course, how this would translate into an abundance of competitive image manipulation/editing applications making use of Apple’s optimised routines, […]

Amazonmp3

The first fully DRM-less music store is here, offering 'over 2 million songs' by EMI and Universal encoded in 256kbit mp3s --- the largest unencrypted music downloads offering to date. Although the service is currently in beta, I have a feeling this is going to usher a new era in music downloads and spur competition. Let's hope more record labels align themselves behind either Amazon's or Apple's store. What's sad, although completely understandable given the very low proliferation of capable devices, is that tracks are using the ageing mp3 format instead of newer and higher quality codecs, such as AAC. Maybe in the future I guess.

Multinational companies [..] now know that the EU will take a much harder line when it comes to competition.

And that seems to frustrate the Department of Justice Corporate Pampering. Reading the DoJ statements about the EUs treatment of Microsoft and how it 'may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition' makes me wonder whether it is referring to the same case, the same software, the same company and the same planet or whether they've been smoking the corporate crack pipe for far too long. Microsoft's dominance of the market has anything but helped competition and innovation over its twenty year reign of the industry. But then again, these are the same people that found Microsoft guilty seemingly only because the evidence was overwhelmingly against it, but then decided to do nothing about it. Kroes is absolutely right to express her frustration about the DoJ's public criticism on the EU's policy; it's none of their business and definitely not within their jurisdiction.

Who needs actors anymore?

I really have no words for this. One of the most impressive videos on computer graphics I've seen in years. And I guess the guys and gals at Tübingen are not the only ones working on such models. Let the good times films roll.

Νεο ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ Google Gadget.

Καιρός για μερικά νεα σχετικά με το ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ. Με το τέλος του καλοκαιριού και την επιστροφή στα γραφεία, σπίτια κλπ. καθώς και την σύντομη προεκλογική περίοδο, η κίνηση στο ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ έχει αυξηθεί σημαντικά. Αντίστοιχα όμως έχουν αυξηθεί και τα blogs και τη περασμένη εβδομάδα ξεπεράσαμε τα 20,000. Μέχρι σήμερα υπήρχαν δυο βασικοί τρόποι αναζήτησης των ελληνικών blogs μέσω του ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ. Η επίσκεψη στην ιστοσελίδα και η χρήση του ΟpenSearch plugin για όσους χρησιμοποιουν Firefox 2.x ή Ιnternet Explorer 7. Από σήμερα υπάρχει και ένας τρίτος: Για όσους από εσάς χρησιμοποιείτε το iGoogle, τη προσωπική σελίδα που προσφέρει το Google σε όλους τους χρήστες του, δημιουργήθηκε ένα gadget που σας επιτρέπει να πραγματοποιείτε τις αναζητήσεις σας στο ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ μέσω αυτής. Για να το προσθέσετε στη iGoogle σελίδα σας, επισκεφθείτε το ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ, επιλέξτε την σχετική επιλογή 'Add to Google' και στη συνέχεια επιβεβαιώστε την επιλογή σας. Την επόμενη φορά που θα βρεθείτε στην προσωπική σας σελίδα iGoogle το gadget του ΜΠΛΟΟΓΚΛ θα είναι ήδη εκεί. Καλές αναζητήσεις!