World: r3wp

hmm, and the situation with ARM family is becoming better and better 
- Marvell releases new CPU - 200mil triangles = 3D FullHD (two simultaneous 
FullHD streams) ....


http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/marvell-unveils-1-5ghz-triple-core-application-processor-all-cu/


We should get ourselves to ARM, it starts to be powerfull enough 
for even higher-end devices, not just cell-phones :-) And Amiga should 
finally abandon PPC too. If they fear x86 as being a general CPU, 
fearing users using Windows (totally stupid argument btw), they should 
go ARM too :-)

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_40/b4197040487856.htm


HP is giving away a free Android tablet which is also used to control 
the printer you buy to get the "freebie"

HP and Android? I would expect WebOS :-)

This is a pre webos product http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-hps-photosmart-estation-printer-and-its-detachable-android-tablet-video

http://www.osnews.com/story/23832/HP_Slate_vs_Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_or_Why_HP_Bought_Palm_

So far it seems to me, that Samsung Galaxy tab is the only real competition 
to iPad ...

iPad seems to be consumer device ...

so, maybe there's a conflict in being able to design a very easy 
to use consumer device that also allows one to create content just 
as easily

Seagate release their hybrid SSD/hard drive for laptops http://www.seagate-space.com/issue_6/anz/downloads/sea_momentus_xt.pdf

software monitors which files are being used frequently and shifts 
it to the SSD

Just what I need for those long encap cycles I go thru

http://www.shweeb.com/index.php?m=vision


safe cycling as a modern form of transportation ... just got over 
$1M from google ....

Can't see it addressing those steep hills I go down to work and back.

Thanks for posting those Graham.

Virus/worm crashes Virgin Blue stranding passengers in Australia 
and NZ http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/australia/4170278/Virgin-Blue-passengers-stranded


No, they don't mention it was a worm, but they did on the TV broadcast 
I was watching just now.

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/09/blackberry-playbook/

Blackberry playbook using QNX as their OS

Rebol anyone?

wonder if it can run Amiga ?

James Heselden, owner of the company that makes the Segway, died 
Sunday morning... by driving a Segway off a cliff and into a river.

I find it strange that it took until now for someone to use QNX on 
a smartphone type mobile device.

(I know blackberry owns QNX)

the question is whether it will be relevant

Its probably a better device than the ipad, in all aspects.  I've 
used ribbon interfaces in some softwares and their use is very smooth. 
 

Our brain immediately uses positional memory, and even if we don't 
see things... we easily remember where they are (right of, left of).


QNX is probably the best OS out there, from the kernel point of view, 
at least. 


I can't see it being irrelevant.  If anything, the fact that they 
beat all the PC manufacturers is nice and, also, their high rating 
in the commercial area, means most business people will relate to 
it much better than the ipad.


For one thing, Black berry (at least try to) address the issues that 
businessmen need.

but the name is strange.  its like if they are trying to play both 
sides...   play pad... but its for professionals....   sounds like 
a mixed message.


i'd have called it something related to work... something like the 
  "Slave Pad"  ;-)>

They could call it BlackPad.

yes.... that is what they should have used... that is really sexy... 
but mabe all the names they wanted where already registered... its 
becoming harder and harder to get trademarks...  many posers in the 
list.

black pad may sound a bit like black panther. :-)

or black magic  ;-)

but yeah... it would have been a nice publicity stunt.. hehe

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Black-Panther-Party-armed-guards-in-street-shotguns.jpg

hehe

does rebol run on QNX? (if there is qnx behind it) ... did anyone 
look at the terms of use (any weirdo restrictions like iDevices)?

Yes, there is a version of Rebol for Qnx

is there such a thing ?  v1 ?

qnx itself is quite open to anyone.

not too old ... core 2.5 http://www.rebol.com/release-archive.html

The playpad may have its own conditions... though I'd say that right 
now, anyone getting a pad out will try to prevent the apple TOS errors.

http://www.luxology.com/tv/training/view.aspx?id=536

Very interesting talk about the state of GPU raytracing

GPU rendering has been used for production since Pixar's CArs... 
I've seen real-time manipulation of one of the shots ... it was impressive... 
it had caustics, refraction, reflections, all the stuff.  was running 
at full HD.


the only noticeable artifacts, where slightly lower polygon counts, 
slight transparency artifacts (hardware depth is aproximated, never 
subpixel) and some edge alliasing.


IIRC the actual color precision of images was within 10% of actual 
rendered final passes which took several hours per frame on the CPU. 
 so the animators could actually use the reflections and general 
look of the shot right away.

all they did was add a hook for nvidia's GPU 3d lib in their current 
shaders and used renderman interactively.

though in the movie, they do add many passes and compositing (which 
is where all those hours per frame come from)

Max, did you watch the video Henrik linked? It didn't look to me 
like the GPU did that great a job - at least it didn't look to be 
a general purpose solution to getting performance.

it's not like Luxology, and the other industry players, didn't wish 
for a magic bullet solution, but according to this guy and the state 
of the art he saw at Siggraph, it doesn't look like the GPU, by itself, 
is it

Yeah.. I know its strange... but it does try to use the most advanced 
lighting techniques too.  in cars they didn't have such high requirements. 
 so I guess its a question of what you are actually rendering... 
which is what he basically says.


also, pixar was embedding GPU calls within their normal software 
stack, so its possible they where using both the CPU and the GPU 
for different tasks, concurrently.  for things like moving points, 
the GPU is very fast.

I actually saw this on a screen within a visualizer, and it was amazing.

I was a bit surprised by the video, but that was due to my lack of 
knowledge on raytracing and how complex shaders can be, so this could 
mean many-core CPUs like the Larrabee could still be a valid for 
use in heavy 3D rendering.

yeah, I was pretty surprised too - from the general impression I 
had gotten over the last few years following the subject peripherally, 
I was expecting very significant gains

well, maybe with the new trend of combined CPU+GPU on a chip (both 
AMD/ATI and Intel), performance should still improve significantly 
because GPU functionality will be so close to the CPU cores

though I think that that trend may be due to wanting to provide an 
all-in-one solution rather than increasing performance

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