potd

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=348073

Sorry, too busy to do anything, but post it.

potd, article thing

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3538&page=

Kinda busy...

potd

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=350516
Hmm, interesting.

This guy look freindly?

potd: Pluto Software RPG status

Matthew asked me to fill in for him!

This is a generic human being used as a low-detail human. Feedback wanted, as this is my first "real" human!

potd

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=234681

too busy to comment.

potd

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=234681

too busy to comment.

potd

go scifi!

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=272597

Yeah, pretty cool. The buildings need variety.

Technology: Sun Microsystems vs. Microsoft

January 23, 2001: Microsoft agrees to settle a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems over the JAVA COMPATIBLE issue. The reason for the lawsuit lies in the introduction of Java in 1996. The basis of Java was to introduce a method of introducing interactive, live, content into a web page with more flexibility then what is supplied in languages such as JavaScript. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons it could not be embedded deeply into any one operating system. Microsoft then, illegally, created their own version of Java to be included with Windows that had enhanced features set deeply inside of the Windows architecture. This created a security risk, but more importantly, it was a blatant software patent infringement. Microsoft would later pay the price in $20,000,000 and loss of legal freedom to sell and support some products.

December 15, 2003: Support is suspended for 25~ Microsoft Products, including Windows 98 (excluding SE) most Office 2000 products, SQL server 3, and service pack 3 of SQL server 3.

Author's note: Yes, I know that this is old news, but I thought it might be kind of nice to write a short article on it. Don't expect all my work to be of this low, low grade.

Nature

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=348230

Cool nature scene.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3471754#post3471754

Nice landscape, some inconsistances with the lighting however.

Those flying things look right out of Da Vinci?

PoTD

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=52335

Not much to say.

Horns a bit big?

Video PoTD

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=347045

Funny annoying creature, apperently a commercial for a cell phone company.

Would you like this thing as a pet?

PoTD + Announcement

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3461282#post3461282
Very cool, nice details on the skulls and everything. 3d artists can be so evil.

How many people do you think died in this duengeon?

Chapter meeting tonight at Roseville library. No public access computers. I won't be there. Happy chatting.

PoTD

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=346253

Wow, the effect of the picture is very unique. This is one of those pictures that avoids photo-realism and achives a sort of atmosphere instead. Very cool.

Isn't the composition great?

Technology: Lucent vs. Microsoft

Just last month (March), a lawsuit was filed against Microsoft by Lucent,
a telecommunications company. The lawsuit is over the MPEG-2 digital video compression algorithms used in DVD playback. The company has previously sued Dell and several other companies, but has always lost due to a technical loophole. Now that Lucent has patched up the patent, several questions hang around: How strong is the case, and if Lucent wins, what will it mean for Microsoft and the open source community?

The case is over patent number 5,227,878, (called Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video) given to Lucent in 1993. The demand is that Microsoft pays for as-of-yet unreleased damages, and removes all Xbox 360 units from sales world-wide. If this lawsuit passes, the soonest that it would be enacted would be about two years from now, past the product maturity point. The U.S. Patent Office does indeed have this compression patent registered to Lucent. If, in fact, Lucent does have a patent on the exact method used in the Xbox 360, this could cause trouble for not only Microsoft, but also for the open source community.

To Microsoft, the issue isn't the lawsuit money, but the loss of legal ability to sell the Xbox 360. It has been sued before by large companies, such as Sun Microsystems, without a huge dent in funds. However, the Xbox 360 is a large product for Microsoft, and the loss of ability to sell units would come as a huge blow to them, in both sales and credibility. Doubtless, they would re-release it without the MPEG-2 compression system, but in doing so they would lose the capability to play DVDs and have high-quality cinematic movie compression, both star features in any game console system. This pause in Microsoft's war machine could allow competitors such as Sony to pull ahead. But Microsoft has huge funds, and although this loss would be one of their biggest, they would still survive and thrive. But how would this effect the open-source Linux community? We shall cover this problem next.

The Linux community has had copyright problems recently, due to popular proprietary formats such as mp3 and DVD encryption. How severe would this blow be to them? My guess is that it would hurt the short term popularity of Linux, as MPEG-2 is an integral portion of any form of the already patent-encumbered DVD playback. However, beyond this problem, it would have little effect because DVD is really the only usage of the MPEG-2 algorithm. Even now, DVD is losing it's edge as competing technology gears up, such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. These will probably use a different compression algorithm, thus rendering the lawsuit moot in the long run.

More info:
Lucent Patent (103)
zdnet news
digital Lifestyle

Art Journal

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=345613

Strange.

Would you like a factory like this?

Daily News #1

*************PoTD**************
PoTD

********Commment*************
Architectural 3D works never cease to amase me. This particular one approaches photo realism only off by little details.

********Question*****************
Would you live in a house like this?

***********NetHack**************
Lilik killed by wand of zapping
Esillisar killed gnome while helpless
RNG killed by spiked pit

Rather nad day for my characters despite the full moon.


**********Life*********************
Blog