A fellow Self enthusiast from France expressed interest in Cel, the prototype-based OO language I created a few years back. I believe he is interested in making a language himself. The web site has been down for years so I promised that I would get it online this weekend.
So, here it is
I don’t intend to spend much time on the language, I’m don’t have the language bug right now. However, it might get a few bug fixes or updates.
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C O R V U S S Y S T E M S
* CONSTELLATION II
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I read this blog post about a symbolics Lisp Machine and couldn’t help but smile
Today, I was thinking about the whole Apple iPhone announcment. They mention OS X and that is all well and good. However, I definitely think the iPhone will be a closed system rather than an open one like the desktop.
Why?
Because it is part iPod… and the iPod is a closed system.
If they open that system up, they essentially open up the iPod to DRM attack.
At some point, they might allow their widgets to run on the device, but imagine the controls on their distribution will be tight.
If we look at the big picture, this is just more growth in the closed platform camp. Developers may whine about this, but I don’t think users will care as much. They will keep buying the devices and enjoying the simplicity that you receive when you buy a completely integrated system.
Last year, Goldman Sachs pulled distillates from their commodities index. This was prior to the elections. This caused lots of other funds to unload their positions in those stocks and started accelerated a big drop in gas prices. This wasn’t picked up by the press when it happened. However, some of the skeptics out there questioned the connection of Hank Paulson, CEO of Goldman, and his new position as Secretary of the Treasury.
Well, as Yogi says, “It’s like Deja Vu all over again.”, except the press picked up on this. Goldman just pulled oil way down in their commodities index. Again, the price of oil drops. The skeptics are calling the connection an attack on Iraq and Venezuela. In fact, some recent press had the headline, “US trying to strangle Iran Economically”. Crazy stuff.
The bottom line: keep an eye on GS. They know whats going on as well as drive the markets.
The Wall Street Journal front page has this to say about the recent “surge”:
Bush aides met outrage in pushing an Iraq “surge” on Capitol Hill.
Rice was told by Republican Sen. Hagel that the president’s decision to send more troops at this juncture is the worst foreign policy blunder since Vietnam, and other Foreign Relations panel criticisms were just as pungent.
I was lured by a popular link on Digg to check out this movie that was completely done on a Macintosh ][ back in the day. The movie is reminiscent of the kind of CG from that period (fun, simple and colorful). Interesting thing about that movie. If you look at the credits, some of those people are now very well off (founders of companies or famous Apple people. Even Al Kossow is listed in there as the RenderMeister.)
Of course, after watching the movie, the recomended clip on the right was the original 1984 Macintosh introduction. What an amazing intro.
Enough talk, here are the links:
When you are in the internet business, you need internet tools. Pretty obvious right? However, when the discussion is between tech people on different platforms (Win/IE, Mac/Safari, Opera), they all have their favorite browser. In my mind this argument is over.
A great way to communicate this is to look at the graphics design world. No matter what people say, the designers always end up getting a copy of photoshop. It is the 800lb gorilla in that space. Everybody who does design work pretty much uses photoshop on a daily basis. I think even tech people get this at this point. Its a great tool for the job, and an amazing tool for the experienced user. People may still argue about the platform, but they don’t argue about Photoshop.
Now, if you focus on the people that actually work in the web industry, there still seems to be a bit of religion. This is strange to me since it is obvious how much better Firefox is. Just get a demo of the great tools and extensions that work with it. It is miles above every other browser. (This is easy to test, just run Firefox and the Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug. Explore those tools for the next hour. You’ll get it…There are no equivalents for any other browser.)
I think its time for a new meme about this. The web-dev techs should start saying, ‘hey, this Firefox thing… its kinda like the photoshop of the web’. I think this would get people to adjust their perspective and agree that this is the right tool no matter which platform. It would take Firefox to the next level.
(p.s. Sure, you should still test on IE and Safari. You just should develop on them.)