...more recent posts
I think I mentioned it before, and I doubt I'm alone in this, but in the early '90's (1991?) I read Howard Reingold's Virtual Reality and it really got me thinking. The book was the result of Reingold's travels around the high tech lab circuit looking at some of the cutting edge computer graphics and networking projects that were then underway. Big stuff was in store. Especially concerning 3-d worlds. Everyone had read Neuromancer (and Snowcrash) and all those people were busy at their workstations trying to make these computer generated worlds a reality.
By the late nineties I think everyone had revised their early, and optimistic, estimates. We couldn't even get simple html tags to work cross browser - the idea of complex 3d worlds we could all inhabit seemed more and more difficult to realize. And what's more, I think a lot of people (myself included) started thinking that text (be it email, or icq, or irc, or usenet, or web boards) is really the killer app after all. We just want to communicate, and while a picture may be worth a thousand words, on a 56k dial up, I'll still take the thousand words, thanks.
But maybe the tide is starting to shift back again? The big two (adobe and macromedia, who collectively dominate the web graphics space - sorry gimp) are each about to introduce 3d world building tools for the web. Macromedia's offering is called Tron (great name,) and you can read some advanced gossip about it here. Tron works inside Macromedia's flagship (read: expensive) Director/shockwave studio web authoring tool. Adobe's entry is called atmosphere. I've yet to find any third party (possibly impartial) info on atmosphere, but I think clearly these two products will be in competition. Both are presently in beta.
Frankly, I'm doubtful about 3d on the web, yet surely it will have to happen eventually. I'll be interested to see 3d on line games, or other specialty uses (architecture springs to mind) but I really hope this doesn't turn into a flash type of thing, where every web site throws in some useless 3d bells and whistles. I don't really need to browse Amazon in 3d or anything. Still, like flash, there will be some good uses. Have you checked your DSL order status today?
I think I mentioned it before, and I doubt I'm alone in this, but in the early '90's (1991?) I read Howard Reingold's Virtual Reality and it really got me thinking. The book was the result of Reingold's travels around the high tech lab circuit looking at some of the cutting edge computer graphics and networking projects that were then underway. Big stuff was in store. Especially concerning 3-d worlds. Everyone had read Neuromancer (and Snowcrash) and all those people were busy at their workstations trying to make these computer generated worlds a reality.
By the late nineties I think everyone had revised their early, and optimistic, estimates. We couldn't even get simple html tags to work cross browser - the idea of complex 3d worlds we could all inhabit seemed more and more difficult to realize. And what's more, I think a lot of people (myself included) started thinking that text (be it email, or icq, or irc, or usenet, or web boards) is really the killer app after all. We just want to communicate, and while a picture may be worth a thousand words, on a 56k dial up, I'll still take the thousand words, thanks.
But maybe the tide is starting to shift back again? The big two (adobe and macromedia, who collectively dominate the web graphics space - sorry gimp) are each about to introduce 3d world building tools for the web. Macromedia's offering is called Tron (great name,) and you can read some advanced gossip about it here. Tron works inside Macromedia's flagship (read: expensive) Director/shockwave studio web authoring tool. Adobe's entry is called atmosphere. I've yet to find any third party (possibly impartial) info on atmosphere, but I think clearly these two products will be in competition. Both are presently in beta.
Frankly, I'm doubtful about 3d on the web, yet surely it will have to happen eventually. I'll be interested to see 3d on line games, or other specialty uses (architecture springs to mind) but I really hope this doesn't turn into a flash type of thing, where every web site throws in some useless 3d bells and whistles. I don't really need to browse Amazon in 3d or anything. Still, like flash, there will be some good uses. Have you checked your DSL order status today?
Amazing dinner last night. Great time. I mean except that I stole a few minutes away from the table to preview the new site on my host's IE/Windows machine. And as one might guess, it didn't work at all. Every page 404'd, and not with my '404 document not found' page, but with a 404 page generated internally by IE. Huh? I managed not to start crying, but just barely. Anyway, I spent a few hours combing the message boards at phpbuilder this morning and I found the fix. As crushed as I was last night, now I am equally, and oppositely, charged. Problem; solution. Problem; solution. Down; up. You could get hooked on this ride.
And while the kind of project I am working on has about as much to do with real serious programming as (insert two things here that don't have anything to do with each other) I still found it interesting that David McCusker made a comment yesterday on the same topic I had just written about: programming and sleep. He said,
"I don't know if you've ever had the experience of designing code when you're trying to go to sleep; I don't recommend it very much. It's like telling yourself to turn out the lights, and some other voice answers, uh sure, right after I work out a bit more of this.";-)
Amazing dinner last night. Great time. I mean except that I stole a few minutes away from the table to preview the new site on my host's IE/Windows machine. And as one might guess, it didn't work at all. Every page 404'd, and not with my '404 document not found' page, but with a 404 page generated internally by IE. Huh? I managed not to start crying, but just barely. Anyway, I spent a few hours combing the message boards at phpbuilder this morning and I found the fix. As crushed as I was last night, now I am equally, and oppositely, charged. Problem; solution. Problem; solution. Down; up. You could get hooked on this ride.
And while the kind of project I am working on has about as much to do with real serious programming as (insert two things here that don't have anything to do with each other) I still found it interesting that David McCusker made a comment yesterday on the same topic I had just written about: programming and sleep. He said,
"I don't know if you've ever had the experience of designing code when you're trying to go to sleep; I don't recommend it very much. It's like telling yourself to turn out the lights, and some other voice answers, uh sure, right after I work out a bit more of this.";-)
Chapter 6 of the new O'Reilly peer to peer book is on line. This chapter is written by Jeremie Miller, of Jabber. All the buzzwords in this one, but if you're curious about jabber and other "conversational technologies" this is a good overview.
Chapter 6 of the new O'Reilly peer to peer book is on line. This chapter is written by Jeremie Miller, of Jabber. All the buzzwords in this one, but if you're curious about jabber and other "conversational technologies" this is a good overview.
Well, that was a long week. A few more coming up. Fun times. I'm very anxious to get this site switched over to the new system software, but that is going to take a back seat to getting that same software running in a more business like context. We'll see if this is possible or not. As I was telling Alex and Bill this week: I don't know if my plan will work or not, but at least I have some sort of definite plan now, and that seems, for me, like a good place to be. I'm still having a little bit of trouble sleeping, but again this isn't a huge problem, as I seem to get some O.K. work done late at night. Today I have a chance at finishing up the commenting system which is the last module necessary for the first release (of the fully operational death star... er, I mean web application.) Perhaps it will take a few more days though. All next week is devoted to the first outside implementation of the system, but I'd like to get this site switched over because that helps me test the whole thing for robustness. Maybe I'll get lucky and everything will go well. Blah blah blah, or in other words, I don't have much to write about these days because my head has been sort of down. I think maybe three weeks or so and then I can look up and reassess.
Well, that was a long week. A few more coming up. Fun times. I'm very anxious to get this site switched over to the new system software, but that is going to take a back seat to getting that same software running in a more business like context. We'll see if this is possible or not. As I was telling Alex and Bill this week: I don't know if my plan will work or not, but at least I have some sort of definite plan now, and that seems, for me, like a good place to be. I'm still having a little bit of trouble sleeping, but again this isn't a huge problem, as I seem to get some O.K. work done late at night. Today I have a chance at finishing up the commenting system which is the last module necessary for the first release (of the fully operational death star... er, I mean web application.) Perhaps it will take a few more days though. All next week is devoted to the first outside implementation of the system, but I'd like to get this site switched over because that helps me test the whole thing for robustness. Maybe I'll get lucky and everything will go well. Blah blah blah, or in other words, I don't have much to write about these days because my head has been sort of down. I think maybe three weeks or so and then I can look up and reassess.
My ISP was down from 1:00 am yesterday until 6:00 pm. That seemed like a very long outage. Good to be back. Everything is moving forward.
My ISP was down from 1:00 am yesterday until 6:00 pm. That seemed like a very long outage. Good to be back. Everything is moving forward.