February 04, 2007
WANTED: roller skating crocodile
The other day I needed to reference that VRML roller skating crocodile that Protozoa, the SF web3D company, made around 1996. They produced the Floops series for SGI - a valiant attempt at establishing the webisode format years ahead of a market.
It's a real shame that so much of the early Web has vanished. Protozoa died a dotcom death but produced some inspiring work within the technical limitations of the day. The roller skating crocodile is one particular memory playing on a slick new machine - after opening six or seven browser windows containing dancing crocodiles and it
brought Windows NT crashing down in a heap!
Just over ten years later, and there is barely a trace of Protozoa's work online. And no crocodile... {:-(
One of the few archives I could find has most of the Floops series below, but does anyone got a link to a croc for this file hoarder?
January 31, 2007
del.icio.us
Good overview of why Joshua Schachter's del.icio.us is so interesting and so relevent to what is going on right now. There's no point in being part of an online community if it's not valuable to you...
Microsoft Vista - massive disappointment?
Will 2007 be the year of one step forward, two steps back? After the resurgence in awareness of environmental issues it would appear that one of the most influential companies in the world is about to sweep the issues under the carpet once again.
I haven't verified all the information in this Green Party blurb but the monopolistic behavior attributed to Microsoft in this article sounds like business as usual and incredibly destructive. No matter how many billions Bill gives to charity this is really going to stink. As the article points out, this is really just pandering to the ignorance rife in the media sector about DRM. I doubt very much that hardware "lock down" will prove much of an obstacle to hackers. On the day before it is launched, Microsoft Vista sounds like it is already obsolete and set to become a right pain in the planet.
