OV-Ray, an Open Source 3-D rendering package that could compete with the commercial Maya, was mentioned a while back. Some months ago a competition was run which involved POV-Ray artists and a submissions gallery has been put up.

These images serve as excellent wallpapers. Several images are of very high resolution, which works well on dual-head displays.

Might be hard notice that the kitchen is computer-generated
Work by Jaime Vives Piqueres

Scientists in Japan are developing equipment that can enhance human strength. Awkward as it may seem, such developments might have a positive impact. Robotic assistance to one’s muscles means that more elderly and disabled people will walk up the stairs without great difficulties. One the other hand, when power suits like that get misused, they can make us appear like bunch of supermen, powered by batteries. This funny item from the Onion in 2056 comes to mind.

Picture and information from robotory.com.
 
 
 

“Because newer is not always better” is the motto of OldVersions.com. It is apparent that software vendors deny or disguise access to previous versions of their products. That is exactly why OldVersion.com archive previous releases of popular products, much like what the Internet Archive does with the World Wide Web.

Later versions typically become a resource hog and do not suit computers that are not modern. Winamp, for example, has become a heavy media player — a bloat if you like — which will rarely suit a user who only wishes to listen to music within an instance. That is where the potential of software archives practically lies.

ome immensely powerful features will be included in OpenOffice.org version 2. I recently attended a live demonstration; therein it was shown that regular expressions are included in the package, along with other features that make OO.org more attractive than its commercial equivalent — Microsoft Office.

Open Office is composed almost purely of C/C++, which makes it fast. According to one source, Open Office performs better than a recent Office release.

The CPU load when closing and opening Writer (OO.org) and Word (Office)

The BBC runs an interesting article on future potential for ‘teleports’.

…within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic “atoms”…

…You capture it digitally, ship it over across the network, and then reproduce a physical object that looks just like the original object, and moves just like it…

The biggest challenge yet is how to construct objects with ‘nano-dust’. It is a huge barrier to get past and, in the mean time, just the mentioning of teleporting seems laughable.

I have been following the writings of John Dvorak for several months and in his column, he expresses the main difficulty that Microsoft are now facing.

All we hear about Longhorn, though, seems to be about the removal of one promised feature after another…

…These were the fancy file structure, the new presentation manager, and a communications system—things that were going to make the OS a platform for what were described as Service-Oriented Applications (SOA).

Longhorn is often characterised as Service Pack 3 and it can motivate a large proportion of Windows users to seek alternative platforms. One might add the statistic that half of all businesses still use Windows 2000, so can Longhorn give a compelling reason to upgrade? Clearly this will be a serious hurdle to Microsoft.

After Apple’s recent switch to Intel, let us see if Mac OS becomes available to third parties. This can easily balance the cost of hardware with the added value of security.

Longhorn: screenshots of prototypes

Fortune Magazine reports that Michael Dell, who has already become Linux-friendly, is interested in licensing Apple’s Mac OS.

…Dell (the company) has for several years fearlessly—and lucratively—sold servers loaded with Linux, the operating system Microsoft reviles and dreads. And as the industry’s top dog it wields more bargaining power with Microsoft than other PC-makers. So I emailed Michael Dell, now the company’s chairman, and asked if he’d be interested in the Mac OS, assuming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs ever decides to license it to PC companies. (For now, Jobs says he won’t.)