30 years from now?

[dhicks]

I think that the best match up will be a seamless GUI layer tacked into whatever OS that you are running

 

X Windows?

 

If it is specialised then seamless apps will be faster more secure and less irritating as they will not have to deal with the issues caused by code present to deal with 50 billion HTML spec revisions.

 

Has the HTML specification actually been updated since 4.01?

 

the code can be handled by the interpreter as a plugin or directly on the abstraction layer of the OS making it more manageable.

 

I don't see why we need a whole new set of frameworks / languages / etc to handle this. I'd favour an HTML 5 + JavaScript designed for nice client-side user interfaces. Couple that with whatever server-side web-orientated application stack you like, just write your applications so they run on user's machines and synch with the main server when an Internet connection is available. The operating system then becomes simply a web browser (no need even for a desktop, just have a full-screen browser with tabs) and a whole bunch of web frameworks - .NET, Java, LAMP, Python, etc, etc.

 

an easy way to aquire the apps, one click link add off the browser

 

This strikes me as being remarkably like most Linux distribution's graphical package manager - click the application you want to install, done.

 

--

David Hicks

[bizzel]

The dawn of quantum computing - where a PC is at once broken and not broken!

[SYNACK]

X Windows?

 

Possible, with a bit of work. There is still a lot of inertia that is carried by Windows and its UI that would have to be subverted. That and X still required several degrees and a sacrificial goat to get running on multiple moniters the last time I checked.

 

Has the HTML specification actually been updated since 4.01?

Not really but I am including all of the iligitimate children of it like XHTML, DHTML and the other layers that have been piled on over the years.

 

I don't see why we need a whole new set of frameworks / languages / etc to handle this. I'd favour an HTML 5 + JavaScript designed for nice client-side user interfaces. Couple that with whatever server-side web-orientated application stack you like, just write your applications so they run on user's machines and synch with the main server when an Internet connection is available. The operating system then becomes simply a web browser (no need even for a desktop, just have a full-screen browser with tabs) and a whole bunch of web frameworks - .NET, Java, LAMP, Python, etc, etc.

 

The current frameworks could serve but surely it would be more simple and managable to extend the OS a little to support the frameworks rather than expand the browser a vast amount to make it a whole OS. In general most browsers seem to be nasty unstable stacks of different technologies just waiting to fall over. If browsers actually worked properly in the first place the ACID2 test would be unnessisary.

 

Surely it makes more sence to put these apps on the more stable and sencible foundation of the OS rather than the patched together framework of the browser.

 

This strikes me as being remarkably like most Linux distribution's graphical package manager - click the application you want to install, done.

 

You may have misinterpreted me. My thought was more like adding a favorite or shortcut rather than actually installing something.

 

Some package managers do house the installable functionallity quite well but you still end up spending the extra half hour downloading the 650 dependencies that whatever package you pick seems to need. The quality of the prepackaged stuff is also inconsistant, some of it you download and then spend several quality hours with the config file to make it work as you want it to.

[dhicks]

That and X still required several degrees and a sacrificial goat to get running on multiple moniters the last time I checked.

 

Good point - it seems that I am destined to keep on trying, about once a year, to get a Linux distribution working with multiple monitors / workstations. Not a good experience. Takes ages to get the damn goat hair out of the carpet.

 

Not really but I am including all of the iligitimate children of it like XHTML, DHTML and the other layers that have been piled on over the years.

 

I keep on hearing really good things about the latest JavaScript frameworks and runtimes. Admitedly, every time I actually try out a JavaScript framework (Dojo and YUI so far) I haven't been that impressed. Maybe third time lucky with JQuery...

 

The current frameworks could serve but surely it would be more simple and managable to extend the OS a little to support the frameworks rather than expand the browser a vast amount to make it a whole OS.

 

I think we're actually at the stage right now where a web browser is perfectly capable of being the whole GUI you need.

 

Surely it makes more sence to put these apps on the more stable and sencible foundation of the OS rather than the patched together framework of the browser.

 

I'd use the browser as just a GUI. I don't like the sound of the Google Gears approach, where you wind up with yet another browser addon that stores data away in some random database. I'd aim to keep a separation between the browser (GUI) and the backend (whatever web development technology stack you like).

 

My thought was more like adding a favorite or shortcut rather than actually installing something.

 

So instead of going to the package manager to install a piece of software you go to the website? Sounds like an extension that would work a bit like the favourite icon - but instead of downloading a favicon you'd download a package installer. Has the potential to be a bit of a security risk...

 

--

David Hicks

[Andrew_C]

Did anyone read the recent New Scientist article on Chaogates? They are a gate (NAND, NOR etc) that can be reprogrammed on the fly to change their characteristics. ie for one cycle it is a NOR a few nanoseconds later it is a NAND.

 

There is an overhead in controlling them, but they expect an order of magnitude reduction in transistor count in chips. Also aiming to use them in memory.

 

Not only can they change to speed processing, but they could make chips self-healing.

 

Read more here (and no, I don't pretend to understand all of it!)

 

Ditto and his colleagues are stripping down their chaotic circuits to see just how few transistors they can get away with. They calculate that they can reduce the 750 million transistors used in one of the latest graphics processor chips by an order of magnitude. "We might get away with 75 million transistors," he says. This is not just an matter of saving space. Powerful graphics chips consume a large amount of power and throw out heat that has to be removed. Chaogates could reduce power consumption and perhaps eliminate the need for fans to keep these chips from overheating.

Edited November 18, 2008 by Andrew_C

[browolf]

Most plastics are thermosetting and cannot be recycled like thermoplastic can, so it's not just a case of having a good recycling program, as we can for aluminium.

 

 

being able to recycle things we currently can not is just as much a possibility...

[Quackers]

due to petroleum prices and shortages.

 

Petrol Shortages? I think you've been listening to the goverment too much and there excuses on green tax.

 

One of my close friends works for shell and his job is to find new oil deposits in Africa (one of 4 on the team), and he tells me there is enough fuel to last well over another 100 years, and we keep getting told there is only 20, 30 years worth left and its all lies. Now who would you believe the goverment or the people who actually find, refine and sell the stuff?

[localzuk]

Petrol Shortages? I think you've been listening to the goverment too much and there excuses on green tax.

 

One of my close friends works for shell and his job is to find new oil deposits in Africa (one of 4 on the team), and he tells me there is enough fuel to last well over another 100 years, and we keep getting told there is only 20, 30 years worth left and its all lies. Now who would you believe the goverment or the people who actually find, refine and sell the stuff?

 

People independent to fuel companies! Is that guy's estimates based on todays usage figures? Or are they based on the exponential increase in fuel usage that is and has been happening?

[Quackers]

People independent to fuel companies! Is that guy's estimates based on todays usage figures? Or are they based on the exponential increase in fuel usage that is and has been happening?

 

I can get more information out of him, but he's currently on a place back home to the netherlands. I will ask him for more indepth detail.