The ad network company RevShock created Smokescreen, an open source product that converts Flash to HTML5 & Javascript. While mainly designed for ads, not fully conformant, and lacking in performance for the higher-end flash applications, it solves a lot of problems.
I doubt they'll ever reach full conformance, but it is interesting, and I guess Flash will -for banner ads and other simple applications- just be a great front-end to it.
Smokescreen?
6/7/10
Who Needs More Than 640kB?
I am thinking about bit representations in my compiler, and I wonder about the x86-64 bit model. Most modern desktops have about 4-16GB memory, I think. A byte is 8 bits, therefore encoding one out of 28 values. A kilobyte is 10241 = 210 bytes, a megabyte is 10242 = 220 bytes, a gigabyte is 10243 = 230 bytes. At least according to binary number interpretation, your local vendor may disagree.
Now, in a 32 bit address space, you can index 232 bytes, or 22 x 230, is 4GB of data. Thing is, for desktop models, we are somewhat at the end of what we need for memory. The 64 bit encoding generates pretty fat binaries, and I am really clueless where all the memory goes. At the other end, the computer word to address space ratio is ridiculous at the moment. Why do we address individual bytes on a 64 bit address space machine? It is just as ridiculous as being able to address individual bits on a 64kB machine.
In my opinion, they shouldn't have doubled the address space, but they should have quadrupled the word size first.
On a 32 bit machine with 32 bit words, you can have 16GB of byte data which is just enough for current standards. My best guess is they didn't want to because the C language, in which most operating systems are written, just assumes characters are 8 bits wide, and because high-end systems will want more addressable space. But still, 32 bit words are a good choice, and in the Internet era it makes sense to standardize on 32 bit wide characters and just bit pack older data.
Then again, who cares about 2 bits when you got 64 of em?
Now, in a 32 bit address space, you can index 232 bytes, or 22 x 230, is 4GB of data. Thing is, for desktop models, we are somewhat at the end of what we need for memory. The 64 bit encoding generates pretty fat binaries, and I am really clueless where all the memory goes. At the other end, the computer word to address space ratio is ridiculous at the moment. Why do we address individual bytes on a 64 bit address space machine? It is just as ridiculous as being able to address individual bits on a 64kB machine.
In my opinion, they shouldn't have doubled the address space, but they should have quadrupled the word size first.
On a 32 bit machine with 32 bit words, you can have 16GB of byte data which is just enough for current standards. My best guess is they didn't want to because the C language, in which most operating systems are written, just assumes characters are 8 bits wide, and because high-end systems will want more addressable space. But still, 32 bit words are a good choice, and in the Internet era it makes sense to standardize on 32 bit wide characters and just bit pack older data.
Then again, who cares about 2 bits when you got 64 of em?
6/6/10
Silent Killers
From Slashdot.
As someone with bipolar disorder all I can say to you is "fuck you".
Diagnosis and treatment has allowed me to become a fully-functioning member of society rather than a burden on society and everyone around me. Absent medication and psychotherapy, I'm at the mercy of horrible mood swings and psychosis. My parents listened to a quack of a child psychologist who felt that diagnosing and "labelling" a 10-year old was more damaging than any disorder that might be present. The result of that was a slow decline into madness, and as an adult, I was too sick to seek treatment on my own, and not sick enough for involuntary commitment. I was finally diagnosed at 41 years old as a result of some circumstances that I don't care to share with someone like you. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose half your life to untreated mental illness?
Treatment probably saved my life - and there is no treatment without diagnosis and as you put it, "labelling". The suicide rates for persons with bipolar disorder are truly staggering - and those who don't take their own lives frequently have abbreviated lives due to irrational choices made as a result of the disorder.
"Trying harder" hardly factors into it when you're at the mercy of a very real and debilitating disorder.
Try a little empathy, fuckwit.
It's back, again...
5/12/10
Of Brain and Bone: The Unusual Case of Dr. A
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a clinical syndrome characterized by progressive decline in social conduct and a focal pattern of frontal and temporal lobe damage. Its biological basis is still poorly understood but the focality of the brain degeneration provides a powerful model to study the cognitive and anatomical basis of social cognition. Here, we present Dr. A, a patient with a rare hereditary bone disease [HME] (hereditary multiple exostoses) and FTD (pathologically characterized as Pick's disease), who presented with a profound behavioral disturbance characterized by acquired sociopathy. We conducted a detailed genetic, pathological, neuroimaging and cognitive study, including a battery of tests designed to investigate Dr. A's abilities to understand emotional cues and to infer mental states and intentions to others (theory of mind). Dr. A's genetic profile suggests the possibility that a mutation causing hereditary multiple exostoses, Ext2, may play a role in the pattern of neurodegeneration in frontotemporal dementia since knockout mice deficient in the Ext gene family member, Ext1, show severe CNS defects including loss of olfactory bulbs and abnormally small cerebral cortex. Dr. A showed significant impairment in emotion comprehension, second order theory of mind, attribution of intentions, and empathy despite preserved general cognitive abilities. Voxel-based morphometry on structural MRI images showed significant atrophy in the medial and right orbital frontal and anterior temporal regions with sparing of dorsolateral frontal cortex. This case demonstrates that social and emotional dysfunction in FTD can be dissociated from preserved performance on classic executive functioning tasks. The specific pattern of anatomical damage shown by VBM emphasizes the importance of the network including the superior medial frontal gyrus as well as temporal polar areas, in regulation of social cognition and theory of mind. This case provides new evidence regarding the neural basis of social cognition and suggests a possible genetic link between bone disease and FTD.
Great. Since taking the Effexor and the subsequent symptoms relate to acquired schizophrenia through neurodegeneration, I may have ended up with something akin to FTD, and got only ten years to live? Hmm, doesn't fit anyway.
Ah well.
4/6/10
Ursula Rucker - Humbled
Going through some old music again. The latest Gil album remembered me of 4hero, but mostly because of their cooperation with Ursula Rucker a semi well-known US poet often performing in hiphop, dance and ambient music. Most of 4hero is great music, but nobody really convinced me so far that nailing the largest number of jazz progressions to the nanosecond is actual music, and, yeah, trumpets and strings? Anyway, that's her, she has a new album out too.
Love the voice, love the poetry, love the expression, love the face, love it all.
4/5/10
Gil Scott-Heron - "Me And The Devil"
From the album "I'm new here." Mostly poetry slam blues meets 303/808 based dubtech, I liked the syncoped newtech Zydeco, but in the end, one great voice.
Contemporary East River bikeway blues.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
