SABS Files Official Complaint About OOXML Approval Process
The South African national standards body has become the first to file a complaint with ISO about the fast-tracked OOXML voting process, despite numerous outstanding issues. This is obviously great news and hopefully more will follow.
South Africa launches formal objection at OOXML | The Register
Epson Stylus Photo R2880
The A3 prosumer photo printer I've been waiting for is officially on its way - the Epson Stylus Photo R2880. But, annoyingly, the press release fails to mention anything about addressing its predecessor's main drawback of being unable to carry glossy and matt black inks at the same time (mandating expensive flushing every time you change paper types). Argh...
Update: The printer does indeed still require you to flush expensive ink every time you swap blacks. On the positive side it sounds like this may be the best prosumer photo printer yet: Photo-i.co.uk review. With several baryta papers available for inkjets, maybe matt black vs photo black simply isn't an issue anymore?
sudo read this article
Cool article about xkcd in the New York Times: This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix.
Donald Knuth Interview
I came across this fascinating Donald Knuth interview via Artima. A couple of snippets to pique your interest, one on the subject of open source software:
[...] I think that a few programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, will always be superior to competitors like the Gimp—for some reason, I really don’t know why! I’m quite willing to pay good money for really good software [...]
And his opinon of reuse, with which I wholeheartedly agree:
I also must confess to a strong bias against the fashion for reusable code. To me, "re-editable code" is much, much better than an untouchable black box or toolkit. I could go on and on about this. If you’re totally convinced that reusable code is wonderful, I probably won’t be able to sway you anyway, but you’ll never convince me that reusable code isn’t mostly a menace.
Other interesting topics he touches on include multi-core processor architectures and XP. Happy reading!
Fresh Xbox 360 Blu-ray Rumors
Various news sites have been reporting on new information about a possible Blu-ray console from Microsoft. Quote from Tom's Hardware (my emphasis):
The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s.
Many expected the death of HD-DVD would trigger a growth in Blu-ray hardware sales. However, to the dismay of the industry, acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray has been dismal.
In a previous post I speculated that it is unlikely for the Xbox to get a Blu-ray add-on. But the recent spike in PS3 sales might have convinced Microsoft to update their optical drives.
The trouble with Blu-ray right now is that it is still of marginal benefit to the majority of consumers out there, thus prices of both hardware and software (well, physical media really) will remain high for some time. The only serious buyers right now are the home theater enthusiasts and Microsoft will have to address quite a few issues to please this group of people.
The biggest issue with the current Xbox 360 in the context of home theater is the amount of noise generated. A transition to a newer chip fabrication process could do a lot to reduce the need for active cooling; a potential Blu-ray transport mechanism would also have to be quieter than the current DVD drives. Another issue I see with the HT crowd is the Xbox remote - it is nowhere near as slick as the Sony Blu-ray remote. And that's before we even consider the substantially bigger pull of the Sony brand when it comes to home electronics.
It remains to be seen whether the entire range will be updated or if only a high-end model will get the Blu-ray treatment. Xbox 360 games are released on regular DVD, so I suspect Microsoft will want to keep their price advantage at the low end and stick to DVD drives for the Arcade/Core consoles.
The big question, is are there enough HD afficionados out there who have been holding out for a Blu-ray Xbox that don't already have a PS3? (Or at least would be keen to trade their existing 360 for a Blu-ray model?)
Update: Taiwanese trade press reports on an updated 65nm Xbox GPU being manufactured on behalf of Microsoft. With last year's 65nm CPU revision, this should finally make the Xbox 360 a cooler (and hopefully quieter) beast.