Read Part One if you haven't. So with a little SDL graphics knowledge under my belt, I decided that I would set out to actually implement the old BGI library using SDL. That is, I wanted to use the same game code for Ten Nights but instead of linking to obsolete Borland libraries that would no longer work in Windows-based system, I wanted to link to my own library that would look the same (from the game's perspective), yet work in Windows via SDL. Read the rest of this entry ...
Today Google releases a Beta Instant Messaging and VoIP client called Google Talk. I personally haven't used other VoIP tools like Skype and standard IM clients like MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Chat have taken a backseat for me since I use my web-based home-brewed IM client (equipped with thick tin-foil hat), but I'll probably check this out when I get home tonight...
On a sidenote, this article exemplifies some of the things I hate about marketing-speak. Witness the terms "pull a google" and "google-fy".
Via Opera Watch. Opera is set to make an announcement regarding changes to its desktop browser revenue model. Most speculate that Opera will finally remove its ads in the free version of the browser to put it on the same playing ground as Mozilla Firefox. This is something Opera should have done a long time ago while at the same time charging for its mobile browser and expanding its product portfolio (possibly moving into the content generation space?). Trying to make a successful company based on desktop browser revenues when there are free alternatives out there for every single operating system is just insane, I'm surprised they've been able to do it.
The announcement will undoubtedly coincide with Opera's Virtual Party on Aug. 30th celebrating its 10-year anniversary where a "HUGE surprise" will be unveiled.
Via the svg-developers mailing list, the following report on the SVG Open 2005 conference has been written.
If you've been reading this blog at all, you know how geeked I am about vector graphics. SVG seems to be a promising technology that will open the web and desktop to vector graphics for everyone, while Flash is a technology that has been ubiquitous for almost a decade. Well, it looks like the Khronos Group is getting serious about hardware-accelerated vector graphics support. The OpenVG 1.0 specifications were released last month. Read the rest of this entry ...