Dr. Dobb's Journal September 2002
A pair of new programming languages — Cg and F# — recently popped up. Developed by NVIDIA, Cg, short for "C for Graphics," is intended to provide graphics programmers with an additional layer of abstraction, removing the need to program graphics hardware in assembly language. Cg was developed in cooperation with Microsoft and designed to be compatible with the High-Level Shading Language for DirectX 9.0. NVIDIA also made a Cg Toolkit — including a Cg Compiler, Cg Browser, CgFX file format, Cg Standard Library, and a collection of prewritten Cg shaders — available at http://developer .nvidia.com/cg.
F#, written by Don Syme, aims to bring the mixed functional/imperative programming model to .NET. According to Syme, the language lets all public ML declarations be directly used from other .NET languages, conforms to the ILX interoperability standards for functional languages, and comes in at under 10,000 lines of code. For more information, see http://research.microsoft .com/projects/ilx/fsharp.htm.
For the amusement of anyone interested in exploring the world of hands-on 8-bit programming, the classic IMSAI 8080 is once again available for purchase. The IMSAI Series Two model features a new and "advanced" programmer's front panel, along with a 20-MHz processor, 1-MB static RAM, 32K Flash memory, and interfaces for modern conveniences such as a PS/2 keyboard, IDE drives, and an IMSAI-to-PC parallel interface. For more information, see http://www.imsai.net/ products/IMSAI_series_two.htm.
A number of prominent Internet radio sites have been shut down following the Library of Congress' determination regarding webcasting royalty fees. Under the new regulations, webcasters are required to pay copyright holders $0.07 for each transmission of a song — retroactive to 1998. While the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was lobbying for royalties as high as $0.14 per transmission in some cases, the decision is still viewed as a loss for webcasters. San Francisco's SomaFM and the French station BlueMars are among the sites that ceased broadcasting in the wake of the ruling. Internet radio aficionados have launched a last-ditch campaign at http://www .saveinternetradio.org/, lobbying Congress to revise the fees.
The WAP Forum has reorganized into the Open Mobile Alliance, a group dedicated to defining a standard platform for interoperable mobile services. Over 200 companies have joined including Microsoft, AOL, and NTT DoCoMo, although Palm Computing has so far chosen not to join.
According to the alliance, the defining protocols in a standard mobile service platform will include Java, Multimedia Messaging, and WAP 2.0/XHTML. The organization is also working on standards for digital rights management (DRM), device management, authentication, and location-based services. For more information, see http://www.openmobilealliance.org/.
The Aerospace Robotics Laboratory at Stanford University is developing new interfaces between robots and their human controllers, including an OpenGL-based GUI. The GUI presents users with three-dimensional models of environment around robots. In the case of multiple robots, data from each robot is fused into a global view. Context sensitive pop-up windows prompt users to select the robot (or robots) to use, the objects to be acted upon, and the tasks to be performed. According to the Lab, "the interaction mechanism was inspired by interface techniques refined in the real-time strategy genre of video games that includes the popular titles Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and Strifeshadow." For more information, go to http://arl.stanford.edu/projects/interaction/research.html.
The Archives and Manuscript Library at the University of Maryland has set about collecting business plans from dot-coms active between 1996 and 2002. The Business Plan Archive aims to "enable entrepreneurs and researchers to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research." Preliminary analyses include a list of "top 10 mistakes" and a breakdown of dot-com closures by month and by target audience.
Documents can be contributed to the archive through an online interface at http://www.businessplanarchive.org/, or through the mail. All the plans will ultimately be archived at the University of Maryland.