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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 102 declined, 11 accepted (113 total, 9.73% accepted)

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Graphics

Submission + - Siggraph 2009 COLLADA Contest winners announced (www.colladacontest)

UnanimousCoward writes: "The Siggraph 2009 COLLADA Contest winners have been announced with NaviCAD taking the grand prize.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of NaviCAD :-)

NaviCAD is the only iPhone app that lets users view and navigate around models from the Google 3D Warehouse. With the recent announcement of COLLADA support in the latest Spore patch, we are also collecting Spore COLLADA models from Creators so that they can be viewed in 3D in our app (send zip files of dae+texture files to feedback@navicad.com). Currently, we have to modify them slightly to make them accessible by our app. We will be issuing an update to fully-support Spore-generated COLLADA models.

Developing a complex-model, graphics-intensive app for the iPhone is both fun and challenging due to device and OS limitations. We are in the process of writing an article (hopefully, Ars Technica will accept it!) documenting our journey. Subsequent updates will include serialization of the COLLADA files (for faster model generation on the second access) and possibly a client-server architecture where the serialization happens on the server."

Software

Submission + - NaviCAD, a Collada iPhone app released

UnanimousCoward writes: "Disclaimer: I am one of the developers of this app :-)

The Khronos Group has posted a news item about our app NaviCAD, the only way to view and navigate Collada models (especially models from the Google 3D Warehouse) on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Developing this 3D app on the iPhone platform was fun/challenging because of the device features/limitations. It is currently a client-only app (meaning the model processing is done on the client). However, because it takes...a while...to generate the OpenGL ES model from complex-model XML-plus-texture files, we are moving to a client/server model where the XML-plus-texture files will be processed on a server and a serialized version of the model will be sent down to the client. Initial tests show an order of magnitude increase in speed for generating the OpenGL ES model from the serialized Collada model.

After releasing the update, we would like to write a web article documenting our development journey (hopefully, Ars Technica will publish it!) as it provides a nice compare-and-contrast to cloud computing paradigms and getting down to the nitty-gritty of pushing the envelop of device programming that brought us back to the good ol' days :-)"
Software

Submission + - iPhone/iPod App Store Becoming More Restrictive (ifotomo.com)

UnanimousCoward writes: "In light of the Kama Sutra-related submission, I think that Apple is becoming even more restrictive with their censoring policies as the platform serves more and more people. I recently submitted an update to my app i F O T O M O that made some performance changes (but no content-related changes), but it was rejected on the basis of possibly serving up objectional content from Flickr!. The app that's available now can serve up that very same objectional content as we speak. Of course, maybe they didn't catch it the first time, but I think they are just getting more restrictive..."
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - IBM to acquire Sun (ifotomo.com)

UnanimousCoward writes: Less than a week ago, I wrote that I felt old when submitting this story. One more story like this, and I'll be ready to fit myself a nice pine box. First Silicon Graphics-I-mean-SGI, now Sun.

Sun only came into the consciousness of the unwashed masses with the company not being able to get E10K's out the door fast enough in the first bubble. We here will remember some pizza-box looking thing, establishing 32mb of RAM as a standard, and when those masses were scratching their heads at slogans like "The Network is the Computer." Add your favorite Sun anecdote here...

Silicon Graphics

Submission + - SGI assets may be sold for $25M

UnanimousCoward writes: Several articles including this one from the San Jose Merc are reporting that SGI has agreed to sell itself for $25 million to Rackable Systems after seeking bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years. A judge still has to approve the deal. Stories like this make me feel old.
Google

Submission + - Gmail gets themes

UnanimousCoward writes: Google is doing a phased rollout of themes for Gmail (personal accounts). Lots of articles (here's one), of course. I especially like the Terminal theme (since I submitted this theme for the /. redesign contest, but, of course, it didn't win). I haven't seen anything yet about customizing themes (other than the old unofficial way)...
Television

Submission + - Netflix enters the set-top box fray

UnanimousCoward writes: "The NYT has an article about Netflix's entry into the set-top box market with Roku (in which Netflix has a stake). In contrast, there's no market for something like this or AppleTV in other countries — my cousin uses his 54MB connection in Korea to get on-demand access of movies, tv shows, etc. through his provider (actually, they're moving to fiber because I guess people are complaining that 54MB is too slow)."
Businesses

Submission + - Craigslist countersues eBay

UnanimousCoward writes: "Several weeks ago, eBay sued Craigslist for stock dilution. Craigslist has now countersued with multiple charges, among them (from Reuters):

Craigslist's complaint alleges a plan by eBay to use its position as a minority shareholder in Craigslist and its position on the Craigslist board to gather competitive information that led to the launch of eBay's rival classifieds business. The suit claims eBay code-named Kijiji its 'Craigslist killer' in internal strategy discussions.
Many articles about it, but it's been a while since I've looked at Wired :-)"
Digital

Submission + - Pascal Dangin and Box Studios

UnanimousCoward writes: "The New Yorker is running this article about Pascal Dangin and his photo retouching empire, Box Studios (note the URL goes to a nondescript page — Dangin must want it that way). Dangin anonymously has a hand in most of the fashion and advertising shots, and the article delves into all the issues associated with photo retouching including history, anatomical accuracy, color, body image, etc. His studio has even developed its own retouching software (he apparently has six programmers on staff).

Related, here's a great site with before/after shots, AKA reality to plastic..."
Robotics

Submission + - Maker Faire Bay Area this past weekend

UnanimousCoward writes: "The Maker Faire put on by Make Magazine was held this past weekend at the San Mateo County Expo Center. My son and I didn't get to spend enough time there. The coolest thing we saw was tortillas getting laser engraved which, of course, brought out the grilled cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary story out about a thousand times..."
Moon

Submission + - Moon Backup: is it time? revenue model?

UnanimousCoward writes: "I since become obsessed with backing up my data, doing both ext hd backup with SyncBackSE and online backup with Mozy. But it got me to thinking about the ultimate backup, the Moon. Given the inevitability of cloud computing, I'm wondering if it's just a matter of time before Google/Apple offers iMoonBackup(tm). Given Google's "free" model, what would be the revenue model for iMoonBackup(tm)? (This is where Steve comes in, I guess...)"
Power

Submission + - The Upsides of Solar Panels in Parking Lots

UnanimousCoward writes: "SFGate has an Open Forum piece written by UCLA Professor Donald Shoup considering the benefits of installing solar panels in parking lots:
  • Provides power when it is needed most
  • Cooler cars
  • Can't be worse-looking than the current asphalt desert :-)
  • Pro-business/Pro-development
  • He even plays the decentralized-power-in-the-face-of-terrorists card
The article mentions efforts by Walmart and, of course, Google:

Google, for example, has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters' power demand.
"
Media

Submission + - views on the future of the Entertainment industry

UnanimousCoward writes: "Here are two articles that present interesting views of the direction of the Entertainment Industry:
  • In this NYT Magazine article, Rick Rubin states:

    You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you'd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You'll say, 'Today I want to listen to ... Simon and Garfunkel,' and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now...Steve Jobs understood Napster better than the record business did...IPods made it easy for people to share music, and Apple took a big percentage of the business that once belonged to the record companies. The subscription model is the only way to save the music business. If music is easily available at a price of five or six dollars a month, then nobody will steal it
  • In his FSJ blog entry, Daniel Lyons states:

    It's over now. [The TV Network] business model was a historical anomaly built on scarcity of a valuable resource and the willingness of a small group of network operators to not slit each other's throats and to collaborate in exploiting the content producers. Sort of like the Five Families in New York. Wars are bad for business...You know what the new network is? It's [Apple].
Are these views at odds with each other or complimentary?"

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