NeoLurker • User • The Register Forums

Porky Visual Studio way over the hill

Monday 26th April 2010 09:37 GMT NeoLurker

So not really about Visual Studio at all then

Just a lament about the perceived lack of advancement in IDEs. I know that hating Microsoft is a fun sport enjoyed by The Register, but really... Grow up.

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Google (finally) nabs On2 video codecs

Sunday 21st February 2010 20:18 GMT NeoLurker

Performance and patents?

While VP6 is what most current Flash content uses, it isn't comparable to H.264. VP8, On2's latest codec was announced a year or so ago but very little seems to be known about it. I'm not aware of anyone using it or indeed anyone who has seen it. There are some old comparisons between H.264 and VP8, but they are not independent comparisons and are out of date. So the performance and capabilities of VP8 are somewhat unknown. The only information I've seen is a year old.

More serious though is the patent situation of VP8. The On2 site is keen to point out "no patent pool hassles" but doesn't explain what that means. What is the patent situation with VP8? It is hard to imagine a modern codec that wouldn't somehow make use of IP that is protected by one or more patents.

I'm sure Google has done their due diligence and if their end game is to make VP8 the "free" codec for HTML5, then I assume they're either going to buy their way out of any patent situation or it will make for a good spectator sport.

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Microsoft promises 'open' Bing strategy

Thursday 3rd December 2009 09:53 GMT NeoLurker

"Microsoft only technology"

I did the same search in the Bing Maps Silverlight-using beta and Google Maps and what do I find? Google Maps using Flash for their street view. Last time I checked, Flash was an Adobe technology.

Given the Big G's support for all things HTML and AJAX, and hate for all things Flash and Silverlight, this use of Flash frankly surprised me (we'll leave YouTube out of it for now shall we...?) So why the "Microsoft-only technology" Silverlight hating in this piece Gavin?

What does "Microsoft-only technology" even mean? Sure, Silverlight is a Microsoft technology - it is .NET in a web browser - and the point is what? You're tied to IE? False. You're tied to Windows? False. You're tied to Visual Studio and Expression? False. The other "Microsoft specific technologies" mentioned are LINQ and WPF. Yes, LINQ is a Microsoft technology. It's a set of extensions to .NET, so that sort of makes sense. You lost me with WPF though, Gavin. Not sure where that fits with the rest of the discussion.

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