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development
Poll: Best Internet Bigco of 2006
As a follow-up to our previous post covering the top Web Trends of 2006, we´d like to get your vote for Best Internet Bigco of 2006. Long-time R/WW readers will know that at the end of each year we write a post noting our top Web companies of the year. In 2005 the best bigco was Yahoo, while in 2004 it was Google. Who will it be in 2006? Well this is where you can influence the decision ;-) I´ll reserve the final editorial judgment for our 2006 Best Of post, but I´m keen to know what you all think!
Firefox is a fast-moving application, and now you can take a quick gander at the first Alpha version of Firefox 3.0, the next iteration of the open-source browser for Windows, Mac and Linux nicknamed Gran Paradiso. On the surface, it doesn´t look that different from the current version of Firefox (which we find to be unacceptably unstable, by the way).
Its innovations are under the hood, where it enhances compatibility with three tricked-out graphics standards that might soon be ubiquitous on the Web: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), the Canvas specification, and the cairo graphics library. Sounds great, but what does all this stuff do? They all have to do with making Web pages look the same on any platform, and scaling up graphics without loss of quality.
Explanations, plus the download link, after the jump.
Scalable vector graphics have been around since 2001, and the idea here is to have a standard graphics format on the Web (the way jpeg and gif have become) that uses vectors, that is, descriptions of where lines will go rather than individual dots of each graphic that comprise bitmap images such as jpeg and gif. These graphics can be scaled up or down without any loss of resolution.
What about Canvas? It´s another next-gen Web technology that´s similar to Scalable Vector Graphics but adds the element of animation, where JavaScript code can access a defined area and dynamically draw on graphics such as graphs and animations.
The cairo graphics library is another vector-based graphics enabler that can use hardware acceleration that´s already in Firefox and has been since version 1.5. Cairo can work with the Quartz graphics engine in Mac OS X, as well as OpenGL.
There´s nothing quite like the speed of open-source development, but we wish version 2.0 of Firefox would be perfected before any grand adventures began on the next point release. But that´s just us. – Charlie White
Giz Loves ITP, NYU´s hipster school of digital artists. Here´s a pair of shoes that slow down playback when you stomp down on em. They´re made from a set of old Saucony´s, some photovoltaics mounted towards the ground, some quarter-inch jacks, a Nestle Quik container, and MAX (an interaction programming tool.)
Watch it. It´s pretty bad. I bet MJ could do some crazy shit with these.–Brian Lam
Drawling lines in JavaScript
If you have ever wondered how to use the Bresenham algorithm to draw lines in browsers, it is your lucky day.
The article teaches us the way, and you end up with an API such as:
PLAIN TEXT
JAVASCRIPT:
var g = new Graphics();
g.drawLine(100,50,200,70);
g.paint();
Front PageJavaScriptLibraryArticles
[SHOW]
Firefox is a fast-moving application, and now you can take a quick gander at the first Alpha version of Firefox 3.0, the next iteration of the open-source browser for Windows, Mac and Linux nicknamed Gran Paradiso. On the surface, it doesn´t look that different from the current version of Firefox (which we find to be unacceptably unstable, by the way). 