I have been using GNU/Linux as my main desktop OS since 2002, but today was the first time I’ve seen “Linux” being explicitly mentioned in the system requirements for a regular run-of-the-mill hardware product:
Windows Vista 1) / XP (SP1 and above) / 2000 (SP3 and above)
Mac OS (10.x and above) Yes
Linux (2.4 and above) Yes
The product? A Kingston 1GB Datatraveler 100. Yes, I know, it should work with any OS supporting the USB mass storage class. I just thought it looked sweet.
When I turned on my desktop computer this morning the Gmail tally in my taskbar had some trouble logging in. Worried that I had lost my internet connectivity (not that unusual if you’re a Blixtvik customer) I fired up Firefox and logged into Gmail. It worked. Then I noticed the Older version link at the top right hand corner and realized that Gmail version 2.0 had arrived!
It’s not just faster. Or the undo messages in a paler shade of yellow. The URLs are finally meaningful. For example:
This past summers participation in Googles Summer of Code has really revitalized the K-3D project to some degree. Especially with the realization that we1 need both more regular users as well as developers, to keep interest in the project alive and as a reason to continue development.
One of the suggestions was to create demos of K-3D as screeencasts. In my own experience a screencast tell me more about an application and the work flow than a screenshot or tutorial ever will. Over the previous week-end Joe Crawford2 really applied himself to the task and spent ten hours making this quite impressive introduction to K-3D.
My apologies for the poor quality. Google Video resized and transcoded the hell out of it while Joe’s original TechSmith video is razor sharp.
1 I haven’t contributed to the projects for years, but will again once I get my new workstation.
2Joe Crawford teaches 3D at VanArts in addition to running his own studio and serves as “superuser”-consult to the project.
I’ve just released PyFTGL which makes it possible to take advantage of FreeType and FTGL to render text in OpenGL program using TrueType, Type 1 or OpenType fonts. PyFTGL wraps the functionality of FTGL into a Python module so it can be used in conjunction with PyOpenGL.
Note that the bindings are still in alpha: they will work if you use them correctly, it’s just the error checking that’s currently missing.