Neurochemic Chaos

City Sun

2009-05-25T15:00:00.005Z

Compare the lighting above, with the photo of the Chrysler building taken by Aishado.

Chrysler Blue
by ~Aishado on deviant ART

Skull

2009-03-01T20:24:00.004Z

Transverse fly through of MRI scan of Homo Sapiens cranium.

Coronal fly through of MRI scan of Homo Sapiens cranium.

Sagittal fly through of MRI scan of Homo Sapiens cranium.

Rotation of volume rendered MRI scan of Homo Sapiens cranium.

Yakushi-ji 薬師寺

2009-02-05T21:18:00.005Z

Yakushi-ji (薬師寺), Nara, Japan.

The temple of Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha of Medicine.

Twenty five years ago I was granted permission by the Japanese government to study the entire Heibonsha art and architecture survey. I remember weeping when I saw the detail of Yakushi ji. At this time I had been studying and practising the tradition of Yakushi, in Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. A few years later I also studied the tradition in Tibetan as well, and more indepth research in the medical practices and pharmacology of it.

I have been following development of Lucille Global Illumination Renderer on Flickr for some time, and today got it to build on OpenSuSE 10.3. So I chose to celebrate by exporting an old model of Yakushiji and rendering it.

Exported from Blender via Mosaic to Lucille.

Blender to Renderman forum blog
Blender to Renderman forum newsgroup

Mosaic Renderman System.

Lucille Global Illumination Renderer.
Lucille github source code.
Lucille Blog
Lucille Wiki
Lucille Render on Flickr.

Yakushi-ji Wikipedia

Bhaisajyaguru Wikipedia

XLogo SuSE

2008-03-11T10:00:00.001Z

RIBMosaic

2008-03-07T20:00:00.001Z

During the last week, the author of RIBMosaic, WHiTeRaBBiT, has made a lot of improvements to it, and published some very impressive images demonstrating it's ability to export to a wider range of RenderMan Interface Specification and not so compatible renderers.

For full details, please go to the Blender to RenderMan Blog and read :

Built-in shaders for MOSAIC

Shader Integration and Pass Controls Complete!

Another update in MOSAIC's recent progress

The rendered images and previous tests can also be seen on the Dreamscape Arts Gallery at MOSAICTestRenders.

After a few weeks of editing XHTML and CSS, and various liaison and admin tasks, I took a break to play with 2D graphic design for the first time in a while. The above RIBMosaic logo is the result.

It reflects the orange and blue Blender logo, but with a range of colours in a mosaic pattern, and a green centre instead, using the interlocking puzzle glyph, representing integration, of the Python logo in a rough texture beneath a smooth finish, suggesting reptilian, and the text in the same typeface Pixar chose for their logo. The edge of the shading band across the logo varies as if the green centre is refractive.

It says Blender, Python, RenderMan and MOSAIC, in one.

Blender to RenderMan Forum

2008-02-10T06:00:00.002Z

In autumn last year the Blender to RenderMan forum created by Ted Gocek, that was at http://www.bestfreeforums.com/forums/blendertorender.html, was deleted by the host for no reason.

Neither he nor I have a copy of the SQL database, or the facilities to set up our own PHP forum server, or maintain one, so we discussed spreading a new forum across a Google Group, Blogger account, and Googlepages site.

These are now at :

Blender to RenderMan Group

Blender to RenderMan Blog

Blender to RenderMan Site

Blender to RenderMan Channel

Announcements, discussions, questions and answers can be posted to the group.

In addition, once developers of Blender to RenderMan export tools join the group, they will be invited to join the blog.

Announcements about exporters and other tools can be posted on the group, with a link to a more detailed post on the blog, which will also be able to include images, as well as better options for syntax highlighting of code.

When there are more videos of demonstrations, tutorials and rendered animations on individual YouTube accounts, I can create playlists on the Blender to RenderMan Channel, grouping them together in various ways, eg, a full set of tutorials for a particular BlenderMan exporter, another playlist for a collection of demos of all the exporters, collections of animations, and related off-topic content, for example, SGI and Pixar technology demos and shorts.

X-Ray shader

2007-10-09T05:37:00.001Z

Disney Pixar, 1024x768, 540 KB.

Morphine X-Ray, 1024x768, 1.2 MB.

Some years ago, Simon Bunker created the simplest, fascinating RenderMan shader, an X-Ray effect shader.

I have seen hardly any work using it, and I find it useful for molecular and medical imaging, as well as for more creative effects.

Both the above images were created with POVMan, in Mac OS.

An animation of the molecular structure of Morphine, exported from Swiss PDB Viewer to Mac MegaPOV, manually modified in POVMan to use Pixar Renderman Shading Language, and encoded in Apple Quicktime, at 1 frame per degree, through a total of 360 degrees, at 640 x 480 pixels, can be downloaded from :

Morphine X-Ray 640x480 28 MB.

Right click on the video icon and save as MorphineXRay64048028.mov.

Alternatively, lower resolution versions can be seen on either Youtube or Google Video :

Morphine X-Ray Youtube
Morphine X-Ray Google

Simon Bunker's web site, RenderMania. POVMan web site, POVMan examples.

Yohimbine Fur

2007-09-27T15:25:00.001Z

I wanted to see how Zeger Knaepen's fur shader looked on a molecule.
In his notes, he said the fur shader does not work for animation. I like it anyway.

Also, I could not resist using POVMan's ability to layer textures.
Specular highlights, as would normally only be seen on smooth shiny surfaces,
were added to the finish section, using POV's Scene Description Language.

A frame still, as will be rendered without specularity, 1024x768, 839 KB.

Created in POVMan on Mac OS Classic, rendered direct to Quicktime.
POVMan is a version of MegaPOV, that uses Renderman Shading Language.

I intended a rotation of 360 degrees, one frame each, this failed on f 147.
For smooth animation of the fur, I want to use 30 frames per degree :
10,800 frames, at 25 minutes render time per frame, 4,500 hours.

Don't expect to see the finished version before next year.

ShaderMan.Next source code released

2007-07-26T14:45:00.000Z

Interesting news :

"Hello,

I've released the source code for ShaderMan.Next into a public domain at

http://code.google.com/p/shaderman.

New version is completely portable between Windows, Linux and Mac,
written in Python (less then 2000 lines of pretty straightforward code)
and extensible from the very beginning - current code drop allows to
create Renderman shaders, Unix pipelines and Python Image Library
(PIL) source code.

With best regards,

Alexei Puzikov
http://dream.com.ua
http://renderman.ru
http://code.google.com/p/shaderman "

to which Randolf Schultz replies :

"finally. :) Now I can begin to think about an integration into Ayam.
What about a "sink"-node that connects over sockets to an Ayam material?

best regards,
Randolf,
--
http://www.ayam3d.org/ Ayam, where export means NURBS. "

from

C.G.R.R ShaderMan.Next source code released

Animation Language : Bouncesphere

2007-05-30T23:38:00.000Z

Technical details on Eurochemistry site Bouncesphere

Screenshots, and brief descriptions of the software used,
AL Bouncesphere II

The scene, animation and shader data, syntax highlighted,

AL Bouncesphere III

The original higher quality 640x480 video can be downloaded here
bouncesphere.avi

AVI, iPod and Sony PSP versions can be download from Google Video

HTML embed code is available from Google Video or Youtube

Steve May's AL page at ACCAD Ohio State University,
AL Animation Language

Chrysler Building

2007-05-01T02:37:00.000Z

Chrysler

Alternative renders :

Chrysler wire

Chrysler 1

Chrysler 2

Chrysler 3

Apple 5th Avenue Google Earth

2007-04-28T04:12:00.000Z

From the signature buildings collection at Google Sketchup 3d Warehouse.

MS Linux II

2006-12-01T01:39:00.000Z

I have for over a decade been in two minds about Novell.

Ever since they bought Digital Research, and for a while continued to provide one of my favorites among command line OS's, DRDOS/GEM. Then they let one of their employees start his own company, Caldera, and take DR/DRDOS with him. Then Caldera started making it's own Linux distribution. Then Caldera sold DR and DRDOS to another company. Last time I looked, DRDOS was an expensive specialist embedded solution with different versions for Lawyers, Doctors and so on.

Caldera meanwhile merged with the Santa Cruz Organisation, a respected commercial Unix company better known as SCO, who had previously bought Unix from Novell, who had bought it from AT&T. Caldera changed it's name to SCO, and continued to make and sell SCO Unix, and Caldera Linux. Around 2002 - 2003, SCO decided that every Linux distribution on the planet had stolen code from Unix, and that was it's copyright, and started lawsuits against Linux vendors. The entire sequence of events known as The SCO Case is discussed on Groklaw. During this time Novell bought Ximian, and became increasingly involved in development of Linux software, including the Evolution Email suite, and the GNOME Desktop.

I've been observing the appearance of a certain executive in various companies over the last 12 years or so. I won't name him, but he's been involved in several companies, joining them at board level just before the time major corporate changes and decisions have been made in those companies. Those changes sometimes have been disastrous for those companies, often in a way that is highly beneficial to a much larger OS and software company. I suspect this person could possibly be a corporate "assassin", that makes sure certain innovative companies don't survive.

I'm not mentioning the companies either ... if the people this person works for are as dangerous as I suspect, it would be unwise. I have a strong survival instinct and have had enough trouble in my life working in dangerous environments and among even more dangerous people. I am in no mood for any threats or other trouble from some corporation.

Shortly after the SCO vs Linux situation, Novell bought SuSE, then offer SuSE users indemnity from SCO's lawsuits. Since Novell acquired SuSE, parts of SuSE and GNOME Desktop have become increasingly dependant on Mono, an Open Source implementation of C Sharp/.NET, a Microsoft patented Object Oriented C based programming language. Also, since Novell bought SuSE, I notice an increasing number of SuSE's original personnel leaving. When I began using SuSE in it's early days, it was a very good thorough product from a German company, some of their core developers being scientists, hence the tradition of a 3d plot of a complex mathematical function being the graphic for the manual cover and distribution box. I appreciated the fact that the OS was under German management, and provided a reasonably good selection of scientific software.

In the last few years, SuSE has grown in popularity. It has always been the Linux of choice for several governments. Also it became the Linux used by IBM, Sun and when SGI moved on from the MIPS processor to 64 bit Intel, SuSE replaced Irix as SGI's OS. However, there needs to be a lot of work before SuSE is the ultimate Linux, let alone OS, for 3d computer graphics, or real time visualisation. One example would be the need to fix it's implementation of GTKGLExt, which does not work well enough to be able to build important 3d modelling applications on SuSE. Another example is SuSE's implementation of Boost, and in particular annoyance to me, libboost.python. The only reason my continual attempts to build Python's CGKit 2 on SuSE kept failing is because the library dynamic linker could not find SuSE's libboost.python even though it was installed and provided with an explicit path to it. Others have had this problem too.

SGI's OS being unable to build important 3d modelling applications and computer graphics toolkits is to me beyond embarrassing. SGI are a very professional company with over twenty years experience in computer graphics, and they have designed and built the finest 3d visualisation and rendering systems in the world for two decades. Further more, I have built code designed for SGI MIPS Workstation systems in the 1990's, on SuSE Linux on my IBM ThinkPad laptop. Their code is so well written and commented, it's a pleasure to read, let alone see it compile and work perfectly. SGI's developers know what they are doing.

By the way, if anyone from SGI reads this and wants to fix this problem, contact me ... I'm bored with things not working, need money, and a Personal Iris-Iris File-Data Station 4d/35, a dual head Octane2 workstation and an Altix 3200 cluster would be much appreciated :)

Now Novell and Microsoft partner, the outcome being that Microsoft are to provide SuSE Linux, these two companies to improve interoperability between their products and a mutual patent protection and indemnity agreement.

Let's leave the legal nightmare this could become to those who have already discussed it, my first few paragraphs above will give you a good idea of where this all could lead.

If this goes ahead, SuSE could be the only Linux officially supported in Virtual PC, the Intel x86 emulator that Microsoft bought from Connectix, and in my experience, the best emulator and as good a product as can be. Microsoft will not tell you this, but Virtual PC can run BeOS, NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP and Rhapsody, enabling old OS's with no support for modern devices like Wifi cards or PCMCIA HDD's to work fine via the Virtual PC's interface to the system's real hardware. Support for SuSE in Virtual PC could include the ability to drag drop between the Windows and Linux desktops, and support for Linux filesystems such as Ext2, Ext3, and ReiserFS. OK, I admit, I've used Ext3 in Windows 2000, but no direct support for it as a VPC Extension between guest and host OS.

Conversely, Novell/SuSE's implementation of WINE, the Windows compatibility runtime for Unix that enables a user to run Windows programs in Unix or Linux, could with support of Microsoft, begin to work a lot better. The support in Linux for running Windows applications needs improvement, and Microsoft approved or supplied DLL's et cetera could be a possible development of this partnership.

Don't expect either Virtual PC support for Linux, or a Microsoft improved version of WINE or CodeWeaver's Crossover Office, to be free.

Now that Apple supply an Intel computer and OS, will Microsoft supply SuSE for PPC ? :)

Finally, here are links to other people's opinions of the Novell Microsoft deal :

A five year deal with Microsoft to dump Novell/SUSE Nicholas Petreley, Linux Journal

More Details on Microsoft SuSE partnership Penguin Pete's Blog

FUD motivated Microsoft SuSE deal analyst Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia

Microsoft and Novell: Bambi meets Godzilla? Joyce Becknell, The Register

Microsoft to Novell:Respect Chris Williams, The Register

Moglen: How we'll kill the Microsoft Novell deal Andrew Orlowski, The Register

Microsoft bankrolls Novell to tune of $348m Gavin Clarke, The Register

Microsoft loves SUSE Linux (true!) Gavin Clarke, The Register

Microsoft makes claim on Linux code OUT-LAW.COM, The Register

MS and Novell: the end of a good feud David Norfolk, RegisterDeveloper

Unix compatibility

2006-11-17T08:32:00.000Z

Why are so many websites dysfunctional on Unix ?

Get this straight, right now, and don't ever forget it ...

The World Wide Web was invented by a scientist, Tim Berners Lee, on NeXTSTEP, a Unix Operating System, on the NeXT Cube, at CERN laboratories in Switzerland. Microsoft didn't contribute a damn single atom to it.

The first web browser was written by the NCSA, on Unix, it's called Mosaic and myself and others still have it on some of our older computers.

The servers and routers the internet depends on also run Unix, except a small faction trying to run servers on Windows. This is not unlike trying to cross an ocean in a disposable paper cup.

I've been writing HTML for almost as long as Tim Berners Lee himself. My code worked on every platform that can connect to the web, including working on cellphones from the beginning.

3 to 6 years later after scientists had done all the hard work, Microsoft jump on the bandwagon and behave as if they invented Operating Systems, User Interfaces, Computers and the Web ... they didn't. Suddenly the Web is flooded with badly written code, and badly designed and completely ugly websites, all from Windows users.

So why do countless websites hardly work at all in Unix, why can't people write code that runs properly, following the cross platform standards the Web is designed to run ?

How difficult can it be to learn Unix now, enough to run it and test HTML on it ?

It used to cost thousands of pounds but for the last 10 years it has been free in the form of FreeBSD or Linux, and SuSE linux is a professional enough Operating System to be the one used by Novell, Silicon Graphics, Sun and IBM, and now Microsoft.

These days installing Unix is as easy as booting from a CD and following the instructions, exactly as installing Windows.

The first Operating System to be distributed on CD was NeXTSTEP, the first Operating System to boot and run from a CD was BeOS.

Learning to write correct cross platform HTML, DHTML, CSS and Javascript in it is as simple as going to the W3Schools website of the organisation responsible for web standards and following the online tutorials and documentation there, which is all free.

If a person can't do that, what the hell are they doing designing web pages, and setting up webservers in the first place ? Doing it the Microsoft way is costing them money, for a limited result. Why waste so much effort on something inefficient ?

MS Linux

2006-11-12T03:22:00.000Z

SuSE to be distributed by Microsoft ... OK, I'll be back after I've made and taken about a kilo of valium.

Google APIs

2006-09-01T14:05:00.000Z

Every time I see a Google product, my imagination starts adding components together as if I were drag dropping them from a palette in Openstep's Project Builder and Interface Builder, it is something I cannot help, I am by nature a synthesist and this is how I think.

Google's expanding work is brilliant and a true compliment to the Object Oriented development of the old days of Openstep.

Recently I suggested they add Spreadsheets, Word processor and Database facilities to the new Google Apps for your Domain service, as most of this already exists within Google API's, as do some other interesting tools such as the Maps, Picasa photo tool, 3d tool and so on.

I also suggested a few times now the possibility of allowing users to select CSS templates from Google Page Editor or Blogspot to be set if desired individually, or globally, across Google based services, for example one's search home page, GMail and such.

For those who only use Google's search engine, and possibly GMail, there is a lot more to Google ... they are concerned with information, not just on the web, but the rest of the internet and everything else. To the extent they developed their own Distributed File System and now Optical Character Recognition.

A brief look at Google Labs and Google Code and you will see how busy they are.

EloneX addendum

2006-07-18T22:30:00.000Z

Please also see the following well researched article published on The Register :

EloneX: the end of an era By Tim Phillips 18 Jul 2006 13:46

and the preceding articles which may also be of interest :

Elonex sketches phoenix PC plan By Mark Ballard 7 Jul 2006 12:03

Elonex sold to stationer By Mark Ballard 5 Jul 2006 11:15

Elonex deal hits the doldrums By Mark Ballard 3 Jul 2006 12:15

Rank outsider poised to buy Elonex By Mark Ballard 29 Jun 2006 11:15

Centerprise opts out of Elonex bidding By Mark Ballard 27 Jun 2006 12:22

Elonex: administrators lay off 28 By John Oates 15 Jun 2006 08:57

Elonex UK goes titsup By John Oates 13 Jun 2006 14:58

Obituary for EloneX PLC

2006-07-08T09:26:00.000Z

I learned three days ago one of my favorite computer companies went bankrupt.

This was the one company that cared about the individual customer, and provided tireless aftersales support even on machines over ten years old. They built machines to last twenty five to thirty years, and even their monitor tubes lasted very well. They never told a customer to upgrade to the latest machines of their range, which was considerably good for a small London based company, and one of the first OEM IBM X86 compatible system makers. Furthermore, they supported the use of any X86 operating system the client needed and chose to use ; Windows, OS/2, BSD, Solaris, OPENSTEP, BeOS, QNX and Linux.

Elonex was founded in 1986 to offer computer and related IT services direct to customers allowing them to exercise more control and benefit from improved flexibility. Elonex is now one of the few UK manufacturers to have developed international sales with a strong customer base in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Russian Federation. UK customers therefore benefit from a broader range of skills and experience.

* A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELONEX
* 1986 Elonex PLC founded.
* 1988 Bradford office opens.
* 1990 Elonex Belgium opens.
* 1991 Elonex Taiwan opens (procurement arm) and is awarded Microsoft OEM status.
* 1992 Elonex France, Israel and Switzerland established.
* 1995 Elonex Solutions Division formed, won MOD contract.
* 1996 Elonex E-Commerce introduced.
* 1997 Elonex wins NHS Supplies Authority (having previously supplied the Regional Authorities) and Gcat contracts.
* 1999 Elonex Gatwick opens as a new base for the Specialist Education Division and awarded NGfL Managed Service status.
* 2000 Elonex's Software Development Division established in Russia.
* 2000 Elonex becomes Microsoft EdLAR.
* 2001 Elonex wins Gcat/NHSCat contract for Hardware & Systems Integration, IT Managed Services and Third Party Maintenance categories.
* 2002 Awarded Becta Accredited Service Supplier status.
* 2003 Elonex wins a contract to supply under the Governments' Laptops for Teachers Initiative, earns supplier status for the Governments NHS National Programme for IT (worth £25m).
* 2004 Contract awarded to supply Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based laptops under the Essex e-Learning Foundation Initiative (£150m).

Quoted from About EloneX

The company's logo, slab format system designs and website style were also a living tribute to the unique style of NeXT Computer, Inc., as can be seen from the source of the above quotes and their website, in particular their Showroom

Unconscious rendered

2006-06-29T14:22:00.000Z

I've been taking a break from research, and a needed break from the amount of work with source code and OS maintenance it requires.

Instead I've been relaxing, and occasionally playing graphically with molecules that interest me for various reasons, through usage in medical practice, growing them in asia or historical and spiritual association and such.

An example is Lotus. An important symbol in asian traditions of meditation, for it's gentle path between darkness and light, the apparent impurity of sleeping in the muddy bottom of a lake, and awakening a bright beautiful appearance, often white but many other colours as well for some specimens, and each of these equally well regarded, especially red, blue and indigo and purples.

Lotus also was a proposed choice last week for a header graphic for the new web site design of the BioCocoa project. The header can at this time be seen here, Option1 but might be moved or removed. If so, I might ask permission of the project admin and designer to mirror Option1 ... he and I seem to be the only people who like it and Option2 seems to be the design going ahead :)

Among near countless chemicals within Lotus are some genes that are of interest in research, but I have restrained myself from distraction, and loaded one of these gene's Protein Database file into one of my 3d molecular graphics and editing applications. Besides, there are enough highly competent teams in Japan researching Lotus Japonica already.

If I had dedicated machines such as a Silicon Graphics Octane2 I could have generated some interesting animations and Virtual Reality web pages, but last time I tried this on my Thinkpad and old G2 Macs, everything crashed.

Even using molecular graphics applications designed on SGI workstations, compiled and running fine under SuSE Linux, not nearly fast enough. I am used to having 25 computers, and being able to commit many of them to rendering as much as actual computations and simulations. Working with three, all of which need larger hard disks, is like having only one or two of 25 limbs useable.

Also this time I had trouble saving the close up images I had created, as mesh and include file for POV-Ray, to work on rendering the results outside of the molecular graphics suite I was using, and thus have a lot more system resources and be able to do this faster. Instead I had to use the suite's internal renderer.

Below is a small section of a 1024x768 pixel render from the gene 1CT9 from Lotus Japonica. I have edited the colours away from schemes in use for bioinformatics, which are to highlight some particular aspect or other, instead to evoke a sense of the general beauty of the Himalaya, Kasmir in particular, and the jungles at their foot.

1CT9 from Lotus Japonica

I also wanted to play with genes from Fragaria, Strawberry. Purely for the sake of scientific erotica, but this will take some time. Especially, I want to include non molecular elements in the scene, more accurately, a highly tasteful but very evocative female form.

Strawberries have a significance among Italian Sci Fi authors and Journalists I know ...
I want this scene rendered to my artistic aesthetic's satisfaction.

Fragole buone!

Ti voglio coperta di fragole, Venere di Milano ;)

The Secret of the Four Pillars of a Screenshot

2006-06-29T00:22:00.000Z

Many centuries ago, in a remote monastery in the Himalayas, the technique of visualising different things, in real time, was mastered and refined. This when portrayed on silk framed canvas is known as The Four Pillars of a Screenshot.

These Four Pillars represent the full capability of diversity and potential. Traditionally, monks would visualise a Video player, a Waveform Editor, a 3d Molecular structure viewer, and a Fractal generator.

Alternately, some monasteries preferred the classic Word Processor/Spreadsheet/Database suite, Graphics/Photo suite, Web Browser, and Media Player.

Drivel

2006-06-22T14:33:00.000Z

Then last night I find the header from TicTac template works again, and my dashboard is back to it's usual scheme.

This journal entry was uploaded using Drivel, a GTK blog client supporting Blogger, Atom, Advogato, LiveJournal and Moveable Type.

Drivel is available for SuSE Linux users as an RPM, Gnome-blog is also but it wouldn't work, and I don't feel like compiling either Gnome-blog or BloGTK from source code.

Oh well

2006-06-21T07:15:00.000Z

Fixed it myself ...

A reproduction of the original image, made on SuSE/GNUstep, from a cached top_div.gif.

Please don't change things when we're not looking ... many GNUstep developers use blogger.
Half their blogs could look a total mess right now depending on how many style elements have changed without warning :)

Template Header

2006-06-21T06:08:00.000Z

Now the header's gone. No warning, it's just gone.

The templates are changing. The dashboard as well.

Why is it 80% of the times I'm using a website, that's the time they choose to upgrade it ?

Last winter continual updates and server problems prevented me from being able to continue my work, due to continually borked CVS and SVN servers for Objective-C and other Biotech code.

No one considered the chaos and delays created by not telling anyone before hand.

This went on for several weeks.

When I take down my servers, or reorganise, rewrite and compile the code they run on, I warn people.

Running molecular dynamics simulations and various distributed filesystem/applications servers, I have to.

Now I have to write a template, or create and upload my own header graphic to fill the space left ? I'd rather have the original back.

It is a major reason why I chose the TicTac template to start with, since I'm running SuSE/GNUstep and apart from a CSS style that's a perfect Mac OS X Milk theme, or Openstep/Rhapsody theme ... TicTac was the only one here I like.

Oh well ... yet again I spend a little time on something, and the result is negated.

Webcode

2006-06-21T01:16:00.000Z

Hello again Blogger, Hello interface and backend code.

I have to update and revise my html skills. Ok, this looks like SuSE's website, manual and install CD cover because I want it that way ... be grateful I didn't make it like BeOS's bootscreen :)

Too lazy and plain tired of code to write and maintain my own servers anymore.
WebObjects, Webware, OpenGroupware, SDS/SWS, Trac wiki, PostGreSQL, Apache ...

waaaaaaa

2006, and computers still feel like riding an elephant across an ocean of molasses ...

It's summer, and I have it on very good authority I'm too sexy to be living like Howard Hughes, hiding behind a wall of computer screens ;)

What Haiku OS means to me

2004-08-14T07:45:00.001Z

I was originally asked to write this article by Chris Simmons, aka Technix, Administrator and Editor of Haiku News Network (HNN), formerly The BeOS Journal (TBJ), a website focussed on Haiku-OS , the opensource implementation of BeOS that was formerly known as OpenBeOS.

He published it in his name, only mentioning I had submitted it, despite my having a journalist account on HNN and having been a contributor and moderator of The BeOS Journal. Furthermore any remarks regarding the German development upon BeOS called Zeta, from yellowTAB , were removed due to a strong bias against it that still persists today.

I am to this day not happy with the closure of TBJ's forum and disappearance of several years discussion of BeOS relevant to both Intel x86 and PowerPC platforms, including many valid and informative posts on the system's architecture, legal status, origins and future. The article was translated into several languages and republished in many countries in Western and Eastern Europe, and South America. Here is the article as I originally wrote it.

What Haiku OS means to me at this point in time, from the department of
"What do you mean did I run the OS before writing an article about it?"

To know this, I have to be clear what BeOS has meant and does mean to me now. It will always mean a young operating system that installed quickly and impressed me immediately after my first time booting with the R4.5 Live Demo CD ( I had BeOS since R3, but it was the R4.5 demo that really impressed me).

At that time I was using SuSE Linux, DR DOS, Windows 95, Rhapsody and Mac OS. It became my Media OS and I was happy working in BeOS. The media capabilities and speed of BeOS still impress me today.

I spent some years in Asia, away from computers and news until very recently. When I returned and began reading The BeOSJournal, I was shocked. Be, Inc. was no more, the BeOS was not available and there were no more upgrades to be found.

I learned that Haiku was to be the open source clone of BeOS R5 on x86 only. Ok.

I hope it can live up to the (perhaps excessive) expectations I have. The fact that BeOS doesn't run so well on my modern IBM ThinkPad, (except in Virtual PC 2004 in Windows 2000 where it rocks!), as it did on the earlier compatible equipment I used for BeOS before, does not change my high opinion of BeOS or expectations of Haiku.

I am looking forward to Haiku being my media OS, on modern hardware, with multiple fast CPUs and high memory. I am also looking forward to better networking than I know BeOS has now. In my earlier use of BeOS I never used it for networking or connecting to the internet, and had no knowledge of the problems others had and continue to have with it.

I have always felt BeOS was brilliant for scientific visualisation, as is done often on SGI and Sun workstations, especially for biochemistry. To use Haiku for the same purpose(s) is to me logical, and I hope this becomes a real possibility one day.

The area of artificial intelligence has always interested me, as has clustering; I am convinced Haiku could fulfill this application as well. I have often mused that if Be, Inc. had shifted focus to a "BeAI", instead of a "BeIA", things might have evolved differently.

An embeddable appliance-oriented Haiku? Why not, if people need it? A server/router/gateway OS? If it is possible I would use it.

What of Zeta ?

In the future is it possible to unite an opensource OS and a commercial one ?
Different kinds of licensing in a combined OS of Haiku and Zeta interests me.

Reading the official Haiku OS website FAQ and what is said in various chat rooms regarding Haiku, I can say all of my expectations are reasonable. It is open source and can be compiled to suit any specific set of purposes or needs. So far Haiku is an x86-only Operating System, but I know it can be compiled for other platforms such as Power PC.

What does all of this add up to? I think Haiku will impress me as much as BeOS originally did, and I look forward to seeing it develop into a full-fledged Operating System. I have made a point of not discussing any technical details of OS design here, without too much emphasis or analysis. Instead, I have discovered the inherent beauty in how BeOS has changed the way I use all operating systems completely. To that end, I feel Haiku will change the way many people use their computers.

TBJ How do I make BeOS look like this - Page 8,V

2004-04-15T10:15:00.000Z

Hello all,
I will have to read this topic a few times before I think I have an understanding of it all.

But I will declare now, I never worked for Be, do not work for Palm, or anyone else. I am not a copyright lawyer either but I feel this forum needs a separate paralegal page something like Groklaw.

I run BeOS 5.0.3.

On an IBM thinkpad, (so my hardware is not a copy either :) )

With Windows 2k Sp4 (I hacked the boot screen, it says Longhorn M4 ), with Cygwin Unix/X11 on that (winBe if I ever find out how to compile it), SuSE 8.2/9/Sun Java OS Linux, and QNX 6.2.

The SCO Group case against IBM, Novell, Redhat and others is scary.

At the time I purchased my OS's and all the applications and drivers, everything was legal, publicly available for free or fee, and in worldwide usage.

I have installed and setup up systems for other people, for some 12 years now. I streamline an OS and it's shell by cutting out anything it can live without. I keep it up to date by upgrading software and hardware.

I am legally allowed to do this because when I pay for a product the manufacturer has a contract with me to have provided a service or device which will perform the functions I have been led to believe it is designed for.

For a computer, that list of functions it extremely big and complex.

If any one claims their computer device, or OS is a multimedia one, it has to perform audio and video and graphics.

If a desktop, (more than implying DTP), it better handle foreign scripts, including ligature stacks (Sanskrit, Tibetan), right to left (Arabic, Hebrew) and top to bottom (Mongolian, Japanese). And display that on screen, and be able to print it.

If internet able, the device or OS has to support network protocols and devices, and be prepared to keep up to date in all developments, especially now for the increased need for security against new models of virus and worm designs that will cut through our antivirus and firewalls like a razor to silk, and even more important, for wireless and DSL products.

To what extent are the various post Be versions illegal, when without necessary modifications, the product is no longer usable ?

Will Palm sue me for installing Bone ?

I haven't yet, but without I'm never going to be able to use my Speedtouch 545 DSL gateway/router, via ethernet eepro100, or orinoco wireless pcmcia.

Without an upgraded TCP/IP protocol stack, BeOS is vulnerable to Distributed Reflected Denial of Service Attacks, and therefore, to run a system capable of breaking international law and causing damage to other people's intellectual property is in itself illegal in several countries, and will be in a lot more soon.

The responsibility for damage caused by a compromised PC, called sometimes zombie, may fall on the owner of the PC, not the author of the system service with the security flaw.

Will Palm sue me for installing a network stack that might prevent more of their intellectual property being leaked or stolen ?

I have no moral stance here, I am trying to be purely pragmatic.

If the work done by individuals since the sale of Be Inc., including that legally definable as theft, is preventing the same intellectual property theft from happening on a much wider scale, Palm are unlikely to waste court time and expenses on, as one journalist recently stated "bizzare legal actions against communities of volunteer programmers".

I have spent some 24 years using various computer platforms, the entire subject is at the same stage of evolution as an adolescent teenager, that still needs help to change it's clothing.

I got tired of Microsoft a long time ago. They write brilliant programming languages and applications, but should never have gone into the OS market.

Linux and Unix should have scrapped the X windowing system in 1994, ten years later others are waking up to this, but X11 on Unix/Linux is the only reason I can see for the problems in X11 on BeOS, or Windows, or Qnx, and the only problem I have with KDE.

BeOS and QNX are by comparison extremely superior in stability with respect to their intended usage, as embeddable Media and RealTime Fault Tolerant OS's.

And it looks like BeOS has no certain future, because of exactly what ?

This is where I invite all of you in this topic to answer me.

Will Palm release BeOS 5.2 ?

If so, for which platforms ?

To ignore X86 and PPC is to devoid a large and valid code base of a widespread platform.

To concentrate on Palm devices and ignore Nokia would cut their market in half.

Finally, two months ago a user in New York asked how to modify the bitmaps used for window elements on their BeOS desktop.

During this time, a lot of people who probably are very good at their work, a few of whom may have worked for or with Be, and from what I can gather have made valuable contributions to the functionality of the OS, have been locked in a near personal war of politics not unlike the flame wars in asian Linux user groups recently.

Some of you are possibly capable of writing something like Windowblinds for BeOS. In the two months this discussion took, a pro could have got a beta out (If the pro programmer had no family, infinite finance and servants ? :) )

I possibly will contact some of the people who posted in this topic in the future (watchout - if I get my BeOS time machine embedded in my Nokia, I will question you in the past :) ) because I have loads of driver problems et cetera and a few of you seem to be very good at writing or rewriting BeOS.

My final question goes to the original poster tbb,

Did you get an useful answer to your question ?