World: r3wp

lots of cheap HD movies

Very  good and cheap for upconverting regular DVDs.

Google creates protability API for its apps - http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Google-Creates-Portability-API-for-Its-Apps/

I see that UNICON ( the language ) if yet to move to UNICODE in spite 
of its strong string handling and back-tracking features (co-routines, 
co-expressions)

There are remarkable similarities to REBOL ( ignoring its use of 
keywords such as &pos )
A recent variant is converge from Lawrence Tratt

Of course there is a big ISP named UNICON and someone has a DSL named 
UNICON

There is supposed to be a MAC version of ICON called PRO ICON ... 
I couldn't find it

My latest urban myth: that the name REBOL evolved from IDOL, the 
ICON pre-processor ( SNOBOL, ICON, IDOL, REBOL )

All good coders should know of Dr. Ralph and of "farberisms"  ;)

I was a big fan of Icon back before there was REBOL, but that goal-directed 
evaluation made Icon harder to debug than any other language in practical 
use, including assembler. That experience made it a lot easier to 
write PARSE code though :)

I came to REBOL from Icon also. Icon lacked communications abilities, 
and was not being developed.  It was great for working with strings, 
however.

Interesting

http://gizmodo.com/368651/new-video-of-bigdog-quadruped-robot-is-so-stunning-its-spooky

Looks like two Chinese dancers in black pants facing each other, 
running around with a big car-like box over their heads....which 
is cool!

Reichart, you like strange things, don't you? ;-)

: )

In a Swedish blog someone wrote a comment that the robot looked like 
two drunk guys carrying a sofa :P Then about half the people were 
worried that Iran/Iraq would copy it and put guns on it, and the 
other half were worried that USA would but guns on it. Either way 
it would probably only bring death, misery and oppression :)

it looks like they need to work on the engine. if you are at war 
in the desert, and you hear the noise of a chainsaw in the distance, 
time to bring out the guns.

Silent gun mounted versions are only a few years away.  Welcome to 
the start of the "new warrior"

I want an army of battle droids as first seen in STAR WARS Episode 
I. ;-)
Roger roger!

At least they could bore the enemy to death with the continuous "Roger 
roger", so noone would go to war anymore. :-)

Robots will be outlawed soon (yes, I said soon)... I give it less 
than 10 years.  I write it here for the record....
You will need permits to own or build them, etc...

In Italy you can buy a still for distill home-brew but only if you 
leave on the label which says that it is illegal to distill spirits 
with that still ( according to en.wikipedia on moonshine)

what's the definition of a robot?

I think he refers to autonomous machines, rather than just any machine 
that resembles a human or an animal :) http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/robot

Motorola loosers - http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/motorola-insider-tells-all-about-the-fall-of-a-technology-icon/

Gee; and posted before April 1.   Vista not gaining; surprise surprise. 
 Can we finally start to shrink a monopoly?

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/windows_a_monopoly_shakes.html

it would be so wonderful if they would just start from scratch with 
a new OS. just from scratch. screw compatibility. it will be a pain 
for a few years, but it will do them and us good in the end. I know 
they can do that.

Or ...  start using an OS that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and 
where the primary concern is better software (or maybe, simple "Hey 
look what I wrote ... I'm smart"), not lock in.  :)

I still hold MS directly responsible for the early demise of OS/2. 
  Well, that and Homer Simpson's Compuglobalhypermeganet

I'm not so sure, MS with its current configuration can make a good 
OS from scratch. Too many cooks.

They have plenty of great engineers. It's how they use them that's 
wrong. They could produce 10 times more software than they do now, 
if things were organized right. Things seem to work out quite well 
in the gaming department, from what I hear from various XBox gamers.

I love Vista  and think it gets a bum rap.

I guess it burned me too many times in the less than 10 times I've 
used it.  Note;  I only diss MS due to the predatory practises of 
"suffer no other software to live".  That is just bad for everyone. 
 MS included - how can they beg, borrow and steal innovation if no 
one is around to innovate for them.  And take a close look; name 
me one innovation that has come out of MS.  One.  With 50,000 employees 
you'd think one or two original ideas would have escaped by now.

popup menus

I kinda figured there had to be at least one.  So I'll stand corrected, 
but not change of stance.  :)

http://www.google.com/virgle/index.htmlGoogle on Mars.

Virgin and Google  virgle.   Sounds pretty cool.  And sounds like 
Mars may end up being an MS free zone  :)

Alas REBOL may also be excluded.   OR I'm being sucked into a well 
orchestrated April Fools Joke.  Have to wait till tomorrow to see.

LOL 1. of april. I didn't connect it with that project until now. 
Let's see tomorrow. :-)

From the bottom of  the FAQ page ... this is realy a well done hoax/not 
hoax ... can't tell
http://www.google.com/virgle/error.html

You....can't....tell???  Brian...Brian....Brian....dude...


We feel that ensuring the survival of the human race by helping it 
colonize a new planet is both a moral good in and of itself and also 
the most likely method of ensuring the survival of our best – okay, 
fine, only -- base of web search volume and advertising inventory,” 
Page added. “So, you know, it's, like, win-win.

Well I'm gullible; and I'm staying that way.  Innocent until proven 
guilty.  :)

: )

Lua has a module for VisualStudio ... http://www.itrango.com/vslua/
 as does Haskell ... I can't imagine it is a help to Haskell but 
it could be good for Lua.  Then again, some people might move to 
Haskell from F# for VisualStudio....  http://www.haskell.org/visualhaskell/
   and I think I saw an APress book on F#  http://research.microsoft.com/fsharp/vsmode.aspx

IDolEct  is not the same as Ipse Dixit Etcetera

idiolect, that is ... guy can't even type ... or spell ...

Now this is cute - it is almost Rebolish ...   http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/markaby/
But it also is not HAML

Pop-up menus came from RISC OS

Sigh. Why should MS or all the others create a better OS if a new 
one is already available?

Remember that it takes a decade to do such a thing

For those that collect programming languages;  HoltSoft the developers 
of Turing have gone out of business.  Dr Holt has moved on.  Turing 
is in wide spread use amongst Ontario High Schools.  (Sad, my home 
province pumped out an entire generation of programmers of a dead 
training language)  Anyway, they had posted it free for non-commercial 
use  on their website, which is now shutdown.   The admin of compsci.ca 
has posted it to their forum board.  This could well be a time limited 
offer.   I don't know all the details of Turing, but this version 
was commercial and proprietary before the shutdown announcement and 
posting of the free copies.   http://compsci.ca/holtsoft/

thanks.  Was it used only in Grade 14?  My fear is that UNICON could 
become a 'collectible' ( we pronounce it as in 'honey-comb' - sweet 
and well-constructed ).  No 'but the users suck big-time" jokes, 
OK?

I'm not real sure, but some of the people on the compsci forum mention 
learning it right it grade 9, some in 10, some in 11.  Again, it 
seems to be Ontario.   Let's hope UnIcon lives to a ripe old age. 
 Turing, not so sure; it was designed for teaching but as we all 
know; you're first is hard to forget and it may take on a life of 
its own, similar to the whole Pascal field.

and so I find TXL at http://www.txl.ca/