Month: November 2005

This guy has a screenshot of the PS3 user interface, which shows a whole load of stuff going on in the background.

Apparently from the news conference from where it was taken, the demo was showing how the PS3 can simulataneously run and display multiple HDTV streams, a web browser, a PS2 game, and various other images on the screen at the same time. Wow – talk about information overload, but that is surely impressive.

Notice how the icons follow the same style as what is currently used on the PSP.

When the PS2 originally launched it was one of the cheapest DVD players out there, and many people bought the new console not just as a games machine, but as their DVD player also. When Sony launch the PS3 next year, they may be attempting the same strategy, but this time using the console as a platform to push the new Blu-Ray DVD format to the masses.

What is going to be interesting though is how much of a loss they will be willing to take per console sold in order to make the new format attractive, both to hardcore gamers and the occaisional gamer who is looking to get a next generation Blu-Ray DVD format player. Microsoft will also be doing the same in terms of making a loss per console sold when their XBox360 ships before the end of this year, and it still has to be seen how much of a gain they will get over the PS3 by shipping months earlier.

I’ve been reading overview articles about Ruby and in particular Ruby on Rails, the web development framework on steroids, so I’ve decided it’s time I need to start taking a look at what is going on. If anything, I am thinking I should be looking at the approach taken by Ruby on Rails so I can simplify development in my own Java development using J2EE technologies where possible, and depending on how things look, start to think about whether I should be considering developing new applications using Ruby on Rails.

The first thing that got my attention was this video on the Ruby on Rails site. This video walks through demonstrating creating a Weblog type application using Ruby and Ruby on Rails, from scratch, in about 15mins. This is truely incredible.

What seems to make a lot of sense is the extensive use of generated template code for typical functionality in a web app – entry forms coupled to database tables, scaffolding code to create and edit data, and pagination code for retrieving and displaying lists.

So I’ve just got a copy of ‘Agile Web Development with Rails’, and I’ve starting to learn Ruby at the same time. I’ve started to put together some language notes for quick reference as well, which you can find here.

A story on The Register’s site suggests that Google are thinking far beyond search engine technology, and may be looking to build web-enabled Office-type software (eg, word processing, spreadsheet functionality etc).

Chris DiBona, Google’s mananger for open source programs, stated that they are looking to hire people to help improving the open source Office alternative, OpenOffice. It is possible that Google employees have already been contributing effort to OpenOffice.

This is an interesting move, because this week, Gates annouced his vision for the direction of Microsoft Office entering the ‘live-era’, refering to the inclusion of live internet data feeds into Microsoft Office products. ‘Windows Live’ and ‘Office Live’ will also reintroduce the concept of web-enabled and web-delivered software by subscription, using the ‘download what you need’ type deployment model.

Will Google and Microsoft go head-to-head in this market space with competing products?