While those of us who know how to wield the Internet wisely will have arrived at this conclusion, I still meet many people on a regular basis (especially women) that will try to challenge those ideas.

I don't blame them for thinking that way, the fitness industry has conditioned an entire generation into thinking cardio is the way to go and that high rep work with pink dumbbells is how you 'tone'.

The more articles there are like this, the more likely we will see a shift in how everyone tries to get fit.

My first coding book was c++ in 21days (HAH!). It did cover the basics pretty well but it took me a long time before the abstraction of objects really sunk in and templates I don't think we're especially well covered.

I probably bit off more than I could chew at the time, but I stuck with it because I was so hellbent on game programming. I didn't end up in game dev, but I think I became a better developer after spending so much time with a low level language.

So OpenGL ES (Embedded systems) was not different enough? I actually think OpenGL ES didn't go far enough in the initial spec.

ES 1.1 still has alot of the old fixed function pipeline, but then in 2.0 they scrapped it all entirely, opting for a smaller, more modern API. That, to me, was a bad move. I think they should've made the shader based pipeline in 2.0 part of the 1.1 spec.

Interesting. I hear what you are saying.

To contradict everything I've said elsewhere on compatibility - I'm actually in favor of the 1.0/1.1 OpenGL ES standards and would have liked WebGL to offer 1.1.

My self deceiving justification in this instance is that plenty of platforms that can touch the web are still running hardware only capable of fixed function (eg. Intel 945GM).

Fixed function is easy to make safe, and offers a path to leverage 3d acceleration on these platforms that cannot be beaten in software. Sure its not as exciting as 3d with programmable shaders, but it is still useful 3d none the less.

Fixed function is no easier to make safe than shaders so that's a false assumption.

OpenGL ES 1.1 on JavaScript would be a joke. Do you really think JavaScript is up to tens of thousands of

   glVertex
   glColor
   glNormal

calls per model per frame?

The rest of the graphics world left OpenGL 1.x long ago. OpenGL 4.0 has none of the fixed function stuff in it anymore either.

Using fixed function features in 2012 is like using oldskool 80s BASIC with line numbers and no functions as your programming language.

It's time to move on.

I've delivered a paid contract that would say otherwise =)

(Not OpenGL ES1.1 but a similar narrow API. One frame latency penalty in my case as the calls enter a staging area for analysis one frame before tiling and dispatch).

Dont forget the original iPhone also has been fully sandboxed OpenGL ES1.x

So its already been done.

Things like PCC (NaCl) and Xax (to a lesser degree) also reveal surprising results as you would know.

OpenGL ES 1.1 != OpenGL 1.1

OpenGL ES 1.1 does not have support for immediate mode, thus no glBegin/glEnd and no glVertex etc. It's just VBO:s.

Do note that fixed function does not mean same as immediate mode (which is what the glVertex etc calls are all about).

Based on Wikipedia, the 945GM has a GMA950, which supports Pixel Shader 2.0. That should be enough for WebGL.

At that point, the issue is more likely to be driver quality. Allowing people to use weird fixed-function corner cases of the OpenGL spec would make problems more likely.

Are you kidding? The 945GM doesn't have fixed-function hardware! The entire 3D pipeline save for the shaders is implemented in _software_.

Intel didn't even add fixed-function hardware until the GMA X3000 series in the G/GM965 and GL960 chipsets. Hell, it looks like they removed it in everything since the i740.

I do believe the RBA was going to investigate this [1]. If they do anything about it is something else entirely however..

[1] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/reserve-bank-is-investigati...

As a former e-commerce web dev, I cant begin to tell you how much this was sorely needed in Australia. Best of luck to you!

Theres no reason this couldn't be a user permissions thing like the geolocation API's. If the user wants a particular page to have autoplay enabled, then the user should have the choice.

If anyone is interested in a more informative video from Lustig, I'd recommend this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wSu6U8OzPk

Its long, but it covers a lot more information and history of this fine mess we're in..

I think this is more symptomatic of IT in Australia. There are pockets of good developers here and there but far and away, the majority of developers in Australia are being paid well above their grade.

This popped up in my twitter feed not too long ago: http://readify.net/our-experience/seek

Apparently a team of 35 developers couldn't get Git working.. or mercurial.. or even SVN! And had to outsource source control to another company (I'm probably being unfair, the Devs may or may not have had a say in the matter).

Disclaimer: I'm a Principal Consultant with Readify.

I'm not familiar with this particular project, however I'd like to clarify a bit based on our engagement focus. Organisations like SEEK engage us to help improve development team process, with tooling on the side to support it.

While the case study talks about them engaging us to help with source control, it doesn't talk about an inability to get something like Git, Hg or SVN working. Instead, it talks to them getting some external advise about effecting an organisational change in their development teams. We also likely brought experience/scripts to help migrate their history from whichever ageing system they were in.

TL;DR: The SEEK devs wouldn't need us to come and help them just install an SCM and leave.

haha - knowing some of the Readify guys to be very skilled your judgment might not be 100% founded, but i have definitely experienced the "pockets" of which you speak.

I wonder what types of exercise trigger this effect and to what degree. Off the top of my head (going by their descriptions) team sports would be ideal not just for the exercise but the constant situational analysis, team work, running plays etc would increase the workload on the brain.

I think its a little from both columns. The US government makes Jons job alot easier than it has any right to.. and that scares me...

The US government has been a staple of comedy for many, many years.

See: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers His quotes from 80 years ago still sound timely.

I dunno who this guy is, but he sure is funny:

This would be a great time in the world for some man to come along that knew something.

You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.