We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 <video> support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies. - Google's Chrome is will be joining Firefox in
no longer licensing the MPEG-LA H.264 video codec favoured by Apple and Microsoft for use in the HTML5 <video> tag (
previously).
Not everyone is seeing this as a good thing.
posted by Artw
on Jan 13, 2011 -
145 comments
'Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.' Dr. John P. A.
Ioannidis, adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine is a meta-researcher. 'He and his team have shown, again and again, and in many different ways, that much of what biomedical researchers conclude in published studies—conclusions that doctors keep in mind when they prescribe antibiotics or blood-pressure medication, or when they advise us to consume more fiber or less meat, or when they recommend surgery for heart disease or back pain—is misleading, exaggerated, and often flat-out wrong. He charges that as much as 90 percent of the published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed. His work has been widely accepted by the medical community; it has been published in the field’s top journals, where it is heavily cited; and he is a big draw at conferences.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Oct 18, 2010 -
68 comments
10k Apart — Fond memories of the 5K Awards resurface with this modern spin on the idea. It’s time to get back to basics — back to optimizing every little byte like your life depends on it. Your challenge? Build a web app in less than 10 kilobytes.
posted by netbros
on Aug 2, 2010 -
29 comments
Car companies were facing a variety of efficiency and emission standards throughout the United States, from the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, On May 19th, and then an even stricter emission standard from California and 13 other states (plus DC). On May 19th,
President Obama announced nation-wide new vehicle fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks through 2016. The goal is to rapidly increase fuel efficiency,without compromising safety, by an average of 5, culminating in 39 MPG for cars and 30 MPG for light trucks. Currently,
no auto makers are meet the final standards, though some are closer than others.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 28, 2009 -
85 comments
The State of the Web 2008 is a report from
Web Directions that includes details and analysis of all the responses to over 50 questions covering technologies, techniques, philosophies and practices that today’s web professionals employ. The survey was open for just under 3 weeks, from December 1st to 20th 2008. In total, over 1200 designers and developers from around the world responded to the survey. Respondents were likely to be self-educating, “early adopters” who keep abreast of developments in their field. Here are the
tabular results.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Jan 12, 2009 -
7 comments
It slipped through the cracks on my radar, but apparently the
IE8 team has met with some
web standards gurus and decided that in order to move forward with full standards compliance (and support the known quirks of IE6/7 for corporate intranets), a new "version targeting" system should be put in place. Other
browser vendors are not amused. Should IE
just give up? [more inside]
posted by revmitcz
on Feb 1, 2008 -
107 comments
Traditionally, media doesn't print names/photos of people only accused, but not yet convicted, but not always. Lots of towns have a police blotter section where arrests are listed.
Here in Seattle, the FBI recently
asked
the public for help in identifying two men seen acting suspicious on the ferry system. The
Seattle PI has decided not to publish the photos.
Other local media have. The
commentary on if the PI made the right choice follows predictable paths...
posted by nomisxid
on Aug 21, 2007 -
33 comments
24 Ways - 2006 Edition This year's possibly useful 24 articles containing 24 tips and tutorials for those of us who love CSS and other related web development techniques. Last year's links are included too.
posted by juiceCake
on Dec 30, 2006 -
4 comments
Usability Exchange -- a testing service determining site accessibility for disabled users. They're only in the UK now, but it seems like a great idea.
Organisations set up their tests online and submit them directly to disabled testers in our database. Testers are then free to complete these tests in their own time, earning money for each test they complete. As tests are completed by users, organisations can view test results, web page logs and other information in real time. More here at BBC, including some concerns.
posted by amberglow
on Mar 17, 2006 -
17 comments
Defining Deviancy Down In 1993, one of our greatest statesmen,
Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D- N.Y.) published one of the most important pieces of social theory entitled "
Defining Deviancy Down." Moynihan started from
Emile Durkheim's proposition that there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior any community can "afford to recognize" (called the "Durkheim Constant"). As the amount of deviancy increases, the community has to adjust its standards so that conduct once thought deviant is no longer deemed so. Consequently, if we are not vigilant about enforcing them, our standards would be constantly devolving in order to normalize rampant deviancy. Shortly after Moynihan's article,
Charles Krauthammer offered his now-famous
response to Moynihan's article in which he argued that the corollary is that society can also "define deviancy up."
Moynihan's theory has been applied to
movies,
courage,
dress codes,
sexual indiscretions,
corporate behavior, and possibly even to
webpages. One might feel compelled to ask, "
Do standards even mean anything?" Today, the debate still rages about where we ought to be
defeatist about the devolution of standards, or whether we can
right the boat by establishing base principles and
fight to raise standards up.
posted by Seth
on Jun 16, 2004 -
63 comments
Be happy MeFi has better standards than this. No, I have no interest in submitting works to these folks, and if I had, I wouldn't bother. And not in fear of rejection, but in embarrassment of simply reading their submission guidlines that only the Soup Nazi could appreciate. Have any MeFites ever come across guidelines such as this?
posted by bluedaniel
on Apr 3, 2003 -
42 comments
99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete An excerpt from an upcoming book by Mr. Zeldman in which he continues to argue the practice of standards compliance - "Held up as a Holy Grail of professional development practice, backward compatibility sounds good in theory. But the cost is too high and the practice has always been based on a lie." I enjoy his writing but he seems to be repeating himself as usual. Still, it is a good argument: where do we focus our priorities for future development - pure standards compliant CSS models, backwards compatibility, or somewhere in between? I know this has been
discussed before but thought it postworthy due to the new book and all.
posted by poopy
on Sep 6, 2002 -
110 comments
The
Web Standards Project is back, now in easy-to-swallow blog form. Stand up straight! Close that HTML tag! And wipe that silly browser off your hard drive, mister! And the
other one.
posted by gazingus
on Jun 11, 2002 -
17 comments
Perhaps AOL isn't that bad. I've never liked
AOL, but this recent
article makes me want to give the company a big hug. Finally, people are stepping up to the
Microsoft juggernaut and deciding to use other means to deliever content and run their own machines. AOL is trying to cut costs by migrating from UNIX and Windows to a
Linux environment on the server-side. On the client side, they will apparently be pushing the use of
Mozilla instead of their previous default browser, Internet Explorer. This has the potential to impact the web enormously, as AOL's 30 million subscribers will soon be using Mozilla as their browser. Web designers will have to start sticking to
w3c specs instead of using MSIE-specific coding, which will hopefully force Microsoft to follow the specs more closely. Begun this browser war has. (via
/.)
posted by Hammerikaner
on Mar 11, 2002 -
43 comments
