the web has come far..

[piratePenguin]

I admit I don't know much about Java script other than it's an interpreted language executed in a VM.

Yes, I imagine it's possible to make a Java VM in hardare inwhich case it would no longer be a VM but a real machine and agree that it will not be an easy task. All I can say is that, if you decide to take an electronics course, do a module on FPGAs, team up with some of your fellow students, write a hardware JS processor yourself and release it under a FOSS licence of course.

I've done a Google and most of the results are focused on graphics acceleration but Arm have such a technology.
http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/jazelle.php

It would be cool to have Java code running at native speed.

Yeah, it would be cool to take a class on FPGAs. I study maths and won't get that opportunity, but it could be something I should study by myself sometime. There is already a bunch of GPL code around, see opencores or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware
Opencores has a project to create a hardware Java processor too: http://opencores.org/project,jop I've no idea about it's success, or how it would compare to ARM Jazelle but I would expect Jazelle to be better (as I said I expect these to be big tasks, but probably tasks that will eventually be seen to by the big players in the industry - these technologies becoming more central to devices e.g. mobiles, TVs could almost entirely render using web technologies (see for e.g. http://www.svgopen.org/2010/papers/75-SVG_for_IPTV/ )), but even so what use would it be compared to running the software java VM on a modern day cpu? Will it necessarily be faster? (of course a chip would free up the cpu up a little bit and that's a consideration, but is it that important?)

It's in fact probable that arm or intel have or are creating chips for devices that can speed up web browsers on devices, most devices use chips to assist with video decoding and things like that, it makes sense if these devices are used to view more complex web apps, to go that direction with handling them too.

lead head, http://rawkes.com/experiments/google-bouncing-balls-canvas/ pretty sweet

[hm_murdock]

Maybe I'm mostly just pissy over the fact that I'm actually going to have to finally buy a new computer. And for what? To do some crummy websites because some jackass at the newspaper I'm submitting to thought it'd be a great idea to have some internet shit rather than just emailing stuff.

They will remain nameless, but these people embody everything I hate about people who embrace new technology without regard for what it is, how it works, or if it's even worth using. The only way to keep in touch with the editors and reporters is asshole Facebook. This is a bitch because then when I send in an important question, it gets mixed in among all the retards who liked the photo from the KLBJ FM remote that the newspaper went out and "covered." That is the editor went out and shmoozed at the titty bar and got drunk, but took a notepad and pencil so they could say they were covering the event.

I digress in a serious and massive manner.

HTML5 sadly is at the same time the best of the up-and-coming web techs, and the one that I'll never see on this old fogie. My old OS, OS X 10.4.11 has been utterly left behind despite having its last update in 2007. I guess it really cheeses me off that there's still shit coming out for Windows XP, but Mac devs just fucking LOVE to leave behind users nowadays. It didn't used to be that way.

Maybe I should just slam a Hackintosh together, grin, and bear it.

Or give Opera a whirl. Maybe their browser lets my old rig do Aychtee Emell Five.

[piratePenguin]

Your phone surely provides a faster web experience than your computer!

If Opera doesn't work.. there's always the linux road! Wouldn't hold a huge expectation for performance except with a distro like DSL maybe..

[hm_murdock]

It sure does, but it can't do everything I want at once. I can look at web pages on a tiny screen, then somehow make my way over to Yahoo messenger and tap slowly on the touchscreen keyboard, then... What?

I can't get anything done on the phone, it's just a little thing that lets me keep in touch with people. A computer lets me actually get things done.

The problem is that Linux abandoned the old ideas of scalability. I think that OS X 10.4 runs quickly enough. It doesn't lag for me. I can use Word and get things typed, and thankfully it still saves to RTF so I can continue to annoy editors and publishers with the excuse, "Word still opens RTF, so it's technically a Word file. Don't like RTF? Convert it yourself."

[piratePenguin]

Let's back up on those reasons advancing web technologies is important . . .
It enables more bigger badder web applications. The only two universal platforms barring trash like Java and considering only desktops and laptops, are the web and Windows, I don't think Mac users should be dumping on the web with that in mind (the only universal platform including mobile devices is the web or Java). Also, the web is accessible, and I don't even mean for disabled people: people are 100x more likely to check out a website than to install and run an application. Name me a piece of software that has as many users as Facebook: Windows probably fits the bill and that's it. If Facebook was designed to require any more effort to get set up on, I'd rekon that we'd never have heard of it. If I wanted to show off an application, how many percent of people are likely to click a link, download, and run? How many people are likely to click a link and view an app if it's in web-form? For some context, Mozilla have done studies that show that huge percentages of people run the Firefox installer and don't even finish it (say 10%, that's about how many million people?). Growth explosions that occur on the web are like nothing in history, because it's a universal place, and it's so simple to spread what you enjoy to other people. Social networking sites and free massively collaborated encyclopedias wouldn't work if people needed to do work for them to get exposure or growth. Anything that takes you out of the web browser is work. That is actually peoples understanding now. Now the applications they can get inside the browser are, ok, maybe not so suitable for computers from the 90s, but they are above desktop software at ease to try out enabling growth that desktop software never sees, and they are more powerful than they ever were. That's important.

(and that's why I don't wanna know about C or Python anymore)

These improvements are the only thing that makes the web competitive as a platform (and there's a lot more needed to be done). And that's the only hope for a free universal platform. Flash and Java can work for an unfree universal platform. But otherwise all bar Windows users will have to make do with apps that are offered, that's nothing but a step backwards.