Sivasubramanian Muthusamy's Blog

April 2007 Archives

Coca Cola and Java

If Java powers 4.5 billion devices including 800 million computers, 1.5 billion mobile devices and 2.2 billion smart cards, then more people use Java than the number of people who have EVER tasted Coca Cola ONCE.

Relatively speaking, Java is unknown. Why?

Laptop for the World's Children

Two days ago I had a glimpse of the AMD Geode processor and while looking for information stumbled upon the One Laptop Per Child (www.laptop.org) project founded by MIT Media Lab's Nicholas Negroponte and the project is all about a $100 laptop built around a AMD Geode processor with a feature list that is fascinating.

The laptop looks pretty stylish. Weighs less than 1.5 KG, convertible laptop with pivoting, reversible display; dirt- and moisture-resistant system enclosure featuring an AMD Geode LX-700@0.8W 433 Mhz, 256 MiB dynamic RAM, 1024KB SPI-interface flash ROM, 1024 MiB SLC NAND flash as mass storage, high-speed flash controller, 7.5” Dual-mode TFT display with a 1200x900 200 DPI resolution, a sealed rubber-membrane key-switch assembly keyboard, dual apacitance/resistive touchpad; supports written-input mode, AC97-compatible audio codec; stereo, with dual internal speakers; Marvell Libertas 88W8388+88W8015, 802.11b/g compatible wireless; dual adjustable, rotating coaxial antennas; supports diversity reception, 640×480 resolution, 30FPS video camera 1A max power total, 5 cell 6 V battery, sort of a temperature proof design. Looks stylish.

The software ? I copy and paste below:

Components from Red Hat's Fedora Core 6 version of the Linux operating system; we are tracking the main kernel fairly closely. We will support five programming environments on the laptop: (1) Python, from which we have built our user interface and our activity model; (2) Javascript for browser-based scripting; (3) Csound, a programmable music and audio environment; (4) Squeak, a version of Smalltalk embedded into a media-rich authoring environment; and (5) Logo. We will also provide some support Java and Flash. Applications will include a web browser built on Xulrunner, the run-time environment used by the Firefox browser; a simple document viewer based upon Evince; the AbiWord wordprocessor, an RSS reader, an email client, chat client, VOIP client; a journal a wiki with WYSIWYG editing; a multimedia authoring and playback environment; a music composition toolkit, graphics toolkits, games, a shell, and a debugger. Libraries and plugins used by OLPC include Xul, GTK+, Matchbox, Sugar, Pango, ATK, Cairo, X Window System, Avahi, and gstreamer.

Sugar appears to have a original GUI "architecture" on its own, very creative....

$100. If Dell or HP were to introduce a similar laptop, (if this project didn't exist and if a similar product developed purely on a commercial context) the package of features and software and the style, would have caused them to consider pricing the product at a price in excess of $ 1000, justifiably so, perhaps with a little more powerful processor and slightly wider display.

Inspiring.

Java embedded Solaris.

In my previous post I asked an uneducated abstract question "Would there be greater harmony between the desktop interface and the application programs if Java Desktop happens to be the desktop interface in a Sun Solaris machine? Because there is an "already-java" environment in the machine (machine in layman's terms)?

The summary of the responses is that Java Desktop is not rich in Java code and so it doesn't make sense.

I am asking a little more educated question (just a little more) here:

Java programs are compiled for the Java Virtual Machine into Java byte code first. For the Java bytecode to work, a Windows version of Java Interpreter has to installed in Windows, a Linux version of Java Interpreter has to be installed in Linux...

Q:

Is the same sequence followed for Sun Solaris ?

If yes, then I would wonder why. (If you are not aware or forgotten, Sun owns Java. Sun owns Solaris.)

There may be Java variations such as IBM's, but Java as it is is Sun's own. Why wouldn't Sun take the Java Interpreter to the core of Solaris which is also its own? I am striking a difference between installing a Java Interpreter on an O/S from integrating an interpreter like instruction mechanism into the very core of the Operating System.

It is like making it unnecessary for Solaris to have a Java interpreter. (Would you need a translator by your side to translate English into English?) It is like weaving the Java execution capability right into the very core of the kernel of Solaris Operating System. That would result in a significant difference between the way Solaris runs Java from the way another Operating System runs Java.

I know that technically it can be done. But I don't know if it is already done.

In this scenario, would Sun Solaris "speak" Java like its mother tongue, as compared with other operating systems???

Java Everywhere invisible and on the Desktop visible....

Even before a computer has the Java Desktop environment, there is already so much of Java in that computer - in any computer, unix or windows.

Java is all over. There is Java in the computer in so many forms - Java Run Time environment, Java Browser componets, and Java is the language behind several application programs in the computer.

When a Java Desktop is installed in this "already-java" environment, the machine speaks one language - Java... Of course it is not all Java, but what i am saying is that there would be a harmonious interaction between the desktop interface and the application software....

Does this theory make sense ???

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