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Re: [News] Microsoft takes another shot at JPEG with HD Photo format

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote
on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 23:13:13 +0000
<5844078.mDS1T5K0qT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> __/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Thursday 08 March 2007 22:30 \__
>
>> http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/03/08/microsoft_hd_photo/
>> 
>>     [...]
>> 
>>     JPEG is one of those dinosaurs in the IT industry that just won't go
>>     away. Supported by virtually any software and device that has to
>>     deal with image files, JPEG has been the standard for color-rich
>>     images for many years. Despite the fact that JPEG comes with several
>>     disadvantages, such as ugly artifacts in compressed images, the
>>     format remains more popular than PNG or JPEG 2000.
>> 
>>     Microsoft, however, believes it is the right time to once again try
>>     to replace JPEG with a more modern and more capable image format.
>>     Developed under the name "Windows Media Photo" the company released
>>     the specification for its "HD Photo" format in November of last
>>     year. Today, Microsoft published a plug-in that allows owners of a
>>     copy of Photoshop CS2 or CS3 to take the format for a spin.
>> 
>>     [...]
>> 
>>     HD Photo beta is offered as a free download and is compatible with
>>     Photoshop CS2 and CS3 as well as Windows Vista and XP. HD Photo is
>>     also included in Microsoft's .NET Framework 3.0.
>> 
>> Presumably, there are several other concerns.
>> 
>> [1] DRM.  Photos, after all, are copyrighted images.
>>     How is HD Photo addressing this problem?
>> 
>> [2] Encouragement for developers of Microsoft tools to
>>     generate HD Photo images instead of JPEG, PNG, or
>>     BMP images.
>> 
>> [3] Encouragement for developers of *websites* to use
>>     and generate HD Photo images.
>> 
>> [4] Encouragement of users to visit those websites,
>>     presumably by modification of the browser to disallow
>>     illegal visits to websites still providing other
>>     photos.
>> 
>> [5] How to slap Microsoft silly if it ever attempts
>>     some of these. :-)
>> 
>> [6] How to include support (including DRM, if applicable)
>>     for HD Photo in OSS code such as KDE/Qt, Gnome/Gtk, and
>>     Firefox widgets, should it even make sense to do so.
>
> Exactly. These are the concerns. DRM is one, but let's not
> forget that Microsoft can 'extend' this format at any time
> and poison the Web with it.  It already does it with its
> other new 'technologies'.
>

Depends on how loudly we scream.  OpenXML isn't exactly
getting the warm reception Microsoft might think it
deserves (that 6000+-page document might have something to
do with it).  C#'s standardization efforts are out there
but AFAICT largely laughed at.  Vista is arguably the
"new standard" of operating system design (FSVO "standard",
"operating system", and design), but XGL surpassed it some
time back.  ECMAscript / Javascript was actually taken, so
1 out of 4...

However, I'm using DRM in a generic sense.  Presumably,
the general idea of DRM is to manage digital rights,
though a specific protocol might be implemented to "help"
doing so.  Sony's attempt was pretty bad, for example,
and worsened because it tried to sneak it in surreptitiously.

But even the DRM concept is going over like a lead balloon.
A good chunk of that might very well be the more or less
unvoiced working assumption that we are all unauthorized
criminals for thinking about copying a song until the
beneficient Song God or Goddess says "Yes, you may,
little one".  Most people give up on that mindset sometime
near puberty.... :-)

-- 
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Error 16: Not enough space on file system to delete file(s)

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