This Site

[blakespot]

( in response to a query by ' agreenster ' )

Macrumors was started by arn in early 2000. It runs on the LAMP system (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP) running on an AMD K6-2 server. There are no users who pay for access, but donations are accepted (the MacRumors 2001-2002 commemorative mug, etc.) and there are ads in place. But as arn stated, only recently has the revenue come even near the breakeven point.

I am an assitant "God" who helps arn maintain the site. There are a few users with the ability to manage forum threads who helpout as well. It's much fun and the site has grown enormously in popularity over the past months.

I run a site not totally unakin to this one called iPodHacks (http://www.ipodhacks.com) and a few other various odd-and-ends-ish sites linkable at blakespot.com (http://www.blakespot.com).




blakespot

[edited by arn... made some corrections]

[agreenster]

So the question of the day is: When is your server going to be powered by OSX? :eek:

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by agreenster
So the question of the day is: When is your server going to be powered by OSX? :eek:

he he he....that's the issue we were trying to push yesterday...

we were discussing how it would work for the site to run on a XServe...but Arn declined the idea...may not be a bad idea to give it time anyway...;)

[Mr. Anderson]

This might be a case for 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Give the XServes some time to get up and going in the market, and who knows, maybe it will happen all by itself. But Apple isn't going after the net servers, they have other plans it seems.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by dukestreet
This might be a case for 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Give the XServes some time to get up and going in the market, and who knows, maybe it will happen all by itself. But Apple isn't going after the net servers, they have other plans it seems.

I completely agree....it just seemed like a good idea when Alpha presented it to me...

our Apple reseller is starting to get us interested for the print shop....but even he's saying give it time so we can see how they do...but he's liking it I know...

he'll have one before long no doubt....I'll let u guys know how it is when I get to check it out... ;)

[Beej]

Uh... you guys do realise that if everyone decides to sit back and wait to see what happens, the Xserve gear will fall flat on its face, don't you? :p

[Ensign Paris]

Originally posted by Beej
Uh... you guys do realise that if everyone decides to sit back and wait to see what happens, the Xserve gear will fall flat on its face, don't you? :p

That is actually quite true, we are going for xserve servers at work but we decided (or should I say, the boss decided) to wait until XServe Raid is out because they looks soooo powerful :)

Ensign

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by Beej
Uh... you guys do realise that if everyone decides to sit back and wait to see what happens, the Xserve gear will fall flat on its face, don't you? :p

No it won't. Apple is going to get 'success' stories and flesh out the product line so this won't happen. What do you think will happen with Pixar puts out its next animated movie and Apple gets recognition for doing all the rendering?

I think they'll be ok.

[agreenster]

Originally posted by dukestreet

What do you think will happen with Pixar puts out its next animated movie and Apple gets recognition for doing all the rendering?

Well, unless Pixar suddenly decides to port RenderMan® to the Mac platform, there's going to be NO rendering on XServe boxes at Pixar. Last I checked, RenderMan is Unix/Linux ONLY. Not saying it can't be done, just saying it hasnt happened YET.

Im pretty darned sure Pixar doesnt use Apple products for any of its production. Some of the management uses Apple, but not production.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by agreenster

Well, unless Pixar suddenly decides to port RenderMan® to the Mac platform, there's going to be NO rendering on XServe boxes at Pixar. Last I checked, RenderMan is Unix/Linux ONLY. Not saying it can't be done, just saying it hasnt happened YET.

Im pretty darned sure Pixar doesnt use Apple products for any of its production. Some of the management uses Apple, but not production.

Well that sucks. I was under the impression that RenderMan® was available for the Macs. Damn.

Who else could use the XServe that Apple could benefit from for good publicity? They'll need to get someone well respected, in the medias eye in some fashion. That was basically my point.

[agreenster]

RenderMan, for those who have never used it (and Duke, you should find this interesting) is a rendering program developed by Pixar. It creates a '.rib' file for each frame of an animation which then calls on compiled 'shaders' (.slc) for the objects in the scene. You have absolute control over each frame, object, light, etc to create the effects you see in movies like Monsters Inc, Bug's Life, and even HollowMan.

Not just Pixar uses RenderMan, nearly every major production house uses it, and pay a liscence and support fee to Pixar for each copy. ($$$$ yeah) The program is all text driven, written in a language very similar to C. There are only two books (that I know of) on RenderMan, and they are a difficult read to those who dont know much programming. The one I have is written by Tony Apodaca, and we used it for my 'RenderMan Class' in college. Damn if I cant remember the name (its out in my car!:)) There is also a condensed version of a RenderMan tutorial called "RenderMan for Poets" that you can download from Pixar I think.

Point is, I think it would be easy to port RenderMan to the Mac (cause of UNIX), but it wouldnt be an application like we would expect. Its basically just a code engine that renders a frame of animation, one rib at a time. The power of RenderMan, lies in its absolute open-ness, where nearly anything can be done if you know enough code and math.

After taking that class, I realized that it is way more fun to animate, and to leave the shading to the geeks. (did I say that out loud?)

[iGav]

Well, unless Pixar suddenly decides to port RenderMan® to the Mac platform, there's going to be NO rendering on XServe boxes at Pixar. Last I checked, RenderMan is Unix/Linux ONLY. Not saying it can't be done, just saying it hasnt happened YET.

Apple will probably buy it then and make it OSX only!!! heh heh!! :p

[Beej]

Originally posted by iGAV


Apple will probably buy it then and make it OSX only!!! heh heh!! :p That would be weird... Steve's company buys Steve's other company's technology. Pixar and Apple could meger into one company:

Steve, Inc.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by iGAV


Apple will probably buy it then and make it OSX only!!! heh heh!! :p

Renderman has been around for years - 80s if I remember correctly. When I was in school I had some affiliation with OSU's Advanced Center for Computer Arts and Design - Basically an animation facility on campus that had a Cray among the SGI's for the rendering. Huge building, I'm sure its still there, but nothing like I remember it.

But that was the way you used to animate, all through coding. Its not directly intuitive, the GUIs that we take for granted today are so much better than what they had back then. What is truly amazing, is that Renderman survived the transition to the GUI, and Apple could never release an iRenderman unless they upgraded the whole thing.

[Beej]

I think RenderMan is a bit too complicated to make into an iApp! Perhaps a slimed version... iRenderChild, maybe?

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by Beej
I think RenderMan is a bit too complicated to make into an iApp! Perhaps a slimed version... iRenderChild, maybe?

why not just make it RenderPawn?! :D

[agreenster]

While I was taking my RenderMan class, one of the objectives was to create a little animation (cube rotating, sphere translating, etc) just using coding. Plus, you had to make the texture/bump map do something while all of this was going on. We used procedural shaders and wrote little render engines that would do all of this frame by frame.

Talk about a pain in the ass. Thank God for Maya, Lightwave, C4D, 3DS etc, and all the nerds who made it happen. 3D is JUST NOW starting to become more user friendly and truly mainstream. It has been a long transition from the code base it started out as to the nice GUIs we see today.

Renderman isnt exactly necessary for most amateur production. The built-in render engines that come with most apps do the trick. RenderMan exists for the really high end guys who know what they are doing. Maya does export .ribs if you want to tweak the render though.

One thing that is amazing, is that Pixar has done ALL of their films with RMan, which isnt even a raytracer. All of the reflections and effects you see are all maps and complex coding. it saves on rendertime that way. Crazy, huh?

[mymemory]

Hey, why don't you ask Apple for a server? Just write a cover letter telling them what the site is about, give them the link, projections, traffic, etc. This site is very good for them... ASK FOR SOME OF YOUR MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!

Just prepare a letter with a very nice presentation and contact the appropiate department. Send a few letters and make some noise, ask for a server and make a deal with them may be.

Find the business in your hobbie.

[Ensign Paris]

Originally posted by mymemory
Hey, why don't you ask Apple for a server? Just write a cover letter telling them what the site is about, give them the link, projections, traffic, etc. This site is very good for them... ASK FOR SOME OF YOUR MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!

Just prepare a letter with a very nice presentation and contact the appropiate department. Send a few letters and make some noise, ask for a server and make a deal with them may be.

Find the business in your hobbie.

That is actually a good idea, I am not sure how Apple would react, try steve@mac.com I have got responces from there quite often (I send ideas etc...)

Ensign

[eyelikeart]

has anyone else noticed the time is way off?! :confused:

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
has anyone else noticed the time is way off?! :confused:

Seems ok to me, EST.

[mymemory]

Why don't you place a Google search engine in the home page for me to use macrumors as a defoult web site in th IE?

[Ensign Paris]

Originally posted by mymemory
Why don't you place a Google search engine in the home page for me to use macrumors as a defoult web site in th IE?

That would be a good idea, can you do affiliate with google? they could make some extra money then :)

Update: Try having a look at - http://www.google.com/services/sponsored_links.html & http://www.google.com/services/free.html

I really should do some work.

Ensign