Attached Link: http://www.theruntime.com

It's OK in Firefoz..... Thanks for pointing that out, haven't opened IE for many a months.

Global stats for Feb, 2006, from thecounter.com 1. MSIE 6.x 215,492,603 (87%) 2. FireFox 15,410,437 (6%) 3. MSIE 5.x 7,860,624 (3%) 4. Safari 3,379,316 (1%) 5. Unknown 1,882,099 (1%) 6. Opera x.x 1,368,289 (1%) 7. Netscape comp. 970,693 (0%)

"...The next generation Millennium Figures should easily reinforce that theyre not just standard Poser figures, but that they are the standard for Poser figures." Dan Farr

That's a pretty brazen statement; the standard Poser figures ought to be the ones that come with the product! If E-Frontier has a new female figure in the hopper, they should get to market as soon as possible, especially if V4 fixes the glaring issues with the unimesh and if they provide some sort of conversion utility for textures and clothiing for V3 --> V4.

::::: Opera :::::

Message edited on: 03/12/2006 17:14

They are the 'standard' as in standard equipment that comes with every car. That's clearly different from a standard of excellence, which is obviously what he's talking about. The latter title is there for the taking but EF has to earn it and the customers are the final judges.

Personally, I'm less concerned about V4 being V3 compatible as I am with it being a radical departure from the unimesh machine. I'm particularly excited to hear she will have a new face and new body proportions. Hopefully that means that they have made a new mesh or some drastic changes to the old mesh. And hopefully Michael 4 will not be unimesh either... But still I think these should be interesting figures with a lot to offer.

Yes, it is "there for the taking," and in fact that's just what I meant. It's still brazen. But it WILL come true unless the vendor of Poser, which also vends models, hits a major home run, and soon. ::::: Opera :::::

One more thought.... the title of "The" Standard, or even the "Standard of Excellence" is actually not totally dependent on the model(s) being superior! I'd say the Daz Unimesh actually "holds" that position already, and it is NOT due to the superiority of those models; I will argue the superiority of Judy and James against Victoria and Michael all day long. It is due to sales driven by the success of a "look" combined with good marketing. So, E-Frontier is up against two challenges if they want their models to be "The Standard" for Poser..1) a technically superior set of models; 2) correct positioning, marketing, vendor support, image/PR and tapping into the same "ethos" that has put Vickie on top. That's my two cents. ::::: Opera ::::

"...is actually not totally dependent on the model(s) being superior!" Chuckle, I think that's pretty much what ..."the customers are the final judges." means. Windows is the is the "standard" desktop OS but you'll find folks who think it's crap. There's always the standard standard and then the standard for those who are more enlightened than the masses. De gustibis...

I agree with Opera about eF. Another Challenge for eF is customer trust. How long have we been waiting for the P6 figures and thier new figures to be fixed? Can we trust that thier new figure will work right? I have the new figure when it comes out so it will be fun to see what thier standard of a quality figure is. With Daz, at least we know that if something is not right with the new version, we will get a fix. That may be soon in Daz time but that's better than not happening in eF time. I can't wait for the new V4. A new look, new rigging/improved rigging, I think poser creates the limits there. But I'm a figure collector freak. This really should be an intersting year to watch. More so than normal.

jeez, over 220 millions still using explorer (message 4).

beryld, what is "unfixed" about the P6 figures and the "new figures?"

The majority of Poser's 'limitations' can be gotten around with careful modelling/rigging/setup and planning. I'm curious to see eF's new figure myself.

We live in interesting times vis-a-vis figures for Poser.

I'll enjoy seeing what they all come up with. But I won't venture any opinions about the new figures until after I've actually seen something. Until then: it's all speculation.

Opera, I'm talking about the poor JP's that those figure have. They are a mess compared to any other figure I have. James doesn't seem as bad as the rest but try to grage something with Kates hands, or bend any of the figure thighs and watch what happens. Miki has some bad issues in arms and hip/legs and chest. Koji about the same. I like the look of them, I just wish the joints worked like they are suppose to. I know, many think that nothing should be said about this. It's the buyers fault. I'm just happy that no other company thinks that way and thier figures work better.

Hmmm.... too much bragging in the interview.

Hmmm.... too much bragging in the interview. It's not bragging, it's just facts. And that's a personal promise. M

'a new version of Bryce' coming out this year?..good to know. I think what we're reading is 'market speak'. But at least Bryce 6 may be coming out this year (I know, OT, but heck a lot of us use both..even though 2 versions old..;)

"Bragging"? Where do you cross the line of bragging and simply speaking positivly about ones own company? I would have problems doing business with any company that wasn't optimistic and positive about their products.

"It ain't bragging if you can back it up."

--Dizzy Dean

the interview seemed straight forward enough to me....actually very general in nature without spilling the beans on anything. Hopefully we will see some exciting things at DAZ in 2006. I'm in need of some Poser excitement.

jeez, over 220 millions still using explorer (message 4) I know. Depressing, isn't it? bonni

what may sound strange to you non-IE supporters, I've tried Firefox and Opera couple of times, and always go back to IE. I prefer it a lot over those other 2. Maybe something like Poser vs. D|S ... I did the alpha, beta, didn't like it, still don't. I always go back to Poser.

I think it is a testimony to the skill of Microsoft. They have a non-coercive market domination of 90%. That is an unheard of success. When a significant catetory gets created, there is usually a leader...the invator who got there first and fast. If the category is lucrative, clone players emerge, but typically the most all the others can carve out of market share is perhaps 35-45 percent. In the case of browser, Microsoft was not first and fast, but yet then not only overcame the leader, they established a dominance of 90% on the free market. That's remarkable. As to the security issues...they appear to be "all microsoft's problem" because the disgusting criminal hackers only attack IE. Notice how, as soon as Mac went on Intel, the hackers moved in. ::::: Opera :::::

hacker paradise ... 90% why waste time with the rest?

From what I can tell, Apollo Maximus is the male "Standard" in poser figures. EF apparantly has him now.

Windows is the is the "standard" desktop OS but you'll find folks who think it's crap.

Of course you will. Some of them will even have reasons that they can articulate. Fewer of them will have reasons that are still a factor that they can articulate. But you can find them :)

There's always the standard standard and then the standard for those who are more enlightened than the masses.

And then there is the reality that for any given thing that is standard there are people who use something else to feel more enlightened and special but have no real reason to do so. It is a fairly common belief among humans that being different makes them special or l33t.

Depressing, isn't it?

Not really. There is a lot to like about IE in my experience... including the speed and lack of huge memory leaks ( even the guys on Slashdot know and discuss the Firefox memory issues and they are religiously pro Firefox ). IE7 is looking very very good and I don't expect IE to lose it's dominance any time soon.

"As to the security issues...they appear to be "all microsoft's problem" because the disgusting criminal hackers only attack IE. Notice how, as soon as Mac went on Intel, the hackers moved in."

"Black Hat" Hacking is about either (1) money (creating a botnet) or (2) gaining fame from your p33rz about your skillz. In both of those circumstances, Windows is the target you want. Of course there are many Linux "rootkits" and a few MacOSX ones... but they won't be reported too widely in some parts of the tech world so that people don't take heat for hurting the war against MS.

It will be amusing to see how it all plays out. I still hear people make "blue screen" jokes YEARS after they have been an issue. They still make "windows is insecure" comments years after SP2 solved most fo that. They will no doubt be equally slow to see the improvements of Vista.

And make no mistake, Vista is good. Really, really good.

i have been on WinXPPro with SR2, a strong virus screener, Spybot innoculation and all of Bill's recommendations for over 1 year, heavy usage including my son surfing to gamer blogs and sites, notorious. No adware, malware, virus, instability, freezing etc. at all, my most stable computing period in 10 years. mlb.com somehow manages to get a "pop-under" launched against me, however, when I go to get the scores. ::::: Opera :::::

I've found that a hardware firewall (router), coupled together with a software firewall operating underneath has kept pretty much all malware out. I'd say that the hardware/software firewall combination kills around 95% of the bad stuff.

The remaining 5% still might get through. But there's no such thing as a 100% malware-proof system -- except perhaps for a PC that is never connected to the internet at all. And even then, something might ride in via a software installation.

Top-end hackers can make their way into high-security sites such as those for large financial institutions and for the government. But of course: sometimes the hackers get caught, too........and hacking skills don't count for much in prison.

Message edited on: 03/13/2006 12:29

BTW - a lot of the big-league hacking is actually done by governments.

Bobasaur wrote, "From what I can tell, Apollo Maximus is the male "Standard" in poser figures. EF apparantly has him now." True, but that is still Anton's creation. Though if eF follows that rigging with thier new figures, we'll have some good competition with Daz. Should be fun to watch. I'll have to stock up on the carmel corn. XENOPHONZ wrote, " BTW - a lot of the big-league hacking is actually done by governments." I have listened to interviews with some famous hacker on Coast to Coast. Can't remember his name. He did time for a few years for hacking into government files. Couldn't use a computer for so many years also. He now works with the government on thier security systems to stop hackers from doing what he did. I'm sure you could find out more about him if you check the archive interviews at Coast to Coast.

Governments tend to regard hacking as a tool for spying purposes -- and as a weapon of war.

Several governments in places like China and various Middle Eastern countries have probed around the edges of the Internet backbone -- checking to test what kind of attack it would take for them to bring the entire internet down. Either as an act of terrorism -- or else as an act of war.

They've repeatedly probed at Western government & major business servers, as well. If they can hack Wall Street: then they can damage the economy. You have to admit: as an act of war, it would be a handy thing for them......although they'd likely suffer from the results of such an attack as much as (or even more than) we would.

But this is a long way from V4 vs. the new eF figure -- whatever that figure is going to be called. I don't even know for certain that the new DAZ figure will be called 'V4'. I've heard the term 'V3 Professional' thrown around, too.

Daz News letter called her V4. It stated that V4 and Girl 2 were an the horizon. So take it from there as to how long Horizon means in Daz time. LOL.

So is our next hot issue as a society, "would the death penalty be appropriate for hackers who cause more than xxx billion dollars of damage?" After all, it's generally considered legitimate for a country to respond with violence when it is attacked.

Daz News letter called her V4.

That goes to show you how often I tend to read newsletters.

;)

In the past (several months back), IIRC - I'd seen Dan Farr refer to the new figure as 'V3 Professional'. But that was at a time when the very suggestion of a 'V4' brought a chorus of "NO WAYS!" from very vocal individuals who couldn't see the use of anything beyond V3.......but I now get the feeling that attitudes are changing on the idea. Becoming more positive. And perhaps this is due in part to the other figures which are beginning to roll into the market from places like eF.

IMO, competition here is a good thing. Competition is likely to create better figures for all of us to enjoy.

@Bobasaur --

The type of attack which I described in my earlier post would be an act of war. Not just a virtual drive-by shooting of the type that so-called 'black hat' hackers engage in (or attempt to engage in) every day.

.....but a loss of several billion dollars due to a simple hacker attack would probably make a few people just a little mad at the perpetrator......I'd say that their lives would be over: for all intents & purposes. Even if they weren't caught immediately: they'd be spending the rest of their days looking over their shoulders. Not a pleasant way to live. I wouldn't advise it to anyone that might be considering trying.