
The Native Client Proving Ground (Chrome) - denniskane
https://nacl-pg.appspot.com/desk?intro=the-shaker
======
i336_
I'm having a hard time understanding how NaCl improves or alters this at all.

I understand NaCl is a way to execute x86 binary code inside a Web browser.

I also understand NaCl is not enabled by default.

I can't see anything anywhere on this page that eg fires up DOSBox.

I also can't see anything giving me errors saying "NaCl is not enabled!"; I'm
running the stable build, which doesn't enable it, and I've had no reason to
change that.

This looks like yet another reimplementation of a "web-based desktop".

------
otabdeveloper
> This page works best in Megacorp (c) Browser!

I thought we were past this sort of thing, no?

------
brudgers
More about Google's Native Client:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Native_Client](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Native_Client)

[https://developer.chrome.com/native-client/nacl-and-
pnacl](https://developer.chrome.com/native-client/nacl-and-pnacl)

------
beerbajay
> there is simply nothing that compares with WebKit, as this engine began its
> life in a fairly insignificant manner as the heart of Apple's [not very
> widely deployed] Safari browser.

KHTML?

~~~
denniskane
Funny how you see that on like _every_ UA string, but no one really talks
about it. I guess you can say that that's going to be the KDE project's most
lasting contribution to the world of technology, since it gave rise to the
most popular rendering engine on the planet.

------
pcwalton
> To show a preview of what is possible when these technologies are blended
> together in higly creative ways, the desktop includes a very basic AI
> application called "Bertie", which could not have possibly been created with
> any other web browser.

I'm not convinced [1] [2].

Oh, and the sales pitch for WebKit is pretty weird, given that Chrome forked
WebKit into Blink, and the whole thing is built on NaCl, a technology that
WebKit is not going to integrate.

[1]:
[https://eeejay.github.io/espeak/emscripten/espeak.html](https://eeejay.github.io/espeak/emscripten/espeak.html)

[2]:
[http://syl22-00.github.io/pocketsphinx.js/](http://syl22-00.github.io/pocketsphinx.js/)

~~~
denniskane
Emscripten running a crappy voice synthesizer _might_ work, but nothing close
to the silky smooth voices that chrome includes. It will really just add tons
of bloat to the page. Voice synth is truly something that needs to be baked
into the browser.

Are you seriously implying that pocketsphinx in JS will do anything close to
the level of voice recognition necessary to recognize pretty much anyone's
voice, sight unseen? I mean, _really_? You kinda need to train the hell out of
that thing to get it to recognize the difference between "merry christmas" and
"happy hanukah", and even then, it will only really work for one person.

~~~
pcwalton
> Emscripten running a crappy voice synthesizer might work, but nothing close
> to the silky smooth voices that chrome includes.

> You kinda need to train the hell out of that thing to get it to recognize
> the difference between "merry christmas" and "happy hanukah", and even then,
> it will only really work for one person.

So compile an engine you like better.

You claimed that voice recognition and synthesis "could not possibly be done
in any other browser". As in, it's impossible. The fact is that you can do it
by just compiling your favorite engine to asm.js, and people have done just
that with several of them. So your sales pitch for Chrome is wrong.

If you want to say that it's _easier_ in Chrome because of the Web Speech API,
that's fine. But impossible in other browsers? I don't believe it.

~~~
denniskane
I don't need to sell anything. I've already proven my point by building
something that actually works. If you want to prove something about your
favorite technology, you are going to have to build something that actually
works using it.

Given the current state of browser technology, the simple prototype that I've
created could not possibly have been done with a dumb little JS thread running
in a dumb little Web Worker.

What in the world does it mean to "compile an engine I like better"? Do you
really have any clue how much sophistication is going on server side with the
SpeechRecognition API? Am I supposed to just magically conjure up something
that can be compiled in order to recognize arbitrary words from arbitrary
people?

------
denniskane
This is weird. I actually posted this like 20 hours ago, and it was a
spectacular flop. Now it says 5 hours ago, and now I'm actually on the second
page of Hacker effing News!

(Hi Mom!)

About the "Why chrome?" page. I needed to put something there to explain why
you need to use Chrome to get any use out of the site. I realize anything that
I put there will only wind up as flame bait, so I tried to make it as
"politically acceptable" as possible. The bottom line is that I couldn't care
less about those political arguments. To me, the web will always be more about
technical merit than anything else. Back in the "bad old days" of the original
browser wars, Mozilla was at the forefront of pushing the technical boundaries
of the web. Not so much anymore. Such is life.

But don't let that stop anyone from engaging in an old-fashioned flame fest.
Anything that gets this to the front page of HN is a-okay with me :)

~~~
DanBC
They're trying some experiments to make good content surface.

They tried sending an email asking people to repost. Now they adjust the time
stamp and apply a small (1 extra point?) bonus.

~~~
denniskane
I wonder how this works, though. I assume there is not any kind of automated
system on the backend of HN trying to figure out what is "good content" and
what isn't.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
HN's algorithms make no sense to me, either. I submitted this story the other
day:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10561347](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10561347)

It goes nowhere. Someone with higher karma submits the _exact_ same article
with the _exact_ same headline about two hours later, and it winds up on the
front page of HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10562207](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10562207)

~~~
denniskane
The fact that they use their own karma system to automatically rank certain
trusted users who might have done things like invent entire programming
languages or started up 10 billion dollar companies ahead of random "asshats"
who hang around HN is not very surprising in my opinion ;)

(edit: Whoever downvoted this, I was responding to someone who goes by the
name AdmiralAsshat, and I was obviously joking. But that might just be HN
automatically downvoting people for using words like asshat. In which case, HN
is being a pure asshat.)

