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The Register: Compaq Alpha-chip supercomp boasts 30x power increase
(by Duncan, @ 9:42 AM)
The Register: Compaq Alpha-chip supercomp boasts 30x power increase
Compaq intends to build a supercomputer capable of 100 teraflops (trillion operations per second), or approximately thirty times as powerful as the baddest machine currently in use. It will be developed in partnership with the Sandia nuclear lab and genomics outfit Celera.
With 10,000 to 20,000 Alpha processors that's one awesome machine!
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The Register: $10 paper mobile phone to launch this year
(by Duncan, @ 9:48 AM)
The Register: $10 paper mobile phone to launch this year
The disposable device is the brainchild of Randice-Lisa Altschul, who has 22 patents on the technology. Called the Phone-Card-Phone, it is the thickness of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products. It comes with 60 minutes of calling time and a hands-free attachment.
...
"I'm going cheap and dumb," she told The Register, revealing: "In monetary terms, I want to be the next Bill Gates."
Also in the pipeline is a paper laptop. This device, at the prototype stage, is expected to cost $20 and act as a Web access device. It is due for launch at the end of 2002.
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MicroDesign Resources Analyst's Choice Awards 2001
(by Duncan, @ 10:08 AM)
See the MicroDesign Resources Analyst's Choice Awards 2001 - for a summary of the top technology picks from the MicroDesign Resources analyst team, recognizing excellence in technology innovation, design and implementation. The Analyst's Choice Award Categories & Nominees were:
- PC Processors
- Intel Pentium 4
- AMD Athlon
- AMD Duron
- IBM PowerPC 750CX
- Server/Workstation Processors
- Intel Itanium
- IBM Freeway for eServer z900
- Sun UltraSPARC III
- Intel Pentium III Xeon w/integrated L2 cache
- Mobile PC Processors
- Transmeta Crusoe
- Intel Mobile Pentium w/SpeedStep
- K6-2+ with PowerNow! Technology
- Cyrix III with LongHaul
- DSP
- TI TMS320C55x
- TI TMS320C64x
- Infineon Carmel2000
- StarCore SC1400
- Tensilica XTensa with Vectra DSP Engine
- Embedded Processors
- Intel XScale
- Motorola ColdFire V4e
- Alchemy Au1000
- MIPS 20Kc
- Highly Integrated Processors
- IBM PowerPC 440GP
- Cirrus Maverick EP9312
- National Semi Geode
- Motorola MCF5407
- Network Processors
- Chameleon Systems CS2112
- Intel IXP1200
- Vitesse/Sitera IQ2000
- IBM PowerNP NP4Gs3 (Rainier)
- Cisco Toaster 2
- Lexra NetVorex
- Media Processors
- BOPS ManArray
- Equator MAP-CA
- Improv Jazz
- Philips pnx8500 Nexperia
- Sony Emotion Engine
- Sun MAJC-5200
- The EEMBC Embedded MicroprocessorConsortium Awards:
- Most Valuable Participant (MVP)
- Most Published (Gutsy)
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Who said?
(by Duncan, @ 10:16 AM)
You'll just have to go here to find out who really said:
"Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokemon character". "Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image. I want to tell the world... that I have nothing whatsoever to do with these violent characters."
And, BTW, to help tell the world, he's claiming "hundreds of millions" of dollars in damages from Nintendo!!
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Windows Media Player 7 security hole
(by Duncan, @ 10:31 AM)
The Register
A row has broken out between Microsoft and veteran bug hunter Georgi Guninski after he publicised a vulnerability with Windows Media Player 7 before a software patch was available.
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Defeating an ISP's cache
(by Duncan, @ 10:43 AM)
I was getting fed up of my day-time ISP's caching policy which seemed to prevent me from getting the latest updated content of this weblog so I put <meta http-equiv="expires" content="0"> in the <head></head> section and that seems to have done the trick. Let's see if I get this new content 'uncached'!
[Seconds later] Eureka!!
[Minutes later]: Maybe it's a browser issue although I don't recall my other regular (evening) ISP exhibiting the same behaviour. The BBSW Web Authoring List [see BBSW Talk List Searchable Archive] had a wee thread on this a couple of weeks ago and the resources cited then were META FAQ and WDVL: How (and how not) to Control Caches. YMMV.
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First Annual Weblog Awards
(by Duncan, @ 1:18 PM)
via Andrea's Weblog: January 23 2001 - First Annual Weblog AwardsThe Bloggies(tm) are publicly-chosen awards given to weblog writers and those related to weblogs in 30 categories. And not much more introduction is necessary.
Voting is open until 31st January. This is an excellent source of good weblog links.
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Brent and his Tips for Frontier and Radio Developers
(by Duncan, @ 1:48 PM)
Monday's Tips for Frontier and Radio Developers learn your environment.. Amen!
Clue: if it feels like you're standing on your head, you probably are.
Check out Brent's other tip(s) too. He is a wise man ;-)
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Several interesting CMS products - Atomz Publish and College Publisher
(by Duncan, @ 3:39 PM)
Atomz is best known for their search engine technologies but now they are touting their 'patent-pending'
Atomz Publish in their press release today:
San Francisco, CA - January 23, 2001 - Atomz, a leading developer of hosted applications for building better Web sites, today unveiled Atomz Publish, a powerful new content management system for medium to large Web sites. Atomz Publish allows Web site managers and Web developers to add content management capabilities to any Web site quickly and enables multiple people to update a Web site, keeping Web site content fresh and effective.
Somehow I doubt the Atomz patent will remain unchallenged and I suspect that prior art may very well undermine their claim:
The key to the Atomz Publish solution is its patent-pending template system that allows Web designers to clearly separate Web content from site design by using basic HTML tags to create an XML database of content - transparently creating the database schema as part of the process.
Another CMS that looks interesting is
College Publisher
College Publisher Inc., an e-publishing technology enabling student newspapers to develop interactive, online publications is now the leading online college newspaper publishing technology in the US. Over 135 campus newsrooms have signed up with College Publisher so far.
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Dan Bricklin Log
(by Duncan, @ 4:05 PM)
via [SiT] - See the Dan Bricklin Log for the connection between a martial arts movie and an emphasis on education:
It is pretty easy to understand why high-tech executives are hot on education. They need more and more skilled workers, and competency in math and science is necessary for those skills. Advancement needs new technologies and new technologies are developed by people who understand science, math, and how to learn. Continuing education is necessary to keep our work force up to date.
I also noted that Dan believes ... that 802.11b is going to be a major player in the near-term. It lets you do everything as if you were on a normal Ethernet network, but without the wires. Setting it up is relatively easy and it fits in well with existing systems.
Dan has also taken the trouble to document [His] Home Network: Wireless 802.11b and a Router/Switch and did a really nice job of showing his set-up. And I'm not just syaying that because... As is often the case, Apple pioneered using this in a real system. The iBook portable was built assuming that 802.11b would be used (their AirPort).
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Macintosh & Java enthusiasts rejoice at Macworld
(by Duncan, @ 4:30 PM)
Macintosh & Java enthusiasts rejoice at Macworld"Out of the gate, Mac OS X will have four compelling environments" for Java development. If developers live in a command line environment, they can use vi or emacs and the Java command line tools for development. For those looking for a multilingual environment, Apple's Project Builder supports C, C++, and Java. Further, there's the traditional Mac IDE, Metrowerks's CodeWarrior. Finally, if developers simply want to do Java development, they can turn to Borland's JBuilder. All of which points to a great many more choices than Java developers have ever had for developing on the Mac.
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A very minimal Product
(by Duncan, @ 5:12 PM)
Zope Newbie News - 2001 01 22 has quite a few nice links today. For example: A very minimal Product
Zope product programming has gotten a reputation as being difficult.
This HowTo is an attempt to demystify the process starting with the most simple Python class imaginable and then how to make it a Zope product.
Also linked from ZopeNewbies: O'Reilly Network: How Your Computer Boots
This excerpt from Understanding the Linux Kernel by Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati explains what happens right after users have switched on their computers, that is, how a Linux kernel image is copied into memory and executed. In short, we discuss how the kernel, and thus the whole system, is "bootstrapped."
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Responses to Intimacy at a Distance
(by Duncan, @ 12:13 AM)
via Curmudgeon - Responses to Intimacy at a Distance
While I'm not an advocate of abandoning the classroom for
the computer screen, a thought experiment occurred to me
during this presentation, which I put to the panel, and now
put to you. Suppose that the status quo is learning at a
distance - the teacher is at a computer with a video camera
and microphone, the students all at home at their
computers. The teacher conducts class remotely, the
students are able to respond via chat. And suppose that
we've been doing this for a long time, that we know it to
be effective when done right, that some teachers are better
at it than others, but that, generally, we're satisfied
with this mode of delivery. Then one of our colleagues
sends us an email:
"I did an interesting thing the other day. I invited all
of my students to come and meet me. I rented a meeting
room, and we all got together and discussed the class
material. I think it went pretty well, and I had the
feeling that the students thought so too. I'm not sure if
it enhanced their learning experience at all, but I'm going
to keep doing it on occasion."
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ABCNEWS.com : Silicon Insider: Is IT Ready?
(by Duncan, @ 11:17 AM)
ABCNEWS.com : Silicon Insider: Is IT Ready?
You've no doubt heard about IT, the most hysteria-provoking new product rumor since the Apple Newton.
As the story goes, genius inventor Dean Kamen - creator of the drug diffusion pump and the celebrated new iBot go-anywhere wheelchair - has invented a new product of earthshaking potential. He is not saying what it is, and he has sworn others to secrecy, but we do know the following:
It is also code-named Ginger. It is not a medical product. It comes in two models (Metro and Pro), the former likely to cost less than $2,000.
Kamen showed it Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr. Bezos reportedly made his "loud, honking laugh" of appreciation. Jobs said it would cause people to re-architect cities and compared its importance to the PC. Doerr likened IT in magnitude to the Internet, and then invested in it...
[more]
Sounds like a Sinclair C5 to me. What does IT stand for - my guess 'Itsibitsy Tricycle' ;-)
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Slashdot | Who Were Your Best Teachers?
(by Duncan, @ 5:02 PM)
Adam Curry was kind enough to mention this site in his link to the IT hype. Whilst visiting, I noticed that Adam had linked to a Slashdot | Who Were Your Best Teachers? article:
There are countless professors and teaching assistants who make learning computer science fun and exciting for students. Would Slashdot readers like to share a couple of great stories?
Adam went on to say that:
I think SlashDot is onto something important here. There is a growing shortage of Teachers worldwide. I believe it is because the role of educators has been de-hero-ized by the media, government and parents ourselves.
Many students in the past have commented on my performance as a teacher - via the teaching evaluation questionnaires - and I am very proud to say that some of these students even admit that I have been their best teacher. Such praise is one of the few reasons that I stay in academia. I also believe that the role of educators has been de-hero-ized by the very institutions that employ lecturers as it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify concentrating on being a good teacher as promotion, tenure, etc., pays little, if any heed, to such skills.
As a long-standing member of faculty in a Computer Science department it is a mite annoying to see our new, wet behind the ears, graduates go out and get a starting salary that is very close to, or that even matches, mine. One of these days UK universities will have to wake up to the fact that the recruit and retain good staff they will have to pay the appropriate remuneration, After all medics, vetinarians, dentists, and law lecturers are paid a discetionary higher rate. But I'll get down off my hobby horse now!
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