Slashdot Mirror

I recently attended the Montreal Mini Maker Faire, had a total blast, you can read about it on my blog: http://www.digitalcrusader.ca/2012/08/montreal-mini-maker-faire.html

Over at my blog I go into some detail... I wish they had thought about the prize more, they left so much on the table! http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2007/09/lunar_xprize_mo.html

I got to play with an XO laptop yesterday at the Maker Faire. It is not a gadget - it is a computer built for a child (small keyboard) with little prior experience with IT (simple GUI, etc). I wrote up a review (with pictures) on my blog.

I've blogged about this EESTOR stuff twice already:

http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/09/power_s torage_r.html
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2007/01/ultraca pacitor.html

And I remain unconvinced that they are going to actually achieve what they claim. And even if they did, we don't have the 10,000amp service at my house necessary to actually charge them at speed. And we haven't heard anything about "leakage" (or "self-discharge") rates.

It's all vapor ware until they show us a functioning prototype instead of just bragging about materials purity...

I've blogged about this EESTOR stuff twice already:

http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/09/power_s torage_r.html
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2007/01/ultraca pacitor.html

And I remain unconvinced that they are going to actually achieve what they claim. And even if they did, we don't have the 10,000amp service at my house necessary to actually charge them at speed. And we haven't heard anything about "leakage" (or "self-discharge") rates.

It's all vapor ware until they show us a functioning prototype instead of just bragging about materials purity...

I've been saying as much for years - in fact here is a blog post from June 2005 where I say that both would be DOA, expect for the fact that the PS3 gives Blue-ray a little bit of hope.

The reason I've been saying this? The same reason why DVD-A and SACD never took off: there simply isn't enough difference if all you're doing is stepping up the quality, to make consumers see the point of upgrading. So they won't bother - an upgrade like this is a big deal (rebuying your entire collection, new TV, new players, etc.) so there has to be compelling reasons like there were for the switch from VHS to DVD (new slimmer form factor, ability to play again and again without degradation, looks much nicer, and only lastly higher quality). I'm just not seeing these reasons for HD-DVD or Blue-ray, and I think the vast majority of people are with me.

The real successor, like the article says, is digital downloads: no physical object at all. That's an upgrade that consumers will love, once the bandwidth is available.

I found this paragraph from the conclusion really interesting:

"Newell even talked about a trend he sees happening in the future that he calls the "Post-GPU Era." He predicts that as more and more cores appear on single chip dies, companies like Intel and AMD will add more CPU instructions that perform tasks normally handled by the GPU. This could lead to a point where coders and gamers no longer have to worry if a certain game is "CPU-bound" or "GPU-bound," only that the more cores they have available the better the game will perform. Newell says that if it does, his company is in an even better position to take advantage of it."

This is almost certainly why AMD has bought out ATI - they see that the future is about integrating everything on the motherboard into one IC, and AMD wants the CPU to be that point of integration. For more, see:

Computers in 2020
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/02/compute rs_in_20.html which is my prediction for how the whole field is going to evolve over the next 14 years.

People have been speculating about the licensing of OS-X to Dell, etc ever since Apple's transition to Intel. I wrote a set of scenarios talking about that here:

http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2005/06/apple_s cenarios.html

Essentially, Apple can make it work only if they tightly restrict the hardware & models that other companies are allowed to install OS-X on. Imagine for instance that Dell can sell OS-X, but only on *three* different machines, each of which is approved only after lengthy technical review by Apple engineers. Apple wins because Dell can leverage its business customers to sell to an entirely different market than Apple currently has access to. Dell wins because it gives them some serious product differentiation from HP and Gateway - who Apple will never license to. It all depends on Apple maintaining the control over the number of different models and hardware drivers that Mac OS-X must support. Eric

I just finished a comprehensive audit of all the electricity drawing devices in my house:

http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/10/househo ld_energ.html

I learned that my Stereo system consumes 22W when on "standby" and only about 35W when in use - what a total waste! So I put it on a power bar. My older TV is 0W standby, and all the newer Wall Warts that I have seem to be OK as well - 4 of them together only rate 1W. Your milege may vary :-)

You've hinted at the real reason that the iPod is maintaining it's dominance - it's the DRM rules that the labels are imposing on everyone. Because everyone has to lock down their devices and music, nobody can play with an open strategy - and thus nobody can make an offering that is much better than Apple. Unless and until the labels agree to a DRM-less music store, Apple will maintain it's crushing market share.

DRM and Open Markets
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/10/drm_and _open_ma.html

The right path is taking all the stuff that's currently on the motherboard and putting it into the CPU. Including some serious chunk of flash memory and (of course) several gigs of ram. This is because performance is already heavily determined by the communications speed between all these things, and putting them in the same IC would allow multi-giga-hertz communication channels.

Digital Crusader: Computers in 2020
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/02/compute rs_in_20.html

some more info for anyone interested:

Timelines for Manipulating and Greatly Enhancing Human Regeneration
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000929.php

Transhumanism: Regenerative Medicine
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/05/regener ative_me.html

Man, I am astounded by the negativeness of the slashdot community as exhibited in the comments. We all want to live longer, healthier lives. This $3M is going to fund research which might help us do that. As such, it's a great thing!

The SENS project is an effort to fight the causes of aging, not the symptoms, such as increased chance of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc. etc. As such, a primary result of SENS would be what's been called "the longevity dividend": a slowing of aging equivalent to an extra 7 years of life HALVES the rate all of these deadly diseases at any given age, resulting in trillions of dollars of savings for the medical system as a whole. In a sense, it points out the insanity of our current system, where we spend trillions fighting things after they happen but are unwilling to spend even a few million bucks on research which might delay all of those things for a least a few years, if not indefinably.

Again, I just want to say that slashdotters should be ashamed of themselves for speaking out against something which could have such hugely positive results. When your mom (grandma, uncle, etc) dies even though this type research might have saved her, then maybe you to will understand that postponing aging and death is the great moral cause of our time. We have the technology, all we need is the will!

http://fightaging.org/ http://www.sens.org/ http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/03/anti-ag ing_the.html

I've used the Kill-a-Watt device and blogged about the energy usage of objects in my household - as the article says, it's fairly interesting to be able to gather detailed data like that. http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/08/househo ld_power_1.html

Honestly, can you use 4 cores in any of your current applications? I think the time is coming when the 30 year trend in faster CPUs will end. If you can't increase the mega-herts, and extra cores don't actually improve application performance, what will Intel and AMD do to keep improving their products? I wrote an essay with some possible ideas: Computers in 2020

This is old news... I blogged about a similar article on July 3rd. I have also written a review of manna.

This is old news... I blogged about a similar article on July 3rd. I have also written a review of manna.

Taking the article at face value, I think that "serious games" probably qualify as what he's looking for. Games not for the sake of the game, but for their education value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game
http://futuremakingames.blogspot.com/

I have blogged about several of the serious games that I have played:

McDonalds Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/07/mcdonal ds_video.html

Democracy Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/01/democra cy_game.html

3rd world farming game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/05/endure_ the_hard.html

Eric

Taking the article at face value, I think that "serious games" probably qualify as what he's looking for. Games not for the sake of the game, but for their education value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game
http://futuremakingames.blogspot.com/

I have blogged about several of the serious games that I have played:

McDonalds Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/07/mcdonal ds_video.html

Democracy Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/01/democra cy_game.html

3rd world farming game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/05/endure_ the_hard.html

Eric

Taking the article at face value, I think that "serious games" probably qualify as what he's looking for. Games not for the sake of the game, but for their education value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game
http://futuremakingames.blogspot.com/

I have blogged about several of the serious games that I have played:

McDonalds Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/07/mcdonal ds_video.html

Democracy Game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/01/democra cy_game.html

3rd world farming game
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/05/endure_ the_hard.html

Eric