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Micromachines in Modern Use
dragons_flight writes: "Physics Today has a lengthy article on MEMS (microelectromechanical systems AKA micromachines) including the ways they are being put to use right now. Uses include airbag collision detectors in cars, pressure guages, "micro-microphones", video projection, scientific equipment, and the ever popular optical switching technology. In addition there are two brief sidebars discussing how micro- and macro-machines differ and the use of integrated circuit technology to build MEMS."
It's a good article.
I like the part near the end where he said that we now take for granted microprocessors containing tens of millions of transistors. It's the kind of thing that makes you (or at least me) respect everything that goes into these damn computers. Oh yeah, and it gives you some idea of the vast waste in the name of time-to-market and whatnot. Back in the days, computers that didn't have nearly as much power as today performed many functions very quickly and efficiently. Nowadays, computers that are a hundred times faster and better do everything a hundred times slower because many of today's programs don't contain good algorithms, don't contain good data structures, and do contain a shitload of flow control statements that can be eliminated by doing a few math instructions or replaced by a small look up table. This isn't the programmer's fault by the way. There are many clever programmers out there who do amazing things, but unfortunately, the damn suits don't let them do their jobs. And furthermore, they are few and far between when compared to the overflowing numbers of script kiddies who write shit code that unfortunately makes it into "products" because companies care more about their bottom line than the quality of their work. To suits, the most important part of their product (in other words, the technical part, whether it is a 400 pound cast-iron cylinder or a floppy diskette containing program instructions) is nothing but a bunch of pesky details they'd rather didn't exist. Furthermore, they have no respect for the programmer (or any other employee for that matter, but I think programmers are looked down upon by many of these suits). When an engineer says it'll take a year to build a bridge, suits will believe it. When a clever programmer says it'll take a year to build a complicated program, the suits think you're out of your mind for coming up with that (very realistic) number--when they're the ones out of their minds for coming up with the ridiculous idea in the first place. Programmers would rather do interesting things with their knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, suits ask their programmers to make boring shit instead, and then don't even respect the thought and brain-breaking work that goes into it. After all, how hard could it be to bang together some sequences of instructions? Hey, if the suit's 8-year-old kid can put together a stupid website in ten minutes, why can't a complicated software project get completed in two weeks or so? Well, however long it takes, it's unacceptable. So instead of hiring the clever programmer wearing the T-shirt (the one who estimated a very realistic year), we'll hire those script kiddies wearing the suits. Their professional estimate for the work is two business days.
And the worst part is when they (the suits) write their stupid fscking press releases or whatever they are, which contain a proliferation of words like "innovative", "enterprise", "collaboration", etc. They'll market printf() as, for example, a compelling enterprise architecture leveraging innovative platforms and streamlining leading edge technology solutions to content providers. All of which means absolutely nothing. On a glossy brochure. That is what I call taking tens of millions of transistors for granted. It's not the programmers' faults. It's the suits who don't care's faults. (Yeah, there are suits out there who do care. But the ratio of suits who do care to suits who's damns they give (give damns?) only to the bottom line must be like 1:9999999999999999999999999999) It pisses me off just to think about the sorry state of things. I believe the suits caused the dot-bomb crash. The programmers (not the script-kiddies) were just trying to do their jobs. The suits frieked out because the work took more than five minutes to complete. Crash. End of story.
P.S., this was not intended as a troll.