Yeah, that's what everybody said about guided missiles back when they were new. We even built some fighter planes that didn't have machine guns, but the first thing that we discovered in Vietnam is that there are times that you really, really need the old Vulcan cannon.
If I understood this article correctly, the laser transforms heat (disorganized energy) into laser light (more organized?). Wouldn't this cause a net decrease on entropy in the system?
I think that the largest change coming in the next few years, at least for laptop users, will be the increasing prevalence of pervasive, high bandwidth wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.11a-g protocols. I have the pleasure of working for one of the few companies that makes extensive use of these devices (we design them, actually), and I can't imagine working without them. When I go to a meeting, I just plug a card into my laptop and go. In the meeting I can bring up all of the relevant documents and data, check my email and stocks, and, most importantly, read Slashdot.
These technologies will have an even larger impact in academic institutions. At this moment, I know of at least two universities (Carnegie Mellon and, interestingly, Akron University in Ohio) that have essentially omnipresent 802.11b wireless networks. Students with laptops can access the campus network as well as the internet from any point in the university, even the football field.
I think that this will be the area of largest noticeable change because it is not incremental. We expect faster processors, greater storage capacity, faster busses, etc., but the ability to connect to the internet with a broadband connection from almost anywhere, that will be new and therefore more noticeable. However, even though it is novel, it is implemented with mature technologies that have been tried and tested for several years now, at least in the case of 802.11b.
Think about this one for a second. As a software company, Microsoft, along with Red Hat, Mandrake, and every other software company on the planet, depends vitally on the availibility of cheap, high performance hardware in order to run their product. It just so happens that Microsoft happens to have more spare investment capital laying around than most other software companies. This isn't the Evil Empire at work, this is just smart business.
Slashdot Mirror
Wonderful sentiment. Problem is, neither you, nor anyone else wants to be the first person to give up war ;)
Yeah, that's what everybody said about guided missiles back when they were new. We even built some fighter planes that didn't have machine guns, but the first thing that we discovered in Vietnam is that there are times that you really, really need the old Vulcan cannon.
If I understood this article correctly, the laser transforms heat (disorganized energy) into laser light (more organized?). Wouldn't this cause a net decrease on entropy in the system?
I think that the largest change coming in the next few years, at least for laptop users, will be the increasing prevalence of pervasive, high bandwidth wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.11a-g protocols. I have the pleasure of working for one of the few companies that makes extensive use of these devices (we design them, actually), and I can't imagine working without them. When I go to a meeting, I just plug a card into my laptop and go. In the meeting I can bring up all of the relevant documents and data, check my email and stocks, and, most importantly, read Slashdot.
These technologies will have an even larger impact in academic institutions. At this moment, I know of at least two universities (Carnegie Mellon and, interestingly, Akron University in Ohio) that have essentially omnipresent 802.11b wireless networks. Students with laptops can access the campus network as well as the internet from any point in the university, even the football field.
I think that this will be the area of largest noticeable change because it is not incremental. We expect faster processors, greater storage capacity, faster busses, etc., but the ability to connect to the internet with a broadband connection from almost anywhere, that will be new and therefore more noticeable. However, even though it is novel, it is implemented with mature technologies that have been tried and tested for several years now, at least in the case of 802.11b.
Think about this one for a second. As a software company, Microsoft, along with Red Hat, Mandrake, and every other software company on the planet, depends vitally on the availibility of cheap, high performance hardware in order to run their product. It just so happens that Microsoft happens to have more spare investment capital laying around than most other software companies. This isn't the Evil Empire at work, this is just smart business.