What happened to IBM's badass 200 pixes/inch monitor, the Roetgen (or something similar, IIRC)? From what I remember,
this technology was being developed as a joint project between IBM and Toshiba, and supposedly marketable (i.e. not just an R&D effort for the "wow" appeal), for home/business consumers. Read the NYTimes& lt;/a> article for more details.
From what I recall of the original IBM project page, this beast was designed to be as readable as printed text in a book.. basically the images are sharper, less blurry than current CRT/LCD technology, which typically has 80/100 ppi. This is something to watch out for, I think.
This technology might seem cool, and it does sound
fairly cutting-edge.. but it doesn't even scratch
the surface of what is possible if you're using
nanotechnology. We're talking about putting materials
together atom-by-atom. Think about it for
a second... doesn't this give you a tad more
flexibility than (pardon the gross oversimplification) shooting a laser into some goo, and making a solid mold out of it? Nano
makes this technology seem primitive by comparison. Now if (when) they make a 3D "printer" utilizing nanotechnology, well that be worth the attention. No, I'm not suggesting these research teams drop everything... but they are still using what Drexler calls "bulk technology." As far as the social ramifications (genie machines), that presents another discussion altogether...
trying repeating the newly proposed terms to yourself. They don't exactly roll off the tongue, do they? I'm not suggesting the currently accepted terms are smoothly enunciated, but they're much easier than "MEH-BIH-BTYE". What would the shortened form be anyway, Meb? c'mon. Perhaps it's just that I (as well as the rest of us) am used to the current terms and their shortenings (meg, gig)...I am of the opinion vendors should standardize upon the classic definition of 2^x bytes instead of 10^x.
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From what I recall of the original IBM project page, this beast was designed to be as readable as printed text in a book.. basically the images are sharper, less blurry than current CRT/LCD technology, which typically has 80/100 ppi. This is something to watch out for, I think.
This technology might seem cool, and it does sound fairly cutting-edge.. but it doesn't even scratch the surface of what is possible if you're using nanotechnology. We're talking about putting materials together atom-by-atom. Think about it for a second... doesn't this give you a tad more flexibility than (pardon the gross oversimplification) shooting a laser into some goo, and making a solid mold out of it? Nano makes this technology seem primitive by comparison. Now if (when) they make a 3D "printer" utilizing nanotechnology, well that be worth the attention. No, I'm not suggesting these research teams drop everything... but they are still using what Drexler calls "bulk technology." As far as the social ramifications (genie machines), that presents another discussion altogether...
trying repeating the newly proposed terms to yourself. They don't exactly roll off the tongue, do they? I'm not suggesting the currently accepted terms are smoothly enunciated, but they're much easier than "MEH-BIH-BTYE". What would the shortened form be anyway, Meb? c'mon. Perhaps it's just that I (as well as the rest of us) am used to the current terms and their shortenings (meg, gig)...I am of the opinion vendors should standardize upon the classic definition of 2^x bytes instead of 10^x.