Speeds and Feeds- Page 24

Another $100 PC... or is it?

It was inevitable that someone would try to capitalize on the interest in the $100 XO laptop from the One Laptop per Child project. I'm sure we all remember the brief craze for free PCs in 1999, where a cheap PC was given away with a relatively expensive or ad-sponsored Internet service agreement. When I started hearing about the $100 laptop, I expected it would spur a resurgence in such deals.

So when I checked out Zonbu, a Silicon Valley company offering a $99 Linux-based PC, I wasn't surprised to discover there's a service agreement involved there … Read more

No spoilers here-- just a few book reviews

I read a lot. Well, as much as I can, anyway, usually six to ten books a month. It's a welcome distraction from work and a useful source of inspiration for my own writing-- and work. One never knows when a PowerPoint slide might benefit from a clever turn of phrase...

I got hooked on… Read more

Managing my online reputation

Brad Stone and Matt Richtel of the New York Times recently wrote a piece (here) about the risks of unscrupulous use of Internet blogs and message boards.

According to the article, the FTC says John Mackey, chief executive of Whole Foods Market, masqueraded as a third party to promote his company on Yahoo!. The story also describes how various politicians and reporters have also gotten into trouble by using assumed identities on the net. This practice is called "sock puppeting".

Blogging under your own name can be a problem too, as Google discovered when Google's Lauren Turner … Read more

'Moore's Law under fire again,' again and again

My friend Jerry Pournelle calls Unix the full-employment act for computer wizards (presumably a reference to the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978).

Similarly, I regard Moore's Law as the full-employment act for computer pundits. I've written about it several times myself (e.g. here and here); the phrase gets 930,000 hits on Google today.

One of the duties of any publication in the computer industry is to cast periodic doubt on the future reliability of Moore's Law, thus keeping the phrase prominent in the public perception. EDN Magazine discharged its duty for this year with … Read more

Gizmo technology report-- edible inkjetting

I'm on a lot of press-release mailing lists, and I get some pretty unusual press releases. Here's an excerpt from one that came in last week (the full text is here):

Press Release: FUJIFILM Dimatix Unit Announces Breakthrough in Decorating Chocolate Digitally; Plans Debut at IFT 2007 Food Expo in July

Lebanon, N.H., July 18, 2007 - Building on its growing success in commercial food decoration, the Dimatix Technology Integration unit (DTI) of FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. today announced it has developed a breakthrough technique that employs the latest digital jetting technology in decorating dark or light nonporous … Read more

Design flaws, defects, and faults

(Sorry for the brief hiatus... I had an important deadline to deal with at the office.)

On July 5, Microsoft announced that it was offering three years of warranty coverage for the "three red flashing lights" problem on the Xbox 360 (press release here).

This announcement began an interesting series of statements, interpretations and outright false conclusions from a variety of sources.

The press release… Read more

Touching a nerve in Silicon Valley

I did attend the Ron Paul rally I mentioned on Friday. (More info here, here, and here.)

It wasn't what I expected-- in a good way.

If elected, Dr. Paul would withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve system, and return the country to the gold standard.

There were other speakers addressing these topics, and many of the people attending the event were apparently there to hear about these things-- anti-war activists, gold bugs, even a contingent of conspiracy theorists. I expected these people to dominate the rally, and I was prepared to … Read more

One Intel processor per child

According to the US Census Bureau, there are over 1.8 billion children in the world under the age of 14.

Intel would like to sell them all a processor. And, ideally, a chipset with graphics, some flash memory, and networking.

If there are going to be 1.8 billion $100 laptops, Intel might be able to earn $25 each, or $45 billion for the chips inside them.

Of course, AMD would also like to earn that revenue. Before this week, it looked like AMD had the inside track. AMD was in the right place at the right time when … Read more

A low-priced alternative to the OQO and Flipstart

A New York Times article on Thursday tipped me off to a new handheld PC called the Everun from Raon Digital of Korea.

Although this machine has apparently been around for over a month, this was the first I'd heard of it. The occasion for the Times' mention was that the Everun is now available from Dynamism, a company that has become a hero to the early-adopter crowd by importing all kinds of gizmos that aren't officially for sale in the US market. If you haven't been to Dynamism, go check it out, it's great.

The … Read more

What could you make from an iPhone?

Since the iPhone's June 29 launch, we've seen several teardown reports--some from professionals, some demonstrating more enthusiasm than skill, and some that are just awful (but funny).

What's inside? Well, you can read the details in reports from various analyst firms, but it breaks down like this:

A microprocessor A 3D graphics controller DRAM Flash memory An LCD A touch sensor A cell phone module Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controllers An audio chip A microphone and a speaker An accelerometer A camera module A SIM card Assorted other interfaces, connectors and buttons A lithium-ion battery Power-supply circuitry

All … Read more