Buyin’ Servers

This is good news.

Sales of server computers rose in the second quarter, the first quarterly gain in two and a half years, a market research company said yesterday.

Total industry sales increased 0.2 percent from a year earlier, to $10.6 billion, the first growth since the last quarter of 2000, the research company, IDC, said.

People buy durable goods, like servers, when they see the economy turning up.  Perhaps the 3.1% GDP growth (annualized) in the 2nd quarter is only a sign of things to come.

What I do

Ever since Jed ribbed me a little over my lack of technology posts, I’ve been trying to look for more to post about it.  The problem is that I don’t think anyone would be interested in the technology with which I work.  To get people to even understand what I’m talking about, I often have to go through a litany of definitions and descriptions, and after all that I get an “oohhhhhh, so can you fix my PC at home?” 

I often run into this problem at family gatherings.  I have been trying for years, but have not been able to come up with a short answer to the question, “what do you do for a living?”  I have resorted to saying, “I’m a geek.”  That’s usually enough to discourage any further questions.  It’s not that I mind talking about what I do.  It’s just that it’s difficult to do with people who don’t have a similar background and I am keenly aware of their boredom with me when I see their eyes glaze over. 

So, for those of you who care, here’s what I do for a living:

Read the rest

DNA Computers

The folks at USC are working on computers based on DNA instead of mechanical equipment.

Those late-night scribbles have long since given way to hard science, backed by research grants from NASA, the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Now a handful of researchers around the world are creating tiny biology-based computers, hoping to harness the powers of life itself.

They call their creations “machines” and “devices.” Really, they are nothing more than test tubes of DNA-laden water, and yet this liquid has been coaxed to crunch algorithms and spit out data.

That’s just cool.

Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles originally developed for industry have an unexpected effect: They triple or even quadruple the life of rat brain cells, suggesting that they could help extend human lifespan and decrease age-related health problems.

We are Borg.  (or getting that way, at least)

Power Grid

Here’s one of the billion stories about the power grid failure in the NE.

My first comment is that I hate how the media is freaking out over this outage, but I understand why.  1) Almost all of the media is based in New York and 2) it’s August and the Kobe Bryant trial hasn’t started yet.

Anyway.

I have just some general, unorganized thoughts on the subject…

I find it curious how fast everyone declared that the blackout wasn’t caused by terrorism.  We don’t even know the cause yet.  How can you rule out terrorism?  I realize that the public officials want to calm the unwashed masses, but they really seem to be speaking out of their ass on this one.

My wife pointed out that when she heard the news, she suspected it as a prelude to a terrorist attack.  Basically, terrorists might knock out the grid and then launch a violent attack.  I’m glad her suspicions were wrong, but could this be a probing attack?  It’s not uncommon for an enemy to probe his enemy’s defenses to search out a weak spot.  What have we learned from the outage?

Not enough people or businesses have backup generators.

The subway, traffic lights, and water system (in Toronto) are electric based.

A power grid failure will not bring down the Internet backbone.

The airports don’t have enough backup power to operate in the case of a total power failure.

The American public is unlikely to panic during a power outage.

 

Some good, some bad.  I may be searching out black helicopters where there aren’t any, but it’s just a thought. 

I suspect it is just an ordinary power failure, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from it.

TAM 5

Wow.   These guys just succedded in flying a model airplane across the Atlantic.  Damn impressive.  (Link via Boortz)

Finally

TRON is back!

Buena Vista Games, the video-game division of the entertainment giant, is bringing back the sci-fi cult classic “TRON” August 26 as an interactive adventure for Windows-based computers.

“TRON 2.0” is an immersive first-person action game that includes elements of racing and role-playing game genres, too.

Must… get… faster… computer…...

ATG Javelin Executive Business Jet

Owen and I had the pleasure of attending the Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in in Oshkosh, WI, last weekend.  I was immediately attracted to one aircraft in particular (I know, attraction to an inanimate object is unhealty, but this thing is SWEEEEET!!!).

Aviation Technology Group’s Javelin Executive Business Jet has a top speed of .92 Mach, and an estimated price of $2.2 million.  Deliveries should start in late 2005.  That gives me 2 years to win the lottery.

Read the rest

RIAA

This is a positive development.

In a complaint filed Wednesday in a U.S. district court, SBC unit Pacific Bell Internet Services alleges that many of the subpoenas served against it by the Recording Industry Association of America were done so improperly.

The suit also calls into question some sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a federal law that the RIAA contends supports its legal actions. A spokesman for SBC said the RIAA’s use of the DMCA in its hunt for online song-sharers interferes with customer privacy.

Although I think that consumer privacy rights are a shaky basis for objection (I would base it in the 4th Amendment), it’s good to see some big guns come out on this.

Up until now, the RIAA has gotten its way because the consumers are too disorganized and poor to wage the battle.  SBC is a whole other ball of wax.  The RIAA may have its hands full.  Plus, I think you’ll see SBC begin to collect subscribers since they have shown a strong interest in protecting their customers.

As someone who deals with SBC a lot, they are as difficult to work with as anyone, but they got it right on this one. 

(I put this one in Technology to beef up that category.  Even though I could have put it in Law or Politics and still been accurate.)

Hardster

Ain’t technology grand?

Error

This is pretty funny.

Link via Wall of Sleep

Hmmmm…

Not to be picky, but what does a monitor port have to do with the spam story?  Wouldn’t an Ethernet or modem port be more appropriate? 

(Source: BBC main page)

Spam

Here’s an excellent article about a confessed spammer.

I have eight e-mail addresses.

I get a lot of spam.

I hate spam.

Falcon Computer

Have you ever wanted to make a fully functional computer out of your model of the Millennium Falcon?  Well, you’re in luck.  This guy will show you how. 

(Link via Mediumart)

Itty bitty particles

These guys have seemingly found a previously unknown particle:

Slamming high-energy particles of light into carbon atoms, physicists have unexpectedly produced a new type of subatomic particle.
Protons and neutrons, the building blocks of atoms, are made of smaller particles known as quarks, which come in six varieties. A proton, for example, consists of three quarks - two so-called up quarks and one down quark. Physicists know of slews of particles containing two or three quarks.

Now they believe they know of a particle containing five quarks that perhaps could have been common in the very early universe. (No one has yet conclusively found particles with four or six or more quarks.)...

When months of checking the apparatus produced no alternative explanation, the scientists concluded that they had indeed found a five-quark particle. The particle would consist of two up quarks, two down quarks and one known as an anti-strange quark.

Scientists aren’t much for coming up with names, are they?  “Anti-strange quark”?