Major Tech Breakthrough

Lemme get my best Keanu Reeves voice going... <keanu>Whoa.</keanu>

HP Labs just announced that they've built a fourth fundamental 2-terminal electronics component, called a "memristor". It's been theoretically predicted since the early '70s, but this is the first time one's been built. For those of you familiar with the other three components (resistors, capacitors, and inductors), memristors apparently "remember" how much current has flowed through it, and in what direction. Run current through it one way, its resistance rises... run current through it the other way, its resistance falls. Mind you, that's different from a diode, that's always high-impedance one way and low-impedance the other... the resistance of a memristor stays the same until current flows through it.

Why do you non-electronics-geeks care? It means, among other things, that low-power electronics that remember what they were doing before you turned them off are on the horizon... possibly no more waiting for your computer to boot, no more losing your term paper in a power outage, that sort of thing... and that's only the beginning.

My gut reaction is that this might be comparable to when the first diodes and transistors were created back in the mid-20th century. Start working on your "I remember when..." geezer anecdotes now. Oh, and if you want to see a news report, try this.

SCOTUS upholds Indiana photo-id-to-vote law

I saw in the news today that the title had occurred, and was getting ready to rant and rave about poll taxes and the like... luckily, I did a quick Google and found that Indiana thought ahead and declared that they would give out free photo ID to anybody unable to afford one themselves. With that in mind... good going, Indiana and SCOTUS!

...of course, that same search also brought up at least one blog still working the poll tax angle, on the theory that, in order to get that free ID, people will still have to pay for the supporting documentation (birth certificate, passport, etc.) to prove they are who they say they are. To that, all I can say is, please... I know my mother still has my birth certificate squirreled away in a safe deposit box, and, when it falls to me to keep it, it'll either get filed away or similarly protected. If it were to ever get lost or destroyed, I know I would get it replaced ASAP, possibly even before I had permanent housing again. Especially in this day and age, nothing is quite so valuable as being able to prove you are who you say you are... and I have no problem with getting people to pay for lost things they should have protected long ago.

DVD Pick: Ratatouille

Yeah, as usual, I'm behind the times when it comes to movies. If, by some chance, you haven't seen this one yet, you should. Pixar rarely disappoints, and they certainly don't this time. From the physical comedy bits of an old lady taking potshots with her shotgun, or the whole "health inspector" sequence, to the semi-standard coming-of-age tales, to the best "flashback" shot I think I've ever seen, this movie shines.

Fun with Pulp Fiction

What is it about Pulp Fiction that it lends itself so well to different treatments? Here's Shakespeare's take on it, and here's the 30-second version (with bunnies).

OK, new toy.

I've said it time and time again... I'd rather be lucky than smart any day. I decided to hit a Fred Meyers close to work for lunch (they package sushi on-site that, while not great, isn't half bad), took a peek in the electronics area... and there was a Wii, waiting patiently for me to come and take it home. Once I've dealt with setting it up (and getting a new 802.11g router) and played with it a bit, I'll share whatever "contact" info by request.

Well, maybe a new toy...

OK, so, like I said last time, new game systems aren't looking likely for that rebate check... but something else I've been keeping an eye out for is an HDTV set (primarily for new-generation game systems, but also for use as a living-room computer monitor). The problem is, since I'm looking at computer use, I'd really want the 1080p resolution... and all the screens with that resolution are a) huge, and b) pricey.

...or, they have been until now. Here's something I just ran across... small enough for the living room, well under $1000, and scads and oodles of input and output jacks, something that's a must for techie geeks like me. I'm not sold on it yet, but it wouldn't take much, I'm thinking... :)

No new toys?

It's a bit slow at work today, so I decided to spend some time investigating what I could spend my upcoming tax "rebate" on... sure, I could be more responsible than FedGov is acting, but I don't carry debt on my credit cards if I can help it, and $600 isn't a huge amount in the savings scheme of things either, so I might as well put it to its "intended" use... if I can find something to spend it on.

For starters, the Wii is right out. I haven't seen one in a store for many months, I have no reason to expect that will change, and I simply refuse to pay some eBayer for the privilege of owning one. XBox360 and new computer bits are out too... I have a decent "gaming" computer already, and most software that I would care about on the 360 makes its way to the PC in due course. That would leave the PlayStation3 as the likely target of acquisition.

However... since I already have a PS2, I would want a PS3 with some backwards compatibility for the games I already have, since I can't really justify having both plugged into my living room TV at the same time. Strangely enough... the only model currently available at retail seems to be the 40GB, no-backwards-compatibility model. I see rumors on the 'net of an upcoming 120GB model with backwards compatibility and a vibrating controller... but they seem to indicate a more June/August timeframe, well after I have the mad money in hand.

I never thought I would see the day... I'm going to have money to spend on nothing but new gaming gear, and likely time to play with such gear... but there's nothing I want to be had.

GFW/CGW - Gone

Well, it's a pisser... the magazine I came to know as Computer Gaming World (more recently, Games for Windows) is officially out of print. I've been keeping up with this mag since the late '80s, back in my Amiga days. Mainly, that loyalty was due to a certain... integrity that the magazine always maintained, neither kowtowing to their advertisers nor artificially inflating their review grades. It was also generally a "smarter" magazine than others I've tried... just because I read a magazine on computer games, I don't care to be treated as if I've got nothing more than a third-grade reading level.

Supposedly, there will be an online version from now on... it might be good, it might not... but nothing's quite like ink on paper. I'll certainly miss it.

What's wrong with kids these days?

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just one of those signs of advancing age, but... didn't kids used to be a bit more polite yesteryear?

Here's what brings this up... over the past weekend, I was merrily surfing the web, minding my own business, when I hear a knock at the front door. This being a Saturday morning, I suspect it's going to be the Jehovah's Witnesses coming by to drop off Yet More Literature, so, grumbling a bit, I hunt down my keys and head for the door. I open the door... and there's an early-teens lad, talking on his cellphone. He takes note of my presence and, without a word, turns and slouches off towards a waiting truck on the street.

Now, I'm guessing that he was looking for somebody, and likely had gotten hold of that somebody on the cell phone by the time I got to the door, who told him that he had the wrong address. But honestly, at that age I would have, at a minimum, interrupted my phone conversation to tell the guy at the door "whoops, sorry, wrong address", I'm thinking... it's like the kid believed that, since he didn't know me, I didn't matter, never mind that it's my house he was at. Oh well, here's hoping he picks up some basic social skills somewhere before he grows up.

Microsoft, Windows XP, and Vista

Fun times for Microsoft... they're trying to push Vista on an unwilling world, but Windows XP just Will Not Die. Apparently, they just announced that they're keeping XP around for sale for another two years... but only for the "budget" laptop category that's coming on strong just now in the likes of the Asus Eee and others. Everybody else, get ready to not be able to buy XP after June from major resellers like Dell.

The funny thing is, this reminds me so much of the sort of thing a now-defunct electronics company I worked for in the past attempted... having control of a niche market, they sold a device that did the basics of what our customers needed for about $500 a unit. They then went to "experts" in the field who convinced them that additional features would soon be necessary to stay competetive... but those features weren't by any means all wanted by any one customer, and had no use at all for many of our customers. Even so, a massively larger device was created, with capabilities for modular expansion, etc. for about $1500/unit... which, naturally, didn't sell, because they were still selling the more basic unit.

That company's solution to their problem? They discontinued the basic $500 unit entirely... for a time. Sales dropped off so badly, and demand for the old unit was so high, that it was brought back and the newer, bigger monstrosity was still supported, but not really pushed at sale time. Of course, by that point, the company had shrunk to the point that there really wasn't a dedicated "sales" staff anymore. We tried to take what we learned from that failure to build a new, inexpensive basic model (as parts for the old one were becoming hard to find), but the company folded before it came to market.

Having been through that, I don't see the next year or two being pleasant for Microsoft. In my humble opinion, they should simply accept that Vista is the Windows ME of the new millennium, sell XP and Vista as each allows, and use the lessons of Vista to release the next Windows version (currently just called Windows 7) as "New and Improved, like Vista without the [list suckiness the public disliked]", and be done with it. It's not like they should be having problems finding parts for their OS, after all.