Tag: hardware

Dust

Al Molnar recently devised a transceiver-on-a-chip that’s 50x smaller than a cell phone, consumes 1000x less power, yet operates at the same frequency. Outfitted with their own TinyOS operating system, the motes self-organize into ad hoc wireless networks and pass their data from one to another bucket-brigade style until the information reaches a central computer for processing. In March, members of the Smart Dust research team, including graduate students Jason Hill, Ben Cook, Mike Scott, and Brett Warneke, took a major leap forward in their quest to combine ultra-low power computation, communication, and sensing into a single tiny device. Hill successfully tested his design for a new single-chip “spec” mote that’s only 5 millimeters square and includes a transmitter built by Molnar.

Any Key

Where do I find the “Any” key on my keyboard?

The term “any key” does not refer to a particular key on the keyboard. It simply means to strike any one of the keys on your keyboard or handheld screen.

i hate you compaq

the stupid fucks over at compaq hide their product downloads behind a non working javascript form. one has to be lethally stupid to make it impossible to get free support. WTF. i need a bios upgrade because my armada m700 doesn’t like wifi cards. ARRRGH

die compaq die.

Trusted brains

Another problem for the entertainment companies is what they’re calling the “analog hole.” This recognizes the fact that human beings are not digital, so digital programming has to be converted to a format, known as analog, that we can see and hear.

computers will have the capacity of the human brain by 2020.

The memory capacity of the human brain is ~100T synapse strengths (neurotransmitter concentrations at interneural connections), which we can estimate at ~100TB. In 1998, 128 MB of RAM cost ~$200. The capacity of memory circuits has been doubling every 18 months. Thus by the year 2023, 100TB will cost ~$1000. However, this silicon equivalent will run more than 1b times faster than the human brain. There are techniques for trading off memory for speed, so we can effectively match human memory for $1000 sooner than 2023.

if the MPAA and friends have their way it will have to run on trusted hardware. mind control?