...more recent posts
Slashdot has a poll today asking how people like their steak. I am pleasantly surprised to find "I don't eat meat" is actually in the lead (25% to 22% for "medium rare.") I knew that junk food and caffeine were staples of the geek diet, but I have never heard anything about vegetarianism. Anyway, in the comments that follow the poll, somebody posted this short sci-fi story vaguely related to the topic. Very amusing. (This post largely stolen from rasterweb.)
testing
testing 123....
this is a test...
IBM announced today their new SOI (Silicon on insulator) chip technology. This is a long sought after step in the ever shrinking chip wars. IBM has clearly established itself as the technological leader. This will not only speed up the speed of chips, but also reduce size, heat dissipation, and energy requirements. We'll see these new chips in large IBM systems first, but the sfgate article (link above) quotes IBM as saying that the new chips "will appear in a portable device this year." Since IBM doesn't make chips for the Wintel world, I've got to think this means Apple. Go IBM. This could not only break through the speed plateau that the G4 seems to be stuck on, but also solve the heat problems with putting these things into the Powerbook. If Apple can ship a +700 mhz g4 powerbook before Jan (especially in a graphite ibook like shell) I doubt they could make enough to satisfy demand.
Slashdot has this link to a german magazine (link is to english translation) which is reporting that the EU is set to lift all export restrictions on encryption software. The U.S. is traditionally against this, and is reportedly upset by the decision.
I'm very interested in the EU, but unsure how to get more information. I guess traveling is one good way. Seems to me like they (the EU government(s)) are much more clued in than the US, but people are always telling me that freedoms are much greater here. I'm not sure, but the Netherlands and Switzerland (to name two) seem much more open. (Although I've never been to either place, so my opinion probably isn't worth much.) Simply comparing the percentage of the population incarcerated between the US and the EU (or Russia, or China, or South Africa) would lead one to believe that either a) US citizens are somehow a priori more likely to commit criminal acts, or b) the US has less freedom. What's the deal?