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testing...
Between email and all the posting activity here, it's almost like Mike isn't half way around the world on vacation. This global information network is really starting to work out ;-)
Saw the Apple Cube yesterday. It is really cool looking. They had it hooked up to a 15 inch Apple flat panel. I had no idea they changed the 15 inch; now it is exactly like the 22 inch Cinema display (only smaller.) Beautiful. And frankly, it seemed much bigger than 15 inches (much bigger than the imac screen which was right next to it.) The Cube with that display makes a very slick package (although $3000 - ouch.) It's definitely my recommendation for rich people who really don't need a computer, but want an incredibly fast one just on the principal of buying kick ass equipment (that's some niche Apple has, huh?)
Looks like Intel is backing away from Rambus. This is a very good thing for your future RAM purchasing.
MacOS Rumors is reporting (as a rumor) that MacOS X is building on the Alpha processor. Supposedly the Mac and Compaq engineers have a very close working relationship. That's news to me, but what do I know? Well, for one, I do know that Motorolla is really screwing things up with their inability to get the G4 passed 500 Mhz. I guess Apple is just keeping their options open (like with the even more outlandish IBM Power4 rumors.) Maybe this is more to scare Motorolla than anything else. But I can still dream. (Reality check: OS X is building, but without Carbon and the Classic environment.)
The indentity-sure tipping system (now called the tipster protocol) Jeff Kandt hatched on Wes Felter's Hack the Planet has now moved to a web site of its own. This is the one to watch if you are interested in viable payment methods for the future of digital content. Of course its much too reasonable to ever work in the marketplace (big money will squash it,) but it's fun to watch smart people in action. I wish I could tip them.
I will be off line for the next day and a half (gasp.) Please don't mess up the place while I'm gone. Bye.
Two ex Microsoft gazillionaires (Paul Allen and Nathan Myhrvold) have given 12.5 million dollars "to a group of
astronomers in the San Francisco region, for the construction
of the largest-ever radiotelescope to be used in the search for
alien life." (According to this ZDnet story.) What was that Terence quote? "To search expectantly for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial source is probably as culture-bound a presumption as to search the galaxy for a good Italian restaurant." Still, this might be interesting. At the very least it will give us enough data so that everyone in the world can run SETI at home and we still won't be able to crunch through all the information. But while we're busy doing that, the question remains: aren't they already here?
It said: "Your face is like an imperfectly shaven tennis ball." I thought: "How true." And it was a computer that served me up this forehand volley of wisdom. The Surrealist Compliment Generator to be precise. Go there now and generate your own compliment, because "You cannot compare with the apex of a ferris wheel, nor the nadir of a ditch filled with a coelocanth's droppings." And you know it's true.
In a follow up to the previous CDR camera post, ArsTechnica again points the way, this time to the Hitachi DZ-MV100 DVD-RAM camcorder. That's right. This thing records video in MPEG-2 directly to DVD-RAM. Wow. Frankly, I don't mind recording to DV tape because I always figure I need to do lots of cutting before anything would be worth watching, but recording directly to disc is pretty freakin' cool. I'm amazed they can stabilize these drives enough. Awesome.