Smart Dust

Smart Dust or computers the size of dust motes are here, courtesy of the University of Michigan.

"Bell's Law says there's a new class of smaller, cheaper computers about every decade. With each new class, the volume shrinks by two orders of magnitude and the number of systems per person increases. The law has held from 1960s' mainframes through the '80s' personal computers, the '90s' notebooks and the new millennium's smart phones."

The dawn of truly immersive computing is nigh. Is society ready for this?

"One never knows, do one?" - Fats Waller

Interdependency Writ Large

If you want to kill time while learning something of real value, one can do far worse then browsing the Global Dependency Explorer, an interactive gem that makes the CIA World Fact Book come alive with an exquisite set of real time interconnected charts showing the commercial interdependencies of most of the world's countries in real time. Enjoy

Stone Soup

A person I would have love to have had a conversation with is Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who not only invented computing (John Von Neuman was the other player in that endeavor) and AI but also was, until now, an unrecognized leading researcher of chaos via his seminal paper titled."The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis," whereby the interaction of a wide range of chemicals can give rise to patterns of incredible complexity ranging from leopard spots and patterns on seashells and fish to the branching of avoeli in lungs. Even more amazing is the fact his theory may extend to the formation of galaxies as the distribution patterns scale from the cellular to the galactic without distortion and without the need of chemical interaction, something guaranteed to astound as Turing wrote his paper well before his tragic suicide in 1954. 

At the heart of any Turing pattern is a so-called reaction-diffusion system. It consists of an "activator," a chemical that can make more of itself; an "inhibitor," that slows production of the activator; and a mechanism for diffusing the chemicals.


Many combinations of chemicals can fit this system: What matters isn't their individual identity, but how they interact, with concentrations oscillating between high and low and spreading across an area. These simple units then suffice to produce very complex patterns.


Or, in essence


"Nature abhors gradients"- Into the Cool

Beyond Real Time - The HG Beckons

Beyond Real Time, as stated in one of the the first posts of this "wonderful" blog, is the holy grail of computing whereby anything happening faster then 1/60th of a second cannot be perceived by man. (More like 1/75th) but who's arguing:). The BRT limit has long been surpassed in all things dealing with word processing and other tasks not requiring intense compute power but for high res 3D graphics and page downloads from websites, the BRT HG objective still holds. With this in mind, check out the video seen above of a beta of the Nvidia Quad Core Tegra/Kal El processor doing it's thing in a beta rev Motorola's Xoom regarding site page loads. OMG anyone?

The screen resolution of the device also reaches another HG milestone, 300dpi, the same res used in high end 4/C print images, something only dreamed about one year ago, let alone in a device targeted to cost about $600 at the end of 2011.

"Today at Mobile World Congress (MWC), we demonstrated this little beauty running in an Android tablet. We not only showed that it was alive. We showed it browsing the Web, running games and streaming amazing video. This wasn’t your average amazing video. It was 1440p video content running on a 2560×1600 panel. That will enable mobile devices to output to the highest resolution monitors or tablets equipped with a 10.1-inch display with 300 DPI."

When power is combined with low power requirements and small form factor, magic happens. I, for one, can't wait.

Left Speechless, in a good way :)

This picture from NASA's Cassini mission goes beyond words.

While We're At It...

Kind of says it all regarding the reality distortion field many Americans have about history, 

religion, the Constitution and evolution.

For $1.99...

Being totally non religious, I stand in awe of Confession, the $1.99 gem able to absolve one of his or her sins while on the go....

"A forbidden apple got Adam and Eve evicted from the Garden of Eden, but a new Apple app could lead sinful Catholics to repentance.


It's called, aptly enough, Confession: A Roman Catholic App.


And at $1.99, it offers Catholics with iPhones, iPads, and troubled consciences a cheap and easy way to get right with The Lord.


As an added bonus, it's got the blessing of the Vatican.


"This app invites Catholics to prayerfully prepare for and participate in the Rite of Penance," claims Little iApps, the Indianapolis-based developers of the app.


It lets the sinner pick a commandment - and then tick off his or her sins.


So say goodbye to those awkward silences in the confessional when the penitent rattles off the "Bless me father, for I have sinned" intro - and draws a blank.


The new app keeps a running tally of slip-ups so that no sin goes unforgiven.


It also keeps track of just how much time has elapsed since the penitent's last confession.


Because it's password protected, what's said in the confessional stays between the penitent and the priest.


The app also makes it easier for Catholics to do a "examination of conscience," which is when they privately review - usually at evening prayers - how they've lived up to their faith.


Taking account of the person's age and - for reasons unclear - occupation, the app then suggests a possible penance and comes with seven acts of contrition to choose from and recite.


The new app doesn't, however, doesn't replace the priest.


Only priests have the power to forgive sins here on earth, according to the Catholic faith."

I wonder what Martin Luther would have thought about this?


"One never knows, do one?" - Fat Waller


I also wonder if the Vatican gets a cut and last but not least, I continue to ask the age old question of why so-called houses of god are not taxed, especially in light of Confession, the ultimate way to get good with god for less then $2.00.