Archives for March 2011

Nation’s first Robot Governor responds to VCU win over Kansas:

March 27, 2011

As VCU students poured into the streets to celebrate, Virginia Governor Bob McDonald could hardly keep his circuits and chips stable:

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell offered his congratulations, saying, "Virginians are celebrating their victory all across the commonwealth. VCU is a great university with a well-deserved reputation for academic and athletic excellence. We all look forward to cheering them on in the Final Four next weekend. I know they’ve got two more big wins left in them. Head Coach Shaka Smart and this group of talented student athletes are doing a tremendous job representing their school and community. Go Rams!”

(via)

Also, nice grammar, Sunday editor:

Loud Data

March 24, 2011

I'm starting to think that computers are a little like space exploration in that the reality is much too boring for entertainment purposes. It's a problem because if the technology is boring and realistic, writers have to rely on well written stories and dialog, and that's really hard. So they elaborate. And when your wife likes to watch terrible shows like NCIS, you can't help but to start noticing some of the best practices in creating hyper-interesting computing for TV police dramas:

First, make sure your data is loud:

Second, computer hacking should be a real time game, where hackers and counter-hackers spar with each other in real time by loudly mashing keyboard keys, isolating nodes and burning through firewalls:

Lastly, if you notice something in an image that will help you break the case wide open (and avoid having to write a clever investigation storyline) you can always ENHANCE:

Luxury bunkers will only get you so far after the end of the world

March 23, 2011

CNN reported today that sales of luxury doomsday bunkers are up by 1000%. Whether or not it makes sense to buy one is one thing, but it makes me wonder what people expect to happen after their year underground is over. We're now a generation removed from regular people knowing how to do things, which will surely make things difficult in the event that we find ourselves without a civilization.

A Dark Prediction for the End of Moore’s Law

March 23, 2011

I don't know if it's the economy, climate change, or the parade of wars we're involved in, but something out there has sparked what seems to be a cottage industry in figuring out new ways in which we're all doomed.

People are spending their days terrified of things like ancient prophesies, depleted resources, animal themed pandemics, nuclear (proliferation, terrorism, Japan), Large Hadron Collision Black Holes, environmental destruction, further economic unraveling, and public healthcare options. After a long day of worrying about all of that stuff, who doesn't want to unwind with a television show about everyone we know dying before trying to eat our brains.

Seems like we've got it all covered, right?

Not so fast my friends.

Everyone's favorite Celebrity-Physicist, Michio Kaku, has thrown Moore's Law into the ring of things that are coming to get us:

"An excerpt from Michio Kaku's new book appears at salon.com, in which he sees a dark economic future within the next 20 yrs. as Moore's law is brought to an end when single-atom transistors give way to quantum states.

"Today, we take it for granted, and in fact believe it is our birthright, to have computer products of ever-increasing power and complexity. This is why we buy new computer products every year, knowing that they are almost twice as powerful as last year's model. But if Moore's law collapses — and every generation of computer products has roughly the same power and speed of the previous generation — then why bother to buy new computers?

Since chips are placed in a wide variety of products, this could have disastrous effects on the entire economy. As entire industries grind to a halt, millions could lose their jobs, and the economy could be thrown into turmoil."

via slashdot.org

Simplicity

March 11, 2011