Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
More moving parts? You gotta be kidding me!!!
Reported in Tom's Hardware that referenced Register Hardware, excerpted below...
You have got to be freakin' kidding me!!! More moving parts??? DUMB!British boffins ditch spinning media for ultra-fast storage tech
Not SSD, not HDD. Say hello to 'Hard Rectangular Drive'
By Tony Smith • Get more from this author
19th June 2009 11:48 GMT
. . .
The read-write layer comprises a grid of millions of read-write heads created using the same lithography process used to make silicon chips. Each head is controlled by sending a signal along the appropriate row and column of the grid.
Inside HRD
There's not, however, a 1:1 correspondence between head and data bit on the media layer. Instead, the middle part is moved in the horizontal plane by piezo-electrics to allow a head to read a selection of bits, grouped as a sector.
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William Meloney
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6:57 AM
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Most amazing photos ...
Please, if you don't do anything else today go here and see the rest of these photos...
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by R J Evans, Jun 17, 2009
In 1909 a remarkable project was initiated by Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky. His mission was to record - in full and vibrant color - the vast and diverse Russian Empire. Here, with his story, is a selection of his amazing century old full color pictures.
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William Meloney
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6:37 AM
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Blu-Death-Ray FAIL
If this picture, borrowed from
is any indication then ...
yes,
Blu-Ray is a Failure!
Posted by
William Meloney
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4:11 PM
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
How much is enough?
Steve Ruble At Micro Persuasion touched on a subject near and dear to me...
This trip was unusual. For only the second time I left my laptop at home and traveled with just a smartphone (in my case an iPhone), a Verizon Mifi router and an 8gb Lacie Iamakey USB drive. Nevertheless, I was remarkably able to do just about everything I needed.Steve gives a real-world example of 'How much is enough?' More importantly this example shows what the constituent elements of 'enough' are. We are finally seeing computing platforms that offer the applications and services that make them truly useful.
At the same time we are beginning to recognize the difference between what we were taught to want and what we really need. This distinction is of major importance. In previous times it was the limits technology (8088, 80286, Desktop PCs, Laptop PCs. et al). With the advent of current processor technology the device is sufficiently powerful to support every application we might want.
Now we are being liberated from the hulking behemoths not by the PC makers but by market forces that have demanded functionality in hand-held devices. With this freedom comes the understanding that an iPhone or Palm Pre will not do everything that a desktop system will. Rather our expectations are coming more inline with our needs instead of our 'wants and desires'.
Thr real freedom that we are enjoying is not the small form factor computational platform but rather a realistic assessment of our true needs.
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William Meloney
at
1:32 PM
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Getting out of the mainstream...
I am not going to the walled garden to eat 140 char worms!
I am going to cut off my media nose to spite my social face.
I am no longer going to wear my cyber heart on my digital sleeve.
I am going back to posting exclusively on this blog: Pa^2 Patois. This is where all of my views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda will emanate from. I won't be tweeting or retweeting or FF commenting or any of those micro posting things.
I have found that I cannot afford the time it takes to swim in the mainstream of social media connectivity. I cannot afford the distraction of everyone else's continuous views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda in real time.
Now before everyone's knickers get twisted let me acknowledge the worth of your individual contributions - each insight you offer is beyond measure. My answer is to include your weblog feeds in my blogroll. If, however, you don't choose to commit it to your weblog then it will slip away, just another tiny diamond in the great information sandstorm of life.
Some one recently said that keeping a blog was a lot of work. That person observed the amount of work was most likely the imputus for favoring the micro-blogging venues. Certainly it is easier to formulate a 140 character (or less) message and flitter off to the next important topic. Blogging, done well, requires larger and longer periods of time devoted not only to thought but expression as well. Hard work indeed.
So my commitment is to try and honor your hard work by setting aside large and respectively long periods of time to read what you do commit to your weblog(s).
Now, here is the irony of my circumstance - although my intent is to only post to Pa^2 Patois I believe that my dabbling in the FaceFriendBookTwitterFeed melange is so almost incestuously interconnected that I will still appear to be present and active. Ironical, wouldn't you say...er, tweet, er... uh... Shut up Papa!
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William Meloney
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8:06 AM
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Useful measures of conversion...
Respectfully stolen from my Slackware Linux Fortune program ...
1 Billion dollars of budget deficit = 1 Gramm-Rudman
6.023 x 10 to the 23rd power alligator pears = Avocado's number
2 pints = 1 Cavort
Basic unit of Laryngitis = The Hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
6 Curses = 1 Hexahex
3500 Calories = 1 Food Pound
1 Mole = 007 Secret Agents
1 Mole = 25 Cagey Bees
1 Dog Pound = 16 oz. of Alpo
1000 beers served at a Twins game = 1 Killibrew
2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League
2000 pounds of chinese soup = 1 Won Ton
10 to the minus 6th power mouthwashes = 1 Microscope
Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier = 1 Machturtle
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
365 Days of drinking Lo-Cal beer. = 1 Lite-year
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton
to 1 meter per second
One half large intestine = 1 Semicolon
10 to the minus 6th power Movie = 1 Microfilm
1000 pains = 1 Megahertz
1 Word = 1 Millipicture
1 Sagan = Billions & Billions
1 Angstrom: measure of computer anxiety = 1000 nail-bytes
10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone
10 to the 6th power Bicycles = 2 megacycles
The amount of beauty required launch 1 ship = 1 Millihelen
Posted by
William Meloney
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9:10 AM
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Lay down low and stand up swinging....
...land on me with both feet...HARD!
Posted by
William Meloney
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8:30 PM
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
Let me just save...
...up enough of it so I can give it away.
. . .
Posted by
William Meloney
at
7:22 PM
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Thoughts on Google's Wave
Disclaimer 1: I drank the Google Kool-aid a long time ago...
Disclaimer 2: The extent of my knowledge about Google Wave comes from the 1:20 video presentation seen at wave.google.com
- Unlike some other social media critics I am IMPRESSED! Having few preconceptions and very little expectations I was simply blown away by the forward thinking of the Wave team.
- My personal yardstick in matters of software/application tools: Does the tool meet the hand. To this I say a resounding "Yes!"
The evolution of the Internet or any technology for that matter is not defined by desires or expectations. The evolution of technology is defined by on-the-ground, in-the-moment, proven achievements. Pundits all too often predicate their views and criticisms on their personal "vapor-ware" preferences as opposed to the existing, working, less-than-perfect real-ware tools offered in real-time.
Posted by
William Meloney
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9:29 AM
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Roasted Potato Salad... (Part 2 - The Eating)
There is something about simple potato salad. The creamy texture of the mayo, the bite of the mustard, the crunch of celery and the bright highlight of the onion all surrounding - in this case - the body of roasted potato cubes. With that last element the salad went from elegantly simple to simply elegant.
Now, if I might, let me round out the epicurian picture.
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
I removed the "silver film" from the pork tenderloin (the smaller cut, 1 - 1.5 lbs) and then tied it into a pinwheel. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste then seared on all "sides" in 2 tbls of olive oil in a smoking hot cast iron skillet.
Once the browning is complete then cover the pork loin with strips of hickory smoked bacon. The bacon does three important things for this meal. First, it is a 'moisturizer' for the little roast. Second, it is a cooking indicator. I know I will be taken to task for saying this but, "when the bacon is done, the pork loin is done" (Yeah, I am one of those that prefers pork done. Sorry.)
Finally, the third and perhaps most important reason for the bacon is to compliment the potato salad.
So, in presentation there are three slight slices of roasted pinwheel pork loin opposite a serving of cold roasted potato salad married together with a strip of chrisp bacon.
Enjoy...
Posted by
William Meloney
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1:43 PM
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