Monthly Archives: February 2004

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Another result of plentiful processing power
This is an article that takes a slightly different look at what we can expect from all of the processing power that is being made available by the evolution of microprocessors. I have commented on why I think this makes ‘virtualization’ more and more probable, however this article explores what we’ll get from the ability to ‘brute force’ analyze data.

The Rise of Intelligent Agents: Automated Conversion of Data to Information. Automated tools that can make sense out of mounds of information are just a few years away, consultants Martha Young and Michael Jude predict. Will your network be ready for the deluge? [Computerworld Software News]

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hard disk capacity trends 2005
These are the five words that I typed into Google to see what I could find about growing hard disk capacities. One of the articles that I found – Trends in the Development of an Ultra-small Hard Disk For Mobile Terminals – was exactly the type of info that I was looking for. In addition, this paper from IBM provides some very good insight and analysis of the hard disk density trends.

Overall, I am amazed that I am able to buy hard disk storage for ~$1/GB … or less. A quick check at CompUSA on-line will show a number of 160GB-200GB hard disks priced around this number … and they are not a “cheap” store. At other on-line stores the prices are even cheaper. I’m amazed to see this 200GB, 7200RPM Seagate hard disk for $199.99!

Combined with our 4Ghz processors that are coming from Intel this year, computers are continuing to meet and/or exceed the estimates of Moore’s Law. I’m thinking about when exactly I’ll own my first server with more than one ‘terabyte’ of storage? It’s only a few years away … if that.

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LDAP and C#
I haven’t yet started to write code in C# … it’s something that I want to take a look at. I saw this posting and started to think that maybe I found some examples that might get me going. I enjoy developing code that uses LDAP directories and the data they contain … and this article demonstrates Novell’s work to continue to ease the development of LDAP-aware applications.

Jan 18th, 2004: LDAP class libraries in Mono tutorial.. Sunil Kumar has written an introduction to Novell.LDAP class libraries, which are part of Mono. [Mono Project News]

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MP3s in the car? Been there … done that …
When I travel, I always take my laptop, and make sure that I have a good collection of MP3s on it. I rip all of my CDs to MP3 for portability, and often connect my laptop to the stereo in my truck. Because of 802.11 wireless technologies, I also realized a while ago that I can sit in my truck and download MP3s from my server in the house!

Last summer we picked up a small travel trailer and I am slowly outfitting it with current gear. I have a Sony multi-CD changer, and we have some surround-sound speakers that we aren’t using in the house. I’m also going to install a small server with full wireless connections – both client and access point. While the trailer is sitting at home, out by our barn, it will be on my home network … so we’ll be able to copy MP3s and other software to and from the trailer.

Rockford is offering a similar capability with their jukebox … which might be easier to use for the average user. I know that I’m not interested … I have my solution.

Download Music to Your Car. Rockford Corp. is offering a jukebox that sits in the trunk of a car and downloads music from a PC: Users could pull their car into their garage and at a predetermined time each night the jukebox would download new music from a PC in the house. The product retails for $600. This is a good idea but I’m not sure what the benefits are over using any portable digital music player in the car. I have an iRiver and recently bought an adaptor so I can listen to music from the iRiver in my car stereo. My method doesn’t do automatic downloads but that seems to me a small benefit to using the jukebox in the trunk…. [Wi-Fi Networking News]

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Lots going on at Oracle …
Although all of the messages from Oracle are that things are going well, it seems that a lot of changes are going on at the database giant. Just the news since the first of the year indicates that something is going on.

When looking at the Oracle home page, its easy to see that they are looking to move beyond being “just a database company.” (As of today its talking about showing you Oracle Web Conferencing!) They have to do something. The Open Source database servers are coming … MySQL and PostgreSQL … and how do you compete with free?

Some of the recent articles, to me, indicate something is being felt … big time. “Oracle CFO to leave post, become chairman“, “Ellison: No need for wall-to-wall Oracle“, “Oracle CEO, CFO to preplan stock sales“, and “Oracle ships 10g database, cuts price” … all of these show that they are reacting to market pressures … IMHO.

It will be interesting to see how Oracle leverages its installed base, and where it goes next.

Oracle ships 10g database, cuts price. The database heavyweight ships the Unix versions of its much-anticipated 10g database, matches Microsoft on pricing and cuts the cost of its clustering features. [CNET News.com – Front Door]

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Living Machines
This is a really good read from Wired about a variety of areas of technology and science … and more.

“Copernicus demoted humanity by removing Earth from the center of the universe. Darwin showed that, rather than being made in God’s image, people were merely products of nature’s experimentation. Now, advances in fields as disparate as computer science and genetics are dealing our status another blow. Researchers are learning that markets and power grids have much in common with plants and animals. Their findings lead to a startling conclusion: Life isn’t the exception, but the rule.”

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More mesh network attention
This is an article by an IBM employee about mesh-networks. Some interesting perspectives and research going on …

City-Net: The future of wireless. Imagine a wireless meshing network that connects emergency workers, traffic signals, message signs, public transit vehicles, information kiosks, video cameras and other city resources. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]

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Stay away from the red plants …
This is a very impressive project that is taking genetic engineering into whole new areas of usage. Yes … as the title of the article reads … they have created a plant that will change it’s color if its roots come into contact with a landmine. Green is good … red is bad!

I found two articles about this:

Genetically Engineered Plant Can Detect Landmines. Red Nova Jan 27 2004 7:00PM GMT [Moreover – moreover…]

Flower Power Takes on Land Mines. A Danish biotech company develops a genetically modified flower that changes color when the plant is close to a land mine, making it easier to track down and remove the hidden explosives. [Wired News]

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More progress in flexible displays and organics
This is an example of the progress being made with flexible displays based on organic materials. This company with working on “electronic paper” as one of their products, and is working towards replacing the glass-based LCD panels in laptops and other devices. Here is a Washington Post article, along with an article in Scientific American. This was also mentioned on Slashdot.

Polymer Vision Produces 5″ Rollable Displays [Slashdot]