Technical Stew

So....just when was the last time you:

Formatted a floppy disk of any size...
Used actual film in a camera...

These are the things the following article asks us to remember...and I remember A LOT of these. In fact, I think rabbit ears was just last night...

Linky Love for the March of Progress

h/t to Fark.com, not that I spend much time there...err yeah,...thats it... not much time at all....

At the S4 waypoint. About 60 feet.

Pressing now to S41.

Holding on station at S41. 12 meters - 36 feet. Station-keeping for 2 minutes before retreating to escape RV.

At closest point for today. Processing retreat commands now.

ATV on retreat. - Last image of today.

From the article:

"One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. 'Ninety knots,' ATC replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. 'One-twenty on the ground,' was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was 'Dusty 52, we show you at 525 on the ground,' ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, 'Aspen 20, I show you at 1,742 knots on the ground.' We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast."
Blackbird Pilot Speaks!

Personally, I'm torn.

As a former Marine, I am of the opinion that the military should really limit the times they use non-lethal force. There is a time and place for non-lethal, but when you get right down to it, the military is in the business of breaking things and killing people (giving the other son-of-a-B the chance to die for his country).

On the other hand...COOL!

HEAT 'Em UP!

It looks like the Tesla Roadster is well on its way out of the vapor-market and into owners' hands. The 2700lb all-electric speed demon has passed its FMVSS test requirements, including crash-testing and passenger safety. They've been cleared for their production date to begin on March 17th of this year, previously moved back from late last year. If you've not been following them lately, the production move, cancellation of the Whitestar line, and the departure of co-creator Martin Eberhard has fired up the rumors that the Tesla design is pure vaporware. This is untrue, and it seems like people are just begging for some bad news for this innovative company. The cars are on the roads as we speak, and they are getting their plant online and into limited production at first, then after a burn-in period, they'll ramp everything up to a full production line.

[Tesla's Blog and Press Release]

Folding screen a reality thanks to Polymer Vision's Readius.

The 5-inch (13-cm) display of Polymer Vision's "Readius" is the world's first that folds out when the user wants to read news, blogs or email and folds back together so that the device can fit into a pocket.

It uses e-ink which means no color, but great battery life. There's no browser so everything needs to be set up on a PC and then pushed to the phone. Still it's a huge step in the right direction. The article says that it'll be a competitor with the iPhone and the Kindle. The former isn't really likely. The iPhone has too many features this doesn't. I can see it competing with the kindle though. An e-book that folds up to a reasonable size with phone and email capability that doesn't cost 4-6oo bucks is definitely a competitor with Amazon's reader.

Heh.

ht to CrunchGear

According to the La Crosse Tribune Apple's mobile devices will be able to access email via an IBM Domino e-mail server. That's a pretty big deal in my own little world since my company does in fact use Notes. Now granted, we dont have web-mail activated, but this is a step in the right direction. Blackberries are our "standard" though they're rare as yet and I'd love to see an iPhone in the mix.

IBM will also release their office suite software for the Mac computer line. As the article says, "With these moves, IBM is trying to find more avenues for its software and take advantage of Apple's natural affinity for Microsoft alternatives." I think that's a great idea. Anything that throws a little competition Microsoft's way can't be bad.

It's mighty tasty.

AppleGeeks Lite