Skip to main content

Anyone remember the 1980s?

Robots that Jump: "Anyone remember the 1980s? This was the era when each increase in computer speed brought radically new software to the consumer. When the Mac doubled its speed, it went from black and white to color. When chips got faster digital phones got practical. Each time a game console got faster there was a huge jump in the games. Doubling computer speed in the early 1990s allows them to browse the web efficiently. Today, there's little effect of comparable increases in hardware.

So, I'm not going to bash Microsoft for the usual reasons. But I do think they are becoming about as interesting as the power company. After all, in the 1920s tech boom power companies were the dotcom darlings. Today, nobody thinks twice about a wall socket. We all use it, but ignore its wonders. The same will happen to Microsoft, unless it wakes up to robots as the next tech boom.

By the way, this critique extends to the whole PC industry. Linux is not the future the way some imagine - replacing Windows with Linux is like changing the wall socket from 115 to 120 volts. It may have positive effects, but it is same old, same old... Strange how the tech pundits don't even see this. Strange how the 'top 10' lists of tech trends still don't mention robots, despite commercial products like the Roomba and a rapidly expanding hobby community. Check out Servo for the Byte magazine of the robotics revolution - it's coming, and it is coming fast. A few companies (e.g. VIA) know this. Even Microsoft will likely send a few reps to the upcoming Robonexus conference late in 2004. But it will be too little, too late. This guy quoted from Microsoft will be wrong, quite wrong...

'We have a treasure chest of technology that allows us to be very agile,' says Rick Rashid, Microsoft's senior vice president for research. 'If the world changes, we can change with it.'


But so what - Microsoft is helping robotics by forcing hardware advances! I'll just dump Longhorn and use that 6GHz computer to make my car drive itself home."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

At USDA, the Mouse Is in the House

(washingtonpost.com) : "Employees at the Department of Agriculture's main cafeteria were just sitting down to lunch on Friday when security guards ordered everyone in the huge eatery to leave. Al Qaeda? Bomb scare? No. Mouse droppings. The D.C. Department of Health closed the cafeteria for failing to pass inspection. Yes, the USDA, home to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the meat and poultry inspectors -- the agency that is part of the federal system for protecting the nation's food supply, was in violation of the D.C. Health Code. There were several citations, according to the inspection report, including: 'water leaking excessively' in the ceiling, employees not wearing hair restraints, and inadequate cleaning of the inside of ice machines, cabinets, surfaces and equipment. The biggest problem, however, seemed to be mouse droppings found everywhere -- in the dry storage room, by the salad bar, behind the ovens, near the serving line, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Artist turns animals into everyday objects

Ananova - A Chilean artist is making a name for herself with an exhibition in which stuffed animals are transformed into household objects. Artworks on display include a chick turned into a lamp, and 'sheep bag' - a lamb carcass fitted with handles. Artist Caterina Purdy says her exhibition at the Experimental Arts Centre in Santiago is intended to be humorous but also makes a serious point. She told Las Ultimas Noticias online: 'It is possible to see my work as something scary, but I find it beautiful. 'There is also irony and humour in my objects as well as a criticism of the way animals are treated by society.'"
Post a Comment
Read more
BW Online | March 1, 2004 | Software : "As Stephen and Deepa emerge this summer from graduate school -- one in Pittsburgh, the other in Bombay -- they'll find that their decisions of a half-decade ago placed their dreams on a collision course. The Internet links that were being pieced together at the turn of the century now provide broadband connections between multinational companies and brainy programmers the world over. For Deepa and tens of thousands of other Indian students, the globalization of technology offers the promise of power and riches in a blossoming local tech industry. But for Stephen and his classmates in the U.S., the sudden need to compete with workers across the world ushers in an era of uncertainty. Will good jobs be waiting for them when they graduate? 'I might have been better served getting an MBA,' Stephen says."
Post a Comment
Read more