The Cell processor is shown on the right (image from AP via the BBC). Chips of similar scale can hold gigabytes of storage space.

Will the entire human knowledge fit in a matchbox one day?

One of the notable pioneers of modern computing and mathematics died in February 8th 48 years ago. I found writings relating to his death quite mystifying:

… his mind, the amulet on which he had always been able to rely, was becoming less dependable. Then came complete psychological breakdown; panic, screams of uncontrollable terror every night. His friend Edward Teller said, “I think that von Neumann suffered more when his mind would no longer function, than I have ever seen any human being suffer.”

Von Neumann’s sense of invulnerability, or simply the desire to live, was struggling with unalterable facts. He seemed to have a great fear of death until the last… No achievements and no amount of influence could save him now, as they always had in the past. Johnny von Neumann, who knew how to live so fully, did not know how to die.

If anyone is interested in research that I do (model-based image analysis and image registration), there is a 2-page abstract in print (PDF format, 1.8 MB). My work is described in pages 16-17.
 
 
 

If you are not familiar with syndication and aggregators, now is a good time to find out. Content is delivered to you, rather than you chasing content.

I am apprehensive of promoting MSN search, but their beta version has a nice feature that I am excited about. You can get common searches delivered to your RSS aggregator. The idea is very simple. Just replace the text in red with your favourite search query and replace whitespaces with a +.

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=othello+master&format=rss

Changes are expected in the way high-bandwidth entertainment is delivered. It sounds as if M¥¢ro$o£t have concrete plans of entering the world of television and maybe even broadcast. It might, of course, take us some time to discover if TV will absorb the PC or vice versa. In either case, it’s unlikely that the two will remain separate for the next decade to come. Time will tell.

From Slashdot:

…Verizon joins other baby bells SBC and Bellsouth in choosing Microsoft to provide TV content over high speed internet. IPTV, whose technology will deliver TV content in much the same way as VOIP delivers phone service, relys heavily on fiber optic speeds. According to SBC, Microsoft’s IPTV technology will allow a home to receive 3 standard TV signals, 1 HD channel, and high-speed Internet access all at the same time…

Ever wondered what is going on inside your PDA? Peter’s Pilot Pages contain high-resolution images of the entire contents of your Palm broken apart. This site is for the curious, not only for electronic engineers.

Cited by: PalmAddict

The quickly-emerging browser, Mozilla Firefox, is said the be the fastest of all. It can now operate even more quickly by tweaking its settings to enable pipelining.

Brought to my attention by Scott Tobkes.