Geek Patrol

What Are Solid State Drives Good For?

Well, apparently one of them does not really do you any good, instead you need 24!

Drool!

BMW Builds a Shape-Shifting Car Out of Cloth

BMW Builds a Shape-Shifting Car Out of Cloth | Autopia from Wired.com

BMW made a car that blinks, no allspark required.

Bangle and is team actually built GINA — which stands for “Geometry and functions In ‘N’ Adaptions” — six years ago, but BMW kept it under, er, wraps until Tuesday. It’s built on the Z8 chassis and has a 4.4-liter V8 and six-speed automatic transmission. BMW says the fabric skin – polyurethane-coated Lycra – is resilient, durable and water resistant. It’s stretched over an aluminum frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape. Want a big spoiler on the back? Wider fenders?  No problem. “The drastic reinterpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car,” BMW says.

But they aren’t selling it. Teases.

Sun Ultra 20 M2 Memory Upgrade

A while ago I wrote what I thought about the Sun Ultra 20 M2, Sun’s entry-level workstation:

If you do decide to buy the base machine, you’re going to want to upgrade the video card (the onboard video is okay, but the quality isn’t great and it’s obscure enough that I’ve had problems with it and Linux). You’ll probably want to upgrade the RAM, too. Watch out, though — the Ultra 20 M2 takes unbuffered ECC RAM, which is expensive and hard to find.

Turns out I was wrong about the memory; while Sun claims you can only use ECC RAM, it turns out that you can use non-ECC RAM too. I put 2GB of Kingston ValueRAM into my Ultra 20 M2 and so far it’s working perfectly. I wish I’d done this ages ago!

Zune – Take 2

New Zunes to take on Apple’s iPod

Microsoft has launched three new models of its Zune digital media player in an effort to compete with Apple’s iPod.

The players – which come in 4GB, 8GB and 80GB models – have wi-fi so users can automatically download music, photos, and video from their computer.

I do find the numbers interesting:

Last year Microsoft sold 1.2 million Zunes compared to 100 million iPods shifted since its launch in 2001.

Tri-Core Chips?

What Are They Thinking?

AMD Bets on Tri-Core Chips as Quad-Core Market Lags

When your larger competitor outguns you financially and can crank out powerful products at blinding speed, you work with the strengths you have. In Advanced Micro Devices’ case, that’s architecture.

On Monday, AMD executives confirmed this weekend’s rumors and admitted that the company will indeed introduce a triple-core microprocessor sometime during the first quarter of 2008.

Ok.  I do agree that it looks like quad-core chips are not being adopted very quickly, dual-core seems to work fine for most people.  But, last time I checked the whole computer concept was based on binary and not on ternary Math.  I wonder how the extra processor will fit into this?!

Anyway, from my point of view the quad-core processors are still simply too expensive.  So, if you do not run software that makes use of the extra cores, why would you pay the premium instead of just buying a dual-core processor?

I think the same reasoning applies to tri-core chips.  Unless they are cheap I doubt people will go that route.  I cannot see AMD coming out ahead unless they have found some type of cheap shortcut to develop that chip, and a cheap way to manufacture it.

Commuting Via “Robot”

I just mention this because I actually work with Ivan:

Meet IvanAnywhere

He writes code, exchanges notes in other developers’ offices, attends meetings and, on occasion, hangs out in the kitchen or lounge over coffee and snacks.

About the only thing he can’t do is drink the coffee or eat the snacks — or touch anything, for that matter.

It’s not that Bowman doesn’t have hands or a mouth; they’re just in Halifax, along with the rest of his body.

Belkin N1 Vision

Belkin’s N1 Vision is one of the coolest wireless routers I’ve ever seen, thanks to its integrated network display which tells you all sorts of interesting statistics about your wireless network. It’s not terribly expensive either (at least not for an 802.11n router with an integrated four-port gigabit switch) at 200USD.