News Analysis

Displays have a long way to go

Today I take my lead from a Reuters article that describes two alternative display technologies that may some day replace (or at least augment) LCDs in mainstream computer systems.

Both are on the market today. OLED (organic light-emitting display) technology, used on some cellphones, creates what amounts to an array of tiny LEDs. This approach is theoretically superior to the way LCDs work, which is to combine a white backlight with colored filters and tiny shutters (the liquid crystals) for each pixel. All the light generated by the OLED is visible to the user, but most of the light in … Read more

Glaskowsky held hostage-- Day 5

Ever since Friday night, I've been staying away from the Apple store just down the road. And the company store at the Apple headquarters down the road in the other direction, just in case they have the things too. And the two AT&T stores I drive by on my daily commute.

Basically, I'm just staying at home when I'm not at work. And when I am at work, I stay away from the water cooler.

This minimizes my risk, because seeing an iPhone in person might be bad. For my wallet, anyway.

The problem is … Read more

GPL 3--a bridge too far?

The Free Software Foundation last week released the third version of the GNU General Public License-- GPL 3 (also known as GPLv3).

This CNET News article explains the new features of GPL 3, which the FSF hopes will be adopted by most open-source developers in place of the GPL 2 license. The older GPL 2 will remain available, however.

FSF founder and president Richard M. Stallman has devoted his entire career to making free software--and to making software free. A strong opponent of copyrights, patents, digital-rights management, and all other legal or technical constructs that limit the freedom of software … Read more

Another day, another microprocessor delay

CNET's Stephen Shankland wrote on Friday about AMD's announcement that its four-core Barcelona server processor has been delayed until August. This is just a couple of months later than the previous estimate of "mid-year." Faster versions will arrive in the fourth quarter.

Shankland did a good job with the story, as usual. He skipped quickly over the "delay" issue because that's not really very important. Two months' delay in any product is costly and unfortunate, but it's usually a second-order effect.

What really matters is the value of the product when it … Read more

The Gizmo History Report: The TRS-80 Model 100

I was in the Air Force in 1983, serving at Hahn AB in Germany (now a civilian facility somewhat misleadingly renamed Frankfurt Hahn Airport, although it's 110 km-- 68 miles-- away from Frankfurt).

In March, I was given a temporary duty assignment back to the US, and I was able to take some leave to go back home to Miami.

I dropped in at the old Radio Shack Computer Center, where I used to hang around-- yeah, I was the kind of kid who would hang around at a Radio Shack Computer Center-- and they had this new gizmo for sale.… Read more

Politics, Ron Paul, and Silicon Valley

I was once very active in the Libertarian Party. I ran a libertarian/objectivist computer bulletin-board service called the John Galt Line from 1983 to 1990, attended state LP conventions, and helped out during campaigns.

In 1988, I worked for the LP's presidential campaign. The ticket was Ron Paul for President and Andre Marrou for Vice President. Dr. Paul, an obstetrician/gynecologist from the Gulf Coast of Texas, won three terms in Congress as a Republican, making him the closest thing to a mainstream politician the LP had yet been offered. Marrou spent one term in the Alaska state … Read more

Robotics as a hobby... and a way of life

Have you ever heard of the Homebrew Computer Club? I'm sure you've heard of the products designed by its members: the Apple I and Apple II, the Osborne I, maybe even the earlier Sol-20 (one of the prettiest little personal computers ever; I have a beautiful example myself).

Wikipedia reports that the Homebrew Computer Club stopped meeting in "roughly 1977"-- about 30 years ago. But a small part of it survives. Some of the people in the Homebrew Computer Club spun off the Homebrew Robotics Club, and that club still meets regularly.

I try to … Read more

Flash drives-- now a pricey but reasonable option

Samsung announced this week that it has begun producing a 64GB flash drive for notebook computers.

Although 32GB flash drives have been on the market for several months, most users need more storage, especially in Vista-based notebooks. I think the new 64GB drives will find a much larger market.

Samsung didn't announce a price for the new drive, but 32GB drives have been selling for around $500 as an upgrade for a few notebook models from Dell and other OEMs. The new drives will probably decline to that price over the next several months.

Meanwhile, of course, conventional hard … Read more

Shopping for a private jet

There have been several stories in the news this week about airplanes and spacecraft. I'm an Air Force veteran myself, and I've been an Aviation Week subscriber for over 20 years, but you don't have to be in the industry to keep up with the latest in aerospace technology. Even CNET covers this kind of thing today, and some of the stories I've seen this week have gotten me thinking about buying a private jet.

I think Esther Dyson deserves a lot of credit for bridging the computer and aerospace industries. In 2005, Esther inaugurated her … Read more