IDF2009

Hallo hoppy reader, It’s Tuesday and that means I’ve taken a bat turn to the left and landed at Moscone for another Intel Developer Forum. This first installment concern’s the show’s opening keynote, from Paul Otellini and associates. Paul’ theme: A Continuum of Computing

Acoustical Anachronism

Jello happy reader, A recent posting in Gizmodo, carrying an inane headline, incited me to post. Now, I don’t expect insightful journalism either here at The Bitstream or from Gizmodo but, the piece was about a practical application of psychoacoustics and basic physics, so I decided to dive into this subject a bit as the [...]

Freak Out!

Hello happy reader, Tomorrow will see the conclusion to this nerve wracking, patience trying presidential campaign and, to keep from freaking from information overload, I’m posting a brief, light note on the Hirsute One, Frank V. Zappa. Zappa, a card carrying member of the American Melting Pot, was part Sicilian, Greek-Arab and French. He typified our national urge [...]

Babbage Lives, A New Beginning

Hello happy readers, OK, I think I’m caught up with my post–conference duties so I can give you a taste of the Museum of Computing’s Babbage show I was babbling about…However, before I jump into that, I wanted to give you a heads up on the new $3.3k Sennheiser MKH 800 Twin, which offers a dual capsules design. The kewel thing is that [...]

Babbage is Dead, Long Live Babbage

Hello happy readers…Sorry about the posting hiatus, had to do some maintenance…Today I’m writing a tiny bit about Charles Babbage, his protégé Ada Lovelace, and the antecedents of electronic computing. To start, consider the Industrial Revolution, when everything possible was being automated. Cloth manufacturing, a lucrative process that produced high value goods from low value commodities, was an early industry [...]