matsu

Petabyte

A million gigabytes… I still remember when I was introduced (circa 1987) to an Amstrad 1640 that had two 20 megabyte (!) drives – and thinking – “How the hell are they going to fill this up – ever?”

My bet now is – when are we going to be carrying 1 petabyte on a key fob? Be careful with what you say (the limits of physics, bla, bla, bla…) – if you asked the world’s top storage experts “experts” in 1987, “when are we going to be carrying 1 gigabyte in our pocket?” they would probably gasp and then laugh at you…

Update: we might be closer than we thought.

is:unread

Try doing a is:unread search on your gmail account. Let me know how many archived messages you didn’t read. I do this periodically, perhaps gmail should show an unread messages count next to the All mail link, as it does for the Inbox.

Another path to a Theory of Everything

Although it’s just another of many attempts to join General Relativity and Quantum mechanics, the scalar-tensor-vector gravity (STVG) theory does look interesting, as it doesn’t need the concept of Dark matter to work, making it a more elegant solution than other theories. It has managed to account for actual galactic structure (vs. galactic rotation), and even in explaining the Pioneer problem (mentioned here). The next step in validating this theory is applying it to the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), the all pervasive background radiation that is one of the most important indications of the Big Bang Theory – thus checking this theory against the formation of the universe.

Peter F. Hamilton – Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained

In this latest tour de force, Peter F. Hamilton creates an universe of the same magnitude as the one he created for the Night’s Dawn trilogy. Although they have different names, both books are only one story – the first one will leave you hanging for the second, which in turn won’t make much sense without the first.

The first book, Pandora’s Star, begins with the creation of wormhole technology (with a very memorable scene), and ends with the whole setting for the drama to unfold, with the threat of the Primes already in full swing. The second book (and I recommend that you read them in a row), Judas Unchained, picks up the action, and it develops the characters further, with some not-so-shattering plot twists (I expected some more surprises). It kind of drags in the middle, but the last third of the book makes it worth it. And no deus ex machina ending this time!

I liked the story, although I don’t think it’s for everyone. A bit too many characters perhaps, it makes it difficult to become 100% immersed in the storyline, it could be shorter also. It could explore more the characters from the “evil” side (what would the Starflyer’s perspective feel like?). There’s also the cul-de-sac of the SI “character” – it feels Hamilton had other plans for it and didn’t include them in the conclusion (perhaps there will be further stories on this universe?). On the other hand, I really like Hamilton’s notion that the concept of economics is relevant to science fiction – the lack of which sadly makes a lot of science fiction irrealistic, and he does create a vast and interesting canvas with the seamless integration of the old and the new, with what defines us as human.

Ideas

While I’m not very good at designing things from scratch, I enjoy looking for possible improvements in everyday things. Here are some ideas.

• Mac OS X

• Exposé
  Adding the option that instead of having three separate Exposé actions (All windows, Application windows, Desktop), why not have just one action, that would show all windows, grouped by applications (with a colored border or something around each group), and when you clicked outside any of the windows it would show the desktop. This would make it easier to use with a mouse and more intuitive.

• Spotlight
  Make the items that show up on the search list right-clickable – you might want to do something different than opening the file with the standard application – and dragable.

• iPod

• Shuffle play
  When listening to your music collection with shuffle mode, don’t you sometimes want to listen to more of that artist right away? Why not add some kind of shortcut that would permit to turn shuffle off and on at a button press (or press-hold)

• Mood play
  If you have a very eclectic music collection, sometimes it’s nice just to hear some types of music. Why not have an algorithm that would identify (by negative reinforcement, ie, which songs you skip) which mood you are on, and then start building a mood database. It would be transparent, just an addition to the shuffle mode.

• Backlight
  It would be nice to have the option of having the backlight stay on when connected to the power supply, like when you’re using the iPod in the car or on a craddle at home.