Microsoft just announced their $600,000 investment in the Georgia Electronic Design Center at Georgia Tech, to focus on "RF-DNA"... the next generation of RFID. One of the key applications will be anti-counterfeiting technology for pharmaceuticals. Here's the signing ceremony at GEDC in Technology Square. Joy Laskar, director of GEDC, is at the … [Read more...]
Marcus Nanotech Center
April 6, 2009 by
Today, I received my invitation to the official opening of the Marcus Nanotechnology Center at Georgia Tech, which reminds me that I never posted the photographs from my tour a while back. … [Read more...]
American Maglev
March 27, 2009 by
Jeff Foxworthy said once, "If the directions to your place include the phrase 'Turn off the paved road,' you might be a redneck."I'm not sure if American Maglev would appreciate the comparison, but it's apt. A little ways off Thornton Road in Powder Springs, about twenty miles west of Atlanta, down an unpaved road, is a glimpse of the future. I … [Read more...]
Thoughts on Reliability
February 19, 2009 by
I grew up in the Bell System, where reliability was second only to safety as an overriding concern. If a phone company employee caused a 15-second service outage, they'd certainly get counseled by their manager, and perhaps referred to additional training. If he caused a 15-minute outage, he'd get reviewed in front of his manager's manager. Not … [Read more...]
Carrying a Camera
January 1, 2009 by
Advice to a friend who is planning a trip to Australia, and wants to know which camera to carry... If you're going to Australia just to take photographs, buy a DSLR and all the lenses/accessories your chiropractor will let you carry. If you're taking your family, buy something like my Canon A720is, and focus on the experience, not the … [Read more...]
Do the Right Thing
November 6, 2008 by
I had a hardware problem with my MacBook Pro today. Apple delivered a model of stellar customer service. I figured the least I could do in return was write about it. … [Read more...]
Selectrics
November 1, 2008 by
Just put six Selectric II correcting typewriters out for trash pickup. Sad. Sold one, gave one away, no one would take the remaining six. They used to be the kind of the hill. Now they're just scrap. (But they STILL have the best-feeling keyboards in history.) … [Read more...]
Phi Beta Kappa
October 18, 2008 by
I got into a discussion about Georgia Tech academics the other day, when I mentioned how difficult the undergraduate curriculum was. The other person (who graduated from a state university that shall remain nameless) retorted with "Well, Tech doesn't even have a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa!" That's true. We don't. And I started digging into why. … [Read more...]
eBooks
September 27, 2008 by
The late, great Jim Baen used to talk about "ludic readers" and how they would transform his business of book publishing. He used the term to distinguish something that people would use to read for fun, rather than things they were paid to read (like technical manuals, 10-K filings, etc.).I always thought it was a silly name. "Ludic" means … [Read more...]
Workflow
March 24, 2008 by
Someone on Skribit asked "How has Google changed your workflow?" … [Read more...]
