Eating Yorkshire Terriers

Hi everybody,

Well it’s Thursday. That day of the week when TechnologyGuardian comes out.

It’s a must read but I guess not EVERYBODY (who is ANYBODY) can get hold of a copy.
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We in Tullamore get at least three copies from the-only-newsagent-in-town-that-has-it.
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I got mine so I will share (it cost €1 so any contributions will be gratefully accepted)
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REM : Set up a donations page on Irish Secure
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HeadLine : “When the chips are down”
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This is all about fabs – chip fabrication plants, and their cost. Moore’s Law is quoted (please look it up) but the cost of designing a new chip is estimated as $50m , mostly for software (?) and this economic fact may prohibit the production and research of a new chip.
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• 18nm > the expected size of chip circuits in 2014 [it was 3,000nm in 1982] nanometer = billionths of a meter.

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Global Foundries, a spin-off of AMD, who is building a new $4.2bn plant in Saratoga County, New York. (thanks to help from New York state who contributed $1.2bn). The plant is due in operation in 2012 and is expected to generate 1,400 jobs, a welcome boost in these economic downturns. BTW the goverment of Abu Dhabi is investing $6bn over the next two years in FAB2. Ha! a FAB2 already.
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But from the gloom comes Rock’s Law – the cost of a chip fabrication plant doubles every four years. Rubbish says Philip Ross IEEE. (Just love acronyms doncha know. Remember TWAIN for scanners “Technology Without An Interesting Name” lol). Sorry. The article concludes “Kurzweil…reckons that the next stage is that chips will be built in 3 dimensions”
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Got It? Well a bit over my head I must admit. But it’s good about job creation and if your know-it-all-friend starts talking about fabs just toss in “mumble…Abu Dhabi…cough….$6bn….then loudly: FAB2!

Refs: http://bit.ly/fabs1 , http://bit.ly/fabs2

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On The Inside : Microsoft has a bad year at the office

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“For the first time in its 34 years, Microsoft has seen revenues dip. Is this a sign of the times or a symptom of decline?” Aaaahh Le pouvre Microsoft. and ” Microsoft is loved; it is hated; but above all Microsoft is big” blah….infatuation with search engines / capitulated in arguments with EU / download other web browsers…. stuff. But the fact is Microsoft got smaller. see graph.

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> IBM saw revenue drop
> Google’s ship remains steady
> Apple seems to be ignoring the recession entirely, merrily posting blockbuster profits thanks to the iPhone

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But what I found interesting was Mini-Microsft, :

Microsoft FY09Q4 Results

“This is it. The wrap up of FY09, coming fresh to us Thursday July 23rd.
I’ll put this up a bit early in case there are any initial questions, thoughts, or insights regarding how FY09 is closing.” [and]
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Disclaimer : These are sole individual personal points-of-view and the posts and comments by the participants in no way represent the official point-of-view of Microsoft or any other organization.
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This is a discussion to foster debate and by no means an enactment of policy-violation. These posts are provided “as-is” with no warranties and confer no rights. So chill. And think.

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Cool. Back to the topic Mini-Microsoft commenters – despite MS $60bn revenues 2009- ” …there is a serious psychological impact to suddenly being on the back foot after so many years of having the Midas touch”. So they are not happy bunnies. Finally: things will bounce back…Microsoft’s size may prove to be its biggest strength rather than a weekness. So, don’t lose any sleep worrying where Bill’s next cup of cofee is coming from.

P.S. Got a great video of Mr Gates when he was but a boy….you must see it but it is difficult….

Go To Now Host Your Site .com

Click on Solutions

Go to the sub menu Media

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Not a trick honest, it’s embedded in a flash file and I can’t remember how to get it out…..
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Opinion : Virtual Worlds are getting a second life
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NOT VRML (that was last week) but stuff like:

World of Warcraft

Entropia Universe

Habbo Hotel

Club Penguin ….and others

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Snippets : Virtual worlds growth up 39% / estimated $579m / subscriptions / micropayments / 5 to 10 year olds – 76 million registered users / 10 to 15 year olds – 251 million / tails off 15 to 25 year olds only (!) 35 million
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WOW
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So…Watch out for Twinity ~ ha! shall I join? BETA ~ it’s free, just raised €4.5m; Bluemarsonline.com, testing..”Blue Mars is a free to play massively multiplayer virtual world featuring stunning graphics, realistic characters, and endless social bonding activities. ” again BETA / Free bit spoiled for choice I am : Will Test and report..
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To sum up : ” ….a whole generation growing up for whom having an avatar is second nature, virtual worlds have nowhere to go but up. Only they won’t be virtual worlds – just a part of normal life.”
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What do you think ? Leave a comment. sorry this is a Friday add on but couldn’t resist

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Then there is A Lot on Gaming, sorry not really interested……

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—->>> But that would be ignorant and lazy sooooo
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Criminal Behaviour ~ It’s all in the game
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“Street gangs and World of Warcraft (WoW) may not seem linked but analysis of the online role-playing game is helping fight crime in LA”
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In the past 5 years there were more than 23,000 verified gang crimes in LA > 12,000 felony assaults > approx 10,000 robberies and just under 500 rapes…:(((
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Phew
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Scary
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Related: ” …the US Southern Command…. is running operations against drugs and narcoterrorism”
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Analysing data from WoW, Dr Neil Johnson with Palo Alto Research Center + University of CA, says ” We studied these online gangs at the same time I was looking at the offline gangs and it turned out the model we were developing to explain the behaviour of the online guilds began to coincide with the offline gangs”
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Disengenuous? Where do you think WoW got their model from? Thin air? ….?
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But questions arose > Is the largest group the most successful? > Is it stable? > Is it hard to join? > How long do people remain members? >>> “Essentially you are looking at the ecology of groups”
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Mentions : Swine Flu, spread of ideas like the spread of a virus, what would happen if? groups, group dynamics, gang mentality, (sorry for throwing words and concepts at you), C++, fission-fusion, non-linear cluster equations, and…paper and pencil…
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Concludes : “That’s why you will never get rid of gangs – we’re all in gangs”
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Pause
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Got To Have an Ad :

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HA! A Real Newspaper neh!…..anyway here is the……

Headlines from the ‘net edition:

Ballmer: Google will try to stop Microsoft/Yahoo deal

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Cory Doctorow: The economics of ‘free’ goods and services cannot be explained in terms of the marketplace – we are more complicated than that

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• BTW I LOVE THE GUARDIAN ~ Best Goddamn Newspaper in the World

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PODCAST

gdn.tec.090728.sc.tech-weekly-podcast-flip-video-sangster-atomic-floyd-headphones

Sorry I tried to upload the MP3 but it just does not work

Flip Video and Atomic Floyd
Flip Ultra camcorder Audio (16min 52sec): The European chief of Flip Video on why Cisco bought the company, and the competition from video enabled mobile phones

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Hope you enjoyed this, please leave a comment I need the feedback……

[My New Unused, Pristine Blog is Here, Try setting one up]

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STATS : $78.479 billion and €1 was the total sum mentioned and I referred to 362 million people