For Christmas I built myself a new computer.  I had been struggling along with a Pentium 4 that I had built years ago and decided it was time to upgrade.  Plus, this was a good time to do it as the new Intel Core 2 Quads were reasonably priced and nVidia had finally released a decent video card in the $200-$250 range.  I do my fair share of gaming, as well as some 3d design and modeling, so I needed something that could handle the graphics load.  Also, I wanted to try my hand at overclocking, so I picked parts with those requirements in mind while keeping an eye on the bottom line.


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Posted by: jcallery at 08:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I thought we already had a catch phrase for this, and that phrase is 'group think'.

This is a problem that has troubled the business world, and their have been techniques developed to help prevent it.  Take brainstorming for example.  The traditional way to brainstorm is to get a piece of chart paper or find a whiteboard and start writing down everyone's thoughts on a given topic.  The problem is that people get focused on what others have said and stop thinking for themselves.  What is already written on the board becomes the sum of the knowledge of the group, although there is more still sitting in people's heads - they just don't know it because they are focused on what has come before.

In order to prevent this, brainstorming has become a private/public affair.  First, write down privately what your thoughts are on a topic.  Then everyone reveals what they have written.  This removes the tendency to get focused on one idea, and allows more of the 'problem space', as the article puts it, to be explored.  After the public round, you may repeat the process, as the revelations may have kicked off other ideas in people's minds.

And, this is why large corporations keep design bureaus in several different countries.  They can share new ideas, but don't have the interconnections necessary to get caught up in group think.  For example, in addition to chip design in the U.S., Intel also has a design bureau in Israel.

Posted by: jcallery at 10:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Is going to have some pretty cool toys to play with - especially this one.

So, this thing has a range of 200 miles, and the projectile reaches speeds of 8000 feet per second.  My question is, how do you control it?  That has to be a lot of G forces generated when that thing launches.  Can a GPS module handle it?  And what about whatever moving parts are necessary to keep the projectile on target?  How do you keep them from being sheered off?  A 200 mile range is great, but it's useless if you can't put ordinance on target. 

There is some speculation that some kind of sabot round would be used, and I think that makes a lot of sense.  A sabot is essentially a missile in a missile.  It was originally designed to defeat tanks, where the external sleeve would expend itself on the tank's armored shell, blowing a hole in it that the inner projectile would slide through so it could explode on the inside.  In this case, the sabot would be used during the launch, ablating and expending itself during acceleration, leaving the internal missile unharmed and able to complete it's mission.

via Hotair

Posted by: jcallery at 08:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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