December 26, 2006
The Death of Telephones
A few weeks ago I got my Cingular 8125 cell phone (aka HTC Wizard). It's a PocketPC phone (running version 5.0 of the windows mobile operating system). It is an amazing little piece of technogadgetry.
It runs a 195Mhz Texas Instruments OMAP processor, which is a little embedded CPU that has both an onboard DSP and a generic ARM core on the same die. It's kind of slow by today's standards (the phone was released over a year ago in Asia) -- most of the newer phones have 400mhz Intel X-scale processors. It's still pretty capable, though, and can reliably be overclocked to 240mhz. Also, given how quickly this thing eats its own battery, I'm glad the CPU isn't any faster...
But on to the subject of this posting, the death of telephones. What's most interesting about my phone are its networking capabilities. For example, the phone has 802.11b built-in, and can connect to Cingular's EDGE networking (again, newer phones do 802.11g and either 3G or EVDO, all of which are much faster). Still, EDGE is just good enough to do Skype calling with...802.11b is more than plenty...at least, when I overclock my CPU.
"What's so interesting about that?" you ask? I'll tell you. My cell phone plan works like this: $40 for 450 rollover talk minutes per month. Another $40 for unlimited data usage. I use Skype. Skype is $15 a year for unlimited calling out. In theory I'll never have to use those 450 rollover minutes except for inbound calls. I predict that this will become even more interesting if someone develops an always-on low-power networked VoIP telephony device -- minutes will no longer matter, only megabytes. Unless, y'know, net neutrality fails.
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee follows famous physicist Ted Taylor in this piece that was -- and probably still -- ahead of its time.
Originally published in 1973, McPhee outlined the coming security and environmental issues surrounding the plutonium enrichment processes. For the most part, though, McPhee invites the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, although he does point out the ease with which any number of people could obtain the material (though not necessarily the manufacturing prowess) to make an atomic weapon.
The question still sits in my mind after reading -- are we being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
Rated 
by reid
on October 01, 2007
by reid
on October 01, 2007
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Zodiac
Zodiac touts itself as an 'eco-thriller,' and it is just that. Told from the first-person perspective of ST (or Sangamon Taylor), the book recounts a roughly six-month period of his life busting big corporations for violating environmental laws.
Not the tree-hugging political activist type, ST is equipped with chem labs, scuba divers, maps, and an organization (GEE International, the Group of Environmental Extremists) that masterfully brings the press into the fold to scare the public with the very real dangers posed by illegal dumping. It's sort of a Sierra Club member's wet dream -- a band of ecowarriors that actually get things done.
ST finds something odd happening in Boston Harbor during his tale: a new form of pollution that could poison everyone on the planet in a matter of weeks. His quest to uncover exactly who and what is causing the latest spike in toxins goes all the way up to the President of the United States, and could end up costing him his own life.
While a neat and fast-paced tale, the novel drags on a bit toward the end, begging disbelief from even the most forgiving sci-fi folk. While not as good as his latest offerings, it's still a great read for those that enjoy a good Stephenson novel (or even those who don't).
Rated 
by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
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Cat's Cradle
A few years ago, I attempted to woo an online datee, and she immediately criticized me for my politics. I protested the war on Iraq, which was "a shame." She defended her position of complete noninvolvement by standing behind Vonnegut.
It may seem odd to open a review that way. My assumption is now not that she was an idiot, but that she had only read Cat's Cradle, and only with a rather odd viewpoint.
Cat's Cradle looks at a cold-war world where the personifications of religious, political, and scientific single-mindedness collide to destroy the world.
Vonnegut tells a masterful tale, but it makes me wonder what one person's indifference would do to prevent us from all dying? So for now I will continue to unblindly stop unjust wars, even while I'm only reading.
Rated by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005