http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120219KlimeckAtom.html
It’s even got pretty pictures… The next step is scaling it up and dealing with thermal issues.
And I was just wondering when I’d get a true world phone with satellite enabled service… Anything is possible it you can scale down the hardware. Atomic level switches qualify.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/autosblogpost.aspx?post=3ee3b791-cde5-44c4-a95f-7081c47f8059
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/5-great-excuses-for-buying-a-truck?icid=autos_2383
So… Do both.
When the weather’s good ride a bike. It’s in everyone’s best interests. Then when the weather isn’t so snappy or when you need to haul something, use your truck. Problem solved.
Works for me. 
You know a “vacation” wasn’t when it takes more time to recover than the actual trip.
Sitting in Belize International Airport, waiting for the flight back to Dallas. The woman is a bit tweaked because of the bumpy flight from San Pedro. Puddle jumpers and storms do not make for smooth flying.
It has been a reasonably good trip. Snorkeling with sharks. Cave tubing. Altan Ha (Mayan) ruins. Sleep. There were a few issues with one of our traveling companions. “If you have no interest in international travel, why are you here?” And the food hasn’t been very good. Oh well. No one died.
And I was only offered coke and ganga twice on this trip. The long-hair must throw them off.
I’m looking forward to American- style cheeseburgers and Pepsi!
Time to queue for boarding…
I was reading through my email today and came across an article from Dr. Dobb’s entitled The Need to Rewrite Established Algorithms. My thought after reading the article is “Who’s going to do that?”
I have started thinking about getting a MS in CS this last year. After talking with one of the prof’s I’ve gone back to school filling out all of the pre-requisites. This means I get to retake most of the CS undergrad core. After all I don’t have a “real” CS degree. I have a BA in Anthropology and a related field in CS (which is like a minor but not good enough for the ivory tower). As part of my studies, I participate in the online discussion groups. On a weekly basis, I read through the comments from my instructor, the TA, and other students.
And I’m left wondering who is going to re-write these algorithms? I haven’t seen any course work related to parallel programming. My peers are struggling with basic control structures and casting issues. Their heads would explode if they had to deal with async timing and execution. Parallel programming can be damn hard stuff.
So how do we do it? How do we train programmers to understand the bigger picture? We have multi-core processors on almost everything we buy now. But most core is still written to be run on a single core instance. Gone are the days when we can just throw more ram or a faster proc at a given problem. We need some changes. Big changes.
At this moment, I have no suggestions. Which disappoints me even further. Why? Because one of the local private/for-profit universities asked me to apply for an instructor position. I declined. I don’t think I know enough to be teaching others just yet. Yes, I’ve been programming in one form or another for over 3 decades. Yes, I was writing code as a child. Yes, I’ve been working as a full-time developer for well over 15 years now. Yes, I am doing senior level work, including architecture and mentoring. But I still feel like I don’t know enough…
We have to make changes to our CS programs. We have to improve our educational system. We have to upgrade.
