Thoughts on 2009

So, I shared an interesting read in this post and said I'd give some of my thoughts on it. So I guess this is that post.
Intel's new processor, i7, has 8 cores, I just think the 7 is misleading. But 8 cores is a little overwhelming, like, I'm running two and two years ago that was top line stuff. Now it's tri (they use leftover quad cores that have one core turned off. So it's a clever way to recycle that I like. It's kinda cheating, but better than throwing them away since silicone price is apparently rising.) and quad cores, and next year it's oct? I like the number 8, so there's nothing wrong with it, but that's just so many. The computing power in the past few years has grown so much so fast. I know this follows Moore's law and predictions, but think a few years in the future. I feel like there is a limit to how much processing power the average user needs, and I feel that we are already past that. My Mom doesn't care how fast her computer is (except when she doesn't want to feel technologically left behind) and all she runs is Internet and word apps. Can there really be so much going on that she will need 3GHz of power? I don't think there will be. Even with web 3.0 apps and more data on the Internet. The business users will never really have applications that demand that much power.
But on the flip side, as the power gets larger, the interesting thing is that the chips are getting smaller because of advances in other areas like nanotechnology. This means that the chips use less materials and therefor (I use therefor a lot, sorry) cost less to manufacture, decreasing prices. So, even though a chip might be 10x as fast as a chip ten years ago, it costs less. So even though most user's will never need the power, it will be cheaper and so why not get it?
There are also a lot of other emerging markets that can use the technology and advances in processor power and size. With handheld devices becoming more advance, they will eventually match the power of today's laptops and eventually the high end desktops. Although there are physical limits to size which stop music players from having terabytes of memory, at least with current tech, there will always be ways to improve them.
There is also the idea of 'the cloud', which is an older concept that might be making it's way back, especially with help from powers like google and microsoft. The idea is that you don't have your data in your possession as a hard copy. My computer has my english paper, it is nowhere else in the world. The cloud changes this to the physical copy being in a server somewhere in a farm of information. A good example is google apps. I create a spreadsheet on google docs and they store it, for my access anywhere from any computer with Internet. All I need is my account to get it. If my computer is lost, my data isn't. My dad was explaining how airlines use this practice because flight information has to be centralized. The computers at check in don't store all the flight info on their hard drives, they are only a terminal for accessing the data from the central servers. If it didn't work this way, there would be so much conflicting data that it would ruin the system completely.
Taking this idea to the general populous hasn't been really feasible because of bandwidth and accessibility limits. Not everyone has the airlines direct connection with the data center through the largest bandwidth pipes. But with widespread wireless connectivity, it is becoming an option, and one that google is opening up, subtly. Now that wireless speeds are growing and some cities are almost completely connected, why not implement this concept? For a price you can be completely wireless at the top speeds. You don't have to worry about losing what you're working on, practically all the time. Even when I write this, blogger saves a current draft every time I stop typing for a couple seconds. It's really useful.
An implementation of this that I don't fully agree with is one that I can't say I know the most about, so sorry if I have it all wrong. My friend Danny has a sidekick with T-Mobile and he has to connect to t-mobile's server to get his address book. From what I gathered, his contacts are stored online where he can access them from any computer, and are downloaded to his phone when he starts it up. This is smart, because he can add numbers online and probably link it all to a address book application on his computer. But the idea that they aren't stored locally seems faulty. What if you have no signal and need a number? What I would expect is that it would only sync with the central information every time, adding or removing information that has been added or removed. Like syncing your iPod, it checks for differences and modifies your device. If this is how it works, than it makes a lot more sense and is a really clever idea.
As these ideas and technologies improve, they will eventually reach a limit. In the beginning, people only used personal computers for work and were basically a terminal for accessing centralized data. Then they got powerful enough to be portable and hold a user's data and process everything without the help of a server. But as that reaches a limit, portability will make a comeback and we will move back into the cloud.

That was a lot of writing, so I am going to end it here (at least for now) and go back to reading my book for school. But the overall idea is that as these technologies improve they will reach a limit of practical use and then there will be another area to improve on. And, watch out for the cloud.

Love is a tired symphony

So, I'm here in Alexandria, yet again, but at the Dunn Brothers this time. (Jake, they actually are only a block apart, I guess there are either two or google maps just thinks Alex is huge or something. So you weren't told 'wrong'.) And I was talking with Meghan and she said something along the lines of: "I wish there was a way to see what everyone is listening to right now." The idea seemed really cool. Like a status update, but for what you're listening to, and in some sort of real time. I thought about how this could be done and it doesn't seem like it is impossible. With most all MP3 players going wireless like the iPod Touch, they could keep sending short updates to the web. This could also be done from user's computers by linking an application like iTunes to the Internet. I don't know if iTunes allows plug ins like that, but I'm guessing a script could get the now playing data and send it to the web. By linking this collection of what you play to something like a facebook app, you could easily see what your friends are playing.
It would have some difficulties, as it would be updated with each song and therefor pretty frequently. This could easily cause an overwhelming amount of data to be stored and interpreted by people. Maybe an update every time an album changes. There's always user set preferences for that stuff though.
I like this idea mainly because I like knowing what people are listening to and like to share what I'm listening to, but I can't update my twitter/facebook status every hour when I choose another album/band. So every once in a while I'll put what I'm into as my status, mainly as lyrics. One of those, I want this to only mean something to people who know this song and therefor are cool and should let me know that they know this song/artist and therefor are in a select group of people that can be my true friends by having heard this song that I probably got or gave to them, so therefor it is a lame excuse for verification of a friendship, statuses. You know like "Martin is an AC adapter with a DC switch" which I only know one person who could get it. it's like an exclusive club, but I could have easily said "Martin is listening to P.O.S." Anyways, you can ignore all that.
Having messed around with Conky and using meta data stuff from RSS feeds and twitter, I feel like I might be able to implement this into an actual thing. I wonder if this could be my ticket to the generation of "I'm going to make something clever and viral and then sell it for a million bucks." That'd be cool.

*Edit* I actually didn't realize that I did the "lyrics cool club" thing with the title of this blog post until now. It's from Iron and Wine - lion's mane.

P to the O S

So, P.O.S. just announced the release date of his next album, Never Better, as Febuary 3rd, 2009. This is awesome. If you goto Morris, or drive up occasionally, you might have caught P.O.S. when he played for the HomeKUMMing concert earlier this semester. You can download the track Goodbye off the album by going to RhymeSayers Entertainment site here and getting it. There are also tour dates and everything.
I'm pretty pumped for his third album, which is what he calls a winter album. This will be a great start to next semester's music awesomeness.

Interesting read on future of computing

Mainly for the CSci folk, but anyone can read it.
Here's the story.

I'll probably make another post about my thoughts, but I wanted to share this for now.

I was producktive

So, after I checked out the KUMM merch on sale today and bought some 10cent CDs I went to Alexandria to goto the Caribou. It was really quite productive for me. I got both my homework that is due today done AND the homework that was due two weeks ago and today is the last day to turn in mostly done. Like, I was productive for at least 5 hours today. I sent my calc prof an e-mail. And I listened to Crusades, which after this post I really wanted to listen to. I also got gas for $1.52. And I am now up till six watching garden state. Juno and Garden State have really good soundtracks in addition to being great indie movies. Music is great.

Music schnabbs

I think snobs drink schnapps because it's basically the same word. It sno and schna sound the same. And b is an upside p. Just a theory.
Anyways, I just watched Juno and kinda got bothered by Juno and Mark, the older dude who is kinda creepy with Juno. They talk about music in the most snobbish way possible. They only want to be the music superior-being compared to others. And, although I love music and have certain tastes, I try to never make anyone feel bad about either liking a band, not knowing a band, or not liking my favorite bands. I know I must do it subconsciously, but I never try to 'win' at music taste.
I have met some people that are like that and I usually just stop talking to them. Sometimes I forget and start digging a hole of a conversation only to remember that some people have unchanging minds. But as much as I want to scream at them to lighten up and listen, I know it wouldn't do anything and would basically make me the one trying to force my opinion on them. It's lame.
But yeah, it's late. I should probably goto bed. But actually, I'm going to make another post about what I did today. So, you probably already read that one since I'm posting this first and you'll read it second. What ever.

System.out.println("I Love programming!");

Because there are sometimes when I just rock an assignment. I was in class monday and everyone seemed to be having trouble with one lab project and I was basically done. It was great. The kid next to me said something like: "Man, I don't know even where to start with this lab, how about you?" and I nicely replied "Actually, I'm almost done." Problem was, he then tried to mooch my code off of me for the rest of the class. But it was alright because there is a reason it took me an hour+ to get comparable to work with my zombies. (if you aren't a csci major, you probably didn't understand that sentence. (okay, so it seems even compsci majors don't know what that means, your not alone) But then again, I don't expect anyone to fully understand what i say in my blog. Just be thankful text can't convey my mumbling. Anyways, so he kinda just gave me a blank look and stopped asking after a few minutes. So, it was really quite nice to have a confidence boost after not going to class for a week. But I actually should be doing a problem set for that class, so I'm going to go. (I just realized I am still in that parenthesized aside comment, oops.))