Jumble O' Column
Late. Start.I fought off a sore throat/something or other last week, probably due to the mold levels reaching stratospheric levels around here and staying that way for the last month. It’s back, though, so I have basically zero energy. Austin is the worst city in the U.S. for allergies, and second place isn’t close (literally). Plus I smashed my elbow last night because I was carrying Satan the cat in the dark after she woke me up at 3 a.m., so there’s that.
In other words, blechh.
In reference to the Sony column yesterday, I neglected to mention one thing. It’s quite interesting to see Sony/IBM/Toshiba try to take on Intel, because that’s exactly what they’re doing with their $299 “supercomputer.” Of course, after you add the hard drive, and the keyboard, and the mouse, etc., it’s a $500 computer, but that’s still inexpensive. Plus it’s going to have Linux, so Sony gets to moon both Intel and Microsoft at the same time.
This is going to work out great for us either way. Either we get a stripped-down game machine for $299 that should be very impressive, or (and here’s the fun part) Sony starts a PC price war.
Think about it. If the PS3 really is the shiznit, or the shizzle, or whatever the hip kids are calling it, Intel has to respond, and fast. They can’t sit by while Sony eats their low end away, because AMD is already chewing on their high-end. If the PS3 really is a functioning, reasonably powerful computer for $500, Intel is going to have to cut prices and I don’t mean slightly.
That should be very interesting.
I’ve got ton o’ links that you guys have submitted in the last few days, so here we go.
First, a link to a New York Times article about Chernobyl, which I’ve discussed several times in past columns. Believe it or not, for roughly $200-$400, you can now visit the Dead Zone—as a tourist. Here’s the link (NY Times, registration required):
http://tinyurl.com/bjp49.
Thanks to DQ reader Joe Richmond for the link.
Second, an article I stumbled across at CNN on “Grafedia,” which is basically graffiti that contains information. Grafedia contains information (an e-mail address, for example) about something or someone that can be contacted. Do so, and you receive information or images (or just about anything else). It’s a very cool way to interact with people. That was a crap description, but the article’s much more interesting. Here’s the link:
http://tinyurl.com/8lu45.
Thanks to DQ reader Mike Kolar for sending in a link to 360-degree views of the Half-Life 2 world using QuickTime technology. The accompanying article about how it was done is interesting as well. Here's the link:
http://tinyurl.com/9mglx.
DQ reader Loren Halek, who writes for Console Gold (http://www.consolegold.com/), has started an entertainment blog called “Virtual Viewpoints” and you can find it here: http://virtualviewpoints.blogspot.com/.
DQ reader Sebastian Arciszewski asked me to mention his site SplitReason (http://www.splitreason.com/). They sell a variety of apparel for gaming and technology enthusiasts.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned long-time DQ reader Tara Calishain’s site, but if I have, it’s worth mentioning again: http://www.researchbuzz.com/. The site is “a collection of items on search engines, online databases, and other information resources,” and it’s very useful.
Finally, Serdar Camlica isn’t a DQ reader but wound up on the site because of the mentions I’d made about sites featuring 3D artwork. He asked if I would mention his site and so here it is:
http://3dfiction.com/.
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