Smaller is a Big Thing

A cute video explaining Intel's tiny transistor:

Smaller is a Big Thing The Smallinator...Haf learns about a big change in small from Intel. A transistor is the fundamental building block of all modern electronics...so how can we make them smaller? Artist Geoff McFetridge takes a friendly frolic through the scientific and engineering wonders of the ever shrinking, ever better transistor that Intel is now creating that measures 45 nanometers. 400 of them can fit inside the size of a human red blood cell.

Tiny Camera Module

Shrinking Camera Sizes to Match Shrinking Phones

In his article from Jun 15, 2007, Cheng Hung writes about Tessera Technologies Inc’s camera lens. As cell phones loose their bulk, this lens, at a fraction of the size of conventional camera modules, will help create a better, smaller, camera phone.

IBM's Chip

IBM Chip to Let You Download an HD Movie in One Second

Here is another article about IBM's chips, published on April 2 2007 at Gizmodo. They talk about fiber optics and the practicality of it. It is interesting to look at how much progress was made in less than two years.

IBM's Chip Timeline

Breakthroughs in Chips Over a Decade

IBM shows a time line of their breakthroughs in chips over the past decade. Technology has changed considerably over these 10 short years. Breakthroughs like these are what contribute to a smaller, more efficients technology.

USB Sticks of the Near Past

USB sticks are a great example of how technology is shrinking down near to a point of nonexistence. Not only is the physical size shrinking, but so is the price realtive to storage space.

As explained by the article
Netac Technology OnlyDisk U220: World's Smallest Secure USB Drive? from July 12, 2006, the smallest USB stick was Netac Technology's OnlyDisk U220. It weighed in at half an ounce and measured in at 2 inches tall. The highest capacity was 2GB, which cost $92.

As of March 16, 2007 Kingmax Super Stick USB won the title of producing the smallest USB stick, showed in the article World’s Smallest USB Stick – This Week. This one is only 34mm x 12.4mm x 2.2mm and comes with up to 4GB of storage.

Now, the question is, where can we go from there? Size is no longer an issue when it come it small storage spaces? Will we get to the point where we have full hard drive s the size of a nickel? And what would that do for technology and society?

Fractal Geometry Explained

fractal geometry beautiful math

Fractal Geometry: The Past or the Future

Technology and science is at the forefront of the future economy. This is proven in the past. Benoit Mandlebrot, a French mathematician, created a theory of geometry in the labs of IBM in the fifties. Fractal geometry was born in the advanced calculations of computers. Without this technology, Mandlebrot would have never discovered these mathematical patterns. He was accomplished in engineering, language,aeronautics, and economics. In the field of economics, he first applied his theories. He successfully predicted the cotton market by identifying patterns and similarities in the past market.He found symmetry in a very elusive economy by identifying self similarities over time.This gave his theories weight in intellectual societies of the day and spurred him further into his studies.He releases The Fractal Geometry in Nature in 1983, a piece that applies fractal geometry to nature i.e trees, mountains, hills, a leaf, a carrot.Mandlebrot wrote,"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line." This use of FG made the measurement of natural shapes possible. Computers make fractional geometry possible. The application of this math has no limits. It is sure to be one of the many new tools which will define the technology of the future.Not only is this theory important to society and science but its beautiful as well. Its more than I could ever write.

The Printing Press: Internet of the Sixteenth Century

In 1444 Johannes Gutenberg,a German, invented the printing press.Before this books were written by dictation, meaning one man read the book while a group of individuals, mostly clergy write it freehand. This was a long and arduous process. Some books taking years to write out.Books were rare items used only by the clergy and the aristocracy. The wealthy would travel years to just read one book. The average person was illiterate and could neither read a book or afford one. The sharing of information was minimal in this age and science was non existent. This is reflected in the name of the age. The Dark ages. With the creation of the printing press came an explosion of information sharing.
This sharing had huge impacts on every part of society from art to math to religion. The Reformation lead by Martin Luther, was made possible by the translation and distribution of mass printed vernacular Bibles. It also sparked the enlightenment movement by educating the average person. This information sharing raised the intelligence of the population and brought on the wave of inventions and ideas throughout the next two hundred years.The numbers speak for themselves. By 1499, there is fifteen million books in twenty five hundred cities across Europe. Books were everywhere for everyone. This is very similar to the Internet revolution happening today. The overflow of information makes things more accessible every day. Smaller. Faster. Just like the printing press, the Internet is making information available to everyone,thereby empowering the individual. Why buy a book when you can download one?Free information with no printing press and no paper. The future looks good.

The History of the Internet

this is a new video i found and i thought it related with the class, so enjoy the video link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4

Past: the Super 8 MM film

Super 8 mm film
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Super 8 mm film, also simply called Super 8, is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older 8 mm home movie format, and the Cine 8 format.
The film is 8 mm wide, exactly the same as the older standard 8 mm film, and also has perforations on only one side. However, the dimensions of the perforations are smaller than those on older 8 mm film, which allowed the exposed area to be made larger. The Super-8 standard also specifically allocates the rebate opposite the perforations for an oxide stripe upon which sound can be magnetically recorded (with science).



Check out a better example of Super 8 mm footage in this Music video:
Les Thugs
I love you so
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCekQ47Yse8