*OT* CL, The Only, Linux Forever! Viva la Linux! Thor, go Linux! Scott
zdnet.com
SUPER CHIP FROM SUPER BRAIN
Super-secret startup Transmeta may open its mouth at Comdex this November.
So says its most famous employee, Linus Torvalds, the originator of Linux.
"I think I can now tell you when I will be able to tell you" He also said
software prices will crash when the need for constant upgrades disappears,
and it's only a matter of time.
Speculation centers on a super microprocessor chip.
Secret startup to unveil at Comdex?
Speculation abounds as Linus Torvalds confirmed that Transmeta will make
a big announcement.
By Reuters September 23, 1999 7:10 AM PT
HELSINKI, Finland -- Silicon Valley's most secretive startup, Transmeta,
may shed light on its business at the Comdex trade fair in Las Vegas in
November, one of its most famous employees, Linus Torvalds, said Thursday.
Torvalds, the developer of the Linux operating system, has shot to fame
this year as his system has been endorsed by a number of top computer
industry companies and emerged as a serious rival to Microsoft.
Torvalds and other people known to be involved with Transmeta, including
Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen and Chief Executive David Ditzel, have
been careful not to reveal what the company is up to.
"I think I can now tell you when I will be able to tell you," Linus said
on the sidelines of a seminar.
ZDTV Video: The buzz about Linux
Torvalds Pledges Speedier Linux Upgrades
The combination of money from Microsoft's co-founder and know-how from
Torvalds, who still controls the core of the Linux system, the secrecy
and the Linux hype this year has nurtured the ground for speculation.
The company is believed to work on either a revolutionary high-speed
computer chip or on software improving the way chips work, or both.
The company has never issued a press release, and its Web site
transmeta.com just says: "This web page is not here yet."
Linux creator predicts software price crash
HELSINKI -- Computer software prices will crash when the need for
constant upgrades disappears, and this is only a matter of time, Linux
creator Linus Torvalds said on Thursday. "There are already some signs
of this beginning ... (a crash) may come three years from now," said
Torvalds. -- Reuters
MACHRONE'S HOT PRODUCTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1999
Discover Small Worlds From Your Desktop
Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
YOU'LL FIGHT THE KIDS FOR QX3 MICROSCOPE
It looks like a toy microscope, but where's the eyepiece? And what's
that long wire coming out of the top housing? It's a USB microscope, and
your computer monitor is its view screen. A blend of Intel technology
with Mattel toy know-how, this gadget ($99) is a fantastic new
educational toy that will ship in mid-October. With magnifications of
10X, 60X, and 200X, the QX3 lets you see fingerprints, individual fibers
in cloth, the facets of a fly's eye, or tiny protozoa. And best of all,
because they're on your computer monitor or laptop screen, everyone can
see them at once. The secondary benefit is that you can easily record
what you see, either as stills or time-lapse sequences. The time-lapse
ability lets you record the growth of a mold colony or the progress of a
tiny insect across a leaf. And we say you, not your child advisedly. The
kids will have to fight to get this one away from their parents. You and
they will find an endless progression of things to put on the stage.
Intel Play QX3 Computer Microscope
View microscopic images on your PC thanks to Mattel and Intel.
By Bill Machrone September 21, 1999
With magnifications of 10X, 60X, and 200X, the QX3 lets you see
fingerprints, individual fibers in cloth, the facets of a fly's eye, or
tiny protozoa. And best of all, because they're on your computer monitor
or laptop screen, everyone can see them at once. The secondary benefit
is that you can easily record what you see, either as still images or
time-lapse sequences. The time-lapse ability lets you record the growth
of a mold colony or the progress of a tiny insect across a leaf. And we
say you, not your child advisedly. The kids will have to fight to get
this one away from their parents. You and they will find an endless
progression of things to put on the stage.
The QX3 is a testament to the art of injection molding. It's rugged and
well designed, with a smoothly rotating barrel that lets you choose
among the three magnifications. It's also an electronic tour de force,
with a USB video camera in the head. The manual doesn't give specs for
the camera's resolution, but it exports JPEGs and bitmaps that measure
512 by 384 pixels at 120 dpi and 24 bits of color. A specimen light and
a substage light are under software control, and they operate within the
USB 500 milliamp power budget, so the QX3 needs no additional cords or
batteries. The camera automatically adjusts to a very wide variety of
lighting conditions, even to supplemental lighting sources. The software
allows further adjustments, so that good images are all but assured.
Once you've gotten used to the many capabilities of the QX3, your first
question will be, "How did they do all this for $99?"
Click to view objects at various degrees of magnification.
Our enthusiasm isn't completely unrestrained, however. Even kids get
tired of the goofy sound effects of the on-screen controls, but there's
no way to turn them off. The software is activity-oriented, but has some
notable gaps, such as the inability to annotate an image or record what
it is, where it was collected, and what magnification was used. Also,
the special effects are mostly a waste of time. Who wants a fly's eye
view of a fly's eye?
Moving objects around on the stage is tricky, especially at the higher
magnifications. The area or feature you were looking for goes flying out
of the field of view at the slightest nudge. Normal microscopes solve
this problem with an x-y stage, which uses finely threaded knobs to
position the object precisely. The QX3 could solve this problem with
inexpensive, hardware store quality screws and some springs.
We also found ourselves wishing for a teacher's edition of the
QX3--either a video head for a normal microscope or an upgraded focusing
stage and better lenses. We suspect that the QX3 will be a big hit with
science teachers, but that they'd like it much better with a few
additional features, even at twice the price.
The QX3 has admirable capabilities, but it is, after all, a toy. The
lenses are plastic, the field is anything but flat, and depth of field
is rather limited. But within its range of capabilities, it's a terrific
teaching tool and a fun toy.
Intel Play QX3 Computer Microscope. List price: $99. Requires: USB port,
Microsoft Windows 98. Mattel Inc., El Segundo, CA; 888-628-8359.
Note: Do not copy or reference this SI Doug A K post, per see below.
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Also, the pc'able toy microscope might be used by the J&T Cat Company
to take a picture of a successful extraction, and place evidence on
the gpgi web site to justify the shares "taken". But then Zeev might
say that they might need one of those electron microscopes to capture
such a small sized extraction.
Doug |
