Audiobook Review: Fast Times at Fairmont High

(This review contains no significant spoilers.)

The Setup

This novella by one of my favorite authors, Vernor Vinge, explores life in a near-future junior high school where the abilities to adapt and to work in a team are emphasized over the more traditional accumulation of knowledge.

What I Liked

• This story contains a very realistic and believable near-future society.
• Several interesting technologies and societal developments are investigated.

What I Disliked

• Some major plot elements are left unresolved.

The Bottom Line

I give Fast Times at Fairmont High 8.0 out of 10. It's far from my favorite of Vinge's work, but it is still an entertaining and thought-provoking story.

I Don't Want Directions

You know, I had almost exactly this same conversation last week. Except I was more polite about it.

Automagic

I may have invented this word today, but I feel like I've heard it somewhere before. A quick web search didn't turn up this meaning, so here you go:

automagic, adjective. Automatic to a seemingly magical degree.

Example: Look, I don't know how the software does that; it just happens automagically.

Perhaps Arthur C. Clarke would approve.

I, PADD

Apple should have just called their new tablet the PADD.

Google Moble: Local Search

Google Mobile's new Local Search looks extremely useful to those of us with smartphones. Check it out.

The Right Tool

Life is too short to use the wrong tool for the job.

Happy Birthday, Nikola

Today would be the 153rd birthday of Nikola Tesla, an all-around genius and one of the titans of electrical engineering.

Urgent Mission

As a person with three degrees in electrical engineering, I found that the latest xkcd hit home.

Let's Pizza

Do you crave a freshly made pizza but only have three minutes to wait and five dollars in your wallet?  Then you need to get yourself to a Let's Pizza.  Too bad there's only one.

Return to the Cutting Edge

Those of you who enjoyed my post on the shaving-industry arms race may also be amused by the latest Penny Arcade comic.  Enjoy.

I Call it MiPhone

So far, my iPhone, is, as our leet-speaking friends would say, is teh awesome.  I plan to post more extensively---and understandably---after a another week or so of using it.

iPhonizzle, as Ashley would say.

Alison bought me an iPhone 3G for my birthday.  Who has the coolest wife around?  I do, that's who.

Memristors: Nobel Material

Mark my words:  Memristors will win the Nobel Prize in Physics someday.  These devices are interesting from a scientific perspective because they represent a fourth circuit element (in addition to resistors, capacitors, and inductors) that was predicted 37 years ago. From a practical standpoint, they may make it possible to replace some of the transistors in computer chips in a several-to-one ratio, resulting in smaller chips for a given functionality or more functionality for a given chip size. This is a Huge Deal. Additionally, since synapses behave a bit like memristors, memristors may be used to implement neural networks.

I've Swept in and Solved Eveyone's Problems

Alison and I are in Atlanta visiting my family and our friends. Since we got here two days ago we've repaired the following:

• My dad's wireless network.
  
• My dad's clock.
• My mother's new flat-panel TV.
• My mother's kitchen dimmer switch.

I can't help but feel that I've swept into town and solved everyone's problems. The experience has given me a heady but likely inaccurate confidence in my own technical problem-solving abilities. I'll probably try to fix someone's car before the weekend is out. That won't go well.

The Ideas Engine Needs a Tuneup

Those members of the readership who work in science, particularly if you work in the defense or biosciences industries, may be interested in this article about how the Pentagon's funding agencies are becoming dangerously risk-averse, if such a phrase isn't oxymoronic.

Eek, a Mouse!

Is your computer mouse too ordinary? Would you like to shake up your web-surfing experience? Do you feel the need to impress your officemate with cooler versions of ordinary office equipment? If so, and if you fancy yourself a bit of an electronics hacker, you may be interested in these two mouse-hacking projects I found through the MAKE Magazine blog:

• The Bug, a steampunk mouse.
• A mouse covered with an actual mouse pelt.
  

By the way, don't forget to acquire Das Keyboard to go with your new point-and-click device.

They Don't Call it a Shack for Nothing

Judging by this article, I'm guessing that the editors of the Onion, "America's finest news source," have had experiences at Radio Shack similar to Todd's and to Alison's.

The Key to the High-Def DVD War?

According to this article, pornography was a significant factor in the format war between VHS and Betamax, and it will likely play a similar role in the ongoing fight between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Apparently, the Blu-ray backers are making it difficult for the porn industry to put out their product on that format, while the HD-DVD folks are working with the pornographers. Hunh.

Dyson To Field Roomba Terminator

It looks like Dyson is preparing to go toe-to-toe...um, wheel-to-wheel...with iRobot using the DCO6.

Under the Hood

Have you always wondered what's inside all your electronics, but were unwilling to crack open the cases to find out? Well, wonder no longer! The MAKE blog pointed me at this honking-big database of tear-downs of electronic gadgets. Neat, eh?