Not new, just "soon to be" bigger, eh?

Post #23,978 by brettj 1/11/02 8:17:05 PM 1/11/02 8:51:28 PM Reply	Not new, just "soon to be" bigger, eh? Seldom do new innovations make it big overnight, possibly with the exception of the "web" and the Beatles? :) Notice I didn't call it the net (which has been around since the 60's.) Edit #1 - Examples of up-and-comers, yet not too new: e-commerce peer-to-peer software pda-cell phones net radio What else can we add to the list? Edited by brettj Jan. 11, 2002, 08:51:28 PM EST Expand All History
Post #23,989 by nking 1/11/02 9:33:18 PM 1/11/02 9:36:36 PM Reply	Add to the list Smart Clothes (as in computers that you wear) Chemical Computers Biometrics Quantium Computing Biochips Holographic displays Bubble Memory Combo PDA/Pager/Phone/GPS unit (One step up from the Visor Cellphone module) Kitchen Appliances (Toasters that can make toast and read your email) Video Game consoles that double as a Personal Cmputer with add ons. (XBox eat your heart out! The revenge of the Coleco Adam and Atari Graduator keyboard.) High power fuel cell batteries (imagine a laptop you can run for days off the same battery) Affordable Wireless Internet More broadband at affordable prices Networkable Home appliances (imagine your whole house networked up to small appliances like the VCR, TV, Cable/Satelite receiver, Coffee Makers, Lights, AC, all control by computer.) "In order to completely solve a problem, you must make sure that the root of the problem is completely removed! If you leave the root, the problem will come back later to get you." - Norman King Edited by nking Jan. 11, 2002, 09:36:36 PM EST Expand All History
Post #24,025 by brettj 1/12/02 10:14:44 AM Reply	We forgot about Virtual Reality in the living room. Thanks to the power of cluster software. P.S. Can you expand on the topic of Bubble Memory. I am unfamiliar with the term.
Post #24,038 by nking 1/12/02 12:29:12 PM Reply	Bubble Memory It was a technology that AT&T came up with before the breakup. My father used to talk about it, but hardly anything was done with it. It is supposed to be smaller than conventional memory and hold more as well. It uses magnetism instead of electricity to hold the bit. An official definition is: A type of non-volatile memory composed of a thin layer of material that can be easily magnetized in only one direction. When a magnetic field is applied to circular area of this substance that is not magnetized in the same direction, the area is reduced to a smaller circle, or bubble. After the breakup of AT&T, no more research was done on it. As a result it was too unpredictable and too expensive to use. Maybe if more research is done on it, it can come out in an affordable version? "In order to completely solve a problem, you must make sure that the root of the problem is completely removed! If you leave the root, the problem will come back later to get you." - Norman King
Post #24,043 by Andrew Grygus 1/12/02 12:52:54 PM Reply	Main problem with bubble memory . . . . was that it was a single sequential stream - like a looped recording tape. This made it very slow if used as a random access device. It was used in some devices where the sequential stream was appropriate, and I saw some bubble memory units in a surplus store quite some years ago. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #24,056 by Ashton 1/12/02 3:41:32 PM Reply	Yup.. had (briefly) a Sharp 5000 laptop IIRC with cute, not-so-tiny bubble memory modules. S l o w yes, but - so was the CPU - then. Think LCD screen was about 16 lines high. Geetin senile - think it ran MSsssDOS 1.0, but mainly useless as tits on a board. But! - the bubbles indeed stayed in place with power off. Eventually swapped it off to a 'consultant' for another Otrona ;-) A.
Post #24,154 by Meerkat 1/13/02 5:14:00 PM Reply	nearly everything I learnt about bubble memory... ...came from the Dr. Who story 'Logopolis'. So it may well not be right :) The only big deal they made of it was it's non-volatility. On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.

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