Naginata

Brought to you by Dehydration

"Just jog to your apartment office and drop your rent off".

Seems plausible. I jog/walk about 4 miles a day, 3-6 days a week. My feeling was that the office couldn't be that far away, really, and it wasn't. In fact it was just about 4 miles away, if you take the back road of pedestrian death. Then I had to come back.

Keep in mind that it was 90 degrees and practically foggy last night.

The route I took in was just too dangerous at rush hour, so I opted for a different (but mile+ longer) route to get home. By the time I was at about 7 miles covered, I was dizzy, my hands were numb/tingly, and I knew I was not going to make it. So I stopped at a gas station, cooled, off, and enjoyed some free water. I was probably only there for a minute, any longer and I wouldn't have been able to get going again.

The summary of the story is this - yesterday I lost 5-8 pounds of water.

No Title

Look at this picture... not inlined because its HUGE.

Visual Studio Joy

I just found a few features in Visual Studio 2003.

First, if you're declaring a class "public class Foo: IFoo" and you hit tab right after you type "IFoo" (presumably an interface you're implementing), it will go ahead and put stubs in for all the methods you have to implement, grouped in a region called "IFoo Members".

Secondly, when overriding a method (like the "ToString" method of object that my current project overrides a lot), type "override" and hit space, and you get an Intellisense list of all the things you can possibly override in any and all subclasses you've specified. For instance, if you're subclassing nothing, you get a list of "ToString", "Equals", and "GetHashCode" (the 3 overridable object methods). When you pick one (like ToString), the IDE insert this for you:
public override string ToString()
{
return base.ToString ();
}
... which seems pretty good.

Algorithms

So... this seems pretty good:

public static string PathMerge(string envpath, string coderaw)
{
int cLoc = coderaw.IndexOf("C:", 0, 10);
string codebase = coderaw.Substring(cLoc, coderaw.Length-cLoc);
string[] envSplit = envpath.Split(new char[]{'\\'});
string[] codeSplit = codebase.Split(new char[]{'/'});
int index = 0;
while(index < envSplit.Length && index < codeSplit.Length && envSplit[index] == codeSplit[index])
{
index++;
}
StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
for(int i = index;i {
output.Append(@"..\");
}
for(int i = index;i {
output.Append(codeSplit[i] + @"\");
}
output.Append(codeSplit[codeSplit.Length-1]);
return output.ToString();
}

...basically, it will take a "file:///C:/stuff//things/otherstuff.DLL" (as you get from System.Reflection.Assembly.CodeBase) and a "C:\stuff\blarg\" (as you get from Environment.CurrentDirectory) and merge them into "..\things\otherstuff.DLL", which seems useful to me.

Lil' Shop o' Surreal

So I just went to drop my lunch (Carrots and some Chunky Soup - it fills you up right!) off at the fridge, and pathed to the break room on the way back so that I could get some cold caffeine. I noticed a little traffic snarl in the normal path to my office, so I took "option 2" and went out the back door of the break room, which takes you to the back door of my office by way of The Floor.

Anyway, the second I walked out of the break room and onto the shop floor, I noticed a few things:

1. Entervan line #1 (the one you can actually see when you step out of the break room) was not moving at all. It was devoid of people.
   
2. There were 2 surly looking fellows sitting in a van immediately across from the break room door, who looked at me as I entered the shop floor.
   
3. There was sweet, slow music playing from a nearby radio -- and not softly.
   

Now, I know in my brain that all these things are just kind of random occurances, but when you walk out, uncaffeinated, to the shop floor at 7:25 in the morning, which should be noisy and busy as all heck, but its empty except for 2 guys in cut-off harley t-shirts are staring at you from outside a minivan, its a little strange. When the overture for this whole incident is "Loving You", its downright surreal.

Warm Body Physics

My office has been hot today.

The air conditioner stopped working, shooting the temp of the office up to around 80 degrees. Plus I had a giant sandwich for lunch. The net effect is, I'm having real problems staying awake, let along concentrating. What is it about being warm that makes you go to sleep in the afternoon, but keeps you awake all night? I dunno. The point is, I need some coffee. Or maybe just a glass of warm milk and a pillow...

Recall Bush!

This from the fine folks at www.recallbush.org:

We the undersigned believe that George W. Bush has failed to provide our country with responsible and effective government. The three main pillars of this recall effort are as follows:

1. Projections of a federal budget surplus have been wiped out and replaced by deficit estimates of $455 billion.
2. President Bush has repeatedly made false and misleading statements to the American public on a wide range of issues, from his domestic policies like "No Child Left Behind," to the war in Iraq.
3. The nation's economy is dragging. Almost three million Americans have lost their jobs under the Bush
administration. The President is akin to the CEO of the
country. He should be held accountable in times of bad
performance.

By signing this petition, we are going on record to call for the defeat of President Bush based on his failure as our nation's chief executive.

Now... anyone who really has kicked around politics with me knows that I don't really approve of Bush, so I have to admit I was intrigued. Let's look at their 3 reasons:

1. Projections of a federal budget surplus have been wiped out and replaced by deficit estimates of $455 billion.

I'm not even going to try to argue that he "inherited" a bad economic outlook from Clinton - that one we can go round and round on all day, and probably get nowhere. Instead, lets do what the Dems seem unable to and deal with the present -
The CIA Factbook tells us that we have a population of ~290 Million with a per-capita GDP of around $37,600. The GDP for the nation in 2002 was roughly 10 trillion dollars. About 20% of the worldwide total (USA! USA!). A little math that may be beyond our liberal friends shows us that we have a deficit of around 4.5% of our GDP. Am I happy with it? Absolutely not. Bush has increased spending by an excessive amount and required the invention of the phrase "Big Government Conservative".

I think that, to get some perspective, we need a good subject to compare to... how about California? First of all, get a browser pointed to this table, we're going to dive into some figures.

The fine people at Forbes tell me that California's GDP is around 1 trillion dollars. The (huge page - I wouldn't click it if I were you) budget for the state of california is sitting at around $100 billion dollars. So california spends about 10% of its GDP through the government, whereas nationally we spend around 19%. Of course, the federal government is dealing with stuff like the military and international aid, so they are going to have a budget that's larger. As a percentage of GDP, the national deficit (4.5%) is larger than the california deficit (3.8%). As a percentage of the total budget, the national deficit is 22.8%. California's is up around 38%. Draw your own conclusions.

As for me, I think that a slight increase in spending would be justified, for the war in Iraq, and for the continued rehabilitation of our Armed forces after the 8 years of Clinton. I also think that the situation nationally is very different than the one in California. America's economy is poised to take off, especially with (some of) the Bush tax cuts in place. Further changes like a better tax system would help, but every economist worth his salt acknowledges that our economy is ready to recover. The National deficit, barring more massive spending increases, is going to go down as Government revenues rise, like they did for JFK, and like they did for Reagan. California's economy is going down the tube, with taxpayers fleeing the country like rats from a sinking ship, and more handouts being given all the time. Under Gray "I <3 Unions" Davis, entitlements have increased to the point where doing business in California is much more expensive than any other state in the country.

2. President Bush has repeatedly made false and misleading statements to the American public on a wide range of issues, from his domestic policies like "No Child Left Behind," to the war in Iraq.

Hmm... what didn't work about No Child Left Behind? He supports student and teacher testing, and you fight him tooth and nail. If you want improved education, more spending is not the answer. Heck, I thought point number 1 was all about your NOT wanting increased spending? Oh, that's right, you just want to tax me and my car more. And the war in Iraq? Can we stop saying that "Bush Lied"? You know he didn't, I know he didn't, lets move on and try to accomplish something constructive. If you really think that Bush did lie, please, comment away, give a specific quote, and I'll disprove your claim. A bold challenge, I know... I'm just that confident.

3. The nation's economy is dragging. Almost three million Americans have lost their jobs under the Bush administration. The President is akin to the CEO of the country. He should be held accountable in times of bad performance.

Whoa there comrade, lets back that one up. Holding the president responsible for the budget is one thing - he more than any other single figure should be accountable for how the nation spends my money. Not that he's the only one holding the bag, but he has the tightest grip on it. The economy is another thing altogether. It's a Free Market economy. Bush can't suddenly declare that he's going to improve the economy any more than Kenny Boy can declare that Enron is now making money. The economy is bad for many reasons - the tech bubble bursting, the war in Iraq (which I continue to support!), and an oppressive tax structure. Bush has tried, to help with his tax cut, but ultimately the American economy is like a human body. You go in, you make a little cut, you try to remove the bad parts, and then you just have to wait and see what happens. The difference between Bush and Davis is that Bush has attempted to cut out part of the tumor and given a blood transfusion to the economy. Davis continues to apply leeches.

The president is CEO of the GOVERNMENT. He is not CEO of the ECONOMY. These two things are SEPERATE. Get that one through your head. I hear people out on the left complaining that we're materialistic, that we worship the dollar? If that's the case, how about a little seperation of church and state?

Fair Medicare

Today's topic is this article by Derek Hunter

Derek makes some excellent points in his article:
The House and Senate each have approved separate bills that would add a drug entitlement to the already cash-strapped Medicare program. Each bill was initially estimated to cost $400 billion over the next 10 years. New estimates peg them as being far more costly. Still, a Capitol Hill committee is hammering out the differences between the bills, and President Bush has indicated he’ll sign whatever they put before him.

Now that we have the facts out there, lets get some perspective:
To give it some perspective, if you were paid $1 per second, every second of every day from the moment you were born, you’d be a millionaire in fewer than 12 days. But it would take you nearly 33 years to become a billionaire. That’s right, 33 YEARS.

The point is, it's a lot of money. In 2030, the estimated cost of Medicare, per household, is nearly four thousand dollars a year. Just for Medicare. We cannot afford to place this kind of tax burden on the young people in this country. We cannot afford to discourage personal responsibility to this extent - our tax system needs to accomplish 2 things - encourage personal initiative and planning ahead, and reward those who work harder for their money. If you support this prescription drug plan, you doom future generations of taxpayers.

Then we get to this part:
So why would Congress design a benefit for everyone when only a quarter of seniors need it, and make us pay for it? As we’ve seen, this bill covers everyone equally, rich or poor. Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Michael Jordan and all the other rich retirees won’t go hungry if they pay out-of-pocket for prescription drugs.

This should set off warning flags all over your brain. We can't ask Bill Gates to pay for an entitlement for other people that he'll never be eligible for because he has too much money. Am I the only one that thinks thats simply not right? If you're going to give the burden of paying for something to all people, all those people must also be eligible for the plan. heck, if Bill Gates recieves as much as 1% back of what he pays into it in taxes, I'll be amazed - people who are rich enough to not need the plan, pay so much into it that what they draw from the plan is often insignificant. If we're going to enact the plan, lets not make it progressive. We already have enough bad things like that going around - from our progressive income tax to the fact that Nagi can't get a really nice apartment because he makes too much money. He's stuck in the "cheap" ones. Equal housing for the "poor". The "rich" can make do with the remains.

The Phantom Menace

The good people at Penny Arcade were kind enough to inform me of infinium labs upcoming Phantom console. I downloaded their video, and I have this to say: bitboys. Remember bitboys? Remember Glaze3D? This console, seems not so good. Sure, its fast (it is, after all, just a computer), but theres certain key features that will make it sucktastic to use. First of all, there's no disc at all - no cd-rom, no dvd, no gd-rom, no nothing. Everything is delivered over your broadband connection.

Earth to infinium: Everyone who has a broadband connection ALREADY owns a computer. Trying to sell them another computer, that doesn't have actual computer features like a disc drive or the ability to run programs that aren't games, is going to suck.

You can register to pre-order on their site. Yes, I'm going to declare my intent to possibly at some point consider that I may evaluate their gaming console for purchase. Somewhere at infinium, there's a guy in a suit waiting for the number of pre-pre-orders to top some number N, at which point they actually start making the thing.

Don't be fooled by the hype - its an x-box, with a faster processor, but with about half of the "features" turned off.

The only way this console is useful is if you can pop the case open (which no one's seen yet), plug a cd-rom in, and load up a real operating system.

More Zoom-Zoom

Here are the oft-requested pictures. I'll just post up mostly links, I don't want to make this front page a 1MB download :)

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

In other news, I got curious today and got it up to 60 in second. With about 2k of headroom left on the tach. I <3 Car. I'm still pondering the bumper sticker for the Big Red Machine that says "My other car has a wankel".

Zoom-Zoom

Now that the secret is out, I'm free to talk about it:

I have a Mazda RX-8. And no, not because its the x-men car. In fact I got the Titanium Grey color to specifically avoid that. Look for pictures coming soon :)

I've wanted this car since it was an early concept, and now that I have it, I just can't stop talkin about it. It's nice. Inside, it fits me like a glove, and not one of those OJ gloves either. I'm still getting used to driving a manual (having had it for all of 12 hours now), but its coming pretty quick. The car... well, what can I say, its nice.

Driving home from the dealership, I had it in 5th (its a 6 speed), and was just cruising along in a 55 zone. I looked down... and I was doing 75. And I had a whole other gear left! I can't stop raving about it. The pictures online, its universally agreed on by my co-workers, don't do it justice, in person the car is very, very impressive. With both doors open on 1 side, its like the side of the car is cut away, all the little tricks they tried, worked, for it.

Now, having achieved my life's goals, I can die a happy man. As long as they bury me in my car.

The Reflection Connection

Reflection, in .net, is cool. I know that Java has reflection too, but I'm talkin about .net for now.

I've created a little program that uses the "TreeView" control to browse the file system. Just like winxp will browse into .zip files as if they were directories, my program browses into .dll and .exe (.net) files.

Why have I done this? I have a "testing" program that can load up Classes that implement some interface (ITest) and "execute" them in a controlled environment. I could just write a config file, but having a real live editor to add/remove and configure the tests is a plus for people that might be writing tests who aren't me.

Extra cool is that you can write the tests in VB, C#, whatever... but you've heard me rant about that one before.

I do think I'm going to take out the file system part of it, and just make it a single-assembly inspector, but I like it. And yes, I know that this thing has been implemented about a hojillion times before... but not by me :)

Simple Pleasures

There's a property in System.Reflection.Assembly called _DontTouchThis. It is set to "1476952" at the moment.

I'm so tempted.

And I feel a little closer to the fine people at Microsoft. Mostly since the breakpoint at which I discovered this property is in a method called "MoreMagic".

Stipulational Awareness

I've decided that awareness of a fact can totally change the fact itself. I know I come off high and mighty, as if I'm making a declaration there, perhaps decided was the wrong word. But, I'm going to stick with it, and for good reason. If awareness of a thing can change the thing in some way, me deciding that that is true should change the principle itself, at least in its application to me. Short version - if it's true, then it's true, because I said so. But only if it's true.

Isn't that strange?

It's like an argument I heard once (I wish I could remember what it was called) to prove that God exists. Basically, picture the Greatest Possible Being that you can possibly imagine. Now wouldn't he be even greater if he actually existed? Because you can't imagine a being greater than a "Greatest Possible Being that exists", the GPB must exist.

Yeah, it sounds a little "Step 1: Collect Underpants" to me too.

Moving on a little bit, I think there's some actual application here. It's going to get Buddhist before it gets better, but stick with me. The more you're aware of yourself, and the way you're affected by "stuff", the less you'll be affected by stuff. Or at least, the better you'll be able to react to your own reactions. For instance, I, being mostly Libertarian, believe that people should regulate themselves when it comes to dangerous things/actions. It's a personal responsibility thing. I do not play Grand Theft Auto in any incarnation, not because I think that video game violence is a bad thing (I certainly play some other very violent/disturbing games), but because I know how I react to that sort of game. If I play GTA3+ and drive within a few hours, I'm a very, very bad driver. So I limit myself because I know what my reaction is.

The question is, now that I'm totally aware of how bad I am after I play GTA, would I still be as bad? I've only really played-then-drove once, and I'm wary of further experimentation. But I wonder, would me knowing that GTA is going to turn me into a maniac behind the wheel make me less of a maniac?

There must be some difference. I can play Max Payne Kung-Fu Edition for hours on end, and when I'm done, I have no urge (more than usual, anyway) to get into fights. Am I more aware, on some level, that Max Payne violence affects me, and because I'm aware of that, less likely to act it out? I can play Everquest for hours on end, knowing that it's an addictive game, and that some people have serious "problems" pulling themselves away from it, yet I can say with total confidence that I am not addicted to it. I - kidding aside - can quite any time I want to. I don't, because I know I don't need to play, and because thusfar, my experience is more positive than negative.

Another example - I know a woman, let's call her "Joni". I'm fairly infatuated with Joni. Being aware of the fact, I've become more aware of how much I tend to flirt with Joni, and how much she tends to flirt with me. I was kind of disturbed by the whole thing - I do after all have a girlfriend who is NOT Joni (and who is no doubt reading this... hi sweetie. Maybe you should stop reading now, it's about to get pretty honest... :)). Then I started to realize a few things.

First of all, me being aware of the infatuation makes me far less likely to do anything other than flirt with Joni. If I were in a situation that was going to go too far, I believe that my brain would say "Hey, dummy, you're just infatuated with the woman, it ain't like this. Now go back to playing pool with her and watch where you put your hands!".

Second of all, being aware of said infatuation, I've actually thought my way through the implications on both sides of the coin. On the one hand, I consider this: If I were single, and I started dating Joni, would it last? The answer is a firm "probably not". We're alike enough to flirt, and I think that's about it, I don't really think there's any "real" potential there. On the other hand, what does this say about the relationship with my girlfriend now? If nothing else, I now have more proof that it's based on more than infatuation. Also, it can survive a little "window shopping", so to speak, because both of us know that the store is currently closed undergoing rennovations. And now I stop, because no one wants to hear the mushy cutsie things that could potentially come out now.

A few closing ideas - self awareness is a good thing. There are many paths to increasing your own self awareness: hard exercise, meditation, open debate, and others. There's 2 keys here. First, find a route that works for you. And that doesn't feel like work. If you want to get to know your own heart and mind, you have to pick a route that your heart and mind will find agreeable. You can't force yourself to understand yourself, you have to just kind of let it happen. Secondly, self awareness is not salvation. I don't care if you're the most enlightened buddhist in the world, or if you can say "the sutra says" 10 times fast, the importance of self awareness pales in comparison to the importance of being right with God. Understanding that some things may be relative, depending on your understanding and awareness of them is fine and good. Some things are not relative, they simply are. Put that one in your incense burner and smoke it, hippy!

And if you're a chick reading this, please don't ask if you're Joni, you'll just annoy me.

Regarding Schwarzenegger

I know you're all enjoying the current event happening in California. Whether you're in favor of or against democracy, you've gotta admit that there it is, in its purest form. We've got Larry Flynt, The Terminator, a Pornstar, and all other sorts of people running in the race. If I was a resident, I might even consider registering. How often do you get the chance to add "Ran for Governor of California in 2003" to your resume? :)

Anyway, a few thoughts, a few quotes. Here's possibly my favorite quote on the whole situation:
You know, I used to be a democrat in college... now I talk about them in the same tone of voice I use to scold my cat when she shits on the carpet.

Kind of sums it up, doesn't it?

Seriously, enjoy this gem from one of the dems running, regarding Ahnuld:
It would, of course, not be the first time the son of an unpleasant minor official from provincial Austria rose to high office through sheer force of will. But Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is no Adolf Hitler, whatever you might have thought of Conan the Barbarian
For one thing, he is quite liberal as far as Republicans go.

First of all, imagine if all you heard was the first sentance. Lucky for you all I'm not Maureen Dowd. Arnold != Hitler people! Sure his dad was a Nazi stormtrooper. Guess what, it's called conscription under a totalitarian regime! You can't talk about the evils of Vietnam and McCarthyism and then ignore the fact that in Austria, in the late 30's and early 40's, if you were a young able-bodied man, you ended up in the military. It's the way it worked! Let's not forget that Arnold was born in 1947, meaning that his Dad was at least smarter than many of the other Nazi Troops. I'm willing to take a gamble and hope some of those smarts passed on. You don't live a life like Schwarzenegger has lived and be an idiot. The man is, at worst, a logical, calculating machine (that's not a Terminator crack!), and at best, a model American. Er... Austrian. Either way, he's got to be better than Gray "I'm good at Campaigning" Davis.

Secondly, I think that Arnold offers something that no other canidate does - he has both a chance to win, and no presidential ambitions. I'd really like to see Tom McClintock win this one, but I think that as of now Arnold has better chances, and that may be good. Conan can sacrifice his political career if it means doing something genuinely good for the state. He's got the guts, and he's got nothing to lose.

Lastly, I am a little bit afraid of what kind of Governor the Governator would be. I heard him talk about how it would be good to get more business back into the state, to increase revenues, so that they could afford "all kinds of programs". Hmm... I guess that qualifies you as a republican in California, because you're smart enough to realize that businesses is where the monies come from. In the rest of the universe though, he's leaning a little bit left.

Final analysis: out of all the canidates that have a real chance, he's my favorite. But we're only 5% or so into the campaign, what happens in the next 2-3 weeks will be really important. I just hope that McClintock and Arnold don't end up fighting for votes too much, and let a real weasel democrat weasel slink into the governor's mansion.

Interrogative Prerogative

Or, if you prefer - A Question Digression

I don't like the way people greet me.

Ok, I know what you're thinking - that I've finally flipped out and gone crazy, and think I'm the king of the world. So I'm a little nuts, but I've decided that the time has come for me to say what I've previously only thought.

For instance, when someone passes me in the hallway, the usual greeting from my end is "Hello" or "Hi" or "Good {Time of Day}". Simple, to the point. It expresses a friendly sort of feeling toward the other person and doesn't do anything to impede what either of us may be doing. If it's a person whom I really want to talk to about something, I'll, of course, do something to start a conversation, but most of time "Good Morning Joe" is plenty.

Unfortunately, Joe is not on my side. Joe seems to always greet me with a question, like "How's it going?" or "How ya doing?" or "How about that _____?". I've determined that in the first two cases, he actually doesn't want an answer. The correct answer to "How's it going?" turns out to be "How ya doing?". The question is never answered. This is disturbing to me in the extreme. The problem is, if I were to answer the question politely, with "Oh, It's going fine, how are you doing?", we've already passed each other. If he gives a similar answer, say "Oh, you know how it is down in {Department}", we should be a good 10-15 feet past each other, maybe more.

Solutions:
Start talking way down the hall, so that the answers finish about the time you pass each other. Of course... this is stupid
Continue answering questions with questions, leaving hundreds of questions unresolved, potentially unbalancing the universe. No one wants that

Nagi's Solution:
Stop asking questions! If you want to know how I'm doing, don't wait till you pass me in the hall to find out, come ask me, and we'll have an actual conversation. If you don't care how I'm doing - I probably don't care how you're doing either, except in the general "I hope {person} is having a nice day". From now on, I expect "Hi", "Hello", "Good {Time of day}", "Keep it real" or "Drink Sprite" when I pass you in the hallway!

Visual Annoyance

I'm working with Visual Studio.net, for better or worser, but I typically like it.

Now is not one of those "typical" times.

There's a nice feature where you can generate "prebuild" and "postbuild" events that will be run in the target build directory before and after your project is built. Kind of obscure, but very handy when you have config files that you want to live in your build directory and get copied to the target directory whenever your program is run. These events are pretty slick, they're like normal windows "BAT" files, except with macros, which are good. I have one that looks like this:
copy $(ProjectDir)SampleTests.xml $(TargetDir)
Can you feel the power?

The problem is that this is exported in script form like this:
@echo off
copy C:\Documents and Settings\nagi\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\VICAR\Vicar\SampleTests.xml C:\Documents and Settings\nagi\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\VICAR\Vicar\bin\Debug\
if errorlevel 1 goto CSharpReportError
goto CSharpEnd
:CSharpReportError
echo Project error: A tool returned an error code from the build event
exit 1
:CSharpEnd

Which, in theory, is fine. but windows wants you to actually use quotes around directory names with spaces, requiring this:
copy "$(ProjectDir)SampleTests.xml" "$(TargetDir)"

Simple? Yes. But they took something so beautiful, and made it into something fairly ugly. Solutions: Quote macros automatically that need to be quoted. Sadly, rolling back the "spaces in directory names" isn't going to happen, which is just sad. I'm all for making it easier to use, but you gotta, at some point, just stop and say "ok, this is stupid".

Still, this isn't a VS thing so much as a windows thing, I still hold VS in fairly high regard.

Invent Me! #7

I'm hoping that this one already exists, but I can't find it and I'm too annoyed to go looking at the moment. I like the visual studio shell, but now that I'm used to having it whenever I want it... I want more. I want a hotkey and/or a context menu option in Windows Explorer to bring up a shell, already pointed at that directory, any time I want. I'm hoping that someone replies to this with "you idiot, just do *blargh*". rj, I'm looking your direction. Shell me!

Invent Me! #6

Presenting the Apple iMoo. A computer that needs no electricity to operate.

It was discussed at lunch, and I expect to see a link out of Bryan later today, but apparently there's some people that have found a way to get electricity directly out of blood glucose. And not a little bit of electricity - we're talking electricity measured in watts. So let's take this to the next level - implant a few of these little fuel cells in a cow, and build me a computer out of it. For rural areas especially, imagine the advantage of a computer that needs no outside electricity at all to run! Of course, I'm sure Gateway would want a piece of the action... why not ship a cow-spotted computer inside a (huge) cow-spotted box?

Of course there's some practical applications too - from pacemakers that never need recharging to parents slapping GPS devices in unruly kids, all the way up to self-powered math coprocessors for those of us that would benefit from having faster on-brain floating point performance.

Ok, so I'm not so sure I actually want a cowputer... but if someone builds it, someone will buy it.