Marshall Brain's Blog

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Interesting stuff

Here's a set of links sent in by friends over the last couple of weeks.

Powers Of 10: There was a book that did this, but this is a Java applet that does the same thing very nicely with animation. You start out 10 million light years away from the Milky Way galaxy and then zoom in progressively until you are looking at the quarks of an atom.

Intel's Prescott, Intel's Extreme Edition, and AMD's Athlon 64 3400+ -- Very nice comparison of Intel's 3 latest chips with the latest AMD chip. Sent in because of the the discussion of the Prescott Pentium 4.

I still get a lot of email from the posts in December on the time wasted fixing computers. Here are two:

• Microsoft aims to make spammers pay: "But a group of researchers at Microsoft think they may have come up with a solution that could, at least, slow down and deter the spammers. The development has been called the Penny Black project, because it works on the idea that revolutionized the British postage system in the 1830s - that senders of mail should have to pay for it, not whoever is on the receiving end." Somehow it is easy to imagine that Microsoft will keep all the money... but it would be nice to be rid of spam. Also: Will spam be gone by 2006? Why not 2005, or late 2004?
  
  
• Windows plan underscores Microsoft struggle -- Microsoft decided to stop supporting Windows 98, and then reconsidered and is now supporting it. The goal of the original decision was to attempt to force Windows 98 users into upgrading. The thing that is interesting to consider -- what if Microsoft stops supporting Windows 98 (which is still running on 25 to 30% of machines around the world), and then someone figured out a virus or worm that effectively exploited a hole in Windows 98? I'm a little surprised that it hasn't happened already.

Answerbag.com - answers to lots of questions

SXSW /interactive/web_awards/finalists -- a very interesting collection of Web sites that you have probably never seen before.

What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else.

SodaRace

SoniqCast - Simple -- funny what happens when you put enough technology in one small package.

Cool invention - Say Goodbye to Frostbite

World's Tallest Skyscrapers

Free legal downloads for $6 a month. DRM free. The artists get paid. We explain how... -

Popular Mini-Med Schools give patients new perspective