Digital Wasteland

Not too many things happening. At least not that merit comment here. Apple released OS 3.0 for IPhone. Whoop. Not owning one, I am reluctant to even care about this. Dell announced a new laptop line, the Adamo, which looks pretty nice, if significantly overpriced. Even positioned as a MacBook Air competitor, this thing is too much money. Cisco bought Flip (the pocket camcorder people) and no one really knows why. Sounds like a lousy way to spend almost $600M dollars.

From the obscure materials dept.: Carbon nanotubes are the wave of the future, despite the fact they've been around for almost 2000 years. Wired has a great article on what they're being used for, and if you don't want to read through that, in summary the nanotubes will replace or enhance just about every iron and steel product made in the next century. You heard it here first.

Is anyone else disappointed with the future? I mean, when I was a wee lad of 10 or 12 years of age, the future was painted as this utopia of flying cars, robots, and supercomputers that would do everything for us. What happened? 20 years later, the future is still "20-30 years away". Instead of a utopia with no disease, no environmental problems, and everyone is happy, we ended up with the current dystopia we're living in: economic collapse, irrevocable climate change, and the onset of violence and disease that was unheard of two decades ago. I want my city in the clouds, dammit! (no Bespin reference, please)

Briefly. Given that the stock market continues to decline, and that market indices are losing value faster than a Barry Bonds rookie card, what happens when the Dow hits zero? It's already lost almost half of its value in the past 18 months, so wheres the bottom? And if it does hit zero, what does that mean, practically speaking, for "average" citizens like you and me? Part of me really wants to see this happen, if for no other reason than to be witness to the end times. 

Alright, get to class.

Mr. B.