Please! Let’s make 2004 the year we retire the wretched fax machine!

This is despite some of the valid points Paul Rubens of the BBC NEWS makes in his article Fax – the technology that refuses to die (via Gizmodo)

“The fax machine is an ancient piece of office equipment – it was invented in its earliest form by one Alexander Bain in 1843. It transmits the contents of pieces of paper, but these days the chances are high that anything on paper started as an electronic document. So why print it out and fax it when you can e-mail the digital version?”

IO2 Technology has demonstrated a 42″ prototype of what they are calling “Heliodisplay- Interactive Free-Space Display“, which is essentially display without a “screen” …

“The Heliodisplay projects full color streaming video into free space (i.e. air). It is plug-and-play compatible with most video sources (TV, DVD, computer, etc.). These non-holographic images can be fully interactive, allowing a hand or finger to select, navigate and manipulate — as if it were a virtual touch screen.”

I was reminded of this great special report in InfoWorld about IT on the cheap via Lockergnome

“From refurbished hardware and eBay deals to do-it-yourself setups, everything you need to know about buying equipment on the cheap.”

It’s certainly worth a read or bookmark.

It’s always good to keep HOWTO guides like this around.

“Killed a hard drive without backing up? This guide helps you recover the data ” (link via Lockergnome)

Of course you can never find them when you need’em because the system you bookmarked the guide is the one that’s dead. So I’ll just post it here :-)

An early release of the CXBX XBox Emulator looks very promising — Although no games play just yet.
(via Lockergnome)

Detailed write up of swapping logic boards on a dead hard drive to recover data. (via Slashdot)

Great quote by Don Park:

Using open source tools and libraries is like playing with mud.

But I’ll add; as a kid, I always enjoyed playing in the mud :-)

Jim Gray of Microsoft Research has an interesting paper on the economic viability of distributed computing.

Some quotes:

“Put the computation near the data. The recurrent theme of this analysis is that “On Demand” computing is only economical for very CPU-intensive (100,000 instructions per byte or a CPU-day per gigabyte of network traffic) applications.”

“If telecom prices drop faster than Moore’s law … [snip] … it could completely alter the arguments here. But there is no obvious sign of that occurring.”

I’m certainly feeling nostalgic with all the retro talk lately about early experiences with computing technology.

Given the reflective talk, it’s not surprising to see a mention of some of my favorite computing magazines like
Softside,
Antic and of course Creative Computing

In fact, I still have a few issues of Creative Computing and Softside from the late 70’s early 80’s. Perhaps when I post my “Newly Digital” experiences, I’ll include pictures of these zines.

Feeling old? Check out some “cool” Gadgets from 1983.

It’s interesting to note how long it took many of these to catch on en mass and then to apply that logic to some products that we are just starting to see in the consumer markets. (e.g. PVRs, WiFi and even Blogging in the relm of social acceptance)