Netbooks update

I bought one. A Dell inspiron mini 9 for $180 ($169 + tax) from the outlet website. Its the minimum configuration with 512 MB RAM and 4 GB SSD memory running Ubuntu Linux. For the price its simply great. I will compliment the system with a 4 GB or 8 GB SDHC card. Eagerly waiting for the delivery. Today they will release the mini 10 model and so expect more deals on mini 9 and mini 12. I don't think there will be a cheaper deal in the near future.

 

Another good deal that I read about was the sale on ASUS Eee PC 900a in Best Buy stores. The reported prices varied from $160 - $200 in different areas. It is also a good deal but it should be noted that it has very low backup. Its reported to have less than 1 hr 30 mins whereas the mini 9 has about 3 hrs 30 mins.

 

Once I get the system I will also explore online file storage and remote desktop access to my laptop and work server. I might add more RAM later. For Windows netbooks there are several options like Zumo drive, MS Live Mesh and Gladinet for extra storage and remote access. But the Linux models are always cheaper ones.

Netbooks - now is not the time.

I have been scouring the net to find a good deal for a netbook. For the uninitiated, a netbook is a small laptop with a screen thats around 9 inches wide diagonally and weighs about 1 kg. Its processing power is limited and cannot be used to run heavy programs like games or matlab. Most models cant run windows vista, but who cares about that? The most popular models are Asus ee PC, MSI wind, Acer aspire one and Dell inspiron mini. Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and Sony also have models though they not as popular as the others due to the high cost.

 

Apart from its small size and light weight, the good ones also have upto 7 hrs of battery life. Its usually priced between $250 - $400. I think it makes sense to buy one as a second computer for use while travelling and also while going for lectures when you might want to look up pdfs or chat on gtalk. My current laptop is about 3.5 kgs and its a pain carrying it around.

 

That said when I looked deeper into the details this does not seem to be the best time for such a purchase. The machines have a processor called the Intel Atom. It is power efficient but not powerful. Benchmarks show that the performance of a 1.6 GHz Atom is almost same as that of an older Intel processor, celeron M 900 MHz. The Intel platform seems to be unnecessarily costly, atleast thats what the tech forums say.

 

Other processors for netbooks like an ARM based Freescale chip, which would be much more power efficient, are slated for release later this year. Another reason to wait is the impending release of NVIDIAs ION platform which will make the systems much more graphics capable. Also the pricing seems to be wrong. Dell sells their bare bones model for $249, but had just 3 weeks back sold a few refurbished peices in the outlet website for $174. I believe when newer models are released many of the older ones will be available for less than $200. So wait, if not for the newer chips atleast for lower prices.

When David went to a dentist

If you have the habit of watching the most viewed videos on youtube you've most certainly seen this one. David went to the dentist and got high on the laughing gas that was presumably used as an anesthetic. On their way back his dad(?) recorded him and thought it was funny. Well it is very funny especially to the Americans who think its cool to get stoned.

Then came the Christian Bale rant on the set of Ternimator 4 that goes on for about 4 mins. That one is a very powerful peice of dialogue delivery IMHO. Then some genius combined to the two videos to give this. Superb comedy. And then this. I ve been watching these over and over again. Its still funny.

Singularity

One of my first blog entries was on singularity. If the enthusiasm seen in the net is any indication this concept has gained wide attention and now there is a singularity institute (1) and even a singularity university (2). Check out the many blogs (3) for more fascinating news on this.

Singularity refers to a technological development that will forever change the fate of the human race. A line from 2001: A space odyssey comes to my mind: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (his third law). Its appeal to science fiction literate geeks is obvious. I belong to this category and have been following the evolution of the idea for sometime now.

Among the paths proposed towards singularity are the creation of an artificial intelligence or the creation of a superior human brain using genetics and symbiotic electronics (like in a cyborg) or a combination of both with feedback resulting in resonance. I have no idea about the second path, but the first one is familiar. My research is related and I have read some of the scientific literature in the area since it is my personal goal too. It is with that knowledge that I make this daring statement "we don't yet have the technology to do this".

That might not sound surprising to many, but I will still go ahead and clarify. We have methods that show promise in very limited applications. But not much has been done to tie these methods together. Reinforcement learning, genetic programming, Godel machines are keywords that will return related results on google (also). But I couldn't find any evidence of work done to create intelligence. May be the old AI idea of coding everything can help. There is so much work done in the field on the separate methods I feel its time we started doing extensive research on creating a true meta-learner. This is where all the singularity enthusiasts can help, they can provide a framework that might in the future be the base from which to develop true AI.

So the university and institute have a lot of work to do and I wish them all the success. I must say that the community also seems to have a lot of nut cases. Some of them see this as a shot at immortality, they will upload their brains to a machine and when possible download it to a cloned brain. Ha! And just imagine the impact immortality will have on our society.