The singularity is coming

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

A huge milestone has just been reached in what is currently a very niche area of research, but one which I’m convinced will affect all of our lives within the next decade. It has the potential to create machines, for free, which will themselves allow people to create almost any other object.

It sounds abstract, but the RepRap project has successfully created a rapid prototyping machine that can fabricate all of the parts needed to make a copy of itself. This takes a bit of work to get your head around, but is quite a profound achievement.

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The yolk of shame: A Ballmer game

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

The first time I watched the video of Steve Ballmer being egged in Hungary, I must admit I was disgusted. I sat open-jawed in amazement, completely outraged at what I’d just witnessed. The egg thrower had missed. Missed! He was so close he was practically sat in Ballmer’s lap, and yet somehow he had conspired to heft his egg dismally wide of the – not inconsiderably sized – mark. One can only assume he was blinded by a stray beam of light flashing off Ballmer’s shiny head, but even so… the shame.

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