Design News: Visualization Systems

This article talks about how you need powerful graphics, big memories, and fast processors to better see and test the entirety of your designs. The growing trend? "…workstations capable of processing millions of polygons per second," all the better to render Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, "…and displaying images in ways that weren't previously possible. "Too many of today's engineers are looking at maybe one-eighth of their design's data set," says Thomas Tannert, marketing manager for the Visual Systems Group at Silicon Graphics, Inc. "We want to allow them to look at the whole data set."

Highlighted are three new systems, one each from HP, IBM, and SGI.

1. Is your company ready to spring for such systems? Do you really need this much horsepower in your application? If not, when?

2. It's interesting that two of the three systems are AMD-based. Do you see AMD as more and more viable in engineering as time goes on?

Design News: Innovate!

"Innovation through technology will increasingly dictate business success as globalization and the Internet flatten the global economy. No where is that more important than product design where new processes, ranging from multi-material molding to gas-assist, create opportunities to make quantum improvements in product performance, appearance and cost." The article continues, "'In today's environment, innovation must provide value, which translates into growth,' said consultant Jack Avery in a presentation called 'Growth through Innovation', at the most recent Annual Technical conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers."

1. Speaking of globalization, have you read Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat? If so, what do you think?

2. The need for innovation seems painfully obvious, but the real-world seems to dictate that budgets—more often than not—will go not to innovation, but to projects that make money. Comments?

Associated Press: Shuttle Discovery Blasts Into Orbit

"National pride and the future of space exploration itself hung in the balance as Discovery and its crew of seven rose from the launch pad at 10:39 a.m. into a hazy blue sky and headed out over the ocean in the most scrutinized launch in NASA history and the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin urged everyone 'to take note of what you saw here today: the power and the majesty of the launch, of course, but also the competence and the professionalism, the sheer gall, the pluckiness, the grittiness of this team that pulled this program out of the depths of despair 2 1/2 years ago and made it fly.'"

Now THAT was a lift-off! Gorgeous! Beautiful! Stunning! Amazing! Go, Team! Woo-Freakin'-Hoo!

1. Comments?

You Have Just Got to See and Try This

The European Community will enforce new RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) regulations pertaining to electrical and electronic equipment sold or distributed there as of July 1, 2006. dionics PLC offers helpful PDFs about RoHS, WEEE, and ELV, while Phoenix Contact also offers useful FAQs about RoHS and WEEE.

Now, the cool stuff. Click on the headline link above. Play Slimebuster and have some fun while testing your basic knowledge of RoHS. Newark InOne put it together. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Okay, it's simplistic, but I just had to see my (bogus) name on the leader board, so I stuck with it for 87 tries (and only got two wrong out of seven on the first try. I'm sure you'll do better.) What's brilliant about it? It's well-done as a simple marketing piece, grabs the visitor's attention, and might actually prompt users to click on the company's stuff.

1. Comments?

CNET News: Firefox Downloaded 75 Million Times

"Mozilla on Tuesday marked the 75 millionth download of Firefox. That number has only a hazy relationship to the number of people actually using the browser; it counts multiple downloads of different versions and doesn't count Mozilla's automatic updates or copies from single downloads distributed through organizations by technology managers."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Firefox is a near-great browser. Unfortunately, it's skyrocketing popularity is of course attracting hackers, but Mozilla has been trying to keep up with new releases. The Big Mo' has just got to do something about its PDF-related instability (later releases are much better, though not perfect), however.

NOTE TO [cough] WEBMASTERS: IS 75 MILLION DOWNLOADS ENOUGH TO MOTIVATE YOU TO DEEP SIX YOUR IE-SPECIFIC CODE?

1. Do you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, or ? Why? Do you use different browsers at home and your office?

2. If you use Firefox, what are your favorite and/or must-have extensions? (I vote for Tabbrowser Preferences and IE View.)

3. Do you think Firefox really has a chance of competing with IE?

Whacko 'Snippetman' Liberal, over and out…