Widgets et Cetera
Nokia’s design department has gone crazy again: They’ve announced the 7600 which is unorthodox looking, to say the least. They’ve also got digital pendants, which knowing the fickleness of fashion trends, I refrain from commenting on. They also have digital photo frames which are cool but no doubt cost an arm and a leg. I think Sony started selling them a couple years ago for a few thousand dollars, but I’m not sure if the price would have come down to affordable levels since then.
Salton’s programmable coffee maker can be programmed through a web browser to have a pot of steaming brew ready by the time you plod, bleary-eyed, into the kitchen each morning.
AMD has finally released its 64-bit CPU goodness. The next computer I own will, in all probability, be 64-bit.
I’ve been told to read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, and I think I will after reading in Time Mag about his 3000-page Baroque Cycle trilogy which merges science and history in a long semi-fictional narrative. The Baroque Cycle is a “continuation” of sorts on Cryptonomicon. Whoever said science and art were so different?
1:37am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow 
I’m currently on page353 of my second read through of Cryptonomicon, in preparation for Quicksilver.
The thing i remember most about reading through it the first time, was when i got to about two thirds thorugh, realised how much i was loving it and that i still had another 300pages to go.
I’ve read it described as a cross between Catch22 & Gravity’s Rainbow, and after reading them both i’d have to agree.
Cryptonomicon is a good read. I haven’t read anything else by Stephenson for fear the next book won’t be as good. Ahh, the troubled life of a successful author, everyone expects your next book to be even better.
et Cetera.
oh dear.