Do you think Alfred Nobel, when he invented dynamite, understood what he had wrought?  Was it his sense of guilt and horror at the use of his invention that drove him, as his dying act, to institute his prize for peace?

Today, after making a wholly unexpected discovery in the most unexpected place, I too have begun to wonder what I have wrought.  And if I’m soon destined for a dying act to undo an evil unleashed.

Let the reader read, ponder and understand:

Always on.

Always on.

Always on.

I’ll post again tomorrow if I’m able.  Until then… that’s all.

Cell phone power consumption varies dramatically from model to model, and battery life varies with it.  However, lower than expected battery life for a single model can point to problems with either the battery itself, or, less often, with integrated circuit performance.  A glitch in the manufacture of the IC – or an inefficient initial design – can consume more power than necessary and lead to a battery life shorter than engineers expected.

A major cell phone manufacturer whose name you would know is having just such a problem (though they’d rather I didn’t say who because it does nothing for their market share) and they’ve asked me to visit one of their state-of-the-art plants to help them determine whether their shortened battery life issues arise from design or manufacturing. 

I should know soon.  For now, that’s all.

Hong Kong is an amazing city built exactly like the perfect integrated circuit, maximum density, maximum connectivity.  Viewed from the air, it is a metaphor for everything I’ve designed.  Bravo, Hong Kong.  I’m on the move, so that’s all.

Want to research the specs on a new cell phone before they’re published?  Mine the filings at the FCC, which must approve all phones sold in the U.S., and, as a result has information no one else has.  Learn how here:  http://tinyurl.com/pr26aa.  This blogger is busy today ducking flak from a different government Agency, so… that’s all.

Consumers are beginning to ask questions about the silicon chip that serves as the brains of the iPhone.  Who makes it, exactly?  Those in the know hint that it’s the Korean electronics giant Samsung.  I may or may not know for sure, but I’m not telling.  That’s all.

Happy birthday to the integrated circuit, which turned 50 years old on Friday.  A tip of my hat to the eight great pioneers who gave birth to the IC, including my personal heroes Gordon Moore and Jay Last, who were honored at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on Friday.  It was a treat to see their faces and hear them speak of the way their invention has changed the world for all of us.  Read about the celebration here at http://tinyurl.com/r84s5o.  That’s all.

This one’s a hoot.  Imagine that your wife has locked herself out of her car.  She calls you on her cell because she knows that you’ve got your keys in your pocket.  Seems there’s an urban legend that you can hold your key fob up to your cell phone, click it, transmit the signal to through your wife’s cell and unlock her car.  AAA engineers put that urban legend to the test.  Turns out it’s bunk.  Myth busted. 

Of course if those engineers had asked anyone who knows that phones are deaf to signals in the frequency range in which key fobs transmit, we could have saved them the lab time.  Still, it’s kind of a romantic notion.  That’s all.