This is sweet. My attempts at predictions about the future of string theory (see e.g. here and here) are sure to be sharper, more well-defined, and….um, thinner and lighter than ever.
Just launched: the ipod nano.
-cvj
P.S. It is hardly nanotechnology, but it’s still a great name and a good looking device, so I’ll turn off my physicist-side for a moment…..
Cosmic Variance is a group blog by people who, coincidentally or not, all happen to be physicists and astrophysicists:
Our day (and night) jobs notwithstanding, the blog is about whatever we find interesting — science, to be sure, but also arts, politics, culture, technology, academia, and miscellaneous trivia. We have similar outlooks on many things, widely disparate opinions about others, and will do our best to keep the discourse reasonably elevated.
September 7th, 2005 at 6:00 pm
You gotta admit, the nano Tubes things is cute.
September 7th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
Clifford,
Apple is usually the first in the cuteness category, alas I own already creative’s Zen-Nano, which is doubly cute (and the combination is hard to beat for the nonsense value). I am afraid “nano” is already replacing “quantum” as the vaguely high-tech sounding word.
September 7th, 2005 at 6:44 pm
Well, Moshe, if it will stop people using “Quantum Leap” in precisely the opposite sense of what it actually means, this will be progress.
-cvj
September 7th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
That’s very good Clifford, nano-leap would be an excellent term to promote.
September 7th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
Probably nobody wants to talk about it. But a few months ago Fox broadcasted a docudrama “Oil Storm”, which hypothesised what will happen when there is a labor day hurricane of category 5 in New Orleans, 2005:
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/oilstorm/main.html
Well, as we know it. Things exactly happened as Fox predicted, at exactly the right time it predicted, although it was meant as a hypothesis, not a prediction. And everything happened exactly as predicted.
All I can say is we may NOT have seen the worst of the aftermath yet. Isn’t it alarming enough that we should start to talk about what will happen when the world runs out of oil? It’s not science fiction. It’s not a hypothesis. It’s a coming reality no one can deny. At most there can be some disagreement no more than a few year when it is going to come, but the earth is limited and so are resources.
Quantoken
September 7th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
The name may seem cool now, but what happens a couple of iterations down the road, when Apple has run out of publically recognizable metric prefixes? Everyone is familiar with “micro-” and to some extend “pico-” but soon they are going to have to start calling them iPod Femto and iPod Atto, and where’s the sexiness in that? Apple made the wrong move by skipping over the iPod Micro name, and they’ll wish they had asked my advice soon enough…
September 7th, 2005 at 8:38 pm
Joe: – clearly they are moving toward the “ipod Planck”, which would be the smallest ipod possible (while still being recognizable as an ipod). Also, the number of songs it will be able to store will be limited by its surface area, and not its volume.
This is a sort of geeky string theorist’s joke, for which I apologize. (Well, only slightly!
) If anyone wants me to explain it, please leave a comment.
Cheers,
-cvj
September 7th, 2005 at 9:53 pm
Nah, they’re gonna stop using the techno/sciency sounding names and are gonna go for animal names. Haven’t you guys seen the “iPod Flea”?
http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/06/29/technology/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20050629_GUEST_VIDEO.html
it’s just a spoof video, of course, but who says this is not the future of the mp3 player?
September 7th, 2005 at 9:55 pm
oops, my bad for the ridiculously long link that spills out of the section…
September 7th, 2005 at 10:50 pm
Astronomy Grad Student: That was hilarious!! Just brilliant. Thanks for the link!
-cvj
September 7th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
If anyone wants me to explain it, please leave a comment
I’ll byte. Go ahead and explain.
September 8th, 2005 at 12:42 am
Not you Plato, you know! I’m trying to find out if there are any non-specialists reading thsi blog any more who want to know what we’re on about…. Drumming up an excuse to write a post about the holographic principle, I guess.
-cvj
September 8th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Hello Clifford,
Here is a non-specialist who reads this blog to find out about what you’re on about.
I think it is amazing to be able to eavesdrop, as it were, on professors argu, er, discussing the latest inventions of modern physics.
Makes me think of the London coffee houses of the late 17th century where the big noises from the Royal Society gathered to discuss the latest inventions. There was no bar, as far as I know on more humble folk from joining in.
Therefore, a post about the holographic principle, and why it is a principle and not a conjecture, would be most splendid.
September 8th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Thanks astromcnaught! Good to hear from the non-specialists from time to time…. sometimes I like to be reminded that you’re here…at least so that I can occasionally post an explanation of one of my poor physics jokes, or other off-the-cuff remarks spiced with physics….. Got several meetings and other thigns to do today…will try to explain holography later this evening.
Best…
-cvj
September 8th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
[...] In the comment thread of a recent post on the iPod Nano, there was discussion of the practice of borrowing terms from physics and other sciences to make a product more attractive. Responding to various humourous suggestions of other names they may use upon further miniaturization, such as the iPod Femto or the iPod Atto (suggested by Joe Bolte), I suggested: clearly they are moving toward the “ipod Planck”, which would be the smallest ipod possible (while still being recognizable as an ipod). Also, the number of songs it will be able to store will be limited by its surface area, and not its volume. [...]
September 12th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
[...] Remember a year ago, the launch of the ipod nano that caught my eye? Even led to a long physics joke explanation. [...]