Geek Thread

[Admin]

Crazy what we all carry in our pockets these days.

http://europe.nokia.com/PRODUCT_METADATA_0/Products/Phones/8000-series/808/Nokia808PureView_Whitepaper.pdf

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/02/27/Nokia-808-PureView-with-41MP-sensor

[PonoBill]

wow. The video capabilities sound more interesting than the still. Must have one hell of a processor to handle all that data.

[stoneaxe]

All I can think of is how lame a Star Trek transponder now seems.

[PonoBill]

The Pournelle/Niven book Mote in God's Eye has a palm-sized personal computer with what seemed like impossible capabilities when the book was published--it was set hundreds or even a thousand years in the future. It would be very lame competition for a iPhone.

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

I think you mean a Star Trek communicator. (Yes, I *am* a certified geek. I had all the “Star Trek” episodes memorized before I was twelve. James T. Kirk was my hero.)

The tricorder, however, has not been matched yet. We have very little of what would be a portable scanner. There are some interesting mass spectrometers and other devices on the Martian probes that can detect the composition of rocks and gasses, but the tricorder still kicks patootie. One of those would be cool for my SUP. I could know what was beneath me, especially what beasties might be lurking about. While we may not have sharks in the Hudson, we have large sturgeon. I once saw one jump.