Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Tuesday 19 August 2008, 5:03 PM
Craig Barrett's love life hits IDF
As I type, we're half an hour into IDF proper. Pat Gelsinger, patron saint of IDF, has called chairman Craig Barrett a wally – well, Waldo, after the American version of the stripy-jumpered cartoon itinerant. That's because Barrett is a wanderin' man, clocking up 30 countries a year in his role as ambassador of technology.
Mr Ambassador is very keen on education, technology and innovation, and tells us so at length. It's what politicians call an apple pie speech. There's no actual technology so far – with one exception. A chap called Dr Johnny Chung Lee pops up and shows how to use a Wii and a projector to create an electronic whiteboard. There's a rather good infra-red camera in the Wii remote, so if you stuff an infra-red LED in the tip of an old whiteboard marker, the Wii can track it against a projected image. Not sure this quite qualifies as a $50 project, as advertised, but if you've got all the bits lying around, it's a neat trick, and good old-fashioned hackery in the best tradition.
Must get back to the keynote – Craig Barrett is lying on the ground, and a couple of Indian doctors are commenting on his sex life. Sometimes, the technology really does come second.
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