IBM Makes a movie using only atoms - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 01:47:53 pm
content: Amazing, a 90 second animated movie created by moving atoms around.http://techland.time.com/2013/05/01/tiny-toon-ibm-makes-a-movie-out-of-atoms/

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 02:19:48 pm
content: What actor did they get to play the boy? It wasn't in the credits .... :-)

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 02:33:01 pm
content: His name was Carbon Monoxide............ CO for short!

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 02:38:27 pm
content: Uh, aren't ALL movies (and everything else for that matter) made using "only" atoms?

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 02:46:41 pm
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 01, 2013, 02:38:27 pmHey! You beat me to being a smartass! I came here just to say that!

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 02:53:25 pm
content: Well yes, at base level within our universe !... still, it takes a considerable amount of know-how to corral Atoms and then manipulate them.

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:23:49 pm
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 01, 2013, 02:38:27 pmI was under the impression that photons (and maybe even electrons) played some significant role in making movies

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:28:02 pm
content: Well, it consists only of photons and sound waves by the time you actually watch it, I guess.Guess you need to define exactly what constitutes the physical "movie". Is it the actual film exposed in the camera? The original draft of the screenplay?

author: Hydrawerk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:32:47 pm
content: I like their old equipment...http://technet.idnes.cz/nejmensi-video-ibm-atom-0vm-/veda.aspx?c=A130501_160545_veda_pka

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:41:42 pm
content: Quote from: Hydrawerk on May 01, 2013, 03:32:47 pmThe pic where he is inserting a 3.5" floppy ... is that just staged (do something technical for the camera), or do people actually still use them?Heck, does anyone even still manufacture 3.5" floppies?The soda can really adds a bit of flair to their setup

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:48:31 pm
content: None of that equipment looks extremely new - when was the photo taken? Even early-mid 2000s would make the floppy much more likely.

author: Joules
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 03:53:02 pm
content: Cheap skates, did you see the size of their set...

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 04:24:06 pm
content: If you built it 20 years ago, and it cost $20 000 000, and there is no Moore's law making it cheaper you will not upgrade anything as long as it works or can be fixed. Thus the floppies, and the controller computers dating back to that time, probably still running OS/2 Warp as well. Might even still have a few 286/386 units there doing the heavy lifting in the racks as well, the ones IBM made themselves were designed to last pretty much forever.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 05:44:58 pm
content: If you watch the 'making of' they talk about about atoms but also about molecules: at 1:26 and 1:46.Assuming that they know the difference, what is it?

author: blasto9000
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 05:58:16 pm
content: Quote from: kfitch42 on May 01, 2013, 03:41:42 pmAt a former employer, we made state of the art RF transmitters (high power, extreme wideband), and many times for black projects. The Agilent network analyzers still used 3.5" FDDs to move data from the analyzer to other analyzers or PCs.I'll give you this though, we were CERTAIN to take very good care of our stock of 3.5" floppies as replacements didn't exactly grow on trees!

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 06:11:06 pm
content: Quote from: blasto9000 on May 01, 2013, 05:58:16 pmReasonable enough.Quote from: blasto9000 on May 01, 2013, 05:58:16 pmHmm, you know how they have those faked out cassettes to use your iProd with your car's tape player ... how hard would it be to make a high(er) reliability flash based 'floppy'? Even if it cost $100+ I suspect there might be just barely enough people with older test equipment to make it worthwhile to produce.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 06:41:58 pm
content: Quote from: kfitch42 on May 01, 2013, 06:11:06 pmIt's easier to replace the drive with something like this:And then just plug in an USB stick. Low cost alsohttp://www.amazon.com/Floppy-Drive-Emulator-Emulator-Keep-Install/dp/B0083Z29JO(didn't know these existed, but you made me think and I googled "solid state 3.5 floppy")

author: kfitch42
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 06:46:46 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on May 01, 2013, 06:41:58 pmYeah, that is a better approach ... assuming the test equipment uses the 'standard' PC floppy interface... which is probably a reasonable assumption.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 07:03:47 pm
content: Sony made those "floppy" adaptors for the original Mavica cameras. Not good memories of them. The product was nice enough, the drivers though were fantastically buggy, craptastic and incredibly slow. To read 1M took longer than what it took to write and verify to a real diskette. As a lus the software did come on a pair of diskettes though, no CDROMS for the first time. Of course only supported Sony MS and only the ones up to 8M. They might have improved later, but USB was more common by then, and there were drivers that did then like Sony cameras.Still have the camera, even with the batteries so old that you get to take 3 photos between charges.

author: baljemmett
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 01, 2013, 11:03:42 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on May 01, 2013, 06:41:58 pmOh, nice, that's a lot cheaper than the models I saw a few years ago -- might grab one of those for my piano, the last few 3.5" floppies I've tried in it have been flaky as hell.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2013, 12:42:05 am
content: I had a medical ultrasound about 18 months ago, and was unimpressed that the machine had a 3.5inch floppy.I suppose that it's more a matter of having the discipline not to upgrade your computers for no reason other than "I can."(OTHO, there are also costs associated with continued use of "old" equipment.)

author: 4to20Milliamps
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2013, 01:48:27 am
content: 1,000,000 to 12 That's quite a leap forward in storage density, a few months from now we'll be wondering why people are still using their old flash drives.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 02, 2013, 03:11:11 am
content: That's crap !!! No one really uses more than 1.4MB anyway ....

author: 4to20Milliamps
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2013, 03:25:52 am
content: Quote from: digsys on May 02, 2013, 03:11:11 amYou're right, and a 500 Mb hard drive is plenty of space I can't imagine what you would need any more for.

author: ecat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 02, 2013, 04:01:27 am
content: Quote from: 4to20Milliamps on May 02, 2013, 03:25:52 amSeagate CEO Bill Watkins...QuoteSo roll on the 50,000TB 2.5" hard drives I say. At £2 per petabyte I think they'd sell well.