Record Score for Sandy Bridge

PC Magazine has an interesting and detailed review of Sandy Bridge processor from Intel:

Just to give you an idea of how powerful Sandy Bridge is, no laptop, even the most powerful one, has ever scored over 10,000 points in PCMark Vantage—a benchmark test that stresses all the major components of a laptop (CPU, memory, graphics, etc). Our Sandy Bridge test unit scored 16,680 points, which is roughly 2.5 times better than the Dell XPS 17 (6,367) and Samsung RF710-S02US (6,000). Its score is so one-sided that several of us had to do a double-take, which is saying a lot.

Telematics for Real

Car companies spent alot of money last decade on "telematics". Only one company, GM, has been aggressive at delivering a true business around the technology. Now Onstar is innovates by making an add on kit.

Entertainment Industrial Complex

Wall Street Journal finally recognizes in an OPED there is something interesting in the relationship between entertainment and the military technology. I think the New York Times has them beat. At least JC Herz did.

Finally Intel does 3D for Real

Venture Beat says Intel will announce that 500 PC models will come out on Jan 9 with the Sandy Bridge chip set. This is a big boost for 3D graphics on the desktop. Only 10% of PC's under a thousand dollars can handle 3D graphics. This will change the equation, particularly on laptops.

The Ravenous Pig

We celebrated at the Ravenous Pig in Winter Park last night. It was definitely a very hip, WP croud. The food was excellent and the service very professional. Good, reasonable wine list, full bar. We had the Gruyere Biscuits before the entre's which are a regular item and were not disappointed. I had the flank steak and Terri had the swordfish -- awesome! Finally, we had to have the chef's dessert specialty -- "Pig Tails" -- think hot, sweet donuts with chocolate for dipping. Go there but make sure you have reservations.

Yikes! Skype does video calls on iPhone!

I haven't tried the app but will give it a try this weekend. Is there enough bandwidth on AT&T's network if this is successful? How does Skype monetize? Do people really want to look at each other via a phone? (I found Facetime awkward). We will find out soon.

Sandy Adams and the 24th Congressional District

Sandy, my Congresswoman, writes a column on her priorities for next year. Good luck to her and everyone in DC. Its going to be a challenging year.