Ölbaum’s Delirium

So General Motors announces it will equip some of its new vehicles with a radio that features an auxiliary input jack on the front panel. There’s nothing wrong with that, except perhaps the some.

But MacNN is quoting Paul Nadeau, director, infotainment displays and controls, for GM Engineering:

We think the ability to easily connect an iPod or other audio source directly into the vehicle audio system will be a big hit with customers.

This is preposterous. Is he actually expecting us to marvel at GM for having the so-called idea of putting an input jack on car radios back?

I may be the only one but I clearly remember that the first car CD players did indeed feature an auxiliary input. It was natural: you couldn’t use a tape adapter anymore so a line-in was provided instead. Only later did the car manufacturers start locking their customers into proprietary systems¹, expecting to sell outrageously expensive CD changers to those who didn’t want to die of boredom after listening to the same album for a whole trip. And now they finally step back, in a move that must cost them at most fifty cents per car, and congratulate themselves over it, making sure they mention the iPod to attract the media’s attention? Ooooh pathetic!

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→ Visit site

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Imagine my surprise when I discovered just now that, as of today, March 18, 2005 at 0:30, Google returns no results whatsoever for the following query:

Les flombs qui ont pondu

For Google then:

Les Aventures de Tintin – Les Bijoux de la Castafiore (1963) par Hergé, planche 38, case 1 :

Dupont : Vous dites que ce sont les flombs qui ont pondu… Soit !… Mais l'avez-vous constaté vous-même ?…

Tintin : C'est-à-dire que c'est Nestor qui me l'a dit lorsqu'il est remonté de la cave…

Dupond : Nestor ?… Le domestique !… Hé ! hé !

Dupond : Hé ! hé !

Update: It took approximately 28 hours for Google to find this entry after it was posted. Obviously, the query above now returns something.

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Stanley Myers, relayed by MacCentral:

Semiconductor makers will soon need to find a new substrate to replace the pure silicon wafers used to make chips if they are to keep pace with expected advances in chip-making technology, according to the head of a prominent industry group.

It looks like someone misunderstood the meaning of law in Moore's law, interpreting it as:

a rule, usually made by a government, that is used to order the way in which a society behaves, or the whole system of such rules,

instead of:

a general rule which states what always happens when the same conditions exist.

I don't reckon there's a law, even in California, that forces semiconductor manufacturers to double the number of transistors on their chips every 18 months.

(Definitions from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary.)

Somewhat related link

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