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An EE student at Cornell has put together a list of what works for him when 24+ hour days are required in order to complete an assignment. His suggestions for staying awake when you absolutely must, include the usual suspects of coffee, music and taking breaks, but he also throws showers, meals and walking around into the mix.

The piece seems to have struck a chord, because it’s attracted many comments that offer additional advice, such as dunking one’s face in ice cubes, consuming protein, ritalin, pita & hummus, double-brewed coffee, yerba matte, vitamin C, smoking, Red Bull, cold air and blue light. Absent from the list is Modafinil, used by fighter pilots and the like – it’s supposed to keep you alert for up to 90 hours, but requires a prescrip.

Cynics retort that all-nighters are the consequence of bad self-management and procrastination…but we’re cynical about their cynicism.

How to pull an all-nighter – christianmontoya.com, April 4, 2006

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Bill Gates describes his digital workstyle in an article in Fortune Magazine. Mr. Gates’ office activites are supported by, and are organized around five main tools:

1. A 3-screen synchronized desktop system primarily supporting Outlook and Internet Explorer.
2. The Sharepoint portal and collaboration tool.
3. Windows Desktop Search (”a big effect on my productivity”).
4. A Tablet PC (looks like an HP) for portability, with OneNote.
5. A whiteboard for brainstorming, with electronic connectivity.

Bill goes on to describe the primacy of e-mail at the office, how filtering keeps the volume down to about 100 e-mails per day, the dilemma of information overload and underload and the benefits of a going paperless. At the moment he’s busy preparing for Think Week.

All-in-all a well-crafted and interesting article – it’s saved by the blandness of the blandishments, which has the effect of inviting an unironic response.

How I Work: Bill Gates – Fortune, April 4, 2006

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The world’s first simulation of a entire life form was conducted by computational biologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently. A one million atom version of the Satellite Tobacco Mosaic Virus was put through the paces in a supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications for a total of 50 nanoseconds before the system ran out of steam. They made some movies of the event, learned a few things about the molecular dynamics of the STMV and achieved a world’s first along the way.

This development foretells a more real artificial reality, and appropriately enough, the road to The City, goes through Champaign, Illinois.

Molecular dynamics simulations of the complete satellite tobacco mosaic virus – Structure, 14:437-449, 2006

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Apple just introduced its Boot Camp dual boot software that installs and runs the Windows XP operating system on Intel-based Mac computers. The product allows users to choose between Mac OS X and Windows at startup, thus providing the benefits of both environments, albeit not simultaneously. Opinion seems divided as to whether this development is a plus or a negative for Apple and for Apple users, or even for other hardware manufacturers and software developers and their respective user communities.

The answers to those questions are largely unknown, but if one believes that the stock market reflects all that is known at the moment and all that is expected to happen, then it seems to be a resounding plus for Apple Computer, at least. AAPL shares are up more than 15% since the announcement.

Standard disclaimers apply: “There are more things in heaven and earth than are reported in your stock markets”. [with apologies to Hamlet & Rabindranath Tagore]

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Samsung spruces up their Bordeaux line of LCD TVs with the release of a new model. The new 40 inch model looks like a re-release of the model LN40R71BD and continues its 5000:1 contrast ratio and the 6ms pixel response time.

What’s new (according to the company press release) seems to be an attempt to appeal to women by means of the high-gloss cabinet and migration of the control buttons to the bezel. While it’s difficult to be certain from the wording of the announcement, the V-shaped design may be intended to be evocative of the shape of a wine glass.

The press release also makes note of the unit as being capable of displaying 5400000000000 colors, which, if accurate, is, or might be close to, being a record for a commercial TV.

Samsung Electronics LCD T.V. ‘ Bordeaux ‘ come into the market – Samsung Press Release, 2006.04.06

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The fossil of the first fish to walk on land has been found on Ellesmere Island, 600 miles from the North Pole.

Dubbed Tiktaalik roseae, the creature had fish-like bony scales and fins, but also had prototype elbows and wrists as well as primitive fingers.

It took Tiktaalik roseae about 325 million years in order to become Pakicetus and return to the sea as a cetacean.

Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals – New York Times, April 6, 2006

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Korean LCD monitor and cell phone manufacturer Zakang has just expanded its product line with the addition of some music jewellery. The Kiss MP3 player has a capacity of 1GB, sized at 40×36x11 mm, weighs 20 grams, with quality at up to 320kbps.

Functionality and playback are enhanced (just kidding) by the addition of 23 Swarovski man-made crystals arranged in a carotid pattern around the circumference of the device. Available in red, white and silver.

Nice, but would have been nicer if they’d dropped $1 or so on some nail clippers.

Zakang Kiss MP3 Player – product website

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Samsung introduced the YM-PD1 portable multimedia player a while ago and it’s now becoming available, at least in Korea.

The device can receive and record digital (T-DMB) TV as well as FM radio broadcasts. Its compatible with a number of audio formats (MP3, WMA and OGG) and video files (MPEG-4, WMV and DivX). It also has a 30GB disk, TV-output and a curiously-sized 520×283 4-inch screen. Nice, if uninspired design.

An extensive description, albeit opinion-free and in Korean, of the the features and functions of the YM-PD1, courtesy of PMPInside, can be found at DMB All Elder Brother PMP. It is Samsung YM-PD1 Power Review.

Samsung YM-PD1 – Korea Times, 04-04-2006

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Dell’s Alienware unit is best known for their cool high-end gaming notebook computers. But with a product line that now includes desktops, notebooks, workstations, media center PCs as well as servers, A/W is in some jeopardy of moving from cool to cold, and becoming just another computer company.

The newly-introduced Sentia m3200 confirms that trend by being a nice, lightweight but de-gamed notebook. The m3200 is spec’d out to a 2 GHz processor, 12.1 inch 1280×800 LCD screen, 1 GB of memory with up to 160GB hdd. The unit is a quite good, if unextraordinary, notebook with a tricked-out case.

Alienware Sentia m3200 – product website

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Sony China launches their new CE-P music players.

The CE-P series is legacy-free (no Atrac support), has a 1.5 inch 260K color 128×128 OLED screen and fairly compact, if thick-ish, at 2.9 x 1.8 x 0.6 inches (75.7 x 45.5 x 15.2 mm).

Playback is MP3 and WMA, includes an FM tuner and voice recorder and the device displays BMP and JPG images.

The CE-P17 model has 1GB of memory.

Sony CE-P – product website, 2006-03-31

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