The MOS 6502...

Some of us (hardware and software engineers, that is) are ancient enough to actually remember the MOS 6502.  A photomicrograph of it's top layer is at right (as always, click to enlarge).  The 6502 was the microprocessor at the heart of some of the early successful systems, such as the Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari 2600.  I remember it well and fondly: it was cheap, fast, and easy to design in.  I incorporated it into several of my early projects, mainly as the processor for peripherals in a Z80-based system (because the Z80 could run CP/M, an early “operating system”).

These days, the 6502 is thought of more as an antiquity, something to be conserved in a museum.  Which is exactly what these folks are doing!  I was led to that site by a fascinating article on Bill Mensch, the guy who manually laid out the six masks used in manufacturing the 6502 – with no errors.

Top 25 Movies of 2010...

By box office receipts per week.  This makes a beautiful graphic, even more so because it's interactive on the author's site.

I haven't seen a single one of these movies.

Fascinating Side-Effect of the Kindle...

One that I certainly wouldn't have foreseen: sales of bodice-rippers are soaring, and all the growth is in the Kindle editions.

Strange are the ways of the world...

Beautiful Science Video...

Here's a rare treat: a rich, gorgeous animation about the interplay between the Fibonacci Sequence and nature.  It even comes with an excellent explanatory page, aimed at a non-scientist audience.  Oh, I'd love to see more like this!

Just When I Thought...

...that I couldn't possibly be any more disgusted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he goes and does this.

Rope.

Tree.

Schwarzenegger.

Some assembly required.

The Gate to Hell...

Ran across this in my web surfing yesterday.  It's apparently a left-over Soviet mistake, deep in Turkmenistan.  More photos here.

The Greatest Country Ever...

From Rich Lowry of The National Review:

Our greatness is simply a fact. Only the churlish or malevolent can deny it, or even get irked at its assertion. When a Marco Rubio talks of the greatness of America, it’s not bumptious self-congratulation. Our greatness comes with the responsibility to preserve our traditional dynamism and status as a robust middle-class society. To paraphrase the Benjamin Franklin of lore, we have the greatest country ever — if we can keep it.

Read the whole thing.

It's not patriotic blathering if it's true...

Rain...

First rain of the new year: 0.59" (1.5 cm) over two days.  The mountain valleys of San Diego are greener than they've been in 8 or 9 years.  Streams are running.  Sheets of water seep over exposed mountain rocks.

And our rainy season has just begun!