Some of my favorite things …

FPGAs
To give you a flavor of things that interest me, check this post out. Taken from hackaday.com, which is what I’d call site of variable coolness.

Also, here are some cool FPGA platforms to play with.

Server Virtualization
Xen is a great tool that lets you run several instances of Linux on one machine — effectively “virtualizing” your hardware. I’ve been using it for various projects and it just makes my life so much more convenient. We were recently blessed with Xen 3.0 which gives us, among other things:

• SMP support
• 64-bit, EM64T, and PAE support
• Intel VT-x support
• AGP/DRM graphics

I’m particularly interested in the VT-x, which should enable us to boot any operating system virtually. Why? Cause the geek in me says it’s cool. And the new Intel Core Duo in the iMac (and probably MacBook Pro) have that extension. Yummy.

Google
… but who doesn’t? I think the public’s fascination and adoration for the G-team is because, like Arthur C. Clarke said, it is technology so good that it’s indistinguishable from magic. For the (and I hate this phrase) “average user”, Google just works, and it works wonders.

Put in my son’s name, and he pops up. Put in the name of the bakery down the street, and I get a map and phone number. Boot up Google Earth and I can see the whole darned planet. It does math, shows me where my packages are, finds area codes, tracks flights, searches printed books, tells me what movies are playing, gives me email, tells me the prices of things, shows me pictures, keeps me up to date on the important news, and it even predicts the weather. And it does it from my cell phone.

Magic, I tell ya.