As I read through the article (I know, I've already violated Slashdot's law, but anyway), I couldn't help but go back to this whole idea of 'under-the-hood performance.' Cars built today don't necessarily have to have the 400 cubic inch plants and 500 horsepower that they sometimes had in the 60's. Engines are half that size and half the horsepower, but because they're designed better, it doesn't matter. (Although I'd love a 500 hp engine anyway.)

As well, continuing the car analog, just because there are still some cars with 500 horsepower engines made today, it doesn't mean everyone needs one. There are plenty of tiny cars doing just fine thankyou
This article suggests that because we're not using giant oversized processors in our iPods and cellphones, that somehow we've violated Moore's law. All it really means is that putting a Ferrari engine in golfcart is pointless.

This reminds me of something I've read about when the Beatles were recording. The recording equipment at the time was primitive, and because of the layering found in a lot of their music, they were regularly doing bounce-downs on their 4 track recorders to free up the other three tracks to add more to the mix.

But of course that creates analog generation loss, which unsurprisingly annoyed their recording engineers, but John, Paul, George, and Ringo all liked the 'shimmer' sound that it created in their music.

Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV

This has to be the single greatest slashdot headline I've ever read.... research performed on two seemingly unrelated things combined into one project. Cue bad jokes about what television shows those with 'no personalities' must enjoy.