Words today: 1500. Since April 1: 24,600.

All non-fiction today. Working on my next article for Semiconductor Magazine. After staring at the blank page for most of the day, I suddenly cut loose and wrote the above 1500 words in less than two hours. Go figure.

A group calling itself Digital Consumer.org has proposed a Bill of Rights for Digital Consumers. It's dedicated to the proposition that people who have legally acquired digital content should be able to watch, read, or listen to it whenever, wherever, and however they want. Their site offers rather less information about the organization than I would like, but it has lots of good information about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and other assaults on consumer fair use rights.

Found a link to this page from Keri Bas's Brain Flotsam weblog. Thanks for the link, Keri, and welcome!

The Blogdex page has caught up with my site changes and is now crawling this page instead of the Blogger pages. Now to see how long it takes other web links to find the update. (And a reminder to update your links and/or bookmarks if you are a regular visitor.)

600 words yesterday. 23,100 words since April 1.

The Nothing but the Truth blog translates a German-language blog's commentary on the school shooting in Germany last week. Both sites quote John Lennon:

"The reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up."

Makes sense to me. Whatever their other virtues, television sets, computer games, and Internet links aren't very good at raising children. That's what parents are supposed to be for.

Derek Lowe pitches no-hitter for Boston Red Sox, the first at Fenway Park since 1965. Red Sox beat Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 10-0.

Words yesterday: 1200. Since April 1: 22,500.

Finished up a funny little short that I'm pretty happy with. Explorer encounters Ent-like beings on a supposedly uninhabited planet. Nice break from the Venice project.

Yesterday's words: 900. Since April 1: 21,300.

An article in the Financial Times deconstructs the Micron-Hynix agreement announced on Monday. The US$3.4 billion deal is a bitter disappointment for Hynix's many creditors, who would recover only a small fraction of their investment while pouring an additional US$1.5 billion into the memory concern.

Meanwhile, an article in the San Jose Mercury News predicts that the next wave of memory consolidation may sweep through Taiwan, as the island's smaller producers run for shelter in the face of Micron-Hynix's 40% combined market share.

Memory prices have been rising for several months, thanks to both increased demand and anticipated consolidation. Analysts expect the Micron-Hynix combination will have more pricing power than either company alone.

Wednesday's words: 1950. Since April 1: 20,400. I'm getting within shouting distance of 1000 words per day. My goal of 2000 per is still a long way away, but I like the way the average is starting to climb.

I'm improving my words per hour, too, which is really good. That means it's taking less time to kick start the Muse, and probably means my unconscious is doing more in the background while I work on other things.

Elmo went to Washington this week to lobby for more money for music in schools. Okay, so it doesn't have much to do with thin film technology, but I've always been a sucker for Muppets. Besides, I agree with him. The standardized testing-driven focus on basics is important--sub-literate graduates are a national disgrace--but creative pursuits like music are important, too. Not just because the arts are "enriching," but because innovation in any field depends on the ability to jump from what is to what might be.

Yesterday's words: 750. Since April 1: 18,450.

Today's words: 2025. Since April 1: 17,700.

A mixed bag today, some good and some bad, some that fit existing projects and some that don't. I tend to write in very non-linear 600-900 word chunks, and I tend to work on multiple projects at once. It's difficult for me to measure forward progress on any one project until it gets beyond the first draft stage and I start pulling those chunks together.

Looking for more links? The Around the Web page on this site collects links to useful technical and business references, plus humor and other miscellania.

They still have a long way to go, but Micron's negotiations to buy Hynix Semiconductor's memory operations took a big step forward today. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding laying out the terms of a possible sale. The MOU is non-binding, with an actual sale subject to negotiation of a definitive agreement and approvals from a number of parties.

Not a good weekend for writing, but I did clear the decks and do a lot of priority shifting. Hopefully setting myself up for a more productive week this week.

600 words Saturday, 750 yesterday, giving me a total of 15,675 since April 1.

From the mailbag:
Dow Corning announced a polyimide coating for OLEDs. The coating is intended to protect wearable and portable devices from temperature, wear, and corrosion.

Taiwan is developing a significant semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure to go with its chip manufacturing facilities. Eternal Chemical claims it nearly 40% of the world's photoresist in 2001. One-third of production was sold outside Taiwan, mostly under the brand names of more familiar resist suppliers.

And one final test to make sure weblogs.com is getting pinged properly.

There. Everything seems to work.

I've finally gotten fed up with Blogger's quirks, and have moved the blog to Movable Type. Wish me luck.

If you were a regular reader of the previous page, you may want to update your links and/or bookmarks. All existing links should continue to work, however.

Testing template changes.

First entry. Testing Movable Type.