Semiconductor [Manufacturing] Magazine is changing the accessibility of articles on their web site. At least for the time being, I'll be republishing my articles for the magazine in the Featured Articles section after a suitable delay.

I've been tweaking a number of things this afternoon, including updating the Publications and putting up an article on failure analysis for integrated circuits. Enjoy!

1500 words yesterday, including some good insight into what makes my bad guy tick. 102,435 since January 1.

Only 1350 words since my last update. Life happens, and didn't involve writing the last few days. Still, 100,935 since January 1.

Some industry experts have been skeptical about Moore's Law recently, arguing that the costs of leading edge technologies will force device improvement to level off. I've even taken a few shots at the venerable observation myself. IBM, meanwhile, expects another six orders of magnitude improvement, thanks to a variety of post-silicon technologies.

Interesting article on Paul Graham's site, about how hackers, painters, and other makers have more in common with each other than with experimentalists and theoreticians. Along the way, he makes a lot of good points about the creative process, learning by doing, and the importance of an artist's (or hacker's, or writer's) sketchbook.

American culture is sweeping the world, reducing global diversity to a numbing sameness. Well, not exactly. You can buy McDonald's burgers in Tokyo, it's true, but you can also buy sushi in suburban America.

Recent research suggests that women own nearly half of American businesses, and one in eleven American women is a business owner. As with American businesses in general, most are very small, with only 4.3% having revenues of a million dollars a year or more.

Plugging along. 2700 words since my last update, 99,585 since January 1. I'll probably crack 100K today. Hooray!