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It's funny. Laugh. Hardware

CES 2008 Hall of Shame 179

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the natural-financial-selection dept.
Romana Reynolds writes "The CES 2008 Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Showcase honored the Atom Chip Corporation, which was exhibiting the same 100GB, 500GB, and 1TB 'quantum optical' memory chips back in 2006. We actually wandered by, but long gone are the 'SolarMemory' chips, and he didn't know anything about Duke Nuk'em Forever. A little easy digging shows that they'd been making the same extraordinary claims and exhibiting prototypes at CES during the past three years, long enough to make 'atom chip hoax' the fourth suggestion on typing 'atom chip' into Google. I'm amused that the 'preeminent' panel of judges failed their vetting and gatekeeping functions. But I fear that Atom Chip will gather investors based on their recognition at CES, and continue in the game for many years to come, while honors at CES become a Hall of Shame."
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CES 2008 Hall of Shame More

CES 2008 Hall of Shame

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  • The "atom chip" Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by AltGrendel ( 175092 ) <`su.0tixe' `ta' `todhsals-ga'> on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:03PM (#22040462) Homepage
    Aren't they going to use that in the Phantom console [wikipedia.org]?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trogre ( 513942 )
      I don't know, but I hope they include a Bitboys Glaze3D to get the best performance.

    • How many minutes was spent producing this report? It looks like maybe 5 at the most. Links to articles written years ago should have been updated. The article states they even walked to the booth but nothing was written about the visit. I would think that it would be the easiest thing to disprove. Just bring a external hard drive with movies on it and ask whoever is at the booth to transfer those movies onto the memory chips. After the hard drive is removed than just ask whoever to play those movies.

  • 'Quantum optical'??? (Score:3, Funny)

    by morgan_greywolf ( 835522 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:05PM (#22040502) Homepage Journal
    Quantum optical? C'mon, is it just me or doesn't that just sound like they made that up after watching a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon on Spike?

  • No! I won't belive it! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I well expect to get that $10k I invested into atom chip back, with excellent interest.

    Yes, I know that my $10k investment is only worth $5 now, but that's just the cost of R&D, it'll come back! ...
    It's not coming back, is it?

  • Corporate Image (Score:5, Informative)

    by FalconZero ( 607567 ) * <FalconZero@Gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:12PM (#22040670)
    Wow, with a website as slick as theirs [atomchip.com], I wonder if they made their show posters with crayons?

    Seriously though, if their intention is to promote snake oil in the hopes of attracting investors then the least they could do is put more than an hour of effort into what is pretty much (at least in this industry) the primary corporate representation.

    At least they didn't create it in Word. Now that would have really irked me....

    Incidentally, I did a little digging on this, and it seems its owned by a Russin Scientist called Shimon Gendlin (based out of Long Island), who as per information here [findarticles.com] in 1997 owned two companies both pitching along a simmilar theme :
    • SVG Israel New Technology, Ltd. (President)
    • Compu-Technics (Chairman of the board)

    • Re:Corporate Image (Score:5, Insightful)

      by yakumo.unr ( 833476 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:20PM (#22040876) Homepage
      I particularly like the way they've photographed an SD card and GIMPed it into their 'product' but not mentioned anything about it being concept art or anything too.
      • Their "gold-plated audio connector" form factor for RAM is very nice, too. And the storage devices with built-in LCD display that shows how much space they have left. I sure hope that display can interpret file systems besides FAR32 and NTFS... I also very much like the USB card reader that has a similar display and doesn't look badly photoshopped at all. Nooo, sir, it looks entirely real!

        Truly one of the most outstanding companies ever! I mean, it certainly does stand out...

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Hal_Porter ( 817932 )

          And the storage devices with built-in LCD display that shows how much space they have left. I sure hope that display can interpret file systems besides FAR32 and NTFS

          There is a real product that does this, and I spent far too much time figuring out how to make an E Ink fuel gauge work on all know file systems -

          http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=417786&cid=22048494 [slashdot.org]

          That said if I were making a flash drive with a fuel gauge, I'd only support the FAT variant it was pre-formatted with. Anything else will lead to ruinous support costs. There's a subtle device cost issue too - if you hardwire it to only support FAT you can reduce the amount of Ram the code in th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by slamb ( 119285 ) *

        I particularly like the way they've photographed an SD card and GIMPed it into their 'product' but not mentioned anything about it being concept art or anything too.

        I attended CES 2005 and saw their booth. You're wrong; this is not a Photoshop/GIMP job. They actually took SD cards and physically stuck things (labels and optical things) on them. I was tempted to ask for a demonstration, but I was afraid to let them plug anything into my laptop.

        • Ok, they may well have produced a mock up, but the one pictured on the website is definitely a photochop (sic) job. look at the hard 1 pixel, anti-alias free lines, and inconsistent shadowing for an easy start.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by slamb ( 119285 ) *
            Ooh, I see what you mean now. Yeah, some of those are clearly altered.

            (BTW, I misspoke; I was at CES 2006, not 2005.)

    • Can we send them the Worst Website Ever award from Slashdot?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by I8TheWorm ( 645702 ) *
      It seems they've removed the following line from their page source

      <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">

      Only more laughable is their "Stationary adapter, which is connected to the optical fiber and electrical cables" shown here

      http://atomchip.com/db4/00366/atomchip.com/_uimages/256Mx61.jpg [atomchip.com]

      which looks deceptively like an 1/8" stereo connector.

    • Re:Corporate Image (Score:5, Interesting)

      by FalconZero ( 607567 ) * <FalconZero@Gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:30PM (#22041072)
      I just found my favourite part. This [atomchip.com] page has details of their "NvIOpRAM 24GB-128GB" (whatever that is), however the key to the diagram states that part 2 (as indicated several times on the diagram) is an 'optical lens' when it is quite clearly the end (and third contact) of a 3.5mm audio jack (as should be obvious to anyone who has ever used any form of personal audio).
      • And they have the Photoshopping skills of a Nigerian scammer.

        My favorite is the picture on the very bottom of the page you linked [atomchip.com], showing the "small display on the physical hardware itself".

      • Re:Corporate Image (Score:4, Insightful)

        by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Monday January 14, 2008 @05:39PM (#22042304) Homepage Journal
        The whole site is a lot of bullshit, but that connector isn't the best example. There is a Toslink connector that is socket-compatible with the old 3.5mm headphone jack (images [google.com]).

        Hybrid female connectors are common on Apple products that support both Toslink and analog audio. I've never seen a hybrid male, but it only stands to reason that someone would make one.

        -Peter

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by pev ( 2186 )
          Re: 3.5mm jacks with optical digital ; it's not whether people *will* make them or not - I've got a portable Sony MD Recorder from about 8 years ago that I still use that has this kind of connector and I have the requisite cable too. Very handy!

          ~Pev
      • the key to the diagram states that part 2 (as indicated several times on the diagram) is an 'optical lens' when it is quite clearly the end (and third contact) of a 3.5mm audio jack

        Perhaps the ring and sleeve portions of the connector are based on the 3.5mm audio connector, but the copper 'tip' has been replaced with a TOSlink-type fiber optic coupler?

        Yeah, it's ALL shady vaporware garbage, but I'm not so sure they've been caught in a blatant and intentional lie there.
    • I wonder how Seagate (who, if I am not mistaken are the present owners of Quantum's disk drive business) or Quantum feel about the use of the word "Quantum" on the "Combo Card"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jimicus ( 737525 )
      Particularly interesting is the number of awards they've won. Considering they don't appear to have a product, it just shows how easy it is to fool the people who make these awards.
    • At least it's better than their old site [archive.org].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kd5ujz ( 640580 )
      No, using word to write the website would require too much work, this guy used FCKeditor, a web based HTML editor.
  • Unfortunately, the rate at which fools part their money to other fools is astonishing.
    • I'm not sure I would describe the person who ends up with all the money (and gets away with it) as a fool.
  • Ya think there are enough links in that story? I could be convinced that this technology isn't going anywhere without separate links to "Hall" and "Shame"!

    Anyway, as long as we're heaping ridicule on gullible technoidiots who keep falling for the same hype year after year, how did 2007's "Possible Cure For Cancer!" stories here ultimately pan out? Can I take up smoking yet?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Surt ( 22457 )
      I would say the odds are pretty favorable that if you take up smoking now, the cure will be available for you in time. Still, you may not want to take this risk, and also, you'll smell bad.

  • Panel of Judges (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WyrdOne ( 96731 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:39PM (#22041226)
    Hmm lets see, about 1/2 the Panel is made up of CEO's and Prisident/Founders of various businesses. People so far removed from the technology they work in they probably couldn't tell you how their own products actually work.

    Most of the other half are made up of Salesmen, Journalists, Evangelists and Marketing agents. People who don't know the right end of a lightbulb usually.

    I saw maybe 2-3 people in that whole list that *might* have a clue about how technology works.

    CES needs to get a new panel of judges who know their stuff. Maybe get some leading professors in the field to come judge? How about senior product "Engineers", you know the people actually making the stuff that ends up in CES?
    • It appears to me that they have proven that they will give out excellence awards to just about anyone, no matter how utterly stupid their claims are. I mean, that company has been showing off their vaporware since what, 2005? Virtually unchanged, too. Letting them in is a bit of an embarassment, but giving them an award?

      They couldn't have made bigger clowns of themselves by coming to CES wearing clown noses, red wigs, very large shoes and nothing else.
  • Why else would they have monetized (read:fake search page) their previous company web site [compu-technics.com]? No content, just a nice money grubbing content free website.

    Maybe because with that site being linked from all over the web, they're going to rake in a carload of money?

  • Mmm... Atom Chips... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FlyingSquidStudios ( 1031284 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:42PM (#22041290)
    Atom chips go great with quarkamole.



    Thank you, I'll be here all week! Support your bartender!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yes, but to make really good quarkamole, you need 6.022x10^23 avogadros.
      • god, that almost gave me a stroke from the sudden flash of nostalgic scenes involving one of the more insane, and yet great, chemistry teachers I had ever had =D

  • A display on a memory chip? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fuocoZERO ( 1008261 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @04:54PM (#22041516) Journal
    This page [atomchip.com] suggests that the memory devices they are creating have a small display to show the free space on the chip. Wouldn't this suggest that they are making these chips filesystem aware and able to read free space? Adds to the bogus factor... not to mention the 3rd grade quality of their site...
    • It's not file system aware.

      When you run the file system on your pc computer, it opens the quantum disk and reads to the LCD on the side for automatic update! Thank you. [Buy Now]

    • Re:A display on a memory chip? (Score:4, Funny)

      by poot_rootbeer ( 188613 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @06:14PM (#22042992)
      This page suggests that the memory devices they are creating have a small display to show the free space on the chip. Wouldn't this suggest that they are making these chips filesystem aware and able to read free space?

      Nah, they just treat every memory cell storing a 1 as "used", and every cell storing a 0 as "free".

      That calculation's much easier to do with the modest computing power of a USB stick than actual filesystem awareness would be.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by keeboo ( 724305 )
      Look more carefully at the pictures at the bottom of that page [atomchip.com].
      Looks so real I'm speechless.
    • Not to mention that they have no moving parts. How exciting is that! A microchip with no moving parts!

      If you want to read something really baffling, check out their solar chip page here [atomchip.com].

  • WHOIS Record (Score:5, Informative)

    by computer_guy57 ( 998179 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @05:28PM (#22042038)
    Their WHOIS record shows the registrant as "Domain Discreet," and their contact email as random-jumble-of-letters@domaindiscreet.com. If that doesn't scream "hoax" (kinda like everything else about them), then I don't know what does.

  • No real surprise here. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Telecommando ( 513768 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @05:32PM (#22042148)
    CES is and always has been more about marketing and hype than any actual innovation.
  • ...coz it's all "Patent Panding!"

    • Not just Panding! Grantid, too. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by zippthorne ( 748122 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @06:12PM (#22042948) Journal
      They appear to have actually achieved at least one patent. Their news page [atomchip.com] contains a link to a description of "quantum technology" [delphion.com] Which appears to be an abstract consisting of a jumble of barely related words, a reference to an otherwise unknown "Gendlin effect." [google.com] and a child's sketch of a design for magnetic core memory.

      However a google patents search uncovers an actual patent! [google.com] Which is basically the same, but with more child's sketches, such as one of a transistor, and a page that appears to be practice isometric drawings, and several pages of black & white photoshop cloud noise renderings.

  • Blocked AtomChip.com (Score:4, Interesting)

    by StickyWidget ( 741415 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @06:03PM (#22042768)
    It's gotta be a hoax, Websense is blocking it.

    Or porn. Or Liberal Propaganda. I'm just not sure these days.

    ~Sticky

  • Did anyone else notice his "Gold Oscar" award from Europe?

    • Did anyone else notice his "Gold Oscar" award from Europe?

      Yes - that one is partially believable. You'd have to be a good actor to keep a straight face while demo'ing this crap.

  • What a bunch of idiots (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Monday January 14, 2008 @08:22PM (#22044546) Journal
    Check this out on their website:
    http://atomchip.com/_wsn/page4.html [atomchip.com]
    Welcome to the World of Nanomicrons and Beyond!

    wtf is a nanomicron?
  • The Atom Chip website has changed a lot since I first saw it, the only constant seeming to be the slogan about nanomicrons (femtometres?). "Back in the day", their website's images were mostly HTML-resized giganto-pics, but if you trudged through it, you found an absolute gem. They've taken it down for obvious reasons, but the Internet Archive still has the classic, the unforgettable, Solar Memory demo video [archive.org].

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