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    July 09

    预测

    1年后,win7上市后,就会出现家用触摸屏lcd,这是电脑桌的设计要有所改变。也许客厅的茶几中央会放有触摸屏lcd。

    手机会有改变,大家走动要带着个一个大家伙像MID,像netbook,然后手机就是有蓝牙有键盘的耳机。离开那个大家伙10米开外就没了信号。

    June 28

    不怕它坏,就怕时好时坏!

    Xbox360坏了。

    死机伴花屏,第二次发作。周二用xbox看照片有过死机伴花屏,当时干脆关机休息。好了,这次又来了。

    IMG_3821

    著名的“死亡之环”,也是第二次出现,上次关机后重启就好了。这次好了先花屏死机,重启后又亮圆环环。

    IMG_3817

    但是不怕它坏,就怕时好时坏。 过一会儿,重启,踢了半小时球,ok,没问题。 唉!

    5-July

    好了,挂了,彻底挂了。

     18-July

    15日,打了电话报修,拿到一个order number,说过两个工作日后,拿主机来换。

    还好,主机一般问题保修三年,“三红”保三年。 我的主机一年3个月,如果他们检测出来不是“三红”要付出S$159。

    现在准备出门。

     18-July

    好了,换好机器了。 接下来的保修期:普通保三个月,三红还是原来的三年,但是是从第一个机器的购买日期算起。

    说说今天的换机过程。 中午坐地铁,按照报修电话里小姑娘给的地址找去,去funan digital life mall,要去#06-04,但是到了六楼只是看到数码产品大卖场,找不到。 找到了卖xbox游戏的帅哥问问,说就在对面。 然后绕过去,看了门牌号,对#06-04,怎么牌子写了service hub。 里面什么品牌都有,samsung,。。。ms的售后服务也外部。 里面人很少,只有一个客人。进门,帅哥就问什么事情。 说换xbox,和ms打过电话了,有order number。把xbox拿出来,帅哥,熟练的接过来,前面后面的封条看了一下,接着就拿扫描枪烧s/n。 旁边一个大叔就去里面搬了一台主机出来,和我说,这是直接ms发过来,然后插上电源,说全绿的。就交给我看。这时候帅哥就拿单子让我签字,看到产品型号是Falcon,这个大概就是单65的机器的型号。 我拿去的机器是2008-1生产的,这次拿到的是2008-11生产的。整个过程都没人问我机器什么问题,也没做测试,动作很快,10几分钟的事情。

    H1N1离我那么的近

    公司有人中招,昨天上午10点有人放出消息来说,刚从上周去美国出差的D老板半夜进医院了,早上说确认H1N1。说说D老板和我的接触关系。 我老板L在D回来后,和D聊过天,然后老板L天天在我们在一起,开会,看报告,还一起坐车出去吃饭。再说说另一条关系,D老板的手下老板K,周四上午和我们开了大约3小时的会,一直在会议室里。过了一会儿,消息越来越多,D老板的大办公室的全部人员,40多号人,回家隔离。后来老板K说要在家里工作,直达下周五。我老板L没有收到隔离通知,只是主动要求下午回家隔离。

    再看看后面的发展吧。 只要L和K没问题,我就没问题。。。

    H1N1病例统计:

    http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/default.aspx

    新加坡截止昨天有315个病例。

    2009-7-5 更新

    公司内没有出现新病例。 但是moh的政策变了。只有高危人群才(老人小孩孕妇,有其他疾病的人)才需要住院治疗,一般人只要去诊所,吃药(达菲),在家休息。不需要没例都做病毒检测,也没有隔离政策了。

     

    June 23

    三不:不统、不独、不武

    【转】

    三不:不统、不独、不武。

      首先说说不武。不武就是两岸不发生武装冲突,实质意思就是不给大陆武装犯台的理由和借口。

      其次不独。马英九的“不独”,就是不推“新宪法”或“台湾共和国”、“台湾国”。

      不独、不武是相辅相成的,是说给大陆人士听得。只要不越过“反分裂国家法”中的红线,大陆就没有犯台实质借口。当然从国际大环境及两岸目前发展状况看,只要台湾不独,我们真的就不要以武力相威胁,应以俄罗斯“车臣问题”为戒。

      第三、不统。这才是问题的实质,是说给台湾绿营以及美国和日本人听得。我们这里要讨论的就是如何破解马英九的“不统”。因为不论是美国人还是日本人它们希望的就是这个,“台独”实际上是在加速统一,台湾独立之日其实也是两岸统一之时。这是毫无疑问的,不是美国人、日本人所能左右的,我们不要只看美国人如何如何要协防台湾,美国人内心比谁都清楚“台独”恶果。美国人要的不是台湾独立,它们要的其实就是两岸不统。

    http://www.zaobao.com/special/forum/pages6/forum_tw080718e.shtml

    【评】

    中庸,可以更好的生存!

    拖,拖着,拖着就过去了!

    搞经济,赚钱赚钱。不用提心吊胆的,整天打不打,打不打的!

    June 06

    感冒了,全家感冒了。

    猪头最先出症状,上周一开始流鼻涕,周二去看医生。现在还没好。
    其他人就接二连三的出现喉咙痛症状。全家感冒了。
    May 30

    最近更新。

    猪头会走路了,对,就是这个星期。前两天只是走个2-3步,昨天今天突然可以从卧室走到厨房了,还能拐弯。现在猪头都懒的爬了。哈。

    妈妈的腿摔伤10天了,现在还没有半点恢复的迹象,周三就要去复诊了,不知道会怎样。

    May 22

    妈妈受伤了。

    前天下午,妈妈在卫生间洗衣服,走出来的时候左脚一滑,右脚就跪了下来。起初还没事,去了晾衣服。后来就痛了,腿弯不过来的,但是还能支撑。晚上看看,膝盖稍微有点肿。

    第二天,我陪妈妈去了医院,想拍x光看看,应该问题不大。 去了poly clinic (相当于社区医院), 挂号,9点多,看到医生11点多,然后去拍x光,说通常一个小时结果出来,结果被通知要晚一点,2点才能出结果。好了再去门诊,医生说:国大医院的医生说有轻微骨折,要转大医院的急症在转骨科,如果这里直接转要等2周。哈,还真是折腾啊,这个看病流程还真复杂。医生开了封信。我就和妈妈去了陈笃生医院。

    现在不是在防甲型流感吗,哦,这个厉害了,下出租车,到最后进入急诊部,量了3次体温。这次还好,没等多久就看到医生了。结果在polyclininc的x光片没带来好要去拍一遍。拍了,说可以去医生那里看结果吧,嘿,即拍即得。 医生调出照片,看了正面图,说膝盖上下的两根大骨头都没问题,侧面图,膝盖骨上面有两条黑黑的线,说这里有裂缝,骨折了,但不需要手术,打石膏就可以了。 好了,打石膏,开了点止疼药。后来医生还说去楼上买拐杖。最后,离开前,拿了两周后的骨科预约信。

    还好,妈妈的腿没什么大问题。

    看病感受:

    1,医生态度很好,会帮你开门。

    2,医院的路标很明确,即使是在施工的陈笃生医院。

    3,借用轮椅很方便,保安还帮忙收好。

    4,在陈笃生医院,发热急症那边,全部全副武装,非常紧张。

    5,最重要的,去poly看不了什么病,都不敢做诊断。看来,只有明确了诊断后,去打针开药开价条才能去那里。哈哈。

    April 19

    猪头吃的药物清单

    退烧:29-03-2009 (KK hospital)
    SUSPENSION HAMOL, pParacetamol B. P. , 120mg/5ml syrup , 5mls/6hours,100ml
    CHLORMINNE, Chlorpheniramine Maleate B. P. , 4mg/5ml syrup,1.3ml 3times a day, 100ml

    流口水,鼻塞,咳嗽:04-04-2009 (Baby Bear clinic)
    salbutamolsyr 2mg/5ml,60ml , 2ml 3times a day , for cough, chestiness and wheeze, 无色
    Cetrizine 1.25MG, SCMC75mg/5ml , 60ml, 2.5ml 2 times a day. For nose congestion,runny nose
    Singulair satchet, 4ml 7unit,For reduction of phlegm/anti-inflammation
    Dhatifen syr 100ml , 2.5ml 2 times a day. for reduction of phlegm

    流口水,咳嗽:11-04-2009 (Baby Bear clinic)
    Hilmalaya, Septilin syrup 100ml 2ml 3 times a day. Herbal supplement for inection fighting properties. Take for 7 days.
    Singulair satchet, 4ml 7unit
    继续吃4/4的药。

    April 11

    猪头病了

    猪头病了,第一次生病。

    大概三周前,发现口水特别多,以为是长牙齿,过了两天流鼻水还咳嗽,留个不停,也没在意。过了一周,到了29日星期天,中午睡觉起来,烫烫的,随口说了句热醒的。下午,外公说,太热了,发烧了,不过看猪头玩的还是蛮欢的,一量体温38.2C。 啊怪不得不肯吃糊糊。其实我和猪头妈妈也有点喉咙痛,应该是流感。  马上打点装备,直奔KK医院。到了医院,先是预检。量体温38度多,要给猪头吃斑纳多。小护士拿了针管往猪头嘴里挤,上来第一口,刚下去,没想到猪头吐了,连要和奶全出来了。紧张啊,药出不进去怎么办。休息了几分钟,再来。夹住手脚,按住头,护士眼疾手快往里送,还好,没吐。 接着就是排队,等,。。。等到了,碰到一个印度女医生。猪头哭着进去,还给医生看吹的很大的鼻涕泡泡,哈哈。和医生交流,累啊,英文差,还碰到印度人。 最后找了个护士帮忙,还好过去了。接着拿药付钱,80大洋的问诊费,没有药费。准备走了,发现小家伙的脸红红的,找到那个预检的小护士,说不是过敏。还好。还顺便量了体温,下来了。 回家。

    第一关过了,到家就是用斑纳多退烧,体温起起落落。到了周四才彻底退了,没有起来。但是咳嗽还是有。 周六带着阿宝去了 宝贝熊诊所,医生开了点咳嗽和鼻涕的药。

    吃了要,咳嗽好一点,鼻涕也好一点。 不过昨天10日,突然鼻涕变稠变绿了,晚上睡不好,今天早上今天又开始流口水了,奶奶还说抱着有点烫,嗓子还有点沙哑。算了,再去一次医院吧,免得发烧了又要去看急症。 再次来到 宝贝熊,张医生看到嗓子红,打算开抗生素,但是一听说,我和猪头妈妈都对青霉素过敏,就犯难了,给了一个印度药,叫Septilin Syrup。网上查了查,有给小孩用的,就放心给猪头吃了。

    看看这个药物吃了什么变化吧,医生说5天,咳嗽就会停了。等着看吧。

     

    可怜的猪头,刚出医院回来。

    IMG_3658

    去宝贝熊的巴士上。(下车还把手机给落车上了)

    04042009243

    February 28

    阿宝和大嘴鸟

      

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDhu0crsd1A

    拍摄于:2009年2月22日

    February 22

    Converting DVD Subtitles & AutoMKV for Xbox 360, Playstation 3

    http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2518DD508BB713E8!163.entry
    Converting DVD Subtitles & AutoMKV for Xbox 360, Playstation 3

    I decided to cover the topic of subtitles in a separate post from the AutoMKV H.264 movie encoding guide as I didn't want to over complicate it and subtitles do complicate things with both game consoles.

    First off neither the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 support external subtitles, you know the type the ones with the same name as the video. Those just wont work and there is nothing you can do about that.

    (Update: the PS3 now supports multiple srt subs in a .divx container but DivX do not support H.264 yet and external subs are unlikely to be supported with MP4 even if DivX goes H.264 as they will probably stick with their .divx container)

    However all is not lost as another type of subtitle does work which are burned in subtitles (often referred to as hard coded subs/hard subs/burned subs) this process takes the subtitles and integrates them directly into the container. These subtitles cannot be turned off so this makes them suitable for only certain projects.

    The one that I'm going to be focusing on is what's called forced subtitling, these are subs in English speaking movies usually from a scene were a foreign language is being spoken & the English translation is displayed on screen for the duration of the conversation. You of course want these in a movie were such occurrences happen & this is what I'll show in the guide below.

    Before we begin note that this process is not full proof, a lot of DVD's differ in how they handle forced subs & don't make it as easy to locate them (such as the subs not labeled as English) also the subtitles may not show when playing back on the computer (you need the right chain of software/settings installed) so always test on your game console first before writing off a finished movie.

    Also AutoMKV has a built in section for reading/ripping subtitles which I will come to but before doing that you need to ID the forced subtitles in the first place which incidentally is the hardest part of this process.

    *****************************************************************************************************************

    Step 1: We will be using AutoMKV of course but you will also need Vobsub installed so grab that.

    Step 2: Open explorer and navigate to \AutoMKV\exe\Subs\ inside this folder you will find a very handy program called VSrip which will rip the subtitles from any movie. So start VSrip and you will be presented with a screen like below.

    Step 3: Click on "Load IFO" to begin and point it to the .IFO file or the movie .vob files from the DVD (basically trial and error) if everything goes right VSrip will begin processing the files and say it has found subtitles.

    Step 4: Now set a location to save the subs and the next button will activate so click on that.

    Step 5: This screen shows us what subtitles were found and what ones are to be extracted so select the desired one just by highlighting it. Now the tricky part here is in discovering the English forced subtitles, some DVD's flag forced subs in which case the button for "Forced subtitles only" would work but a lot of them just don't do this**.

    The only thing to do here is to rip all the English ones and examine them in another piece of software to locate the forced ones so click next after selecting them all.

    (**Special case for forced subtitles only, some movies come without a separate subtitle set for forced subs only and instead set a flag within the regular subtitles that marks certain scenes as forced and to display the subtitles accordingly. The only way to splice the forced subs from the regular subs is to use the "Forced subtitles only" feature.)

    Step 6: It will now display a status of extracting the subtitles and once it is finished doing it click close to shut down the program.

    Step 7: Now go into your start menu program group and find the vobsub entry, inside it look for SubResync and run that program. You will have a screen like below, this software allows us to browse the subtitles and so locate the correct one which is forced.

    Step 8: In my test case here there are three English subtitles and when I click open and point it at the saved file extracted from VsRip it will display the number in the left hand side and in the main window the time stamps, if you click on any of the time stamps it will display the text from that time point in the movie.

    Step 9: By following the simple process of elimination I was able to determine that the third English subtitle set was the forced set from the movie. I could tell this because A) there were subtitles at very specific time stamps throughout the film not all the way through unlike the first two and B) they actually went to the trouble of coloring the forced subs a different color from the regular subtitles.

    Now my example above is only to give you the gist of what to look for in some cases you may find the subtitles incomplete, you know they are the correct ones but dialogue is missing - this is usually because the original file you opened in VSrip was not the correct one and opening up others may reveal the full forced subtitles.

    *****************************************************************************************************************

    This section will deal with encoding the subtitles through AutoMKV now that we have located the forced ones.

    Step 10: Start AutoMKV and click on advanced settings tab, you will have a screen like below, tick the box for "Burn Subtitle" (note if you are going to be using this a lot then click on save configuration otherwise it will not enable this every time you start AutoMKV though AutoMKV doesn't seem to auto load the saved config so double check every time you plan on doing this).

    Step 11: Load the movie .IFO into AutoMKV and it should list the subtitles available under "Subtitle Track 1". All you have to do is pick the correct one from the drop down box recalling the number/slot the correct subs occupied, AutoMKV will take care of everything during the encoding process.

    That's it your finished, proceed with the video encoding if all goes well the subtitles should display during playback.

    *****************************************************************************************************************

    My subtitles look crap or are squashed, just don't look right etc.

    This is a by-product of using the subtitles from a DVD which are called microDVD .sub files. These subtitles are of course intended for the original film and so when used with the re-encoded movie their position may be off or not look quite right on screen if the resolution of the movie has been changed in anyway (that applies if just cropping too).

    However we can do something about that and make the subtitles look nicer by converting them into another format called subrip .srt files. These look much nicer on screen and you should have no problems with size or placement but the fly in the ointment is that AutoMKV has no automated conversion from .sub to .srt which means we have to do it ourselves.

    Conversion can be done by many software packages but I will touch on two that do it, SubResync which we used for identifying the correct subtitles can also convert them & is rather easy to use, the other is a program called Subrip which is the better of the two as it better detects the correct time positions of the subtitles.

    I will demonstrate SubResync first as you should be familiar with it at this stage plus Subrip is a little more involved.

    All you have to do is load in the desired subtitles and click on "Save As" to begin.

    Now select subripper (*.srt) as the file type and save to a location.

    It will now flash up a window asking you to identify the letter or character on screen, do this for each one it asks by clicking on Add and it will convert the file into plane text inside an .srt file.

    Once it's done simply click on Exit to close the program. If you happen to make a mistake you can correct it by opening up the .srt file in notepad and just make the correction yourself, another way is to start again & to clear the image->letter database so it forgets everything you can see the tick box in the save window above under OCR Settings.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Now onto the same operation but done through Subrip, I recommend using Subrip as it seems more accurate than SubResync plus it supports a lot more features. Subrip is not just a converter though it is a ripper too. Below is the main screen of Subrip most of what you see can be ignored.

    A quick mention - in order to rip forced subtitles within a regular subtitle stream click on Options->Global Options then tick the box for "Forced Subtitles Only" like below. If your forced subtitles are in there own separate set then do not tick this box.

    Click File->Open VOB's and this will bring us to the subtitle ripping window. Also keep in mind Subrip as far as I know has no means of previewing subtitles from within a DVD so you will still have to go through the process of identifying the correct set. I will take time to explain all the options here as this is where you will be using them.

    OpenIFO & OpenDIR are for opening up the video-ts.ifo or .vob files from a movie as I commented on earlier not all DVD's are the same and it will basically come down to trial and error opening up the files to locate the subtitles. The language stream section contains the selection for whatever it finds so select the correct stream from within that.

    The Characters matrix file is essentially a data base of identifying the characters though unlike SubResync Subrip does it on a per-DVD basis instead of a global database so that is much easier to work with as if you make any mistakes just delete the matrix file you created for it.

    The blue jigsaw puzzle piece icon is for setting the output type and Subrip supports quite a lot of different types, you will want to select subrip (*.srt) from the list (though it can dynamically convert at any time into another format so this isn't set in stone)

    Now with all that out of the way load in your movie and click on start, it will display a window asking to identify the character on screen so do that and press OK to confirm your choice.

    Once it has finished you will have a screen like below showing the completed job at the bottom in it's own little sub-window.

    These here are all the tools you will need, the blue puzzle piece will allow you to select any type of output format and you can do all sorts of other things but for the most part just leave everything as is.

    Click on the floppy disk icon in order to save the current job and get our .srt file

    The bar will change to this below were you can alter the fonts if you so desire but there is nothing wrong with the defaults so I suggest leaving them as is. Just click on save to finish this task.

    That's it your done now all that's left to do is load in our .srt file into AutoMKV which is covered in the next section below as it happens :-)

    *****************************************************************************************************************

    Alternate manual subtitle burning method - this section deals with the scenario in that AutoMKV does not see the subtitle set for whatever reason in it's own user interface or you want to manually rip the subtitles convert into subrip .srt and load them into AutoMKV instead.

    Proceed with steps 1 - 9 as usual.

    Step 10: If keeping the subtitles in microDVD .idx/.sub form now that we have located the forced subs it is time to repeat the ripping process of VSrip and this time only select the desired subtitle set, once it is done we can start encoding our movie.

    or

    Step 10: Alternatively if you already have your own subtitle set such as a .srt subrip file proceed to the next step.

    Step 11: Start AutoMKV and click on advanced settings tab, you will have a screen like below, tick the box for "Burn Subtitle" (note if you are going to be using this a lot then click on save configuration otherwise it will not enable this every time you start AutoMKV though AutoMKV doesn't seem to auto load the saved config so double check every time you plan on doing this).

    Step 12: Now back on the main screen load in your movie like normal, look down at "Subtitle Track 1" and see the three !!! symbol click on that and point it to the location of the saved subtitles. If all goes well it will flash a prompt saying success of loading external subtitles. Be aware that it is normal for AutoMKV to not display any change in the subtitle field, it will still display NONE.

    Step 13: All that's left to do is add your job to the queue and hope everything goes well.

    *****************************************************************************************************************

    AAAAHHHHH help everything's gone wrong AutoMKV bombed at the last step and didn't make the movie.

    Step 14: Like I said this isn't full proof but there is no need to panic just yet if AutoMKV fails at the muxing stage which is where after the encoding is done it brings all the various pieces together into the final product then you have another option at your disposal. Go download YAMB which is a GUI for MP4box the same program AutoMKV uses but exposes no UI for.

    Start YAMB and on the creation tab double click on create MP4.

    You will have a screen like so below.

    Now click on add and look in the target location were the movie was supposed to be, there will be a Temp folder in there containing the bits of the movie AutoMKV worked on. Add movie.mp4 and audio.mp4 into the list and then browse to where the subs were saved and add those to. Now select a save location different to the default one as it will delete your movie.mp4 if left like that and click next. It will take a little while but if all goes well it will spit out a working MP4 with subs.

    That's all folks!

    P.S if someone has a better method I'm all ears, thankfully not too many movies have forced subs so you wont have to do this often.

    January 26

    猪头的近期事件跟新

    猪头可以扶着栏杆爬起来站了,所以小床的床板就放到底下了。

    猪头在外婆去姐姐那里后突然脸上长很大的疹子,和湿疹差不多,怀疑食物问题或者外婆和奶奶换班后还没适应。现在擦药后,好点了。

    猪头可以玩学步车了,但是产品建议一次不要超过30分钟,不利于小孩学走路。

    小家伙晚上挠头挠的厉害,现在又给他戴手套了,大年夜干脆又给他剃了光头,洗头擦润肤露方便。

    IMG_3527_CMT

    IMG_3547_CMT

    IMG_3578_cmt

    January 22

    猪头长牙了,第一颗

    今天上午给猪头洗澡,顺手骗开小嘴看看,下颚看到有白白的牙齿一样的,看看清楚,是牙齿,猪头的第一颗牙。

    后来想拍掰开嘴巴拍一下照片,这小子坚决不从,没办法,只能作罢,以后再拍吧。

    阿宝误闯开灯节

    1月3日,因为妈妈要去姐姐那里,想出去买点新加坡特产,随便逛逛牛车水(chinatown),所以全家人就出动了。一出地铁站感觉就是气氛不一样,保安警察特别多,不管三七二十一,跟着人流走,来到地面,人多啊,如果路上停下来看看,还会被保安赶。哈哈,原来年货市场开张了,正好买点东西。等买好东西往回走的时候,不对了,人太多了,还有好像前面的新桥路封了,想去看看究竟,这时候,大家在倒数3,2,1。还没我缓过神来,鞭炮响了,阿宝楞了,而且感觉越来越响,连忙捂住猪头的一个耳朵,往回走,但是好多人听到鞭炮声往前赶,我就和猪头躲到一个服装小店了,过了几分钟鞭炮才听下来。当即决定去裕华国货,钻地铁站去了马路对面,这时,开始舞狮舞龙了,我们也没驻足,随机进了裕华国货去买东西了。

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    December 31

    猪头的百态图。

    还在收集中,先上9张。

    canon134

    December 23

    民主建设不能妨碍经济发展

    民主建设不能妨碍经济发展

    来新加坡2年多了,经常看台湾电视台的新闻。这两天的头条跑不出阿扁的洗钱案,再想想,前面的倒扁,大选。。。 感觉台湾政治就是蓝绿大斗法,天天上演。但是经济呢?从阿扁挨枪之后每况愈下。。。 大陆的政治,在西方观点看来是不民主的,但是事实上,在现阶段,还是比较适合当前的经济基础的,现在大家关心的是保持社会稳定,经济稳步发展。(社会稳定的问题现在是蛮棘手的问题。)
    看看新加坡,虽然是多党制,但是实际上也是一党执政,表现蛮好。管国家,像是管企业,管理成本蛮高,效率也蛮高。

    台湾是为了追求民主政治,走入了怪圈,结果妨碍的经济发展。
    中国大陆,还没有时间去考虑民主建设,大胆预测,10年内会有一定变化,因为现在的腐败问题,不单单是法制问题,而是包含了很大的政治问题。
    而新加坡,李显龙的意思是建立多个政党对于这个小国家来说成本太高。

    December 01

    IC 50年了。

       50th anniversary of the IC - about the invention 

    50th anniversary of the IC - about the invention

    Creating the first integrated circuit
    Jack Kilby’s first working integrated circuit consisted of a transistor, several resistors, and a capacitor on a sliver of germanium less than half an inch long. It was a rough device by any standard. But as his oscilloscope screen showed, it worked.

    Kilby often remarked that if he’d known he’d be showing the first working integrated circuit for the next 40-plus years, he would’ve “prettied it up a little.”
    Successive generations of electrical engineers have done just that, while future generations will continue to push Jack’s original design even further.
    But what technological pieces had to fall into place by 1958 for Jack to turn his rough design from idea to reality?
    The door to advancements in semiconductor electronics had opened nine years earlier, when Bell Labs introduced the transistor.
    Bell’s transistor replaced big, expensive, fragile and power-hungry vacuum tubes. By the mid-1950s, they were making inroads into consumer products and military applications.
    Still, the transistor had its own disadvantages. Some applications required thousands of transistors to be hand-wired into circuits, with an equally large number of traditional components. The work was time-consuming, costly and jeopardized reliability.
    Another problem – what engineers called “the tyranny of numbers” – also existed. The sheer number of a system’s interconnected transistors and other devices prevented progress. Their size and weight often precluded their use in many devices, including airborne military applications. And if one component failed, the entire system could be compromised.
    Engineers worldwide hunted for a solution. TI mounted large-scale research efforts and recruited engineers from coast to coast, including Jack Kilby in 1958. At the time, TI was exploring a design called the “micromodule,” in which all the parts of a circuit were equal in size and shape. Kilby was skeptical, largely because it didn’t solve the basic problem: the number of transistor components.
    While his colleagues enjoyed a two-week summer hiatus, Kilby, a new TI employee without any accrued vacation time, worked alone on an alternative in his TI lab.
    TI had already spent millions developing machinery and techniques for working with silicon, so Kilby sought a way to fabricate all of the circuit’s components, including capacitors and resistors, with a monolithic block of the same material. He sketched a rough design of the first integrated circuit in his notebook on July 24, 1958.
    Two months passed before Kilby’s managers, preoccupied with pursuing the “micromodule” concept, gathered in Kilby’s office for the first successful demonstration of the integrated circuit.
    Kilby’s invention made obsolete the hand-soldering of thousands of components, while allowing for Henry Ford-style mass production.
    Although the semiconductor industry initially greeted the integrated circuit with skepticism, the U.S. military’s use of the chip in airborne computers in the 1960s firmly positioned the technology as the new backbone of electronics systems.
    And the rest is history. The impact Kilby’s invention has made in solving some of the world’s key problems is immeasurable.

    http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/tihistory_subpage1.shtml

    http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/tihistory_subpage3.shtml