Who needs science fiction when this is science fact? - A collaborative team from the University of Southamptom, UK and Kobe, Japan have built a robot that is moved by a large slime mold's fears. The Physarum polycephalum slime, which naturally shies away from light, controls the robot's movement so that it too keeps out of light and seeks out dark places in which to hide itself. To quote Bart Simpson, "Aye carumba!" If that's not incentive to keep the bathtub clean, I don't know what is!

Run Schroedinger's Cat, Run - Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced a quantum computer program that produces an answer without actually running. How in the world do they do it? Well, they send a photon into a system of mirrors and other optical devices, which includes a set of components that run a simple database search by changing the properties of the photon. The best part? "A non-running computer produces fewer errors," says Onur Hosten, a member of the design team. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

And it's not only true for computers - If you're trying to solve a difficult problem, sometimes the best thing you can do is stop thinking about it and let instinct take over. This phenomena has been most recently documented in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink. Blink is about rapid cognition -- the two-second glance that knows the right answer in an instant, about knowing but not necessarily knowing why.

Need a Speaker for an Upcoming Event? - We love public speaking and are happy to deliver inspiring messages focused on business success with information technology. Call us at (734) 665-1847 to schedule your next event. Look here for our current speaking engagements and a list of some topics that we've spoken about in the past.  Rich's current favorite is speaking about Thomas Freidman's book, The World is Flat. Check it out!

Some things are just too fun not to share - Thinking about doing a little redecorating this Spring? Well, check out these paint jobs. They're the work of artist Felice Varini, an artist who works in the media of Architectural Space. Unbelievable.

Menlo's Free Seminar on Software Development Techniques - It's the start of a new year. Before you embark on the next major software development initiative, learn the secrets that can ensure its success. Come to our next free 90 minute "Taste of Success" seminar focused on High-Tech Anthropology^®. Our approach will show you techniques for creating the right software for the right application.  We encourage you to share your software development war stories so we can all learn from them.  See you on May 18!

Want to get on the Internet? Here...stand on this. - Need a crucial bit of info from the 'net, but can't find a local hotspot to get online? Well a smart little startup named Webaroo is busy riding to your rescue. No, they aren't creating more Internet hotspots, but they have proposed a way to search the Internet without a connection to the Internet. Confused yet? Good. The theory is that since most people rarely look beyond the first 10 to 20 results returned by a typical search, that's all that needs to be pre-loaded to enable most people to search without a live Internet connection. 

Maybe Somebody Should Layoff HAL - No one ever wants to lose their job, but how'd you like to lose yours due to a computer glitch?  That's exactly what's happened in northwest Indiana, where a house erroneously valued at $400 million is being blamed for budget shortfalls and possible layoffs in municipalities and school districts. The cause? It's believed that an outside user of the system may have accidentally changed the value of the Valparaiso house while attempting to retrieve a real estate record. The house had been valued at $121,900 before the glitch. Ouch!

Smart ways to Spend a few Days this Spring   - Spring has sprung, so now is the time to sign up for a Menlo class and plant some fresh ideas in your gray matter.  The good news? The Menlo 2006 class schedule is out! Now you have no excuse not to learn the real secrets of software success.