The Menlo Briefs from Menlo Innovations. Visit us online at MenloInnovations.com.

Are You Suffering from "Mouse Rage?" - Imagine yourself in this situation: You hit a web page that's slow-loading. Full of pop-ups and ads. Difficult to navigate. Or worse yet, after waiting for what feels like forever for the page to load you hit the dreaded 404: page not found error. You start to sweat. Your heart starts to race. You furiously click your mouse until you're ready to -- or actually do -- slam it on the table in frustration. What the heck is going on here? It's called Mouse Rage Syndrome and according to this article, "It's primarily caused by badly designed and hosted Web sites."

All Digital, All the Time -

The Netherlands ended transmission of "free to air" analog television on December 11th, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals. Apparently few citizens of the nation actually noticed as the majority receive their television broadcasts via cable television. According to the article only about 74,000 households still depended on old fashioned TV antennas. The United States has targeted this same type of switch from analog to digital broadcasts for 2009.

Nice 'Do, Dude - According to a study sponsored by Merck and conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, over half of more than 2,000 balding men surveyed said that they would trade something from their collection of consumer electronics for more hair on their head.

Life in the Funny Papers - A friend of mine has a quote in the signature of her e-mails that always strikes a bittersweet chord with me: Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.' Charles Schulz wasn't talking about the IT Industry when he wrote it, but he might as well have been. Nearly all companies have failed investments in software initiatives--many in the six and seven figure range! The good news is that the leading causes of these failures can be avoided by applying Menlo's High-Tech Anthropology^® practice. Join us for the first FREE 90-minute presentation of the New Year on January 18th to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

Next Time Just Brush Up Your Resume - Yung-Hsun Lin was a computer administrator at Medco Health Solutions who -- like many folks -- was upset at the prospect of losing his job in a round of layoffs. So what did he do? He planted a "logic bomb" in the company's computers that could have wiped out data on more than 70 servers and possibly harmed a large number of patients as one of the targeted databases tracked patient-specific drug interaction data. Even after surviving the layoffs he kept the code and continued tinkering with it. Fortunately the company found and disabled it before it could cause any damage.

Usability Bloopers in the Movies - Dr. Jakob Nielsen is a human-computer interaction specialist from Denmark and he has compiled an important list: Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers. Why should we care about misrepresentations or mistakes with usability? Dr. Nielsen makes two important points: 1) "Research funding and management expectations are subtly biased by the incessant emphasis on unrealistic UI design such as voice, 3D, avatars, and AI," and 2) "users blame themselves when they can't use technology." Check it out.

Time to Look Under the Covers

- Did you just get a shiny new MacBook Pro for Christmas? Well then this one's for you. January has been set as the "Month of Apple Bugs" by "LMH" (the online alias for a security researcher who has asked to "be identified only by his online alias") and Kevin Finisterre, a researcher who has reported numerous bugs to Apple over the past few years. The month-long project will feature previously undocumented security holes in Apple's OS X operating system or in Apple applications that run on top of it.

The Most Radical Changes are Sometimes The Most Basic - A Standish Group study revealed that over two thirds of all software projects experience major problems and over one quarter outright fail. Building great software shouldn’t be this hard. Ironically, the best answers lie in building truly agile teams. Join us on January 15^th for a special session of Agile Explained lead by Menlo's President & CEO Richard Sheridan. Menlo Briefs subscribers can save 10% off the cost of registration by entering the discount code RS121810P during registration.

A $150 Laptop? - Can a company that shuns Microsoft, Intel, and AMD successfully create a laptop? Lite Appliances thinks so. Most of the pieces of the laptop have been already been developed and the firm hopes to have it's "LiteComputer" ready by mid-2007.

Bummer of a Birthmark, Hal - According to this article, "Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin has stated that Windows Vista's new security features are so strong that antivirus software is no longer necessary." Sounds to us like someone just painted a bull's-eye on their shiny new operating system. [Case in point: Vista Security Flaws Investigated from The Seattle Times.]

We're Passionate About What We Do - "Good communication should be as stimulating as a strong cup of coffee and just as hard to sleep after." (Ann Morrow Lindberg said that and we agree!) Menlo is filled with passionate, enthusiastic people who only love one thing more than the work they do: sharing that passion with others. We love public speaking and are thrilled to have the opportunity to share inspiring messages focused on business success. Look here for our current speaking engagements and a list of some topics that we've spoken about in the past. Call us today at (734)665-1847 to book your next event.

It Wouldn't Be The Menlo Briefs without a Cool Robot or Two - We've talked about "snake-bots" before, but not one like this. This surgical snake crawls down your throat to enable doctors to operate in a very tight space, making incisions and sutures without invasive procedures. Another robot - "the steady hand" - helps correct for small tremors in the surgeons hands that occur while performing microsurgery. In early tests it has been used to inject liquid into a chicken embryo's blood vessels, which resemble structures in the human eye. Before they are used on human patients, both the snake-like robot and the steady-hand system will require perhaps five more years of lab testing and prototype advancement.

Where to Go When the Weather Turns Cold? - Menlo of course! We'll give you ideas to set your business on fire. The class schedule is out for 2007 -- check it out! Looking forward, we'll be featuring Agile Project Management in March. This is a great course for any project manager who's looking to expand their skills and get a jump on earning those PDUs for maintaining their certification. The two-day course earns you 16 PDUs and you'll walk away energized after an unforgettable learning experience. Come join us! Menlo Briefs subscribers can save 10% off the cost of registration by entering the discount code RS121810P during registration.

Safer Driving for Wheelchair Users - According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 35 percent of all automobile fatalities related to wheelchairs result from inadequately secured chairs. Currently, motorists are forced to use cumbersome, bolt-in attachments that typically require heavy modifications to the car in order to operate. A new system -- the Automatic Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS) -- however, uses remote controls, wireless technologies, and "lasers" to assist drivers into a standard seat, roll their wheelchair "autonomously" to the loading dock, and close up the rear door, all while the user is seated in the driver's seat. It is scheduled to go on sale next Spring.

A Thing of Beauty - Yearnin' for the vehicle of your youth, but lamenting that there just wasn't enough horse power under the hood? Well take a look here at a 1962 VW "hippy van" that's been re-outfitted as a dragster. According to the article it now sports "a mid-engine blown 355 small-block, 310 louvers, and an outrageous 7-inch chop." I should have put that on my holiday wish list...