Newsletter

How Many Pieces of Spam Did You Receive Today? - Reuters reports that 9 out of 10 pieces of e-mail are now spam. About 200 illegal gangs are behind 80 percent of unwanted e-mails, according to Spamhaus, a body that tracks the problem. The gangs send millions of e-mails, so they only need a fraction of people to reply to make a profit. "The products they are selling by spam are exactly the same products that they sold in the Middle Ages," said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm Trend Micro. "This really is a human problem, not a computer problem."

Can Wi-Fi Make You Sick? - Author Kate Figes, spent hundreds of pounds installing wireless internet in her Stoke Newington home, then found it made her so ill she had to scrap it. Moreover, she even states that she is so sensitive to 802.11 radiation that "she can instantly tell whether it is installed in a particular room."

Zune? Vista? There can be only one! - On your system, that is. In what may turn out to be the blunder of the decade, according to an official Zune support document it seems that Microsoft's new Zune player isn't supported by its ultra new operating system Vista. No word yet on how it will handle the iPod.

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 a FREE 90-minute presentation on December 21st to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

Get a (Second) Life - Seven years ago, Philip Rosedale left an executive position at RealNetworks to launch a 3-D world where groups of people could gather “to realize their dreams and ideas.” The result was Second Life, where real people meet to live....well...second (virtual) lives. But it's also more than that, it's a place where you can spend and earn money. There are at least 3,000 entrepreneurs making $20,000 or more a year on Second Life businesses.

A Little Free Fun This Season - Send a text message to our fearless friends Google (46645) for for example -- such as “chiropractor dallas tx.” -- and seconds later you'll get a return message from Google, complete with the name, address, and phone number. It can also fetch the weather, stock reports, movie times, and so on. [Note: Your cell phone plan may charge a per text message fee, but Google charges no additional fee for these services.] This article also features other freebies for your cell phone. Check it out next time you have a little "free" time.

It's Not Quite a Free But... - Microsoft is offering a free fully licensed copy of its new operating system Vista Business and Office Professional 2007 in exchange for sitting through three webcasts and answering some questions. More information can be found at PowerTogether.com.

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 December 14th 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 RS112910P during registration.

We Always Knew It - Michigan.gov -- the official website of the Michigan government -- got top marks in a survey conducted by the National Policy Research Council (NPRC), a Washington-based think tank, in collaboration with Computerworld. The site was compared against 11,227 official government Web sites, judged on 25 criteria. Michigan has made over 300 services available on its website, many of which are widely used.

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.

Eco-Friendly Storage - Sainul Abideen of the Muslim Educational Society Engineering College claims to have invented an eco-friendly, paper-based storage system capable of compacting 90 to 450GB on a single disk by using geometric shapes (such as circles, squares and triangles) combined with various colors to preserve image data. Color us skeptical.

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 the remainder of 2006 and we're currently planning the course schedule for 2007. If there's something in our catalog that you'd like to have us offer, e-mail us and we'll see when we can get it on the schedule. You'll have an unforgettable learning experience. Isn't it time to learn the real secrets of software success?

In My Book, Robots are Always Cool - But when you claim to give a robot with a human soul, things might be getting a little creepy even for me. What's actually happening is that a remote human is controlling the robot, or -- as the article describes it, "inhabiting" the robot. The thing that makes this robot unique is that it's mobile on both ends -- the operator can move and the robot can move across the room. Most robotic systems that can be remotely controlled (think surgical robots) are stationary. Potential uses for the robot include traversing dangerous terrain to defuse bombs, investigating suspicious packages at the airport, etc.

Got a story for The Menlo Briefs? - We're always looking for cool news to share with our readers. Think you found something? Then e-mail your story ideas to briefs@menloinnovations.com and you just might see it here!