Newsletter

Feathers into Fabric? - The majority of synthetic clothing fibers currently manufactured worldwide come from petroleum products, but that could be changing. Two textile researchers have created a fabric from two waste products in large supply -- stems from rice plants and feathers from plucked chickens. “Four billion pounds of feathers are produced in the United States every year, but there aren't many applications for them,” says Narendra Reddy, a textile researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Projects like this could really make the fiber industry more sustainable.”

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.

Tactile Passwords - Researchers at the Queen's University Belfast, UK have proposed that tactile passwords could stop ATM "shoulder surfing". They developed a tactile security system using a Braille-like device consisting of a mouse with a grid of 16 mechanically-controlled pins that sit beneath the first and second finger of a user's hand. Most users managed to logon within two login attempts. Want to see it in action? You can catch a video on UTube.

Hey! Don't I Know You? - In one of the more remarkable shots ever taken by robotic space explorers, the Opportunity Mars rover has been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image shows the rover itself, wheel tracks in the soil behind it, and the rover's shadow, including the shadow of the camera mast. After this image was taken, Opportunity moved to the very tip of Cape Verde to perform more imaging of the interior of the crater.

Where are all the Cool Kids hanging out this Fall? - At Menlo of course! The Menlo 2006 class schedule is out so now there's no excuse not to learn the real secrets of software success. Join us this Fall for an unforgettable learning experience.

But Is It Still Worth 1,000 Words? - Rice University researchers have created a single pixel camera. The camera produces images by recording thousands of single-pixel images one after the other, rather than simultaneously recording millions of pixels. While it's not the greatest camera in the world, the key benefit of the experimental camera is that it needs much less information to assemble an image. This could ultimately result in better conventional digital cameras.

On My Honor, I Will Do My Best... - Not to download the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica on BitTorrent? Okay, so they may not be looking to alter the Boy Scout Oath, but they have introduced a new activity patch for not pirating copyrighted materials. Using a curriculum developed by the Motion Picture Association of America, scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen. No word yet on whether or not the Girl Scouts are going to be likewise recruited.

Green and Profitable - Google recently stated that it plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest U.S. solar-powered corporate office complex. We wanted to dispel the myth that you can't be both Green and profitable," said David Radcliffe, VP of Real Estate at Google. Once built the solar-powered system will be capable of generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1,000 California homes.

I Bet it Burns Popcorn Like You Wouldn't Believe - Two inventors from Albuquerque, New Mexico claim to have turned 300 microwaves into a mega-watt energy weapon. Their patent for a "high-power microwave system employing a phase-locked array of inexpensive commercial magnetrons" essentially translates to "300 consumer microwaves = Death Ray." While the creation of a mega-watt weapon is hardly new, this is one of the first times where everyday household appliances have been used to create it.

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 November 16th to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

MySpace.com Predator Caught by Code - A Wired news editor wrote 1,000 lines of code to check MySpace for registered sex offenders. The result? After manually checking the results he confirmed over 700 offenders, including a serial child molester. (That man was arrested as a result.) Last June MySpace told Congress that it did not have the capability to perform this type of check. It can't be said enough folks: know who your children are talking to online.

Japan's First Cyber-High School - Starting in April students in Japan will be able to get a high school education via the Internet in Japan's first cyber-high school. About 75,000 high school students drop out every year and many others refuse to go to school for a number of reasons, the school officials said, but most of them still want to graduate and go to a university. The private high school will give students access to interactive distance learning designed to help graduates get into top-rated universities.

The Death of an Icon? -

Mailboxes -- a piece of American iconography -- are about to become another victim of the Digital Age. The Post Office (which holds a copyright on the box design) has begun removing those blue corner mailboxes because people simply don't write letters anymore. Since 1999, the Postal Service has removed more than 42,000 collection boxes and as of last year only about 295,000 mailboxes remained in use. But the news isn't all bad. "At the same time the Internet has led to a decline in first-class mail, it has also led to an increase in package services mail because of the trend of people using the Internet to do shopping and ordering products," a Postal Service spokeswoman said.

The Ultimate Running Shirt - When marathon runners fail to pace themselves the results can be deadly -- just consider the case of former Wired editor Bill Goggins who passed away from heart failure while running the San Francisco Marathon this past July. Now Korean scientists have designed the BioShirt specifically with athletics in mind. The BioShirt monitors the runner's temperature, heart rate and speed; it then sends that data to a wrist-worn monitor via Bluetooth. The shirt debuted at National Sports Festival, currently ongoing in that country.

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!

Viruses, the Next Generation - Just when you start feeling like you've seen every possible variation on computer viruses, up pops something new. Enter the SpamThru Trojan. This unique virus installs its own anti-virus scanner to remove rival viruses to free up as much of the resource pool as possible to maximize the amount of SPAM it can send.