The Menlo Briefs

Cold Hands ≠ Warm Heart - It's a long held bit of folk wisdom that tells us "cold hands, warm heart." But is it true? Well, researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have found that to their surprise, people who held a cup of hot coffee for 10 to 25 seconds warmed to a perfect stranger, while holding a cup of iced coffee had the opposite effect. So next time your inline for a job interview, it might be worth your time to stop at the local coffee shop and have a warm cup o' Joe. [more]

Lighting the way to more secure networks - Boston University's College of Engineering is launching a program, under a National Science Foundation grant, to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. By pigging-backing their signal on LEDs, they believe they can create a network that would be faster and more secure than current network technology. If they are successful, they could develop an optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a Wi-Fi access point. [more]

I think I saw this in a movie once - Did you ever have a memory you wished you could forget? Well neurobiologists believe they will soon be able to target and then chemically remove painful memories and phobias from the mind without causing any harm to the brain. "While memories are great teachers and obviously crucial for survival and adaptation, selectively removing incapacitating memories, such as traumatic war memories or an unwanted fear, could help many people live better lives," said Dr Joe Tsien, a neurobiologist at the Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine. [more]

The real placebo effect - In a survey of 679 general internal medicine physicians and rheumatologists, researchers from the National Institutes of Health found that about half of the doctors admitted to prescribing placebo treatments without informing the patient. Equally interesting is the fact that expensive ones appear to be more effective than cheap ones. [more]

Cooler than cool - What's even cooler than Google Earth? How about Google Earth on the iPhone? Google has released a customized Google Earth application specifically for the iPhone and the results are every bit as stunning as you'd expect. The app is free and available today in all languages the iPhone currently supports (18) and will gradually be released for 22 countries in total. Check the iTunes App Store to see if you're among the lucky ones. [more]

Paperless censure to end up in the wastebasket? - In 2006 the Census Bureau declared that it would be conducting a paperless census in 2010. However, "significant miscommunication" and "lack of clarity" have resulted in an overrun of $6 million, with more expected. Now there are concerns about further delays, as well as questions about the quality of the census data that will be gathered. [more]

What color are dreams? - Are your dreams monochrome or technicolor? It turns out that the answer is likely predetermined by your age. While almost all under 25s dream in color, thousands of over 55s, all of whom were brought up with black and white sets, often dream in monochrome - even now. [more]

How deep does the Rabbit Hole go? - I love the movie The Matrix -- particularly the scenes between Neo and Morpheus. My favorite moment is when Morpheus is standing in front of Neo offering him two choices: "After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes..."

Believe it or not, this is a lot like the software industry. Nearly all companies have failed investments in software initiatives -- many in the six and seven figure range -- and yet they continue on as if nothing's wrong. They're obviously eating those Blue Pills like Tic-Tacs!

The good news is that Menlo has a supply of Red Pills and we're willing to share them with anyone who wants to know the truth: the leading causes of these failures are preventable, and we can show you how. Join us for the next FREE 90-minute presentation on November 20th to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

The next evolutionary step - Is surfing the Internet changing your brain? Neuroscientist Gary Small thinks so. He believes that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills. "They will know when the best response to an email or Instant Message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email." says Small. [more]

The next generation of cars - With the automobile industry in trouble, automakers are searching for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Having identified that people love gadgets, just about every 2009 model will have iPod and Bluetooth connectivity. [more]

Vote early, vote often! - With election day rapidly approaching, you might not know where your local polling station is. Cue the trumpets! It's Google Maps to the rescue! By installing a new maps layer, you can search for your local voting station with just a few clicks. Nifty! [more]

And Finally... - Work-life balance is a serious issue these days, but here's a little piece of news you could probably have lived without: more than half of American workers have been interrupted by a work-related e-mail or phone call while in the bathroom. Perhaps even more disturbing -- and only you can be the judge here -- is the fact that 24% have been interrupted while in the throes of passion. This is no doubt in part because 59% never turn off their mobile devices. [more]