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The Secret Internet - You are out surfing the Internet and happen to notice a website that is offering a new movie for download before its even out in the movie theatres! You think it must be a inside job and someone who works at the studio has made the film available to friends and it got passed around from there. Well, the real answer is really much more sinister than that. In fact, its most likely not some movie employee sending a bootleg copy out to his friends. Its not to say that this type of activity doesn't happen, its just that this mode of passing movies around would take weeks if not months for the movie to get thoroughly distributed where most folks would see it. In fact, if law enforcement is able to crack the mode of distribution which is originates from so called "topsites", they could effectively wipe out most of the illegal distribution of movies. | |
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Why your Computer still Crashes - Its happens to all of us. You're working along on your computer when suddenly your application freezes and up pops one of those boxes asking you if you want to report the problem to Microsoft. Many of us then dutifully click on the button to send a notification off to points unknown. Have you ever wondered if anyone ever looks at any of those messages? Well, wonder no more. Yes, in fact those messages are processed and an interesting pattern has been decerned. Seventy percent of the problems that you experience, according to Microsoft, are caused by device drivers. So there's your clue. Ask yourself what you were doing when your computer crashed. Were you listening to music? Were you printing something? You just may be able to solve the problem by updating your device driver. | |
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There's a Hero on your Desktop - Quick. Name one of the greatest invention of the past 30 years. The PC? TiVo or the iPod? Ha! Would you be surprised if we said the Laserjet printer? Or more precisely the printhead itself. Most people have no idea how amazing they really are. According to Jason Daley, they have been "refined over the past 20 years from heads with 12 nozzles to ones with more than 3,000. The inkjet is the first cheap, mass-produced machine to control minute pearls of fluids—it ultimately jump-started the field of microfluidics. This precise control of ever-smaller droplets (some now a small fraction the size of a pinpoint), coupled with faster printing speeds has opened up dozens of new and decidedly more glamorous applications: printing cellphones and human livers, delivering drugs more efficiently and without side effects and producing fuels without nasty by-products." Yes you read that right. Not printing mere pictures of cellphones and human livers. But actually creating cellphones and human livers by building them with a finely controlled printhead! | |
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The Age of Egocasting - Christine Rosen surveys the development of common inventions that brought more and more control to our everyday lives. From the awkward remote controls of the 1950's to TiVo and iPod of today. As we get more and more control over our environment, like the ability to chose only the songs that we want to hear, we risk what Joseph Wood Krutch warned long ago, that we may become “incapable of anything except habit and prejudice,” with our needs always preemptively satisfied to the point where our tastes fail to develop and grow. | |
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Anthropology is the Key to Software Success - Find out how you can ensure that your software project will be a success by studying the concept of Anthropology, yes, Anthropology. Come to our next free 90 minute "Taste of Success" seminar focused on High-Tech Anthropology. A high-touch solution for a high-tech world. Bring your toughest software project stories to share. See you on February 17! | |
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Battlefield Bots - Robot sharpshooters evoke comparisons to Arnold Schwarzenegger, as in the movie Terminator, who relentlessly hunts down his prey with awesome precision. Well, according to the US Army, we're not there yet. However the progress made in robot military technology is quite amazing. According to Gregory Lamb, "This spring, the United States armed forces are expected to deploy 18 Talon robots to Iraq. The semi-autonomous machines will be capable of firing rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and rockets with better accuracy than human soldiers." | |
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Government IT Blunders - At Menlo we stress the that in order for your IT project to succeed there are really just a few key concepts that you must follow for success. Two of the most important being to get the users involved in the project so as to not build software that doesn't meet business needs and to work in structured increments so that you build progressively more sophisticated software without breaking what you have already built. It's clear that the U.S. government hasn't learned these lessons. The associated press reports that "Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the FBI's computer overhaul 'a train wreck in slow motion.'" | |
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The High Price of Computer Memorabilia - Here's in interesting item: "Famed New York auction house Christie's is preparing to offer up a collection of rare documents and publications that trace the origins of computers and the Internet." Who would have thought that a business plan written in 1946 called "Outline of plans for development of electronic computers," could go for somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000? | |
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The PayPal Wars - William L. Anderson reviews the book The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, and the Rest of Planet Earth By Eric M. Jackson. According to Anderson, "The PayPal Wars is valuable not only because it gives the reader an inside view of the entrepreneurial madness that was Silicon Valley, but also because Jackson understands the larger picture of which PayPal was a part. He understands the nature of boom and bust (this despite the fact that he received an economics degree from the decidedly mainstream program of Stanford University), pointing out the role of the Federal Reserve System in this latest sorry economic episode. That alone is enough to make the book worth reading." | |
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Cool Classes at Affordable Prices. - The Menlo Winter 2005 class schedule is out. It's really cold outside. We'll provide the coffee and donuts. So sign up for a Menlo class, stay warm and learn the real secrets of software success. | |
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Need a Speaker for an Upcoming Event? - We love public speaking (can you believe it?) 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 a list of some of the topics that we’ve spoken about in the past. | |
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About Menlo Innovations |
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Menlo
Innovations uses its unique High-Tech
Anthropology®practice to help our
clients build killer software
applications. If you are asking any of
the following questions, consider having
us perform a Fresh Perspective
Assessment:
A Fresh Perspective Assessment provides detailed insights into your product's strengths and weaknesses. It also provides a roadmap for where to best invest your design and development dollars. Designing, building, and selling software products can be innovative, creative, and profitable. It can also be highly challenging. Sometimes a Fresh Perspective is required. Created in the spirit of Thomas Edison's Invention Factory in Menlo Park, Menlo Innovations is passionate about software innovations that make a positive difference in the everyday lives of businesses and their employees.
Menlo Innovations LLC Coding, format, and on-site content copyright ©2004 |
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