Newsletter


	Scientific Method Man - A couple of years ago Gordon Rugg spent his evenings struggling to get inside the mind of the person who had first scrawled this incomprehensible script some 400 years ago "qopchedy qokedydy qokoloky qokeedy qokedy shedy." The full text went on for 234 pages. He eventually did something that no one else had been able to do. He solved the mystery of this script! How did he do it? Using what he calls the "Verifier Approach" and a computer, he was able to uncover the blind spots in the approaches that other experts and would-be deciphers had taken. Basically it was a scientific method to verify the methods of science. So what, you say? Well, Rugg bets this same approach can be used to unlock the causes of Alzheimer's disease and other mysteries.

	Spaghetti without the Sauce - We're told time and time again to dutifully apply all patches and service packs for MS operating systems put out by Microsoft to guard against security holes and to fix a wide variety of bugs. So, did your eyes bug out when you saw the long list of programs that may not work properly if XP service pack 2 is applied? So what's going on here? Conspiracy or incompetence? John Dvoak, of PC Magazine, thinks it is neither. "When you ask around, Microsoft insiders will tell you that nobody at the company fully understands the Windows code. This has apparently been true for years. So many people have worked on it and it is so scrambled and huge, with millions of lines of code, that it's a miracle that it works at all." So what should be done? Stop patching it and just start over!

	Build your own Self Balancing Scooter - When the Segway™ came out a few years ago, most of us thought that they were really cool and even considered buying one. Then when we realized that they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000, the desire to own one quickly faded. But what if you could actually build one yourself in a few weeks at a fraction of the cost? Well, meet the man who did. He even gives you tips on how to build your own!

	The Secret to Good Design - Whether you are designing web sites or radios, one of the most difficult things that good designers learn over the years is that they are rarely if ever going to come up with the perfect design with the very first sketch they make. The creative process involves collaboration and creating many poor designs first before inspiration leads you to a truly great design.

	The Last Invention - Over ten years ago, the mathematician Vernor Vinge, from San Diego State University, discussed the notion of Singularity and what the implications might be for us humans. Just what is "Singularity" you ask? Basically it's the idea that there will come a time in the future when societal, scientific and economic change is so fast we cannot even imagine what will happen from our present perspective. He speculated that due to the steady increases in the improvements in computer hardware and other advances, sometime before the year 2030, an ultraintelligent machine would be developed that could far surpass all the intellectual activities of any human. This machine would then go on to invent even more intelligent machines and so on. This machine would therefore be the last invention created by man. Sound crazy? Maybe so, but many of the technological advances that he speculated that society would need to develop in order to get to this point have come true!

	World's Largest Jigsaw Puzzle - Another mystery that has baffled researchers for centuries is how to put back what is now a bunch of rubble into a giant map of Ancient Rome. Thanks to today's computer technology, this is another puzzle that may soon be solved.

	Get your next Software Project off on the Right Foot - How do you do it? The key is incorporating Anthropology. Yes, Anthropology. Find out how. Come to our next free 90 minute "Taste of Success" seminar focused on High-Tech Anthropology. A high-tech solution for a high-tech world. Bring your toughest software project stories to share. See you on September 23!

	Be careful what you are sharing - It's not news that millions of folks are sharing media files (usually music) with peer-to-peer (P2P) programs such as Kazaa. These programs allow users to swap files from designated folders on their hard drives across the net. There are a growing number of careless folks though who bring sensitive information from work and place it on their home computer to work on it. Then as they share files with others, a number of nosey music lovers are helping themselves to a lot more that just the latest top 40 single.

	Hurry! Sign up for a Menlo Class. - The Menlo Fall class schedule is out. Fall is a great time to buckle down and learn the real secrets of software success.

	Need a Speaker for an Upcoming Event? - We love public speaking (yes, we really do!) 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.