Quantum Darwinism

According to quantum theory, the act of observing the world changes it. Without observations, the world remains in a state of superposition, where all potential exists -- when we observe it however, the superposition is lost and the world is reduced down to a single state. Why then does the world look more or less the same to all of us? If we're all observing the world and we're all changing it via our observations, why doesn't it appear different to all of us? Why do we agree on what something looks, tastes, smells, feels and sounds like? According to quantum theory, we shouldn't be agreeing at all. Not so says a group of physicists. Some states of a system, they say, get promoted above others via a process they call quantum darwinism. A phenomenon call decoherence collapses the many quantum states into a single state, which is stable and objective, and can stand up to scrutiny. Read a summary in this Nature article, or see the PDFs below for more information.

Decoherence, Einselection, and the Quantum Origins of the Classical [PDF]

Quantum Darwinism and Envariance [PDF]

Darwinish in Quantum Systems? [PDF]

A Simple Example of Quantum Darwinism [PDF]

Objective Properties from Subjective Quantum States [PDF]

Aircraft that Feeds

The kids at the University of the West of England and the University of Bath are in a hurry to make the Wachowskis prophets. Researchers at the University of Bath are building micro-air-vehicles that mimic the flying capabilities of insects. Their hope is to make the machines as energy efficient and capable as nature's design, without waiting a few million years. Meanwhile, Frankenstein descendants at the University of the West of England have built a robot that can move and transit data via radio waves. It's power source: a microbial fuel cell. Microbial fuel cells contain microbes that consume organic matter and produce electricity. The robot, known as Ecobot II, can convert unrefined food into electricity for power. Unrefined food, for the uninitiated, consists of flies, apples and appendages of failing students. Combine the two technologies and you have something that would make Doctor Evil proud.

Dialectize

I just came across the Dialectizer by Rinkworks. It's a site that will dialectize your text or your entire site in Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin and Hacker. Clicking the links on those words will dialectize my site. Go on, give it a try! It's a little bit of well deserved fun before the holidays are over. If you're a blogger and would like to give your visitors the option of dialectizing your post in any of the above dialects, you can easily add a link option after your post to do so. If you know what you're doing, you don't need the following instructions. If you're a little bit leery of html code, follow the instructions. I'm sorry to say that the instructions are only for blog sites that use Blogger -- if you're using another tool and would like to adapt the instructions below for your tool, please post the instructions in the comments.

Instructions

You need to be viewing your Blogger template code. Search for '$BlogItemPermalinkURL$' in the code. You'll want to place the dialectizing code right after the 'permanent link code', but probably before the 'Comments' code.

My code for blog posts looks like this: (Replace the { } brackets with < > in the code -- and I've stripped most of the formatting out to keep it simple.)

{BlogDateHeader} {$BlogDateHeaderDate$}{/BlogDateHeader} {BlogItemTitle}{$BlogItemTitle$}{a name="{$BlogItemNumber$}"} {/a}{/BlogItemTitle} {div class="blogPost"} {$BlogItemBody$} {div class="byline"}posted by {$BlogItemAuthor$} @ {a href="{$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Permanent Link" style="text-decoration: none"}{$BlogItemDateTime$}{/a} {$BlogItemControl$}***** {MainOrArchivePage}{BlogItemCommentsEnabled}{a href="{$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}"}({$BlogItemCommentCount$>) Comments{/a}{/BlogItemCommentsEnabled}{/MainOrArchivePage}{/div}

You need to place the dialectizing code where I've marked above with ***** -- ie. replace ***** with,

Dialectizing code for Redneck speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=redneck&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Redneck"} Redneck{/a}

Dialectizing code for Jive speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=jive&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Jive"} Jive{/a}

Dialectizing code for Cockney speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=cockney&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Cockney"} Cockney{/a}

Dialectizing code for Elmer Fudd speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=fudd&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Elmer Fudd"} Elmer Fudd{/a}

Dialectizing code for Swedish Chef speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=bork&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Swedish Chef"} Swedish Chef{/a}

Dialectizing code for Moron speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=moron&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Moron"} Moron{/a}

Dialectizing code for Hacker speak: (Again, replace { } with < > in the code below.)

{a href="http://rinkworks.com/dialect/dialectp.cgi?dialect=hckr&url={$BlogItemPermalinkURL$}" title="Dialectize to Hacker"} Hacker{/a}

Site Mod

A quick update was just made to the site that has impacted all posts of the past. Comments from old posts have disappeared. I used to use the ReBlogger tool to manage comments -- that was before Blogger created their own. I've decided to use Blogger's facility to manage comments. It's easier than using an external service that keep the comments on another site.

A View from the North

I just came across this blog made up of "random thoughts from an unarmed Canadian," whose "views are not necessarily the same views held by Canadians in general. But they should be." With an intro like that I had to read on. Then I came across this post that made me laugh out loud ... "Admiral Bunnypants" ... I love it!

Cavalcade of Canucks

"Cavalcade of Canucks is a weekly roundup, posted every Wednesday, of interesting posts from bloggers in Canada." So says Robert McClelland, the blogger that runs the list. If you'd like to keep up with what the Canadian bloggers are posting, this is one snapshot -- not necessarily a fair sampling of what's happening out there, but start anyway.

Rude Awakening

James Bow has an informative post on his blog regarding the disaster that continues in the wake of the earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Asia. Why are some people, those that control government purse strings for one, seem less impacted by the disaster? Why are some people more impacted? Is this a question of emotional intelligence?

Sin City

It looks like Robert Rodriguez has decided to take a break from making dumb kids movies. He's back in true form with an adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City. Miller also has director credit for the movie -- which is very cool. For those who don't know Frank Miller, a little reminder. He's the man credited with bringing the serious Batman back to the screen with his hard hitting Dark Knight series. He did the same with Daredevil and Elektra, and breathed life into a number of other characters from both Marvel and DC. Sin City was his own creation, published by Dark Horse a while back -- and if you have the originals, expect them to fetch quite a few dollars when the movie hits theatres in April 2005. The trailer, available on Apple's site, gives a glimpse of the movie -- the style remains true to Miller's original -- little use of colour; hardcore action; and a little retro. I'm looking forward to this one.

iPodLinux

This is cool. A project is underway to port Linux to the iPod. It's at its infancy right now, but the future looks interesting. It will feature all the features of the iPod, but with extras, such as some PDA functionality, as well as games. Currently, the project is working on the original iPod, but when it takes on the photoiPod, we may see some innovating features. The original iPod is somewhat limited in its display, but the photoiPod provides colour display as well has great resolution for a PDA. Neat hack!

Arthur C. Clarke reports from Sri Lanka

Arthur C. Clarke is reporting from his home in Sri Lanka, on the devastation that the tsunamis have wrecked on South Asia. Clarke and his staff are all OK, but he directs visitors to his website to aid agencies that could use help.

Ka-boom!

That would be the sound no one would hear if asteroid 2004 MN4 struck Earth in 2029. 2004 MN4 is a Near Earth Object -- a group of asteroids whose orbits bring them close to Earth. Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about the potential ka-boom in 2029 -- but NASA recently ruled out that possibility.

Ka-boom!

That would be the sound no one would hear if asteroid 2004 MN4 struck Earth in 2029. 2004 MN4 is a Near Earth Object -- a group of asteroids whose orbits bring them close to Earth. Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about the potential ka-boom in 2029 -- but NASA recently ruled out that possibility.

Microprocessor History

IBM has an article on the Great Moments in Microprocessor History. It traces the evolution of microprocessors from the 1960s commercial products of Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments, through the 1970s with the products of Intel, RCA, IBM, Motorola and Zilog to the powerhouses of the 1980s and the recent decade. It's a great article, especially the "where are they now?" section.

Tshabalala Construction Company

I've been receiving this spam for the past couple of weeks. It's hilarious. There have been other forms of this spam floating around the internet for a while now. Does it still work? Does it still claim victims?

CleanSoftware.org

Ever installed some free software from the net only to live to regret it? Even worse -- sometimes you have to format the HD and rebuild the machine just to get away from it? Here's CleanSoftware.org. It promotes free software that is free of the adware, spyware and crap that comes with today's 'free' software. And if you use any of it, and like it -- remember, send a donation to the programmer who's work you're enjoying. They need the money more than Microsoft needs it.

City at Sea

Freedom Ship International is an interesting concept. It's a ship designed to cruise around the world, hugging shorelines and circling the world once every three years. It will sell suites for anywhere between $180,000 to $2,500,000 -- with some select suites going for $44 million. It will contain all the amenities of a small city, including a trade center, a casino, a medical facility, a school system and one hundred acres of outdoor park and recreation facilities. It hasn't been built yet, but is looking for financial backers.

CD Art

If want to be impressed by some cool art, check out the CGTalk board.

New Site Design

My site needs to be redesigned. OK, maybe I am bored of it. It's only been six months since the last change. Since the last change I went lite on the graphics and pushed more text. I think now there is too much text per page. Even the archives. So I'm looking at retooling how it works. I've been surfing the web looking for design ideas and have found no end of ideas. Too many perhaps. Mandarin Design is a good site for not just ideas, but the execution. It's a site I'm going to have to bookmark to revisit time and again to learn new tricks. Another site that I'm using for design ideas is Blog Moxie. These ladies are cool designers -- although I don't have the money to pay them to design my site.

  

  

  

Google's Doodles

Google is young company -- young and still innocent. They still believe that they can have fun, and they haven't yet been frowned upon by shareholders to get serious. I've enjoyed the ever changing Google logos over the past couple of years. If you've missed any, or just want to relive certain occasions, check out Google's Doodles.

Moxie Design Studios

Here's a great web design firm. They offer web design services for large business, but especially, they cater to bloggers. Check them out.

Christmas Full Moon

The Moon will not be full in the sky until the 26th -- but tonight it will appear to be full, although it will be smaller than it usually appear. Huh? The Moon's orbit is actually lopsided -- it's not in a perfect circle around Earth. The Moon can be anywhere between 356,400 to 406,700 km from Earth. When the Moon is furthest away from us during full moon, the Moon appears smaller in the sky -- like it will tonight. Check out this NASA site for more.

'Twas a Night Before Christmas

This site contains 721 versions of the venerable poem first penned by Clement Clarke Moore.

Martha Talks

Too funny! Martha Stewart is behind prison -- and she probably doesn't deserve it -- she's mostly likely being made an example. Let's face it -- rich people shouldn't really go to jail, and white collar criminals should get a 'get out of jail free' card [that's sarcasm folks]. Yes Martha, we really feel for you. Suggestion to make some money: Martha Prison Cam. People will pay to watch it.

Concrete Blonde

I'm listening to a live version of Concrete Blonde's Tomorrow, Wendy. Johnette prefaces the performance with, "This is a song about a woman with AIDS, which someone in this room has -- a few of these people in this room has -- and you'll go though it, you'll know it, we should stop it." The song was written by Andy Prieboy of Wall of Voodoo. There's a lot of anger in the song -- an expression of helplessness.

Santy Worm

eWeek is reporting that the worm known as Net-Worm.Perl.Santy.A, leverages the search power of Google to find sites that run phpBB forum software, then proceeds to overwrite several files, defacing the site. phpBB is freely distributed and widely used. The worm exploits a vulnerability in scripting language, PHP.

Killing Time with CIO Magazine

This is the first issue of CIO Magazine I've read pretty much end-to-end. I had nothing else to read while riding to and from work yesterday, so it kept me occupied. The magazine was not a hard read. The language was fairly simple, which surprised me. I expected a magazine dedicated to CIOs would be more financial, from an IT perspective. Guess not. Anyway, here are a few things I found of interest:

Best Practices for Disaster Recovery - there are eight of them according to this article. 1) Have dedicated and empowered staff. This can't be secondary responsibility for another department. 2) Disaster Recover and Business Continuity Planning are two different things, requiring different resources, and different governance structure. 3) The recovery plan needs to be capable of execution without the staff who know it intimately. 4) Usually, everybody wants to have their processes covered by the plan. Not all processes need to be covered. Push back. 5) Put disaster recovery into the development process, so that critical apps can be certified recoverable during testing phases. 6) Live test is important. 7) Before you purchase a new app -- test to see if passes your recovery plan. 8) Follow up with recovery tests. You can learn things, and change what needs to be changed to make them better.

Wal-Mart RFID -- Jan. 1, 2005 marks the deadline for vendors participating in Wal-Mart's RFID expedition. CIO Magazine has interviewed quite a few of those vendors, and evaluates Wal-Mart's efforts. Bottom line: Wal-Mart will not hit their target. Few major issues: 1) There are no standards. 2) RFID doesn't have a business case for many companies. 3) Today's technology only works really well in controlled situations.

Collaboration -- this article is supposed to serve as a CIO guide to collaboration. As someone who's spent quite a bit of time in Supply Chain, this seems like a no-brainer to me. But I suppose some CIOs need to be educated. More and more, collaboration is becoming easier -- technically. The tools are there. The automated processes are there. What's not necessarily there is the culture, the trust, the maturity and the understanding of how collaboration works.

Business Models -- CIO Magazine has a short excerpt from the book, Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right, by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan. The book uses the concept of a business model help organizations respond to structural changes within the business environment that's driving competition globally. Three fundamental structural changes are identified: 1) Globalization of business, aided by technology and resulting in sharing of ideas across borders. 2) Flow of global capital. 3) Global purchasing has shifted power to consumers and giant retailers.

SyFy Portal

Here's another site that serves as a gateway to everything SciFi. If you don't get enough already, this is just another source.

Out-Law.com

Here's a site for IT professionals to logon to. Out-Law.com offers legal advice for those in IT, and comments how laws can impact the IT industry. It's British, but don't hold that against them.

Business Reading

Last week on my rides to work, I read the Dec. 20/04 issue of BusinessWeek magazine (amongst other things). Here are the notable articles from the issue.

Collapse -- this is a short book review of Jared Diamond's Collapse. If I find this at BMV, I'll definitely pick it up used. Diamond contends in his book that societies chose to fail or succeed, and considering today's environmental degradation and population growth, he suggests that we're heading towards a dark age of our own making. He contends that within the lifetime of our children, the world's environmental problems will be resolved one way or another -- one way is of our choosing, the other isn't, but will most likely be global calamity.

China Shops -- With IBM's recent announcement that they're selling their PC business to China's Lenovo, the world is starting to take notice of China -- not just as a place for cheap labour, but also as a nation bent on joining the big leagues and willing to spend their way to there. It's estimated that China spent US$2.85 billion in foreign acquisition in 2003 -- a figure that could total US$7 billion in 2004 and double to US$14 billion in 2005. Large Chinese companies have no choice but to partner or acquire large foreign competitors. For them to succeed, they need skills in management and marketing, as well as brands.

Steel Raja -- the steel business is so yesterday. That was until China's boom tapped out the global supply. Suddenly, steel is important again, and prices started to rise. Still, steel is a commodity, and buyers name their price when the industry isn't in a supply crunch. That reality is going to change however if Lakshmi Mittal has his way. Slowly, the Indian born British steel magnate, is buying up steel mills across the world. His goal: build a large, healthy steel company that will bring stability and sustainability to the industry.

Gazprom Prophesies Russia's Future -- with the destruction of Yukos, the Russian government is directing the government backed Gazprom to increase its stake in Russia's energy production. Slowly, Gazprom is buying up competitors. Does this signal the end of market reforms in Russia?

Textile Trade -- in the new year, the US and Europe textile import quotas will disappear, and with it will be jobs from the US, Europe and many developing nations that have benefited from the quotas. China will suddenly make its presence felt on the market, and with labour as cheap as it is in China, a whole lot of hurt is about to be felt.

Gadget Affliction -- gadgets don't make us more efficient. PDAs, cell phones, and their ilk that keep us in the constant stream of information flow only make us waste time -- increases errors, lower attention spans, induces stress and slows us down. There is a new disease: attention deficit trait. It lowers performance and increases irritability.

Marketing Champ -- I don't have a George Foreman grill, but I have a knock-off. This article is all about Foreman and his new found role as the marketing champ of the world. The guy can sell just about anything, and his earnings on endorsement is tagged at around US$240 million.

Online Betting -- it's big business, and while it's not against the law, the US government wants to crush it.

eMail Fear Factor -- Businesses want the ability to destroy electronic data and not have to keep it around for years -- sensitive data, such as email correspondence that could be valuable during litigation. Seems like a bad idea. And it is -- until you realize that for businesses, paying to have their old data sifted through to produce pertinent evidence is hideously costly. Anyone who's been on the receiving end of even just a tax audit can empathize.

Flat Coke -- Coca-Cola has been having a hard time since its former CEO, Roberto Goizueta died. It's been through a number of CEOs since, and has now called a former executive, E. Neville Isdell, out of retirement to save it. For a company that boasts such luminaries as Warren E. Buffett, Herbert A. Allen and Donald Keough on its board, you'd think it would be having an easier time at running its business. Think again -- and the fault may lie partially with the board, the resists change, and Coke's culture that doesn't want change, even though the world has moved on from colas and have adopted a wider range of taste.

Warranty Windfall -- If you're buying electronics this Christmas, resist the hard sell to purchase extended warranty. They're not worth it. Look at it this way -- last year, all of Circuit City's operating income came from warranties; and half of Best Buy's. They're not making any money from the products they're selling, that's why the hard sell on warranties.

Samsung Design

BusinessWeek Dec. 6/04 issue has a great article on how design has turned around Samsung, from a Sony wannabe to a company Sony now wants to emulate. When it comes right down to it, the functionality of most consumer electronics has become a commodity. Everybody can make it. The Americans used to produce the best, then the Japanese shook the market -- the Koreans have now arrived, and in case anyone has been asleep, the Chinese are heading there rapidly. Businesses are turning more and more to design to play a big part in differentiating their products from the pack, and Samsung is showing them how to do it.

The China Price

2004 was the year of outsourcing as businesses moved more manufacturing offshore, and started on white collar jobs. China made the news not only for taking low wage, low skilled jobs, but more and more, for taking high wage, high skilled, technical jobs. More and more China is shaking up the global economy by competing with low wages in the highly skilled and technical sectors. This is good on one hand, in that businesses have found a new source of cheap labour to bring costs down, as well as a new market to sell just about everything. On the bad side however, is the short term turmoil in countries that are losing jobs to China and the trade imbalance China has with first world countries. BusinessWeek has a special report on the topic -- looking at both sides of the debate. It makes for a great read. For further reading on this and related topics, see the links below.

Overview of the Theory of Comparative Advantage

A Direct Test of the Theory of Comparative Advantage: The Case of Japan [PDF]

International Trade Theory [A Course]

Multinational Firms and the New Trade Theory [PDF]

When Your Competitor Delivers More For Less

What happens when the world is taken over by mass merchants, providing low cost and high value? Wal-Mart exemplifies the beast and has provided its name to new terms, such as the 'Wal-Mart effect,' to describe the results. McKinsey sees these value-driven companies moving beyond price and, more and more, competing in quality, service and convenience -- attributes that niche players across industries used to label themselves with to differentiate from the mass merchants. Value-driven competitors have two advantages in the consumer market: 1) cost advantage via their industry and execution, and, 2) an advantage in consumer perception of the quality of their products. Value players are hear to stay, and consumers have been trained by the expectations they have set. They already have a significant influence on the global economy that isn't about to relax. The lasting social and economic impact on most countries are still unknown, and the uncertainty needs a lot more attention from governments.

Radical Changes Needed in Schools

Ever been bullied in school? I was. Mostly because I was smart, had an accent, and as I was often reminded, a 'paki.' Actually, I'm Canadian. I came from Guyana. But that didn't matter. It continued through to high school. It didn't affect me much -- I was a bit stupid that way I suppose. I fought back -- although I mostly got beaten up for it. Years later though, I was vindicated when I was renting a car for work. At the car rental company, I was served by a guy who kept calling me 'sir.' It took me a bit before I recognized the idiot. He was one of my high school bullies -- and he was serving me. Bet he wished he had paid more attention in school. Read this post about the state of our school system -- and if you have young kids, listen to them, observe them -- hope they're not being bullied or being a bully.

Technically Funny

A comedian for the IT crowd stuck in cubicle hell -- check out the comedy of Don McMillan. A guy who amuses with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. [Thanks for the link Darren.]

Researchers Control Chemical Reactions One Molecule at a Time

Researchers at the University of California have successful used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to manipulate a single molecule of benzenethiol, anchoring it to a metal electrode. This success has got the nanoheads (or are they nanoites?) all excited, as it suggests a stepping stone (or molecule in this case) to future nanoscale assembly of 'molectronic' devices. The experiment validates the prediction made by L.P. Hammett [PDF] in 1937, that the strength of different acids can be transferred to the activation of individual molecules on metal surfaces. Using a STM, the researchers transferred electrons to the benzenethiol molecule via electrical pulses. This modified the chemical makeup of the molecule, allowing them to bond to the metal electrode. A similar process can be used to assemble individual molecules into molecular electronics instead of relying on silicon. For more on this topic, check out:

Translation and rotation of a haloaromatic thiol [PDF]

Sulfur Atoms as Tethers for Selective Attachment of Aromatic Molecules to Silicon [PDF]

Monitoring Surface Chemical Reactions and Interactions on Thin Films and Ordered Interfaces

[PDF]

Molecular Electronics - Current Status and Future Prospects [PDF]

[Thanks for the link Darren.]

Screwed by the Government

The Ontario government is looking to make some changes to the auto insurance policy. One of the significant changes would be the elimination of the neutral assessments of insurance claims in times of dispute between and the auto insurance companies in favour of letting the insurance companies choose the medical professional that will make the final decision about an individual's eligibility for coverage as a result of an accident. The government is rushing consultations on the changes, hoping to get the changes in quickly without making too much noise. Consider this noise. Who's side is the government on?

woot!

Here's a different spin on online retailing. Woot sells just one thing, everyday. And everyday it could be something new. Woot, short for "Wow! Loot!", sells mostly discontinued or overstock items. Since its stock is limited, it doesn't communicate its inventory levels -- it just sells until there is no more to sell -- and it has got some good deals. [Darren, thanks for the lunch time info.]

Oracle nails PeopleSoft

Larry Ellison must be one happy dude. He got Craig Conway fired, then took his company. This is one victory that Bill Gates can't take from him -- even IBM tried to make it difficult, but the PeopleSoft board caved before IBM could ink any lasting deal in January. PeopleSoft has agreed to let Oracle acquire it for US$10.3 billion. Both companies stock price rose with the news. The deal will make Oracle the number 2 player in supplying big businesses with software. BusinessWeek has an interview with Larry Ellison on the topic.

Google Suggest

Check out this beta service from Google -- Google Suggest. As you type your search criteria, slowly, Google offers suggestions on what you might be looking for. Interesting ... very, very interesting!

The Business of Blogging

Two years ago, there were only about 100,000 blogs -- today, the figure is estimated at 4.8 million. That's a lot of people having a lot to say, and a lot of content being created each day. It's also a lot of time being spent creating content and a lot of time being spent consuming them. It's inevitable that blogs would become business. From individuals, like me, carrying online advertisements, to professional bloggers that blog for a pay cheque. Businesses are adopting blogs as a way of giving their customers access to the company -- and the reverse is also true. Some bloggers are becoming hired guns -- hired to create a lot of buzz about a product or service and directing traffic to a business. Where does it end, however? It used to be that when you visited a blog, you were getting someone's opinion. Is that still true? Is it paid opinion? And what role is advertising playing in influencing blog content? BusinessWeek magazine has a short article about the business of blogging that got me thinking.

panoramas.dk

Quicktime VR allows panoramic photography to be displayed on the internet. It allows you to place yourself in the centre of the image and rotate your view around it -- viewing the scene essentially in three dimensions. panoramas.dk presents a collection of panoramic photographs from all over the world. This is a site for you to enjoy when you have a few hours to spare. There some really beautiful images there.

Disposophobia

I've been told that I suffer from this -- that I have a fear of getting rid of stuff. Not true. I just have a fear of throwing away things I may some day spend money to buy again. Maybe that's my fear. But I have found salvation. It's called eBay. And I'm going to sell my junk to other people! If you haven't found salvation, perhaps you need professional help. If so, contact these folks.

CollegeHumor

Here's a site for the College/University types, and shouldn't be frequented by old-farts like myself. It's kind of like a blog, but not always funny -- sometimes down right "get a life kids." (Yes, I'm now old.) The humor is college humor -- higher education pranksters going away at it like the Engergizer bunny. Some of it will take you back -- some of it will make you wonder if you were that stupid -- some of it may make you realize, with a smile hopefully, that you haven't really changed a bit. Check out the pictures and movies on the site. Some are too funny!

New Products

I spent a little time this weekend, and put a couple of ideas into action. The results are a few new products in my online store. Check out the 'Blogosphere' and 'Blog This!' stuff in the new Gifts for Geeks section of the store. If you're a blogger, or know one, here's some stuff that you shouldn't be without! ;-)

Blog Torrent

Imagine the ubiquity of blogs married with the ubiquity of peer-to-peer distribution of Bit Torrent -- the ability to distribute more than just web journals and photographs in the traditional blog. Think of the distribution of videos, audio and other multimedia rich content. Home videos could be distributed -- and not just of the perplexing cousin Billy's performance at the last family reunion -- but opinion pieces; or small time media and film producers, be they aficionados or propagandists, disseminating content in support of their pet project. The possibilities are endless, and it's coming to a website near you, soon. Check out Blog Torrent, in preview release, version 0.81.

Dumb Laws

This is an entertaining site -- think of it as a reality humour wesbite. The site chronicles dumb laws, predominantly in the US, but also elsewhere in the world. Some of the dumb laws include an explanation as to why the law exists. The explanations are a good read too. A few of the dumb laws in the top 25 list:

It is legal to shoot an Indian on horseback, provided you are in a covered wagon. Location: United States, North Dakota

You may not have more than two dildos in a house. Location: United States, Arizona

Persons classified as "ugly" may not walk down any street. Location: United States, California, San Francisco

Idiots may not vote. Location: United States, New Mexico

Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine. Location: United States, California, Chico

It is legal for a male to urinate in public, as long it is on the rear wheel of his motor vehicle and his right hand is on the vehicle. Location: United Kingdom

It is illegal to have sex with a cow. Location: United States, Louisiana, Sulphur

Whenever two trains meet at an intersection of said tracks, neither shall proceed until the other has. Location: United States, Wisconsin

Illegal for a woman to drive a car unless there is a man either running or walking in front of it waving a red flag to warn approaching motorists and pedestrians. Location: United States, Tennessee, Memphis

It is illegal to have sex in a moving ambulance and if you are caught the guy is let go and the woman is punished and her name appears in the newspaper. Location: United States, Utah, Tremonton

Not only is it illegal to have sex with the lights on, one may not have sex in any position other than missionary. Location: United States, Virginia

Males may not be sexually aroused in public. Location: United States, Tennessee, Nashville

Software Vulnerabilities

Secunia is a great site for tracking software vulnerabilities, especially OSes and browsers, that could inadvertently allow your computer to be hijacked and used for nefarious purposes on the internet. Take this "multiple browsers window injection vulnerability." It allows a hijacker to take over your browser window, regardless of who owns the website. The vulnerability affects all browsers. The site includes a demonstration of the vulnerability. I tested my browser. I was not affected!

Same Sex Marriage

"Americans are nervously looking north, hoping their Canadian cousins will get a grip on their sanity," says Robert Knight, who heads the conservative Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America. This says a couple of things about Americans. 1) The American conservatives view Canada as a threat to the moral fabric of America, and, 2) that they have a man leading the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, when it should be a woman. I took this quote from an article on Canoe that provides an American perspective on Canada's move to legalize same sex marriage -- one more way in which Canada is a better place to live in.

Subway Reading

Here are the highlights from the usual reading on the journey to work -- rag that killed the time: BusinessWeek Dec. 13, 2004 issue.

Carly's Challenge -- Carly Fiorina has been at HP's helm for five years now, and the lustre may be wearing off on her stay. She set out to build HP into a huge firm with offerings in just about every technology area. She acquired Compaq for US$19 billion in 2002, and has since then, doubled HP's sales. Yet, HP may be spread too thin and unable to manage its many diverse businesses. Printing remains HP's most profitable business, and is being used to shore up the under performance of other businesses. In the PC business for example, 2004 operating margin is 0.9% -- way behind industry leader Dell's 8.8%. In corporate computing products, HP's 2004 operating margin is 3% -- way behind industry leader IBM's 11%. That's causing investors to suggest radical changes for the company -- like break it apart. On their own, the parts would be valued more than the whole -- about US$15 billion to US$27 billion according to some estimates.

Lawyer-CEOs -- how do CEOs who are lawyers fair? I was surprised by the number of lawyers that are leading some fairly large companies. American Express, Time-Warner, Citigroup and Viacom are all headed by lawyers. In our litigious times, is having a lawyer at the helm insurance? In some cases it is -- not just for their risk aversion, but sometimes as well, for who they know.

Cirque du Soleil -- Cirque do Soleil continues to mint money, and not just on their tours, but also their productions that are in residence at Las Vegas Casinos and resorts. Cirque's latest in residence production is at the MGM Grand. Kà cost US$165 million to create and stage -- the expected payback however is astounding: US$2 million per week. In just one year, Cirque and MGM will be able to recoup their investments -- after that, let the profits flow.

Working Class Military -- one way to get ahead in the US is to join the military. It's risky, but if you serve in a conflict, get promoted up the ranks, your personal investment could be worth a hefty paycheck. Businesses are learning the value of hiring reservists. They come back with leadership shills, ability to manage stress, etc. If you survive the risks however.

Physics of Colour -- This article looks at Xerox's investment in colour technology, in hopes of increasing profits. The interesting bit however, was the physics behind colour printing. Colour in the printing industry is all about perception. Matching a colour that you see on the screen with what gets printed out on paper isn't easy. The colours on your screen are luminous -- you can change it by increasing or decreasing light intensity. On paper however, colour is changed by adding or removing black to darken or lighten an image. Perception of a colour depends on what colour is near it. Being able to trick the eye into perceiving is one thing -- being able to accurately reproduce a specific colour is another. Toner is made up of tiny particles -- but if those particles aren't uniform in size and shape, the colours produced by them can be off. Xerox is work on building toner particles molecule by molecule, that way they can ensure uniform size and shape, and consequently, accurate color reproduction.

IBM's Chinese Adventure

IBM has sold it's US$12 billion-a-year PC business to Lenovo of China for US$1.75 billion. IBM will maintain a minority stake in Lenovo. But there's more to it than that. Lenovo will relocate it's world headquarters to NY and will be run by two IBM executives, Stephen Ward and Fran O'Sullivan. Lenovo's chairman will be Yang Yuanqing, from China. As Steve Hamm of BusinessWeek puts it, "An icon of Western capitalism is marrying a company that's partly owned by the Chinese government. Weird."

iPod Flash?

This is just a rumour -- the iPod Flash -- a flash-based iPod that's smaller than the Mini, coming in at 2.5" long, 1.5" wide, and 0.5" thick. It has no screens and only a navigation button. Can Apple make this work? Can they make money from it? BusinessWeek was reporting about this back in Nov.

Accoona

   Accoona, yet another search engine. This time there is a claim of artificial intelligence being employed to "supertarget" searches. Oh, sorry, "SuperTarget"^TM. "SuperTargeting"^TM basically allows the focusing of searches to a specific keyword from the results. Yeah, whatever. You can already do this with other search engines by employing specific operators to focus the results. Accoona is interesting because it is a search engine developed with the backing of the Chinese government. Some have suggested that China has developed a search engine in order to control the content being delivered to their population. Translation: censorship. On the first pass however, the site doesn't seem to be filtering any content. The site seems to target the business web surfer and aims to deliver business clicks to Chinese businesses. The Chinese minister of the State Council Information Office is quoted as saying, "my department will support Accoona Corp. efforts to promote Chinese Enterprises to do business with companies throughout the World."
   Some of you may be wondering as well, what's with the name? Accoona? Surely it must ring a bell. If it doesn't here's the answer. According to the press release for the search engine, "Accoona takes its name from the Swahili phrase, "accoona matata," for "no worries," popularized by Disney's film, "The Lion King.""

Little Sleep Makes You Fat

Scientific American is reporting that researchers have recently concluded that sleep deprivation is the levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin in the body. People who consistently got less than five hours of sleep per night had low levels of leptin, which is produced by fat cells. Low levels of leptin signals to the body that it is starving and produces a bigger appetite. Ghrelin on the other hand was higher in sleep deprived people. Produced in the stomach, high levels of ghrelin stimulates appetite, making you want to eat. So, in our modern world, we're driven to produce more and therefore suffer sleep deprivation. Combined with readily available food, especially the unhealthy kind for the time-strapped individuals, no wonder we have an obesity problem.

IBM seals deal with Lenovo

I posted about this a couple days ago -- apparently, it's a done deal according to the Inquirer. For US$2 billion, Lenovo will buy IBM's PC business and will most likely continue to use the IBM brand. Part of the US$2 billion, would be a 5% stake in Lenovo according to the Register.

Free Your Music

Last month's Wired magazine included a CD of music under the Creative Commons copyright license, the licensing scheme dreamed by Lawrence Lessig for the digital millennium. Rip it. Mix it. Burn it. Swap it. The cops will not bust down your door. The Creative Commons copyright license scheme comes in a couple of flavours and can be used to protect ownership, while allowing works to be shared, used in a "highly transformative" to create new work and even from profit from that new work. The album includes songs by Beastie Boys [MP3], David Byrne [MP3], Paul Westerberg [MP3], and Chuck D with Fine Arts Militia [MP3], among 12 other groups/artists. (This site uses a flavour of the Creative Commons copyright scheme.) The magazine also includes a great article of Gilberto Gil, Brazilian pop star [MP3] and minister of culture, and on Brazil's embrace of open source technology. Brazil, like other developing nations, such as China and India, don't want to tie their future to US technology companies, so they're aligning themselves to open source technology and concepts -- making for a very interesting future indeed.

Fab Labs

Fab labs? Yes, fabrication labs. Some computers hooked up with desktop 3D manufacturing equipment -- used today primarily by design shops wishing to rapidly prototype what their latest design looks like for the imagination. But imagine what happens when prices drop for these fab labs. When do-it-yourselfers and hobbyists get a hold of a machine that can make just about anything, it will be rip-mix-burn and pirates of a new ilk. For those with no imagination, check out Bruce Sterling's. [Gee Darren, those futurists were right!]

Primus Worldstars

In an event sponsored by Reebok Hockey, for two weeks, from Dec. 9 - Dec. 23, NHL star players will visit 10 cities in Europe and play against European teams. A portion of the proceeds from the games will be given to charity. The team will meet in Toronto for a practice on Dec. 7th before flying to Europe for nine games in Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Poland. Martin Brodeur says, "It is important to all of us that we are using this time productively, and we thought this was a great way to give hockey fans and some deserving charities something to cheer about." Fans wishing to see the games in Canada will have to shell out $9.99 for individual games or $59.99 for 8 of the 9. Other prominent NHLers joining Brodeur are: Dominik Hasek, Rob Blake, Mattias Norstrom, Mats Sundin, Sergei Fedorov, Petr Nedved, Joe Thornton, Luc Robitaille, Tie Domi, and Daniel Alfredsson.

Design for Success

Britain's Design Council has some nifty publications on the use of design in business, and the potential payoffs for companies that choose to differentiate themselves by taking advantage of design. The report that caught my attention was "Design in Britain 2004-2005" -- interesting read.

The Innovation Economy

   Back in October, BusinessWeek magazine published a special report on innovation -- the companies, the ideas, the technologies and where in the world are the innovation hot beds. The future is bright as ever for innovation, and while the world has relied on the first world countries, especially the US, to provide the spur of growth, globalization has shifted the US dominance.
   In the past few years, innovation has been rapid in information technology and health care. The change in these industries have been tremendous -- while other industries have been laggards. Where is innovation heading however? What can be expected in the coming years? The world is geared for change. Businesses and individuals now live in state where change is anticipated and expected. Change as a surprise is so yesterday. Yet in this world prepared for innovation, there is uncertainty. Innovation is at the mercy of conflicts scattered around the world -- political and social disruptions can easily stymie the free flowing of ideas, people and money so essential to the global innovation machine. Case in point is the US (and to some degree, the rest of the world) political focus on fighting terrors lurking in the shadows. Funneling of funds into defense R&D, slows government funding into general R&D, education and science. The spectre of terrorism closes the valve on free flowing innovation -- on capitalism itself. Fixing the social injustices is the sure fire way of ensuring peace and growth in global innovation. But will it be done? And done in time?
   BusinessWeek's report on innovation is comprehensive, well written and an exceptional read. It looks ahead to what we can expect from the innovation engine in the coming years. It looks at where in the world the new ideas are coming from, and points to countries that will soon join the ranks of the first world nations. It interviews a slew of innovators for their take on where we're heading and what the future will bring. A really great read.

Measure Up, Or Move Out

InformationWeek published their top 500 list of companies that use business technology to differentiate themselves from the pack in their Sept. 20th issue. What is important isn't who made the list, but why they made the list. Some of the evidence given for the innovators being on the list are:

Standardization of architecture and project management methodology

Reuse of components and intellectual capital

Centralization, leading to horizontal decision making on project prioritization (performance management)

Cost cutting and productivity optimization

Corporate governance and strict measuring of ROI on projects

Business strategies that turns IT into a revenue generator

Overall, the companies on the list get a budget averaging of 3.68% of their company's revenue -- a slight increase over the previous year. While cost cutting and simplification of operations remains a priority for these companies, making the priority are also initiatives to generate new revenue opportunities -- including the selling of IT services to other companies. The top companies expect to increase headcount as well, and salaries continue to be the largest IT expenditure. Even so, the top companies have also embraced a policy of selective outsourcing. You can download the list of top 500 companies in this PDF document.

Bringing IT Home

This is a bit of old news, but I thought it important enough to mention. Back in September, JP Morgan Chase & Co. decided to cut short their 10-year, US$5 billion services contract with IBM -- 18-months into the deal. After JP Morgan Chase merger with Bank One Corp., they decided that Bank One had advanced IT assets that they shouldn't just hand over to IBM. So they decided to bring it all back in house. While there have been quite a few all-inclusive IT outsourcing deals making the news of late, this one is a refreshing and smart change. While selective outsourcing to manage internal gaps is a smart thing to do, outright outsourcing is not. Read more at InformationWeek. For more on this topic, check out this sample chapter from Edward Yourdon's latest book -- Outsource: Competing in the Global Productivity Race.

Managing for Improved Corporate Performance

Today, consumers have power in most industries. Price transparency, industry overcapacity in most sectors and ruthless price competition have all contributed to put consumers on top and punched a hole in profits for companies. In such an environment, companies have put the brake on spending and turned the screws on their organizations to extract more value from existing investments. Those screws however, will soon run into a hard wall -- there's only so much fat that can be cut. It's not perpetual, and the investments that have been ignored can only be put off for so long. McKinsey labels this as "the risk of reckless conservatism." The instinctive reaction of retreating to core businesses "is not a practical strategy when the core itself is under attack." The drive to just "make-budget" is putting their core at risk, as there is little investment in maintenance, and the cost will be to future revenue. This at a time when companies face a hypercompetitive environment, with rapid changes that requires agility. Instead of compromising long term investments, companies need to embrace them -- and manage them. Discretionary spending should not be cut in lean times, but treated as a scarce resource -- to be invested wisely and managed carefully. McKinsey encourages companies to adopt corporate performance management processes -- processes that are driven horizontally across the organization to ensure that the right investments are made. Read more in the McKinsey article, "Managing for Improved Corporate Performance."

Iranian Women Warriors

Women in Iran hold no power and don't have much that pass for rights ... today. But 2,000 years ago, they were apparently wielding swords and fighting in battles. Archaeologists conducting DNA studies on the skeleton of a warrior in an Iran tomb have confirmed that the warrior being studied is female. There are 108 other tombs to be DNA tested. See the Reuters report for details.

Giant Microbes

You've got to have a sick sense of humour -- and most people in the medical profession probably do -- the ones I've met anyway -- and that's probably the appeal of Giant Microbes. What is Giant Microbes? A company that makes "stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes-only a million times actual size!" Each plush toy comes with an image and infomation on the real microbe. Currently available: "The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Cough, Ear Ache, Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete's Foot, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Flesh Eating, Sleeping Sickness, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, and Bookworm (and in our Professional line: H.I.V. and Hepatitis)."

IBM gives up on the PC

The NY Times is reporting that IBM is apparently in negotiations with potential buyers, including China's Lenovo, for the sale of its PC business. IBM was once the biggest PC manufacturer, but has since given up the top spot to Dell. A sale of their PC business would be admitting they've lost the battle with Dell, HP and the like.

DDos attacks against BitTorrent

This past Wednesday, key BitTorrent networks, LokiTorrent and Suprnova, were brought down by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Those who use the file sharing networks to find peers with movies, music and other digital media were unable to for about 10-hours. The attackers are unknown. I'll speculate though. DDoS attacks have been the tool of nefarious individuals that wish to claim bragging rights or make a political statement. I can't believe that individuals of that ilk would want to bring down BitTorrent. Unlikely -- the opposite is more likely -- they would be champions of the peer-to-peer networks. I also highly doubt that the usual law enforcement agencies would be investigating this one. Why help out a group that champions the illegal sharing of files on the internet? To take a SWAG at this, I think it could have been the RIAA or the MPAA -- or some other software giant. Ironically however, this type of attack doesn't bring down the BitTorrent network, because it's peer-to-peer. All it does is hamper users from getting to trackers that contain information of the peers with files.

Cavalcade of Lights

The fireworks display that's part of Toronto's Cavalcade of Lights is being reprised tomorrow at Nathan Phillips Square. The event runs from 7-10PM. The streets around Nathan Phillips Square will be closed to traffic, so if you're heading down there to see the pyrotechnic display, you will want to hoof it from a parking spot a bit away or take the subway. Cavalcade of Lights runs from Nov. 27 - Dec. 31st, features many events and locales. Check the website out for details.

Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents

PCWorld reports that colour printer and copier manufacturers have been in cahoots with the government for quite some years. Apparently most big name colour printer/copier manufacturer print miniscule dots embedded with tracking information on all machine output. These dots are printed on every inch of the printout and is invisible to the naked eye. In case the government wishes to track the creator of a printout, they contact the printer/copier manufacturer and they provide information on who they sold their machine to. Makes you want to register your printer now, doesn't it? For warranty purposes of course. [Thanks for the link Darren.]

Tofu in da bones

Here's one for the veggie aficionados -- tofu as a polyfiller for broken bones. I kid you not! Read the story at BBC.