The Red, Red Hills of Mars

Spirit, Sol 455, Columbia Hills - NavCam, Right - 15:38:38 and 15:44:28 Local Solar

The black and white picture at right links to a 645K full-sized greyscale image; the one below to 989K colorized 1280 x 1024 desktop.

4/16/2005 4:29:29 PM    

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The new media realities Is it finally time to drop the piano roll surcharge? Try as you might, you can't blame it all on illegal MP3s, but you probably can blame "The Internets". The audience for television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, and music continues its steep nose dive. At the same time, the sales of movies (DVD and theatre), videogames, and web ads continue to set new records. In Mainstream Media Meltdown Chris Anderson provides detailed statistics and sources on what's happening to the consumer media world. [The Long Tail 4/10/2005 via Boing Boing 4/12/2005] It should be fascinating to see how Star Wars III compares to Halo 2's $125 million in first-day sales. The people have voted with their wallets ... and guess where Microsoft is putting its money? 4/16/2005 11:06:53 AM    

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Neuromarketing: Coming to an Agency Near You [Mind Hacks 4/16/2005; 9:53:36 AM] The TV programme Scientific American Frontiers has made online video available from a programme on the psychology and neuroscience of hidden motives. The first segment explores the brain's reaction to 'cool' and 'uncool' products, a new field, christened neuromarketing. Shades of William Gibson's PATTERN RECOGNITION ...  [Update: referenced on BoingBoing 4/18/2005]

From the article: Montague had his subjects take the Pepsi Challenge while he watched their neural activity with a functional MRI machine, which tracks blood flow to different regions of the brain. Without knowing what they were drinking, about half of them said they preferred Pepsi. But once Montague told them which samples were Coke, three-fourths said that drink tasted better, and their brain activity changed too. Coke "lit up" the medial prefrontal cortex -- a part of the brain that controls higher thinking. Montague's hunch was that the brain was recalling images and ideas from commercials, and the brand was overriding the actual quality of the product. For years, in the face of failed brands and laughably bad ad campaigns, marketers had argued that they could influence consumers' choices. Now, there appeared to be solid neurological proof. Montague published his findings in the October 2004 issue of Neuron, and a cottage industry was born.

4/16/2005 10:25:28 AM    

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The Business of Software: Geeks Rule and MBAs Drool. [MSDN 4/11/2005; 2:53:43 PM] Eric Sink explains the importance of "deep technology clue" for non-coders in a small ISV. "I just finished making a really difficult technology decision and I want to tell you the story of what happened. ...

I really want an Eclipse plug-in for Vault. For several months I have been trying to figure out the best way to get one. We deliberately built Vault in C#, consciously accepting the tradeoffs. We want to continue working in C#, but we want that C# code to "Just Work" on a Java VM.

C# and Java are remarkably similar. Why not build a translator to take our C# source and generate Java? We thought about writing one, but it could take a long time. Furthermore, it turns out that the syntax conversion is the easy part; the class libraries are a much bigger challenge. The converted code would still try to call the .NET Framework, but those libraries don't exist in the JVM. In the end, we decided to purchase a solution to this problem from a company called Mainsoft. Their product, Visual Mainwin for J2EE, happens to do exactly what we want. Mainsoft's tool is a Visual Studio add-on which compiles C# to Java byte code instead of to IL. They include a class library that provides support for .NET Framework stuff.

In the end, we've got a pure Java solution, nothing but a collection of jar files. We can run them on Windows or on Linux. By purchasing Mainsoft's product, we allow ourselves to keep our primary focus on Vault itself. That's a big win. The tradeoff is that this product was very expensive. This is a classic example of a "build vs. buy" problem.

My point is simply this: Virtually all decisions in a small ISV involve issues of both technology and money, so they should be made with the involvement of technology person. Getting them right is really, really hard, even for people who can see through all the technology abstractions. When such decisions are made without this expertise, the chances of a good result go way down. People like to wonder why software companies fail. This is one of the big reasons why.

4/16/2005 10:03:47 AM    

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Microsoft makes its move in the media market This time, for sure. Microsoft has a history of coming late to the game but going home with all the prizes. Just as the advent of the Internet spurred people to upgrade their PCs from mere word processors, Microsoft is counting on integrated media as the next big thing. Think of the incredibly successful iPod, combined with the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), but with seamless TiVo integration. Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 2, which is fully integrated with their media strategy, is expected to find its way into millions of homes disguised as a simple gaming platform.

Software giant plays catch-up [Globe and Mail 4/16/2005; 3:52:41 AM] The battle is really about who controls the next generation of home entertainment; how content is received, stored, viewed, manipulated and distributed. In essence, it is a platform war like the one in the early 1990s that firmly established Microsoft as the rainmaker of the PC world.

Some 15 million people have bought an Apple Computer iPod, making it a cultural icon in less than three years. Archrival Microsoft has spent years formulating a strategy to neatly combine all the elements of home entertainment: music, photos, movies, TV shows, and games, in a way that is easy for the consumer to embrace. Finally, Microsoft's hardware partners are starting to ship handheld devices that use the software giant's technology to handle all kinds of media.

One of the reasons Microsoft is playing catch-up is the typical home computer hasn't been ready for the challenge. That's changed with faster computers, faster and continuous Internet connections, and affordable, massive hard drives to store hours of movies, TV and music and years of family memories in digital form. Easy-to-use software lets users personalize and edit that content. And new wireless standards offer the means to move it all over the home.

4/16/2005 8:22:50 AM    

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LED Evolution Could Spell The End For Bulbs [USA Today 4/14/2005 via Slashdot: 4/16/2005; 6:53:23 AM] Within 15 years, the ubiquitous incandescant light bulb may finally be gone, replaced by light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. LEDs are based on semiconductor technology, just like computer processors, and are increasing in brightness, energy efficiency and longevity just as each year's new crop of processors is faster and cheaper than last year's. LEDs have been around since the 60s, but it wasn't until the 90s that they were able to produce white light.

Current white LEDs will last up to 50,000 hours, about 50 times as long as a 60-watt bulb, which makes them attractive for places where changing bulbs is difficult or expensive. This week researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic said they had boosted the light output per watt of a white LED to almost six times that of an incandescent light bulb, beating even a compact fluorescent bulb in efficiency. As the cost drops over time, long life and efficiency become more and more attractive.

LEDs are also durable. Being solid-state, they can resist the vibrations in aircraft and cars. Neon signs, a leading cause of fires at restaurants, are vulnerable to vandalism. By contrast, LED signs made of Plexiglas are tough. At a recent trade show, iLight exhibited an LED sign that still worked after taking a blast from a shotgun. Finally, for the first time last year, LEDs made major progress in a critical commerical market: Christmas lights.

4/16/2005 7:39:58 AM    

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