I'm confused, but happy to see this All Spark USB hub with four ports but no ability to make objects into Transformers. When all four ports are plugged, it will say: "We must protect the All Spark Cube." Sounds interesting and scary enough. You can bring this thing home for £13.99 ($28), but beware of the evil Decepticons. [Everything USB]
noreply@blogger.com (REAL OPTIMUS PRIME)

Where Are All The Google Data Centers?: Interesting look at just where Google stores all their data around the world.

There are 36 data centers in all—19 in the U.S., 12 in Europe, 3 in Asia, and one each in Russia and South America.

We’re very excited because Google is opening a new data center about two hours south of us in Council Bluffs, just outside Omaha.

editors@gadgetopia.com (Deane Barker)

Updated. From the recipe archive.

The debate usually begins like this.

ME: Dad, how do you make your hash browns turn out so crispy?
DAD: Use a potato ricer. It's the only thing I've found that really gets the moisture out of the potatoes. The trick to these hash browns is to get rid of as much moisture as possible before cooking them.
MOM: I always used paper towels to press out the moisture.
DAD: Your hash browns are mushy.
MOM: I made this family hash browns for forty years and you never complained. They're perfectly fine.
DAD: They were mushy.
MOM: You ate them!
DAD: Yes I did. And they were mushy.
(and the debate continues as I quietly leave the room.)

Mom's hash browns are mushy. Tasty, edible, yummy, but still mushy. They aren't as good as dad's, and that is just a fact. Here's how dad makes his hash browns.

Continue reading "Crispy Hash Browns" »

Kodak needed the ultimate productivity boost to avoid get shuttered out of business when the photography industry went digital. It is hard to imagine a worse case scenario than the one that was faced by Kodak. This 125 year old Fortune 500 company entered the new millennium with 70% of its revenue and profits coming from its traditional businesses that were based on manufacturing and selling film cameras, photographic films and papers.

A few days ago, we interviewed Jeff Hayzlett, Kodak’s Chief Business Development Officer and Vice President along with David Lanzillo, Director of Corporate Communication and the company’s Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs. During the interview, they mentioned their F.A.S.T. program as being essential to their success in making the massive changes required to transform the company into a global leader in digital communications.

The breadth and depth of the changes made by Kodak were dramatic. Jeff described the company as currently having “19 products, each being number 1, 2 or 3 in its respective industry. Half these products did not exist ten years ago.” At its peak in 1988, Kodak had 150,000 employees, compared to just 27,000 today. Jeff said that “60% of our people are new within the past four years.” The company is cranking out about as much revenue now as it was in the 1980s, using a small fraction of its past workforce. These productivity gains were almost unimaginable then.

Jeff and David claimed their four part productivity boosting F.A.S.T. program was used as “a way for us to bring a number of companies working together.” The four parts of the FAST program are as follows:

1. Focus.Everyone in the company including those on the factory floors have become highly focused on delivering results. The people at Kodak are all tied into the larger context of what the company is working toward. They are informed of more than just their small part of the picture. Is everything that you do geared towards your goals? Is it in the larger context of what you are working toward?
2. Accountability. This is about promises and keeping them. Jeff said “I’m accountable and I’ll deliver those, no matter what – short of doing something dangerous or illegal. We treat everybody inside the company as if they were a customer.” Ask yourself, how good am I at delivering what I promise?
3. Simplicity. Jeff said, “We have 125 years of rules and regulations. To be a fast and nimble company, do we need a lot of those? We gave permission.” A huge chunk of their policy and procedure manuals were scrapped. The company did an end to end review and eliminated waste throughout the organization. It transformed itself from a bloated behemoth into a lean organization in much less time than any other company of its size ever has. What have you done to remove unnecessary clutter or stuff that gets in the way of real productivity?
4. Trust. “Good open conversations. We agree to be in fair and open dialogue. This is in a spirit of cooperation and accountability. Even if we screw up, we’ll do it faster.” Kodak clearly values true communication. How open are you in conversation? Do you express yourself clearly and with candor?

We wish to thank Jeff and David for taking time to help us better understand what Kodak has done to sharpen its image. It has become an important player in the new digital world. We appreciate how Kodak has retaken a leading position through its productivity-enhancing F.A.S.T. approach and shared this so that we all can benefit from their approach.

Peter Paul Roosen and Tatsuya Nakagawa are co-founders of Atomica Creative Group , a specialized strategic product marketing firm. Through leading edge insight and research, sound strategic planning and effective project management, Atomica helps companies achieve greater success in bringing new products to market and in improving their existing businesses. They have co-authored Overcoming Inventoritis: The Silent Killer of Innovation, now available.

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Wonderful collection of illustrations from science books of the mid-20th century.

Vintage Science Flickr Pool [via]

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]Gareth Branwyn

Two prisoners dug a tunnel from their cell 80 feet to escape from prison. Where did they hide the dirt? This is one of the examples used by Roni Horowitz of the consultancy group SIT to show the advantages of a method called Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT).

The answer is that they hid the dirt in the tunnel. The prisoners stole nylon sacks from the prison bakery and each day they dug the tunnel and put the dirt into the sacks. At cell inspection times they pushed all the dirt bags back into the tunnel and tidied the cell. When the prisoners escaped the guards found a cell full of bags of dirt and an empty tunnel.

It is a good example of one of the principles of SIT – look for the solution within the problem or its environment. The prisoners had very limited resources – but one of them was the tunnel itself.

If we are given unlimited resources to solve a problem then we can always come up with something – and often it is expensive and over-engineered. When we have to use the limited set of resources contained in the problem and its immediate environment then we are forced to be more creative – and very often the result is a solution that is elegant, inexpensive and effective. Using the tunnel is a prime example.

When Hiram Maxim went pigeon shooting he noticed two problems. One was the strong recoil of the rifle into his shoulder. The second was that he had to stop to reload the gun. He wondered if it was possible to use one problem to solve the other and by doing so he invented the machine gun.

At the end of the first Gulf War fires were raging out of control in the Kuwaiti oil refineries. What could be used to put them out? One answer might have been sand. But a better solution was found. The pipelines that were normally used to pump oil from the refineries were used to pump water to the refineries. By using an existing resource and reversing the flow the problem was overcome.

Engineers are accustomed to working in very constrained conditions. In the very early Volkswagen Beetle car there was a problem of how to provide the power needed for the windscreen washer. The ingenious solution that the engineers came up with was to use the air pressure from the spare wheel (which was in the front of the car) to power the water jet.

But it is not just product engineers who can use internal resources in ingenious ways. In 2005 the IRA pulled off a major robbery at the Northern Bank in Belfast – they got away with £25m in banknotes. How could the authorities catch the criminals or stop them using the proceeds of their crime? They came up with a clever idea using one of the resources within the problem – the stolen banknotes. They changed the currency in Northern Ireland and reprinted all bank notes. Anyone holding old bank notes had to bring them in to be changed – and that is a big problem if you are holding millions of stolen banknotes.

So how can you use this approach in your problem solving? One of the methods taught in Systematic Inventive Thinking is to break the problem down into a chain of unwanted effects. Now consider in turn each element in the problem or its environment and say to yourself – this element can be adapted to stop one of the unwanted effects and to break the chain. Then come up with ideas. By rigorously and imaginatively applying this technique you will often find an inventive solution.

Paul Sloane is an author and speaker on leadership, innovation and lateral thinking. His most recent book is The Innovative Leader. He helps organizations improve innovation, creativity and leadership. He is the founder of Destination Innovation. He has written 15 books of lateral thinking puzzles and hosts the lateral puzzles forum.

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Paul Sloane

hehe..awesome. Just what I need for the big zombie outbreak of 2008. Check it!

Add to your favorite social site:

A medium difficulty Instructable to fix a circular magnifier work lamp by converting to a very low energy, high reliability alternative light source that avoids using mercury contaminated florescent light bulbs.

AC Powered White LED Circular Magnifier Work Lamp - Link

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]Gareth Branwyn

This is exciting for me; when I was studying Neuroscience I wrote a paper on Vision Substitution Systems. Well, now the Boston Retinal Implant Program seem to actually have a prototype (for a different kind of blindness, but still) for a retina replacement device. Basically, it’s a freaking bionic eye.

The device is really cool, and it has to be waterproof, durable enough to last ten years in the body, and small enough to do its job while inside your little eyeball. The project spans multiple universities and hospitals and has been going on for decades, and they’re close to a working product. Can’t wait to get mine!

Eyes on prize: Visionary device gives hope [Boston Herald]

ShareThis

Did not expect to see this image this morning.

In a word - awesome. In a few words; the last supper reference is done rather well in that it both symbolizes the last season of the show, and potentially the end of all cylons, with several (Six included) looking to sacrifice herself (itself?) for the good of all. (click for larger image)

via Flickr 

Individuals invented the internet yet now corporations claim they own own it - they claim it's their private property. If that's true then you don't have free speech online.

I disagree - I think free speech in "free speech zones" isn't free: it's dependent on having a public place to be heard - meaning public property like the internet.

This was created by FourEyedMonsters and this video is included on the current version of the DVD they sell off of their site.

I can not imagine what would happen if the world lost the internet. Be sure to check out the "Save the Internet" video, and their site too. Let's not let the Man take our Intertubes from us. noreply@blogger.com (NeuroMan42)

In 2007, there were two topics used more than anything else in webcomics: Portal and 300. In 2007, there were two topics that I did not do a single Dueling Analogs comic about: Portal and 300. Well, this isn't 2007 anymore bitches!

In a steampunk world, Portal technology and the Spartans would be a perfect match. Take the current scenario. You've got someone falling infinitely. Pretty soon the person's rate of decent will reach terminal velocity. At that speed if the descendant (or is it decendy?) could actually get a hold of ledge or something, what ever touched such ledge or something would look very reminiscent of a duck going into a airplane propeller. So without striking a single blow the Spartans have created the ultimate hell for said person. Either continue to fall until you inevitably starve to death or attempt to escape with gruesome consequences. And neither are death in battle that the Spartans males so long for.

I told Shawn and Brian that I was going to do this comic while I was at KatsuCon. Then, Scott did this comic last week. So I decided to wait until this week before I did my strip. You know what they say "Better late than pregnant never!"

That's it. See you Monday.

(author unknown)

Really great look at the stats. I love crap like this.

"Witness the beauty and elegance of mathematics with 50 breathtaking fractals. Webshots member rajah created these Fractal Flames with Apophysis--a freeware Windows application with which you can design and render fractal flames. According to http://apophysis.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.flam3.com/, Fractal Flames were created by Scott Draves in 1992 and are an "extension of the iterated function system class of fractals"."



This is completely off-topic, but I thought these were so cool they were worth posting - have a great weekend everyone!

undisclosed@thoughtsmedia.com (Jason Dunn)

This R2D2 knit hat from the Craft: Blog was just too geek-chic to not cross-post here. Attention knitters who love me...

R2D2 Knit Hat Pattern - Link

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]Gareth Branwyn

Dan sent in this sweet networking solution that puts cable infrastructure behind removable base and crown molding - [via] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]Phillip Torrone

Steven Brust has written a novel set in the Firefly universe, and he released it under a Creative Commons license. It's available in PDF and Word; so should be easily convertible to other formats.

I haven't read it yet, so I can't recommend it yet... But it's a Firefly novel, written by Steven Brust, how shiny is that?

You can find it here: http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html.

Pretty pumped about the movie to be rather honest. The tank got the raw end of this deal.

I usually hate these things, but sometimes, you have to grab on to those that make some sense. A few of these do, like this one:

3. After breakfast, make water your primary drink. At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year — or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.

More here.

I frequently chase the dream of being paperless. But I have come to the brink of acceptance: for me, it will never be wholly achievable. You will always need some papers to actually exist in physical form. Even with the theory of a paperless office, clutter still manages to amass somewhere. Whether it’s on your desk or on your hard drive, you know if you are guilty of it. However, the time it takes to go back and streamline your filing system is overwhelming. Especially if you have let it go for a long time.

In a world desperate to become “paperless”, we still tend to keep everything and anything. While digital filing can eliminate the need for bulky filing cabinets for a visually pleasing office, the chaos of digital files looms on your hard drive, your external drives and however many CD’s/DVD’s you have with “stuff” on them. But whether you are attempting paperless or still using the old-fashioned method of papers in a filing cabinet, there are ways to clean up your financial documents.

With the new year rolling in and tax season upon us, why not set aside some time to make sure you are keeping what you really need? I have set up some guidelines for what to keep and what you can safely put in the trash bin.

Toss Every Month

• ATM And bank-deposit slips, after you’ve recorded the amounts in your check register and checked them against your monthly bank statement.
• Credit-card receipts, after you’ve checked to make sure the item appears correctly on your monthly statement.
• Sales receipts for minor purchases, after you’ve satisfactorily used the item and if it has no warranty (and is not deductable).
• Phone and utility bills (unless you deduct them as business expenses.)
• Cable or other service bills can safely be tossed every month.

Toss After One Year

• Monthly bank and credit-card statement (if you don’t itemize deductions).
• Monthly or quarterly brokerage and mutual-fund statements, after you’ve reconciled them with your year-end summary.
• Monthly mortgage statements, as long as your year-end statement clearly shows the total amount you’ve paid in interest and property taxes over the course of the year.
• Phone and utility bills (as long as you don’t have a home office, use your phone for business calls, or anticipate any need to prove long-term residency).
• Paycheck stubs, after you’ve reconciled them with your annual W-2 or 1099 forms.

Retain for Seven Years

• W-2 AND 1099 forms.
• Year-end statements from credit-card companies and banks.
• Phone and utility bills (only if you deduct any portion for business expenses, have more than one home, or have moved within the past few years).
• Canceled checks and receipts/statements for: annual mortgage interest and property taxes, deductible business expenses, child-care bills, out-of-pocket medical costs, or any other tax-deductible expense.

Keep Indefinitely

• Your annual tax returns./li>
• Your year-end summaries from financial-services companies.
• Confirmation slips that list the purchase price of any investments you own.
• Home-improvement records.
• Receipts for major purchases. (Any item whose replacement cost exceeds the deductible on your homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policy).
• Beneficiary designations.

Keeping files and papers that you don’t need just create more clutter. It leads to less productivity because you spend more time sifting through thousands of papers to find that needle in a haystack. Now that you have some guidelines, don’t you think it’s time you go through your files for a cleaner, more productive workspace?

AJ West has years of writing under her belt for a variety of mass media, artists and musicians. AJ specializes in press kits and releases, biographies, websites and magazines. She has certificates in creative and technical writing. She is a featured writer on Talentspeaks and a poet on Talent Database.

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AJ West