Musings

Mood: Happy

Then the first computers were built they used a lot of power 17kWatt  ( 17000Watts).   This is about the power of 10 homes.

The electrical power used by a modern computer is under 250W ( including the monitor.)  The modern computer operates about 1,000,000 times faster (about 1 Gig operations per second today, compared to 3000 operations per second, 50 years ago.)

What took a year to compute 50 years ago wer can do in  30 seconds!
 There are 200 million PCs bought every year. Each year they are about 30% more powerful than those of the previous year.

 In the last 5 years there are about 1 billion PCs sold.
When they  are running they  use 250 billion Watts.
(Enough power for 250 million homes.)

But that power replaces oil which would be needed  travel  or mailing documents around the world.

It also lets us design new products that use less material to make and
consume less energy.

 This is the real miracle of the computer.

 It also accomplishes  the dream that  Andrew Carnegie had when he donated money for libraries around the world.

 The availability of information is the force that will change the world.

If you want cheering up read the Ultimate Resource 

Mood: Happy

My recommendation  is the Kodak Easyshare Camera - they are very reasonable priced and  excellent value for money.
I probable like the camera because I can see that it is an excellent example good engineering design and choices - so that the
constomer has a camera that works well.

The choice of features that Kodak make are excellent - the cameras  are an excellent example of good engineering design.  

Some features are:

The photos  are almost always excellent. That is because they have some excellent software that sets the camera value to the correct settings.
The battery power is enough to allow many photos.
The video + audio mode is useful for many casual movies.
The camera automatically powers off it you don't use it for a while - the really clever part is that the delays chosen are such that they don't  annoy. I.e. it waits long enough before going to sleep.
 
The  camera is a great example  of the design choices that have to be made in building a product.

First you have to build it at a price that is reasonable.
1. hardware - select excellent lenses etc.
2.  Since it is a battery powered device  - how long will the  batteries last.
3. what sort of battery.  Answer: AA - easy to carry a space set.
4. How big a display.


The camera has a 100 MHz processor that  has many functions
to do.  1. keep the photos sharp - auto focus software.
2.  Adjust the lighting and colour - choosing the shutter  and focus setting.
3.  guessing the lighting type - this is really amazing.
4.  In movie mode taking out the camera shake.

Probable the one single action that Kodak did was to use a very high
compression for the photo  the JPG is typically less than a 1 meg
( for  4 mega pixels).

What this choice allowed was that the camera could take
1 photo every 3 seconds and also save approximately 500 photos
on a 512M flash memory.
This also allowed one to take 6 photos in 2 seconds.

I have found that the trade offs are very clever.
I find that I don't have to wait for the camera as I do not exceed the
camera's limits.
If the compression was less then the camera would take longer to
copy the photo to the flash - then would mean that I might have to wait. f

A great place to review Camera's is Steve's Camera review
Google on Digital Camera review to find a list of good sites.
I also like to  Google  in Google groups for  the camera model
name  and problem - so that you hear from those who don't  
like the camera and see it their problem is one that you feel is
important.
Sometimes I have bought  items that have  problems that I think are not
going to bother me.  My application may be different.

Have fun!

Mood: Happy

This is my proposal:
Let consumers use the Web to
 reward businesses that are honest
 and provide good products that customers like,and discourage businesses from dishonest business practices by making  dishonest practices very expensive.

 Tell your friends of good companies and also of bad companies.  This will rapidly  transfer money from the bad to the good and will further improve your society.

The Web is a wonderful invention.

I recently read of an abuse that wired.com carried out in attempting to
compel their subscribers to renew.
See:  techdirt.com
Don't Renew Your Wired Subscription -- Debt Collectors Will Bang Down Your Door July 8th, 2005
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050708/1512247_F.shtml
and http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/08/BUGF1DKKFM1.DTL

This is my suggestion.

 Tell me what you think!

 It lets consumers identify a large range of items they want to buy.
I also lets then evaluate what they like and why?
I use it to help decide what features to look for in a new product and
to recommend items I like.
I recommend items as I think that I am encouraging companies that make excellent products and so they can get more sales and also lower their costs.
In this way good companies get to supply more customers with ever improving products, while poorer companies get to make something else.
But similiarly those companies who are not making good products lose business and so then can change their products. If they are not good at supplying the customer then they should make something else.

But the Net also has another value -
 it allows consumers to identify
businesses that are not honest. 

 In this way
 other customers can avoid them
 and stop buying their products.

In this class I put the actions of Wired.com.
They must know that the customer has decided to let the magazine lapse.

But they have tried to mislead the constomer by
suggesting that they will damage their credit rating.
This is  not possible.
 
 However WIRED.COM deliberately   caused their customers  needless stress.

 I would suggest that there might be a claim against Wired.com should anyone of the people who have had these fake "Collection Notices" suffer any illness as a result of the stress.

It is clear that the company took a policy decision to attempt to force consumers to continue the subscriptiom. 
Perhaps one could create  a group for those people who have been so
mistreated.   Some compensation should go to those who have had the misfortune to subscribe to Wired.com and experienced these dishonest practices.

 

Such action would  have 2 purposes:
1. To compensate the victims - for they have been a victim of a shady business practice.
2. Demonstrate why you should be honest with your customers.
Customers expect you to do your best. But they are reasonable too.

(I am sure that Wired.com have looked at the economics -  costs and benefits of using the "Collection Notice"; I am simply proposing to adjust cost benefit equation so that such actions become  VERY EXPENSIVE to the company and so no other company will try to use this trick. )