Appealing workplaces are to be avoided.
One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark.

- Annie Dillard
 

Source: reallifecomics.com

A Different Kind of Light...

A complex Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instrument in seen in operation at Davis station in Antarctica with the glow of the Aurora Australis also in the sky.  Physicists from the division and the University of Adelaide have developed the LIDAR to study the middle atmosphere above Davis Station.  The LIDAR obtains information by sending pulses of green laser light into the sky and measuring the extremely small spectral changes that take place when the light is scattered by atmospheric gases and aerosols.  The information collected will be used to assess long-term climate trends and to better understand atmospheric motions.  Photo by Andrew Dowdy - Australian Antarctic Division

Why Geeks Keep the Light Off...

Source: www.thesun.co.uk sent to them by Ellie Greenwood

Messier but Cleaner?

Source: bash.org  This was this year's "Messy Desk" contest winner...

Top 10 Signs That It's Time to Join E-Mailers Anonymous

10. You wake up at 3am to go to the bathroom, and check your email on the way back to bed.

 9. Your firstborn is named dotcom.

 8. You turn off your modem and are suddenly filled with a feeling of emptiness, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one.

 7. You spend half of a plane trip with your laptop in your lap and your child in the overhead compartment.

 6. You decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just for the free Internet access.

 5. You find yourself typing "com" after every period.com

 4. You refer to going to the bathroom as downloading.

 3. You move into a new home and decide to netscape before you landscape.

 2. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

Drum Roll Please

And the #1 sign that it's time to join E-Mailers Anonymous:

 1. Immediately after reading this list, you email it to someone.

Source: psych.upenn.edu

An Internet Guru's Lexicon

by Amy Harmon, lexicographer

Amazoned - What happens when a large, established company is overtaken by a Web-based start-up.  As in, "we don't want to be Amazoned.

 Business Model - Usually a vague idea that outlines how a company plans to generate revenue.  Criticised by Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor, who said it "becomes an invitation for faulty thinking and self-delusion," because it allows executives to duck the harder problems of developing a strategy and competitive advantage.

Corporate Strategy Sourpuss - What e-business consultant Larry Downes called Michael Porter, the Harvard business school professor, in a recent column in The Industry Standard.  Strictly, an old-style business strategist who doesn't take account of how the Internet requires companies to have flexible strategies that can change rapidly with the technology.

Disintermediated - What happens to big traditional companies after the Internet cuts out the middleman and removes obstacles to the speedy flow of information and goods.

Fear Factor - An emotion shared by corporate executives who think that they will look stupid because they don't understand technology.  Commonly cited by consultants as a means of talking clients into paying high consulting fees.

First Mover Advantage - The theory that being first on the Internet is all that matters, no matter how much money it takes or how bad the product or service is - or the fact that switching allegiances was easier on the Internet than anywhere else, because clicking to another site is easy.

Get Big Fast - The dominant business model (see above) of the Internet boom era.

Greed - Far more than any consulting jargon, what might have motivated corporate executives to invest in Internet businesses.

Internet Time - The pace at which Internet businesses evolve, or devolve.  Typically thought to be approximately seven times that of the off-line world.

Knowledge Gap - The yawning gulf between the stunning acumen of young Web designers and the total ignorance of Luddite executives with 30 years of management experience at traditional companies about how to do business online.

New Economy - A world where information products have different properties than physical, Industrial-Age products, so the rules of how to make and sell them must be different, too.

We're Still in the Early Innings - What consultants say now to bitter and disillusioned executives who have spent millions of dollars on failed Internet strategies.

Source: The New York Times Sunday 13 May 2001

Flowchart for Problem Resolution

Source: Philip Lippard, Sanibel Island, Florida

For IT-related articles on snooping, usage, the future, e-diaries, piracy, flickers, cyborgs, browsing, trends, jokes, philosophic agents, artificial consciousness and more, press the "Up" button below to take you to the Table of Contents for this Information and Technology section.