What happens to your Project plan or decision tree matrix or Cad design documents when you send them in an email outside of your Companies network? Who protects the document and your companies intellectual property?

Pinion provides a unique security system for Data Security of design documents, project documentation and even cad files.

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The music distribution system was broken several years ago.  Steve Jobs was able to put humpty dumpty back together but its all bandaids and scotch tape. 

The iPod is a fantastic device in lots of ways, but the iTunes distribution process is ugly.  iPod has about 75% of the portable music player market and this is a huge influence on music downloads.  Album sales in the traditional sense have been declining year after year, but there appears to be a little light at the end of the tunnell.

First, the portable music download industry is growing and there are more choices available to consumers.  Many still go with the default of iTunes, but with heavy hitters like Wal-Mart and Microsoft and many more trying to carve out a slice of pie, pricing should improve.

New technologies are also pushing growth into areas such as Podcasting -> named not so much after the iPod but coincidentally at about the same time the iPod launched and when it was still marching up to its first million units sold.

Video and other types of media are starting to grow more dominant on the devices themselves and as Google has recently purchased YouTube and Brightcove has launched its beta after signing a deal with MTV, we could begin to see the model changes as music mixes into the state of things.

The bottom line is that a dollar a song business model thrown out there back in 2001 is really no better than the $15 dollar a CD (for 15 songs) model the music industry offered in the years leading up to Napster.  The internet is a great leveller and as more and more artists are moving into music distribution spaces such as MySpace there is ample opportunity for many of the major players to stake out a new territory or have their industry handed to them on a plate by a start up.

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After hoards of people rushed back to school following the dotcom bust in 2001, the preponderance for advanced MBA’s and Master’s Degree holders is much more crowded in the job market.

Many people regularly comment about the changing level of importance of a Bachelor’s degree, saying that the Bachelor’s is somewhat like the High School diploma used to be.  This is unfair, but the reality is that thirty years ago the middle class was often times populated by people with High School diplomas that were making good wages.  These days its much harder to make ‘good wages’ without a Bachelor’s degree and with the swarms of people that have gone on to get a Master’s degree of one form or another we have to wonder when the Master’s will become one of the defining characteristics of the middle class.

For that matter, a PhD has long been viewed as something for academia without much place in business, but more people are creeping into the business world with doctorate work completed.  Ties to a university or program can even be a positive hiring point for candidates.  Smart companies are looking for the best and the brightest and as this logic goes why stop at a Master’s.

Many people now the ropes of education fairly well by the time they complete a master’s program.  A bachelor’s indoctrinates a person to what it takes to complete college work and a master’s teaches a person how to research and teach themselves with heavy guidance.  It can also start to guide them in teaching others as well.  A doctorate helps to cement the research and teaching skills and requires a degree of knowledge in a specific area that is demonstrable.

The point is that after a person has learned ‘how to learn’ an online program can become more feasible.  Candidates might consider distance learning phd as a means to complete their research or mastery of an area without having to put on a corduroy jacket and take up an office in the local university.

Many people have already learned how to complete a Master’s program online and by extension might look to use the same skills that allowed them to achieve success as they review their doctorate options.  Finally, pursuing a doctorate online can allow candidates to work and research and learn from programs and professors anywhere in the world.  This becomes an excellent opportunity for someone to specialize in a discipline and connect with the small population of people that have specialized in the same discipline even if they are thousands of miles and a dozen time zones away.

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Could it be that since the battery was invented claims about battery life have been greatly exaggerated?

Robert Conrad used to challenge people to “knock the battery off my shoulder” for Eveready as if to challenge us to even consider thinking the battery wasn’t tough enough for the job.

Truth be told its not the batteries fault.  It just does what it does, but battery life and expectations are often set too high.  This is made even worse when a consumer electronics product designer attempts to estimate and advertise esoteric notions like ‘play time’, and ’standby time’ and don’t hold your breath waiting for a lot of ‘talk time’.

Battery life is to consumer electronics what EPA miles per gallon is to sticker listings on a new car and don’t worry I’m not going on a rant on new cars just yet.

I just read a review of Microsoft’s new Zune Player reviewed by Walter Mossberg of the WSJ on November 9, 2006, (sec B1,3).  He wrote,

But Battery life on the Zune was very disappointing.  Microsoft Claims 14 hours of music playback on a single charge with the wireless feature turned off . . .

. . . . I got just 12 hours and 18 minutes of music playback, versus 14 hours and 44 minutes from an iPod under the same usage pattern.

He elaborates that Microsoft assesses their number based on a special set of circumstances where the the volume is always at default, the same track repeats endlessly and the backlight time is reduced down to a second.

Who does that?

Who listens to the same track repeating at default volume for 14 hours straight?  Why can’t the consumer electronics manufactures come up with a standard testing system with say 10,000 tracks of songs provided in the same order with the volume level calibrated to a certain level of decibels based on a standardized beep or whistle on the very first track.

Put the tracks out for distribution with manufactures and designers, and give it the Mossberg Audio Test of Playtime Analysis (MATOPA).  A simple standard would then allow us to measure if various devices stand up against each other on the MATOPA scale.  Plus, they should then run say 100 devices in a random sample off the manufacturing line throughout the year to keep their MATOPA rating for truth in advertising.

Pick your device and a similar test could be devised, but do we all really need some absolutely useless and faulty advertising information presented to us in countless reviews websites and product packaging information guides. 

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In 1994, Microsoft presented a video demonstration of life in the future during CES. The video features among other things, health care workers communicating via televised panels at the scene of an accident, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and in the hospital itself.

Doctor’s are conferencing in via video to help the paramedics diagnose and guide the treatment of the patient.

Twelve years later the technology is starting to catch up with the vision, but its not coming from Microsoft.

LifeSize Communications offers High Definition Video Communications for Healthcare, Business and even Education purposes too.

They offer Video Conferencing Equipment that is not only in high definition but is life size as well. Imagine going to the hospital for a surgery and having a doctor or a team of doctors opt in to a teleconference to consult, or learn or share ideas about practices and procedures from around the world.

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