Slashdot Mirror

o0zi writes "A Canadian scientist has created another game-playing machine, designed for a far simpler purpose than chess: playing pool. The world's first pool-playing robot consists of a slim box that glides along tracks above a pool table, and shoots using a camera-guided cue. Deep Green pots only half the shots it plans for - supposedly the same as a below average player - but this is expected to improve."

Eli Singer writes "I'm writing to recommend The Power of the 2x2 Matrix , the best book on decision-making I've seen in a long time. The book presents 55 decision matrix models by some of the best minds out there including Stephen Covey ( 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ) and Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm). Although the book is primarily for business decision-making, the matrices really force you to think about your own personal and professional life." No bones about it, Singer is not a disinterested party: he helped with research that went into it. Read on for the rest of his review, below; there's also a link to a sample chapter of the book. (The Globe and Mail recently reviewed this book as well.) The Power of the 2x2 Matrix author Alex Lowy & Phil Hood pages 320 publisher Jossey-Bass rating 8 reviewer Eli Singer ISBN 0787972924 summary Using 2x2 Thinking to solve business problems and make better decisions

I had the pleasure of working with the authors of this book for over a year as a research assistant. Over that time I came to deeply associate with the 2x2 Matrix approach to problem-solving, and believe it is one of the most novel, fun, and effective ways of understanding business and personal dilemmas.

The idea behind 2x2 Matrix problem solving is to simplify any dilemma you're experiencing to its two core, often competing, facets. For example, The Gartner Magic Quadrant evaluates a company's technology solution based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. These two aspects are then placed on opposing axis of a grid and given hi/low extremes. This instantly generates four quadrants of distinctly different possible scenarios. In this case:

• Niche Players - Low completeness of vision, low ability to execute
• Visionaries - High completeness of vision, low ability to execute
• Challengers - Low completeness of vision, high ability to execute
• Leaders - High completeness of vision, high ability to execute

The authors, Alex Lowy and Phil Hood, have gone to great lengths to examine outstanding problem solving practices offering both an academic explanation of the theory behind 2x2 modeling, and a profile of 55 of the best decision models out there.

These 55 decision models, presented in short, clear summaries with illustrations and often technology-based case examples (drawn from IBM, Apple, HP, Borland, and the open source world) are the real gold in the book. The models range from highly business-oriented strategy, marketing, and employee-motivation frameworks, to personally oriented frameworks that help structure time, understand personality conflicts, improve leadership skills, and evaluate career transition opportunities.

Chapter 3 is devoted to what the authors call Archetypal Business Dilemmas. The dilemmas presented here speak vividly to the challenges being experienced right now by the open source community:

• Head vs. Heart The toughest choices are between doing what makes sense, and what feels right.
• Content vs. Process Content is the what, Process is the how. Success in most things requires mastery of both qualities.

Also, there are a host of technology gurus who have been interviewed and have matrices presented from their work: Charles Fine, author of Clockspeed; Watts Wacker, author of The Deviant's Advantage ; Hal Varian and Carl Shapiro, authors of Information Rules ; Paul Weifels and Geoffrey Moore, authors of Crossing the Chasm; and Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy.

It is almost impossible to read this book and not compulsively apply these exceptional models to personal life. At the moment I've been working with Stephen Covey's Urgency and Importance matrix.

For many of us, life is filled with tasks that are Urgent, leaving little time for more fundamental and long-term activities necessary for personal and professional development.The Time Management matrix explores two key dimensions, Importance and Urgency:

Importance. Things that are important are reflective of one's values and contribute to achieving higher-priority goals and personal mission. Importance is about results that matter.

Urgency. Urgent things require immediate attention. They tend to be visible, popular with others, and to act on us.

My cell-phone and inbox both feel highly Urgent, and I often answer my messages immediately, despite the fact that in most situations their Importance is questionable. I'm working at shifting away from a crisis-oriented instant response, which is in turn generating more free time to work on the things that are really important to me but don't necessarily jump in front of my face.

Without actually sitting down and plotting how I used my time during a week on the matrix, I would never have had to directly face the multitude of things I was sacrificing just to keep up with my trivial emails. It's the simplicity and clarity of 2x2 modeling that makes it a great tool for wrestling with dilemmas, and generating deep insights.

Most will find the book an easy and engaging read, especially the framework sections. The downside, if there is one, is the sheer volume of great frameworks. One can only absorb a few at a time and for this reason I'd recommend reading slowly, jumping from the table of contents right to parts that sound the most interesting.

You can purchase The Power of the 2x2 Matrix from bn.com; a sample chapter is available here. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

c writes "The Supreme Court of Canada says that you're liable if a plant with a patented gene infects your property. If you recall, Schmeiser claims (and research supports) that Roundup Ready canola seeds infected his own crops. Monsanto prosecuted him for patent infringement." Some other links: Monsanto's press release, Globe and Mail story.

Corey Burger writes "Seems somebody rolled out of bed on the wrong side today. The Globe and Mail's Ian Johnson delivers up a rant about the ubiquity of the new blue LEDs."

Anonymous Coward writes "What do you do when you let an employee go? You kill their password and ID, right? Air Canada didn't, and they're now in court because the employee went to a competitor, wrote some cool automated scripts using the ID/password, and grabbed some company data." Interesting story, because Air Canada authorized the employee to access this website and book tickets for himself as part of his severance, but they apparently provide a little more data on that site than what is available to the public.

Ian writes "The Globe and Mail has a piece about the man behind Boolean Logic - George Boole - The Isaac Newton of logic. 'It was 150 years ago that George Boole published his classic The Laws of Thought, in which he outlined concepts that form the underpinnings of the modern high-speed computer.'"

Greedo writes "While reading this piece about designing 'experiences' in the Globe and Mail, I came across this interesting tidbit: If you're a frequent Prada shopper (and who on /. isn't?), the loyalty card in your wallet or purse contains a RFID tag that announces your arrival in the store. When you encounter a saleswoman, her handheld computer brings up your tastes, buying history, vital statistics and personalized suggestions from in-stock and coming inventory; the handhelds also place orders and book change rooms. Every item for sale bears an RFID tag. The RFID tags are courtesy of IDEO, and their website has a nice write-up of all the RFID-powered stuff at Prada, including the changeroom! I'm guessing this isn't coming to Wal*Mart's changerooms when they implement RFID. (Another write-up can be found here.)"

Greedo writes "Two articles, one from the CBC and one from The Globe and mail report that puretracks.com has launched, offering 99-cent (Canadian dollars) downloads for music tracks. As a Canadian who wishes Apple would get their iTunes Music Store available to non-US customers, this may be the alternative I've been waiting for. Although I think they only offer .WMV files (boo)." Check out mgoyer's " rough review" of the service.

Slashback tonight brings you more information on homemade railguns, the future history of SCO (seen from the past), one website's response to alleged RIAA mendacity, a legal victory for famous web jerk Tucker Max, and more -- read on for the details.

Please don't point that thing at me. BoomZilla writes "If you thought that the recent Gauss Gun article on Slashdot was spiffy, check out Jengel & Fatro's Rail Gun Page. Everything you need to know about the physics behind building your very own rail gun. Ever used the Quake rail gun and lusted after the real thing? Here's your opportunity."

Telepathic telegrams work as well as ever, though. markgo2k writes "After the web site experienced 'an unusually high number of visitors,' the White House modified the contact page and added a prominent link to president@whitehouse.gov. Here's the latest NYT story (once again, reprinted here in the non-subscription Seattle PI). Of course, the White House is still confused on the difference between the New York Times effect and the Slashdot effect. It's not mentioned in the story, but there is also now a feedback link to submit comments to the 'White House Web Development Team,' if you want to drop them a line..."

It's half-Greek to me. In response to the recent story on perpendicular data storage in next-generation hard drives, Anonymous Coward writes "Here is a better overview of Perpendicular HDD technology. Here is a real detailed scientific article that seems to be written in Greek."

They're off my Christmas card list, too. Techfocus ran an interview with Fred von Lohmann earlier this year. Now, an anonymous reader points to an update on their site: "Effective immediately, the RIAA and MPAA will need to find another way to get to Techfocus. In response to their legal targeting of individual file-swappers, access from their known networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site."

Techfocus cites three reasons for the denial, the top one being that the RIAA took advantage of the interview with von Lohmann, "quoting him out of context in a manner which could lead readers of their materials to believe that we supported their efforts. This could not be further from the truth."

The secret is to predict enough things. An anonymous reader points out this article from early 2000 citing Gartner analyst Al Hilwa's prediction that Linux is "probably going to kill SCO UnixWare," writing "As you can read, SCO's end was predicted near perfectly." I think "hinted at" is more accurate, since SCO is still alive and at least making a good show of kicking, but it's interesting to revisit a story about SCO which mentions that "industry observers thought that the company would be Linux's first victim," back when Project Monterey was a going concern.

A victory for discourteous boors everywhere. aeaas writes "The beauty queen Katy Johnson dropped her suit against Tucker Max over the posting of stories from their relationship on his website. This story was first brought up in the context that he was forced to take down stories relating to her without holding a hearing or notifying Max prior to it. This is unusual in American law."

A quarter mil is a lot of suffering, even in Canadian money. Skippy321 writes "Justified or not, Ghyslain Raza--better known as the Star Wars Kid--is suing the four students who posted his homemade video of himself doing acrobatic "sword-fighting stunts" on the Internet for $250,000. He claims that he has suffered harassment and persecution. It's also interesting how the article states that he quit high school due to this video, at only 15 years of age. Although things aren't so bad for him -- here's a petition for him to get a role in Episode III."

Meshach writes "An article in the Globe and Mail is discussing a possible change to the way postal codes are assigned over the world. NAC Geographic Products will be using Microsoft's MapPoint to power their Mobile Location-Based Services Network, which could change all postal codes in the world to a simpler, more universal format."

Proaxiom writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that OncoMouse, the so-called 'Harvard Mouse' that is especially prone to cancer, cannot be patented under Canadian law. The hapless rodent still enjoys patent protection in the U.S., Japan and much of Europe. So there is at least one place where higher life forms cannot be patented, but I am not familiar enough with the intricacies of international intellectual property treaties to figure out the consequences of the discrepancy. I'm sure countless IANAL's will be willing to offer opinions."

Meshach writes "The globe and mail has an article about how yahoo is starting to charge for their email service. Payment is not mandatory but if you don't pay you have many restrictions on your accont. It says that while many are angry about the change enough people are paying that it is helping Yahoo rebound from their slump. This seems like a recent trend in e-business." The conventional wisdom around web stuff that's been free, but converts to pay is that "they die off, no one wants to use it anymore etc etc", but I think what people fail to realize is that for many businesses, less people is *just fine*, if those people are paying.

Meshach writes "The globe and mail has an article about how yahoo is starting to charge for their email service. Payment is not mandatory but if you don't pay you have many restrictions on your accont. It says that while many are angry about the change enough people are paying that it is helping Yahoo rebound from their slump. This seems like a recent trend in e-business." The conventional wisdom around web stuff that's been free, but converts to pay is that "they die off, no one wants to use it anymore etc etc", but I think what people fail to realize is that for many businesses, less people is *just fine*, if those people are paying.

An anonymous reader submits: "According to this article, the Canadian government has given the military and RCMP permission to jam radio signals during the G8 summit and the Pope's visit. I suppose that the stated reason would be to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other, but I have to wonder whether it's also being done to keep those pesky protesters from effectively organizing at the G8. And if this action manages to block wireless 911 calls, and someone dies because of that, who's going to be willing to step up to the plate and take the blame?"

thepooleboy writes: "The Globe and Mail has an article about a Toronto area company that has perfected 'Unbreakable Encryption' using the Vernam Cipher." The idea is to use as a one-time pad a large number generated by equations sent with an initial (proprietary) exchange which takes place when users connect to an equipped server. Since real one-time pads' numbers are by definition random and known in advance to both sender and receiver, though, the company seems to be playing fast-and-loose with their terms.

Gryphon writes: "The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a citizen has the right to express dissatifaction with the products or services of a company; in this case, an insurance company. This raises some interesting questions: does this extend to posting benchmarks of computer applications? Dissatisfaction with application security holes? Strike one for the little guy in Canada -- and maybe move here if you want to avoid the DMCA? ;)"

gtaylor writes: "The Globe and Mail reports that the Three Gorges Zhang Fei Temple in China will be disassembled before the Three Gorges dam is completed (which will flood the area where the temple stands now), and reassembled somewhere drier. Meanwhile, the Canadian National Research Council has sent over some techs who have scanned the whole complex into super-accurate 3-D models as to be sure of rebuilding the temples precisely as they were."

gtaylor writes: "The Globe and Mail reports that the Three Gorges Zhang Fei Temple in China will be disassembled before the Three Gorges dam is completed (which will flood the area where the temple stands now), and reassembled somewhere drier. Meanwhile, the Canadian National Research Council has sent over some techs who have scanned the whole complex into super-accurate 3-D models as to be sure of rebuilding the temples precisely as they were."

I don't understand why Symantec classifies a "remote root" exploit as only "medium" damage. Code Red ^[?] is hitting cable modem networks especially hard, as the new variants scan "nearby" IP's in preference to random ones, which has apparently caused enough damage and network congestion that AT&T's residential broadband division (MediaOne) has cut off port 80 across their network to try and halt the spread of the worm, or so several submitters reported. Newsforge has a story about various reactions to the worm, and reader nettdata sent in an interesting story about the worm becoming the main course at a dinner of security specialists.

loraksus points out this article from last week with pro-privacy news for Canadians: "Employees in Canda have a "fundamental, inherent right" to privacy in the workplace, and this includes the right to private e-mail, says federal Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski." ----ndra---------------------7711151414664 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="query"

drkrypton writes: "The Globe and Mail is reporting on a new metal which has a superconducting temperature of -234 C or approx. 39 K. While this is still much colder than some ceramic superconductors (which have superconducting temperatures of around -113 C or 160 K) it still may have some ramifications in electronics. Hey, I triple dog dare you to lick it." Perhaps it will one day be routine to start a computing session by dumping in some liquid nitrogen onto a yet-higher-temperature superconducting CPU.

Yomach writes: "As reported on the CBC this morning, and in the Globe and Mail, a tropical disease case has been isolated in a Hamilton hospital and is being tested for Ebola. Samples have been shipped to a Winnipeg Federal Lab which has Biological Level 4 facilities for testing. If the patient is diagnosed with Ebola , it will be the first human case in North America. She flew in to Toronto from the Congo, via New York, on Saturday."

Tom West asks: "In Canada, the leading opposition party, the Canadian Alliance has proposed that the government be legally obligated to hold a referendum on any issue that has a petition with at least 3% of the electorate signing. In response, 'This Hour has 22 Minutes', a political comedy show, has started a net petition demanding a referendum to have Parliament force Stockwell Day, leader of the Canadian Alliance, to change his name to 'Doris'. The petition started on Monday and has proceeded mostly on word of mouth (until today, when it hit just about every major newspaper (like this one from Globe and Mail). As of today, over 500,000 people have signed, closing quickly on double the number of people required. Humourous indeed, but what does this mean for the possibility of future petitions?"

"If gaining names and addresses of people to support any proposition, ludicrous or not, is this easy, does this mean an end for using petitions to force referenda, as is common in many states?

While absurd referenda are unlikely to pass, what happens when they get put on the ballot? Incendiary issues, normally silent because their few supporters are too scattered to get heard, can suddenly see their issues gain widespread attention. Regardless of the impossibility of passing, a lot of damage to the community could be occur."

Gryphon writes "According to research completed at the University of Toronto, "mashed potatoes and barley may indeed be food for thought". The effect is most noticeable for the elderly and those with bad memories, but in all subjects, memory was noticeably enhanced just 15 minutes after ingestion, with effects lasting for about an hour. Being a student with exams to write, I thought this was cool -- bring on the beer and fries? :) " If potato chips counted I'd be capable of remembering the stone age. As it stands, I can't remember most of college.

Dirk Eddelbuettel writes "Today's Globe&Mail (Canada's national paper) top business story is about Corel closing two units (WordPerfect in Utah as well Corel Computer Corp.) and slashing 20% of the jobs after the sixth quarterly loss in a row. That could well mean the end of the NetWinder story. " Update I've received email from Oliver Bendzsa who says "As an FYI, Corel Computer is alive and well, NetWinder is alive and well, and Linux is alive and well.". Glad to hear it.