The Human Footprint: Neat maps of the spread of human actiivty.  4:33:55 PM    

WaveCrest: Technology: Adaptive Motor  A company that makes smart motors:  with microprocessor, DSP, single brushless moving part, and internally redundant design, it claims to deliver optimium power at every speed, regenerative breaking, and with only one moving part.  Applications planned in smaller devices (electric bikes for the military and police, wheelchairs, industrial generators and motors), building towards cars and mass transit.  "In addition to acceleration, the motor can provide system functions such as braking and steering, thus eliminating many heavy and complex mechanical components. Because of the motor's tremendous low-speed torque and high response time, it can be used to replace costly advanced vehicle systems such as anti-lock braking, traction control and vehicle stability systems. Merging all these functions can lead to a smaller, lighter and less expensive vehicle."  Wesley Clark is on the board of directors.

  4:32:50 PM    

Wesley Clark position papers:  The current collection, including a good enviro piece (thanks to DS).  10:56:08 AM    

Cringely on software failures: "Software development projects fail all the time, no matter what their size. The Standish Group, an IT-research firm in West Yarmouth, Mass., has been keeping track of this phenomenon since 1994, and the good news is that we are doing much better at completing projects than we used to. The bad news is that in 2000, only 28 percent of software projects could be classed as complete successes (meaning they were executed on time and on budget), while 23 percent failed outright (meaning that they were abandoned). Those numbers are improvements over a 16 percent success rate and a 31 percent failure rate when the first study was done in 1994. ..

According to the Standish Group, more than $275 billion will be spent on software development this year, covering about 250,000 projects. That means that if the recent success and failure percentages apply, $63 billion in development costs will go down the toilet in 2003 alone."  Cringely applies this to touch screen voting after 2000: who wouldn't expect it to fail?

  8:37:49 AM