For those Oops moments, when an important file is inadvertently deleted.

Cagnina Design has recently developed a unique external hard drive for Intech called Tempo. As files are deleted, they are automatically copied to the mini-trash can-shaped device, providing an extra safety net should the user accidentally delete important files. As the 250 GB of space is used up, embedded LEDs light Tempo's exterior surface from the bottom up, as if it were physically being filled.

From Core77 blog

Is this progress? The first fully automated restaurant

Hate interacting with humans? Well then we've got the restaurant for you, located in Nuremberg, Germany. The restaurant, called Bagger's, eschews waiters and waitresses for gravity operated ramps that sends food directly to tables. Customers order on touch screens, swipe their cards on built in readers, and wait for their food with a read-out that shows when the food is expected to be delivered. So, get ready to yell at your ordinateur when your fries are late...
From Engadget

Something to think about from Seth's Blog - on how to be given the benefit of the doubt instead of being used as a scapegoat for the smallest trip-up:

'You've probably seen it. The customer who's just waiting for you to screw up. The tour passenger who is itching for one thing to go wrong, the legal client who has a whole list of complaints just waiting for the first bill that comes in higher than it should, the boss who hovers, glee in his eye as you work to make a deadline.

In fact, if you're human, it's probably been you once or twice.

As a marketer, one of the most beneficial things you can do is get people to give you the benefit of the doubt before you start delivering a service or a product. Here are five brainstorms to get you started:

* Be the underdog. Nextel or AT&T? Nextel often got the benefit of the doubt.
* Underpromise.
* Build up expectations of difficulty. Magicians are really good at this. If people think what you're doing is really difficult, they root for you.
* Underhype. If others are building you up day after day, it's easy to root against you. The Germans have a word for everything and they have a word for this: schadenfreude.
* Call them on it. If you think people are being perfectionists and not giving you a chance, ask for one. It's easier to ask for a chance to excel than it is to ask forgiveness if you fail.

My favorite way to get a chance is to give one. Organizations that are a little more flexible with their customers (and grateful to them) often get a lot more flexibility in return.'

Complaining pays off

Adobe's agressive bundling of an automatic FedEx/Kinko's printing button on the latest version of Reader and Acrobat (two weeks ago) resulted in such outrage that they have now removed the button from the programs.

However, Adobe will still offer a special version of Adobe/ Fedex/Kinko'susers can still opt in to use the button, which is still adding fuel to the controversy. The reaction has been mixed at best, so expect more debate in the weeks to come.

Chaos works best for Indian retailers from WSJ for subscribers.
India, like nowhere else in the world, proves itself noticeably different when it comes to retailing as well.

Kishore Biyani has built a family fortune by ensuring that the chaos middle class customers are used to finding when shopping can be found in his large retail spaces.

Instead of long clean aisles with swept floors, Food Bazaar has adopted a cluster approach using bins-customers are used to looking down and rummaging, over the tidy stacks we Westerners are accustomed to.

The super retailer Wal-Mart approach is here to stay in India, thanks to the time factor-working mothers don't have time to go to a dozen small shopfronts to do the family shopping. And Biyani has learned to appeal to the 55 million mid-level servants which most mid to upper class families employ, who are responsible for the shopping decisions.

He has even replicated the gray concrete floors of most Indian rail stations and insists that aisles should not be swept too clean or look too orderly.

As the average Indian also likes to haggle, hires triple the amount of workers who roam through the aisles and add to the cacophony of Indian music and announcements of specials, and otherwise interact with his customers.

This is an approach that Western companies-like Wal-mart who is partnering with Bharti, as India regulates against multiple brand retailing direct to consumers. French retailer Carrefour and UK's Tesco are also studying India closely.

OF course, France already has Tati - cheap clothing clustered in bins-geared to the lower classes and immigrants but also considered chic in the 6th and the 16th, who are known to fill carts with cheap underwear and the like.

As so many things Indian, will this trend export to America?

From Chris Andersens's Long Tail blog:
The Long Tail of software

Joe Kraus, one of the founders of Excite, has a new company that's based on what he calls the Long Tail of software. Called JotSpot, it's building a wiki-like platform that makes it easy for firms to create custom applications for their specific business needs, much as they do with Excel spreadsheets today. He briefed me about this some time ago, but I wasn't able to talk about it until now. Fortunately, he's done all the talking for me with a really interesting post on his own blog that nicely shows how broadly the Long Tail theory can be applied.

The long tail doesn’t just apply to music and movies. There’s a long tail for software as well. Here’s why.

First, every business has multiple processes. Things like hiring, firing, selling, ordering, etc. Second, while some of these are pretty common in name from business to business (recruiting, for example), in practice, they are usually highly customized. Finally, there are simply a large number of processes that are either unique or that are common to millions of very small markets and therefore not traditionally worth the effort to buy software for (for example, the process by which an architecture firm communicates between it’s clients and the city planning office).

These three facts

every business has multiple processes
processes that are similar in name between businesses are actually often highly customized
there exist a large number of processes unique to millions of small clusters of industries.

means that there is a combinatorial explosion of process problems to solve and, it turns out, little software to actually support them.

Said another way, there is a long tail of very custom process problems that software is supposed to help businesses solve.

Panoramic vistas

Panorama's

Very cool site with panoramic views, for a little break with routine! Incredible landscapes as well as many constructed wonders of the world.

From CIO Today
s the Party Over for Indian Outsourcers? By Manjeet Kripalani

The tech industry in India is so pampered by New Delhi, and so admired by ordinary Indians, that it has been lagging behind the competition. Industry trade group Nasscom recently released a report on the necessity of Indian companies to begin to innovate to survive, and suggested an ecosystem for innovation, helped by policy initiatives.

Organizations need assurance and information security programs aligned with business goals and effective in managing risk. ISACA�s Certified Information Systems Auditor� (CISA�) and Certified Information Security Manager� (CISM�) designations can help ensure your organization's success.
In late July, rumors swirled that Infosys Technologies might be readying a takeover offer for Cap Gemini or another major tech-services player in the U.S. or Europe. So on July 25, when the company alerted the press and the markets that it had a major announcement, there was a great deal of anticipation.

Instead, Infosys unveiled a $250 million outsourcing contract with Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. It was an acquisition of sorts, the company said, at least of the outsourcing centers that belonged to Philips. "We're taking the model to a newer level," said Chief Executive Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Landing a new contract certainly isn't bad news, but the development was somewhat deflating for those who believe that Infosys needs to redefine and reposition itself in the multibillion-dollar arena for global outsourcing services. In fact, Infosys and other Indian outsourcers are facing a raft of competitive challenges that will require some dramatic new strategies.

Adversities Add Up

True, India's biggest outsourcing firms continue to rake in the profits, at least judging by the latest earnings season. The top five players -- Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and Satyam -- reported robust profits in the quarter ended June, 2007. And executives generally forecast strong growth ahead.

"We're very happy with having beaten the forecast," said CEO and Managing Director S. Ramadorai of the $3.1 billion Tata Consultancy Services in Bombay. "TCS, as the leader, is doing well." Ramadorai predicts $60 billion in tech-services exports for the industry by 2010, nearly twice the current $35 billion, plus $20 billion in revenue from domestic business.

Yet behind this show of supreme confidence lurks deep unease. A confluence of adversities is at play. They include an appreciating rupee that is cutting into earnings, a severe shortage of qualified talent at home, and a cap on H-1B worker visas to the U.S., along with pre-2008 election protectionism threats.

Diminishing Returns

On top of that, there is the end of preferential industry tax benefits at home and the growing success of multinational competitors such as Accenture and IBM on Indian turf. Perhaps most challenging for the Indian players is the pressing need to move up the ladder into business consulting Relevant Products/Services, a domain that companies such as IBM have dominated for decades. Indian outsourcing firms need to invest heavily to secure a position in this arena, and that will erode their fat profits, at least in the short term.
Read on