Newsletter article

I'm editing our next newsletter issue and just added a great article from Andy Marken. I'm not going to give away too much but here's an illustration from his piece:

More rain from the clouds

Cloud computing took another hit today when QuickBooks Payroll Service had an outage. Companies that use the service to pay their emplyeees still aren't able to do so. Intuit is working hard to correct the problems.

I have never been in favor of using "cloud" solutions for mission critical work. I know, it's the wave of the future but I'm still way too cautious and refuse to put my eggs in so fragile a basket.

Good news, bad news

The tsunami/earthquake tragedy in northern Japan has caused a major disruption in the digital camera industry. Mahufacturers like Canon and Nikon are still trying to get back to something close to normal and their product production has fallen far behind schedule.

The big camera show every year is the PMA Show in Las Vegas. This year's show was scheduled for October but now has been moved to January, 2012 and will be part of CES. That's wonderful news for us because that means we'll be able to cover PMA and CES at the same time. I'm not sure how we'll fit it all in but we'll sure try!!

PowerNap

As a former Air Traffic Controller I found this interesting. We'll be getting a PowerNap to review and we'll let you know if it works. Here's the press release:

Jonathan Husni, MBA, IT expert and inventor of PowerNap (www.powernap.com) audio products that have helped thousands of people energize themselves by grabbing a quick nap, has offered the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), 100 PowerNap CDs and a 50 percent discount on his company’s PowerNap Machine, if they will try his technology as a solution to the fatigue problem that has caused a number of air traffic controllers to fall asleep on the job.

Sleep professionals recommended scheduled, on-the-job naps as a way to fight fatigue. Research indicates that even short periods of sleep—power naps—can reduce stress, increase alertness and improve overall health. A NASA study found that an average nap of twenty-six minutes boosted airline pilots’ performance by one-third and experiments by NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) showed that a midday snooze reverses information overload.

Husni agrees that this is the most direct and potentially effective solution to a problem that has seen several instances of exhausted air traffic controllers failing in their duties. “People wanting and needing a nap don’t often have much time for it, so it’s important that they fall asleep quickly. That’s why our customers buy PowerNap products and refer them to friends.”

The technology behind PowerNap is simple. During the first five minutes of listening to PowerNap CDs with ear buds, the user’s brain automatically adjusts to its inaudible sound waves. For the next ten minutes the PowerNap recording helps induce REM sleep, finally bringing the user to a refreshed state of heightened wakefulness. Throughout, the user hears only the pleasing sound of a waterfall.

Introduced ten years ago, thousands of PowerNap CDs have been sold. The PowerNap Machine, a pocket-sized media player that similarly facilitates sleep, was introduced this year.