Perhaps the most famous is Sheena Iyengar’s 1995 “jam jar study“, which showed a 4x increase in options decreased purchases by 85%.
Iyengar’s study is not alone. Barry Schwartz’s excellent book The Paradox of Choice covers the problem in detail. Of particular interest is his discussion of how choice affects buyer’s remorse. The more choices you consider, the more likely you’ll be to regret your decision, and the less satisfied you’ll be.
U.S. flips switch on massive solar power array that also stores electricity
Abengoa Solar described the array as the world´s largest parabolic trough plant. The solar arrays use parabolic shaped mirrors mounted on moving structures that track the sun and concentrate its heat. That heat is used to heat water into steam, which is then used to power a conventional steam turbine. Being able to store the power allows the plant to continue distributing energy when the sun goes down or is blocked by poor weather.
via U.S. flips switch on massive solar power array that also stores electricity – Computerworld.
China’s State Press Calls for ‘Building a de-Americanized World’
It’s not a new refrain: Back in March 2009, China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, also called for the creation of a new reserve currency, albeit in less heated language. The world needs a new “super-sovereign reserve currency” to replace the current reliance on the dollar, Zhou wrote in a paper published on the People’s Bank of China’s website (Zhou still heads the bank). The goal, he wrote, is to “create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run.”
via China’s State Press Calls for ‘Building a de-Americanized World’ – Businessweek.
10% of Amplify Tablets Broke in Their First Month, One North Carolina School District Reports
This tablet was always intended to go into schools, and that is why it was supposed to have been built with a layer of Gorilla Glass over the screen. This was in the contract that GCS signed, and it was also mentioned prominently in the early news coverage of this tablet. According to the school district, none of the Amplify tablets that they bought had that protective layer, which might help explain why so many tablets broke.
Or to put it another way, the absence of Gorilla Glass is a sign that someone cut corners on the build quality for this production run. Given that there were also complaints about misfitted cases and defective power supplies, I am not terribly surprised.
As I reported when the Amplify tablet debuted in March of this year, this tablet is NewsCorp’s “solution” to the “problem” of education:
Thieves allegedly install keyloggers to capture credit cards at Nordstrom
The keyloggers the thieves used imitate the look and design of PS/2 keyboard connectors, priced around $30-40. They are connected in series with a keyboard cord, between the computer and the keyboard, to intercept data transmitted between the two.
via Thieves allegedly install keyloggers to capture credit cards at Nordstrom | Ars Technica.
Scientific Data Has Become So Complex, We Have to Invent New Math to Deal With It
Scientists like DeDeo and Vespignani make good use of this piecemeal approach to big data analysis, but Yale University mathematician Ronald Coifman says that what is really needed is the big data equivalent of a Newtonian revolution, on par with the 17th century invention of calculus, which he believes is already underway. It is not sufficient, he argues, to simply collect and store massive amounts of data; they must be intelligently curated, and that requires a global framework.
via Scientific Data Has Become So Complex, We Have to Invent New Math to Deal With It – Wired Science.
Among the most notable insights Euler gleaned from the puzzle was that the exact positions of the bridges were irrelevant to the solution; all that mattered was the number of bridges and how they were connected. Mathematicians now recognize in this the seeds of the modern field of topology.
Russian Topol missile test spotted from ISS
This matches. The missile has three stages (like the old Saturn V rockets that took humans to the Moon), and what the astronauts saw may have been a fuel dump from the second stage or the last of the fuel leaking away after the booster phase was complete. In space, the cloud would expand more or less freely, moving rapidly as it traveled along with the booster in its path. In the photo, you can see a slight streaking to the cloud, most likely due to motion.
via Russian Topol missile test spotted from ISS..
Original tweet from astronaut Mike Hopkins here.
Targeted Advertising Considered Harmful
What happens, though, if sellers try to reduce the load that advertising carries, by “efficiently” targeting some users and not others? As a member of the audience, the more likely it is that the ad you’re seeing is custom-targeted to you, the less information the advertiser is able to convey. With good enough targeting, you could be the one poor loser who they’re trying to stick with the last obsolete unit in the warehouse.
via Targeted Advertising Considered Harmful.
Today, though, we have different norms and technologies around security. A .EXE in email will get quarantined, filtered, or buried under layers of warnings.
The same thing is happening with privacy problems. Browser developers are steadily closing the bugs that make creepy tracking possible. And yes, that makes some advertising techniques obsolete, the same way that corporate virus checkers killed off the animated .EXE Christmas card business.
But if you want to send customers a holiday greeting, you still can. And after the web fixes its privacy bugs, you’ll still be able to advertise. It will just work better.
Jekyll
Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, static site generator. It takes a template directory containing raw text files in various formats, runs it through Markdown (or Textile) and Liquid converters, and spits out a complete, ready-to-publish static website suitable for serving with your favorite web server. Jekyll also happens to be the engine behind GitHub Pages, which means you can use Jekyll to host your project’s page, blog, or website from GitHub’s servers for free.
via Welcome.
Scientists who took chemistry into cyberspace win Nobel Prize
Chemical reactions occur at lightning speed as electrons jump between atomic nuclei, making it virtually impossible to map every separate step in chemical processes involving large molecules like proteins.
Powerful computer models, first developed by the three scientists in 1970s, offer a new window onto such reactions and have become a mainstay for researchers in thousands of academic and industrial laboratories around the world.
via Scientists who took chemistry into cyberspace win Nobel Prize – chicagotribune.com.