by david allan van nostrand | Apr 9, 2018 | Technology
During the late 1880s, the Swiss Army decided to purchase a new folding pocket knife for their soldiers. It was to be suitable for use by the army for two things other knives couldn’t do: opening canned field rations and disassembling the Swiss Army rifle, an...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 4, 2017 | Big Data, Research, Technology
U.S. President Ronald Reagan liked to define “mixed emotions” as the feelings a man has as he watches his mother-in-law drive over the cliff in his new Cadillac. Another example involves how driverless vehicles will be programmed to react in emergencies. One is to act...
by david allan van nostrand | Nov 13, 2017 | Research, Technology, Using Information
Sixty-seven years ago, Nielsen issued their first television audience ratings. They claimed their sample represented an accurate cross-section of U.S. geographies, markets, homes, families, people, incomes, educations, ages, ethnicities, and more. Two ways of...
by david allan van nostrand | May 1, 2017 | Items in the News, Technology
Unless you’ve been on a desert island for some years, you know that driverless vehicles are right around the corner. The idea is AutoAutos will be safer and more efficient. Commercial applications see real benefits in no longer having to pay drivers who need to sleep....
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 10, 2017 | Human Behavior, Technology
Folk wisdom says the QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1875 to slow typists who were overwhelming the machinery of primitive typewriters. The truth is that it was designed for the convenience of telegraph operators who needed to convert Morse Code’s dots and...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 27, 2016 | Conformity, Items in the News, Other, Research, Technology
Enough With the Wacky Safety Videos, a recent WSJ article, tells us how it has become the norm among airlines to produce big-budget safety videos, and how customers are reacting to this phenomenon. Airlines, emphasizing entertainment over information, think these new...
