When I worked for Eastman Kodak Company, I learned that the human eye distinguishes between just 33 shades of gray for any area of a photograph. Similarly, in the audio world although trained ears can distinguish a one decibel interval, an average listener distinguishes 3-decibel jumps. Within a 90 db signal-to-noise ratio, there are roughly 30 of those.

I'm wondering whether eyes and ears might have an approximate matching of distinguishable levels between black/white and loud sound/no sound dichotomies. If so, perhaps the binary 2^5 or 32 might be enough to approximate these "gray areas."

If anyone knows of any research in this area, I would like to hear about it.

Favorites: "Open For Business"/"Beating The Software Blues" * "Browser Wars II: The Saga Continues" * "How will the artists get paid?" * Geocoding Content, Caught Mapping, Revenge of Geography * MacWizards Music vs. RIAA * Joe Bob Briggs * Dan Bricklin * Bob Frankston * Larry Lessig * Breaking Microsoft Reader * Endian 1,2,3 * Worldwide Institute of Software Architects * about.com * howstuffworks.com * Janis Ian * GPS Tracker * New Yorker cartoon * David Coursey/Time * More ...

Readers will recognize a recurring theme in my writing. It is that I believe the efficiency of much of modern softrware is declining. The idea of hardware limits seems to promote better coding ... something akin to the "elevator pitch," "the one-page business plan," or "three-minute pop song."

CPU clock speeds and disk storage have increased by factors of 100 and more over the last ten years, but a lot of software applications barely accomplish the end results of those older limited systems. Today's C/Net opinion article by Robert Wenig, "Beating The Software Blues," reaches a similar conclusion.

According to Wenig, "IT, as an industry, must stop focusing on this idea of a matrix--the bits, bytes and components--and begin taking a closer look at where the application faces its most important performance test: at the browser, where a real person sits trying to conduct business, but all too often fails to do so." Amen.

For more thoughts from Wenig, please check out "Open For Business," on his website.

Favorites: "Browser Wars II: The Saga Continues" * "How will the artists get paid?" * Geocoding Content, Caught Mapping, Revenge of Geography * MacWizards Music vs. RIAA * Joe Bob Briggs * Dan Bricklin * Bob Frankston * Larry Lessig * Breaking Microsoft Reader * Endian 1,2,3 * Worldwide Institute of Software Architects * about.com * howstuffworks.com * Janis Ian * GPS Tracker * New Yorker cartoon * David Coursey/Time * More ...

To my thinking, the internet is the browser. This past week's transfer of the Mozilla/Netscape assets from AOL to Mozilla.org with the resulting layoffs and funding issues seems newsworthy. This article in Wired is must-reading: "Browser Wars II: The Saga Continues" by Peter-Paul Koch. The wild card is the investment of $300,000 by Mitch Kapor, which, when added to the $1 million a year for two years promised by AOL, might fund a "lean and mean" team.

Favorites: "How will the artists get paid?" * Geocoding Content, Caught Mapping, Revenge of Geography * MacWizards Music vs. RIAA * Joe Bob Briggs * Dan Bricklin * Bob Frankston * Larry Lessig * Breaking Microsoft Reader * Endian 1,2,3 * Worldwide Institute of Software Architects * about.com * howstuffworks.com * Janis Ian * GPS Tracker * New Yorker cartoon * David Coursey/Time * More ...