Ten years ago, on May 11, 1997, something happened that gave computers a new boost in its claim towards superiority over man. Deep Blue, a computer program running on an IBM supercomputer, beat Gary Kasparov, then the world’s greatest chess player.
Since then, computers have even made more progress. Last year in November, Kramnik, the world chess champion, lost 4 games to 2 to Deep Fritz, which was just a commercial chess program that was running on a personal computer.
There is no more argument what computers can do. In fact, chess matches between computers and humans are no longer creating the interest it once did.
————–
One of the fascinating things I have always been enthralled is the issue about whether mental exercises can help sharpen the brain, and there is a lot of evidences that says it does. Obviously the brain, just like your muscles grows stronger and sharper with the proper nurturing. One of the fastest growing mental exercise the last two years have been the growth of Sudoku, a Japanese numbers game that is now in thousands of newspapers worldwide, and is making a run on popularity against the venerable crossword puzzle. It is said that the Sudoku industry has grown to be a $250 million industry worldwide. There are many free puzzles you can access in the internet, by just making a search on Sudoku. The growth obviously also have to do with the fact that sudoku puzzles can actually be made by a computer program, and you can download one program who will use rules given to it to give you thousands if not endless sudoku puzzles to play. That certainly would mean that Sudoku puzzles can sprout like grass faster than crossword puzzles, which as of this moment, I am aware is still designed by humans.
——————-
There is a renewed debate on the US H-1B visa programme. The US allows upto 65,000 people to apply for H1 work visas per year to allow US companies to recruit skilled workers to work in the US. The quota has been seen as widely small, as the whole quota was filled the first day it was made available this March 2007 when more than twice as many people sent applications. Now there are allegations that the programme is seemingly not filling its intended purpose as it was discovered that almost a third or around 20,000 of these applications were awarded to eight Indian companies who were mostly outsourcing companies, which some senators alleged is not the intent of the programme.
——————-
If there is one thing in computers you can afford to change, you might want to consider the monitor. LCD monitors are not only space savers, but they also emit less radiation, use less electricity, and also overall is easier to the eye. In 2006, LCD panel shipments reached purportedly over 270 million units worldwide, with a value of almost $50 billion dollars, which represented an almost 30% growth in terms of units over 2005. The total sales was also about 14% more, which if you look at it, signals that LCD prices has been going down. Computer manufacturers are anticipating that unit shipments will hit 320 million for 2007 with a value of over US 55 billion dollars.
————–
Whether you are a retail business or even a food business, you might want to take a look again at your website. The National Restaurants Association in the United States said that they conducted a survey and upto 35% of the people they surveyed reportedly checked out the website of a new restaurant before their first visit. It should be possible that the rate will even be higher for retail stores, hotels, and other kinds of businesses.
Talking about the websites, it is important that you should always update your site. With all the tools there is right now, one thing is for sure. If somebody visits your website, and finds out that it has no updated information, and in fact, looks like it has not been updated for even several months, one thing is sure – unless he has a compelling reason to do, he won’t go back to your website again! So make sure it is updated regularly!
Wilson Ng keeps a log of his articles in www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife