http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/ Obsessions: Thin films, writing, small business, and random web flotsam en-us We're in the process of moving to a new server, and incidentally refreshing the design a bit. Web tools have evolved somewhat since 2001... So expect things to be a little quiet around here for a few days.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_25.html Test posting to Movable Type from Tinderbox.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_25.html Guess what? Making money in the chip business is hard! This revelation apparently came as something of a surprise to the Chinese government, and is causing a re-evaluation of the massive subsidies that have been thrown at the sector.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_25.html Joel on Software talks about how his company delivers fabulous customer service. And the remarkable discovery that good customer service is actually better for the bottom line than outsourcing to the lowest bidder.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_25.html Today's post about Microsoft got me thinking about web publishing tools. In the best of all possible worlds, I would have included a brief explanation of the state of Internet Explorer development to support my claim that Microsoft thought it... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_18.html It looks like Microsoft is struggling with a classic innovator's dilemma. This from Business Week: Just as troubling, Microsoft's search problem reflects its approach to new markets in general. It spends little time focusing on tiny, emerging niches that generate... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_18.html Ars Technica contemplates Moore's Law, export controls, and what exactly Intel might be planning to build in China.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_18.html I've been thinking a lot lately about the difference between web writing and other kinds of writing. In a way, web writing -- by which I mean writing that makes full use of the web's linking and interactivity, as opposed... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_18.html The good part of writing about the same topic for multiple clients is that you can reuse much of the research and some of the actual writing. (With full disclosure and respect for copyrights, of course.) The bad part is... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_18.html 6800 words for March so far. That gives me 38,800 for the year so far, which is a nice number but not where I need to be. I recently wrapped up a big chunk of research and am into the... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_11.html That dust I mentioned the other day? Even more of it is flying around now, after Drew accepted a job in the Seattle area. So Thin Film Manufacturing will be moving in the next couple of months. Watch this space... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_03_04.html 4500 words since my last update, a large chunk of them for an article on gate stacks for Solid State Technology. I am now writing a regular column for them -- the first installment appeared in February -- for which... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_02_25.html Beatnik Turtle presents the Indie Band Survival Guide. Aimed at independent musicians, but has lots of interesting information about self-promotion, how the music business works, why file sharing will not bring the Apocalypse, and similar topics. Link via 43 Folders.... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_02_25.html Fascinating. Researchers at Harvard have shown that some of the geometric mosaics used in Islamic art are based on Penrose tilings. Penrose tilings have rotational, but not translational, symmetry, and can be extended indefinitely. The fascinating part is that Penrose... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_02_18.html 5250 words since my last update. That gives me 11,550 for the month so far, or 27,500 year to date. Onward!... http://www.thinfilmmfg.com/mtblog/mtarchive03/week_2007_02_18.html