Humans and animals do not need complete information to act; they can operate on various clues provided there is a sufficient context. Organizational teams can also use this thin slicing technique in conjunction with short messaging to enhance their performance. Malcolm Gladwell’s introspective book Blink digs deep into the abyss of human cognition to illustrate the human ability to think at a subconscious level. The idea of thin slicing is used where one is introduced to only a few snippets of information which lead to a series of conclusions based on moments of rapid cognition – an ability claimed to be intrinsically dormant in most humans. By bioteams guest author Max Bhanabhai.

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85,000 cellphones and 21,000 PDAs were left in Chicago taxis in 6 months last year! Thanks to Ray Symmes for pointing out an article in the New York Times (Feb 21), Too Many New Gadgets, Too Much Information at Risk, which suggests that companies do not realise the security risk they are running by equipping their workforces with high-data storage mobile devices in terms of wifi evesdropping, theft and loss.

You can now text devices as well as people

Thanks to Pat Garland from the NI e-Government unit for finding this surreal piece of technology news. I had to double-check the date to make sure it was not April 1 but with 22,000 entries on google it can’t be a hoax (can it?). Pat writes under “Tea-time for Bonzo?” that Tea manufacturer PG Tips has invented an "SMS kettle", according to Ananova.

For the mobile industry, waiting for people to use the net via their phone has been like waiting for a bus that never comes. That’s according to Dan Simmons reporting for BBC Click Online (15 Sept 2006).