Michelangelo/Leonardo

I started a new book yesterday written by Ross King entitled Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling.  Today I coincidentally came across a NYT story about a search for a long lost frescoe painted by Leonardo da Vinci using some high tech 21st century sleuthing methods.  The book, despite the title, actually references this lost da Vinci fresco as it explains that da Vinci and Michelangelo were each commissioned to paint on opposite walls of a council room inside the Palazzo della Signoria which was a government building in Florence in a sort of competition with each other on a scale of twenty two feet high and fifty four feet long each.  Amazing how inter-connected life can be sometimes.  Here is a link to the NYT article:www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/arts/design/leonardo-mural-in-florence-may-be-revealed.html?_r=1

Even more interesting than the initial reference in the book to this da Vinci fresco is that the author goes on to state rather offhandedly that neither fresco was fully completed by the artists despite rave reviews to the sketches that each completed prior to beginning work on the frescoes themselves.  The plot thickens!  Looking forward to hearing how this story ends in the 21st century. 

The Touchpad fiasco

Last week I was amused to read a short story about the touchpad from HP being discontinued due to low sales and how Best Buy had sold only about 25k of their original 270k stockpile.  I mused on whether there were "discussions" between these two companies about whether to get rid of them via a fire sale price or send them back to HP.  Apparently the powers that be at HP opted to give consumers a great deal by dropped the price about 80% rather than incur additional transportation costs.  However, I missed the announcement on this deal until about Sunday when the web was abuzz with everyone discussing where they might still be able to find one.  The huge discount suddenly made this the must have item of the season.  I hadn't really planned on buying a tablet before this sale, but mass pyschology being what it is, suddenly the chase for a great deal took over and I started scouring the web for a retailer that still had them for sale.  For 99.99 for the 16 gb tablet or 149.99 for the 32 gb version I assumed I would easily get my money's worth using it as a web browser at a minimum.  Slickdeals.net was reporting that Barnes & Noble was still selling them so a few minutes later I had a confirmation number in hand from B&N and looked forward to joining the throngs of folks with yet another tech gadget.  I then proceeded to go online shopping for a few accessories for my new yet to be received touchpad.  I snagged a carrying case and a specially designed pen designed to write on a tablet.  Needless to say, the best laid plans of mice and men and/or Mr. Murphy showed up with news reports on Monday/Tuesday indicating that B&N may have taken more orders for the touchpad than their inventory could possibly meet.  By Wednesday I finally received an email from B&N cancelling my order. HP was initially reporting that there were additional inventories at one or more of their warehouses and their website suggested that consumers sign up by email to be notified when additional tablets would go on sale later in the week.  To date, the HP website has now been changed to reflect that the tablets are out of stock and no email has ever been sent out nor have any additional touchpads been offered for sale by HP.  There are tons of lessons to be learned here from corporate America and quite a few op-ed pieces have been written so far on this mess.  I came across this clip which was modified from a movie about Adolf Hitler that pretty much sums up the fiasco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eah8OafpBxE