A Win Is A Win... Except When It's A WIN!

It's the sports situation every boy dreams about. You know, full-count in the bottom of the ninth or inbounding the ball down by two with 2.3 seconds left.

Imagine standing at the free-throw line in the last game of the season of your senior year with a chance to put your team up by one. Make the shot and play 3.3 seconds of defense to win the game. Think you can handle the pressure?

What if I told you the win would break a 310-game conference losing streak streching 26 years? How about the pressure now?

Ryan Elmquist is no stranger to accomplishment. Perfect ACT. Landed a job at Google. Helped the CalTech Beavers win a basketball game. In the last game of his career, Elmquist, sank his freethrow with 3.3 seconds left ending a losing streak that started before he was born.

"When you're president of Caltech, you witness scientific breakthroughs, Mars landings, and any number of other memorable events. Storming the court with Nobel laureate Bob Grubbs will certainly rank high on my list of Caltech memories."

--Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, President, California Institue of Technology.

A win is a win. Unless a Nobel laureate storms the court. Then it's a WIN.

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Because We've Always Done It This Way...

The following is an excerpt from an article written by James Bennett. It is a joke that should be in the preface of every LEAN book written. Read why we do things the way we've ALWAYS done things.

There’s an old joke, so old that I don’t even know for certain where it originated, that’s often used to explain why big corporations do things the way they do. It involves some monkeys, a cage, a banana and a fire hose.

You build a nice big room-sized cage, and in one end of it you put five monkeys. In the other end you put the banana. Then you stand by with the fire hose. Sooner or later one of the monkeys is going to go after the banana, and when it does you turn on the fire hose and spray the other monkeys with it. Replace the banana if needed, then repeat the process. Monkeys are pretty smart, so they’ll figure this out pretty quickly: “If anybody goes for the banana, the rest of us get the hose.” Soon they’ll attack any member of their group who tries to go to the banana.

Once this happens, you take one monkey out of the cage and bring in a new one. The new monkey will come in, try to make friends, then probably go for the banana. And the other monkeys, knowing what this means, will attack him to stop you from using the hose on them. Eventually the new monkey will get the message, and will even start joining in on the attack if somebody else goes for the banana. Once this happens, take another of the original monkeys out of the cage and bring in another new monkey.

After repeating this a few times, there will come a moment when none of the monkeys in the cage have ever been sprayed by the fire hose; in fact, they’ll never even have seen the hose. But they’ll attack any monkey who goes to get the banana. If the monkeys could speak English, and if you could ask them why they attack anyone who goes for the banana, their answer would almost certainly be: “Well, I don’t really know, but that’s how we’ve always done things around here.”

This is a startlingly good analogy for the way lots of corporations do things: once a particular process is entrenched (and especially after a couple rounds of employee turnover), there’s nobody left who remembers why the company does things this way. There’s nobody who stops to think about whether this is still a good way to do things, or whether it was even a good idea way back at the beginning. The process continues through nothing more than inertia, and anyone who suggests a change is likely to end up viciously attacked by monkeys.

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Canon Announces New Toys: Part 4 PowerShot Compacts

I have a feeling some of the recommended cameras on Ken Rockwell's site may be changing soon, and that is good news for everyone. To go along with all the other announcements, Canon is giving consumers new pocket cameras.

• Canon PowerShot SX230 HS
• Canon ELPH 500 HS
• Canon ELPH 300 HS
• Canon ELPH 100HS

All four cameras get Canon's new HS system for better pictures in low-light situations. The cameras use a high-sensitivity sensor like in a DSLR to record better images in low-light, and this is the same system employed in the PowerShot G12 and PowerShot S95 except with a smaller sensor for compactness.

The Canon PowerShot SX230 will replace or sit just above the older PoweShot SX210 IS in the compact super-zoom range allowing 28-392mm equivalent range or 14x optical zoom. It can also record full 1080p HD Video with dynamic image stabilization. The camera finally adds a GPS sensor to record the locations of your photos.

The Canon ELPH 500 takes on a new model name and replaces the PowerShot (Digital ELPH) SD3500 IS bringing the ELPH name to the forefront from the 35mm film days. Like the SD 3500 IS the camera shoots 4.4x optical or 24-105mm equivalent with a fast f/2 lens when shooting 24mm for great low-light performance. The ELPH 500 packs a slew of new features controlled by the same touchscreen system as the SD 3500 IS including Super Slow Motion Movies, High-Speed Burst mode, Low Light mode, and Smart Auto for intelligent scene detection. Finally, for those desiring some control over their compact, the ELPH 500 offers Av and Tv modes to control your aperture or shutter speed.

The Canon ELPH 300 replaces the PowerShot SD 1400 IS as the supe-compact, mid-featured camera. The camera features the more traditional control of a Canon PowerShot rather than the touchscreen interface. The lens is more traditional lacking the fast f/2 wide aperture of the ELPH 500, but if you have owned any PowerShots you know what the lens is capable of. This camera should outshine with the new CMOS sensor behind the lens. The lens has 5x optical zoom or 24-135mm as well as Super Slow Motion Movie and High-Speed Burst mode. This is the smallest, lightest recent camera Canon offers (the SD780 IS is the smallest compact).

The Canon ELPH 100 brings the HS system to those on a budget. It gets most all of the features above except with a 28-112mm lens. For the value, this is a great little point-and-shoot camera.

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Canon Announces New Toys: Part 3 Lenses

Well, unless you have deep pockets these new lenses probably will not affect you, but feel free to go out and rent. The first two are improvements of super-telephoto lenses the EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM and the EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM. Both get improved elements for better images specifically reducing chromatic abrasion as well as newer and improved IS systems. Each lens is also lighter and more durable than the lens they replace, but at $9,500 and $12,000 respectively the audience is limited.

The EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II updates the kit lens for the Digital Rebel lines, but there are no enhancements in the optics or usability. DPreview.com reports only cost savings for Canon with no changes for the end-user.

Finally the EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x telephoto zoom lens for those looking beyond the reach of the standard 70-200mm zooms offers a much faster and lighter substitution for the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens. The new lens features f/4 throughout the zoom range as well as a built in Extender giving 280-560mm effective focal length.

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Canon Announces New Toys: Part 2 Speedlites

To accompany the new Rebels, Canon announced the all-new Speedlite 320EX and the updated Speedlite 270EX II. Neither are particularly impressive speedlite units as the 580EX II and 430EX II will continue to see most sales, but the "more-powerful-flash-in-budget-and-small-size" segment gains a small update.

The Speedlite 320EX might excite some video shooters with the addition of a LED light, but the unit is too underpowered for serious use both for still or video photography. Check out LitePanels for a great video lighting solution for DSLRs.

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Canon Announces New Cameras, Lenses, and Speedlites: Part 1 DSLRs

Canon announced updates to both of their consumer DSLR lines. The Rebel T3i will replace the Rebel T2i and entry-level Rebel T3 (notice the lack of the "i") will replace the Rebel XS.

The Rebel T3i is a modest improvement of the T2i, basically a T2i with an articulating screen. The internals are nearly identical to the T2i with the important exception of being able to wirelessly control off-camera Speedlites.

The Rebel XS, being nearly two-and-a-half years old looked extremely old compared to many other offerings making us wonder if it would be a one-off experiment in the entry-level DSLR category, but the Rebel T3 gives the new entry level segment something better than what consumers buying the Rebel T1i two years ago.  The sensor is assumed to be sourced from the Rebel T1i, and the lighting and metering system match that of everything announced since the EOS 7D, namely 9-point autofocus and 63-point light metering.

The key to these new cameras is to make it easier for anyone to pickup and shoot with a DSLR. Creative Auto mode gets better explanations to each function and the new Automatic+ brings Canon's Scene Intelligent Auto technology from the PowerShot lines to the Digital Rebel. Note, that for anyone familiar with the workings and functions of a DSLR, these changes bear little improvement to you.

The new Digital Rebels will also include "filters" similar to they way Photoshop or iOS apps like Hipstamatic can add creative features to your shots. The Rebels will keep the original JPEG as well as the filtered JPEG for you.

Both cameras will feature a new kit lens, although there does not seem to be any improvement in the optics. Details suggest, the new lens only bears cost savings for Canon with negligible difference to the consumer. The Rebel T3i, however, will also be offered with a EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens which may interest some.

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