That means tech planners need the same kind of big pattern-finding software more commonly used by designers, chief executives, and finance types.

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Where his business is concerned, pattern-finding and analyzing Business Intelligence software is no longer the province of statistical analysts, strategy reports, or briefing books anymore.

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This is not in the article but was tweeted at me by Ashk4n and may provide further reason to read the piece: At a Start-up School talk last month, Palantir co-founder Stephen Cohen bragged about how his pattern-finding start-up makes grizzled government types turn into giddy teenagers ( 15:00 min mark).

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While AMDwould love to have some heavyweights visibly on its side--as Netscape had Sun and Apple during the Microsoft antitrust trial--it may have to settle for finding a pattern of documentary evidence while digging through the hard drives of an estimated 800 people at 37 companies, plus whatever Intel coughs up.

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These butterflies are extremely choosey about finding mates with their own, species-specific wing pattern.

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Computers can recognise a well-folded protein when presented with one, but actually finding it calls for the sort of pattern recognition and lateral thinking that they struggle with.

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