tech

Lap Dances at Yahoo's Hack Days? A Lesson in Monitoring a Global Brand

Allyson Kapin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:35:39 -0400

Hot and Heavy CD Makin'

Chris Dannen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:26:33 -0400

It seems like just yesterday when burning a CD could score big points with the ladies.

Infographic of the Day: Google's Acquisition Map

Kelsey Keith — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:36:15 -0400

It's autumn again, and that means hunting season, at least for Google. After the purchase of web widget reCaptcha, CEO Eric Schmidt revealed at a press conference that the world's #1 internet search engine is aiming for at least acquisition per month of small firms.

Your Avatar & You

Donald Schwartz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:55:16 -0400

RTI study finds that an avatar's virtual life image may influence user's real-life image http://bit.ly/hq6Vn - DS: well, duh, avatars have always been aspirational....

Sorting, Scoring, and Avatarism: "Users are already familiar with the avatar as persona, and with the concept of various inventory items with unique attributes." http://tinyurl.com/3pzose

Technology

Sony PRS-300, PRS-600 E-Reader Details Leak Via Service Manuals [UPDATED]

Clay Dillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:09:27 -0400

Leaked service manuals for Sony's upcoming PRS-300 and PRS-600 e-reader devices have revealed the specs of the anticipated successors to the Sony PRS-700. Unfortunately, no pricing or release date information was included, but the manuals are dated July 2009, so the features revealed are fresh.

Venture Capital Slows to a Trickle

Chris Dannen — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:11:52 -0400

It's well know that VC funds take their economic hits with a delay because they work in liquid money, but it seems like their time of reckoning for the great bust of '08 has finally come. VentureBeat reports that new data from the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters show a drop in second-quarter VC fundraising that's pretty discouraging: between April and June, they raised a collective $1.7 billion, the smallest amount raised in any quarter since 2003, and split between the smallest number of funds since 1996.

Data Visualization Borders on Art

Donald Schwartz — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:51:41 -0400

1 ) 50 Great Examples of Data Visualization - http://bit.ly/WMp6p
2)Emotional Cartography Technologies of Self - http://tinyurl.com/cjkbuy

Technology

Microsoft Brings Social Networking and 3-D Motion Capture to Xbox 360

Kevin Ohannessian — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:05:34 -0400

The rumors proved true: Microsoft is bringing motion a capture device to the Xbox 360. The company also announced that Xbox Live will support social networking via Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.

Tech Unemployment Bad, but Not That Bad

Chris Dannen — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:21:32 -0400

Earlier this month, hard drive maker Seagate became the latest tech firm to announce layoffs: 1100 cuts, or 2.5% of its workforce. But while unemployment in the technology sector accelerated in the first quarter of 2009, according to projections by the IEEE in a report published this week, it will pale in comparison to the job losses following the collapse of the tech bubble in 2001.

Innovative Search Engine

Parag Shah — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:33:51 -0400

Date:
May 15, 2009

Hello,

Technology

EU Punishment For US Companies

Somnath Banerjee — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:32:47 -0400

After Microsoft and Intel who else would be the next candidate for being punished?

Will the other US companies be targeted? Will it be Google?

Just wondering.

Technology

Women - The Ultimate Entrepreneurs

James Rickman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:26:51 -0400

More than one-third of entrepreneurs in the United States are women, and the growth in the number of woman-owned firms is more than double the rate of all U.S. firms. Stay-at-home moms are multi-tasking more than ever. In between childcare, cooking and cleaning, they are cranking out inventions that are making them millions. In America, women start 424 new enterprises every day that’s more than twice as many as men. These mothers of invention have nurtured their creative ideas outside the corporate box.

Technology

Next Generation Interaction: Are Virtual Worlds Waiting in the Wings?

Donald Schwartz — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:26:14 -0500

About:

This is the revised transcript of the Fast Company.com Call-In titled, Next Generation Interaction: Are Virtual Worlds Waiting in the Wings? that took place on November 2008. Portions of the dialogue have been re-written with the consent and in collaboration of the speaker. The idea behind the edit was to improve accuracy and readability.

I have divided up the conversation into three sections and added links to enable you to explore citations within the copy.

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In Internet Democracy Not All Good Causes Are Apparently Equal

Donald Schwartz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:29:05 -0500

Technology

Obama's High-Tech Defenses: Bullet-Resistant Suit, Tank-Like Limo, and One Huge Gun

Chris Dannen — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:41:20 -0500

What kind of high-tech precautions were taken on inauguration day? Advanced ballistics fabrics, a truck-limo hybrid with bunker-like doors, and a trailing machine gun vehicle were among the latest defenses issued the President, in the face of at least one potential terrorist threat-alert issued to local and federal police, as reported by the AP.

The President's primary layer of defense was sheer manpower: 12,500 active and reserve troops patrolled downtown Washington, DC, alongside heavily-armed police officers numbering in the thousands from DC's Metropolitan police squad and surrounding auxiliary units. Secret Service SWAT teams were also on patrol; to date, the Secret Service employs about 3,500 agents.

The Department of Homeland Security rated the inauguration as a "national special security event," requiring the military to patrol the Potomac with gun-boats, criss-cross the skies with air patrols, and keep surface-to-air weapons at the ready.

Besides his city-wide security detail, President Obama relied on two primary defenses during his inauguration day. The first was a bullet-resistant suit, possibly augmented by an ultra-thin bullet-resistant vest, made by a "high-security fashion" company called Miguel Caballero.

The Colombian company makes fashion clothing in three levels of bullet-resistance, the lowest of which can protect against a 9mm pistol and the highest of which can take a shot from a Mini Uzi or MP5 submachine gun. The Secret Service hasn't disclosed which of Obama's garments were bullet-resistant, but with Miguel Caballero making everything from bullet-resistant leather jackets to bullet-resistant tuxedo shirts, it could have been any or all of his suit and overcoat.

Obama's second line of defense was his motorcade, which featured a brand-new hybrid security limousine made by Cadillac. Seen here in testing spy-shots, the new limo is a melange of truck and car parts, most likely based on GM's Topkick light-duty truck platform. Starting from the bottom up, the presidential limo has Goodyear's Regional RHS tires mounted on 19.5-inch wheels. The tires were probably picked for their heavy-duty weight bearing ratings and ability to run flat, with zero air pressure.

Weight-bearing they will need to be, because under the hood likely lies a monstrous diesel V8 DuraMax engine and drivetrain, and the doors are bomb-rated at about eight -- yes, 8 -- inches thick. As the Times has reported, it's impossible to know the exact specs of the limo, since neither GM nor the Secret Service will discuss them. But that newspaper also hypothesizes that the new limo's windows would need to be at least 1.5 inches thick to stop a high-velocity bullet from a military assault rifle.

Bill Clinton is said to have had at least five decoy models of the presidential limo accompany him to Pakistan in March of 2000. His presidential vehicle was a modified Cadillac Fleetwood, model year 1993. One of the limos is now on display at his presidential library in Little Rock, AR, where it is kept locked; the library staff cannot access the interior of the car without contacting the local Secret Service bureau, for security reasons. Decommissioned cars are destroyed on highly secure federal property, or buried at sea.

Behind Barack's supercar were vans loaded with SWAT teams, mobile broadband communications equipment, and even electro-magnetic devices capable of disabling the detonators on home-made bombs, according to the McClatchy-Tribune news wire. There were also devices constantly monitoring the air for chemical and biological agents.

The new president's final and most desperate line of defense may be another vehicle in his convoy: a Chevrolet Suburban equipped with a pop-up machine gun nest capable of firing large-caliber bullets at a rate of 4,000 rounds per second. Check out a video demonstration of the vehicle in action below, which is rumored to have gone into service during George W. Bush's presidency. Let's hope this thing never needs to come out of its shell.

A Daily Dose of Blogs for the Tech Entrepreneur

Rashmi Sinha — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:10:20 -0500

Rashmi Sinha, co-founder & CEO for SlideShare, doesn't have a lot of time to read a lot of blogs, but the following sites are the ones that she makes time for, because they help her with the day-to-day challenges of running a startup. Sinha, who also appears on Fast Company's, "The Most Influential Women In Tech: The Entrepreneurs," lists her daily reads as:

6 Sources of Inspiration for Tech Bloggers

Corvida Raven — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:06:01 -0500

Corvida Raven, author of the blog SheGeeks.net, made the Fast Company list of "The Most Influential Women In Technology: The Bloggers." Here, she shares her sources of inspiration.

Beauty is Better Than Brains

Chris Dannen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:56:54 -0500

It's no wonder Detroit's Big Three are failing; we hold them to a very high standard. We want cars that look good and function well, and why shouldn't we? We spend a lot of money on them, and use them constantly. But what about the other invaluable products in our lives -- our gadgets?

Objects of Design

Anne C. Lee — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:15:22 -0500

Made from stainless steel, Pyrex and silicone, the 11-oz. teapot by Joey Roth was originally created as part of his college portfolio. The clear body enables you to watch the tea leaves unfurl--and the pot itself was designed to look better with some wear and tear. Making tea is now officially cool. Even cooler? The sustainable packaging.

Price: $200
More Info: Sorapot

Marketer's Guide to Semantic Web: Solving Social Media Measurement

Marta Strickland — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:29:27 -0400

http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/10/solving_social_media_measurement.h...

It's one of the toughest marketing challenges of recent times... how do we measure the success of social media? I see countless posts everyday where someone says they have it figured out, or that it will never be figured out, but nothing quite measures up to the need. How do you measure the success of a human conversation?

Technology

Marketer's Guide to Semantic Web: Creating More Relevant Ads

Marta Strickland — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:26:36 -0400

http://threeminds.organic.com/2008/10/marketers_guide_to_semantic_we.htm...

Has your contextual advertising turned into a contextual nightmare? Maybe you became the butt end of the joke for many blogs creating not the kind of buzz around the brand you were hoping for. Or worse, maybe it has happened and you don't even know it.

Technology

Quick intro

Jack Durban — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:27:17 -0400

Greetings,

I just discovered Fastcompany and I would like to participate and contribute if I can.

I am an author, inventor and product developer. I am intimately familiar with advanced technology and innovationand received my first patent just out of high school.

I hold over twenty patents from simple toys to green tech to radar based navigation. I run a small product development company by the name of Vorelco and after over a quarter century of business we boast a flawless business record.

Technology

PerfSpot.com and OpenSocial: FriendVouch http://www.friendvouch.com

Svetlana Toun — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:38:54 -0400

PerfSpot is launching new development - FriendVouch..

Technology

IT Marketing Proven Tips on Building a Client List

Joshua Feinberg — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:59:35 -0400

If you are like a lot of other computer consultants, you might not understand how important having a solid IT marketing plan is to the future of your business.

You might think that your friends, family, colleagues and others in your circle will be a never-ending source of clients that will bring needed revenue to your business.

Introduction

Joel Simpson — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:57:12 -0400

I just joined this group and would like to introduce myself. My name is Joel Simpson, I am VP of Advanced Business Concepts, Inc., which is an IT consulting company located in MA and FL. I am also an Officer in the Army National Guard. I graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a B.S. in Engineering.

I joined LinkedIn to network for my business and learn from others on how to grow the business and also help others who may have questions that I can answer.

Thank you,

Joel Simpson
VP
Advanced Business Concepts, Inc.

Technology