Archive for December 2007
Are there tasks you need to do on your computer, on the web, or on the phone that you’d rather not do yourself? Tasks that take you away from more satisfying or more lucrative projects? Maybe you need a virtual assistant — an administrative helper who … Read More »
Movie download service Vongo has suffered more than a few slings and arrows over the past year, with a recent salvo fired in the comments section of GigaOM. Seems that there have been three problems that have plagued the service: uninstalling, coupons and customer … Read More »
South Korean Internet users regularly utilize their super-fast broadband connections to stock up on blockbuster movies, according to a new study. Nearly half of the respondents of a survey conducted by the Korean Film Council said they have downloaded movies through file-sharing services, Read More »
The good news for Palm is that it met its second-quarter numbers Tuesday afternoon. OK, it met the estimates it made only a couple of weeks ago, which were substantially lower than its earlier guidance. That revision sent Palm’s stock tumbling 19 percent in less … Read More »
Lot of my good friends are on this list and congratulations to each one of them. Mike, Ryan, Jeff, Cory, Robert, Kevin and Steve. Awesome to be in your company. Read the full list here.
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Over the past few years there has been an explosion of low-cost appliance servers – also known as pizza box servers. And although they are cheap, price-wise, they are turning out to be veritable power hogs.
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Global Investment in Alternative Energy Hits $74B: New Energy Finance analysts report that investment hit an all time high as energy prices rise, concerns about climate change mount, and countries are seeking diversified energy sources – Financial Times.
Greenwashing Bottled Water Reaches New Absurdities: Joel Makower … Read More »
P2P platform Vuze, nee Azureus, has raised $20 million in a round led by New Enterprise Associates, which was joined by existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Greycroft Partners, BV Capital and Jarl Mohn. As well, NEA venture partner Mike Ramsay, the co-founder and former CEO of … Read More »
Workgroups of all sizes can often benefit from a shared, centralized database that everyone can keep up to date. In fact, for some workgroups, a tiny amount of time invested in building a shared database can have huge payoffs in terms of viewing sophisticated reports, planning, … Read More »
Earlier today we covered how to keep your computing data safe and secure on a USB thumb-drive, so it’s only fair to cover the opposite end of the spectrum … Read More »
More Must Reads
By Om Malik
Dec. 18, 2007, 2:24pm PT
Last week we told you about Qik, prompting our knowledgeable readers to offer up names of other service providers, including Floobs, Sofia Digital and ComVu. This week, we bring you Flixwagon. The company, which is jointly run out of Tel Aviv and Boston, is currently in private alpha, … Read More »
By Anne Zelenka
Dec. 18, 2007, 2:00pm PT
PC World calls Vista the #1 biggest tech disappointment of the year. Engadget’s Ryan Block says “it ain’t all THAT bad.” What’s your take?
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By Craig Rubens
Dec. 18, 2007, 2:00pm PT
Najafi Companies, a Phoenix-based private investment firm, said this week that it will invest $100 million in a new portfolio company with a cleantech focus. The company, Energy Capital Investments (ECI), will act as an investor to both create and acquire renewable energy technologies, … Read More »
By Carleen Hawn
Dec. 18, 2007, 1:52pm PT
Dating back to my days as a staff writer for Fast Company, I’ve been a fan of the executive coach and author, Marshall Goldsmith (he has written for the magazine many times.) I’ve been meaning to share an essay Marshall wrote for a … Read More »
If you’re going to bare your soul via a live video stream, what better way to do it than by using your ever-present cell phone to both shoot and send? That is, as long as your camera doesn’t suck and your bandwidth doesn’t blow. … Read More »
By Mike Gunderloy
Dec. 18, 2007, 11:00am PT
Today’s email brings the news of some potential cost savings and closer integration for web workers who choose to handle the business parts of their business entirely online. Online payment gateway Authorize.Net has added online time-tracking and invoicing service FreshBooks to their Merchant Toolbox. … Read More »
By Craig Rubens
Dec. 18, 2007, 10:52am PT
Utility PG&E Corp. said today it has entered into a power purchase agreement with Finavera Renewables for two megawatts of ocean energy. The energy will come from an installation located roughly two-and-a-half miles off the Northern California coast that is expected to … Read More »
UStream Gets Funding and a General; lifecasting site raises additional funds from Western Technology Investors and Band of Angels, among others, and adds Wesley Clark to its board. (release)
Google Launches Video Sitemaps; extension of the sitemap protocol lets users specify video files along with metadata … Read More »
Dell’s recent announcement of the spiffy new XT Tablet PC touched off a firestorm of reaction to the firm’s announced starting price of $2499. This pricing is quite a bit … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 18, 2007, 9:57am PT
Earlier this morning I received a press release from In-Stat, a market research firm, outlining the findings of a survey they conducted on how PC usage in North America is changing. One of their key findings: We are spending way too much time on the … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 18, 2007, 8:56am PT
Yup, something’s on the way to be reviewed. It’s small, it’s a computing device and it’s available in two flavors. You’ll understand that when it arrives and goes through the … Read More »
By Murthy Nukala
Dec. 18, 2007, 8:20am PT
As a Founder or a CEO, your job is to build a company that creates sustained value for its employees, customers and stakeholders. Essential to this is defining and living by a set of core values. Why? Because core values breed competitive advantage and sustained … Read More »
DivX, the video codec company, says that its video format can be used to play back videos on Sony PlayStation 3. In order to watch videos on PS3, you will have to upgrade to version 2.10, available today. DivX CEO Kevin Hell had previously … Read More »
By Alexis Madrigal
Dec. 18, 2007, 8:00am PT
We recently wrote about the rise of solar services companies, those that will come to your house and install an entire solar system, kind of like DirecTV dish installers (e.g. Ironwood Communications). The rise of these companies is a major signal that renewable energy, … Read More »
By Dian Schaffhauser
Dec. 18, 2007, 6:00am PT
Although we’ve shared a multitude of project management tools with you since the start of Web Worker Daily (including, since just the beginning of the month, “Organize Your Life With Jott,” “(Mostly) Free Resources for the Web Worker Who Works on the Web,” and “QuickBase Goes … Read More »
By Katie Fehrenbacher
Dec. 18, 2007, 6:00am PT
Update: The FutureGen Alliance, the industry group behind the “clean coal” project just named Mattoon, Ill. as the site for the plant. The release says that the group used “over 120 different factors in the general areas of cost, risks to cost and schedule, … Read More »
By Anne Zelenka
Dec. 18, 2007, 5:00am PT
Travel review site Kango, which brings together traveler opinions from across the web, then analyzes them using natural language analysis and travel-specific term matching to help you find the perfect hotels and activities for your next vacation, said it entered “almost beta” today.
Kango’s “almost beta” … Read More »
What do you do when a big Hollywood studio takes your film — a brooding, Salinger-esque exploration of hormonal Hawaiian dreams — and chops out its, and by extension, your soul? Back in 1986, when A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, starring River … Read More »
By Daniel Berninger
Dec. 18, 2007, 3:06am PT
Given that the average talking Hallmark greeting card probably consumes more than a single MIPS and the $600 PC used by a typical 16-year-old to post videos on Facebook sports an Intel Core Duo chip capable of 27,000 MIPS, the tracking of MIPS no longer generates … Read More »
By Craig Rubens
Dec. 18, 2007, 3:00am PT
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change came to a miraculous conclusion this weekend, albeit amid boos aimed at the U.S. delegation. While the U.S. was successful in removing specific numbers and dates, the agreed-upon framework provides for developed nations to help get clean technologies … Read More »
By Katie Fehrenbacher
Dec. 18, 2007, 12:00am PT
We brought you word last week that thin-film solar company Nanosolar had recently started producing solar panels at its plant in San Jose, Calif., meeting its goal of beginning manufacturing before the end of 2007. Now Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 17, 2007, 10:16pm PT
The cold-flu season seems to have arrived. I am going to try and recover from it over next day or so, and the posting is going to be light.
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By Om Malik
Dec. 17, 2007, 9:00pm PT
Ross Levinsohn and Jon Miller’s investment vehicle, Velocity Investment Group, that launched with much fanfare earlier this year, with backing from General Atlantic, a big East Coast hedge fund, has been working hard to close some deals in Silicon Valley, but they had nothing to … Read More »
Juntoons: the latest entry into the new frontier of semi-surreptitious online movie marketing, or legit fan fiction? Thrillingly weird mashup of sex ed and Adult Swim, or questionable propaganda designed to cover Fox Searchlight’s butt for releasing a film that implicitly condones unsafe teen sex?
I wish … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 17, 2007, 7:40pm PT
If granted patents are an indication of innovation in a sector, clean technology breakthroughs are up significantly over the past five years, but down slightly from 2006. In 2007 a little less than 900 patent applications were granted. Continue reading @ Earth2Tech
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