http://www.crystal-studios.com Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:07:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (Credit: Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization) Steiner Skipsness, the man who produced the videos, works in search-engine marketing. He says he has nothing to do with job placement or head hunting. He swears his clips are not a YouTube prank. He initially started filming job seekers--without their knowledge--to offer insight into good ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/09/04/youtube-video-weirdest-job-interviews-ever/ Know your rights. They are your rights. At the same time, Microsoft isn't totally innocent here. DRM was a big part of Microsoft's pitch for the Windows Media platform, and the company had a whole product team devoted to researching, developing, and updating DRM. Microsoft tried to sell content ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/29/msn-drm-mia/ The human brain is almost infinitely malleable...James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind "is very plastic...The brain...has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions." "Excellent!" you say, "Now ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/24/nick-carr-is-google-making-us-stupid/ This comes as AMD is preparing to send samples of its "B3" quad-core Opteron processor to customers. The B3 stepping (or version) fixes, in silicon, a rarely occurring glitch in the Barcelona chip, referred to as the TLB bug. The bug has delayed shipment of quad-core chips to top-tier U.S. ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/hp-readying-amd-quad-core-barcelona-servers/ And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter! In this episode, I discuss why it's imperative that tech companies be more honest and stop playing the PR game, while trying to pull one over on us. Honesty is what will set companies apart from competitors! http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/the-digital-home-video-why-tech-companies-should/ (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News) Ray Ozzie, who succeeded Gates as Microsoft's chief software architect, says he would rather "dream" than "think." "It gives a guy in SQL (Server) a chance to hear where Xbox is going," Ozzie said. "It's a great mixer." "It's clear he's gone away and ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/ozzie-puts-his-own-spin-on-thinkweek/ The organization expects regular citizens to use the information, available in CSV (comma-separated values) format, to analyze funding for political campaigns through projects like charts, maps, and mobile applications. The following data sets are available on the OpenSecrets Action Center: 527 organizations: Financial records dating back to the 2004 election cycle ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/opensecrets-lets-users-download-data-for-free/ U.S. venture capitalists invested a total of $29.4 billion in 2007, up 10.8 percent from the previous year. That marked the fourth consecutive year of growth. The number of deals reached 3,813 last year, a modest rise of 5 percent over a year earlier. If you did, that road down the ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/us-venture-funding-up-nearly-11-percent-in-2007/ commentary Ah, Russia in springtime. In this latest installment of The Register's Open Season, we take on the Russian Microsoft mafia ("Get rich by giving me your money"), ask questions of Sun's open-source strategy, dither in cloud computing, and ponder Hans Reiser's trial. http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/open-seasons-episode-16-russian-microsoft-mafia/ commentary Web 2.0 is the same, and VCs would do well to remember that the mainstream majority has a lot more cash than the early adopters. Web 2.0 is just now hitting its stride as it becomes boring and mainstream. As a case in point, Tim stopped worrying about open source years ... http://www.crystal-studios.com/2010/08/23/as-web-20-goes-mainstream-vcs-plot-a-mass-exodus/