What Would Your Laptop Look Like? - Imagine what computers would look like if they were designed by kids rather than stodgy corporations. Bright colors. Buttons dedicated to Barbie.com and iTunes. Family members available at the click of a button. All of these are ideas put forth by "The Laptop Club," a group of seven-to-nine year olds who meet after school. [more]

Dress for Success - Ever start to feel like you're wearing the same thing every week? Well it just may be true! A new gizmo developed by Australian researchers is being touted as a dress-for-success solution that could give busy people the edge to get ahead. The "smart wardrobe" keeps track of when you wore an item, where you wore it, and can even tell you when your clothes need to be dry-cleaned. [more]

Big Brother's Ridin' Shotgun - With the high cost of fuel, many cities are looking for ways to cut costs. Islip, NY has taken the unusual step of installing GPS devices in their government issued vehicles. According to the article "GPS tracking devices installed on government-issue vehicles are helping communities around the country reduce waste and abuse, in part by catching employees shopping, working out at the gym or otherwise loafing while on the clock." [more]

Mind Reader - Eric Ramsay has been "locked in" -- conscious but paralyzed -- since a car accident 8 years ago. A pioneering experiment has placed electrodes into his brain which have been recorded activity in the area of his brain involved in speech. Scientists believe they may be on the brink of translating that activity into speech. [more]

Vista's Uphill Battle - A survey by King Research has found that 90% of IT professionals have concerns about using Vista. The key reasons? Compatibility, stability and cost. Interestingly, 44% of companies surveyed are considering switching to non-Windows operating systems, and 9% of those have already started moving to their selected alternative. [more]

The Benefits of Telecommuting - Does your employer allow you to telecommute? If not, maybe you should show them this study. According to Ravi Gajendran of Pennsylvania State University, "Our results show that telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work." It seems to have mildly positive effects on morale, stress, and work life balance. [more]

Don't Do the Crime if You Can't Do the Time - A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website. He, along with five other teens. is accused of pilfering virtual furniture, but because those items were paid for with real cash it's a real crime. [more]

Life in the Funny Papers - A friend of mine has a quote in the signature of her e-mails that always strikes a bittersweet chord with me: Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.' Charles Schulz wasn't talking about the IT Industry when he wrote it, but he might as well have been. Nearly all companies have failed investments in software initiatives--many in the six and seven figure range! The good news is that the leading causes of these failures can be avoided by applying Menlo's High-Tech Anthropology^® practice. Join us for the next FREE 90-minute presentation on December 13th to learn how our approach creates the right software for the right application.

Mapping the World's Hot Spots - Flickr, Yahoo's! online photo-sharing site, is set to map the world's hot spots. They will be creating an monumental view of all the photos the world's photographers and phone users have created during the past 24 hours. This will enable web users to browse photos from tens of millions of geographically located photos loaded up to its site. [more]

Beating the Grinch - Worried about shopping online this season? Afraid of someone stealing your credit card information? Well Paypal may have a solution for you. They've begun offering a safe way to shop online by generating single use MasterCard numbers. [more]

If Your Friends Jumped Off a Cliff, Would You Jump Too? - The answer, for cockroaches at least, may well be yes. Researchers using robotic roaches were able to convince roaches abandon their instincts and do things that weren't in their best interest.. [more]