Workplace

Although China's government has been mired in human rights problems for years, the bureaucrats do know a thing about customer service.

Communist party members have to undergo the "360" review process for promotions, the peer-review system that helps determine promotions at companies like Intel. (The party picked it up from U.S. corporations, Jian Daning, director of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, told us a few years ago).

Want to open a company here? The system for tax breaks for exporters is well mapped-out, and there are several regions offering deals on land in industrial parks. … Read more

If there's one thing we learned this last winter, people get cold while sitting at their computers. Very cold. And the gadget industry jumped into action and responded with heated products ranging from mice to mittens, throwing in an occastional lap or knee warmer for good measure.

But honestly, given how much heat emanates from a computer, why should there be a need for something that produces additional BTUs? The cleverly named WK001 keyboard from V8, for example, is powered by a USB connection that generates two levels of toastiness--"normal hand temperature" and "normal body … Read more

BOSTON--Adobe Systems sees the so-called YouTube generation as its next big customer base.

At the JPMorgan Technology Conference here on Tuesday, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen explained how his company sees the market for its line of Creative Suite 3 software packages.

While Adobe has traditionally considered its base to comprise about 3 million professionals who return for each new software edition and continue to buy other Adobe products, that base is skewing toward nonprofessionals.

Chizen said his company estimates that there are about 38 million "aspiring professionals or amateur users" who want to be able to say they … Read more

It's one of the most worn-out cliches of all action movies: the laser beam alarm system. But if they've been around for so long, why they haven't become household staples in today's security-obsessed society?

The latest example comes from Arizona-based company Ionatron and its "Portal Denial System" (sounds so RoboCop). Created for the U.S. government, it fires a stream of "laser-induced plasma" across any entryway, though SCI FI Tech says the operator has the option of making it lethal or "less lethal." Come to think of it, maybe it'… Read more

Now that we're all sufficiently terrified that global warming will turn Kansas City into a beach town, there's been a wave of technological efforts designed to put us on an energy diet. Likewise, a proliferation of gadgets have hit the market claiming to monitor our piggish ways, though most of them are fairly limited in scope.

But a device called the "Intelliworks" claims to act as a traffic cop for the entire household or workplace by controlling the total flow of electricity. While plugged into a regular wall socket, "it automatically optimizes the voltage and … Read more

The ever-controversial H-1B visa program is undergoing a fresh round of congressional scrutiny as the U.S. Senate prepares to debate changes to the nation's immigration system as a whole.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Monday sent letters to nine foreign-based companies (click for PDF) requesting information about their use of the work permits, which allow foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in their area of specialty be employed in the United States for up to six years.

The questions ranged from the number of visa petitions the companies sent to U.S. … Read more

The unrelenting ravages of time may have taken their toll on many of us aging Boomers, but one aspect of our misspent youth remains intact: the love for ancient video games.

The nostalgia is so strong at Spark Fun Electronics that a crack team of nine professionals came up with a "Picture Frame Tetris," a wall-sized version of the retro game using 720 colored LEDs and 16 microcontrollers. We're not Tetris experts (being of the Asteroids camp instead), but Technabob breaks down the technicalities in plain english: "The game features a unique interface that controls the … Read more

Most of the swag companies proffer to entice reporters to write about them is predictable and boring--pens, book bags, shirts, etc. You know, things I can buy myself, thank you. But it's not every day I receive swag that's so utterly ridiculous I feel the need to blog about it. (So, good job, Hazmat Media, whoever you are.)

Inside a nondescript padded envelope delivered to my desk yesterday was a two-page, single-spaced missive titled, "My TiVo Gets Me." Best of all, it was accompanied by a black, felt headband sporting TiVo antenna ears.

According to the … Read more

In a couple of years, when I've taken over the world, I'm going to build myself an office building. And it's going to have one of these built into it: a giant metal tube-shaped slide for easy access from the upper stories to the ground floor, like these ones found at the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London. Think about it. It'll save energy, because fewer people will be using the elevator. And it's just plain awesome. In fact, I think I'll install four or five of them, so that it's extra easy … Read more