management

When a disaster hits, preparation is key. It used to be said that you should have three days' worth of food, water, and other basic supplies. Now it's said to be seven days' worth.

Martin Griss, the director of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and the Disaster Management Initiative, recently spoke at NASA's Disaster Resiliency Panel held at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. In the video, he explains how to build technologies that will make a difference for individuals and their communities when disaster strikes.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Disaster recovery: Where city and community plans are falling short.&… Read more

Kazuo Hirai is becoming Sony's new chief executive, replacing Howard Stringer on April 1, the Japanese electronics giant announced Wednesday.

Hirai led Sony's PlayStation gaming business and more recently took over a growing electronics group, and Stringer said in a statement he recommended him for the CEO post:

Three years ago, I started to work with the board on succession plans, and in February 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team. Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation and networked entertainment businesses. Kaz is … Read more

Microsoft does listen to user feedback, at least when it comes to fine-tuning some of the features in Windows 8.

Through their Building Windows 8 blog, the folks in Redmond have worked to reveal changes in store for Windows 8, notably in the area of file management. Among them are improvements to the cut, copy, paste, rename, and delete commands; refinements for file collisions; and a new look and feel for Windows Explorer.

In reaction to those blog posts, more than 2,000 users chimed in with suggestions for further tweaking the new file management. And Microsoft apparently listened.

Detailed … Read more

Windows has never really offered much of a disk utility. My Computer doesn't offer many options, and the Disk Management Tool isn't meant for simple, everyday tasks. Alex Nolan's Drive Manager is a free, portable disk management tool that displays available space and a lot of other information about your hard drives, optical drives, removable drives, and even your card readers. It can hide and unhide or lock and unlock drives, access tools like Check Disk, create substitute drive letters for files and folders, search drives, show disk speed, eject USB drives, and more.

As portable freeware, … Read more

Businesses of all sizes rely on accounting software to help manage their finances. It's been our experience that many of the available programs don't really make the grade; they're often either too unintuitive or lacking in important features. Unfortunately, Manager Free Accounting Software falls into this category of accounting programs that failed to impress us. It's definitely not the worst program we've seen, but the absence of a few important features combined with a lack of documentation kept us from being too enthusiastic about it.

The program's interface is rather sparse, but in a … Read more

Following its successful runs on the iPhone and Mac platforms, Producteev now makes its way onto Windows 7 desktops and Android mobile devices.

With the circle of cross-platform access now essentially complete, users can keep track of personal tasks or create, store, and collaborate on group tasks, no matter what devices they're using--Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android.

But that's not all. To go with the shiny new Windows and Android native apps, Producteev is also announcing a host of new features. First, users get built-in integration with TaskRabbit, so they can offer up any of their tasks to … Read more

With the spotlight turned on education after Apple's latest media event, iTunes U has gotten a facelift as well as some important resource pages on Apple's Web site.

iTunes U is a source for hundreds of thousands of lectures, videos, books, and other resources originating from many of the world's leading educational institutions. There are thousands of subjects to choose from for those wishing to supplement their education using an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC.

To get better acquainted with iTunes U, Apple has put up a help guide for new users on its Web site. It … Read more

commentary This may not have been the change people were looking for at Research In Motion.

RIM announced late tonight that its two CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, are both out of the company. Taking over is Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins, a five-year RIM executive said to have been their heir apparent.

My initial impression on Lazaridis and Balsillie getting the boot? Finally. Few other CEOs would be around after a shepherding a company through the year RIM has had. Throughout 2011, RIM has seen its stock value plunge by more than 75 percent, fumbled the introduction of … Read more

It's so easy to grab extensions for Twitter, Facebook, and even music services. 

Unfortunately, while these extensions are great for socializing and surfing, they may be resource hogs or distracting you with animated icons while attempting to be productive. There is one extension that can help solve this conundrum for you: Context. Basically, this extension groups your other extensions for situational use. So if you're working, shopping, or just surfing for fun, you can load only the relevant extensions. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Head to the extension page for Context in the Chrome Web Store.… Read more