Author: Serkadis

The Throwbacks were with us for an 8 week run… and then disappeared, much to our dismay. Based on all the comments posted here on BevReview, as well as on Twitter and Facebook, we weren’t alone in that thought! Even the folks at National Public Radio were interested; they interviewed us on the air!

Thus when Pepsi announced in August that we’d see another limited return of the Throwbacks starting in December, there was much rejoicing! Things got more exciting when we started to see the improved designs that both products featured, making up for the poorly-executed visual design we saw in April. With these new looks, the “new” Throwbacks should stand out in the marketplace more effectively.

That said, the rereleased Pepsi Throwback is finally here!

Let’s start by taking a look at the new label design. In Pepsi’s original announcements in August, they mentioned that we’d see the “Same formula, but cooler vintage look!” (Facebook) and “With the same formula, but new awesome vintage look!” (Twitter).
Long gone is the blue label color that was used in the April release. Instead, we’ve actually gone retro, somewhat in the spirit of the prototype Pepsi Throwback design. The Pepsi logo in the December 2009 version of Throwback seems to be a callback to the 1971 vs. the 1987 version seen on the prototype bottle (note the differences in the “PEPSI” font, especially the way the “E” is crafted).
Pepsi Throwback Comparison: Prototype, April 2009, & December 2009 Designs
Pepsi Throwback Comparison: Prototype, April 2009, & December 2009 Designs

The logo and branding is now set horizontally instead of vertical and sideways, more in line with standard can design, which was more popular back then vs. the 20 oz. bottles which dominate sales today.

Careful observers will also note a change in the way sugar is described. You’ll recall the April 2009 version of Pepsi Throwback referred to the product as “made with natural sugar”, however now we have a callout to being “made with real sugar” (just likethe prototype originally noted). Of course, the use of this language seems a lot clearer vs. the question of “just what is natural sugar?” If the formula stays the same as has been previously shared, it should still be a combination of cane and beet sugar. Ironically, the use of the “real sugar” line may also prompt potential customers to ask, “so, if this is real sugar, what was the stuff in Pepsi before?” I’m sure the folks over at the Corn Refiners Association would love to answer that question.

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With the year—and decade—coming to a close, the business press has been awash with stories about just how lousy the ‘00s were. As Paul Krugman details in the New York Times, it was a decade with a tiny amount of job creation, and the first decade on record where private-sector jobs shrunk. The typical family got no economic boost at all. And when the volatility rollercoaster ended there was also no appreciation in home prices and zero gains on stocks.

That pain was felt by venture capitalists as well. I’ve argued for a while now that once the gains from 1999 and 2000 fall off the ten-year index of VC returns, we’re going to be looking at an industry that has returns at or below the S&P 500. Given we’re coming out of a “decade of zero,” that’s a pretty bad thing. Especially for an asset class that is (supposed to) take huge risks in the name of potentially outsized returns.

Dow Jones VentureSource is releasing its year-end liquidity numbers for 1999 this morning and no surprise—it’s just another data point nail in the coffin.

At a high level you can put a good spin on the facts: In the fourth quarter acquisitions rebounded mightily. Public companies snapped up some 86 venture-backed companies for a total of $7.3 billion and three IPOs raised a—let’s be honest—paltry $220 million. And the median amount paid for a company in the fourth quarter was more than $100 million for the first time since 2000.

But as frequently happens in quarter-to-quarter surveys, that $100 million number was skewed greatly by a few large deals, most notably, Zappos’s $1.2 billion purchase by Amazon. Overall, for the year the median acquisition price was just $27 million.

And the overall rebound in fourth quarter liquidity is only impressive compared to the nine months prior. For the year, the industry produced just $17.1 billion in returns, 34% less than the $26.1 billion generated in 2008. And that wasn’t a particularly good year.

The surge in M&A and talk of some promising companies waiting in the wings to go public aside, this industry is in as much trouble as ever for three simple reasons. If these reasons don’t get addressed the 2010s may be worse than the ‘00s for the asset class.

1. The Math Doesn’t Work. An industry that invests roughly $20 billion a year (or even more), can’t survive on returns of roughly $20 billion a year. The basis of a portfolio investing business is that the hits have to make up for the losses—not just pay for themselves. It doesn’t matter how much you believe in innovation, how much you believe in the Valley and how much you believe in venture capital itself—the numbers are now and have for the last decade been hopelessly out of whack. Unless investors can discover an area that can produce many billion-dollar homeruns like the ecommerce, enterprise software and telecom did in decades past, there needs to be dramatically less money investing in early stage firms, period.

As we speak, many once proud venture firms are having a hard time raising their next funds, and many are turning towards less-desirable limited partners out of necessity. A host of funds were supposed to close in 2009 and haven’t yet. Watch the news in 2010 closely: If firms are taking money from state pension funds, raise an eyebrow. Back in the early 2000s state funds came under pressure from Freedom of Information Act requests to divulge information about underlying portfolio investments and privacy-conscious VCs turned their backs on those pension funds as a result. Anyone going back to them now was likely told no by nearly everyone else. Of course, those firms will still be in business. But not all firms will once their current funds are depleted, and ultimately, that’s a good thing for the industry.

2. M&As Alone Will Not Sustain VCs. While it’s true that the bulk of exits VCs get are from acquisitions, this is not where the bulk of returns come from. The economics of venture capital are based on homeruns. That’s why some 5% of the industry makes some 95% of the money. And those big hits come from IPOs or in some cases the threat of an IPO that makes a publicly-held competitor pay a huge premium for a startup. This is why M&A values surged so high in the late 1990s. Companies like Cisco had to shell out hundreds of millions or even billions to buy a company because it was so easy for them to go public. That’s not the case today and when you only have a handful of companies out buying, even a Google or Cisco shopping spree can only net so much in returns.

3. The Perilous Ripple Effect. There is a way that venture capital can adjust to a new normal of smaller exits with smaller multiples: Taking less risk and selling early. That means a switch of focus from building companies to building products. This is how much of the world outside Silicon Valley invests now. The benefit is it requires less capital and less risk. If you build something of value, there’s a likelihood you can get $5 million or even $20 million for it. But that’s the cap of what you’re going to get without a business to back that product up. But that’s OK economically, because you have fewer failures since you’re taking less risk.

Indeed in 2009, Dow Jones found that companies raised a median of just $18 million in venture capital before getting acquired. That’s 18% less than in 2008. And the companies sold faster. It took a median of five years to get an exit, versus six years in 2008.

A lot of entrepreneurs and angel investors argue there’s nothing wrong with this. With far less capital needed to start a company these days, what’s wrong with a smaller exit? You’re still making money, right? Not every idea has to be a $1 billion one to be worth starting.

That’s true for a bootstrapped or angel-funded startup, but not for venture backed deals and the Valley at large. That kind of thinking will eventually destroy an ecosystem that is built on a foundation of homeruns paying for all mistakes. Put another way, the reason we are so famously free to fail in the Valley is that a big homerun can economically make up for those failures. That is what has set Silicon Valley apart for decades. If that changes, the output of the Valley will change too.

And don’t forget: The companies providing these modest exits are the homeruns from previous decades. Without the past big hits of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco, who’d be paying $20 million for your Web 2.0 app today? Consider that Facebook—a company that was ridiculed by the press and analysts for not selling for $1 billion or less back in 2006 —has already bid $500 million for Twitter and acquired FriendFeed. Good thing for the Valley Facebook didn’t listen to critics.

You don’t have to look too far to see what a world where VCs only build-to-flip would look like. It’s largely happened already in lifesciences. The industry that gave birth to Genentech, Amgen and a lot of promise for returns, job creation and cures, has now turned into big pharma’s outsourced R&D lab.

I’m not blaming investors. Because of the high costs of clinical trials, biotech companies used to go public to fund clinical trials. But in the post-2000, SarbOx chill it became all-but impossible for pre-clinical trial, pre-revenue companies to go public. That meant the work had to get financed another way, and that other way was licensing deals with big pharma. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the value from those breakthroughs goes to big pharma, all but ensuring the next Genentech or Amgen may never be created.

But tech doesn’t have those costly restrictions. Do we really want to embrace and celebrate an M&A only world of returns anyway?

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

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Lenovo is kicking off the new year with a series of new ThinkPad laptops for small businesses, including a number of low-cost options that include chips from Advanced Micro Devices. Lenovo is also offering a first for its business users: the choice of color in a laptop.

The ThinkPad Edge, debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show, has a new industrial design that brings some of the sexy look of  consumer laptops to small business machines. The Windows 7 machine comes in black and “heat wave red.

This color option is a big step, since Lenovo has been identified with conservative business designs forever (including the days when ThinkPad belonged to IBM). The company says the machines are still built for performance, productivity, reliability and security.

But the marketing folks have noticed that people tend to take pride in having cool-looking laptops, whether they’re business people or not, said Charles Sune, worldwide segment manager at Lenovo, in an interview. The whole goal is to re-energize the ThinkPad brand, which some view as strait-laced.

The choice of AMD Turion X2 and Athlon X2 processors in some of the machines is an important victory for AMD, which needs all of the design wins it can get in its battle with Intel. Lenovo has a lot of market share and it has been an Intel shop on its ThinkPad business line, although it has used AMD chips in consumer models. It shows that Lenovo is paying attention to the price-consciousness of recession-battered small businesses.

It’s clear why the AMD machines are cheaper. With a four-cell battery, the Edge gets 3.7 hours of battery life with an AMD chip and 5.9 hours with a six-cell battery. With an Intel processor, it gets 5.9 hours with a four-cell and 8.9 hours with a six-cell.

Lenovo is participating in the AMD Vision Pro branding campaign, which seeks to simplify the selling process for small business owners by classifying the computers into simple usage categories. Prices start at $549.

The Edge machines also have a choice of high resolution cameras, optional 3G and 4G wireless, Skype for Internet calling and other features. There are four models in the Edge series, including models with 13 inch, 14 inch, and 15 inch screens. The laptops are smaller since Lenovo removed the numbered keypads on the keyboard. The 14-inch and 15-inch models (both available in the second quarter) will come with illuminated keyboards so you can see the keys on a darkened airplane. The 14-inch version will be available at Best Buy, a new channel for Lenovo.

Lenovo is also launching its first entry in the “ultraportable” laptop market, the ThinkPad X100e (right). The company bills the laptop as the first professional-grade ultraportable laptop below $500. It also uses an AMD processor and the AMD Vision Pro branding. Options include AMD Athlon Neo single-core or dual-core processors (cores refer to how many processing brains are on each chip). The laptop is available now and sells for as little as $449.

The machine can run corporate operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, and it comes with Lenovo’s corporate-focused manageability features. It has an 11.6-inch display, a full-sized keyboard, and a choice of black or heatwave red colors. While it’s small, Lenovo is not calling it a “netbook” because it can run most applications, and it isn’t using Intel’s Atom processors.

But for those who want the tried and true “classic” ThinkPad, Lenovo is offering four new models. These are the T410s, T410, T510, and the W510 (a mobile workstation). They will use Intel’s newest dual-core microprocessors and are built for performance. The machines weigh under three pounds and have 802.11n Wi-Fi, and optional Bluetooth and 3G.

The battery life is as high as 22 hours, and the screens include options for multitouch. The 410s is aimed at extremely mobile users; the T410 and T510 are aimed at mainstream business users who want full performance; and the W510 is aimed at professionals in graphics-demanding fields like oil and gas, computer-aided design, and photography.

It’s worth noting how much thought Lenovo puts into these machines. The company’s research found that average users hit the delete and escape keys up to 700 times a week on average. So the sizes of these keys have been increased on the T410s and T410 models. The models are available on Jan. 7 and are priced as follows: $1,399 for T410s, $999 for T410 and the T510, and $1,599 for the W510.

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After the successful launch of a consumer branding campaign for its chips, Advanced Micro Devices is announcing today that it will take its AMD Vision campaign into the commercial PC market.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker will target small and medium businesses wit its AMD Vision Pro campaign, which simplifies the messaging behind its processor and graphics chips to focus on how they let users do different kinds of applications.

Leslie Sobon, vice president of worldwide product marketing at AMD, said in an interview that the consumer campaign launched in September exceeded expectations. The campaign takes what used to be 22 marketing categories for PCs and reduces them to just three: Vision Basic, Vision Premium, and Vision Ultimate.

“Now we are working to launch Vision in a way that makes sense for the SMB market,” she said.

The extension makes sense because a lot of small business owners use their computers for both home and personal use. They could benefit from a simplification of the selling process, just as consumers do.

Vision Basic machines get the job done; Vision Premium machines are used to consume digital media; and Vision Ultimate machines are used to create content. Sobon said that the company expected 75 percent of notebook computers using AMD chips to use the new branding; but 95 percent of AMD’s customers used it and that more than 150 different computers using it have either shipped or are planned. Customers worldwide are using the branding, including Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Acer, MSI, and others.

AMD has developed retail marketing materials and is training retailers to be knowledgeable about the campaign. The Vision Pro branding will be used by partners such as Lenovo, which is using AMD chips in its computers for the first time. Lenovo is the lead partner, but other companies such HP will use the branding as well. The Vision Pro brand will launch in notebook computers first and then expand into desktops in the first half of the year.

The Vision Pro brand is different from Intel’s own Vpro brand for businesses as it doesn’t focus on large enterprises, Sobon (pictured) said. And while Intel’s campaigns often focus on its processors, AMD touts both its processors and graphics chips in its Vision brand.

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The latest Dow Jones VentureSource liquidity report, released today at the company’s website, forecasts an exciting return to mergers and acquisitions after a year of mostly nothing.

This isn’t armchair prognostication, it’s an undeniable, measurable trend. For M&A, the fourth quarter of 2009 made up for the three lousy periods that preceded it. Forty-four percent of the year’s total liquidity was generated in the last three months of the year. And the coming first quarter of 2010 should beat the pants off of last year’s Q1.

Here’s what VentureSource’s analysts forecast for 2010:

IPOs, scarce in 2009, will return in modest numbers. Only eight companies completed IPOs, raising a total of $904 million. The biggest was the $371 million offering by lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems of Watertown, Mass.

(At VentureBeat, we’ve dubbed the high sale prices for companies that make technologically very sophisticated non-Web-2.0 products like batteries and IT tools “Revenge of the South Bay.”)

2010 should be a busier year, if not a blockbuster year for IPOs. VentureSource director of global research Jessica Canning wrote in a prepared statement, “With 25 venture-backed companies currently in IPO registration,” she wrote, “it is clear that many entrepreneurs and their investors expect the market to improve in the coming year.”

Acquisitions will rise sharply in 2010 over 2009. Eighty-six mergers and acquisitions raised $7.3 billion dollars in Q4, a 50 percent boost over the end of 2008.

The total volume of M&A most recently peaked in the fourth quarter of 2007, when 133 deals totaled $17 billion in sales. After that, the market nose-dived into 2008, bottoming out in last year’s third quarter, when 84 deals netted only $2.6 billion. In the fourth quarter, a similar number of deals racked up three times as much liquidity.

VCs will continue to see lower returns from most acquisitions. The average price paid shot from $19 million in Q4 of 2008 to $145 million, an eightfold increase. Canning says that figure was skewed by a handful of large acquisitions topped by Amazon.com’s $847 million purchase of Zappos.com, a single deal that accounted for more than 10 percent of the quarter’s total.

But the median amount paid throughout 2009 was still below the levels seen in 2007, she concludes, “a positive sign for acquirers looking to purchase companies at reasonable prices.”

[Images: Dow Jones VentureSource]

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The Burj Dubai
Soaring 818 meters (2,684 feet) the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates claims to be the world’s tallest building. But the Burj Dubai is still under construction, and statistics include the skyscraper’s enormous spire.
The Taipei 101 Tower
Other record-breaking skyscrapers are on the drawing board, but they are too far from completion to enter the running. Among buildings that are fully completed, the world’s tallest appears to be the soaring Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan. The Taipei 101 Tower measures 509 meters (1,670 feet). However, the Tower’s massive 60-foot spire contributes to much of that height.
I decided to Google about the Burj Dubai a little, and i found an interesting interview at Wired with SOM´s structural engineer Bill Baker, telling the story behind the design, the structure and construction. The foundations were overengineered just in case the client wanted to rise the height of the building during construction… which he did!. Now the final height won´t be disclosed until the construction is finished.
Even though the Burj Dubai is still under construction, set to be completed in September 2009, it’s already the world’s tallest manmade structure. As of the end of September 2008, Burj Dubai rose to 2,320 ft (707 m) tall. The exact height is top secret but is estimated to be at least 2,313 ft and 167 floors high. Designed by the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Burj Dubai features a triple-lobed footprint that was inspired by an abstract rendering of the Hymenocallis, a desert flower native to the area. The structure, which somewhat resembles the Sears Tower, is located in the heart of Dubai’s bustling business district. A hotel will occupy the bottom 37 floors of the building. Floors 45 through 108 will house apartments, and corporate offices will take up the remainder of the building

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The effects of the swine flu upon sharks is not a direct one – these mammals are not finding themselves coming down with cases of H1N1 like humans and other land animals. However, they are being threatened in a grave way by the virus through the pharmaceutical process which requires a substance that can be obtained from the sharks’ liver.

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The DMX-P3 Dual CD/MP3 Mixer from Technical Pro may look similar to the Ion Audio Discover DJ but they definitely differ in specs. The DMX-P3 has dual CD players that support multi formats including MP3 discs, two USB inputs, iPod / MP3 input, tone controls, jog wheel with scratch and reverse functions and pitch control. DMX-P3’s programmable controls, jog wheel operation and flexible inputs make it easy for beginner or advanced DJ’s. No pricing or availability is known yet but keep checking their website for future product updates.

Were you able to watch the fan-made Legend of Zelda film, “The Hero of Time” over at the Internet? If you did, good for you. If you didn’t, well, sorry to say but you missed your chance.

2010 rings in the new year and the new, Winter 2010 TV season.  Many TV series return to the tube this week along with a few new premieres.

 

Don’t miss the Ultimate Guide to the 2010 Winter TV Season Premieres with free downloads by premiere date & by show name!

 

                  Nip/Tuck returns for season 7 on FX

 

Below you’ll find all this weeks TV premieres, finales and specials through next Sunday.

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST

 

Sunday, January 3

Platinum Weddings (9pm on WE) New reality TV series – not in HD

Brothers & Sisters (10pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 4 continues with so much overly done drama Mrs GeekTonic’s emotions will be torn 🙂

Desperate Housewives (10pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 6 continues.  Housewives like this don’t seem to be in my neigborhood – probably not yours either.  Perhaps that’s the appeal of this soap opera?

Worst Cooks in America (10pm on Food) – They finally found a realityTV show I’m qualified for – just ask Mrs GeekTonic about the bugs in the broccoli meal ;).  New realityTV series for Food network.

Secrets of Aspen (10pm on VH1) – A new documentary/soap – we’ll call it realityTV

 

Monday, Jan 4

The Secret Life of the American Teenager (8pm on ABC Family – Available in HD) – returns for the second half of season 2

The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love (8pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season 14 of the ever lasting bachelor realityTV series

Heroes (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season 4 continues.  Back to it’s 9pm time slot on 1/11

Make it or Break it (9pm on ABC Family– Available in HD) – Returns with the second half of it’s first season

This Emotional Life (9pm on PBS – Available in HD) – A three-night special where a Harvard psychologist engages with some famous folks to discuss relationships and well-being.

Be Good Johnny Weir (10pm on Sundance) – A new RealityTV show

Blood, Sweat & Takeaways (10pm on BBCA– Available in HD) – A new RealityTV show

The Goode Family (10:30pm on Comedy) – Season 2 premiere

 

Tuesday, Jan 5

The Biggest Loser (8pm on NBC) – Season 9 premiere.  Still not in HD

NCIS (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season 7 continues

NCIS: Los Angeles (9pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season 1 continues

Last Restaurant Standing (9pm on BBCA) – Season 3 of this realityTV show

The Forgotten (10pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season one continues

Life After People (10pm on History) – Season two premieres.  This is a documentary that shows what the earth will be like without humans.  I actually watched part of season one and it was okay.  But I’m shocked to see they brought out a season two…

The Good Wife (10pm on CBS) – Season 1 continues

 

Wednesday, Jan 6

I Get that a Lot (8pm on CBS) – Celebrities pretend to be everyday people to pull pranks on unsuspecting people.

Mercy (8pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season one continues

The Middle (8:30pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season one continues

The 36th Annual People’s Choice Awards (9pm on CBS– Available in HD) – Awards show hosted by Queen Latifah

Modern Family (9pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season one continues.  I might add this is our favorite sitcom this season – possibly the best in a few years.  THis episode stars Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order) as Manny’s bio-father

Law & Order: SVU (9pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season 11 continues

Ghost Hunters Intl (9pm on SyFy– Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere

Cougar Town (9:30pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season one continues with Lisa Kudrow guesting and reuniting with Courtney Cox (both from Friends of course)

Ugly Betty (10pm on ABC– Available in HD) – Season four continues at yet another new day and time.  The biggest suspense in this one might just be whether this ends up being the final season.

Nip/Tuck (10pm on FX– Available in HD) – This is the season seven premiere.  Note that these nine episodes will be the last before the series ends.

Conviction Kitchen (10pm on Planet– Available in HD) – A new RealityTV series

 

Thursday, Jan 7

BCS National Championship Game (7:30pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Texas battles Alabama

Community (8pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season one continues

Parks & Recreation (8:30pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season two contines

The Office (9pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season six continues

30 Rock (9:30pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Season four continues

 

Friday, Jan 8

Bones (8pm on Fox– Available in HD) – Season five continues with encore episodes

Ghost Whisperer (8pm on CBS– Available in HD) – Season five continues

Dollhouse (9pm on Fox– Available in HD) – The final three episodes of season two… and forever since this series has been cancelled.

Medium (9pm on CBS– Available in HD) – Season six continues

Shark Tank (9pm on ABC) – Season one of this realityTV series continues

Numb3rs (10pm on CBS– Available in HD) – Season six continues

Manhattan Marriage Project w/Gino Fillippone (10pm on TLC) – A new RealityTV series

John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show (11pm on Comedy) – A new RealityTV series showcasing folks like Janeane Garofalo, Paul F. Tompkins and Brian Posehn

 

Saturday, January 9

Operation Wild (10pm on Planet– Available in HD) – New series

 

 

Sunday, January 10

Food Network Challenge (8pm on Food– Available in HD) – Season 10 premiere

The Simpsons (8pm on Fox– Available in HD) – The 450th Milestone episode followed by the 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D

Chuck (9pm on NBC– Available in HD) – Chuck gets a two-hour season three premiere and then moves to it’s regular time-slot on the 11th.

Big Love (9pm on HBO– Available in HD) – Season four premiere

Celebrity Rehab (10pm on VH1) – Season three premiere

 

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“Watching the Worst Cooks in America struggle to become great cooks, makes a show that is very funny, dramatic and moving,” said Bob Tuschman, Senior Vice President, Programming and Production, Food Network. “Ultimately, it offers hope for even the most kitchen-challenged of our viewers.”

Under the tutelage of Chef Anne and Chef Beau, the recruits are split into two teams. They learn valuable culinary skills from their team leaders, which are then tested in a series of high-pressure challenges. Based on their performances, the recruits will be narrowed down each week until two are left standing to face the final challenge: prepare a three-course, restaurant-quality meal for a panel of food critics that thinks the dishes have been prepared by chefs Anne and Beau. On the line are the chefs’ professional reputations and $25,000 for the newly-crowned kitchen hero. The winner will be revealed during the finale on Monday, February 1st at 9pm ET/PT.
Meanwhile, it’s the opposite end of the spectrum with “Worst Cooks,” which appeals to Average Joes and Janes on a completely different level. The highly entertaining, schadenfreude-filled hour starts with lines wrapped around city blocks as people eagerly try to prove their horrific cooking skills in hopes of landing a spot on the show. The producers and judges select the 24 most abject contestants for the premiere — and, we assume, those with personalities most appropriate for reality TV.

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Pity the small office when it comes to technology. With anywhere from several to several dozen employees, there’s often no budget for an IT director to manage all the network services required for a modern company of any size. Offices may need to handle email, file-sharing, calendar and contacts hosting, collaboration tools, and other matters.
Especially in this economy, how can an office of that size—perhaps your office?—afford the technician needed to install and keep a Microsoft Server 2008 installation on the rails, plus the initial cost in per-seat licenses. Unix and Linux distributions may be free or have relatively inexpensive purchase and service contracts, but you pay for that in requiring more expertise in house or on demand.

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Adrienne Bailon is an American actress, singer-songwriter, dancer, and television personality. She was a member of former girl groups 3LW and The Cheetah Girls.
While Kourtney definitely got her own little bundle of joy this Christmas, it seems Demi Lovato has a different kind of boy on her list. Demi tweeted, “Dear Santa, I want a boy for Christmas… wanna hook a sista up?! Oh, and not just any boy.. one that holds the door open for you, and writes hand written letters, and spends time with the rents.. ya hurrd?” Don’t we all, Demi? Perhaps actress Candace Cameron Bure will help Demi out. She told fans, “I feel like St. Nick- just dropped off some presents ”

Check out the rest of Monday’s best celebrity tweets below, including Tom Felton back to filming “Harry Potter”, Kris Allen getting lost in New York City, and Cory Monteith ‘fessing up to his greatest vice. Don’t forget you can always follow us @hollywoodcrush to get all the latest on your favorite stars!
Though the former Cheetah Girl claims the pictures were stolen alongside her laptop but Johnathon Jaxson’s subsequent confession suggested that it was all a plan by him and Bailon. He had stated that the hoax was an effort on part of Bailon to boost up her career and gain popularity. Many agree with Johnathon and believe that it indeed, was an effort to earn repute on international level.

Sources claim that a standard apology from the dancer has been issued addressing her fans to tell them she feels sorry for the leaked photos. However, the other unconfirmed news (so far) is that Bailon is on the ‘hit list’ of the Playboy magazine and even a $100,000 offer is already there if she agrees to expose for them.

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Looking for a more natural way to purify the air and add a bit of green to your home? Andrea is a plant, but so much more than that and was a result of a collaboration between designer Mathieu Lehanneur and Harvard professor David Edwards. It is an environmental purifier that uses the air-cleansing powers of plants and has a modular, bubble topped sci-fi look. The apparatus enhances the plant’s ability to remove toxic gases of indoor air and pump out clean oxygen. Andrea currently retails for $158.85 at Amazon.

“All that we eat, all that we wear, our houses, every comfort, and all our luxuries are brought us to-day by these invisible, but almost omnipotent, genii of the fire and the lamp and the thunder-storm.” That was R. H. Thurston, director of the …

Freescale Semiconductor is helping to kick this year’s CES off with a bang, as its latest reference smartbook design actually has somewhat of a sexy flair to it. Currently, the model is little more than a great idea, but the company is hoping to have it available for partner evaluation starting next month. In theory, at least, this “smartbook tablet” would boast an ultrathin form factor, weigh around 0.8 pounds and get powered by a 1GHz i.MX515 processor. Other specs would include 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 touch panel, 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, a USB 2.0 socket, audio in / out, 3 megapixel camera, inbuilt 3-axis accelerometer, an ambient light sensor and a 1,900mAh battery. We aren’t quite sure what kind of bulk discounts Freescale is counting on, but it’s hoping that this design will “enable a second generation of smartbook products with prices less than $200.” We dig the ambition and all, but we’re guessing OEMs will actually want to turn a profit should they sign on to sell something like this.

Continue reading Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

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Munich, Germany | Curious Places of Worship

According to legend, in 1468 architect Jorg von Halspach went looking for money to build a new cathedral in Munich and ended up making a bargain with the Devil: the Devil would provide the funds for the huge building on the condition that it be a celebration of darkness, with no windows to let in light.

When the building was complete, von Helpach led the Devil inside to survey his work, and to show him that he had held up his end of the bargain. Although there was light, there seemed to be no windows, and the devil was satisfied. But then when he took another step further, the columns that had been blocking the view of the windows opened up and, in his fury at being tricked, he stamped his foot, forever marking the floor with his black footprint.

The large black footprint is still there, and indeed proudly shown off by the staff of the Frauenkirche as well as eager tour guides. Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the mythological origins.

The first problem is immediately obvious: there is an enormous window at the end of the church which is not blocked by columns. It was hidden behind a huge altar between 1620-1858, so it’s possible that the story cropped up during that time period.

The second problem is with the mark itself – the large footprint is inset into a til which does not match the surrounding floor. The church has been restored several times over the centuries, a huge restoration effort followed the collapse of the roof in WWII, with some work ending just recently in 1994. According to author Joe Nickell, the warden of the church admitted that the footstep now visible is a “reconstruction”, but it is unclear what exactly it is a reconstruction of, or when it first appeared.

Vinit Nijhawan wrote:

Delhi, December 29, 2009—The ruling Congress Party turned 125 years old today to muted fanfare. Founded in 1885, it became the main opposition to British rule, eventually coming to power in 1947 when India reclaimed its independence. The party remained in power for 30 years, until losing its position in 1977. Since then it has been in power off and on. One constant has been the leadership of the party, an unbroken line of Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi (assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards), her son Rajiv Gandhi (assassinated by Sri Lankan Tamil separatists), Sonia Gandhi (Rajiv’s Italian born wife), and soon, if his mother (Sonia Ghandi) has her way, Rahul Gandhi. Apart from a brief period of emergency rule brought on by Indira Gandhi in the 70s, India’s messy democracy has somehow kept the country together.

Nehru ruled India for close to 20 years after independence. People have faulted him for taking India down a socialist, planned economy path called the License Raj, with most industries nationalized and bureaucrats deciding who produced what. Free market liberalization began when Rajiv Gandhi came to power in 1984, bringing in a new generation of bureaucrats. True market reform was forced on India in 1993, when the country almost ran out of foreign reserves; the prime minister today, Manmohan Singh, was finance minister then. Nehru is now recognized for establishing world-class institutions that are now bearing fruit: the armed forces research centers, post-secondary educational institutes (Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, All India Institute of Medical Sciences), the Indian Space Research Organisation, Central Drug Research Institute, and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

These were institutions of hard power. India has a rich cultural history that was nearly extinguished during British rule. After independence it began to be revived, patronized by the newly wealthy in India and the Indian diaspora primarily in the U.K. and U.S. There were the classical arts and then there was Bollywood cinema. Practically every Indian, rich or poor, knows the words to all the popular film songs from movies of their generation. In a country as diverse linguistically and economically as India, Bollywood has been as instrumental in keeping the country together as democratic politics. As I have traveled around the world, in Asia, the Middle East, Russia, I have been astonished that people have known all the old time Bollywood stars. This is the projection of India’s soft power.

The political class came to power in a time of Gandhian idealism, with the British relatively peacefully extricated from the subcontinent. The political class quickly grabbed most of the reins of power, nationalizing all major industries in the 1950s and 1960s. This power corrupted the political class, some of whom enriched themselves to obscene levels: this is what I mean by the headline “billionaire democracy.” Fortunately, the entrepreneurial middle class is slowly eclipsing the political class, and there is a feeling of inevitable reform of the government’s 40 million employees.

The Partition of India and Pakistan was painful and has been a drag on both countries’ economies and psyches’ since Independence, but India has moved on, remaining a secular democracy driven by a free market economy. Pakistan has remained a feudal state, ruled by a tight political class supported by the military. India is coming to the realization that a stable Pakistan is better for India than a breakup of Pakistan. The middle classes of both countries have similar aspirations; the problem is that in Pakistan the political class is dominant and needs the “threat” of India to stay in that position.

Lots of companies are jumping in to the clean energy space, and all of them will need logos that tell their story and set them apart from the competition. If you’re with one of these companies, you’re no doubt thinking, “Is there really a difference between making a logo for a clean energy company and other types of companies?” The answer is a resounding YES. Here are 5 tips every clean energy start-up should know.