David Lidsky's Blog, page 4653

The 10 Most Creative Small Businesses

Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business represent the best and the brightest in innovation and creation, but the companies they rep aren't all powerhouses--yet. Here are 10 of the most creative small business drawn from our list of the 100.

1. Foursquare

No company is banking on our obsession with geolocation as well as Foursquare. The social networking app rewards users with points and badges for checking in at physical locations. Foursquare secured $1.35 million in funding...

How Everyday Behaviors Can Produce Clean Energy

How to generate energy from sidewalks, roads, railways -- and every breath you take.

All Vibrations are good vibrations in the world of energy harvesting. Whether it's a road under heavy traffic or commuters pounding the sidewalk pavement, micromovements on any surface can be converted into clean energy by power-scavenging devices fitted with piezoelectric (PE) crystals. These pressure-sensitive materials -- normally made of ceramics -- give off a small charge when "squeezed, squashed, bent...

Work Smart: How to Power Through a Mountain of Email

It's your first day back at work after a week-long vacation and you're staring down an email inbox stuffed with 1,600 unread messages. Or--forget vacation--you've just been busy outside the inbox and now you've got a mountain of backlog to get through. If you don't have all day to spend just dealing with email, use some cleanup shortcuts for getting to the bottom of the pile quick.

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There are two types of email in your inbox:

1. Email you can delete.

2...

McRefugees Take Advantage of Shanghai's 24-Hour Fast Food Joints

The most obvious byproduct of the decades-long growth of fast food restaurants is a nation (and increasingly, a world) of overweight citizens. But now we're seeing another disturbing fast food-related trend: McRefugees.

Some Shanghai residents have started to take advantage of 24-hour fast food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC, which offer uncomfortable yet reliable temporary shelter for people who can't--or don't want to--pay rent in the ultra-expensive city. Many of the McRefugees are...

How Can Big Cities Adapt to Climate Change?

Regardless of whether climate change is real, man-made, or happening at an accelerated rate, there's no harm in preparing for the worst. In Climate Change Adaptation in New York City, a new report from the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a motley crew of scientists, government officials and legal, risk management, and insurance experts plan out the city's attempt to survive in the face of climate change.

The NYCPCC's portrait of a climate change-ravaged New York City is disturbing...

The Fast Company Guide to E-Readers

Although it seems that all we ever talk about these days is the tablet--how gorgeous the iPad is, how the tablet will kill off the netbook, a little bit more about the iPad--the more dynamic market of the moment is e-readers. Not a day goes by without the launch of a new model--latest being Asus's Lumibook, and with Marvell muscling in on the Chinese market--and, to be honest, it's all a bit confusing.

Apple has so blurred the boundaries between e-reader and tablet because of its iBook Store...

This is The Telepresence Droid You've Been Looking For

Telepresence droids may be in the news at the mo, but previous efforts have looked comedic and been obscenely expensive. Enter Vgo, with a sci-fi-ish name, sleek ready-for-TV looks and a price that's less than an arm and a leg's worth. 

Vgo's made, suitably enough, by Vgo Communications Inc, and he's a telepresence droid in the mold of several that have gone before. The idea of the robot is that he can take your physical place in meetings, or even just roaming the corridors of your office...

SF's Wild Animals Get Designer Digs

Everyone knows that San Franciscans have an almost pathological obsession with their animals, which might explain why the latest crop of designy digs on some of the choicest real estate around is earmarked for -- surprise! -- the city's wildlife. Caw, caw, cawwww! (Translation: Eat your heart out, humans!) The homes make up Presidio Habitats, a new outdoor exhibit at the picturesque Presidio national park. Nearly a dozen artists, architects, and designers were commissioned to design one-off...

Deconfusinator: How HP Laying Off 9,000 Staff is Actually a Good Thing

HP's just sent shivers through the tech media by announcing 9,000 layoffs in its IT servicing business. Aren't we just clear of the recession, and didn't HP just fork over lots of cash for smartphone maker Palm? Let's try to de-confuse this news. 

HP's layoffs are actually scheduled to take place over a couple of years, so it's not quite as harsh a move as it would appear right from the start. The job losses are also part of a bigger $1 billion "restructuring" package, so they're not...

Dead in the Water: A Floating Cemetery for Hong Kong

A concept building gives a whole new meaning to burial at sea.

A concept building in Hong Kong by the designer Tin Shun But gives a whole new
meaning to burial at sea. Instead of tossing ashes into the great blue
yonder, you can stow them on a floating columbarium moored to the main land. Think of it as a cruise ship, of sorts, but for permanent vacationers.

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It sounds absurd, until you realize how difficult it is to find a place in Hong
Kong to spend eternity. In a city that packs more than...