ups

Working overtime for venture capital funding

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry.

Entrepreneur Treb Ryan remembers in vivid detail the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 700 points and dropped below 9,000 for the first time in years.

He was visiting a major computer maker on that day, October 9, waiting to meet with a potential investor about funding his start-up OpSource.

"I was about a half an hour early for the appointment and was sitting in the lobby, where they have a big screen TV," recalled … Read more

The 404 247: Where Wicker Hollow is stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel

Back by popular demand, Wicker Hollow is in the studio with us today on The 404. Chris Leone and Chris Sparta join us to talk about their new album, "Wake Up Call," in stores and online December 20. Make sure you call into the show for a chance to win free tickets to their CD release party December 20 at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey.

Justin Yu is gone for the rest of 2008, so now we can finally get some stuff done. That includes talking to the Wicker Hollow guys about a recent controversial Saturday Night Live skit, George W. Bush's ability to dodge shoes, N.J. marijuana laws, and what it's like playing in a punk rock band.

Editor in Chief Libe Goad from AOL's Gamedaily.com will join us tomorrow to talk about all things gaming, so make sure you tune in for that one.

EPISODE 247 Download today's podcast … Read more

Small is beautiful for green-tech newbies

Les Fritzemeier heads up a tiny solar-energy start-up that most people have never heard of, Wakonda Technologies. But rather than worry about being steamrolled by the sliding economy, he feels like he's in a great spot.

"In a lot of respects, the best time to start a company is in the middle of a recession, assuming you've got money," he said. "Our target is to go to market when most people expect the economy to turn around."

Without a doubt, the recession and lower oil prices are hurting many companies in clean tech, a … Read more

Google SketchUp 7 wants to shape you into a 3D artist

Google has released SketchUp 7 (download), the latest free version of its 3D modeling software, along with its premium counterpart, SketchUp 7 Pro.

Like previous iterations of the software, SketchUp 7 will enable you to model just about anything you'd like as long as you start with a predesigned template. The new version, released Monday, offers simple templates that help you gauge size through feet or meters, but it also includes architectural design, Google Earth, and a product design template to aid you in your modeling endeavors.

Once you choose a template, you're brought to a relatively simple … Read more

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Featured Freeware: Baku

Remove the detritus of Windows with this very helpful freeware. Baku's interface is a lesson in clean, efficient design, and cleaning up your computer is easily completed using the three wizards to remove unwanted files, invalid Registry keys, and Most Recently Used lists.

This flexible program lets you search for specific junk file types and easily exclude folders or drives from the scan. Results can be sorted a number of ways, with buttons to select (or deselect) all items for deletion. One oddity: Instead of going back to the main interface Baku completely closes if you cancel a search. … Read more

Mobigrip leashes replace fold-up calculator as No. 1 corporate giveaway

Technology might be the only medium where smaller is always better, but it's starting to get ridiculous. I'm worried that my next cell phone is going to be the size of a sunflower seed. There's got to be a point where we finally decide that things need to start getting bigger, and Mobigrip thinks that now is as good a time as any.

Mobigrips, also known as "device leashes," aren't exactly at the forefront of tech innovation; it's essentially a circular hunk of plastic with adhesive on the back and a lanyard attached … Read more

HomeAway opens door to $250 million funding round

Vacation home rental site HomeAway announced Tuesday it received a substantial $250 million fourth round of funding.

HomeAway, which has raised $405 million to date in private equity, received its latest round from lead investor Technology Crossover Ventures, along with existing investors Institutional Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

HomeAway's $250 million third round represents the largest U.S. venture stake for an Internet company over the past eight years, according to Venture Source.

Companies that tend to raise sizable venture rounds in excess of $100 million tend to be in capital intensive industries, such as networking company Santera Systems … Read more

Mayfield Fund, Forrester CEO weigh in on tech economy

Call it the elephant approach to sizing up the health of tech.

In two separate reports released Monday, Forrester Research CEO George Colony and Mayfield Fund weighed in on where they believe tech is headed in this challenging climate.

Colony, who took hold of the proverbial elephant's trunk, noted in his CounterIntuitive blog that the current recession will likely result in a tech spending slowdown, but nothing near the levels seen in the post-bubble-burst era of 2001 to 2003.

He noted CEOs and CIOs are indicating they plan to "change their way" out of the current economic … Read more

TuneUp Companion intros Mac beta

TuneUp Companion has been getting a lot of attention for their iTunes plug-in for Windows, and now they're trying to drum up interest in the Mac version.

Basically, the plug-in powers up cover art discovery while cleaning up metatags, automatically discovering contextually-related Web content, and sniffs out upcoming concert information. I haven't yet had a chance to check out the Mac version yet, but keep in mind that it's a beta and there is likely some serious debugging needed.

In fact, the bugs aren't likely--they definitely exist. In the words TuneUp's media relations guru Andrew … Read more