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How to view the demographics of your Twitter followers

A couple of days ago, we showed you how to map out where your Twitter followers are located with TweepsMap. There's another service that not only maps your Twitter followers, but also analyzes their gender, profession, interests, and more.

The beta service, by Schmap, is called Know Your Twitter Followers. To get your free (when you send a tweet) summary analysis of your followers, go to the schmap.it Know Your Twitter Followers site and click on the "Tweet + Free Analysis" button.

After you authorize schmap.it to use your Twitter account, you'll be presented with … Read more

Au revoir, e-mail! And this from an IT boss

Unlike some, I believe the French are to be admired.

They have a sense of life's priorities. They occasionally snub their noses at gauche Americans. And their foie gras is first-class.

So I will not be stepping onto the philistine bandwagon of criticism which has greeted the news that Thierry Breton, chief executive of Atos SA, hates e-mail so much that he is doing away with it in his company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Breton would rather people communicate with him by visiting him, calling him or sending him a fluffy carrier pigeon with parchment in its … Read more

Startup puts buildings on energy diet

When it comes to sizing up how efficient a building is, a lot of data and analytical software can be quicker than people.

Retroficiency is one of many startups developing software tools for making commercial buildings more energy-efficient. The Boston-based company today announced that it has raised $3.32 million in a series A round of funding from Point Judith Capital to build up its software and sales. It also acquired Clean Energy Solutions, the commercial efficiency operation of renewable energy project developer Nexamp.

Commercial real estate is a large consumer, and often waster, of energy. The return on investment … Read more

How 3D TV is going to change the look of 2D shows

SAN FRANCISCO--Despite the relative dearth of 3D television programming, sales of 3D TVs are on the rise. But for those who make that programming, the biggest challenge of all may be simultaneously producing 2D versions of the same shows.

On a recent Tuesday, I had the chance to visit the Treasure Island set of "I (Almost) Got Away with It," an Investigation Discovery (ID) channel program about fugitives' near escapes from the law that's made by Indigo Films.

Although most people who watch the show do so in normal 2D, Indigo has recently been shooting a 3D … Read more

The 404 948: Where we're in some deep dish (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 Podcast episode:

Congress is proposing a school lunchroom bill that would allow as little as two tablespoons of tomato paste on a frozen pizza to be classified as a proper weekly serving of vegetables for students. Fries and tater tots also count as vegetables. The U.S. Department of Justice wants to make it a crime to lie on social networks like Match.com, Facebook, and OKCupid--if the fib in question violates other laws outside of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This holiday season, the Salvation Army send its volunteers into the streets with a new way to accept donations using credit card-reading hardware provided by Sprint/Nextel and Square. The program will join Girl Scout troops and The U.S. Army in pushing the next generation of mobile payments. A digital experiment from the artists at Wemakecoolsh.it enables subway denizens on the L-Train to access Wi-Fi and communicate with one another secretly using their self-powered "NOTwork." The enclosed system will run the week of November 14th on L-Trains going in and out of the Brooklyn and Manhattan boroughs. AOL resurrects its Instant Messaging service AIM with new features that even the score with sites like Meebo and Adium, and Jabber that already let you log chat histories, sign into multiple social networking accounts, and view multimedia like video and Twitter messages directly in the message window. An attack on online copyright infringements is in in progress, spearheaded by an initiative called the Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA that aims to blacklist sites that allegedly violate existing copyright laws. As of last night, however, the opposition is gaining powerful allies across the Web, including big names like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga. Bathroom break video 1: Star Wars Rogue Squadron - Cheers Bathroom break video 2: Turkish Ice Cream Follow Jeff, Wilson, Justin, and The 404 Twitter pages for a chance to win Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, and Uncharted 3. Check out this post for how to enter.

Click through to stream or download today's 404 podcast episode!… Read more

KitchIt brings Airbnb simplicity to hiring a party chef

Who needs to go to a restaurant to have a great meal when you could have one made for you at home?

That's the idea behind KitchIt, a Silicon Valley startup that is hoping to use technology, smart and easy design, and good culinary industry connections to offer everyday people custom restaurant-quality meals at home at affordable prices.

The concept is simple: To use KitchIt, you go to its Web site, enter your city, the date and type of the dinner you're planning, how many people are in your party, and the price range per diner.

Once you'… Read more

How to take time-lapse photos on Android

Time-lapse photos are a fun way to document a series of moments happening around you with a camera.

And now there's an awesome app available for Android that lets you bring this same method to your smartphone or tablet. All you need is a quick download and a bit of setup to get started.

Step 1: Download Lapse It from the Android Market. There is a free version that will only allow lower-resolution photos and a Pro version, which allows images up to 720p.

Step 2: Open the app and press the Start new capture button.… Read more

Noesis crowdsources building efficiency

The founders of Noesis Energy believe building managers will put a high value on peers' efficiency tips.

The company this week disclosed its open-source-style business plan and the acquisition of Managing Energy, an Ottawa, Ontario-based company that makes cloud-based software for measuring a commercial building's energy consumption.

Because commercial buildings use, and often waste, a lot of energy, there is a growing number of tools to assess and manage projects to improve efficiency. Large companies IBM and Cisco have software applications for managing multiple buildings while startups such as First Fuel have ways to suggest and prioritize energy efficiency tasks. … Read more

Windows 8 already eyed by many businesses, says survey

Windows 8 may not launch until later next year, but many businesses are already aiming to jump to the new OS.

A full 52 percent of the 973 IT professionals polled by InformationWeek last month said they plan to upgrade to Windows 8. Among those, 5 percent said they'll deploy Windows 8 to their users as soon as it's available, while 13 percent said they'll switch within the first year, and 19 percent within the first two years.

Only 10 percent of the likely upgraders said they'll switch on an as needed basis, 24 percent said … Read more