recess

The 404 1,078: Where Europe's heating up, but NY is even hotter (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 show, featuring Aunt Jill Schlesinger, editor-at-large for CBS Moneywatch.com:

Check out the latest episode of Jill's podcast, Jill on Money: this week's episode rounds up the European crisis, retirement, and Social Security. Euro crisis: The 10 things to do right now to prepare for a potential euro zone melt-down.… Read more

Disasters, economic malaise whack chip industry

Bad news for anybody in the business of making the chips that power PCs and store movies on iPads.

IHS today said it's dramatically reduced its forecast for semiconductor sales worldwide for 2011, cutting the expected growth rate from 2.9 percent all the way down to 1.2 percent. The industry has swung from boom to bust many times in its decades of existence, but hard times still have the same unpleasant ripple effects: less money to fund research into next-generation products and to pay for next-generation manufacturing facilities.

And it's those investments that ultimately matter to … Read more

Bad economy is a gift that keeps giving to Red Hat

Someone should tell Red Hat that the world has been muddling through a global recession for the past few years. While others' earnings went into a deep freeze throughout the recession, Red Hat has consistently posted strong numbers.

Red Hat's fiscal fourth-quarter 2010 earnings, announced on Wednesday, are no different. Does the company ever get bored of reporting double-digit growth and record billings?

Apparently not.

Red Hat notched its fourth consecutive quarter of exceeding analyst expectations for profits. Highlights from Red Hat's earnings include:

$195.9 million in total revenue, up 18 percent from the year ago quarter. … Read more

Silicon Valley faces rough road to recovery

Silicon Valley has faced tough times before. But climbing out of its current downturn may prove more challenging than ever, says a new report.

Hit by the recession, overseas competition, and political gridlock in California, Silicon Valley--a region virtually synonymous with the high-tech industry--has lost its competitive edge and appeal, according to the "2010 Silicon Valley Index" (PDF) released Thursday by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. As a result, the region has been less able to attract and retain talented workers, leaving it at a standstill with recovery uncertain.

"Silicon Valley'… Read more

Forrester: 5 keys for application development in 2010

Application development professionals need to become "lean and mean" to emerge from the current economic recession, according to Forrester Research.

In a report titled The Top Five Changes For Application Development In 2010, Forrester details five key changes with the overall goal of becoming "lean and mean so you'll be ready to move as the Great Recession wanes, thus leaving no doubt of your development team's contribution to improving business efficiency and driving increased revenue."

Embrace cloud as an early-stage platform Cloud offerings will continue to expand and evolve and companies should look at … Read more

The future will be...

As we’re nearing the end of a year and the end of a decade, it’s time to look back and ahead. With at least three formative events in this young 21st century (9/11, the Tsunami, and the Great Recession) providing some sort of apocalyptic arch and instilling a profound sense of anxiety, it is no wonder that former visionaries are gathering at conferences asking “Where did the future go?” But, at the end of the day, the end of all days didn’t occur, and as the New York Magazine points out in its comprehensive review of … Read more

The 404 Podcast 490: Where we finish things on a good note

It's the last live episode of The 404...of 2009. Russ Frushtick, chief gamer at MTV Networks, joins the show today along with Mark Licea of The Green Show to discuss the tumultuous, but exciting year in videogames. Finally, we get to the winners of our "Hangover" contest.

Because of the Great Recession, many games this year have been pushed back to the next year, and we've seen developers folding left and right. Jeff counts down his list of the most anticipated games of 2010--many of which were suppose to be released this year. Some of the games include Dark Void and Bayonetta. We think the main character of Bayonetta looks a lot like Sarah Palin.

Some of Jeff's favorite games this year were Ghostbusters and, of course, Modern Warfare 2, which Russ actually says didn't make his top 5. Most of that he says has to do with the so-so single player mode and the glitches and cheats in the multiplayer mode of the game. Jeff and Wilson think that Ghostbusters was pretty entertaining, but they both agree that the gameplay itself was a little unappealing after 6 or 7 hours.

Finally, we had a contest to give away copies of "The Hangover" in Blu-ray and DVD. Most of our hangover stories were definitely NSFW, but a couple of them reminded us of our own horrible hangover stories from college and our adolescent days. On that note, please take care of yourself during the holidays. We will see you on the other side of New Year's. In the mean time, send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com or leave a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). There's no guarantee we will get to it during our break, but we will appreciate it. Be safe and have a blast!

EPISODE 490 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1113: There's no Moore's law for chemistry

New Netbook chips promise to increase battery life, which sends Molly into a tizzy about battery life. But battery life does not keep pace with chip law, as Rafe states so well. Also the phone ad wars heat...er...lukewarm up, with some arguably limp responses from Apple. And Opera cooperates with China, sort of.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1113

New Apple ads to Verizon: Can Droid do this? http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10403954-94.html

Google pacts with TiVo for TV ad data http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE5AN2C020091124… Read more

Current Media lays off 80, cancels shows

Maybe it hasn't worked so well to mesh the short-video-clip culture of the Web with traditional cable news: Current Media, the edgy cable company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Wednesday it has laid off 80 employees in conjunction with a programming shakeup.

According to a release from the company, this shift involves canceling a number of programs, including "Current Tonight," "Current Takeover" and "Current Exposed." Most of the layoffs are in conjunction with those programs.

Additionally, per Wednesday's release: "Current will be shifting away from short-form programming and … Read more