Fed Data Sheds Fresh Light On Small-Business Creation In The Recession

The Great Recession pushed many white collar workers into starting a business when they lost their jobs. Many of these firms were solo operations. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Board sheds interesting light on such new business creation during that period and how the founders of both startups and established firms fared.

Monday's Must-Reads For Entrepreneurs: Silicon Valley's Lack Of Diversity

Today’s news and insights for business owners: the "Soup Nazi" is now franchising.

Dassault's Deal With India Was Important

Amid some controversy, India took to the news with a June announcement of the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation. It was an important move for the nation, which counts China and Pakistan as border ‘mates’.

Movers & Shakers: Microsoft, Apollo Education, ConAgra in spotlight

Among the shares expected to see active trade in Tuesday’s session are those of Microsoft, Apollo Education and ConAgra.

Golfers Rejoice: Microsoft Partners With TaylorMade To Bring Golf Tracking To its Band Wearable

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, one of the allures of the Microsoft Band (at least for me) is Microsoft’s desire to constantly update and bring more features to its combination smartwatch and health tracker. When it first arrived last year, it was obvious that Microsoft had much more in store for the Band than what was initially introduced. The number of sensors in the device, along with Microsoft’s resources, all but assured the Band would gain some really cool features and functionality over time.

Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal, but Domestic Partner Benefits Are Still an Option

In addition to not having access to COBRA benefits, same-sex couples in domestic partnerships are also subject to different tax ...

What Apple's Tim Cook Got Wrong About Data Mining

In a recent speech at the EPIC Champions of Freedom awards dinner, an event focused on privacy and freedom of speech, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook spoke out about “so-called free services,” saying “…we don’t think they’re worth having your email or your search history or now even your family photos data-mined and sold off for God knows what advertising purpose.”

On AMC's 'Humans,' Wrong Approach to Robots May Be Just What Real Humans Need

Progress In HDD Areal Density

HDD capacities must continue to grow to maintain an advantage versus other storage technologies. This is particularly important as the major uses of HDDs is gradually changing from storage in personal computers to their use for bulk storage in data centers, consumer applications (e.g. set top boxes and game consoles) and external storage devices.

Impact Investing Goes Mainstream; Is It Time You Thought About It?

Experts from the Sustainatopia conference argue that impact investing is going mainstream, that it helps investors reduce risk and increase returns, turning conventional wisdom on its head. Investors don't have to give up returns to have impact.

Alibaba's New Pasadena Hub Signals LA As Growing Gateway To China

Alibaba's move into Los Angeles by leasing a 22,000 square foot office space in Pasadena's new Playhouse Plaza signals a bigger opening of cross-border China and southern California business connections. These links are being framed around technology entrepreneurship, venture investment and nearby innovation hubs that seek to make startups more central to the city's economic base.

Will Bigger Burgers Solve McDonald's Problem?

It’s official: McDonald’s burgers are getting bigger. According to a recent CNBC report, the franchise chain is about to introduce a bigger quarter-pounder patty that will weigh 4.25 ounces before cooking and have a new shape, making it more of a grand quarter-pounder. Will this strategy help solve McDonald’s problem, ie the company’s prolonged sales decline? McDonald’s, Restaurant Brands, And Shake Shack’s Financials

The "Big Boom Theory" For Retirement: Millennials, Pay Attention; You Are Next

With Baby Boomers retiring from the workforce at unprecedented numbers and realizing that retirement looks much different than it did decades ago. Today's retirement involves much more pre-planning. So, while Baby Boomers are passing on their jobs to a new flock, otherwise known as Millennials, they are also sharing a new paradigm for retirement. Millennials, take notice!

Education Technology Makes The Most Impact In The Least Recognized Places

People often ask me for specific examples of how technology is impacting global education. I suspect they are looking for super glossy examples of futuristic classrooms. They hope I’ll describe some design innovation or a revolutionary adaptive algorithmic trick. They expect video games, virtual reality, and robotics. But things often don’t look as shiny as you expect. The most significant impact can be inconspicuous. Consider, for example, Camfed’s pioneering partnership with Worldreader.

Best Places On Earth To Run A Business

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Digital Nomad?

People who have run businesses from the global road share insights.

Smaller Companies Advancing On-Line Storage

Small storage companies are creating new ways to store data and provide services that leverage existing hardware investments, provide novel hybrid cloud storage options and advance the development of open source hardware and software. These companies offer novel approaches to solving our storage needs and create new investment opportunities and advanced product services.

Earth-Moon Combination Is Likely Very Rare, Study Confirms

Some 4.53 billion years ago --- roughly 300 million years into the history of our early solar system --- a Mars-sized planetary impactor slammed our young planet virtually head on. The collision cast dust and debris and a sizeable portion of our mantle and crust into Earth orbit and eventually coalesced into our Moon. But what are the odds that such an event would compositionally resemble our present-day Earth-Moon system?

The Wall Street Journal: Some AOL shareholders plan to seek higher payout on Verizon deal

Some AOL Inc. shareholders, who own 5% of AOL, want more than the $50 a share Verizon Communications paid to buy the Web company, WSJ sources says.

Capitol Report: Consumer finance complaints hit the Internet

Pundits’ views on the Supreme Court’s housing discrimination decision; the struggle to declassify documents the old-fashioned way; thousands of complaints about mortgage servicing now online; and more.

How Pens Could Bring The Art of 3D Printing to Novice Hands

Move over, backyard toolshed. The must-have fixit tool for the 21st century? Your 3D printer.That's according to 3D printing guru, and high school technology teacher Philip Cotton. Cotton says, if the toolshed of the 20th century was dominated by physical tools like a hammer or a wrench, the 21st century "shed" will be all about designing your own homegrown fixes and hacks—with 3D printing models. “What can you do with a 3D printer?” Cotton asks, answering that the options are “endless.” From home basics like replacing cooking knobs and mending his fence, to shaping original bow-ties for the high school prom, he does it all with his 3D printer. But today's 3D printing designs, which start not in a shed, but on a computer screen, take a lot of technical savvy to produce. To build his 3D models, Cotton and his high-schoolers work in computer-aided design software (CAD) programs--the same brands of systems engineers and architects use to build their professional work. The 3D consumer is often not the maker, instead simply printing out designs conceived by professional designers. Cotton has even started a marketplace where pros can hawk their designs to 3D printers. This week, startup 3D Simo joined a new handheld army of much smaller, more consumer-oriented, do-it-yourself 3D pens. Launching on Kickstarter, they've garnered over $25,000 of their $70,000 production goal in their first four days online, promising hopeful buyers the product will be in their palms by early 2016, for around $79. Their pen can work with 3D plastics, but also wood and metal materials. And while the pen probably won't contribute much to the formal art of 3D design, it does bring the art of designing with 3D materials straight to consumers' hands. Ondrej Virag owns an earlier, bulkier version of Simo's pen. An architect by day, he says he uses the pen for home hobby projects, making delicate art structures like model trees. “When the computer draws a line, it's always straight,” Virag says. He says with something like a small pen, “you can play with the shape, you put the emotion in it.”

The Ratings Game: FireEye’s stock hit by analyst downgrade

FireEye Inc.’s stock drops sharply after Barclays downgraded the cybersecurity company on concerns over valuation.

Fridays are ditch days for diets

Searches for alcohol, pizza and cookies spike on Friday, Data from Yummly, an app and website that gives recipe recommendations, shows users start out the week healthy but then gravitate toward sweets and alcohol.

Amazon Echo Just Turned Your Living Room Into A Battleground

The battle to win over the consumer living room is getting intense. From Apple to Google to Microsoft to Sony and Samsung, everyone is eyeing for a place in our living rooms. Taking the fight to the next level, Amazon just turned its voice-activated personal assistant, Amazon Echo into a platform. It achieved this milestone before Apple and Microsoft could effectively exploit their smart assistant technologies based on Siri and Cortana. This move strengthens Amazon’s position in the consumer IoT market.

Google cars hit the streets in Mountain View

The bubble-shaped driver-free vehicles are being tested in Google’s Silicon Valley hometown.

Smaller Companies Advancing On-Line Storage

Small storage companies are creating new ways to store data and provide services that leverage existing hardware investments, provide novel hybrid cloud storage options and advance the development of open source hardware and software. These companies offer novel approaches to solving our storage needs and create new investment opportunities and advanced product services.

Outside the Box: Good news! There’s no tech bubble. Now for the bad news...

There’s no bubble in tech stocks because Corporate America isn’t spending much on technology, writes Tim Mullaney.

BP's Head of Technology Harnesses Petaflops to Drive Headline Efficiencies

Most would assume that technology jargon and computing prowess need not be part of conversations with senior oil and gas executives, and the sector is often chided for being behind the digital curve.

Is HBO's "Silicon Valley" Funny? It Depends On Where You Sit.

I’ve always wondered how cops felt about NYPD Blue, or how lawyers feel when they watch Law and Order. Now I know. I just watched the seasons finale of HBO’s reality/sitcom - Silicon Valley. If you haven’t seen the series bit dramatic ending - quick, stop reading. Because I’m going to spill the beans - or the few beans there are. The thing is, much like Law and Order, Silicon Valley is pretty darn enjoyable if you don’t mind a bit of artistic license, and if you’re not one of the main characters. If you’re a startup CEO - it’s little like watching your life flash before your eyes, with a few laughs lines added for dramatic effect. In real life, it’s not that funny. The series revolves around a finctinional company “Pied Piper” with a new killer compression engine. The advisory is Hooli - a big company that looks an awful lot like Google. Hooli is suing Pied Piper for copyright infringement claiming that Richard developed Pied Piper's compression algorithm on Hooli time using company equipment. The CEO of Hooli is Gavin Belson - who acts as the sort of amalgam of all big, powerful, ruthless Valley CEO’s.

Of Ma And Malware: Inside China's iPhone Jailbreaking Industrial Complex

From Alibaba to Baidu, some of the biggest firms in China are backing jailbreaks, some even funding hackers to find vulnerabilities in Apple's operating system to open iOS up to non-ordained kit. It's all because of the massive third-party app store industry in China, which offers incredible choice, but flouts Apple security and spreads pirated software. FORBES takes a look at this mad corner of the market...

MarketWatch First Take: Alarm.com rings up solid gains in debut

Alarm.com Holdings has all the buzz words of a potentially hot tech IPO: cloud, software as a service, smart home and Internet of Things, but its solid, unflashy debut on the Nasdaq also highlights the intense rivalry and fragmentation of the much buzzed about Internet of Things area.

Healthcare, Entertainment & War: Picking the Right Digital Stocks

Where should you put your money?

Blog: Same-Sex Marriage Is Now Legal

Thanks to the Supreme Court, not only can there be spiritual healing but also a righting of wrongs, a correction ...

What Will Cause The Next Global Asset Crash?

A rise in sovereign debt risk, followed by a spike in long-term interest rates. For more than five years, central banks around the world have done a remarkable job in (re)-inflating assets through conventional and nonconventional monetary easing -- beginning with governments bonds, then with equities, and eventually with home prices. That’s

Buzzfeed Goes Benefits

Use this 'listicle' to do health care better at your company.

The Top 10 Cities For Employee Engagement

With The Energizer Split, What Will Edgewell Look Like?

On July 1st Energizer Holdings (ENR) will split into two separate companies; Edgewell Personal Care (EPC) and the new Energizer (ENR). Edgewell controls dominant brands in the shaving, sun care, and feminine care markets, while Energizer will specialize in the production of batteries and lighting products.

Workforce Analytics in the Cloud

Workforce analytics in the cloud. Why now—and how you can make a business case for investment. The fact that ...

Succession Management is More Than Just a Plan

Companies need to expand their succession management practices to stay competitive within evolving markets. These firms can look to ...

Get Paid To Be Yourself: The Business Of Being Ernest Baker

The best brands in the world are not companies – they are the foundation from which great companies are born.

Lean Innovation Management -- Making Corporate Innovation Work

I’ve been working with large companies and the U.S. government to help them innovate faster– not just kind of fast, but 10x the number of initiatives in 1/5 the time. A 50x speedup kind of fast.

With The Rise Of 8K Content, Exabyte Video Looms

The increase in content resolution and the number of hours shot for an hour of final content, the distribution of this content through many distribution channels and finally archiving this video content will drive impressive storage capacity growth.

Netflix would draw higher ratings than best-performing Nielsen networks

If The Nielsen Company started collecting data on Netflix Inc. today, it would be the No. 1 rated distributor within a year.

Where Big Data Jobs Are In 2015 - Midyear Update

The advertised salary for technical professionals with Big Data expertise is $104,850 net of bonuses and additional compensation. IBM (NYSE:IBM) advertised 2,307 new positions requiring Big Data-related expertise in the last twelve months. The most in-demand skills are VMWare expertise, application development, open source technology, data warehousing and Python programming skills.

Police Cars Can Now Identify Criminals While On Patrol

Police departments around the country have been quietly implementing a powerful crime-fighting tool that promises to be the equal of DNA forensics in identifying and finding criminals. Even more importantly, it will provide information that will help prevent criminal activity and deadly traffic accidents.

The Tell: Apple, IBM betting niche apps win in the workplace

Apple and IBM say they are at an advantage over competitors in enterprise mobility because they can specialize apps for niche job functions.