Marios' Digital Cafe'

Virtual Assistants

Song — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:37:00 +0000

The Virtual Assistant industry has been growing, driven in part by professionals who prefer the flexibility and control of their schedule and working environment, a demand from businesses to increase efficiency, and technology that enables this be feasible and affordable. Mario talks with Becky Gregory, of Virtual Administrative Services, about this growing occupation, who might be able to benefit from it, and what it takes to make it into a career.

Video Game Careers You Didn't Know Existed

Song — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:25:00 +0000

Sales in the US video game industry reached a record high of about 17.9 billion dollars in 2007. Mario talks about video game-related careers with Scott Steinberg, Chief Marketing Officer and publisher of DigitalTrends.com and Director of Embassy Multimedia Consultants. Scott recently wrote a new book called Get Rich Playing Games which is available as a free download.

The Olympics Media Experiment

Song — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:19:00 +0000

NBC paid about eight hundred and ninety-four million dollars for the broadcasting rights for the seventeen day event Olympics this year. Why is this a big deal and what does it mean for the future of television? NBC hopes to gain unprecendented statistical viewership information on multiple platforms in order to sell advertising for the upcoming fall and this has large implications for the rest of the major networks and their new media initiatives.

Republican National Convention

Song — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:06:00 +0000

What platforms and technology are allowing real time two-way coverage at the 2008 Republication National Convention? Mario speaks with Matt Burns, Director of Communications.

MT9 - the New MP3 Competitor

Song — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:49:44 +0000

The MT9 format has six user-controllable unmixed channels of sound - chorus, vocals, bass and drum, guitar, and piano. What this translates into is a format that allows the user to have control over how the file is heard, for instance, say you hate the sound of Britney Spear’s voice but just love the production values? You can mix down the vocal channel and have an instant karaoke version. You could create an a capella version of the last Kanye Album, or cut out the guitar on a Green Day song and play along with your guitar.

The Amazon Tax

Song — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:36:20 +0000

New York State legislature recently included a provision in the budget passed in April, which could result in about 50 million dollars coming in from a tax from online retailers, mostly coming from e-tailer Amazon.com. Some opponents say that electronic commerce will be stilted by the tax and that state and local laws are too complex for online retailers to deal with. But others point to smaller online merchants commonly which use services like Yahoo Stores, Paypal, or Google Checkout to process transactions which allow specific tax rules to be set. Proponents argue that the tax levels the playing field for traditional bricks and mortar stores and that the increased tax revenues for the state would be a reasonable benefit. But taxes are usually only required to be collected from businesses that employ agents or representatives within a state, how exactly does Amazon qualify as a physical presence in the state?

The Transformation Age with Bob Cringely

Song — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:09:48 +0000

Mario speaks with Bob Cringely, host of the the tech documentary The Transformation Age airing on Public Television. The program explores the office, the marketplace, media, finances and our digital lives as they take new forms and remove the barriers of time, distance, wealth, education and even age. You can find out more about the program and when it airs here.

Young Scientist Challenge 08

Song — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:00:54 +0000

Unemployment is going up in the U.S., but nearly a quarter of employers are struggling to find talent, at least when it comes to employees in the engineering fields. Fewer than ten percent of graduating college students in the U.S. are studying engineering. In order to increase interest in the science and engineering fields, the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge was created in 1999 for students in grades five through eight. Ten finalists receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. with the winner receiving the grand prize of a fifty-thousand dollar savings bond. Dr. Alex Cirillo from 3M talks about the specifics of this competition.

Emergency Texting

Song — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:11:10 +0000

The American government is scheduled to be text messaging you in a couple of years, but these messages obviously won’t resemble the majority of the estimated 48 billion or so text messages that are sent each month. The Commercial Mobile Alert System or CMAS, has been approved by Federal regulators to utilize text messaging to send emergency alerts.

NBC and Fox launch Hulu.com

Song — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:18:44 +0000

Have the tv networks got a hit with their new video content site, Hulu.com? Time will tell, but so far they've managed to sell out their advertising inventory. Plus we can now watch episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter anytime we want online.

The Origins of Guitar Hero

Song — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:02:59 +0000

Kai and Charles Huang, the founders of Red Octane, talk about how they went from working in consulting and international trading to creating one of the hottest and influential video games of this era.

Physical Fitness with Video Game Tech

Song — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:36:07 +0000

InterAction Laboratories sat down with Mario to talk about how kids have been getting off of the sofa and more physically active while playing video games.

Low Cost Laptops

Song — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:23:41 +0000

There's a new breed of laptops powered by open source software. Heard of the Asus EEE, the OLPC XO, the HP 2133, or the Everex Cloudbook? Many of these are subnotebooks, designed to be very portable, weighing under 3lbs, and powered by Linux to keep costs down and surf the the web and perform basic productivity tasks more efficiently.

Maryland Computer Services Tax

Song — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:27:39 +0000

In November of last year, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Tax Reform Act of 2007, which would expand Maryland’s six percent sales and use tax to “computer services.” This tax is planned to go into effect on July first. There is concern that, with the mobility of IT services, that IT jobs will relocate to neighboring states such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia to avoid these taxes. Mario speaks with Tom Loveland, CEO of Mind Over Machines, and founder of the Maryland Computer Services Association. Find out more at Fight the Tech Tax.

A Political Action Committee For Videogames

Song — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:45:38 +0000

A video game industry political action committee is planned to be operational by the end of March. Part of its mission includes mobilizing the 100,000 plus gamers that are a part of the Video Game Voters Network, which seeks to defend the rights of the industry and the consumer and to generally receive the same First Amendment protection as books, movies, music, and cable television programs.