Author: JD Rucker

The amount of available talent in several technology industries is not keeping up with the demand in recent years. As new and even old technologies continue to embed themselves deeper into our day-to-day lives, many companies are proactively going after talent wherever they can, including from competitors. Such is the way of the tech talent war of the 21st century. This graphic by Udemy breaks down what’s happening and why. Who’s winning? Who’s losing? What will happen in the years to come as more people get training and education in technical fields? Click to enlarge. …

It’s the kind of experiment that seems like it was hatched for a satirical spoof video, but the results were anything but funny. Home Plus, the 2nd largest grocery chain in South Korea formerly known as Tesco, needed to increase their market share without building more stores. The idea they had was simple and elegant, albeit completely offbeat and somewhat insane. “Let the store come to the people.” They created virtual stores to make grocery shopping something that could be done without while performing other duties such as waiting in the subway. With lighted billboard visualizations of the…

It’s a sound that few of us have heard since the last time we saw a modem that looked like the one above. Still, it’s a sound that will always be recognized by anyone born in the 80s or earlier – the dial-up modem sound. We may have moved on and there may no longer be a need to hear that ever-so-annoying high-pitched whine again in its original form, but the people over at Geektastic slowed it down for us a lot and gave us something that can only be described as creepy. Listen to this and imagine it in a scene from an old M. Night Shyamalan film (think Sixth Sense and not much after that). Chilling. …

There are two potential winners in South Korea’s recent announcement that they would be moving to a completely-digital curriculum model by 2015: students in the Asian country should win and the country’s homegrown tablet-maker Samsung is likely to win as well. The government has committed to spend $2.4 billion to buy the equipment and digitize all of the material. They intend to roll it out to elementary schools by 2014 and across the entire education system the following year. While there was no mention of Samsung, it is highly unlikely that the contract would go to any other company outside…

Every now and then, people nail it. This is one of those cases as Manu Cornet from Bonkersworld breaks down the organization charts of 6 major tech companies. In a classic example of “it’s funny because it’s true” Cornet shows how Amazon has a standard hierarchy, Google has a convoluted one, Facebook has very little central organization, Microsoft departments are at odds with each other, Apple centers around one big guy in the middle, and Oracle has a huge legal department without focusing much on actual engineering anymore. Sounds just about right. …

Everyone in the tech industry has heard of Silicon Valley, but how many have heard of Silicon Alley? New York is known for business and money, pizza and people, but in recent years the most populated city in America has become a center where tech companies are finding their groove. This infographic by our friends at GPlus takes a detailed look at the culture developing in New York surrounding start-ups. Check it out and see how many have planted more than apple seeds in the northeast. …

The fat lady may not have sung yet, but pigs are definitely flying. While I’m not the biggest fan of most celebrities’ lukewarm attempts to stir up controversy about causes they support, I have to jump in on the current battle Ashton Kutcher is waging on Village Voice Media. I don’t like to get involved in feuds, particularly tech/geek feuds. They’re much more fun to watch from a distance rather than getting in the middle of it. The last time I did so, it was again with me supporting (gulp) Techcrunch in their stance against Moviefone. Kutcher’s attacks on Village Voice and particularly Backpage.com…

Twitter is a polarizing force. Most people, particularly those who are tech-savvy, either love the 140-character-social-networking-microbloggy-thingy or they despise it with an absolute passion. You tweet or you don’t tweet. Few are indifferent towards it. As a result of its popularity in both social media and mainstream media, Twitter is often the subject of infographics. Designers love taking the huge amount of data on and about Twitter and transforming that data into something visually stunning. We’ve combed through literally dozens of infographics about Twitter that have been…

With the start of summer, the start of blockbuster movie season begins. While the money-making is strong for many summer releases, they often pale in comparison to big game releases. Much of it can be attributed to the prices – a newly released video game costs much more than the price of admission to a movie. Still, there has to be something more to it. Game prices have not gone up as much as movie tickets relatively. Volumes have been increasing. More gamers are born into the world of COD and other franchises every day. Movie watchers, on the other hand, accounts for a steady number of people. The only…

If you someone asked you where you were from, you would probably reply with your city or state. That’s the real world. On Twitter, we tend to answer that question a little differently. Do you live in Funkytown? How about Naptown? Bucktown? There are more than a few people who live in “Gotham”. There are many who tend to use the nicknames of their areas to indicate where they are on social media. This map by our friends at inboxQ breaks it down and shows us how America would be viewed if from Twitter’s perspective. Click to enlarge. …