Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

If there's something aflame in your neighborhood, you may soon call for firemen toting backpacks blasting bursts of electricity to snuff out the firey problem. You listening, Bill Murray? Remember Ghostbusters ?

Thinking different?

Photograph by Henry Leutwyler Architect, designer, and the advertising impresario behind Tronic, GoldRun. Altrendo Images/Getty Images (plane); Colin Hawkins/Getty Images (gold-panning); Seth Wenig/AP (museum patron, painting); Universal Pictures/Photofest (The Fast and the Furious); Dave M. Benett/Getty Images (Saatchi) , book (no credit) .red_highlight { color:red; font-family:Arial, Helvitica; font-weight:bold; font-size:13.5px !important; } .border-bottom { border-bottom:#000 dotted 2px; padding-bottom:10px; margin-bottom:10px; } .article p{ overflow:hidden; } Big idea: "I want to turn every aspect of our lives into a game," says the 35-year-old entrepreneur, "by marrying the digital and the physical." Using video, animation, mobile apps, and now augmented reality, Rosenthal creates interactive advertising campaigns for brands ranging from H&M and Yahoo to Esquire magazine and shoe company Airwalk

On this day in history: 4 AM, March 28th, 1979 marked the time of the U.S.'s worst nuclear disaster , as clouds of radioactive steam vented into the atmosphere above the failed Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania--the public wasn't warned until 9 AM. More happily, in 1797 a chap name Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented a washing machine.

You’ve just accomplished something significant and you feel pretty good about it.

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were.

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were

In my last blog post , I made the case for hiring candidates with experience for positions that require problem-solving, people management and leadership skills. And after reading a few thoughtful comments that challenged my argument, I stand by my thoughts. Truth is, those are tough lessons to learn even with experience

In my last blog post , I made the case for hiring candidates with experience for positions that require problem-solving, people management and leadership skills. And after reading a few thoughtful comments that challenged my argument, I stand by my thoughts. Truth is, those are tough lessons to learn even with experience

If you're reading this blog, chances are you are a small business owner or self-employed professional (at least that's our target audience - others welcome, of course). But are you a local business? What makes you "local"?

The founder and CEO of the National Cash Register Co. was known to be a stern control freak.

Software erases incriminating evidence from an activist's cellphone in a pinch. A new " panic button " program allows hunted activists to quickly erase all incriminating data from a cell phone that they collected on a corrupt government. Created in partnership with the State Department's new technology freedom initiatives, innovator, Benetech, imagines that the eraser program would be initiated in an instance when government agents are breaking down the door of an activist's home and there is only moments to destroy evidence that proves the activist was spying on the government.

If your YouTube viewing experience seems a little strange this weekend, don't be alarmed. YouTube is aiming to increase awareness of this year's Earth Hour by darkening its video watch page this Saturday from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM (in your local timezone). Check out the video below for more info, and read more about Earth Hour here

The Apple rumor mill grinds ever on, and has turned up new hints about the future of MobileMe , location apps, and that Apple TV story (again).

It's not just BP that's trying to brush their mistakes from the oil spill under the rug. Soon after publishing a piece on BP's greenwashing of its first post-Deepwater Horizon CSR report, Fast Company received a tip from a reader about the Coast Guard's recently released Incident Specific Preparedness Review ( PDF )--a mammoth report from a group of NGOs, members of the oil industry, and government officials that details just how badly the Coast Guard screwed up the Gulf disaster (and, incidentally, unlike other reports of its nature, wasn't publicized, although it is readily available on the Coast Guard's website if you dig around for it)