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

Leave it to a psychologist at the University of Essex to discover that the secret sauce in irresistible video games is the characters' personalities--especially those that leave just enough creative space for players to pour themselves into.

In the aftermath of the riots, a couple of noble London architects are injecting some guerrilla design into the cleanup process, and helping those who can't rebuild. The U.K. riots of the past week have done incalculable damage to businesses and homes.

A sampling of the unusual pitches at this year's showcase of 14 fund-seeking start-ups. DreamIt , a start-up incubator founded in Philadelphia hosted a demo day in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday for about 250 attendees, many of them venture capitalists and angel investors looking for the next Dropbox or Scvngr. Fourteen teams presented the start-up companies they have been developing for the past three months

A sampling of the unusual pitches at this year's showcase of 14 fund-seeking start-ups. DreamIt , a start-up incubator founded in Philadelphia hosted a demo day in Midtown Manhattan Wednesday for about 250 attendees, many of them venture capitalists and angel investors looking for the next Dropbox or Scvngr. Fourteen teams presented the start-up companies they have been developing for the past three months.

From space probes to royal weddings, Lego is inserting itself into all sorts of newsy events--and getting that instant exposure which few others have replicated. On Aug. 5, NASA's Juno spacecraft began its five-year journey to the planet Jupiter

I will never forget the phone call I received from my colleague Mike on Dec. 26, 2005

oBaz is short for online bazaar, and like that famously fluid market environment, it's all about haggling to get what you want.

India is already known as one of the world's IT powerhouses. Angela Saini, author of the new Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World, believes the country is also becoming one of the world's hubs for innovation and scientific ingenuity. Over the past few years, BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) has become a buzzword of sorts for technology- and finance-watchers.

Nintendo's hotly anticipated Wii U console is based on an idea the company tried in 2003. It bombed, then. But its time may have finally come

I bought a laptop yesterday. I had to. I've been limping by using a little netbook with Windows XP for the past couple of years (I know, I know, it's the cobbler's children who have no shoes).

As Congress gears up for another budget fight, environmental protections--from endangered species to clean water to pollution rules for power plants--are all on the chopping block. Once the debt ceiling debate is settled, Congress is going to have to re-focus on the budget that almost shut down the government a few months ago

A crusader from Attrition.org has found that an alarmingly high number of books written by computer security experts are nearly 100% copied from other sources. What does that say about the industry? Borrowing code is standard operating procedure for those who work with software.

Solar Sisters gives start-up funds--and a $500 "business-in-a-bag"--to door-to-door solar saleswomen, illuminating villages and offering exceptional economic benefits to communities. The ubiquitous AVON saleswomen traveled first by foot, then horse and buggy, and eventually by car to sell cosmetics door to door. In the process, the company built a global business that now earns $10 billion annually.

A young entrepreneur presents a few disruptive strategies to help grow your business. Her message: Stop planning. Its useless

Document embedding and web form building can be a necessity when sharing information, and it's hard to find a reliable service that offers premium business solutions. Mix and match these 7 tools to get the most out of a documents suite, and watch your information work for you. For some, GoogleDocs can be a personal organization savior.