The Worst C.E.O.’s of 2011

Sydney Finkelstein is a professor of strategy and leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the author of the bestselling book “Why Smart Executives Fail.”

How do you go from being one of the country’s most-renowned and respected business leaders to landing on the list of the Worst C.E.O.’s of 2011? Did the glory go to your head, so that you believed you knew more than everyone else? Did you take your eye off the ball because you thought all was well in the kingdom? Or was it that staying on top was just so darn difficult that there was only one way to go?

This year, there was a little of each. Arrogant chief executives, like the pair at the top of Research in Motion, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, and of course Jon S. Corzine, late of MF Global. Complacent chiefs, like William C. Weldon at the bellwether Johnson & Johnson. And what of Reed Hastings, the much-maligned boss at Netflix? Chalk that up to his bumbling response to the forces of creative destruction at work. [read]

Are Extended Warranties Worth It?

Dear Lifehacker,
It seems like every time I go and buy something these days, the salesman asks me three times whether I’d like to buy an extended warranty. I always thought they were a ripoff, but I’ve had a few friends that say they were a godsend when their particular gadget broke down. Which is it? Should I be buying these warranties?

Sincerely,
Worrying About Warranties

Dear Worrying,

This is a pretty hotly contested topic, and while you’ll hear different things from different people, most of us here at Lifehacker aren’t big on extended warranties. There are, however, a few exceptions, so it’s worth doing a bit of research beforehand to know what you’re up against. [read]

8 Essential Business Rules For Those Who Don’t Believe In Rules

I don’t read a lot of business books. (Actually, I never read them.) But I do read the lists of the best-selling business books. Those lists give you a lot of insight into the current trendy areas for leadership and strategy. That’s a good reason to run in the opposite direction. Fast.

These best-sellers all have jazzy titles like “What Would Lincoln Do” and “The Kindergarten Test: If A Five Year Old Can’t Understand Your Plan, Start Over.”

I made all those up, but you get the point. At Conduit, our 7-year-old Israeli startup, we don’t necessarily do things by the book.

We offer publishers mobile apps and web apps; social media connectors; toolbars and notification alerts–all designed to give publishers an ongoing presence in the digital lives of their users. Right now, publishers are reaching more than 250 million individual users through our products. [read]

“A Day in California” Time Lapse Video is Stunning

Being residents of the Golden State, we may be a bit biased, but we think that California is the greatest U.S. state. After watching this epic time lapse film created by Ryan & Sheri Killackey, composed of over 10,000 photographs of California, you might also be convinced of the same. Surf, sun, stars, city lights! California has it all. West Coast pride aside, however, this short film composed of sprawling landscape shots and tilt-shift captures of miniature boaters is simply a pleasure to watch. Enjoy. [view]

Fast Glass [photography]

The number of fast, wide-aperture prime optics we carry at B&H has grown over the past year, and in a world that has become increasingly populated by slower, variable aperture zooms, this is encouraging news. What’s equally interesting is that in an industry increasingly defined by cutting-edge electronic technologies, many of the newest additions to our year-end listing of “Fast Glass” are manual focus lenses, which itself is a noteworthy anomaly.

With the exception of a pair of f/2.0 Four Third format zooms from Olympus and a Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 telephoto zoom designed for use with DSLRs from Nikon, Sony and Canon, all of the lenses in this roundup are fixed focal length optics. Almost all of these select speed demons also boast a maximum aperture range of f/2.0 to f/1.4, depending on the focal length of the lens. Also included in our roundup are a couple of lenses with maximum apertures of f/1.2 and f/1.1, not to mention a super-fast f/0.95. We’ve also included a few lenses with slower maximum apertures of f/2.8, which for normal and wide-angle lenses can be considered slow, but in the case of 200mm and 300mm telephoto optics, can certainly qualify as impressively fast glass. [read]

::: 3 Penguins Photography :::

Apple saw record sales this holiday season, 12x’s on Christmas Day

Apple saw record-setting sales this holiday season, according to Localytics. So well, that 12.5 times more iOS devices were activated over Christmas than past weekends. For comparison sake: there were 21 times more iPods compared to 14 times more iPhones. The iPods were most likely gifted to younger children who do not yet have a cell phone. At any rate… there were many people enjoying iOS devices on Christmas Day.

Apple is said to have another record setting quarter after a very successful fiscal Q4 for the company. The last earnings report said Apple claimed $28.27 billion in revenue and saw record-setting Mac and iPhone sales. The holiday quarter is expected to be even better. [read]

Green Screen Workshop: The Shoot – Light, Shoot, and Composite

If you’re at all interested in shooting green/blue screen.  Here’s a great tutorial by VFX Artist Jeff Foster.  It also includes a great tutorial on building your own video lights.  I have already started building some of these.

In the second course in his two-part series on green-screen (and blue-screen) tools and techniques, author, producer, and VFX Artist Jeff Foster covers the nitty-gritty of production and post-production. On the production side, you’ll learn how to build your own portable lights, create professional lighting setups, and shoot with a green or blue screen outdoors. You’ll also get tips on choosing keying software and working with virtual sets. All this will help you get the best footage possible; however, there will always be things you need to “fix in post,” so this course will also help you fix problem shots. [view video via video2brain]

10 Things Not To Do As a Street Photographer

I just finished reading “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, where he discusses many misconceptions and fallacies that we face as humans. He talks from a scientific-philosophical viewpoint, and has many fascinating insights.

One of them was about knowledge—and that it isn’t necessarily additive—rather something subtractive. For example, a good stock-broker won’t tell you what to do, but rather what not to do.

Therefore for this blog post I will share some of my insights and experiences in street photography in terms of what not to do. Hopefully this will help you get more compelling images when out on the streets! [read]

Apple Pushing to Introduce iPad 3 on Steve Jobs’ February 24th Birthday?

FocusTaiwan reports (via 9to5Mac) that Apple pushing its manufacturing partners to meet deadlines that would allow the company to launch the iPad on Steve Jobs’ birthday, February 24th.

A local Chinese-language newspaper reported Friday that iPad3 might be launched on Feb. 24 to mark the anniversary of the birth of Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs.

Citing sources close to Taiwanese makers in the iPad3 supply chain, the Economic Daily News said the gadget could be launched in mid-first quarter of next year or by the end of next March.

According to the report, workers at several iPad component suppliers as well as manufacturing partner Foxconn will have limited time off during the usual Lunar New Year holiday. The Lunar New Year holiday itself falls on January 23rd next year, with workers generally receiving a number of other days off from work around that date.

Sources have been reporting a variety of rumored dates for an iPad 3 introduction, with some claiming a debut in the March-April timeframe while others have pointed to a February launch being in the works.

Apple last year launched new MacBook Pro models on Jobs’ birthday, although that unusual Thursday introduction was likely a convenient coincidence driven by the debut taking place during the Presidents Day holiday week. [via MacRumors]

Best Buy Cancels Some Online Orders

ATLANTA (AP) — Best Buy has alerted some customers that it will not be able to fill their online orders, just days before Christmas.

The largest U.S. specialty electronics retailer said late Wednesday that “overwhelming demand for some products from Bestbuy.com has led to a problem redeeming online orders made in November and December.

The Minneapolis company declined Thursday to specify how many orders are affected or which products are out of stock. [read]