Web 2.0 is about immersion. Interactive internet radio sites and music services like Pandora and Last.fm immerse users in personally tailored auditory experiences...yet they are stuck using 1960s audio technology. Music lovers have been using quadraphonic surround sound or better since the 70s. Today it's quite simple to setup a 7.1-channel acoustic aquarium for your home entertainment system.
Unfortunately, streaming audio through Firefox or Internet Explorer is limited to stereo, or 2-channel. As far as I can tell, it's not possible to get Pandora to take advantage of a surround setup. Fortunately, you can use last.fm's standalone application to get 4-channel or more surround.
Does anyone know if it's possible to stream music to all channels via web browser?
I even tried hacking Winamp to get Pandora in the music navigation panel, but it just plays music via the webpage so it's stuck in stereo only.

Facebook has been slowly rolling out its web-based chat applet to users. By now most users should have seen the new tab in the lower right when they sign on. On the surface, it offers a simple clean interface. No need to set your status since it borrows from your profile status. Even better, it supports smileys :D

To run the Facebook chat in a Firefox sidebar, create a bookmark for:
http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
Or drag the URL to your Bookmark Toolbar. Then right click on the bookmark and select properties, then tick "open bookmark in sidebar." Now you can see what FB friends are online and chat anytime while surfing the web.

I'm already a dedicated user of Google Talk (gtalk) because it automatically lists the people I contact most at the top of my buddy list. With hundreds of Facebook friends, will Facebook chat just add a lot more noise or will it enhance our social networking experience?

Update: Good discussion on Lifehacker about Fchat vs. Gtalk

Seventh Generation is a great example of how to attract and retain motivated employees. The company accepts that workers get tired of doing the same thing and encourage employees to view their roles as evolutionary rather than stationary. One of my MBA classmates just accepted an offer from Seventh Generation and cited the growth and development opportunity (in addition to having great green products) as motivation to join the company. The Wall Street Journal ran a short article about SG's employee development philosophy.

“Many people have wonderful capabilities that their families might see, that their friends might see, but we tend to leave those parts at home when we come to work,” says Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation’s chief executive.

This holistic view of employees could also tap into innovation that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Apple, Inc. is suing the city of New York over the use of their new "greenNYC" logo to signify the city's commitment to sustainability. I could be wrong but I thought New York City claimed the big apple logo long before Steve Jobbs. What exactly is their beef? Are they against going carbon neutral? Perhaps Apple doesn't like the idea of having their corporate logo in the same shopping cart as greenNYC because Apple hasn't been doing much in this area.
We can only hope that Apple's concern over NYC's logo is that Apple is hoping to launch their own "Green Apple" in the near future.

During the CITA 2008 conference, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega revealed that all integrated devices would be upgraded to 3G networks. When asked if this included the iPhone, he repeated his statement and winked.
Everyone knew this day was coming. Since the iPhones inception the most stated flaw was lack of fast mobile Internet. Now that AT&T is getting caught up with other carriers, it will be interesting to see how the competition responds. 4G networks are already being tested and rolled out by Verizon and Sprint.