study

While an increasing number of businesses are encouraging their employees to listen to music in the hopes of making them happier and thus increasing production, most U.S. bosses are taking an opposite approach to social networking sites like Twitter ... or Facebook, with more than half of all companies banning them from the workplace. The finding comes from a recent study by Robert Half Technology, an IT company -- appropriate, since most of the time it's a company's local IT rep who's responsible for setting out which sites are okay and which are not for employees to visit on company time. ... (view more)

What do you think of when you imagine the typical video gamer? A pre-teen hopped up on 7-Eleven slushies and processed cheese nachos twiddling his PlayStation 3 controller in front of the boob tube at 3am? You might be wrong. A recent study found ... that the average age of gamers is surprisingly high, and that the average player might also be overweight and understandably unhappy about it. This most recent study was launched by researchers from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. They examined approximately 552 adults between the ages of 19 and 90, most from the Pacific Northwest, ... (view more)

According to a new study, more than 40 per cent of the world's software is pirated. The study also claims the software industry lost $53 billion to pirates last year, though that figure has a major flaw in its calculation. According to the Business ... Software Alliance (BSA), the United States has the world's lowest piracy rate, with just 20% of software being unlicensed. However, the size of its software market means the losses have the biggest financial value, totaling $9.8 million last year. Across the world, the study found that while piracy dropped in the majority of countries, the ... (view more)

How much of your time does Facebook consume? According to a recent study, most college students that use Facebook also admitted to lower grade point averages than those who said they did not have an account on the popular social networking site. ... It's pretty obvious that most 9-to-5 employers feel Facebook wastes time, decreases productivity, and generally hurts the work ethic of employees. Thus, it's not particularly surprising that this recent Ohio State University study found that of those student participants who used Facebook, grade-point averages (GPA) hovered around 3.0 to 3.5 -- ... (view more)

Think video games are wasting away a new generation of frag-happy, overweight teens? Nutritionists might have good reason to be worried, but optometrists could soon be pushing action games on patients after a recent study found they can actually ... improve eye sight. According to a study launched by the University of Rochester in New York, those participants who played a significant amount of action video games were better able to differentiate between varying shades of gray. Doesn't sound notable? Well, researchers believe it could actually help people see at night, particularly when they're ... (view more)

A recent study conducted by NSS Labs revealed that of the six most-used browsers, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RC1 is "head and shoulders" above Firefox, Safari and Chrome in its ability to detect and block socially-engineered malware. ... Socially-engineered malware is considered to be among the most prevalent computer viruses in existence. The infection process becomes a very familiar scenario: a user is enticed to visit an external website and agrees to the malware download under false pretences. NSS reported on the dangers of these attacks many times in the last year, urging users to constantly ... (view more)

How do you feel about color? Does black depress you? Does yellow lift your spirits? Does red make your brain scream, 'alert!'? According to a recent study, color might actually have a significant impact on the way we feel and the way we work -- and ... the findings might even help companies improve productivity as the economy continues to struggle . In a fascinating study unveiled by University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers this week, certain colors were found to have drastically different effects on cognitive skills and even creativity. According to the group's findings, participants ... (view more)

Evidently, Apple's flashy advertising and sleek product design has attracted customers willing to pay high prices for its products. Over the past few years, Apple climbed to the top of the market on high-end desktop and laptop sales, according to a ... recent report by market research company NPD Group. Of all computers costing more than $1,000 sold in 2007, 70% were Mac desktops and 64% Mac laptops. (Source: arstechnica.com ) An interesting report, indeed. Problem is, it doesn't adequately reflect the realities of the industry. Anyone browsing the Apple website will quickly see that there are ... (view more)

Apple products may be fantastically marketed and look great, but according to a recent study by environmental watchdog Climate Counts, the company is a serious environmental offender. Although its website states that the company "recognizes its ... responsibility as a global citizen," Apple scored a pithy 11 out of 100 points on Climate Counts' 2008 survey of the environmental policies of large companies. Through attempts to identify problem areas, the Apple jumped up 9 points from last year's survey . However, the company lost huge marks for not acknowledging the extent of its carbon footprint. ... (view more)

Facebook has come under much scrutiny since its popularity exploded during 2007. With the year rounding out, we can think back to all the buzz created by a social networking site that asked for an individual's private details and then neatly handed ... them to Microsoft's advertising division. Questions of voyeurism and greed continue to dog Facebook. Now, a controversial study is examining the controversial web site. Researchers at Harvard University have decided that they'd like to know what the racial and ethnic interests of Facebook users might be. The analysts recently gained access to the ... (view more)