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ADS InstantVideo To-Go Accelerates iPod and PSP Video Encoding

From Gizmodo

ADS announced InstantVideo To-Go, a nifty little $79.95 widget that supercharges compression of video into that oh-so-sweet H.264 format. The company calls it the first hardware-based H.264 conversion device for PCs. This little USB key is a video transfer accelerator that lets you convert any video into that butta-smooth format specifically for playback on an iPod or PSP, and lets you accomplish that feat five times faster than real time. So what this means is you can take a DVD’s worth of video and crunch it down for 320×240…

Improving the innovation pipeline at Mellon Financial

From the PDMA blog:

Speaker:  David Merritt, Sr. New Business Development Manager for Mellon Financial

The key elements of their newly-redesigned program were:

• Innovation was integrated into each employee’s peformance plan… they must generate at least one idea
• Innovators were recognized publicly via posters and in company meetings
• Innovators were given rewards via a point system, with the winners receiving crystal trophies

Some of the processes they put in place were:

• They implemented Stage-Gate for Financial Services, which was different from standard Stage-Gate.
• They did not focus on cost reduction or process improvement.
• For small enhancements, projects were reassigned…

Who can be innovative in financial services?

Annette Kramer wrote

I spoke to a Partner in a money management firm who talked to me about the qualities of mind he thinks are most important in financial services professionals.

AK: What do you look for in people you hire?

P: All of the Partners had an interesting conversation about this yesterday. I said, “Listen, we hire analysts right out of business school, and that’s what everyone else does, too. So how are we going to get a different view of the world than the competition?

AK: What sort of person would you…

Secure podcasting for the enterprise

My clients, which are Fortune 50 financial services companies, would like to use podcasting internally (that is for their employees only) to support their innovation programs. There are a number of security hurdles to overcome to make this possible.
First, just plugging a USB device into your desktop computer at work represents a major security threat. Some articles about this are collected here. In addition to being able to transport large amounts of data, iPods in particular are more intelligent than other devices and have the ability to execute code that…