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 We've all been there.  Looking and looking and interviewing for the dream job, and then, there it is, right i n front of your eyes. So you suit up and work on your handshake and your spiel about how you're the best candidate for the job. But a new study says that's not all it takes.  The study examining the effects of technology-mediated interviews found in-person interviews yielded better impressions for the company and the candidate. “ We live in a world where we increasingly rely on technology, but this study reminds us that personal interactions should never be underestimated,” said author Nikki Blacksmith, a doctoral candidate at the George Washington University’s  Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication . “Many times, the candidate does not have a choice in the format of the interview. However, the organization does have a choice and if they are not consistent with the type of interview they use across candidates, it could result in ...

Do smart phones make you smarter? Now there's a good question. My sense is, no.  I wrote recently that they may help us do many things but in the end, they may just dumb us down. Now a study says modern techie devices can be helpful and make life easier, but there are serious drawbacks, says a Texas A&M University professor who studies technology, according to newswise.com. Jonathan Coopersmith, professor of history at Texas A&M, says modern technological devices used to demand learning specific skills and acquiring the necessary resources to do them. "For example, if you wanted to make a film, you got a movie camera and the supporting technologies (film, lights, editing equipment), and then learned how to use them and hire a crew to handle all of the equipment. Next, you would shoot the movie, then develop and edit the film, and the final step would be to make copies and distribute them," the web site reports. “But many of those steps are elimin...

Get ready.  It's coming.  Computers in your clothes. According to newswise.com, Ohio State University researchers have been able to embroider circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision—the perfect size to integrate electronic components such as sensors and computer memory devices into clothing. With this advance, the researchers have taken the next step toward the design of functional textiles—clothes that gather, store, or transmit digital information. With further development, the technology could lead to shirts that act as antennas for your smart phone or tablet, workout clothes that monitor your fitness level, sports equipment that monitors athletes’ performance, a bandage that tells your doctor how well the tissue beneath it is healing—or even a flexible fabric cap that senses activity in the brain. Sound scary?  It does to, to me.  "A revolution is happening in the textile industry,” says John Volakis, director of the ElectroScience Laborator...

So you've taken your kid's phone away for using it during dinner.  Shut down computer use because he didn't do his homework.  Threatened him with dire consequences for texting while you're talking to him. I've seen it all. But now kids are telling their parents what they want them to stop doing, technology -wise. Not surprisingly, it's, put your phone away when I’m talking to you. Don’t text while you’re driving — not even at red lights. Stop posting photos of me without my permission. Who can't relate? These are some of the rules for Internet and smartphone use that kids would set for their parents, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and University of Michigan, according to newswise.com. The researchers surveyed 249 families with children between the ages of 10 and 17 about their household's most important technology rules and expectations, as well as what made those rules easier or harder to fo...

Bummer. Wearing a tracking device won't really help you to lose weight. Not that I didn't already know that.  I clipped a Weight Watchers' Active Link to my bathing suit in the summer and swam my laps, and to my shorts when I went running, all to find out how much food I could eat for all the exercise I was doing.  It turned out that I burned a lot of "points," how you count calories for Weight Watchers. But I didn't lose much weight.  In fact, some weeks I gained.  All to say that exercise only contributes about 15% (according to experts) to weight loss. No matter.  I accidentally left the device on my bathing suit when I washed it and though it survived the washing machine, the dryer was another story entirely. I figured I didn't really need it.  I already knew how much I could eat if I didn't want to gain, and some weeks I could, and some weeks I couldn't. Apparently that's all been discovered in a new study by researchers at th...

 I admit I've never had a  video job interview  but people who have seem to go both ways on whether they're good, or bad. Theresa Everline reports at smartplanet.com that it's a growing trend.  A new study has found that a whopping 60% of human resources managers are now using this tool, up from just 14% a year ago.  "For an on-demand, or one-way, video interview, a candidate logs onto an online platform on his or her own time. Using a computer’s camera, he or she records answers to questions shown on the screen. In most cases, a question is displayed, giving the candidate 30 seconds to prepare," Everline reports. Then, he or she gets two or three minutes to record an explanation about why his or her experience is a good fit for the job. But if you listen for affirmation from an interviewer to make sure you're saying what she wants to hear, with a video interview that's just not possible, most of the time. Everline writes about a person she intervie...

You've seen them.  The hospital rankings blasted across the covers of magazines (and probably, if she was named, your doctor's office, too). But how real are they really?  Do they just reflect good PR?  And instead of their " reputations ," shouldn't they be more proud of their decrease in number of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs)? That's a position a Wall Street Journal op-ed writers want to know. The always eagerly-awaited U.S. News & World Report list of best-ranked hospitals for 2012-2013 was released last week Ezekiel K. Emmanuel, chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Steinmetz, the senior research assistant, write that the highest-ranked hospitals "are always quick to tout their rankings in hopes of attracting new patients who will pay top dollar," and, of course, many Americans will use this list when they are selecting a hospital. But what these authors...

What would you do if your shirt could tell you if you were sad? Back in the '70s we had mood rings, which supposedly, by changing color, could tell whether you were nervous or anxious, or happy or mad.  But now a company has put that technology into a shirt . According to a story at smartplanet.com, a Montreal-based smart apparel company OMsignal has developed a T-shirt and a bra that not only tracks your daily steps, calorie burn and heart rate, but it also measures your breathing and emotional well-being using your heart rate variability, or HRV," reported VentureBeat . Kirstin Korosec reports that OMsignal’s clothing contains a tool found in other fitness devices, which measures motion, steps and calories. "It also detects and measures two other signals: your ECG — the electrical signature of your heart — and respiration rhythms," she adds. Sensors woven into the polyester/lycra fabric act as the EKG, producing a read-out of cardiac activity when the user ...

I've worn contacts for years. They've helped me see. Now they may also help me text. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/new-technology-could-deliver-text-messages-via-contact-lens/7657?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660