Remember those kids who used to hang around the video game arcade -- the losers, everyone was convinced, who would never amount to anything? Well, those slackers, along with the subsequent generation of kids who played Half-Life online instead of going to class, are now in the corporate world . . .and guess what? All of those worthless skills are turning out to be pretty valuable after all in a world of avatars and meetings in Second Life. Story and video by NBC-KNTV tech reporter and regular Edgelings.com contributor Scott Budman.

Intel Corporation's chief scientist this week made a public statement that seemed to suggest that computers that think like human beings might be just around the corner. That is hardly surprising: the torrid pace of technological change sure seems to suggest that miracle is both imminent and inevitable. But if that's the case, why are even our most powerful supercomputers still so damn dumb? Some thoughts (and human thinking) by Edgelings editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

A year ago, industry observers were convinced that the social networking site Facebook had peaked. Like MySpace before it, Facebook seemed destined to slide into oblivion, victim of both bad management decisions and fickle young users. But this week, Facebook not only announced that it had reached an astounding 300 million users, but that for the first time it was profitable. Maybe it's time to start worrying . . . Commentary by Edgelings editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

Has any business leader ever held the world in such rapt attention as Apple's Steve Jobs? First, he was the hottest entrepreneur of his generation, then one of the biggest failures. Then, in a lateral move, he took over Pixar and led it Hollywood glory. But that was nothing compared to Jobs' triumphal return to Apple -- where, for the last decade, he has given the tech world one thrilling consumer product after another. A genius, a monster, and the perhaps the greatest product manager ever, Jobs has now, unwillingly, held the world's attention over the last few years as he's battle pancreatic cancer and its complications. And, in a life of legendary moments, perhaps none was bigger than Jobs' reappearance this week on stage at an Apple event. Scott Budman, KNTV-NBC tech reporter and regular Edgelings contributor, reports (with video).

This is the time of year when millions of young Americans are heading off to college, many of them for the first time. And these days, that means equipping them with the technology they need to navigate the digital world for their classwork and their personal lives. The good news is that the hardware they need is cheaper and more poerful than ever. The bad news is that all of the networking services -- Internet, cellphone, smartcards -- they'll need will more than eat up all of the savings on equipment. A report from the front lines of new college kid parenthood by Edgelings editor-in-chief Michael S. Malone.

So . . .have you ever notice that when you're talking to a techie, especially someone from the dot.com world, that they punctuate almost every remark with the opening: "So . . ."? Scott Budman has. What began a decade ago as a kind of place-marker, a verbal tic that gave the speaker time to ponder how to phrase an arcane topic in a simple way, has now become a key component of Tech Speak, a punctuation mark in programmer patois. If you don't believe it, just listen. Commentary by NBC-KNTV tech reporter and regular Edgelings contributor Scott Budman.

As the U.S. economy slowly recovers from last year's recession, the two most likely scenarios for the future are grim: even if we escape a double-dip recession, we're still likely to face a long, painful and jobless recovery. Meanwhile, inside the Beltway, the White House and Congress seem more concerned with social engineering than restoring prosperity. So here's a modest proposal: as long as President Obama is creating 'Czars', why doesn't he name an Entrepreneurship Czar to protect America's crucial small businesses from the predations of his other Czars?