Do Silverlight and Xbox Make a Good Couple? Microsoft Might Think So - The UpStream

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

With over ten years of audio engineering experience, Nick's addition to PLuGHiTz Corporation is best served when he is behind the mixing board every Sunday night to produce the audio side of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Piltch Point and PLuGHiTz Live Night Cap. While mixing live every week, his previous radio show hosting experience gives him the ability to co-host as well, giving each show a unique flare with his slightly off-center, yet still realistic take on all things tech. An integral part of the show, you can find Nick always enveloped in coming up with new (and sometimes crazy) ideas and content for the show and you can always expect the most direct opinion on the stories that he feels need to be shared with the world. During the few hours where Nick isn't sleeping or working on ways to improve the company, he spends his free time going to hockey and football games and playing the latest titles on Xbox 360. Email him for his gamertag and add him today for a fun escape from the normal monotony and annoyance that the Xbox LIVE gaming community can sometimes be!

Jon is a F5 Live co-host and UpStream contributor as well as the Chief Cash Officer of PLuGHiTz Corporation. We don't know how he wears so many hats so well or how he still finds time to feed his need for all things tech but some questions are best left unanswered. If you're up for a challenge go find him on Xbox Live @shinobiJon and if you figure him out...let us know.

Allante - also well known as Wolff - is the newest member and co-host for PLuGHiTz Live! Radio. A gifted artist, he is usually found drawing up a character or two or sketching up whatever comes to mind. Do not think that he is not a hardcore gamer because he is about as hardcore as it gets! His favorites range from fighting games to RPGs, adventure and even a racing game here and there. Fighting games are his forte and he relays this message for all who oppose: You mess with the Wolff and you get the fangs!

XB360 - Enigmatic Wolff

PSN - Tsukuyomi_Okami

Women - do you like to write software naked in your bedroom? Of course you do. Would you like to take the skills you have learned both being a software engineer and a nudist and implement them in a company that encourages both? That might not be as appealing. If it is, however, have I got the place for you. The company is called Nude House and they want to be the world's first entirely nude web software firm.

Good news everyone. Toshiba is going to fix 3D TVs so that you don't need to wear Revenge of the Nerds style 3D glasses to give yourself a headache around April 2012. However, the passive 3D TVs they will be serving up in the next year will still take a load off your face. I'm guessing that of the 10,000 people who care about 3D TV 6,000 know the difference between active and passive 3D glasses, 4,000 don't know the difference and 0 like wearing 3D glasses. For those who don't know, there are some distinct differences that we be listed below. The biggest change to note here is that active 3D glasses require power and passive 3D glass do not. Hopefully, this should shave off a few ounces and some of the bulk.

This week, GameStop and Facebook tied the knot online as the gaming retailer launched an app on Facebook through the ShopFans platform that will act as a storefront for the company for its 1.8 million Facebook fans. In the midst of Facebook looking to monetize their user base using their service, GameStop is the first gaming company to launch a full-on store on the networking site, completely with videos, reviews, ratings, a store finder and the usual Like button.

In our area of Florida we have recently had a problem with people breaking into power junction facilities and stealing copper wire to sell as scrap. We have even seen them try and cut down live wires for the copper. Apparently, this is not just a local problem. In Georgia, the country not the state, even elderly women will dig in the ground looking for abandoned copper wiring for scrap. Sometimes that process is not as easy as it sounds.

Nokia has always been the worldwide leader of market share in the mobile world but only was third in market value. This week, however, HTC's rapidly growing popularity has caused the company to overthrow Nokia in the third rank as HTC posted record profits this quarter, making them the third largest phone maker behind Samsung and Apple.

Microsoft is playing matchmaker and thinks Silverlight and Xbox would make cute little accessory babies. The company is looking to port over Silverlight to the 360 and make the announcement sometime this week at MIX11. We talked in the past about Microsoft looking for someone to integrate not only WinPho into Xbox 360, but also someone who could integrate some of their newer software into the gaming console. Leaks out of the Microsoft camp hint that this has been in the development phase for "some months" and would really drive home the Xbox/WinPho gaming combination to the next level. Another leak reports that we may see an application for the Xbox 360 that would allow you to copy over WinPho 7 programs over to the 360.

The YouTube we have known since Google purchased them for $1.6 billion in 2006 is set to undergo some big changes by the end of 2011. The 3rd most visited site in the world made $544 million in revenue for 2010 according to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney and executives have said it is almost profitable. The average time users spend on the site runs about 15 minutes and YouTube is working on a way to get that number up while increasing revenues to $800 million by the end of 2011. They plan to do this by taking the middle road between subscription-based services like Hulu and the structure they have now. The reorganization effort is based around 2 major things: center the users' experience around channels instead of clips and creation of original content rather than licensing it.

Those of you who still read bound pages of paper with words on them, otherwise known as books, should be familiar with Random House who is known for their content creation and publishing of fiction, nonfiction and children's books. About a year ago they started expanding their horizons by entering into the video game industry with Homefront. The game has enjoyed some success and had average reviews, which considering it was their first video game ever, they do deserve some credit.

Occasionally Best Buy will come up with a good idea but most of the time they will copy from other companies because the ideas they come up with internally usually produce poor results. This week, Best Buy has announced that they've ignored the success of their web sales for far too long and are going to restructure to a new business model that tailors to web sales, to compete with Amazon.com.

After waiting since its initial bankruptcy filing in November the long wait is over to find out the ultimate destination of Blockbuster Video's auction, and the winner is - Dish Network. Why, you may wonder, would the country's third largest provider of subscription television want to purchase a bankrupt, irrelevant business concept? The answer is branding, of course.