Alec Depcrynski

Tech Review: Virtual business cards fall flat

New services like rmbrME offer an electronic remedy to the problem of paper-based business cards. Only for many business people, business cards aren’t a problem that needs solving. Through text messages and web applications, rmbrME creates an electronic business card called a bzCard. Instead of carrying around a paper card, you email it to a… Read more »

Rough patch for malls

Out of five Richmond malls, only one has a vacant storefront rate below 7 percent – Short Pump Town Center, at 3.8 percent. The highest empty-store rate belongs to the Shops at Willow Lawn, at 17.4 percent. Malls might be in for a rough patch. Consumers are downsizing. They’re buying Smart Cars and hybrids instead… Read more »

A model for surviving a slowdown

Despite a local dip in advertising spending, a Richmond model agency says business is steady. Modelogic Inc., a Church Hill model and talent agency that provides faces, bodies and voices for advertisements, represents about 450 models and actors from around the region and works with clients ranging from the Virginia Lottery to VCU to the… Read more »

Richmond rocks a list of hard-rocking cities

Richmond took the biggest leap on StubHub’s third annual ranking of the 20 most active markets for summer concert tickets, moving up from No. 17 to No. 9. (They know we don’t have a Hard Rock Cafe, right?) New York took home the top spot for the third consecutive year. Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and… Read more »

Green concept cars

The website for Wired magazine has a neat slideshow of ten green concept cars. The beauty of designing a car on paper, the materials and technology don’t have to exist yet.

Note to self: Jott down this down

Dictation just got – well – cooler than the word dictation. Jott, a free text to voice service is basically a voice-controlled notepad. Talk into your cell phone and it sends the transcript to your email. Say I’m running late for a summer league soccer game, but I need to tell all my teammates that… Read more »

Smart Car starting to appear in Richmond

In what can only be described as “The Biggest Waiting List Ever,” customers are lining up to reserve their Smart Cars, the pint-sized, planet friendly vehicle produced by automotive giant Daimler AG. (Mercedes) The cute, if shockingly tiny, cars are starting to appear in Richmond. And if you want in, take a number; you might… Read more »

Scooting up the sales

Scoot Richmond, a scooter/moped dealer on Richmond’s Southside, sold 64 scooters in June. That’s 28% higher than May, and off the charts compared to the previous year. There are also some rumors circulating that developers on the Southside are considering adding mopeds as an apartment amenity, and allowing any resident to borrow them. More on… Read more »

The Boss is Watching…and Listening

Your employer is watching you. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Corporate surveillance technology is getting stealthier, more advanced and more widespread. Sixty-six percent of employers monitor their worker’s computers on a daily basis.

There’s hope for Hull Street yet

What was once a main street of Chesterfield County, Hull Street is now the most run-down commercial strip in Richmond. Paper flyers and food wrappers get caught in the wind and ride aimlessly until they find themselves back on the ground – a sort of urban tumbleweed. Centuries-old buildings have busted out windows and boarded-up… Read more »