Now there’s some science behind what every cube dweller has known for years: Meetings are worthless and, in fact, are counterproductive.

A scientific study asked participants to think of as many brands of soft drinks as they could. When part of a group, the participants’ final list was shorter than the lists from participants working alone who were asked to do the same thing.

The general idea is that “Groupthink” extends beyond the swaying of opinions toward a homogenized central viewpoint, even reaching into basic tasks like making lists of facts.

An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a marathon online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday.

The 150-kilogram (330-pound) man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents.

Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the “dull life” during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment.

The dusty world of book publishing has taken a step into cyberspace as Random House and HarperCollins are letting customers browse books online.

Random House, whose writers include Danielle Steel and Norman Mailer, said on Tuesday it will let consumers search and browse through more than 5,000 of its titles on the Internet through a new service called Insight.

HarperCollins Publishers, whose authors include Michael Crichton, on Monday said it was introducing a browse function that lets consumers embed pages of books onto networking sites such as MySpace.

DataViz announced that RoadSync, its Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync client, has been updated to now support the latest Motorola RAZR, KRZR, RIZR, ROKR, SLVR, PEBL and other popular Java MIDP 2.0 based mobile devices. This “Java Verified,” version of RoadSync, is the first and only Exchange ActiveSync solution available to connect Motorola’s mobile phones to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007.

Based on the Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol licensed from Microsoft, RoadSync for Java, provides secure, wireless and direct synchronization of corporate e-mail with the ability to send, receive, delete and reply to messages while on the go.

The rumor du jour is that Alltel, the largest rural mobile operator in the U.S., is up for sale. But at least two experts are split over whether the company widely mentioned as the likely buyer, Verizon Wireless, is the most logical suitor.

Rumors about a Verizon-Alltel marriage are nothing new. Two years ago, Wall Street was buzzing that the two might hook up. The rumor mill got churning again last week when Alltel executives said during the company’s fourth-quarter conference call they were exploring several strategic “options.” Analysts and investors on Wall Street have taken this to mean that the board of directors is looking to sell the company.

CompUSA, the computer and gadget retailer owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said it would close more than half of its U.S. retail locations over the next two to three months to focus on top performing locations.

CompUSA said in a statement it would close 126 of its stores and would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion, but it was not specific as to the source of the cash. The company also said it would cut costs and restructure.

Advanced Micro Devices is finally delivering on its promise to integrate ATI graphics technology into its product line. The chip maker plans to introduce a pair of chip sets called the AMD 690 series that will integrate ATI’s Radeon graphics processors.

The 690G chip set is based on the ATI Radeon X1250 graphics chip and supports digital outputs such as DVI (Digital Video Interactive) and HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface). The 690V chip set will integrate the ATI Radeon x1200 and does not support digital outputs, which will limit output to VGA standards.

Imagine if George Washington was still alive today. Imagine that even though he was born in 1732, he was still hale and hearty and large and in charge 275 years later. Unrealistic? Farfetched? Frickin’ crazy? Well, of course. Nothing like this could ever happen. Or could it?

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Sybase iAnywhere announced that it has added mobile instant messaging and presence capabilities to its Information Anywhere suite. This addition to the Information Anywhere suite addresses the demand of today’s mobile workers for increased productivity and collaboration by offering the most comprehensive support for extending enterprise email systems and IM platforms across the broadest range of mobile devices.

Sybase iAnywhere’s mobile IM and presence technology is a component of the company’s Information Anywhere suite, a platform that addresses converging enterprise requirements for mobile email, collaboration, security, device management and enterprise applications.

Electric Pocket’s Ringo Mobile application for Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone and Smartphone devices has earned Mobile2Market certification by Microsoft. Mobile2Market is Microsoft’s comprehensive testing program aimed to provide assurance to users of Windows Mobile devices that certified applications have met rigorous testing standards.

Ringo Mobile is a ringtone manager for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone devices, such as the Palm Treo 700w, T-Mobile Dash and the Motorola Q. The application has earned top performer status with features such as playing MP3 tunes as ringtones and assigning ringtones to individual callers or groups of callers.