Anyone can get lucky. But a few years ago, when owners of a casino looked on as a player at a roulette table was cleaning up, they were fairly certain that Lady Luck had little to do with his good fortune. The problem, though, was that there was just too much happening in a short Las Vegas minute for human eyes to catch the scam. That’s where Jeff Jonas came in.Read more

 Companies are waking up to the fact that women wield substantial influence over big ticket household purchases. But few realize that due to the explosion in women-led companies, females are now also responsible for an increasingly important portion of the estimated $1.9 trillion spent annually on information technology, says Marilyn Johnson, vice-president, market development for IBM.Read more

Water scarcity is one of the biggest problems on the planet. There isn't enough clean drinking water to go around, yet an estimated 25% to 30% of treated water is lost through leaks in aging distribution networks. Such losses cost water utilities an estimated $14 billion annually, according to the World Bank. Enter TaKaDu, an Israeli start-up.Read more

 The Geneva-based World Economic Forum released its list of 2010 Tech Pioneers Dec. 3. Every year since 2000, the WEF-with the help of a jury of experts, including this author-has chosen for the same honor anywhere from 25 to 50 companies that it judges to have big potential impact on the world. This year's class looks set to make headlines of its own by using information technology to rewrite the future of other industries.Read more