Nowadays, more and more employers and employees work online either full-time or part-time, and that number is continuing growing. It’s believed that flying around the world for face-to-face company meetings is a waste of time and money. An effective choice to get rid of it is to use Web meetings.

A large of group presentations, training classes and meetings are done online without losing the face-to-face experience. Web meetings are online meetings where an organizer invites attendees to listen to or watch an online presentation by presenters. Besides, Web meetings can be recorded for later us.

Presenters can take real-time surveys to study how to hold a successful meeting. Some Web meeting software programs can monitor the users’ desktop behavior to see if they become distracted from the presentation and begin working on other documents. If so the program can tell presenters when the listeners lose their attention, and how long the distraction lasts. In this way, the presenters will know which parts of their meetings need improving.

Web meetings can work well because they’re hosted on a server (服务器). Images from the presenter’s desktop are taken, uploaded to a server and then downloaded by people who have access to the server. Web meetings require a powerful server to deal with several images a second and “serve” them back to thousands of users at the same time.

Companies have two choices when it comes to these servers. They can either buy a special Web meeting server to host their meetings on-site, or they can pay for a Web meeting service every time and let the off-site provider worry about hosting the meetings. The choice depends on how frequently the company holds Web meetings, the average number of people attending the meetings, and the quality of engineering and information technology.

Web meetings are an excellent example of how technology is changing the way we do business. With all the technologies today, the traditional office might soon be a thing of the past.

Even before George Jetson attracted kids with his cartoon flying car, people dreamed of soaring above traffic jam. Inventors and businessmen have long tried and failed to make the dream a reality, but that may be changing.

Nearly a dozen companies around the globe, including some with deep pockets such as European aircraft maker Airbus, are competing to be the first to develop a new kind of aircraft that will enable people to glide above crowded roadways. A few of the aircraft under development are cars with wings that unfold for flight, but most aren't cars at all. Typically they take off and land vertically like helicopters.

It's no sure bet that flying-car dreams will turn into reality. There are many obstacles, including convincing regulators that the aircraft are safe, figuring out how to handle thousands of new low-flying aircraft over cities without accidents and developing batteries that will keep them flying long enough to be useful.

But businessmen are moving forward. They see a vast potential market for "air taxis" and personally owned small aircraft to transport people to city centers as urban areas grow more crowded and people spend more time on traffic.

"In as little as 10 years, products could be on the market that change urban travel for millions of people," said Zach Lovering, the leader of Airbus' project to develop an autonomous flying taxi called the Vahana. The name means the mount or vehicle of a Hindu deity.

Uber released a 98-page report in October making the business case for air taxis, which the company sees as the future of on-demand transportation. Uber doesn't have any plans to develop a flying car itself, but the online transportation network is advising several companies that have aircraft in the works.

"The role we want to play is as a catalyst for the entire industry," said Nikhil Goel, an Uber project manager for advanced programs.

From fast food cooks to doormen at restaurants and hotels, robots are slowly entering the workforce in nearly every industry. Most recently, the world welcomed its first operational robot policeman.

“Robocop”, the newest member of the Dubai police force, made the first public appearance on Sunday at the Fourth Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference, where it greeted guests. At about 70 inches tall and weighing nearly 220 pounds, Robocop seeks to engage with residents and tourists. Featuring an “emotion detector (探测器)”, the robot can recognize a person’s gestures and body language from about 5 feet away.

Robocop’s skills don’t stop there—the emotionally intelligent bot can detect if a person is happy, sad and even angry by studying his or her facial expression. And just like your human friends would do, if Robocop sees you’re unhappy, it will try to lift your spirits. More importantly, when it comes to fighting crime, the robot uses the Internet, artificial intelligence and other smart technologies to spot offenders using facial recognition. Its navigation (导航) skills grant it the ability to map out areas and travel on its own. Equipped with a built-in tablet, Robocop can communicate with people, speak six languages, respond to public inquiries, shake hands and even make military salutes.

“With the aim to assist people on the streets,” said Brigadier-General Khalid Nasser A1 Razzouqi, director-general of smart services at Dubai Police, “the Robocop is the latest smart addition to the force and has been designed to help us fight crime recently, keep the city safe and improve happiness levels.”