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Could someone get him out of here? He’s very distracting.

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“The Human Face of Big Data.” Oops, sorry, way off — this is the android face of regular-size Data.

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Even if he could hit the high notes, there’s no way he’d pull off the overalls.

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                   Both brains and beauty!

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Remember this? Still unimpressed by the iPhone 5?

You may be the smartest candidate for the job, but sometimes it’s all about social connections. This holds true in the Bing versus Google battle for search supremacy.  Despite having what may be the smartest computer learning system in the world, the Microsoft-owned search engine lags far behind Google. Why? It’s all about the massive amount of personal information Big Brother Google captures about users.

If CIOs don’t think they have to compete for the business of internal customers, chances are they’ve already lost them. Check out these expert tips on keeping IT competitive and relevant to the business. While you’re at it, read why we think this just might be the new CIO benchmark.

What’s a little privacy when there’s money to be saved on diapers and coffee? In a quest to create competitive advantage supermarket chains put big data analytics into action by offering customers individualized pricing based on their shopping habits.

Instagram: It’s not just for shoe-gazing hipsters anymore. Increasingly, big-name companies like Starbucks, GE and Nike are leveraging the popular photo app to gather customer data.

Finally, in case you missed it, check out this week’s installment of CIO Matters in which news director Linda Tucci makes a case for the CIO’s need to know just how “green” cloud computing really is and why it matters to us all.

Zynga may want to have a word with friends. Opinion is rife that Facebook doesn’t have the company’s best interests at heart.

We now know one outlet where BlackBerry users won’t be reading more bad news for RIM.

Where there’s money, there are criminals. Hot on the heels of tech innovation that makes your smartphone a virtual wallet comes a tech innovation that virtually steals that wallet.

Who doesn’t like a good chart? We especially like this one which attempts to diagram the main routes to unified information access (UIA) across silos when dealing with big data.

Finally, be sure to check out this week’s CIO Matters, wherein our crusading columnist Wendy Schuchart saves the day with awesomely powerful leadership lessons CIOs can glean from superheroes. Kapow!

 This company turned heads this week by making some of its own e-books available to other retailers. 

 Give employees a little of this — à la Aretha Franklin — if you you want them to excel at social CRM.

 Read on for the correct questions to these answers and more. Enjoy!

• It’s no big management secret that employees do better when they feel respected, but what you may not have considered how important this is to social CRM.
• The e-book you want you might not be able to get, depending on your e-reader. Or maybe you can get it, but you can’t get the print version if you go to certain stores. Advantage: library.
• Kids these days! A dad who is also a storage pro talks about why he wants big data and cloud to get off his lawn. You’ll read this if you know what’s good for you.
• It may be a little more Maxwell Smart than James Bond cool, but kudos to the latest innovation in pen-related tech.
• And finally, love makes the world go round — so it makes sense that Google wants to control it. Oh Google, we kid because we love.

• Bosses? We don’t need no stinking bosses. A peek inside gaming company Valve, where a lack of hierarchy and other unconventional business practices are promoting innovation.
• If you happen to be a boss, however, check out this advice on how to retain high-potential employees. Turns out, sometimes it’s the managers of those employees who need coaching.
• And speaking of promoting innovation, Harvard this week released “big data for books” — metadata on more than 12 million books, videos, maps and more from its 73 libraries. The university is looking forward to seeing how the information is used. They’ve already gotten a small glimpse: A group of hackers, given one day and information on 600,000 items, created such things as visual timelines of when ideas became broadly published.
• In a workforce increasingly reliant on management skills, these experts weigh in on why IT leaders of today shouldn’t forget about fostering leadership skills in the next generation.
• Got Mac users in your organization? You might want to watch where they’re sticking their USB drives.

• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in all computer occupations is expected to increase by 22% in the next decade. It’s recommended that such forecasts be taken with a grain of salt because they can’t account for market changes and technology disruptions. But when it comes to the possibility of more jobs, we’ll take it with whatever seasoning necessary.
• Books, magazines, seminars! Advice on tech innovation is everywhere, and it can be an awful lot to swallow. Here is some innovation food for thought in seven easily digestible bites.
• Some straightforward advice on writing a social media policy for your company that somehow manages to include Quatrain LI of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. That aspect alone makes it worth the read, wethinks.
• Finding it harder and harder to find common cause with your younger workers? Well, you both more or less have Trivial Pursuit editions named for you — see!? OK, maybe that’s not enough to get baby boomers and Millennials in your IT organization to get along, but these tips on fostering intergenerational harmony might help. Besides, as our friend Goethe reminds: “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.”
• And finally, why used-car shoppers should lean toward orange vehicles and other odd insights — brought to you by big data.