To celebrate the season, we decided to get some of our staff together and record a few new takes on some classic Christmas tunes.  Everything you hear here was done in-house in the Fuel recording studio, under the guidance of our multi-talented Director for Fuel Sounds, Rob Plowman.  We hope you find they make a worthy addition to your holiday mix.

To catch a glimpse of the recording process, Alyssa (who you’ll hear as lead vocals on the first track) graciously put together a video chronicling some of the fun we had putting the songs together.  Enjoy!

For so long, technological advancement and spiritual enlightenment appeared to be mutually exclusive, but who better than Microsoft to help change that?

In one of Microsoft’s first Twitter promotions, we helped create an opportunity for tech professionals to clear their minds while Windows Server 2008 R2 helped clear their server frustrations.

The site allows IT pros to create a haiku poem extolling the virtues of R2.  The site integrates with each poet’s Twitter account and tweets their creation to their followers, who can then vote the poem up or down in the ranking.  Most creative poem wins a home theater system and an XBOX 360.

The site has taken off within the tech community and has been featured on AdWeek, DM News, and ArsTechnica.

Exercise your right to peace of mind, and visit www.r2haiku.com.

The Zune HD has been out for a while now, but the current news is the Zune Marketplace’s addition of five free 3D titles, including our Vans SK8: Pool Service, which garnered some great reviews in the spring as its original iPhone iteration.

Hop over to Gizmodo to take a brief look at the five games available.

The new Zune HD edition of Pool Service features a number of tweaks over the original thanks to the device’s more robust processor and graphics capabilities, including a new environment, new animations and an smooth framerate of over 50 fps.  The game also takes advantage of the Zune’s custom playlists, so players can skate to their own tracks.

For some video footage of Vans, and the other titles, check out the always sharp-tongued, not-always neck-braced Blair Herter at G4tv.

If you want to talk about added value–how about writing your coworkers a sweet song on your way back to do your Master’s in Computer Science?  That’s the kind of added value Richard Monette brings to the table, and…..excuse me, I think I have something in my eye……  We wish Richard all the best as he continues to refine his expertise in game development–he’s one of the reasons we Fuellians love coming to work every day–you’ll be missed!

How to Quit Your Job (Goodbye Fuel) from Rocktopus Games on Vimeo.

Hmm, so if these findings by Perry Drake over at Drake Direct are correct, one quarter of all US pageviews can be attributed to Facebook.  This adds even more fuel to the fire to the belief that Facebook is creeping up as the de-facto site for so many of the web’s interactions that used to take place elsewhere–from events to gaming to photo-sharing.

Some of the other key finding of Drake’s research:

• 1 in 7 UK pageviews (or 15%) are Facebook-related
• Google’s taking 8% of the total pageviews
• Google still trumps Facebook for total visits, but the gap is closing quickly.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on Facebook’s position in relation to the larger web–and I think as these numbers continue to surprise us, marketers are going to need to continue to rethink where they’re reaching out to their consumers.