s1LX

Historian finds tech bubble that didn’t pop (180 years ago)

s1LX — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:40:00 +0000

Histories of speculative bubbles are popular these days, in large part because they have driven our economy for the last two decades. First came the tech bubble, whose quasi-utopian promises drew in billions of investment dollars, only to pop its cork in 2000, dragging the United States into a recession. That was followed by our recently retired real estate adventure, which threw us and much of the world into The Great Recession. Given the consequences of these turbulent financial frolics, Bubble Studies has become a popular scholarly field. Its more well known offerings include John Cassidy’s Dot Con, Charles Kindleberger’s Manias, Panics, and Crashes, and the latest: Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff’s This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises . Read the comments on this post

feature: RIP Palm: it’s over, and here’s why

s1LX — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:30:14 +0000

In January of 2009, shares of Palm traded at a little over $3 as everyone awaited details of the once-mighty smartphone maker’s plans to save itself from certain death. In the wake of the Pre’s successful unveiling later that month at CES, Palm’s stock price more than doubled, and optimism about the Pre’s prospects eventually drove shares to a high of over $17 in October of last year. But as of this past Friday’s earnings report, sales are way below Palm’s and Wall Street’s expectations, the company has little cash left on hand, and shares of PALM have dropped all the way back down to $4. There’s a growing consensus—as expressed by the market—that there are only two possible futures for Palm: acquisition, or insolvency. So what happened? Wasn’t webOS the greatest thing since the original iPhone OS? Wasn’t the Pre a great phone? How did Palm blow it so badly? I was a Pre user up until January of this past year, when the Nexus One came out. I went with Palm as far as I could, but in the end, I bailed. Here’s where I think Palm went wrong, and why I left the Pre. Read the comments on this post

PokÃ©mon HeartGold: catching ‘em all, for the second time

s1LX — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Pokémon�HeartGold/SoulSilver may be a remake of a decade-old GameBoy Color game, but it’s pretty striking just how similar it feels when compared to the most recent entries in the series. With a few minor updates and tweaks, Nintendo has been able to update this classic and make it feel like a more modern entry in the venerable franchise as opposed to a step back. This not only gives it some added appeal for players who already played through the game 10 years ago, but it also means that it won’t feel like an archaic experience for those who were weaned on the monster catching series’ more recent Nintendo DS entries. Read the comments on this post

Hands-on with Articles for iPhone: Wikipedia in your palm

s1LX — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Articles for iPhone is a brand new Wikipedia client for the iPhone and iPod touch from Sophiestication Software ,�maker of the popular Groceries , and Coversutra for the Mac. The app feels a lot like something Apple would create, but does it offer enough to set itself apart in the already crowded space? We decided to find out.� Upon first launch, Articles is nearly indistinguishable from mobile Safari. If it weren’t for the gray search and tool bars, you might think you accidentally activated the wrong application. The app is simple to use, and anyone who has used mobile Safari should have no issues. Articles allows a user to search any of the different language variants of Wikipedia and switch between languages without opening any preferences. A choice is given between searching article content or article titles. You can also search either of those options with realtime search suggestions—impressive, considering there are more than 3 million articles in the English version of Wikipedia. Read the comments on this post

Cleaning the barnacles from the S.S. Copyright

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Bashing current copyright law is easy—just ask Jessica Litman , a professor of law at the University of Michigan. She calls current US copyright a “swollen, barnacle-encrusted collection of incomprehensible prose.” Or, to change the metaphor to aging, copyright law is “old, outmoded, inflexible, and beginning to display the symptoms of multiple systems failure.” Suggesting something new to replace it can be a harder job, and Litman turns her attention to that task in an unpublished new paper called ” Real Copyright Reform ” (PDF). Part of a spate of recent reform proposals (Public Knowledge is heading another high-profile effort , for example), Litman’s quest to reform the 1976 Copyright Act is, as she acknowledges, quixotic. “None of these proposals is likely to attract serious attention from Congress or copyright lobbyists,” she writes. “Right now the copyright legislation playing field is completely controlled by its beneficiaries. They have persuaded Congress that it is pointless to try to enact copyright laws without their assent.” Read the comments on this post

Genocide and Jedi: why the Sith may be right in Old Republic

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000

“The one thing you’re never going to hear is ‘make the bad guys less interesting.’”� I’m sitting in an out-of-the-way room of Lucasarts with Daniel Erickson, who keeps swinging back to one topic: why the people we’ve come to hate in the Star Wars universe act as they do. He’s given this some thought; as the lead writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic , the upcoming Star Wars MMO, it’s his job to help tell both sides of the story. In our time together we discuss the extended universe, he makes the case for Grand Admiral Thrawn, and explains how the Jedi attempted genocide… and why the Sith may just be right. Read the comments on this post

Weird Science examines testosterone and its discontents

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:00:32 +0000

Field studies with skateboarders show that a hot girl turns men into idiots: Alternately, a lot of what you’ve always thought you knew about testosterone is probably right. Some Australians recruited male skateboarders , and asked them to perform tricks. After a break, they were invited back, and asked to perform again, “either for the same male experimenter or for an attractive 18-year-old female experimenter who was blind to hypotheses.” With the attractive teen around, testosterone levels shot up, and the boarders increased their tendency to take risks. Some of those paid off with smooth landings, but the number of cases where they experienced crash landings did, as well. “These results suggest that men use physical risk taking as a sexual display strategy,” the authors deadpanned. The downside is that the response to hot girls makes all females think men are idiots: Apparently, all it takes for a woman to get annoyed at men in general is to think about them subjecting a woman to catcalls . In psych-speak, said women “experienced greater negative intergroup emotions and motivations towards the outgroup of men after overhearing the cat-call remark.” So, even if you’re well behaved, you may not escape the stigma of being the same sex as an idiot. Read the comments on this post

Nazi Zombie Speichern

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:41:12 +0000

Nazi Zombie Speichern Description: After wandering through a forest for days with your three comrades to escape the zombies in Berlin, you come across a small German village. You make your way into the large store in the front, and discover it would make a good stronghold against zombie invaders. You grab anything you can get your hands on, and begin boarding up the windows of the shop. You discover the zombies won’t be stopped by 2×4s and nails, and some of these zombies are a somewhat…special. As these fiery, electrified, and gaseous zombies begin appearing, it becomes apparent that you and your fellow soldiers may not survive. But you aren’t going down without a fight! Grab your guns, get ready, and you just might make it out alive…barely. Map Name: Nazi Zombie Speichern Map Version: 2 Map Author: Rayjingstorm Supported Gametypes: SP, CO-OP DOWNLOAD

Nazi Zombie District19

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:00:15 +0000

Nazi Zombie District19 Description: This is an updated version that should fix the issues of the previous release. Read below for update details. Features: - 3 teleport locations - Power switch - Hell Hounds - 2 easter eggs and 1 radio - Perk machines - Pack-a-Punch - 5 random weapon box locations - 3 Electroshock Defenses - Custom textures - Custom scripts Map Name: Nazi Zombie District19 Map Version: 1.4 Map Author: =TSF=Slinger Supported Gametypes: SP, CO-OP DOWNLOAD

Nazi Zombie Killzone Revisted

s1LX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Nazi Zombie Killzone Revisted Description: You and your fellow illegal immigrant buddies have broken into a train yard and find yourself overwhelmed by undead German boarder patrol officers. Can you survive long enough to make it out of the country? Map Name: Nazi Zombie Killzone Revisted Map Version: 1.0 Map Author: Tom_Bmx Supported Gametypes: SP, CO-OP DOWNLOAD