October 2006 Archives
WSJ: Older Consoles Lift Game Publishers -- The buzz in videogames is all about next-generation machines, but the biggest money for publishers like Electronic Arts is coming from software for older hardware. PS2 still outsell xBox360. Makes economic sense since Sony also cut the price of the PS2.
It's been around awhile, but it's a classic.
NY Times: American Album: As the Jobs Go South, the Hope Goes With Them -- Left behind in McMinnville, Tenn., are thousands of people who once had a piece of the American middle class, including Don Rackley.
WSJ: Baseball Shrugs Off Low Playoff Ratings -- Baseball is shrugging off its lack of postseason punch, including the lowest-ever TV ratings for the World Series, because so many other parts of its business are thriving. I'm used to this when the Cardinals are in the World Series.
NY Times: Circulation Plunges at Major Newspapers -- The decline, one of the steepest on record, adds to the woes of a mature industry beset by layoffs and the possible sale of some of its flagships and Washington Post: Daily Circulation Falls at U.S. Papers -- NEW YORK -- Circulation declines accelerated at major U.S. newspapers for the six-month period ending in September, according to figures released Monday, in the latest sign of struggle for an industry that is continually grappling with changing reader habits..
But there was some good news -- Lost Remote: Paper sites set traffic records in September -- A Nielsen-Netratings report compiled for the Newspaper Association of America found that traffic to newspaper sites grew 24 percent in the third quarter over the same time last year. And September was a record month. The NAA says the traffic boost is due to new features like video, podcasts and user-created content.
NY Times: Everybody's Business: You Can Complain, or You Can Make Money -- The top 1 percent of all income earners in this great land earn roughly 20 percent of the total income.
NY Times: Disney Says It Will Link Marketing to Nutrition -- Walt Disney plans to curtail the use of its name and characters with food items that do not meet new nutritional standards. and WSJ: Disney Pulls Its Characters From Junk Food -- Disney said its characters and brands will only be used on child-focused products that meet healthy dietary guidelines.
NY Times: Expert Federal Panel Urges New Look at Land Use Along Coasts in Effort to Reduce Erosion -- The panel said a rising sea level was accelerating erosion on these coasts, even as more people seek to live along them.
NY Times: So Big and Healthy Even Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You -- I was reminded after seeing an exhibit of clothing up until the 1900s. The shoes and gloves looked more like infant wear. Other indications were military enrollment from 1850, when the average for a male was 5' 7.5" tall and weighed 146 lbs. and 2000, when the average male was 5' 9.5" and weighed 191 pounds.
Also when a person reached 50 in 1900, they could expect to live 21 more years. Now they can expect to live 31 years.
NY Times: Home Front: Refurbishing Computers, and Lives, Too -- Per Scholas upgrades desktop computers that corporations discard as obsolete and distributes them to schools and families.
There's also FreeGeek.org, a group in Portland, Ore., that I have followed for several years.
WSJ: Google Campus to Get Solar Power -- Google plans to install a massive solar-power system at its headquarters, as technology companies' support for alternative energy is on the rise. and NY Times: Search Power Takes a Stand for Sun Power -- Google said it would build a large solar electricity system to provide electricity to its office complex in Mountain View, Calif.
Also Wired News: Aussies Eye Sun to Beat Blackouts -- Hoping to keep the juice flowing despite a predicted energy shortfall, Australia plans to build the world's biggest solar power plant.
Consumers Union: State Gift Card Consumer Protection Laws -- A summary of regulations in the 24 states with laws on gift cards.
This Old House: Home Inspection Nightmares -- Gallery 1
and Gallery 2.
Two of my favorites were:
Christian Science Monitor: For not much more, Americans opting to eat out -- Even with wages stagnant, time-strapped workers are abandoning the family kitchen in droves. For some, they can eat out for only a little more than they can eat it in.
NY Times: In Gods Name: Religious Programs Expand, So Do Tax Breaks -- As religious organizations extend their scope beyond traditional worship, government at all levels is increasingly extending their tax exemptions.
Wired News: Honey Remedy Could Save Limbs -- Modern, drug-resistant bacteria are meeting their match in an ancient medicine: honey. Sweeeeeet.
and
Most tantalizingly, honey seems capable of combating the growing scourge of drug-resistant wound infections, especially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the infamous flesh-eating strain. These have become alarmingly more common in recent years, with MRSA alone responsible for half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms. So-called superbugs cause thousands of deaths and disfigurements every year, and public health officials are alarmed.
NT Times: Advertising: Not Getting Older, Just More Scrutinized -- As baby boomers age out of the prime 18-49 demographic, their sheer numbers and spending power dictate that companies keep them in their sights.
One of the best sites for tips and news about Moveable Type is Learning Moveable Type. The editor of the site is Elsie Bauer. It's been around awhile, but is full of lots of good info. One of the best things it does is help with instructions on upgrading, such as A Safe Way to Upgrade to MT 3.3. It was my prime instruction for upgrading.
Of course, the site Six Apart, which makes Moveable Type, Type Pad and other blogging tools is a good source too. For specific issues, I go there.
New Scientist: Imagine Earth Without People -- Looks at how dominant humans are on earth and what happens if you could all whisk 6.5 billion them off. Article focuses on the recover of the atmosphere and the deterioration of our buildings, bridges and roads. For example, rural road overgrown in 20 years, urbran streets and buildings overgrown in 100 years and bridge collapse within 200 years. Blackouts occur with 48 hours as many power plants run out of fuel.
From the article, The London Times wrote: 200,000 years for all trace of Man to vanish from the Earth and built this time line here, as shown below:
NY Times: American Wins Nobel in Economics -- Edmund S. Phelps work contributed to an explanation of how wages, unemployment and inflation interact with one another. I remember teaching those.
NY Times:With YouTube, Student Hits Jackpot Again -- Jawed Karim, one of YouTubes three founders, hit the equivalent of the Powerball when Google bought the site. Karim was also involved early with PayPal. He's 27 and lives in a dorm on Stanford's campus.
The BBC sets up a honeypot PC running XP Pro to see what would happen.It was hit within 15 minutes and for the next seven hours. The four-day series starts here.
rexblog: Sorry, 'content is king' has no clothes -- The ability to attract an audience is king. The ability to create a foundation (a platform, a brand, a community, or whatever you want to call it) that attracts readers and visitors and users who are inspiredinto creating with you, an entire (since I'm using buzzwords) ecosystem to which they all belong to, add to and gain identity from, is king.
NY Times: Square Feet: Meet Me in Revitalized Downtown St. Louis --
The sale and redevelopment of St. Louis Centre is one more reminder of an urban planning scheme that never quite lived up to its promise.
NY Times: Across Nation, Housing Costs Rise as Burden -- New census data illustrate the crushing impact of escalating real estate prices and stagnant incomes. Census -- New Census Bureau Data Highlight Changes in Housing Values Through 2005
IEEE Spectrum Online: Backyard wind turbines turn energy consumers into suppliers-- Think wind power and you probably imagine multimegawatt-scale wind farms featuring gigantic turbines producing power for a few thousand homes. But a handful of companies in the United States would prefer to have each home powered by its own wind turbine. Comments on article on Slashdot: Is Backyard Wind Power Worth It? Skystream web site and Southwest Windpower.
Wired News: The Best: Public Domain Movies -- Wired's list of must-see movies you don't have to pay a cent for.
Macworld: Back up photos on the road -- There’s no point in lugging along a laptop on your vacation just so you can archive or organize your digital pictures. A laptop not only adds weight and heft, but is also vulnerable to theft and damage. Luckily, you have other options. Our recommendations will help ensure that all your photos come home safely with you.
CNet: Taking passwords to the grave -- What happens after you're gone.
Boston Globe: Deferring your Social Security benefits can yield a big gain -- If you're male, healthy, and married, you've got an investment opportunity few will discuss with you. Over the next 12 months the ``investment" could provide an effective return of 50 percent.
USA Today: Working out of a 'third place' -- An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office.
Creating Passionate Users: What kind of genuis are you -- An economics researcher named David Galenson (a late-bloomer himself) plodded along for years and eventually discovered a way to reverse-engineer creativity... finding that creative innovators come in two flavors: Conceptual and Experimental. Conceptual innovators, it seems, get their Big Ideas out early, many peaking out before they leave their 30's. They can change an industry (sometimes the world) almost overnight. Experimental innovators are those who quietly crunch along, doing creative trial and error but staying largely under the radar until much later, often having no visibility until their 50's or beyond. Oh good. I can start being a genuis tomorrow.