Monopoly gets with the times

Post ImageI guess nothing is sacred anymore. Remember playing Monopoly as a kid? Great game right? I dunno about you, but I remember the piles of paper money being the best part. In the newest versions of the game however, the paper money is gone:

Parker Brothers is phasing out the cash-based version’s funmoney and replacing it with an “Electronic Banking” flavor that could leave Mr. Moneybags turning his pockets inside out as his stash is replaced by a magnetic strip. New kits are completely devoid of the famous multi-colored bills; instead, you’ll find phoney Visa debit cards and a calculator / reader which keeps a running tabulation of your riches — or lack thereof. A deal was struck with Visa to design the mock cards and readers, presumably after surveys showed that 70% of adults used cash less often now than they did a decade ago (no surprise there). When asked about the dramatic change, Parker said replacing cash with plastic “showed the game was moving with the times.”

Even though I remember the paper money being extremely fun, I am glad that it’s gone. Why? Because I am a huge supporter of getting rid of cash altogether. No need to teach kids how to use a dying form of money. Bring on the smart plastic cards, cell phone wallets, or even better, implantable identity/wallet solutions!

Read: Engadget

Notes for 7/23/2006

Here are my weekly notes:

  • You really must look at this post from Jason Kottke. Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words, yet sometimes it’s hard to find a good example. Well, here’s a great example.
  • I absolutely hate that PodcastingNews.com can’t put the important links from a story right inside their RSS feed. If it’s a full-text feed, include the damn links! If you want to make me visit your site so you can display advertising, don’t offer full-text feeds, and I won’t subscribe, it’s that simple.
  • Have you seen those “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” commercials? I’m sure you have. This is what I think of every time I see them. How about you?
  • Looking for podcasts? Here’s yet another directory. I really wonder why there are so many directories when so few tools of creation for podcasting actually exist. Makes me want to release Podcast Spot right now! (We’re in testing now, by the way, so very close. I’m really excited to start sharing our project with everyone!)
  • This was one of the best Rocketboom episodes I have seen. Clever and funny!
  • I’m just about finished reading Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. Great idea/theory/strategy, and the first half of the book is really excellent. I think I could probably have skipped the second half of the book though, it tends to go on and on without offering anything new.

Wilson wins 2006 Grand Prix of Edmonton

Post ImageI am so glad I got to go to the race today – it was awesome! I only wish my Dad had been able to come (we always watch the F1 races early Sunday morning together, though virtually, as he lives in the north). Despite the heat, there was a packed crowd for the race today, and it was extremely entertaining. Bourdais led the first half of the race, but Wilson proved much quicker and eventually took the checkered flag, becoming the only driver besides Bourdais and Allmendinger to win a race this season (here’s the full story).

I have to say that watching a race in person is a much different experience than watching on television. Edmonton is probably unique too, in that you can see pretty much the entire track from your seat in the grandstands. In any case, I like that you see every car go by every lap, whereas on TV you are at the mercy of the producer and camera people. It makes it much easier to see visually who is gaining on whom, who is falling behind, and who is trying too hard. Sure the television has the times and stuff, but actually seeing it is pretty cool.

The race began with the parade of drivers, each in a Ford pickup. Some of the Edmonton Eskimos also took part, with their very yellow truck bringing up the rear. There were parachuters, CF-18s, Mayor Mandel, Premier Klein, and various other dignitaries to get things underway. Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish was the grand marshall, saying the famous words with a twist – “Katherine and gentlemen, start your engines!” (as Katherine Legge is the only woman driver in the series). It was neat to see MacT and Kelly Buchburger walking down the concourse with a couple other guys – everyone would walk past, and then stop and look at the foursome, wondering if they had really just seen MacT! He’s an Edmonton celebrity to be sure.

I’ve added a few more pictures to my photoset from today. I also have about ten minutes of video, just various clips that I recorded throughout the day, so I’ll post that at some point as well. You know, so you can hear the scream of the engines for yourself!

Anyway, great race, and I hope I can go again next year!

35 Degree Racing in Edmonton

Post ImageI really wanted to go to the inaugural Grand Prix of Edmonton last year, but never got around to getting tickets. This year though, I was lucky enough to get Silver tickets for today and tomorrow. Turns out that one of my very fashionable friends got tickets from work, yet found she didn’t like watching cars go in circles, so she was nice enough to give her pass to me. Needless to say, I was pretty happy.

I arrived at the track this morning around 10, just in time to catch the morning Champ Car practice. I stayed until after the afternoon qualifying, which ended at 3. I’m amazed I lasted that long – the weather in Edmonton today was an incredible 35 degrees celsius, which as I’m sure you’re aware, is much hotter when you’re on asphalt.

It was totally worth it though! I’ve always been a big racing fan, with my favorite being Formula 1 (and there was a lot of Schumacher and Alonso gear to be seen today which was neat). I used to watch Champ Car all the time too, back when it was called CART. I still remember Jacques Villeneuve racing for the Players team in CART before switching to F1 and winning a world championship. And I remember Paul Tracy, who was one of the youngest drivers in the field. He’s now the oldest, and clearly the fan favorite here in Edmonton. He starts the race second tomorrow, despite a little accident this afternoon. Sebastien Bourdais has the pole.

Watching in person is much different than watching on television. The sounds are obviously much louder, and you can hear certain things much more clearly, such as gear shifts or brakes locking up. And while it’s easier to keep track of what’s going on when watching TV, there are some things you just can’t see properly unless you’re in person. Things like the way the cars bounce around (well if you ignore on car cameras at least), or the way the downforce keeps them on track as they go through a corner at 100 mph. Everytime the cars go through turns 13 and 14, it looks like they are going to lose control, and except for one time today, none of them did. It’s incredible.

I’ve created a new photoset with a bunch of pictures I took today, and I’ll add to it tomorrow. A couple interesting ones are this forklift carrying packages of ice to keep drinks cool no doubt, and this jet engine mounted to the back of a pickup that blows debris from the track. Maybe I’ll bring my video camera tomorrow!

Read: Edmonton GP

Lucky to be alive and yet still complaining

Post ImageNOTE: This post contains some sweeping generalizations and may offend, so read at your own risk.

I’m disappointed in and saddened by the Canadians (and those who simply have dual Canadian citizenship) coming home from the Middle East right now. Not all of them mind you, but just about every one I have seen on TV so far (and yes, the media are partially to blame here too). I admit our government was slow to start moving with evacuation plans when compared to other countries, especially those in Europe, but let’s not forget that Europe is much closer, and Canada (for whatever reason) had far more people in the area. However, slow to get going or not, I am disgusted to hear nothing but complaining from the rescued.

You’d think that being out of harms way with your life would be somehow uplifting? I can’t imagine I’d have time to complain between kissing the Canadian soil and thanking my lucky stars I was all intact. Evidently that’s not the case for those coming to Canada now. All you hear on the news is how they had to wait for long periods of time (some in camps like the one pictured), and that when they were on the ships, there was no food, people were vomiting, and they were “treated like animals.” What did you expect – a full on buffet on the cruise ship? This wasn’t a vacation, it was an evacuation. Would you have been happier to wait in Lebanon for another week while the government got it’s best chefs, waiters, and gourmet food ready for your trip? I didn’t think so. Oh and you think fourteen hours was too long of a trip? Suck it up. You’re alive. People spend longer periods of time in distress all the time. Heck, I go 24 hours without eating or sleeping all the time.

Now when I first thought about this, I figured that maybe I was being a little unfair. I mean, I’ve never been in an area where there’s an active war being fought, and I hope I never have to be. So maybe I just don’t understand what it’s like. My Grandma would though, having grown up during the Second World War in England, so I asked her. She knew the TV reports I was talking about (trust me, she watches a lot of TV) and her response (paraphrased) was: “It’s ridiculous. They should be happy to be alive. When bombs are falling, all you want to go is get out of the area, not complain about how.” So maybe I wasn’t being unfair.

The thing that really gets me though are the people who hold dual-citizenship, yet spend most of their time in Lebanon. There’s nothing wrong with that, EXCEPT that if you live there for large parts of the year, surely you should understand it comes with some risks. I mean, has the middle east ever been peaceful? Not that I can remember. If you’re living in Lebanon, or anywhere in the middle east, I think you need to understand that bad things could happen. And when they do, don’t pretend you’re a model Canadian citizen and deserve to be treated like a god. I don’t want to imply that they are less Canadian – oh to hell with it, yes I do. If you don’t live here, and you only have Canadian citizenship so that you can be evacuated from times of crisis, I think that totally sucks, and I am pissed that my tax dollars pay for that. If you choose to live in an area that constantly has violence and war, that’s your problem. Instead of paying for you to complain about the ship you’re on to come to Canada, I’d rather help out the guy on the street outside my office who asks me for money every day so he can eat.

I believe in human rights and equality for all, and every other kind of ideal you can put in front of me that has to do with people being treated like people, but when a war happens, and humans behave in ways that bring humanity down a level, I think there needs to be understanding. There needs to be understanding that war zones are difficult places to operate within. There needs to be understanding that every country in the world is trying to lease ships and planes to evacuate their citizens, all at the same time. There needs to be understanding that your country will do everything it can to save your life, and when they do, a simple thanks should suffice.

Coming Zune from Microsoft

Post ImageTurns out the rumor is true! Microsoft is working on a new project to take on Apple and the iPod called Zune. Information is flying fast and furious around the web, but Engadget has come to the rescue with a pretty good status check of what is known thus far. They also posted a quote from Microsoft’s GM of Marketing, Chris Stephenson:

“Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together.”

From the CNET News.com article on Zune, I found the teaser website which is pretty unimpressive, though it does give you the ability to sign up for news and updates.

As has been noted elsewhere, this marks a significant change in Microsoft’s media and entertainment strategy, which thus far has relied upon partners to build and sell devices. I don’t think it will be quite the problem that many believe though – Microsoft competes with partners all the time, in a wide range of different industries. In fact I hope Zune turns out to be great, so Microsoft’s partners can follow their lead and improve their own players.

With keyboards, mice, webcams, the Xbox 360, and probably other stuff I don’t know about, Microsoft’s hardware business is already somewhat substantial. Add media players to the mix, the rumored portable gaming device, and maybe Microsoft sees a future in hardware? I wonder how long it will be until they manufacture their own Media Center PC.

In any case, bring on the Zune!

Read: Engadget

Does the Bush Veto matter?

Post ImageAs you have probably heard by now, US President Bush made the first veto of his presidency yesterday, rejecting legislation that would have expanded federal support for embryonic stem cell research. While I applaud his ability to make a decision and stick to it (something he has done throughout the last six years, for better or for worse) I think that his veto was a little short-sighted. The issue is a touchy one, no doubt, but there is lots of support for such research.

And if I understand things correctly, ignoring the political drama the veto has and will continue to create, it doesn’t really matter anyway. The result of Bush’s decision is that federal funding for such research will not happen any time soon, but that doesn’t prevent private research from taking place. Do some reading on the subject, and you’ll find that medical research is starting to undergo something of a revolution – from taking place only in huge labs and Universities to taking place almost everywhere thanks to recent technology advances, falling costs, and “open source” type methodologies. I think we’ll start to see more and more research happen in the unlikliest of places, without any need for federal funding.

That’s why I think the Bush veto doesn’t matter in the long run.

Read: NYTimes.com

All the good domain names are gone!

Post ImageI came across a really fascinating article yesterday about Dennis Forbes, who has been studying a huge list of domain names in his spare time, making him something of a domainologist. Some of the things Mr. Forbes has found by looking at the list (which he got from someone at VeriSign) are truly amazing:

All of the 1,000 most common English words have been snatched up. The word “a” appears more than any other, though most of the time, of course, it’s just a letter in a longer word. The least-used common word is “consonant,” Mr. Forbes says, which is in just 42 domains, including “consonantpain.com,” which isn’t a misspelling but a word game.

Mr. Forbes checked the U.S. Census Bureau’s 1,219 most-common male names, the 2,841 most-common female names and the 10,000 most-common surnames; all were booked. Not only that, but when you link the top 300 first names with the top 300 last names, 89 percent of the resulting combinations are taken for male names and 84 percent for female ones.

And more generally?

For example, for every possible two-character and three-character combination, including both letters and numbers _ all possible domains are taken. Virtually all English words with four letters are claimed; those that aren’t are usually contractions, and Web rules don’t allow apostrophes.

Half of all domains are between nine and 15 characters long; the average length is 13. A domain can have, at most, 63 characters, and there are 550 such domains. In fact, some people have made a haiku-like art out of 63-character domain names.

Told you it was interesting! I’ve been known to buy domains on a whim, but there are people who have turned it into a multi-million dollar business. Digital real-estate is valuable as well it seems!

Read: NFD News

MoveDigital

Post ImageI had been looking at a service called Prodigem a couple weeks ago, but they informed me they would soon be relaunching. Well, now they have, and with a bang too! Prodigem was acquired by MoveDigital, and the new service they have launched is pretty sweet:

We’re unique, a file is only charged as delivered after the entire direct download is complete.

We also allow your audience to add bandwidth to your account, and we always roll over your bandwidth, so it’s never lost.

A free account will give you 30 days of use, 1 GB of storage space, and 10 GB of bandwidth. Paid accounts start at just $10 for an entire year. On top of that, they can create torrents for your files, and if you upload audio or video, they will even make it streamable for mobile phones.

I played around with the service a little today, and it works great. They show you download statistics for your files (but only if the entire file is downloaded). They even count a proper download for BitTorrent (though, presumably, only for files they seed). Users can also subscribe to your content using the RSS feeds that MoveDigital automatically generates, one for direct downloads, one for torrent downloads, and one for mobile streams.

Overall, it’s a pretty nicely done service. I have only two complaints really, one being that the link to their API does not work! The second is the price is pretty high. Even their Premium account (the highest one), which costs $10,100 for the entire year, is 5 times more expensive than comparable benefits (storage, bandwidth) using Amazon S3. The cost per additional GB of transfer is also 19 cents higher than Amazon S3 (and five times higher if you’re on the Basic plan).

I suppose if you had a high number of partial downloads it would even out, but you’d need a lot of those for it to work. Also note that MoveDigital does charge for partial downloads of data using BitTorrent or the mobile streams, only direct downloads can take advantage of the entire download charge feature.

Read: MoveDigital

Immortalized in Firefox 2

Post ImageAs you might have heard, Firefox recently released a beta of the next version of their browser, code-named Bon Echo. Interestingly enough, they have also announced a program that would let you get your name right in the source code:

To commemorate the three-year anniversary of the creation of the Mozilla Foundation on July 15, the open-source group announced that if a Firefox user persuades a friend to download the browser, both the user and the friend’s names will be added to the source code of the next version of the browser, Firefox 2.0.

It’s an interesting marketing experiment, I’ll give them that much. Read that article, and then read Jeremy Wright’s post titled Firefox Copying IE. What Jeremy has to say is dead on, Firefox 2 probably isn’t worthy of a complete 2.0 release. I’ve been critical of Firefox on this blog and elsewhere recently, and this only adds to my feelings. Perhaps the Firefox team should be focusing on creating an incredible next version rather than one full of people’s names.

Read: CNET News.com