Gaming 28 - Revisiting the Village
Posted on 21st Jun 2011 at 12:00 by Podcast with 19 comments
Posted on 21st Jun 2011 at 12:00 by Podcast with 19 comments
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/vhMM5ybvrjg/
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One of the senators, John Cornyn of Texas, said he would consider eliminating some tax breaks and corporate subsidies in the context of changes in the tax code, provided there was not an overall increase in taxes.
?I think it?s clear that the Republicans are opposed to any tax hikes, particularly during a fragile economic recovery,? Mr. Cornyn said on ?Fox News Sunday.? ?Now, do we believe tax reform is necessary? I would say absolutely.?
But he insisted that any changes in taxes be ?revenue neutral,? meaning that the government would not take in any more money from individuals or businesses than it does now.
The other senator, John McCain of Arizona, said he would be willing to consider some ?revenue raisers? as part of a broad deal, but he refused to name specific measures.
Mr. Cornyn, a member of the Senate leadership, also said that Republicans would be open to a short-term deal on the debt ceiling to provide more time for a comprehensive agreement.
?The problem with a minideal is we have a maxi-problem,? he said. ?And the big problems aren?t going to go away if you cut a minideal. All it does is delay the moment of truth. And so I?d say better now than then. But if we can?t, then we?ll take the savings we can get now, and we will relitigate this as we get closer to the election.?
The White House had no comment on the senators? remarks.
Last week, President Obama harshly criticized Republicans lawmakers for refusing to eliminate tax breaks like those for private jet owners, hedge fund managers, multinational oil companies and ethanol producers. He argued that eliminating such loopholes could save billions of dollars and help fix the short-term federal deficit and long-term national debt.
The administration and Congressional negotiators are racing to find a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion by Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the United States will exhaust its ability to borrow money and could default on some obligations. A bargain must be struck at least a week before then to provide time for a Congressional Budget Office analysis and for both chambers to vote on it.
Mr. McCain said Sunday that closing the tax breaks that Mr. Obama mentioned would have a negligible impact on the nation?s fiscal condition and would defy the will of the voters.
?The principle of not raising taxes is something that we campaigned on last November, and the result of the election was that the American people didn?t want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending,? he said on the CNN program ?State of the Union.?
He added that his fellow Republican senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, a member of the budget negotiating team, had said there were certain measures that Republicans would consider, and that he was open to them. He refused to name any.
Mr. Kyl said he would be willing to consider some increases to help bring down the deficit. ?We?re perfectly willing to consider those kinds of issues in the context of tax reform, which we would very much like to do,? Mr. Kyl said last week on ?Fox News Sunday.? ?But we?re not going to have the time to do it or be able to do it in order just to raise revenue as part of the exercise, which should be about reducing spending.?
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7e79130d7af90c8c7c60c0745d9c8d54
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By now it is common knowledge that ebooks comprise an ever-growing slice of the book market, and are quite likely to become the dominant book format in the next quarter century. Quick, simple distribution, ease of sale and purchase, and the ability for extensive continuing revision make ebooks a format that is a winner for both publishers and readers alike.
But there is a disturbance in the book market?s dynamics. Authors have realized that the advantages of ebook publishing, in many cases, allow them to bypass their old publishers and strike out on their own, taking a much larger cut of the profits along the way. After all, if you can make more money, why not?
But despite the lure of increased royalties per copy, can the average writer competently execute the roles of both publisher and author?
It?s an interesting question, as the market forces that have allowed authors to effectively self-publish and keep a larger portion of their sales have also made it simpler for any individual to leverage sufficient resources to become a one-person publishing house. The Internet allows for authors to find, and collaborate, with excellent editors, artists, and formatting specialists to create a truly professional-grade book in both print and digital formats.
But is that for everyone? Will all authors want to take on that massive workload that they had previously passed of to their publishers? Many will, the money is simply that much better. How much better? Imagine your cut of a book sale going from 15% to 70%. It?s a revolutionary change. But not all authors are going to want to take time that they had previously spent writing and run their own personal publishing outfit. After all, every moment spent haggling with an artist over cover art is a moment spent not writing.
Then again, no savvy author wants to simply continue giving nearly all the revenue from their work to a company who they could likely replace, at least in most respects. Want proof? J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, is setting out on her own.
So for the author who doesn?t want to lose the support of a publisher, but wants a bigger cut, something that traditional publishing houses can?t afford, is there a middle-of-the-road option for them? As it turns out, not currently, but that seems to be about to change.
Enter the concept of estributors, the brainchild of J.A. Konrath, ironically one of the largest and most famous proponents of author?s striking out from their publishers and going it alone.
What is an estributor? We?ll start with Konrath?s explanation of the idea:
A facilitator who could be a buffer between the author and the business end of self-publishing. I called this position an estributor.The more I began to self-publish, the more I realized what a time suck it was to take care of all the non-writing parts of the job. When you go indie, you essentially become a small business, and take on all the responsibilities for running that business. That cuts into writing time. Doing quick and dirty assessment of my time management and my productivity, I concluded that I could make more money if I gave an estributor 15% to take care of the business side for me, because my increased writing output would more than make up for that cost. Plus, I?d be happier, because I?d much rather write for a living than run a business.
There is movement towards this becoming a reality. Agency Dystel & Goderich is now offering services to its authors that are shocking similar to what an estributor would. But they are toeing the line, as their bread and butter is still representing authors and landing big-dollar legacy contracts. Still, the move is crucial as it shows that diverse players in the marketplace are sitting up and wondering how they can jump on the ebook train, and not miss out on new opportunities that crop up as the traditional world of publishing crumbles around them.
If Konrath?s numbers are correct, meaning that they represent a functional business plan, the idea could represent a sweet spot: Authors can write a book, sign on to a top notch estributor, and have all the details managed, for a livable cut. They still make far more money per sale than they would have with any traditional publisher, but avoid the headache of being completely independent.
Now, for the estributor, they are in effect investing a certain amount of capital into each book that they publish, putting together its editing, cover art, formatting, and promotion. And they are wagering that whatever cut they negotiate for a set period (Konrath says 15%, but might be a bit low), will more than cover those costs, thus earning them a profit.
I would bet that for an established author, the 15% rate is a working number for both the writer and the estributor. As the established author already has some form of brand recognition and fan base, his next book is much more likely to sell well than the first tome of a new author. Therefore, for a newer, unproven author, I suspect that a higher rate for their estributor will have to be negotiated. This will help reduce risk for the estributor. But still, at a cut of 30%, or so, the author is still flipping the old ratios in their favor. And, as an author and the estributor that they work with grow their relationship over the course of multiple books, rates could be re-negotiated simply on a title by title basis.
But what about Amazon: How do they fit into this picture? The company takes 30% of the sales price of a digital book at or over the price of 2.99, a fat margin. This is pure conjecture, but I would guess that in the future, for volume accounts, i.e. big name individual authors and publishers, Amazon will offer a slightly better rate, perhaps reducing their cut by 5 to 10%. That may not sound like much, but over tens of thousands of sales, it adds up.
Why would Amazon do so? Because it wants to keep its crown as the place to sell independent books. Nook is a viable threat to the Kindle crown. And if Amazon does make that sort of rate cut, it would in fact become more economical to run books through an estributor than to go it alone, as they have, literally, the price economies of scale.
Leaving that line of thought, let?s take another look at publishing from the perspective of a young author looking to break into the ?big time? with their first book. For that person, would it not be better for them to attempt to land a big publisher, in hopes that the company would drop ad dollars into their work, giving it a much larger sales potential? The answer is a firm probably not. Over the course of talking to several authors during the last year, the tales that have reached my ears have always been the same: Major publishers are putting nearly no promotional money into first books by new authors, as they feel that there is a better return to be earned by investing that money into sure-fire hits (big name authors, books that are tied to movies and brands, etc). One author said that she was assigned to a publicity ?expert? who advised her to ?get on Facebook? and attempt to push her book there. Then the expert disappeared.
What I mean by noting that example is that only the biggest titles are given any serious marketing support by legacy publishers, leaving estributors and their low-cost, low-cut model financially viable as they would not have to invest much in per-title advertising to be competitive. Of course, every author always wants the most publicity cash that they can get their hands on, but at least estributors won?t have to treble their per-book investment to compete.
This entire post has been a mental exercise, but one that I hope you found to be illuminating. Remember: Every industry that dealt with the physical distribution of data is ripe for revolution, and you would be hard pressed to find a more hidebound example of this than the book industry.
And finally, Amazon is the market leader in ebooks right now, but that does not mean that other players won?t rise and match it. We are currently living in the infancy of the ebook market, and that is good for authors, readers, and perhaps even the estributors that have yet to be established.
Source: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/07/03/are-estributors-the-future-of-publishing/
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Posted on 21st Jun 2011 at 12:00 by Podcast with 19 comments
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/vhMM5ybvrjg/
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IBM DEY RECORDER (1880)
This device, resembling an antique clock, is an early Dey dial recorder, which was used to track the hours worked by employees. The dial recorder was developed in 1880 by Alexander Dey. In 1907 his business was acquired by the International Time Recording Company, one of the companies that would later form IBM.
Credit: IBM
Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=efd11283ef7f17321b632a9d2ea51027
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Samsung has announced that it has sold 3 million units of its Galaxy S II smartphone in just 55 days. The device is expected to launch in 120 countries on over 140 mobile operators, so this number is expected to keep growing, and quickly.
Last month, we reported that the Samsung Galaxy S II saw 3 million preorders, 200,000 of which were in the company's home country of South Korea. The Galaxy S II is already on sale in South Korea and the UK, and is expected to come to North America later this month.
Samsung's long-term, worldwide ambitions for the Galaxy S II are relatively modest: 10 million units in all of 2011, which is the number it sold of the original Galaxy S in 2010. At this rate though, the company will break that number very quickly.

The Galaxy S II runs Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) and features a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. It is the first handset to offer Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus screen technology (4.27-inch display, 800x480 resolution), and is the company's thinnest phone at 8.49mm, with a weight of just 116g. The device also features an 8MP primary camera with 1080p video capture, and a 2MP camera in the front, as well as integrated NFC support on some versions. It also has BlueTooth 3.0+HS and HSPA+ connectivity.
The device's new Live Panel allows you to aggregate web, social networking, and app content to a single customizable home screen. You'll be able to switch between three adjacent home screens by simply pressing and holding on the screen. The phone will come with four new content and entertainment hubs: music, games, e-reading, and social networking.
"Announced at Mobile World Congress 2011, the Galaxy S II represents our most advanced smartphone to date and demonstrates Samsung's commitment to deliver premium, market-defining devices," JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business , said in a statement. "This milestone reflects the continued strong support from our carrier partners around the world who have chosen the Galaxy S II as their flagship Android device."
Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44523-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-sells-over-3-million-units-in-55-days.html
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A new kind of botnet?a network of malware-infected PCs?behaves less like an army and more like a decentralized terrorist network, experts say. It can survive decapitation strikes, evade conventional defenses, and even wipe out competing criminal networks.
The botnet's resilience is due to a super-sophisticated piece of malicious software known as TDL-4, which in the first three months of 2011 infected more than 4.5 million computers around the world, about a third of them in the United States.
The emergence of TDL-4 shows that the business of installing malicious code on PCs is thriving. Such code is used to conduct spam campaigns and various forms of theft and fraud, such as siphoning off passwords and other sensitive data. It's also been used in the billion-dollar epidemic of fake anti-virus scams.
"Ultimately TDL-4 is simply a tool for maintaining and protecting a compromised platform for fraud," says Eric Howes, malware analyst for GFI Software, a security company. "It's part of the black service economy for malware, which has matured considerably over the past five years and which really needs a lot more light shed on it."
Unlike other botnets, the TDL-4 network doesn't rely on a few central "command-and-control" servers to pass along instructions and updates to all the infected computers. Instead, computers infected with TDL-4 pass along instructions to one another using public peer-to-peer networks. This makes it a "decentralized, server-less botnet," wrote Sergey Golovanov, a malware researcher at the Moscow-based security company Kaspersky Lab, on this blog describing the new threat.
"The owners of TDL are essentially trying to create an 'indestructible' botnet that is protected against attacks, competitors, and antivirus companies," Golovanov wrote. He added that it "is one of the most technologically sophisticated, and most complex-to-analyze malware."
The TDL-4 botnet also breaks new ground by using an encryption algorithm that hides its communications from traffic-analysis tools. This is an apparent response to efforts by researchers to discover infected machines and disable botnets by monitoring their communication patterns, rather than simply identifying the presence of the malicious code.
Demonstrating that there is no honor among malicious software writers, TDL-4 scans for and deletes 20 of the most common forms of competing malware, so it can keep infected machines all to itself. "It's interesting to mention that the features are generally oriented toward achieving perfect stealth, resilience, and getting rid of 'competitor' malware," says Costin Raiu, another malware researcher at Kaspersky.
Distributed by criminal freelancers called affiliates, who get paid between $20 and $200 for every 1,000 infected machines, TDL-4 lurks on porn sites and some video and file-storage services, among other places, where it can be automatically installed using vulnerabilities in a victim's browser or operating system.
Once TDL-4 infects a computer, it downloads and installs as many as 30 pieces of other malicious software?including spam-sending bots and password-stealing programs. "There are other malware-writing groups out there, but the gang behind [this one] is specifically targeted on delivering high-tech malware for profit," says Raiu.
Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=8b72d53808ac5ac08785c846dd3c826d
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Less than 24 hours after the New York Senate?s vote, made possible by four Republican defections, a leading anti-gay-marriage group started sending out defiant pleas for money.
?This fight is far from over,? the group, the National Organization for Marriage, told supporters as it pledged to spend $2 million in 2012 to defeat New York?s four ?turncoat senators? who ?betrayed marriage.?
The organization, which says it expects to raise $20 million this year from Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian groups as well as individual donors, is gearing up for intense battles over same-sex marriage in several other states; so far, voters in 29 states have adopted constitutional amendments banning it.
Since the vote, the Family Research Council, one of the largest conservative Christian advocacy groups, started hearing from more followers who wanted to defend traditional marriage, and officials said they expected a jump in donations.
?More than ever before, people are seeing this as a national issue,? said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the council.
National and state organizations fighting same-sex marriage have raised millions of dollars on the issue in recent years and won some major victories, including the unseating last fall of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who had ruled against marriage restrictions. But some say their fund-raising has sometimes been impeded by the harassment of donors, an accusation that gay rights groups call exaggerated.
In Minnesota, where both sides are preparing for a vote next year on a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, conservatives are fighting financial disclosure requirements that they say would expose donors to intimidation.
Several local and national groups are starting to coalesce into a campaign in support of the amendment, said Jason Adkins, the executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. But he said that fund-raising would not go into full swing until the disclosure issues were settled.
Gay rights groups like the Human Rights Campaign say their victory in New York, which became the sixth and by far the largest state to adopt same-sex marriage, gives them momentum. They say that time is on their side and that a reversal in New York is improbable because as same-sex marriages become more common, people will see that they are no threat.
But opponents say the New York vote has not shaken their resolve.
?If gay marriage supporters think that New York is an indication of a national trend, they are mistaken,? said Brian S. Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which has received large donations from the Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic fraternal organization.
A battle is expected soon in Maine, where gay rights proponents, inspired by the outcome in New York, announced last week that they would start gathering signatures to put same-sex marriage on the ballot next year. The governor in 2009 signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, but opponents pushed it to a referendum, and voters defeated it a few months later.
North Carolina will be another early battleground, with its legislature, now controlled by Republicans, expected to consider this fall whether to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage before voters in November 2012. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that has not already adopted such an amendment.
?There is a greater resolve in our state to stand up and get a marriage amendment into our State Constitution,? Ron Baity, the president of Return America, a conservative religious group in Wallburg, N.C., said after seeing the results in New York.
Another battle is expected in New Hampshire, one of the states that has adopted same-sex marriage. Pressure is mounting for the Legislature to take another historic step by reversing course.
In a fight expected to begin in January, conservatives think they have a good chance of victory in the Legislature, but they are not sure if they can muster enough votes to override an expected veto by the Democratic governor, John Lynch.
?The votes will be very close,? said Kevin H. Smith, the executive director of Cornerstone Action, a conservative group there.
The legislative fight in New Hampshire may take on national significance because a vote is expected in early February, around the same time as the state?s important presidential primary. Republican candidates ?will have to be vocal? on same-sex marriage, Mr. Smith said. ?The spotlight will be on it.?
In Maryland, a last-minute push by opponents this spring derailed a same-sex marriage law that had been widely expected to pass. Buoyed by New York, gay rights advocates plan to press for a vote to reverse that outcome next year.
But opponents say that even if the measure passes the legislature, they will gather signatures to force a ?people?s referendum.?
Whether the vote in New York matters elsewhere may be tested this year. James S. Alesi, one of the four New York Republican senators to support same-sex marriage, said he expected to travel to other states to help defeat proposed constitutional amendments against it.
?It?s important for a Republican,? he said, ?to go to other Republicans and say, ?Remember who we are ? we?re the party of Lincoln, we call ourselves the big tent, and I?m here to help you pitch the tent.? ?
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4f9ac78fd0454c2d6b04e21b4819ef5f
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Following up on a "very positive reception" to its initial Series 9 notebooks, Samsung has expanded the ultraportable line with five more models. Unveiled ahead of the back-to-school season, the new additions include three 13.3-inch and two 11-inch models spanning in price from $1,049 to $2,049. Like the original Series 9 systems, the latest iterations emphasize extreme mobility while remaining quick enough for heavy work sessions. We've slapped the core specs of each system in a table below:
All five models sport an LED-backlit 1366x768 "SuperBright" display, a spiffy duralumin chassis, Windows 7 Home Premium and get seven hours of battery life. Samsung didn't offer a full rundown on connectivity, but the systems have at least one USB 3.0 port that can charge devices while the laptop is off. Samsung also ships the Series 9 with its FastStart technology, which allows the notebooks to wake from sleep in three seconds flat. The 13.3-inchers measure 0.62 inches thick and weigh 2.89lbs.

The new Series 9 models are expected to reach electronics retailers over the next month. During that same timeframe, Apple is expected to refresh is popular MacBook Air. According to scattered reports, the revamped ultraportable will emerge sometime in the middle of July and will finally shed Intel's dated Core 2 Duo processors in favor of the second-generation Core i3, i5 and i7 chips (aka Sandy Bridge). Most folks are also convinced that the new Macbook Air will have Thunderbolt connectivity.
Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44518-samsung-intros-five-more-series-9-ultraportable-laptops-.html
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Fresh out of Brazil is a new Facebook App that turns your relationship status into a game. The app has been developed by the toothpaste brand ?Close Up Toothpaste? and is part of a series of campaigns to encourage people to get up close in new ways. To celebrate people getting up close and personal on Facebook, the company developed the ?Get Closer? app, which reveals surprise badges to people that take part and are in relationships. Badges are rewarded based on tasks such as tagging each other in photos, or different badges being awarded based on how long you?ve been in a relationship for. The app can be accessed via the Get Closer app link, or through the Close Up fanpage.
What this app shows us is perhaps the next step in gamification ? combining your real life with social rewards. It?s an interesting concept by Close Up, as it suggests that your real life actions will be influenced in a way that they wouldn?t before. The rewards in the Get Closer app are surprises, so in this instance you?re not incentivised to do things differently, as the rewards are unlocked through actions you naturally take. i.e. the app doesn?t say ?tag both of you in 10 photos for your chance to get x?.

We have seen gamification slowly moving into this real life concept and away from actions you take purely online. But the real life gamification concept is starting to emerge more, with specialist apps such as SCVNGR, rewarding people in shops, restaurants and local businesses, based on challenges set by the owner. Their tagline says, it is ?a game about doing challenges at places?.
Coca-Cola has recently partnered with SCVNGR to offer its fans branded gifts and goodies based on certain tasks they complete. The campaign is primarily targeted at teens, which up until now has been a small market for location services. The launch of Facebook Places helped to change that of course, but this campaign will be a test of just how far people are willing to go in order to get something free. The ?happiness in numbers? campaign helps to socialise gamification, as the challenges are based around getting groups of friends together and posting pictures. An example challenge is shown below
This is an area that?s really likely to explode for brands, as they look to get in on the gamification concept. Real-life challenges such as Coca Cola?s actually provide something extra for you and your friends to do ? it socialises the experience and the benefit for the brand is huge, as you have people engaged on a completely new level. The question is of course, how happy are we for our lives to be ?gamed? ? Though it?s something we have control over, this concept can likely only be taken so far, unless there is a significant reward in place, or the challenges actually relate in some way to the brand or product in question.
Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/07/03/the-next-trend-in-social-media-real-life-gamification/
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