Friday, April 16, 2004
Holy crap!
The Gold Farm
Its a bigger deal than I thought. Bear in mind that these things sell in the real world. There is real money to be made.
Real profits from play money
The sale of imaginary goods
Basically, if you take part in some online games you can earn certain online things, money, weapons, castles etc. You can then sell these imaginary items for real money in the real world. There are people who do this for a living. One guy has figured out he can make around $50,000 a year doing it. There is also an economic model behind most of these games, supply vs demand etc, but this is the strangest fact I've seen yet:
"Castronova runs a weekly analysis of virtual world markets where he calculates hourly wages, totals spent and US dollar values of in-game currencies. This week's priciest item was a rare Jedi character account sold for $2,025. Castronova's 2002 examination of genre leader EverQuest's virtual economy placed the fictional setting of Norrath as the 77th richest nation in the (real) world. By investigating the flow of currency and the cost of key items, he was able to determine that it had a higher GDP than Bulgaria. "
Now tell me that isn't fucked up ;-)
Basically, if you take part in some online games you can earn certain online things, money, weapons, castles etc. You can then sell these imaginary items for real money in the real world. There are people who do this for a living. One guy has figured out he can make around $50,000 a year doing it. There is also an economic model behind most of these games, supply vs demand etc, but this is the strangest fact I've seen yet:
"Castronova runs a weekly analysis of virtual world markets where he calculates hourly wages, totals spent and US dollar values of in-game currencies. This week's priciest item was a rare Jedi character account sold for $2,025. Castronova's 2002 examination of genre leader EverQuest's virtual economy placed the fictional setting of Norrath as the 77th richest nation in the (real) world. By investigating the flow of currency and the cost of key items, he was able to determine that it had a higher GDP than Bulgaria. "
Now tell me that isn't fucked up ;-)
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Terry Jones: Tony really must try harder
Terry Jones marks Tony's essay.:
"Dear Mr and Mrs Blair,
I have just had to mark Tony's essay, Why We Must Never Abandon This Historic Struggle in Iraq, and I am extremely worried. "
Clearly, More Than Meets The Eye
Clearly, More Than Meets The Eye
We should do this to all those telephone switchboxes and transformers. Except of course they'd be vandalised in about 12 seconds.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
As promised...
Some wedding photos:
All these are after the actual service. Firstly catching Paul with his hand in the cookie jar, Hey! look what I've pulled!.
"And now the bad news, for the reception meal we're having Chinese".
Me with 2 very tall people (I'm not *that* short, i am about 5'10"), the 2 others are the gorgeous Kirsty and the bloody tall Graham.
Finally, a picture of 'the boys'.
I was going to upload them all but i only get 30 meg and the photos come to over 29! So these are just edited highlights.
Blunkett orders cell death review
Typical reaction:
"The Home Secretary David Blunkett is to call for a review into the case of a former paratrooper who choked to death in police custody. "
And I wonder why? If you aren't aware a documentary is going to screen his death tonight on BBC1. So he announces an enquiry 5 hours before it is screened but 6 years after the event? Can anyone spell knee-jerk? Anyone? Anyone?
So to get an enquiry launched you have to show your loved one being killed (the judge's words, not mine) on national television and it works despite the fact you have been asking for one for 4 years.
Government by media.
Blue Peter's Caron Keating dies
The 42-year-old former Blue Peter presenter died on Tuesday night, according to a family friend.
That's upset me more than I thought it would. Bizarre that in the 21st century when we are talking about going to Mars and gene thereapy that people can still die of breast cancer at the age of 42.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
GHOST TOWN
10 years on:
"GHOST TOWN" is the weirdest site I've seen today. Basically its the diary of a young lady who lives in Kiev who travels to Chernobyl to see what it is like. You are allowed into the area, as long as you know what you're doing.
Important bits: She has a fast motorbike. There are no police and the army don't care about speeding. The sarcophogous they poured over the cracked reactor is falling to bits and the Russian Gov jailed everyone who was working on the shift when it happened. Not that it matters really as they are all dead know. It just portrays 80's Russia so well, that's all ;-)
The Museum of Unworkable Devices
Perpetual motion and other animals:
Lovely site if you like that sort of thing. I still think about 3 of them would work and am now off to TAKE OVER THE WORLD MUWHAHAHAHA.
Ahem, sorry.
A collection of Articles & Reports by Mr. Robert Fisk + Audio & Video
A collection of Articles & Reports by Mr. Robert Fisk + Audio & Video
Robert Fisk is a journalist who writes for the Independent and seems to know what he's on about. His articles are insightful without being preachy.
Dave gets more surreal...
Party's over for all those poor pinatas:
"It was awful. Even now, weeks later, I feel guilty for having watched it happen, and doing nothing. I have promised myself that, next time, I will not stand idly by.
Next time, I will videotape it."
Before you follow the link, it might help to read this.
Monday, April 12, 2004
What's it all about?
I'm re-reading Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There", a book about his travels around Europe. As well as being immensly funny and informative it also reveals the secret on the universe, on the frontispiece no less:
There is a story of a man who got the experience from laughing gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was "A smell of petroleum prevails throughout."
- Bertrand Russell, A History of
Western Philosophy
Well, its as good as any of the others I've ever heard ;-)
The wedding was awesome. I think we all had a fabulous time, non more so than the bride and groom. I *will* upload some photos soon.
