Games
Virtual spam
I’ve received one piece of blog comment spam, and as a matter of policy I deleted it. However, I have removed the links and I have felt compelled to keep it for posterity: “Welcome to our website for you World Read more…
Feeling silly
Conservapedia
So, you are a member of the religious right in the United States. You go online to find information to defeat those heathen atheists and their plot to subvert the youth by teaching the evils of Evolutionary theory. But what Read more…
New technologies
The Joyce Hatto scandal: iTunes and plagiarism
The world of classical music has been shaken by the Joyce Hatto scandal. For those unaware of the affair, Joyce Hatto was a pianist whose career was cut short in the 1970’s due to cancer. However, in 1989 she started Read more…
Software patents
Number 10 answers software patent petition
(via Laurence Diver and other sources) The Prime Minister’s office has been accepting online petitions, which has prompted all sorts of people making specialist requests. One such petition has been posted against software patents, which reads “We the undersigned petition Read more…
Blogging
Resuming normal service
Those few regular readers who care about these sort of things may have noticed that I have not been posting that often in the last few days. I have been moving flats, which has of course affected my online connection Read more…
Games
eBay bans in-game goods
(Valuable item from Ultima Online) (via Colin Miller) This is an old item, but I’ve just read it. According to Slashdot, eBay has caved-in to increasing pressure from the games industry and has de-listed all in-game items from its database. Read more…
Creative Commons
Creative Commons version 3.0 launched
The version 3.0 f the generic (or unported) Creative Commons licences have now been released. There are many important improvements in the new licences. The biggest change has been to distinguish between the generic licence and the American one. The Read more…
Feeling silly
Internet addict sues IBM
You could not make up stories like these even if you tried. James Pacenza used to work for IBM until he got fired for participating in adult chat rooms. He now has sued IBM because he claims to be a Read more…
P2P
Music downloads do not affect sales
(Via Howard Knopf) Those involved in the P2P debate might remember the 2004 Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf paper on the effect of music downloads on sales. The paper has now been published in the Journal of Political Economy with updates. The Read more…
New technologies
UK Law Database
Finally! Looking for UK legislation? The Department of Constitutional Affairs has released its Statute Law Database. No longer will you have to guess the legislation’s name to find it in Google, everything is now available in one place. I’ve been Read more…