Month: December 2004

Harry Potter Fans, Rejoice. CNN is reporting that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will go on sale in Britain and the United States on July 16, 2005. Sweet, we get book 6 and movie 4 the same year! [Ben Forta's Blog]

Party hacks block path of talented mavericks. THE dearth of talent among Scotland's elected politicians became the subject of a nationwide debate yesterday after Lord Sewel, one of the architects of devolution, called for radical changes to the system to encourage more able people to get involved… [The Scotsman]

Christmas with Amazon and FedEx. One of the wonders of the web is last-minute Christmas shopping, but the ability to reel in gifts at the last minute can introduce new stresses that were unknown by our forebears browsing their Sears catalogs (actually, that's how I picked out Christmas gifts as a kid). This year, I… Continue reading Christmas with Amazon and FedEx

Wal-Mart breaks price barrier with Linspire Linux laptop. Wal-Mart is offering a laptop that dives below the $500 pricepoint, and it's no accident the machine, from Linspire, runs a Linux-based operating system. The Balance laptop, at $498, enters a mass market at a price that will undoubtedly accelerate Linux adoption. The laptop comes with the… Continue reading Wal-Mart breaks price barrier with Linspire Linux laptop

Electronic Voting in Ireland. The Irish Commission on Electronic Voting has released a 433-page report. It's an excellent and detailed analysis of the e-voting system purchased by the Irish government.  [Schneier on Security]

The Savvy Blawgger Panel, Version 1.0. Bruce “Adam Smith, Esq.” MacEwen has launched the first iteration of his Savvy Blawger Panel, a feature in which he poses important questions to a panel of, well, savvy blawgers. This edition looks into the future and the question was: “Looking out five to ten years, what will the… Continue reading The Savvy Blawgger Panel, Version 1.0

Project Page. Jill Walker has opened a project page onto her new research project on distributed narrative. It's a Tinderbox-driven portal onto her blog posts, papers, lectures, and teaching on the subject. This interesting Tinderbox application will, I expect, be an influential genre-shaper. Researchers often have diverse interests; the project page is an interesting application… Continue reading Project Page

The Care and Feeding of the Creative Class. Secrets for fielding teams that are passionate, playful, and high performance. [Fast Company]