Smalltalk with James Robertson

Looks like we'll need some 'splosions' in 2012:

Astronomers are predicting that a massive solar storm, much bigger in potential than the one that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month, is to strike our planet in 2012 with a force of 100 million hydrogen bombs

Now all we need is a few people with "The End is Nigh" signs :)

There's been (or still is) a bubble in everything else - housing, education, US treasuries - why not game development costs? Over the last few years, there's been something akin to an arms race between vendors in order to create the most impressive graphics for games. Now EA thinks things are cooling off:

"I think budgets for games have actually peaked and are starting to move in the reverse direction again," said David DeMartini in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz [registration required]. He's VP and group general manager of EA Partners, the publisher's third-party distribution arm.

Personally, I'm not so sure. Movie costs have never really dropped, and the closest parallel in entertainment I can think of to games is movies. I guess we'll see over the next year or two.

Technorati Tags: games

I've been in nasty traffic jams, but nothing like one near Beijing:

As the jam on the highway, also known as National Highway 110, passed the 10-day mark Tuesday, local authorities dispatched hundreds of police to keep order and to reroute cars and trucks carrying essential supplies, such as food or flammables, around the main bottleneck. There, vehicles were inching along little more than a third of a mile a day. Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office, said in a telephone interview he didn't expect the situation to return to normal until around Sept. 17 when road construction is scheduled to be finished and traffic lanes will open up.

I guess China doesn't do anything small...

This is pretty ridiculous, although with the budget issues that so many cities and counties are facing, I guess it's the sort of desperation play one should expect:

She’s not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.

So, what the heck is a "privilege license", and why the heck would a blogger making pennies from AdSense need one?

I found myself nodding my head through this PC World article - StarBucks is going to sweep the floor clean of most small coffee shops. How? They can make free wifi work for them, while WiFi - free or otherwise - is problematic for most small to mid size shops. StarBucks has the scale to set up the IT infrastructure and manage the network setup, and - they are big enough to offer partnerships with outfits like the WSJ (you can get free access to the WSJ at StarBucks, and they get a cut if you use that free access to subscribe).

Meanwhile, the smaller shops are having trouble with digital campers hogging tables, and they don't have the scale to even attempt an upsell. Maybe ubiquitous (and not ridiculously expensive) 3G will arrive to save the day for them, but even there, they suffer from the digital camper issue. I have to agree with Elgan - these smaller shops are going to get creamed like BlockBuster did.

Technorati Tags: coffee shop, wifi

I'd say that the authorities in this Austrian town have way, way too much free time on their hands:

the Austrian town of Frauenkirchen has apparently tried to patent the fact that it represents the geographical midpoint of Europe.

But was the gorilla playing Donkey Kong?

Spotted in Engadget:

On Friday, during a visit from President Obama to its Detroit-Hamtramck plant, GM announced some good news for all the Volt fans out there. Production from 2011 to 2012 for the electric vehicle -- originally slated at around 30,000 units -- has been boosted to a projected 45,000 units, a 50 percent increase.

This is insane. The Volt seats four people (the back seat isn't a bucket, as the battery takes up too much space). The cost for one of these is going to be around $41k. So - who in their right mind would buy a car for that kind of money, when a comparable gas powered vehicle runs $15k or less?

I say this as someone who drives so little (under 5000 miles per year) that - in theory - a limited range vehicle might make some sense. However, I don't have an extra $30k to throw at a car for self esteem purposes, and I really doubt that there's a huge number of people who do...

Technorati Tags: car, electric car

Say what you will about George Steinbrenner, he took a fallen Yankees organization and built it back into a powerhouse:

The Yankees won 11 pennants and seven World Series titles during his tenure.

Rest in Peace, George - you did good work.

Technorati Tags: sports, yankees

I've written before on my skepticism towards electric cars; here's another reason to have second thoughts:

According to a report from the UK's Glass Guide, unless manufacturers properly address customer concerns regarding battery life and performance, the new breed of electric vehicles (EV) soon to be launched will have residual values well below those of rival gasoline and diesel models, with a typical electric vehicle retaining only 10% of its value after five years of ownership, compared to gas and diesel-fueled counterparts retaining 25% of their value in that time period

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. Consider your laptop - my Macbook Pro is now 3 years old. It doesn't hold battery power anything like it did when it first arrived; likewise, my new iPhone retains a charge much better than the 2008 era one it replaced. With small electronic devices, that's an annoyance - power is not typically far away.

For a car though? Recharging takes a lot of time, and if your range drops significantly over the course of 3 years, that's going to be a problem. Even for someone like me, who typically fills the tank once a month, that's an issue.

Technorati Tags: ev, electric car