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The Phone Stacking Game: Let’s Make This A Thing

So it’s Saturday night and you’re out with friend. Are they the inconsiderate jerk who can’t stop checking their smartphone? Or is that you

Investors Drive $ZNGA Up 26% In Two Days Following Facebook IPO Filing

Those of us who have been following the social gaming industry already know that Zynga makes up a big portion of Facebook’s revenues. But lots of public investors only seem to have gotten the memo on Wednesday evening, when Facebook’s S-1 filing revealed that the developer accounts for 12% of its total revenues , or $445 million. In the two days since, Zynga’s stock has gone up more than 26%, to close at $13.39 this evening.

I Use Wikipedia More Than Makeup

I just donated $40 to Wikipedia, because I promised myself I would every time I poked fun at its holiday donation drive and then just never got around to it. Did you know that you could actually donate during the off-season (Via the covert “Donate to Wikipedia” link at the far left of each individual entry page)? I didn’t, before I asked Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales whether it was possible to donate in the off-season.

Google Adjusts Political Posture With Sponsorship Of Conservative Conference

In interesting but ultimately not very shocking news, Google has signed on as a major sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference , which is more or less what it sounds like. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Kelihos botnet remains very much dead after all

A spam botnet brought down four months ago, which was once capable of pumping out almost four billion spam messages a day,?remains very much dead, two of the companies behind the takedown said. That determination, announced late Friday by Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab representatives, contradicted published reports, including one from Ars , that claimed the network of infected computers had been resurrected. There’s no evidence that control of Kelihos, which also went by the name Hlux, has returned to the control of its creators, the companies said. Read the comments on this post

Upgrade and Speed Up Your Computer This Weekend [Weekendhacker]

It’s a sad fact of life that over time, all of our computers get a little bit slower. Before you start shelling out for a new machine, take some time this weekend to perform some maintenance tasks, upgrade a single piece of hardware, or even overclock your machine for a little speed boost.

Use "The Third Word Rule" to Skim Text at Warp Speed [Productivity]

Jul 30th, 2011

“The Third Word Rule” allows you to skim text faster by skipping the first and last two words in every line, while still absorbing all the information you need. More??

ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, July 30, 2011

Jul 30th, 2011

We’re always on the lookout for upcoming Web tech events from around world. Know of something taking place that should appear here? Want to get your event included in the calendar

Gillmor Gang 7.30.11 (TCTV)

Jul 30th, 2011

The Gillmor Gang — Danny Sullivan, Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — covered the gamut between Google+ and well, Google+. The new social platform continues to delight and confound the early adopters in record numbers. @scobleizer remains optimistic that the search giant will roll out filtering features to cut down on the noise of squids, kittens, and well, Scoble comment farms. @dannysullivan would prefer Google unleash the hounds of celebrity and brands, surprised as he and we are that the Plus team was caught flatfooted by the viral adoption of the field trial, or whatever Danny calls it

Week in gaming: indie RPGs, laser tag, and a Masterpiece

Jul 30th, 2011

7 fantastical indie RPGs worth playing : These seven independently produced RPGs star a wide range of protagonists, from washed up basketball players to peppy shopkeepers, and should go a long way towards satiating your RPG fix. Lawn warfare: Light Strike brings laser tag back home : The new Light Strike series of guns offers a modern take on laser tag, which can mean only one thing: our own Ben Kuchera must engage in some all-out backyard warfare to review them properly. His verdict: while the guns are decent, the peripherals are eminently skippable.