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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.

Cartoon: Command, Control and Cake

May 29th, 2011

Herein, a brief rant. It may be bubbling up from the fact that I’m turning 48 tomorrow, and therefore approaching curmudgeon status. It may be from the past week’s news: an eG8 summit that looked more like a circling of wagons against the open Web ; an attempt in Washington to conscript DNS into the intellectual property wars . Whatever the cause, I’m entering my 49th year with a deep, burning anger over the forces arrayed against the open Web.

Five Best Set-Top Boxes for On-Demand Video [Hive Five]

May 29th, 2011

There are more ways than ever to watch television on your own terms. With the set-top boxes available today, you can save your favorite shows to watch later, stream them from the Internet, and even download video anytime.

Make Your Own Ice Cream Bars for Tasty Summertime Treats [Food]

May 29th, 2011

Everyone loves a good ice cream bar in the summer heat, but the ones you get from the grocery store can leave something to be desired. If you make your own, you can add anything you like to the ice cream, and you have control over how much chocolate the ice cream is dipped.

Create Ebooks In EPub Format With GrabMyBooks For Firefox

May 29th, 2011

Grab my Books is a handy Firefox add-on for users who want to convert multiple web pages into the EPub ebook format. The add-on offers functionality to add the active page, a linked page or a selection on a page to the ebook. Everything else is handled more or less automatically, even though there are options to edit added pages and selections before the ebook is created. The biggest advantage over saving websites as HTML or PDF documents is that it is possible to add multiple pages to the ebook

How To Open Links In Firefox In New Tabs, Windows

May 29th, 2011

I recently stumbled upon the Firefox add-on InstaClick which maps the middle-click on links functionality of the browser to the right-click button instead. That way it is possible to open links in new tabs with a right-click, which is handy for users who work with laptop touchpads for instance or two button mice. Mapping that functionality to the right-click button comes at the expense of the context menu which can then only be opened by holding down Shift, Ctrl or Command. The add-on speeds up the opening of links in new tabs by eliminating the need to hold down the Ctrl key to do so if no middle mouse button is available.

Infinity Ventures Summit In Sapporo: Demos From 14 Japanese Startups

May 29th, 2011

Earlier this week, I took part in Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS) Spring 2011 in Sapporo [this and many of the following links are in Japanese], a two-day, invitation-only event that takes place twice a year in Japan. IVS attracted over 400 people from the domestic and international web industry this time and is organized by VC firm Infinity Venture Partners (which just raised US$41 million for their IVP Fund II). Apart from panel discussions and presentations, some hours of the program gave a total of 14 Japanese start-ups the chance to present their services onstage. Here’s a rundown of all companies that participated at the IVS launchpad this time

Unbound Launches Its Kickstarter-Byliner Hybrid For Celebrity Authors

May 29th, 2011

Thanks to Kickstarter , the idea of crowd-funding a creative project is nothing new. Post- Cory Doctorow , the notion that an established author might convince his fans to pay upfront for a special edition of an as-yet unpublished book is hardly earth-shattering. And, following the launch of Byliner , even the launch of a digital-only publishing house isn’t really news.