These are some useful articles regarding startup businesses.

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/20/the-10-ways-startup-advice-is-flawed/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-paul-buchheit-on-why-he-sold-to-facebook/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/11/finding-your-co-founders/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/08/startups-101-the-complete-mint-presentation/

These are some useful articles regarding creating social games.

Market Research
http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/the-scorecard-who-wins-loses-with-ea%E2%80%99s-400m-playfish-buy/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/05/scamville-new-offerpal-ceo-admits-mistakes-makes-bold-promises/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/05/facebook-to-increase-enforcement-of-anti-scam-rules/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/tragedy-of-the-social-gaming-commons-a-blueprint-for-change/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/myspace-says-zero-tolerance-for-app-scams-changes-terms-of-use/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/rockyou-joins-the-no-scams-parade-but-whats-facebook-up-to/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/zynga-takes-steps-to-remove-scams-from-games/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/01/how-to-spam-facebook-like-a-pro-an-insiders-confession/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/02/scamville-zynga-says-13-of-revenue-comes-from-lead-gen-and-other-offers/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/01/scamville-hotornot-plentyoffish-facebook-myspace/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/29/how-to-measure-the-true-stickiness-and-success-of-a-facebook-app/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/d-day-for-facebook-app-developers/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/playspan-study-shows-growth-in-virtual-goods-marketplace/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/20/mark-pincus-web-3-is-the-app-economy/
http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_44/b4153044881892.htm
http://cdixon.org/?p=1220
http://appdata.com/
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/why-you-can-t-stop-playing-bejeweled/1366266

Irrelevant Doom And Gloom Predictions
http://homethinking.com/brontemedia/2009/03/25/the-impending-doom-of-facebook-apps/

Game Concepts
http://mathsisfun.com/games/tanks.html
http://appdata.com/

Internet marketing is fascinating, especially when you've got a campaign with enough volume so that its performance reflects trends. My campaign wasn't doing too well today, but then I realized, everybody's partying it up since it's Halloween. But there are other trends, weekly, hourly, and it's fascinating because i's like looking into the minds of others. Surfing the net is a private activity for the most part. Nobody know how you behave online. But when you are advertising, you get the chance to collect information about people through your advertising campaigns. Its performance is a result of the behavior of others, and with volume it gives insight into behavior. Marketing psychology I suppose. Facebook makes this especially cool because once a campaign has sufficient clicks, it shows the common characteristics of those who have clicked based on the content they have listed under "interests".

Psychology is fascinating as well. With a good grasp of psychology, you can better understand yourself and others. By understanding yourself, I assume it must improve self control because it explains your own behavior. Better planning and other good stuff must come as a result of this. Plus there's also the benefit of better understanding of others. It's all a matter of understanding the big picture. By understanding yourself and understanding others you can achieve a great deal. Unfortunately, as a career it does not have the insane potential for income that I desire, a figure only business can reach. Once I get that house, and that stable income, I will have so much more time to read and learn.

Information. There's so much of it and I don't have enough time to learn it all. Psychology, electronics and of course all those random interesting articles from the internet. If only I could read it all. I finally had time to organize my stuff. 224 favorites, at least 10 receipts with scribbles of crap. Now it's all sitting in folders. Wonderful.

I also realized, my dreams are not nearly wildly crazy enough.

Previous Outrageous Dream
- Decent (No more than 4,000 square feet) sized two story house with a pool somewhere near San Francisco
- Basic economic car
- Lambo or Ferrari

Updated Outrageous Dream
- Decent (No more than 4,000 square feet) sized two story house with a pool somewhere near San Francisco, Texas, Africa,
- Lambo or Ferrari
- Basic economic car
- Helicopter
- Private Jet
- Private island
- Nuclear powered luxury yacht

Also of note, is that I recently posted about how Facebook would be an excellent platform for applications. I knew what I had in mind, but I failed to put into words the scope of what I was thinking. Luckily GigaOm had an article on this exact trend.

I had always jokingly considered creating my own internet, Internet 2.0, where there would be no anonymity and only websites with acceptable quality would be allowed. But the social web is partially like that because of its decreased anonymity. Many sites are integrating a Facebook login to allow for a social element. Where in the past someone might be hunched over a comp playing a Flash game all alone, now he can (Surrogates who?) play with others, socially, although with less anonymity.

It also mentions that the social web generates more information, and there is a need to index it. Much of the information is absolute garbage, useless status updates, mindless babbling and other junk. But it might be vaguely useful as aggregate data somehow.

Are Humans Still Evolving?

This was an article on Yahoo! and CNN a few days back. I was surprised that there was a "long-held view that natural selection has ceased to affect humans because almost everybody now lives long enough to have children".

I had always assumed that evolution always occurs. It simply would not make sense any other way. If evolution was not still occurring, it would seem to imply that every individual is reproducing at a similar rate. Evolution is survival of the fittest, but even though everyone reproduces, there are obviously some who reproduce more and some who do not reproduce at all for various reasons. Why isn't it obvious that evolution is still occurring because of this? Plus, there are those who choose not to have kids, some who choose to have lots of kids, and some who don't have kids.

But what's more likely is that there are major (understatement) gaps in my understanding that lead me to assume this from the start.

I just realized that the View Online text at the footer of phpBB forums is a link which leads to a viewonline.php page that shows the IP and WHOIS of every user online. This would not be an issue if only administrators could see it, but that's not the case. Anybody signed on to the forum can see it. This is a major privacy problem, and I can't imagine why this would be public by default. I definitely need to switch to vBulletin soon, since phpBB constantly requires tweaking, modding and is a hassle overall.

I can't figure out how to differentiate the two. How can I determine whether an individual is merely optimistic rather than naive. The two seem to overlap. A pessimist would see the optimist's actions as being naive, and lacking planning, too hopeful.

Naive: marked by unaffected simplicity : artless, ingenuous.

Optimism: an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.

It seems like there is a transition to a less anonymous internet with Facebook. Everyone's got a Facebook, and a growing number of websites are utilizing the Facebook login feature.

Too many different platforms are competing - Windows Live, Google and Yahoo!. On a recent group project, every group member used a different platform, when someone suggested online collaboration. Ultimately, some people had to setup Google accounts. However, everyone had a Facebook. If productivity tools were added to its list of apps, Facebook would have some serious clout. Unlike other platforms, Facebook focuses on communication rather than services, making it a perfect platform for collaboration. Facebook also creates a real digital identity because everybody is identified by their name, and it might be the best new platform for productivity apps rather than Google or Windows Live.

Also, Facebook apps are big monies. I don't understand why the top games are so popular though. The mafia game has zero interactivity. It's just a screen with stats and you click away. It's like crunching numbers in a cubicle. Lame. There is no real element of competition. The winners are the ones who spend (waste) the most time playing the game. The gardening game is lame too. Why would anybody waste time growing a digital garden when they could grow a real one? Lame lame lame.

All these games use the social element to become popular. However, there is a terrible lack of a competitive element. There's a vaccum, a need for interactive, competitive games on social networking sites like Facebook. There is huge potential here. Games like Everquest and World Of Warcraft are notorious for their addictive qualities. Now add that and social networking (also addictive), and there's an even bigger opportunity.

About time. Finally got crestind.com after it was parked for a year. Kind of a stupid luxury purchase, but at least it won't get snapped up by someone else. Got some exciting plans for the site. Lots of cool open source apps I can finally test out.

Some really cool commercials from Lincoln. The tech theme is awesome, but the cars could use some bolder exterior styling, which hardly looks space agey or technologically advanced in any way (Acura). The interior is really nice however.

The ads are quite effective. There's 360 views of the interior and exterior paired with dark lighting and fairly modern music. There's no distracting voiceover and all of them end with a simple two liner slogan reminiscent of the Apple commercials. Very effective, and I assume they must be trying to target a younger demographic.

       

Others.
       

And more.
       

So classy and modern. Better than the old Mr. Scruff commercials. Makes me want to buy one, even though the build quality is probably rubbish.
   

OMG POWER WINDOWS!