Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Bonnie's got links for awhile, but I wanted to make sure all you progeeks and profans out there saw this:
A fantastic look at various financial and investment activities, and the question if these things do any good for the country (and the world) at large.
(I've noticed talks about the Vocaloid Concerts echoing around the internet, and wanted to address the idea behind virtual stars in more detail. Seriously, when you see a post on it at an econoblog, you know it's time to comment.)
If you pay attention to the news, you'll see occasional discussion about Virtual Stars, completely manufactured media people. The ones I see talked about are mostly in Japan, such as Kyoko Date back in the late 90's, or the prominent Vocaloid phenomena today. These creations ventures often seem to be a cultural curiosity (especially outside of Japan), an oddity, or something out of a bad anime or science fiction film. I think there's something useful in the virtual idol/virtual star concept that I want to explore as worthy of actual consideration as a viable commercial exercise
Lots of free stuff out there, isn't there?
Free books, free games, free video. Games that are free unless you want premium content. It seems that a lot of our media – at least that we can get electronically – has an awful lot of free stuff.
It's also good free stuff. I've been continually impressed with what I can find for free online or via DLC.
Being who I am I like to speculate on why we got so much free stuff available because . . . well this is me, culture, economics, and geekiness. It's sort of what I do. It's my thing. Plus I'm curious.
The reason we have so much free stuff? It's a legacy of previous work.