Mental transaction costs Shirky extends his argument against micropayments with “Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content“. A quote: This strategy doesn’t work, because the act of buying anything, even if the price is very small, creates what Nick Szabo calls mental transaction costs, the energy required to decide whether something is worth buying or…

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Jennifer Capriati and Justine Henin-Hardenne just played a dynamite match, wth every point of their US Open semifinal a battle. Henin-Hardenne wins, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4). Wow.

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Patrick O’Brian’s The Far Side of the World enjoys a great title. The author knows it, and various characters use the phrase several times. Where is the ‘far side of the world’ — it’s the South Pacific, off the coast of Chile, where Surprise, Aubrey’s ship, is sent to protect British whaling ships from an…

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I’m glad to see that W.W. Norton did not Americanize the spelling of Treason’s Harbour, the ninth in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. Stuck ashore in Malta during a ship refit, Aubrey awkwardly makes a pass at a fellow officer’s wife (and fails), but accidentally befriends her massive dog, which leads the island to…

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I started Salt: A World History a while ago, even before I started and finished a few of the other books this summer. I finally finished this non-fiction scan of the centuries through a prism of salt while flying to New York a couple of weeks ago. It’s a fun idea for a history, and…

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So the kid has his first day at preschool, and I come home and ask him about how it went, and he’s thrilled to tell me that they have diggers. Diggers… aka, excavators, bulldozers, graders, etc. I don’t remember being that excited about (a) school or (b) heavy equipment. But I’m glad he wants to…

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I am in the Adirondacks, in northern New York, and the weather has been brilliant so far this week, so I guess we were due for a bit of grey. Enjoying the high-speed access at the Paul Smiths College library.

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Going to be quiet for another stretch, so let me leave you with a definition from my “Forgotten English” daily calendar. lipwisdom – an appearance of wisdom in discourse without practice Attribution: Daniel Fenning’s Royal English Dictionary, 1775 If I ever need another name for a blog, I’ve got it!

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OK, this is ancient, but witty all the same. Read this GameSpot review of the biggest game of all, real life. Or read the thread on Slashdot. Someone knows how not to take their job too seriously.

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I have various things I’d like to read/scan at some point, mostly gathered over the past several weeks. But I hate the clutter in my Safari bookmarks bar, so I’ll dump them here… easier to find in the future. Follow at your own risk. 5 patterns quiz – Gotta love self-assessment, hokey or not Caring…

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