ShortFormBlogDecember 3, 2011

» Wait, what?!? If you’re like us, you’re a huge fan of Tetris, one of the simplest, best video games ever created. However, Electronic Arts couldn’t leave well enough alone with its iOS edition, and rebooted it as a version of Farmville, essentially. Now, just to play the game (which you have to pay 99 cents for, by the way), you have to register for a special social network run by EA. And for the biggest fans, they’ve created a “T-Club” component, in which you pay $2.99 per month — or $30 per year for the die-hards — just for the right to get some extra power-ups. And the final kicker: The original iOS game, which was perfectly fine as-is, no longer exists on the App Store. For shame.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Nothing has changed with the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq on the security level because basically it has been in our hands.
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki • Emphasizing that the country can handle the forthcoming departure of U.S. troops, as an eight-year war dies down. Al-Maliki says he has “no concerns whatsoever” about the ability of his troops to maintain security in the region, and says the sectarian violence that broke out immediately in the wake of the downfall of the Saddam Hussein government is a thing of the past. “I assure the world that the Iraqi forces and the general situation in the country hasn’t changed and will not change,” he emphasizes. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

growth Over the years, Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser grew from nothing to provide a solid secondary option to Microsoft’s once-dominant Internet Explorer. It funded itself in large part from a multi-year deal it made with Google to make their search the default, allowing Mozilla to grow quickly.
hindrance However, since they made the last deal in 2008, a strange thing started happening — Google created a browser of its own, Chrome, that quickly ate its own share of the market. It’s now tied with or ahead of Firefox. So … will Google renew the deal with Mozilla? Do they need to? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Suspicion of committing a crime should lead to your attempted prosecution. If the evidence does not support conviction, it would be against everything we believe in and fight for in America to still allow the government to imprison you at their whim. Tonight, a blow was struck to fight back against those who would take our liberty.
Sen. Rand Paul • In a statement about how he managed to kill an amendment that was likely to pass by voice vote — an amendment that would have clarified the ability for the U.S. government to hold detainees indefinitely while the War on Terror continued — by merely asking for a recorded vote on the matter. This was an awkward situation many in the Senate were trying to avoid, and as a result, the amendment lost resoundingly — with a 41-59 tally. If Paul hadn’t have spoken up, the bill would’ve received a voice vote and passed under the radar. Not bad, Rand Paul. That’s a moment to put in the ‘ol resume. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Dec 2011 20:23