Grand Theft Auto and An Incredible Pace

Grand Theft Auto: IV is one of the most anticipated video games of the year (though that is fairly irrelevant to the point I am about to make). It was released Monday at midnight I think and leaked on Pirate Bay the day before.

Mahalo.com, a human edited search engine run by Jason Calacanis has been all over this since either the release or the leak (not made clear).

Their Games team started playing, streaming live to 600 people who were commenting on what they were doing.

As of Tuesday night, they had completed the whole game and were almost done posting screenshots /instructions /cheat codes for every level of the game.

Now you might not care particularly for video games or cheat codes, but the point is about the rate and pace of "new media". In the old days when I played video games, this type of thing came out in paperback and certainly not 18 hours after the game release and for free!

Incredible.

Here is the announcement on Jason Calacanis Blog. How they did it is here.

Posted on April 30, 2008 and filed under Online Media.

Dave Barry on Taxes

From Dave Barry.

Be sure to mail your return in a timely manner, because this year, filing taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?

A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?

A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?

A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?

A. Shut up.

Posted on April 19, 2008 and filed under Personal.