farming

Were the analysts right? Zynga shares down in first trading day

Zynga thought its success thus far could justify a $10-per-share stock price. But Wall Street disagrees.

The social-gaming company's stock closed the day today down 50 cents to $9.50, making it the first major Web IPO this year to close lower on its initial trading day.

The writing appeared to be on the wall earlier today when Zynga's shares were unable to sustain an early-morning surge that saw the stock climb to $11.50. Throughout much of the afternoon, Zynga's shares stayed in the red, hitting a low point of $9 before climbing back up to … Read more

Newest Zynga title CastleVille goes live

Wanna be king of your own castle? Then go to it with Zynga's newest online game: "CastleVille."

Zynga, the world's top social games developer, today began rolling out its newest title in the company's popular 'Ville franchise. It's now live on Facebook where it has already attracted over a million likes.

CityVille and FarmVille are Zynga's most popular games with 54 million and 28 million monthly actives, respectively. The San Francisco-based company, which is widely expected to ready itself for an IPO after the Thanksgiving holiday, is surely betting hordes of online gamers … Read more

Facebook to build server farm near Arctic Circle, report says

Expect Facebook's new server farm to be pretty cool.

The social-networking giant is expected to announce tomorrow that it will build its first non-U.S. server farm in Lulea, a town in northern Sweden about 60 miles from the Arctic Circle, according to a report in the Telegraph.

The new farm will comprise three server halls covering an area about the size of 11 football fields and will take advantage of the region's cool temperatures to keep its equipment cold. The Lulea River, which is said to produce twice as much hydro-electric power as the Hoover Dam, is … Read more

Chevy will spend $40 million on 16 new green projects

Chevrolet announced a five-year investment in 16 carbon-dioxide-reducing, ranging from biomass to wind turbines. Progress on the projects will be documented in videos over the next two months so the public can watch.

The automaker will spend up to $40 million on the projects to prevent up to 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, a little more than half of the goal of 8 million metric tons, from entering the air, Chevrolet said in a press release.

One project replaces natural gas with renewable biomass--mostly waste wood--to heat gardening plant greenhouses at Metrolina Greenhouse in Huntersville, N.C.… Read more

Crop circles for space

There are corn mazes, and then there are NASA-themed corn mazes.

Over at Universe Today, there's a great piece on SpaceFarm 7: To celebrate 50 years of manned spaceflight, the U.S. space agency has teamed up with the creators of corn mazes in seven regions across the country on SpaceFarm 7, a set of special crop circles that represent each area's efforts on behalf NASA.

"Seven 'Space Farms' around the country have chosen to honor NASA and the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight with their 2011 corn maze designs," NASA wrote on its Web site. &… Read more

New Jersey hospital to add 2.1 megawatts of solar

St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., announced today it's beginning construction this October to install 10,000 solar panels throughout its campus.

The 2.1-megawatt project will be the largest solar installation of any hospital in New Jersey to date, and be distributed across six different locations within the hospital's campus.

The solar system will include two rooftop installations, three parking lots with solar carports, and a solar carport on the roof of an existing parking garage.

The solar system will be constructed by Sun Farm Network, and the 10,000 solar cells will … Read more

Zynga delaying IPO?

Social-gaming site Zynga may delay its initial public offering until November as a result of the current turmoil in the stock market, according to the New York Post.

Zynga was looking to raise up to $1 billion by going public as early as September. But citing sources "with knowledge of Zynga's plans," the Post said the company has been concerned by the stock market's recent up-and-down ride, prompting it to back off on its IPO for now.

Launched in 2007, Zynga has turned into a force for online social gaming with such popular titles as FarmVille, … Read more

AAA to offer customers In-Drive emergency response telematics

Hughes Telematics is casting a wider net to catch customers, partnering with AAA Club Partners (ACP) to offer its In-Drive-connected services to the automobile club's 12 million drivers in 20 states.

In-Drive is a telematics service connecting the vehicle and driver to Hughes operators in the event of an emergency or accident. Devices plugged into the vehicle's On-Board Diagnostics port and mounted on the visor connect the driver and the vehicle to Hughes' team of operators, who are available to help drivers coordinate emergency response and detect when a vehicle has been in a crash.

AAA hasn't … Read more

The 404 880: Where we separate the hacks from the cracks (podcast)

If you leave your Facebook logged in on a friend's computer and that person posts an embarrassing photo for all your friends to see, would you say you got hacked?

Today's episode of the podcast takes issue with the misuse of the word "hacked." With news stories about Stuxnet, PlayStation 3, and News of the World throwing around the term with no specific definition, we hope to define exactly what it means to hack...at least according to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

First, we'll explore the origins of hacking by breaking the definition down into subcategories like phreaking, cracking, and spoofing. Then we'll tell you why the courts decided that sending out too many e-mails to someone can be considered computer hacking, and we'll introduce the 23-year-old Assistant Commissioner hired by the NYPD to spearhead its new social media unit.

Finally, we close today's show with an exploration into the changing landscape of "Sesame Street," and why some of the LGBT community is pushing Bert and Ernie to finally tie the knot on the air.

The 404 Digest for Episode 880

Stock art meant for news stories about cybercrime. NYPD forms new social media unit to mine Facebook and Twitter for mayhem. Court deems e- mail spam is considered a form of computer hacking. iPad cases made out of Bernie Madoff's auctioned clothing. Slice Harvester shows every pizza spot in NYC on a Google map. Petition asks Bert and Ernie to get married already. Working in an office is bad for your brain.

Episode 880 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more