monopoly

Man makes incredible Fallout Monopoly for wife

Many things can make a birthday special -- a nice dinner, a night out on the town, a long-lost friend decked in glitter popping out of a giant cake. Sometimes, however, a heartfelt geeky homemade gift can outshine them all.

Reddit user XsimonbelmontX went above and beyond for his wife's recent birthday by creating a highly customized version of Monopoly based on Fallout -- her favorite video game series.

The incredible attention to detail put into the game might astound you, as the creator, who identifies himself as Brandon, spared no mental expense at adding a Fallout touch to everything from the currency to the pieces.… Read more

Crave Ep. 108: Moth-operated robots

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This week on Crave, Japanese scientists teach moths to drive mini trucks, and a new app called Dognition claims to improve our relationship with man's best friend. Also, we decide if a $30 million Death Star Kickstarter campaign is worth it, and Montana is apparently full of badasses! Those stories and more, plus a round of "Into It, Not Into It." … Read more

The 404 1,203: Where we do not pass Go (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Hasbro let the Internet choose the new Monopoly token and this is what they picked.

- Pebble watch gets growing pains.

- USPS to stop Saturday mail delivery.

- "Walkie Talkies" are shoes you can use as phones.

- Beyonce's publicist desperately wants these removed from the Internet.… Read more

Monopoly fans diss robot, choose cat as new token

Ladies and gentlemen, the iron has left the building.

Or rather, the board. In the biggest shakeup of the classic board game Monopoly since Monopoly Live, the iron has gone straight to jail and it won't be getting a release card.

In a reality TV-like vote by Monopoly fans around the world to choose a new token, the iron proved the least popular, garnering support of only 7.6 percent.

Players voted on Facebook for a replacement among five proposed tokens: a robot, a helicopter, a guitar, a diamond ring, and a cat. … Read more

Shining light on new Kindle Paperwhite

Monday's CNET Update has a glow about it:

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is now shipping, and CNET has given it the Editors Choice award. You can read the full review here. The Nook GlowLight dropped its price to $119 to match the Paperwhite.

Apple has released a Wi-Fi bug fix for the iPhone 5 on Verizon. The bug caused the iPhone 5 to use data even when the device was connected to a Wi-Fi network. Verizon won't charge iPhone 5 customers for any excess data as a result of the bug, but customers should download the fix … Read more

Google backs Alan Turing Monopoly game

For Alan Turing, most things came too late. Some came never at all.

A man whose work was fundamental to the development of modern computing (as well as ancient codebreaking) was so abused by his own country that his life ended in shame and misery, none of which was deserved.

Still, this year would have been his 100th birthday and those who respect his genius have marked it in their own ways.

Google, for example, created an inspired doodle, one which taxed minds and inspired those who didn't know of Turing's legacy.

Now the makers of Monopoly have … Read more

Google responds to WSJ guest post; defends search algorithms

Google has struck back against The Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published a rather scathing guest opinion piece lambasting the Internet giant.

Nextag CEO Jeffrey Katz wrote on Thursday evening that Google has ballooned into a monopoly, pegging its closest competition -- at least in the search space -- as one that has no hope of competing. (Interestingly enough, that's Bing, the search entry for Microsoft, which has had its own well-known monopoly-related issues in the past.)

Katz does have some solid evidence here, which is mainly statistics proving Google's dominance in the search field as well … Read more

Play this classic board game on your PC with Monopoly US 2012

Monopoly is one of the best-known board games in the world. Monopoly US 2012 by FodiGames is a freeware version of the old favorite. There are many versions of Monopoly available, including different nations and languages. This two-player game's board, layout, and features are based on the standard U.S. edition.

Monopoly US 2012 opens in full-screen mode, and there's no way to resize or minimize the view or show the Windows toolbar; it's either Play or Quit. The setup screen offers three game modes: Standard play; Cash play, where the winner is the first to reach … Read more

Chinese regulators drag heels on Google-Motorola deal

Google's bid to buy Motorola Mobility is still on hold as Chinese regulators expand their scrutiny of the deal.

A regulatory filing from Motorola confirmed the news earlier this week, explaining that China's Anti-Monopoly Bureau has extended the second phase of its investigation.

No reason was given why China is dragging its heels.

Motorola said that it and Google continue to work closely with the Anti-Monopoly Bureau to complete the investigation. The two companies still expect the deal to be finalized during the first half of 2012. But Motorola added that neither it nor Google can provide any … Read more

Theory of competition fails in open source, elsewhere

The natural state of a market doesn't appear to be broad competition between Lilliputian-sized competitors. Rather, markets tend to crystallize around a few dominant players.

Ironically, this is as true of open source as it is of proprietary software.

In September I asked if open source can monopolize a market. ZDNet's Dana Blankenhorn and others gave great feedback, but the market since then has provided the best evidence:

Yes, we can have an open-source monopoly (at least, a natural monopoly). In fact, this may actually be the normal state of a healthy open-source market.

If we think of … Read more