Category: Web/Tech

1. Here

2. What’s up with hedge funds?

3. Austan Goolsbee on American Idol

4. More on carbon offsets

5. Profile of Claudia Goldin, via Greg Mankiw

1. The crisis at the World Bank, according to Bill Easterly

2. Wisdom on wage insurance, by Ezra Klein

3. A hilarious debate on Canadian arts funding

4. Jonathan Rauch is awesome

A profile, hat tip to Virginia Postrel and Eve Tushnet.

Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista‘ in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad
on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China.  However after 2
weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere
244 copies of Windows Vista.  Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets.

Here is the source.

Here are some closing gifts from loyal MR readers:

1. "Economic sanctions (Iran, Cuba, North Korea) – do they work?  Can a libertarian support them?"

Read Dan Drezner’s book and blog posts. 

2. Various carbon tax requests.  Use Google, with "site:www.marginalrevolution.com" at the end of your entry.

3. "I would also like to hear your thoughts on the future of money,
whether it be digital or not and what you believe the effect, if any
would be on the economy."

Read my Explorations in the New Monetary Economics.

4. "Do we need the tenure system anymore in higher education?"

I do.

5. "Thoughtful comments–pro and con, of course–on writings such as
"Hooked on Growth: Economic Addictions and the Environment" by Douglas
E. Booth. Our world economy seems to be predicated on growth, which
common sense says cannot continue indefinitely– or can it (short of
mining extra-terrestial bodies for resources)? Thanks."

Read this, from my evil twin Tyrone.

6. "How about the economics of credit card fraud and/or identity
fraud from the perspective of individual, information custodian, and
society? What is your reaction to the TJX breach of 10 million credit
cards or the VA’s loss of 26 million identities, for example? How
does/should the number of records that are lost, the volume of overall
activity (both good and bad), the number of attackers, and the nature
of the data impact decisions and outcomes?"

That’s a tough question.

7. "Your opinion on how to give to charity."  I’ll be covering this in my forthcoming book Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist, due out from Dutton on August 2.

I’ve now done 50, so that’s all folks!

Of course I’ll consider other topic requests in the future, on a case-by-case basis.

1. Will Wilkinson’s new paper on happiness

2. Experts

3. What from our culture will last?

We are aware there is a hesitation in the loading of the MR page and we will fix the trouble as soon as possible.  Thanks for your patience.

The latest social networking craze is for single-sentence or photographic observations on every life.

That is from "Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short," FT subscription required.  Or just go read about the Alchian and Allen theorem.

Colin Frazier, a loyal MR reader, writes:

I noticed you occasionally post e-mails from loyal MR readers. That made me wonder:

– How do you know if readers are being loyal?

– What is required of me to be a loyal reader? Is it just that I frequently read the site? Must I forego reading other sites like Mankiw’s or McArdle’s blogs? Disavow other economists? (I’ve sworn off Krugman!)

– Is there an oath?

– Is there a loyalty program in which I could earn points for posts I read and redeem them for valuable economic insights?

Your devoted (and–I think–loyal) reader

Only a truly loyal MR reader would ask questions of this kind.

1. Composers Steve Reich and Glenn Branca are blogging.

2. Why Barack Obama won’t win, via Matt Y.

3. Wiggle your eyes back and forth to improve your memory.

1. Does music suffer from a cost-disease?

2. What are the best-selling classical music CDs of all time?

3. Abhijit Banerjee: Where is development economics — and education — heading?

4. Dalton Conley: What have we learned about poverty?

Ilya Somin, and here.  Julian Sanchez here.  Arnold Kling here.  And Bryan Caplan: "[libertarians] still have an "important mission" – rolling back the welfare state.  In fact, this mission is especially important for libertarians to carry on because – unlike stopping central planning – almost no one else wants to work for it."

Hmm….

1. How to use experiments to generate ideas

2.  Where are war deaths occurring? (scroll a short bit)

3. Swindle swindle

Jason Kottke reports on Will Wright:

Notes from Will Wright’s keynote at SXSW 2007.  "Movies have these wonderful things called actors, which are like emotional avatars, and you kinda feel what they’re feeling, it’s very effective.  Films have a rich emotional palette because they have actors.  Games often appeal to the reptilian brain – fear, action – but they have a different emotional palette.  There are things you feel in games – like pride, accomplishment, guilt even! – that you’ll never feel in a movie." 

#24 in a series of 50, and yes I do recommend you read the Wright speech, which deals with the human need for stories.