Cloud computing is definitely here to stay. As web accesibility improves on a nearly daily basis so too does the potential for cloud computing concepts to be applied to more areas of corporate IT and provide new business solutions. As companies rush to capitalise on the new options available to them, the question is; what can cloud computing do for small business? And what does the longer term picture look like?
(Broadly speaking, the term refers to the transfer of application running and data storage processes away from individually owned client computers to centrally run and maintained systems, which are then accessed by users/clients/businesses on a pay-per-use basis via the web. For a more detailed description see the Wikipedia link at the…
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Last week UK pro-gaming team Birmingham Salvo claimed the prestigious Championship Gaming Series (CGS) title for 2008. The team defied their underdog status and eventually triumphed against US favourites Optx. The ten-strong UK team competed in 4 games (Counterstrike, Fifa 2008, Dead or Alive 4 and Forza Motorsport) and will now share a total prize of $500,000 (£255,850).
This equates to roughly £25,585 each (assuming the money is shared equally between the ten players - which is unlikely, since they also have a manager to pay and other costs to cover) which all begs the question; why are pro gamers paid so little?
Consider that these players must also pay taxes and have training/hardware costs to cover; quite possibly they could well only…
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A few months back this blog covered the dispute between the designers of the popular Scrabulous Facebook app and the toy makers, Hasbro and Mattel, who were threatening to sue them for breach of copyright. Well, the episode finally came to a head last week, with the developers deciding to suspend the app in the US and Canada after Hasbro pursued legal action.
The problem simply is that there is too much money at stake for the toy companies owning the rights to the Scrabble format to ignore the issue. Ultimately the whole episode has worked out pretty well for Hasbro, who had the enviable position of being able to launch a sure-fire hit of a product (its own official Scrabble…
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