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I recently came across this 2003 piece by Cato’s Adam Thierer on self-regulation in the US video game industry.
In 1994, the video game industry established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a comprehensive labeling system that rates over 1,000 games per year and has rated more than 8,000 games since inception. The ESRB applies five […]

The Roman satirist Juvenal first raised the question “Who guards the guardians?” as a barb to Plato’s concept of a philosopher-king. For centuries the best (but still unsatisfactory) answer was to have ethical and upright officers as the guardians of society. But only with the advent of technologies like the video recorder and the mobile […]

Free markets are sustainable in the face of shrinking fossil fuel resources.

The most important thing that struck me during my recent Pune trip was how much I enjoyed the scenery. The Western Ghats are beautiful, especially this time of the year, just after the monsoons. (I’m a camera klutz, so no pics. Sorry!)
But this was not the first time I’d travelled to Pune. I’ve done the […]

I’m looking for a program that can covert basic formatting like bold and italics from MS Word to HTML. I have some stuff written in Word that I’d like to post, but it needs tedious HTML tagging. Is there any way this can be done automatically? I’d prefer free software compatible with Windows.
And no, please […]

Guest post by Arun “Quizman” Simha
Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution (and George Mason University) argues that the music industry often sues its own customers to create commercial norms in which consumers are not trained to think of music as a free commodity. The lawsuits, are meant to serve as deterring signals to young consumers who […]

I’m happy to report that MT-Blacklist is no longer needed on this site. In its place is a spanking new image-based security code system. It shouldn’t pose too much of a problem for you folks.
This is just for you, CK, because you asked for it and we all love you so much. ;)

Ck posted this in the comments section of the increasingly heated discussion about Free Software. He also requests comments, so I’ll give this piece the good ol’ fiske.

The libertarian paradox
By Gerry McGovern
There seems to be a rule that everything embodies a paradox, that everything embodies its opposite.
From the very first period I used the Internet […]

When you mingle in a community which comprises largely (>80%) of IT professionals, Microsoft is going to feature in some conversation, somewhere. And generally the commentators are on a crusade against poor Bill Gates. Whilst I don’t hold a candle for him, I do think people go overboard. Last Saturday at dinner after a game […]