The Review of Network Economics, The Archives – wow this looks like a fascinating journal. The “Introduction to the Economics of Payment Card Networks” alone looks like an interesting read.

Cool Cubit Cases from michaelw (who consistently points to interesting things). I am baffled that all desktop pcs have not moved to the mini-itx formfactor.

Well I have to give Macromedia credit, it is a ballsy move to launch a whole new kind of internet application browser – Macromedia - Central. The first app, the Weather app, seems to be slow, but I am impressed with the effort.

Comparison of Features and Rates of Current U.S.-based VoIP providers :: Voxilla.com :: A user’s guide to the communications revolution

Good call to action at Due Diligence – let’s not sit around whining about the state of the music industry – let’s hasten its decay! I’ll add another point – if you must buy cds, buy them used, don’t send more money to the music companies.

From Joe Beda’s EightyPercent.Net: “If I can write 80% of a piece of software in a weekend, there is no business model for that software.” Good counsel, I’d like to see more young entrepreneurs grok this.

The Shifted Librarian has a good reference on the growing importance of IM, particularly to the younger generation. Isn’t it AOL’s hugest strategic error – that they decided to give away AIM? It is the only thing we really need on our broadband connection and it is free. If I was AOL, I’d bite the bullet now and start charging for AIM (free for kids, nominal fee for college students, full price for adults). Sure you might drive some users away – but you are losing your user base anyway, might as well try some active measures rather than just letting them passively disappear.

I am sure there are cheaper ways to build a voice transformer – PC-based software, homebrew circuits – but I got a Roland VT-1 and I love this box. I predict it has the greatest impact of any single addition to my halloween haunt this year – I am going to place the output inside the scary tree i built. I’m combining it with some good Bose outdoor speakers so that I get really good fidelity with low noise out of the system. Really worth playing around with, a trial last night had our dogs cowering in the corner of the yard.

Sports: Mike Lucas: Stage is now set for THE game (captimes.com)

My neighbor, let’s call him Norton, has had the audacity to put his props out in his yard. This is an affront on several levels. One, I am the recognized King of Halloween in my neighborhood, and no one puts out props before me. Two, he didn’t inform me of his plans. Three, he had the temerity to build and deploy a coffin, which he must have known I was doing. Four, he set out his props on a Monday night – this is a clear breach of protocol, props go out on the weekend at or around the 15th.

Vengeance will be mine.

Photo Gallery – love the drowning pumpkin.

Up at fanblogs – NCAA College Football - Fanblogs.com: October 6 BCS Projections. Everyone plays tough games this week as we enter the meat of the conference schedules, will certainly be some dramatic changes in this come next monday.

Rich Tellshow’s projections are worth looking at also – he has a full strength of schedule model, I do not.

Great dinner at Place Pigalle this weekend – we hadn’t been there in like 10 years and it is still a great restaurant in a great setting. Certainly one of my top recommendations for a night out in Seattle.

Microsoft Tweaks Its Small Biz Server Plans – I ran small biz server for a while at my home and, well, it was just a big productivity suck. So much software, so much to configure, doing the simplest things was made hard. Maybe the new version is better tho the fact that they are upping the CAL limit seems to suggest they are moving up market with the product and away from simplicity.