Tinker Tinker this is your STAR!

Try to get your hands on the premiere edition. This is a tinkerer's dream come true. I love the MakeShift section. Never knew that aspirin adds life to a dead auto battery. Live and Learn.

Science Fiction scenario

Barely 2 months ago, O'Reilly put out volume 1 of this book/magazine series. Now here is volume 2. Guess they are serious about the periodical nature. As in the first volume, there is a grab bag of unpredictable moddings (this seems to be the book's favourite term). Which may well be the enduring attraction, on an ongoing basis. You just can't tell what crazy, funky stuff will show up, as you turn the pages.

Clearly, what catches your eye will vary with whomever you are. But let me describe one article. Chris Smith studied people who signed up on World of Warcraft and made a nice living by earning gold pieces and selling these on eBay. Surely, you might think, this is small scale? But he found that in 3 months, $1.3 million of these sales occurred. And the top seller made $111k. Not bad for 3 months work. Though keep in mind that in any distribution, the top person might be very unusual. Well, Smith also points out that in February 2005, the top 5 sellers made an average of $20k each! Damn!

Not so long ago (pre-Web), this would have been a pure science fiction scenario. Set in the far future. Appropriately, we are indeed in the 21st century.