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Review of "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez, ED. Umbriel

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Daemon

That book so interesting, entertaining and fun! Especially if you are a regular player of massively multiplayer role games, also called the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role for-Playing Game).

I know I have a large number of reviews for writing (these last months I have not had time to do it), but rather than start where I left off, today I will write the review of the last book I've read: Daemon.

The argument of the book puts us at the present time in which virtually technology controls everything from the sprinklers from our garden, even the most sophisticated security systems, to planes and cars in which we move normally.

Our protagonist is a legendary computer game designer who has just died MMORPG and that before this happens has created a Daemon, a computer program that runs in the background and performs the tasks for which it has been programmed. Our DAEMON has been created in the image and likeness of the protagonist and threatens to destroy the world as we know it.

The story narrates the different adventures co-stars (a couple of hackers working on different sides, a policeman and an FBI agent) to interact with the DAEMON to help in the case of some, or to destroy it in the case of others.

The book is really interesting, not so much as to warn the general public of our dependence on technology (those who live on the network, we are already aware of it), if not because it shows that the book's author is himself addicted to MMORPG games, which undoubtedly causes empathize with him and you read the book with redoubled pleasure.

For those we are accustomed to MMORPGs (can anyone read a blog does not have never played WOW ???) indicate that they are a type of RPG that is played online and which interacts with both the player avatars of flesh and blood, as with NPC (non-player characters) created by the same game. The re-created worlds usually great, but there are also games that recreate famous World War II, as well as pure science fiction scenarios.

This summer, for example, I'm playing with my children to AION un MMORPG fantástico (en ambos sentidos), y juntos vamos descubriendo los mundos de East Lumiel y vamos realizando misiones. Bueno… lo de “juntos” es un decir, porque ellos dedican más horas que yo al juego y mientras que yo soy una guerrera de nivel 18, mi hija de 12 años es una paladina de nivel 25, mi hijo de 20 años es un scout de nivel 32 y mi hija de 18 años es una maga de nivel 45… Pero es divertido, y pasamos buenos ratos jugando juntos. Además, no tiene precio que tu hija pequeña, que en el mundo virtual es mucho más fuerte que tú, te ayude a matar arañas en un bosque encantado.

MMORPGs really are at the top of the game and its popularity is beginning to be important. This year, without going any further, we have seen in television ads World of Warcraft (WOW), something unthinkable until recently. And as a curiosity and shows their growing popularity, I've had this year a Russian student of Master Online in Marketing and Distribution Channels and as a final project master has conducted research on business models MMORPG specifically WOW.MMORPG

The chart included along these lines is precisely your project and shows the evolution in number of subscribers to some of these games. (The source is MMOGChart)

But back to the book, some of the games scheduled for the protagonist of DAEMON are "The door" Y "Across the Rhine". The first is fantastic and the second dedicated to World War II. In fact, one of the first meetings between the DAEMON and one of the protagonists hackers is the scene of the Battle of Montecassino (abbey taken by the Germans in 1944 and Allied troops decided to release on several occasions without success until the 4th time and cost more than 70,000 lives on both sides).

Some of the most interesting scenes from the book go precisely in "Across the Rhine" and it is through this game that the DAEMON has been recruiting acolytes and turning programmer in a God (not keep explaining why spoil the suspense of the book ).

About Daniel Suarez, author, indicate independent consultant working with computer systems and that this is his first novel. Apparently, Dreamworks has bought the rights to turn it into a movie. I'm happy for him!

Anyway ... a book 100% recommended, especially if you move in technological worlds. So if you still have vacation days, do not miss it, go to your bookstore and buy it !!!

Review of "2012" by Brian D'Amato - Ed Via Magna

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2012 de Brian DamatoI confess I read this book as a result of seeing the eponymous film, and I did on the recommendation of my brother, with the promise that the book is the part that you forget the film: the Mayan legend about the date of the end of the world, and with the promise that was not Science Fiction and Historical Novel (I have nothing against the historical novel, but I prefer to read science fiction I always possible).

Según narra el libro, los mayas predijeron que el 21 de diciembre de 2012 el tiempo se detendrá y no habrá futuro para la humanidad. El libro nos explica la historia de ésta leyenda, pero lo hace de una forma original aunque poco ortodoxa: con un viaje en el tiempo a través de un agujero de gusano de tamaño atómico.

El protagonista de la historia es un descendiente de los mayas con una mente prodigiosa y adicto a los videojuegos y a los juegos de estrategia en general. Entre estos juegos se incluye un juego maya que se utiliza para predecir el futuro y que corrobora la fecha del fin del mundo citada en las leyendas. La misión del protagonista será averiguar por qué los mayas predijeron el fin del mundo para esa fecha y descubrir si hay algo para evitarlo.

Para descubrir más sobre la fecha en cuestión, la mente del protagonista es enviada al pasado a través de un agujero de gusano de tamaño atómico, que ha sido desarrollado por científicos de una empresa privada que parece tener más poder que el propio gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Pero sin saber por qué, la mente acaba en el cuerpo de varios mayas y no lo hace de forma optima. El protagonista (ya en el pasado) tendrá que lidiar con este handicap e intentar por todos los medios dejar un mensaje con claves para desvelar el misterio, para su yo de 2012.

Overall the book is well, although at times I think it has pages that are only there to reach the 733 pages because they contribute nothing and are completely dispensable.

A half a book you realize that really the book and the film have nothing to do. Nothing at all. In fact the original title is "In the Courts of the Sun" (but this did not know before buying). And when you discover this, you realize that you have been the victim of a marketing campaign publisher, has taken the film to rename the book and sell more books.

Nevertheless, the biggest disappointment appears on the back pages ... when you discover that the book is only a first part of a trilogy ... 733 pages for an introduction ...

Anyway ... not yet clear to me that I will read the following two parts when published. Still, the book is well narrated, he has pace and explains quite well how were the Mayan cities and culture. The author seems well documented.

The attached video is the promotion of the book.

Why free content raises the billing? (OGame)

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We all know, giving value for nothing is one of the best weapons to succeed online. If you can provide a good percentage of your free service without this just your results having a positive impact on your business will suffer.

Algo que los que llevamos años creando negocios en Internet sabemos a ciencia cierta, no es siempre fácil de explicar a terceros. En charlas y clases veo caras de escepticismo cuando tratamos este tema. La gente se pregunta ¿Cómo puedo ganar dinero ofreciendo cosas gratis?, o piensan que si das parte de tu contenido o lo que sea, gratis, mal acostumbras a los usuarios o piensan también que estás devaluando tu imagen… nada más lejos de la realidad. Pero ¿cómo se lo explicas para que lo entiendan?

The explanation is simple: the viral marketing that generates something free is much higher than can be generated with a payment product. So if you are able to transform users coming to your site into customers, you have the game won.

For several days, I have new arguments to convince my students ...

oGame

If there is something that I love are the games ... and of all the games, strategy games. Since early January 2005, I'm playing oGame (http://es.ogame.org) A strategy game framed within the genre of massively multiplayer games turn (turn based massive multiplayer game). It is being played by the web, without requiring software installation. Typical game of colonizing planets (note for those over 30: is like the VGA Planets shifts but without sending email). Is free. It's addictive.

Right now we are more than 7,000 players playing in the same game.

I've been analyzing the growth of oGame since I joined him. Can anyone guess growing daily as the number of players?

The number of new players daily grows 6%. Daily!!

Can you imagine a business to grow at a 6% daily geometric?

Well ... certainly hard to imagine. In this case would be considered cheating OGame is a business. At least as far as the Spanish version is concerned. The German and English versions, and water are another matter.

Administrators of the game (German) so far have ruled the Spanish market. The business model for the other versions is as follows:

Business model: selling advertising on the German community and English version of the game + pay no advertising and more features that facilitate the organization of your strategies.

Advertising in the Spanish version exists but is minimal, poorly segmented, is by pop-up's (with which you can skip the all if you want) ... and worst of all ... it's all in German. Hence my assertion that the Germans have decided not to exploit the Spanish market at the moment.

But back to what interests us in this article. How to prove to unbelievers that offer something free, you end up doing the billing?

Consider the growth of the game:

El secreto está en la estructura de red que está detrás del juego. No es propiamente una red de Metcalfe (para conocer qué es una red de Metcalfe leer: Análisis del “Por qué eBay (y posiblemente Google) abren su código fuente a los desarrolladores”. Si analizamos su crecimiento veremos que no sigue una curva potencial típica de las redes de Metcalfe (crecimiento=número de usuarios ^2). Tampoco sigue la curva de crecimiento de una red grupal (crecimiento=número de canales ^usuarios), sino que es una especie de mezcla de ambos, que acaba mostrando una gráfica parecida a la curva de implementación de una nueva tecnología, la hype curve de Gartner (ver imagen adjunta). Es decir, primero sufre un crecimiento muy fuerte (en enero llegamos a un crecimiento de un 15% diario), luego baja de golpe, y acaba por estabilizarse un poco más arriba de los mínimos en los que ha bajado (al 6% diario que estamos ahora).

OGame viral marketing also works as a network of contacts ... small explosions as the recommendation is coming to small groups of friends or communities. Hence somehow it ends up showing a curve that combines the group growth with the growth of networks Metcalfe.

Anyway ... just a steady growth of 6% daily. These are many new visitors to a web page daily. Many more than we can attract with any marketing campaign, search engine indexing, advertising in Adwords, ... or anything that we can devise to increase visits to our website.

Again, I repeat, the secret is in knowing the views convert into customers. And that if the viral marketing or free content, and have nothing to do. They have already fulfilled their mission: bring users to the page. Here only consider our ability as business managers.

How do we convert visitors into customers?

This longer be the subject of another article. But not to leave readers dissatisfied, commenting that there are several models:

  • Online games: Offer a pay version of the game, with more functionality without micromolestias such as advertising. This is the model chosen by German managers ogame for their other communities.
  • Sites selling content: Offer expanded and better quality content, but by the same authors, for a reasonable price.
  • online marketplaces and classified: Offer a package of value-added services to complement the services they receive for free all users, but we know from interviews with some users, some of them would be willing to pay for. These packages can deliver advertising its products, more visibility, extra features, etc.

There are more models, but as I said before, the subject deserves a separate article. The important thing to remember is that there is no better way to attract users to your website that offering free content to generate viral marketing at speeds hyperlumínicas ;-)

Related links:

oGame: http://es.ogame.org

Article about networks Metcalfe: Metcalfe networks

Power Point presentation about the networks Metcalfe: Metcalfe networks

Discover how the creator of Radio Rivendell and how a radio works on Internet

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Entrevista a Anders Dahlgren

Anders Dahlgren (the one in the picture), A Swede, 29, CapGemini consultant working on Sony Ericsson, is the creator of the first radio station that broadcasts music of epic fantasy genre, 24 hours a day, designed to acclimate roleplaying.

In the article: "If you're an Elf, now you have your radio station"Said the discovery of this radio station where you can listen to any time of day without interruption, the soundtracks of films like" The Lord of the Rings "and" Braveheart "or soundtracks of games like Neverwinter Nights and Warcraft III.

Following the aforementioned article, Anders has been kind enough to satisfy my curiosity about him and this fabulous radio station that broadcasts over the Internet since 2002 and has allowed it to entrevistase Noticias.com.

How did Radio Rivendell?

Well ... it began as a diversion from some friends that played a role. We had several CD's with different music we used to liven up the games. One day, I was testing a Shoutcast server and one of my friends suggested us to use this server to listen to our songs, rather than CDs. Radio Rivendell was born that day.

(Note: SHOUTcast is Nullsoft technology that lets you create online radio stations created with Shoutcast stations are automatically tuned with WinAmp [also Nullsoft].).

What is the target, your target audience?

Anyone interested in good fantastic music.

What are the sources of income of Radio Rivendell?

Mainly donations from listeners. Although all the money we receive we use it to pay the new server on which emits Radio Rivendell. So in the background ... returns to the listeners themselves. Unfortunately, with these revenues we do not cover all expenses that yields the station.

It all started as something small, and now we have become a community. Now I have to stay online, as long as listeners, but I have to find a way to reward everyone who makes it possible. Without going any further, a Finnish friend is the one who makes it possible for us now to have 200 users connected simultaneously.

How have you grown the station?

At first only were broadcasting commercial fantastic music (like "Lord of the Rings") we had on CD. But as time has gone by and more people have been known Radio Rivendell, many composers nonprofit, send me your songs. In return, our listeners can appreciate their music and they are disclosed. Now they begin to come some small record companies to offer their titles. And we have some "success stories" explained on several websites.

What makes happiest is to see who can give musicians something they deserve and have earned.

Tell us about your work outside the radio station:

For 4 years, I work as a consultant for one of the largest consulting firms in the world: CapGemini.

Generally, I am assigned to Sony Ericsson, where he developed new mobile phones.

I love work allows me to fully enjoy all kinds of gadgets! And besides, I just trying absolutely all phones are released to the market.

What do you like about the radio station?

Above all, that since has grown, people really appreciate the music that we issue. I do not receive many emails, but I get are really giving me energy to keep working hard.

Another great source of energy is when artists contact me directly and I request that their songs are issued by our radio!

Some labels, such as Waerloga Records (Swedish company), are making music compilations and we apply what songs to include in their CD's. So Radio Rivendell has begun to be a small showcase for lesser known artists. And this is precisely what I want, help all brilliant musicians that are out there that are more known.

What are you most proud of?

As I said before, above all, that artists come to me. I also like Radio Rivendell search on Google and see us mentioned in many places.

When I read that one of the artists being promoted on Radio Rivendell has sold CD's thanks to us, also I'm glad a lot.

And to finish,
where do you see yourself in 10 years?

With Radio Rivendell? Hmmm ... personally, I see vivendo me in a hot country, with beach, cheap drinks and a direct Internet connection :-)

Hopefully in 10 years, Radio Rivendell still alive and has grown tremendously. Now we have reached the 207 simultaneous listeners. Perhaps then we are the largest and Shoutcast station!
It is possible that at this time we are no longer specialized in fantastic music. Now we play some music outside the genre but it sounds good in what is our specialization. But who knows in ten years ...

My dream would be to devote full time Radio Rivendell. Now I can only devote to the station on weekends and some evenings.

——–

That Ehlonna, goddess of forests, hear you and make your wishes come true.
Since Noticias.com we also want it so.

Radio Rivendell can be heard from their own website: Radio Rivendell or by downloading the WinAmp and looking for Radio Rivendell between preset radio stations.

If you're an Elf, now you have your radio station

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If you've ever noticed that in the light of the stars and moon could see twice as far as other people ... if when others were bewitched by a girl, you permanecías completely immune ... if you always find right doors where others only see walls ... and you've always known that you do not need eight hours sleep ... do not hesitate, for your elven blood veins.

Mood to also test the new interface download programs ... and incidentally, why not upgrade my WinAmp, decided to get out the new version of this player sounds ... And thank goodness I did, the discovery was of the highest caliber!

On one side the same WinAmp is infinitely better than the previous version. By default includes 2 skins, the classic orange and black version and a much more modern and well designed in gray and blue. As for functionalities include automatic default lists the songs that we hear, of which we have heard more recently and etc. other variants. But the most spectacular is the inclusion in the same interface WinAmp TV stations and radio stations.

And it is among the radio stations where the pearl of my discoveries is: Radio Rivendell, A station where only music is played New Age, chosen among the best of the genre and as varied sources as soundtracks Braveheart type films, The Mission, Dune, Pearl Harbor, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings and many other original titles the fantasy and science fiction, as well as soundtracks for video games such as Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights or Morrowind.

Although the best thing is that you find that you are not alone, there are more people like you, listen to this music, which is fascinated by some tastes and aesthetics that are completely different from the rest of mortals. From the same WinAmp you can see how many listeners are connected at that moment to the station.

The station is on the network from a year ago, according declare themselves on their website Radio Rivendell, music is meant to be the background music in roleplaying. No speakers or interruptions. Most music is instrumental.

It's just great.

If you want to hear no more you have to look Radio Rivendell in the search engine box that appears in the WinAmp v5.03c, pressing Internet Radio.

You can download the WinAmp from Softonic (step ... and you admire their new website).