Lunchbreak Weekend Roundup - Slashdot and more

News roundup from the weekend. First up is The Science of eBay:

Professors of marketing, economics, management, and psychology have published dozens of papers to try to explain how and why eBay users buy and sell online. At the same time, there is no shortage of people offering helpful hints online. Kerry Miller takes a novel approach, offering 10 tips to maximize your profit that are based on a summary of these scientific analyses, rather than just 'educated' guessing.

Might be worth looking into. Especially since Donna's contemplating opening up an eBay storefront.

Next up we have MythTV Compared with Windows Media Center (I really need to try out MythTV one of these days, especially as DirecTV will be changing the way they implement TiVo at some point):

Tom's Hardware has a nice comparison of MythTV and Windows Media Center Edition, and it seems that they preferred MythTV by quite a margin: 'Enter MythTV, a grand unification of personal digital video recording and home theatre technology, and a magnum opus of modular design, freedom of expression and personal entertainment.'

And then we have an interesting piece from the Game Politics site, via the Games department of Slashdot. Saturday they revisited the question, 'Can videogames be considered art?'. They touch on the words of Roger Ebert, and discuss a recent piece on the subject in the Sydney Herald. From the article:

"Brendan McNamara, game director for Team Bondi, makers of the upcoming film noir PS3 game L.A. Noire, has no doubt his team is creating art. With a project plan that includes 170 pages describing cinematic moments, and 1,200 pages detailing interactive events, the game has a Hollywood-like budget of more than $30 million. 'We control the delivery of the information ... We give players a setting and a framework, we control what they see and do. So how are we not authors?' McNamara wonders if video games are stigmatized because they are a mostly commercial venture. At the same time, he believes that being driven by sales is a good thing."

Slashdot poses the questions: Are games too different from other form of expression to be considered art? Is Shadow of the Colossus comparable to Leaves of Grass or Citizen Kane?

On the personal front, we spent Saturday staining the fence and deck. As I was concerned with permanent damage to my shoes, I did so barefoot and subsequently got about an inch worth of wood stabbed into the bottom of my foot. I think some of it is still in there, as my walking around King's Dominion on Sunday seemed to aggravate it and it hurts like the dickens now. Heading out soon to have it looked at... Hopefully no tetanus shot needed...