IDC Consumer Internet Market Space

The Geeks welcome Karsten Weide, Program Director, Digital Media & Entertainment, at IDC Research. Karsten writes analyses about the consumer Internet space and also serves as IDC’s expert on the intersection of new media and the digital marketplace. The Geek’s discuss his report called “[The State of the Consumer Digital Marketplace|http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=205673],” which happens to be a topic that Geeks are quite interested in.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Finally) Goes Gold

It looks like gamers will soon be able to [tromp around in and around Chernobyl|http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/45955] in this first-person shooter, in development for several years.

Evolution Is Nom Non Grata

In an online biology journal, [biologists are advised to avoid the words “evolution” and “evolve”|http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050030] in published articles in order to avoid controversy.

Best Buy's Alternate Reality

It looks like [Best Buy has been accused|http://tinyurl.com/3dtab6] of trying to defraud its customers.

California Looking Closely At Open Document

A California legislator is trying to add the state to the list of governments [mandating the use of [ODF|Open Document Format]|http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070228080638136]. The Open Document Format is another office document format similar to Microsoft Office. The primary difference between the two is that ODF is not dependent upon a single company in order to read old documents. (Just about anyone who has gone through the transition between MS Office 95 and MS Office 97 knows the dangers inherent in document archival and retrieval.)

Google Traffic?

Google Maps is adding [real-time traffic data|http://news.com.com/Google+Maps+adds+real-time+traffic+data/2100-1032_3-6163203.html] to its popular mapping web site.

Disk Drives 15 Times More Likely To Fail

Contrary to manufacturers’ [MTBF|Mean Time Between Failure] ratings, [your hard drive will probably fail|http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012066] much faster. Make those backups today and make a schedule for backups for the future.


[IDC|http://www.idc.com/] is a leading research organization for the technology industry.