Finance Geek

One of the main, if not the only, motivator for kids to want to learn programming is video games. They grow up playing video games and at some point decide that a career in the gaming industry would be pretty darn cool. Kodu bridges that gap between video game playing and video game programming very nicely.

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Google’s daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.

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Apple appears to be beefing up its security requirements for Canadian users by making visitors to the iTunes Store fill out security questions and set up a rescue email address.

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Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ended its five-year bullish bet on the municipal bond market, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Ohama, Neb., company noted in a recent quarterly filing that it had canceled credit-default swaps that insured it against its $8.25 billion muni-bond market wager. The Journal said it was [...]

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Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ended its five-year bullish bet on the municipal bond market, disclosing in a recent quarterly filing that the Ohama, Neb., company canceled $8.25 billion worth of credit-default swaps that insured its muni-bond market wager, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal said it was unclear [...]

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There is some interesting research out from Deloitte today on the how we use second screens when watching TV (thanks to Rob Andrews at Paidcontent for the pointer).

The headlines:

• more and more people have a device on their lap when watching TV – 24% of the sample and 50% of 16-24 year olds
• the biggest activity is communicating with others about what they are watching – using messaging, email, Facebook or Twitter
• only 10% browse the internet for information about the programme they are watching

That makes sense to me. It seemed like half the London tech scene was on Twitter during the opening ceremony for the Olympics and it matches my behaviour when I watch football games.

The interesting question is what this research means for dedicated second screen apps – an area touted by some as hot for VC investment. The obvious conclusion is they should focus on encouraging communication about the TV programme rather than surfacing additional content, and work hard to find ways to add value so that people don’t default directly to their comms channel of choice. Helping viewers see what their friends are watching and enabling cross platform comms are two ways of adding value that spring to mind.

The other implication is that outside of quiz shows and reality shows programme makers should focus on the TV a most viewers don’t want content on their second screen (quiz and reality shows are different because viewers value the chance to participate directly by voting and playing along).

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Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Insider selling is rarely a positive sign for a company. At best, it’s a neutral event: An officer, director, or existing shareholder deciding to diversify his or her risk and trimming exposure to the company. At worst, it’s a sign that insiders are nervous about the future of the [...]

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Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Another major milestone for Apple (AAPL) on Monday when it became the most valuable publicly traded company ever (before adjusting for inflation). The tech stock ended the day up 2.63 percent to close at $665.15 a share, giving it a market capitalization of $623.52 billion. The stock is up [...]

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While most Facebook users have been accustomed to the Timeline feature for nearly a year, any users who didn’t go out to seek the new feature, or consistently chose “No, thank you” when given the option are not being given a choice for much longer. Facebook is slowly attempting to get all 955 million users …

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If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games book, movie, or both, we have some very exciting news for you: The official social game based on the story is coming to the iPad very soon — and it’s really good!

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Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! Russell Wasendorf of Peregrine Financial was indicted last week on 31 counts of lying to regulators and robbing his firm’s clients of about $200 million. Wasendorf, who plead “not guilty” to the charges, faces up to 155 years in jail. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports NO charges are [...]

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Adding to his extensive collection of simple but effective and clear math apps, Esa Helttula has now introduced Polynomial Long Division.

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“Skylanders Battlegrounds” and “Skylanders Lost Islands” have just popped up as trademarks. We investigate to see what these new Skylanders games may have to offer, and whether this means a Portal-powered iPad game.

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