I've had enough of the UK news whining about the weather conditions. I was raised in Scandinavia, where they have a more resolute disposition towards the snow. It is something that happens every year, and you learn to get on with it.

So I got to thinking, what do I do when it snows? I get out there and I clear it off. I grab the shove/broom and I clear it out of the way. What would happen if the able bodied population of the country did the same, instead of sitting around complaining? Manpower is free, and its readily available.

This article examines the theoretical maths involved in that idea.

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Tech Crunch released an article yesterday discussing the merits of the Times UK moving all their content behind a Paywall. It is an interesting read, but personally I think the comments section is a more informative take on the situation.

It does raise an old, but still valid question as to whether a business should choose advertising based revenue stream, or require users to subscribe to their services.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/02/times-paywall-4-million-readers/

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Lionhead studios have just launched 'Kingmaker', a mobile application that uses your GPS data to mark locations as 'owned' by you. You work on behalf of one of two teams, and receive gold coins to be spent within the game, every time you log a location in the application.

http://www.fable3kingmaker.com/Default.aspx

From a technology point of view this is an interesting example of many different platforms all converging to drive people towards pre ordering and buying a game.

The initial interaction is through several different mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows 7 mobile). Each GPS 'tagging' posts to social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and the virtual gold is credit to your account. The account itself is an Xbox 360 account (windows live account), which will interface with the game, and you're in-game character ends out with the gold you have accrued.

It's an interesting proposition, and is trying to integrate several differing data platforms into one cohesive direction. It really is joined up thinking.