I’m not sure what it is, exactly. There’s something about this hour that always gives me good ideas. It’s that time of day where I’m half-asleep, only partially-lucid, and the flood gates open and ideas pour forth. It’s not unwelcome, however. I figure the lack of sleep will, in the long run, translate into an excellent idea. It’s never failed me in the past. Here’s hoping this latest idea is no different Time to pitch away.

…there’s a skull embedded in your head! – Dr. Zoidberg

Deathly illness is not conducive to writing. Not one bit. You know that old circus gag where a whole bunch of frumpy looking clowns climb out of a small little Volkswagen clunker? Yeah. That’s what I’ve felt like all week. Except those clowns are climbing into my head, one by one, breaking all the vases and fragile bits. Understandably, I have the greatest headache in the world.

However, being bedridden most of yesterday, I now know far more about the 1980s, sock manufacturing, chloroform and cats than I probably ever wanted to know. Thank you, Wikipedia, and your tendency to rope in vulnerable geeks like me, hook, link and sinker.

And this is why I’m fat. Throw in a little fruit, and damn, is it ever delicious though.

Only five companies have a shot at nailing the home, mobile and work hat trick, from software and hardware to internet: Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony and Samsung. …Little companies don’t really have a shot at this level of unified, do-all gadget greatness. The age of the garage hardware start-up belongs to the web generation, not the next generation of gadget makers. Smartphones have become analogous to PCs of the ’90s. There’s little room for a new PC platform to come online, but a vast potential space for start-ups to use the big platforms as a springboard with new accessories and software.

Via Gizmodo’s Brian Lam

This. This is the last decade in a nutshell. I’ve never actually seen this phrased so succinctly, but damn, is it ever true. The business world sees it to. When was the last time you saw a major new hardware manufacturer put out an IPO? Arguably the biggest market entry of the past decade was Google, and they’re a software company. Now there’s rumours of Facebook, Twitter and Skype all joining the foray soon enough. These are companies with next to no physical presence. They exist virtually. And in the next decade, they’re the ones that will continue to shape and define the offline world more than we could have ever imagined.

Bring it on.

There are so many characters in Final Fantasy XIII that you will lose track of their names within the first twenty minutes. People are introduced, speak lines of importance, and die at a fluid pace. Soon, the game falls victim to “Star Wars Action Figure Syndrome.” I just made that up: You know those aliens in the “cantina scene” of the original “Star Wars” film? They never tell you those characters’ names, though they sure as hell sold action figures of nearly every one of them, and all those action figures had names. The action figures, in fact, were the only way to learn the names of those characters. Final Fantasy XIII does a lot of things like that, all over the place.

Via Kotaku.