Curiosity Did This

Curiosity did this.

NASA announces $1.1 billion in support for a trio of spaceships

with the aim of having American astronauts flying once more on American spacecraft within five years. ..... The next phase of NASA's commercial spaceflight effort — known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, or CCiCap ..... NASA wants to have at least one commercial space taxi carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station by 2017. ..... the space agency has had to depend on the Russians to fly American astronauts at a cost of roughly $60 milllion a seat ..... Sierra Nevada is testing its Dream Chaser space plane, which looks like a miniaturized version of the space shuttle. .... NASA is spending billions of dollars to develop the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle for deep-space exploration, as well as a heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System. Those spacecraft are being designed to send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, and to Mars and its moons in the 2030s

The public-private partnership in action is of great interest to me.

Related articles

• It's brief and grainy, but here's the first POV video of Curiosity's descent
• NASA cheers Mars landing, welcomes new photos
• Curiosity Lands on Mars: NASA's Behind the Scenes Images
• NASA cheers Mars landing, welcomes new photos - Sydney Morning Herald
• The World Reacts to Curiosity's Mars Landing
• Rover Curiosity lands safely: 'Wheels down on Mars'
• NASA awards $1.1 billion to 3 private space taxis firms
• 3 Firms Picked to Develop Space Taxis
• NASA Announces $1.1 Billion in Human Space Flight Contracts
• NASA announces $1.1 billion for trio of spaceships. Winners incl. SpaceX, Boeing

Zynga Fixes

Mobile is a trend, it is a tsunami, and it is not new, it has been going on. So the thought that Zynga should place a major emphasis on mobile is to state the obvious. Mobile is going to be the central computing experience for most people. They are out and about but they are connected, they are online. Mobile is where the center of gravity is headed, if it is not there already. And that has implications for numerous companies, many industries.

Being metrics driven is important. But being only metrics driven can feel empty. Creating games is artwork. You can't get rid of the metrics, but you can't be a slave to the metrics either. What makes for a great actor? A great director? A great movie? What makes for a great game?

There's A Major Flaw In Zynga's Plan To Fix Itself

It has no choice but to figure out mobile. Zynga's mobile users are growing three times faster than its web users. ...... Farmville, which first put the gaming company on the map, has led to a slew of other "ville" attempts, like Castleville, Cityville, YoVille, PetVille and FishVille. Most have not been able to attract the same user-base as Farmville. .... "The 'With Friends' network is the same strategy as ville games," says the source "Pick a franchise that has one hit and double down on the franchise as each game performs worse and worse."

Going mobile is as much a strategy as going online is. That is a broad direction. Then you have to figure it out.

Wall Street is even more metrics driven than Zynga. Way more. It looks at cold, hard cash, earnings.

Related articles

• The Zynga Debate: Is the FarmVille maker doomed?
• EA levels copyright lawsuit against Zynga
• EA Sues Zynga, Says The Ville Rips Off The Sims [Lawsuits]
• Zynga Is Now A Mobile Company, Whether It Wants To Be Or Not (ZNGA)
• EA sues Zynga, says The Ville is an 'unmistakable copy' of The Sims Social
• EA sues Zynga over 'The 'Ville' [update: Zynga responds]
• Update: EA taking Zynga to court over The Ville
• Meet The Power Player Charged With Saving Zynga's Business (ZNGA)
• Zynga says EA copyright lawsuit 'ironic'
• The Ville gets Zynga slapped with a lawsuit by The Sims Social's EA