Polygon looks at the rise of Cities:Skylines

Polygon has a great article detailing the rise of Cities:Skylines along with the fall of SimCity. They go through the ups and downs of the company CEO right about the time they were to pitch Cities:Skylines, which had the wind taken out of its sails when EA announced plans to bring out a new version of SimCity.

Sunny Metropolis city in Cities:Skylines
Sunny Metropolis city in Cities:Skylines – Courtesy of the Cities:Skylines Wiki

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Chinese toxic lake fueled by our gadget thirst

The BBC has a great article on the damage done from rare-earth mineral mining in mainland China. This tailings lake spews the leftover byproducts from the extraction of rare-earth minerals that are used in the production of tech gadgets. The pictures and video alone tell a interesting story.

Neodymiumum is the biggest offender, as it is used to make the super small magnets in our earbuds and smartphone speakers. The process used to extract this mineral is highly caustic and is probably the reason that China is the worlds largest exporter.

Link: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth

Tiger Direct Founders Guilty of Fraud

As a young kid and tech junkie in the late 90’s, I remember getting the original Tiger Direct catalogs. All of the products had articles written around them like a J. Peterman catalog. As the Internet took over, the catalogs disappeared and small blurbs on websites optimized for search engines took over.

It was the first piece of software I ever purchased, a utility that made Windows 3.1 able to use long file names like its newest cousin, Windows 95. I gave my mom the money to put it on her credit card and order it for me. Two weeks later it arrived and worked like a charm. Minus the slight fact that it was not compatible with the way Windows 95 and all othe subsequent operating systems handled long file names.

It was a quick trip down memory lane when I saw this article describing the guilty pleas of the two Fiorentino brothers who founded tiger direct. Apparently using your company like your personal bank account, getting kickbacks from suppliers, and over charging your own company is not the best way, and legal way, to run a business. I hope the fancy cars and big houses were worth the fun for a bit. Glad I could contribute to the fun!

Fox Business: Systemax brothers guilty of fraud