Hixie at google
Good stuff from Hixie on life at Google, micro-formats, and Monopoly games. I have to say that, unusually, I find myself in agreement with everything he says. Ya' gotta love the whole "rent-sharing" ideas in Monopoly.
I've often thought that the genius of Monopoly was that it offered a basic framework for a kind of game, but did not openly restrict variations on that basic structure. I mean, come-on, what other board game has a designated space for 'nothing' (i.e. Free Parking) which almost invariably gets overloaded with some set of custom house-rule?
Most experienced players have already thoroughly digested the bible and know all of the default probabilities for landing on each space (highest is B&O Railroad) and the profit margins for development on each property set (most profitable is the light-tans just before Free Parking).
There's nothing like layering on your own rules to add spice!
Dude, next time I'm in SF, we gotta play--I call dibs on the top-hat piece.