I've always had an itch to write a web-based soccer management game, even though there are a number of them already out there like Hattrick

There are a lot of intesting probabilistic problems in simulating a soccer match and league season such as:

• How many, what kinds of attributes to you need to describe players?
• How do you aggregate individual ratings into team stats to simulate results?
• Can you produce believable match results using some common probability distributions like the Poisson?

Although it lacks an online component, the king of football simulations is Championship Manager. Its not sold in the States but it is one of the best selling computer games in the UK. Not bad for a giant spreadsheet on massive amounts of steroids!

The next time you'll get a new browser from Microsoft is when you shell out money for Longhorn. Realistically, sounds like we won't see significant uptake of Longhorn for another five years. Windows users, stuck with a browser that isn't advancing, will look to alternatives, like Mozilla, Mozilla's Firebird Project, or Opera. These browsers already provide better standards compatibility which makes web developers happy, and pop-up blocking, better security, and tabbed browsing which should make surfers happy.

Tim bray analyzes the situation much more in-depth in his The Door is Ajar piece.

RIAA Radar is a cool application that you can use when browsing Amazon for music to avoid CDs distributed by a members of the RIAA.