An interview with Jason Kapalka, one of the founders and the creative director of PopCap. We discussed the evolution of PopCap, how the casual gaming industry differs from mainstream gaming, and the challenges of creating games that can be engaging, without being frustrating. Read more.

People following the issue of open sourcing the U.S. Patent Database might have been surprised to read an announcement in the official business opportunities web site of the U.S. Government: Synopsis for Public Data Dissemination Sole Source Contract to Google, Inc. While the first reaction of many might be "OMG, WTF, how could they," this is actually good news, with an unlikely cast of characters working together including Google, Intellectual Ventures, and the Internet Archive. Read more.

New Microsoft Interface Technology -- videos from Craig Mundie (Chief Research and Strategy Officer) on the MS Campus Tour talking about the future of UI using a sexy glass prototype that features tablet PC, gesture, speech recognition, and even eye tracking. Lustable. This and more in today's Four Short Links.

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over 5 Tips for Unit Testing. Unit Testing and Test Driven Development are a hot topics in the Flash community lately, especially on Twitter. A few weeks ago, after realizing how complex my F*CSS library was getting, I decided to go back and write FlexUnit test for the library in a hope to use TDD moving forward. Read more.

William Stanek here, taking an up close look at e-readers. First up, the Sony e-readers. Sony unveiled its first reader device in January 2006 and the device became available in early 2007. The Sony Reader, like all currently available e-readers, has a black-and-white active matrix EPD display. As with other devices and E Ink itself, the Sony Reader has evolved through several generations of products. Read more.

As we move from the "web of information" to the "web of people" (aka the Social Web) the output of all of this social participation is massive dossiers on individual behavior (your social network profiles, photos, location, status updates, searches etc.) and social activity. This loss of control over personal information is on a collision course with the law of unintended consequences Amidst this barrage of good news for how much power we wield in the transaction of commerce one has to wonder if we are giving away something quite precious in the bargain. Read more.

"I know I'm paid for something that, in the grand scheme, is not Work." writes Scott Berkun in his new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker. In this free excerpt, Scott discusses speakers' fees, his and others, along with what's cool or not so hot about talking for a living. Scott adds: "The unspoken risk I run is having no salary. I have no pension. I have no extended contract guaranteeing me lecture gigs forever. This book could bomb or be destroyed in reviews, and my speaking career could come to an unfortunate and immediate end, which in the grand scheme of things would be OK." Read the entire excerpt now.

The Power of Less — "Practicing the art of less, whether it's agile development, minimalist business plans or spare graphic design, has had a momentum all its own during the rise of Web 2.0," write Jennifer Pahika and Brady Forrest in new O'Reilly Insights on Forbes.com. "But the art of less got a significant boost since economic conditions deteriorated, and less became the one thing we all had plenty of. In the best case scenarios, creative "power of less" responses to dramatic budget cuts have resulted in outcomes much better than the status quo, especially when technology was leveraged," add the chairs of the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo in NYC. See if you agree. Read more.

We're launching the beta of O'Reilly Answers, and I'm inviting you to be part of it. In brief, O'Reilly Answers is a community site for sharing knowledge, asking questions, and providing answers that brings together our customers, authors, editors, conference speakers, and Foo (Friends of O'Reilly). O'Reilly is at the center of an amazing exchange of knowledge sharing and idea generation, and we want you to join us in changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. Read more.

Today in Answers, a user wants more info and less hype on Google Wave: "What's so revolutionary about Google Wave? Can somebody break down the features and benefits of the service in such a way as to convince the average user of its ability to change the way we communicate?" Join the conversation and share your knowledge or ask a question of your own in O'Reilly Answers.