Developments Forthcoming …

A Long Overdue Update
It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this blog, due largely to a hectic schedule. There are, however, significant developments forthcoming both at SHiFT8 and its hosted sites — TournamentLadder and TRUSoldiersClan.
TournamentLadder (TL) is currently being redesigned from the ground-up. Brendon (my partner) and I are intent on re-releasing TournamentLadder as a new, innovative approach to online gaming. The planned features are, as of the present moment, being kept at a close-hold to maintain the integrity of our intellectual property. Needless to say, we are confident that the newly released TL will generate a great deal of buzz in the gaming community, as it did in the small community it was tested in during its initial release period.
The former TL TeamSpeak, and future TL IRC, server is still down. I physically removed it from the colocation site several months ago, but have not yet taken the time to complete the OS upgrades and IRC server installation. Chalk this one up to procrastination/laziness on my part! (D’Oh!) This is still temporary (I swear) and I hope to remedy this soon. It is, unfortunately, not high on my list of priorities at this time.
Tentative New Project
I am presently considering another project to add to this chaotic mix. I feel it would be rather interesting to analyze the price movements of Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” stock picks. There are other sites which currently perform similar, but not identical analysis to that which I have in mind.
I am interested in this largely due to my ongoing research on the Efficient Market Hypothesis — a tenet of modern financial theory. I wrote my honors thesis on the subject during my senior year at Loyola University Chicago. (I will make this paper available at some point in the near future.) The efficiency of financial markets is a fascinating subject which has generated it’s fair share of controversy within academic circles for decades. Analysis of the price movements of Jim Cramer’s stock picks would provide valuable, contemporary insight on this topic.
I haven’t the time — or, quite honestly, the patience requisite to endure Jim’s on-screen antics — to watch the show daily. This means that the data will have to be compiled from third-party sources. I have not yet identified this source. Without some sort of data-sharing agreement with one of the sites that publish this information, automated data compilation would require a fair bit of coding on my part. This, then, clearly has implications on my already-limited time. This is the major factor keeping this project in the planning phase.
Epilogue
This projects are, as ever, works-in-progress. More information will be disseminated as it becomes available.