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#1. I&#8217-ll be traveling abroad this week (= end of September 2007). So, I&#8217-ll be slow to respond to e-mails and slow to blog &#8212-if any. All depends whether I can find ways to connect my laptop.

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#2. Upgraded to WordPress 2.3. Check the new features. One problem, though: there was at least one bad plugin which messed with Midas Oracle powered by WP 2.3. I first pointed to WP-Cache, but it turned out that I did accuse it wrongfully. (Adam Siegel of Inkling Markets will confirm that I&#8217-m too quick to emit a negative judgment on things and people. ) Actually, the faulty plugin was Post by Author, which is now deactivated on Midas Oracle (until the plugin author fixes the problem).

Here&#8217-s the gibberish I was getting:

WordPress database error: [Table &#8216-moorg.wp_post2cat&#8217- doesn&#8217-t exist]
SELECT ID, post_title, post_date, post_category FROM wp_posts, wp_post2cat WHERE post_author = 29 AND wp_posts.ID = wp_post2cat.post_id AND ID != 4625 AND post_status = &#8216-publish&#8217- AND post_date &lt- NOW() GROUP BY ID ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 6

That is all, folks. Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

• Chris, I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of content on your group blog.
• Socially Valuable Prediction Markets Need Oxygen.
• People want to know where the public prediction markets are located on the Web, before anything else.
• The London School of Economics chose InTrade-TradeSports over BetFair-TradeFair for floating event derivatives on global warming.
• BinarySoft’s Chris Gibbs assesses TradeFair Binaries and TradeFair Spreads.
• TradeFair’s David Jack = the $20 million man
• InTrade’s global warming prediction markets are more socially interesting than BetFair’s ones.

Explainers on event derivatives (event futures), prediction markets (prognostic markets) and prediction exchanges (betting exchanges) – at CFM

If you are a prediction market expert and have written and posted on the Web an explainer on prediction markets (an overview, a technical essay, or a wiki), feel free to contact me to give me its URL. I will be happy to list it there (and to plug it on Midas Oracle, maybe ).

Previous: Conditional and Combinatorial Betting – by Chris &#8220-Zocalo&#8221- Hibbert

External link: Implementing Hanson’s Market Maker – by David &#8220-Odd Head&#8221- Pennock

Psstt&#8230- If you actively maintain a webpage or a full website listing the prediction market resources, I&#8217-m a taker, too.

That is all, folks. Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

• Eye-tracking studies: How people read Midas Oracle and the other websites
• Three-dimensional layout of dark matter in the Universe
• Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) would free our prediction markets.
• Why InTrade-TradeSports and BetFair-TradeFair need to set up a corporate blog
• Midas Oracle = posting + commenting… on prediction markets
• Christmas gift to Antigua-Barbuda = $21 million worth of American intellectual property rights
• Leading capitals of the world: BetFair-TradeFair HQ’s location ranks #1.

I&#8217-ll do the upgrading sometime this week &#8212-probably in the early morning (EST). New features:

– Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
– Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
– The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
– Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
– New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
– You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
– Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
– Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
– Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
– More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which new lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
– Pages can now be drafts, or private.
– Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
– The dashboard now instantly and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
– Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
– Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
– The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
– A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled. [As long they don&#8217-t give me the option to de-activate Askimet for the comments, it won&#8217-t be useful for Midas Oracle. I installed another anti-spam plugin.]

That is all, folks. Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

• Meet again Marco Ottaviani.
• 0-100 prices… explained to the British traders.
• BetFair traders discuss TradeFair’s 0-100 trading interface.
• Will Chris Hibbert sell prediction market services thru SourceForge MarketPlace?
• In July 2008, TradeSports-InTrade will start feeling the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.
• DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE THAT THE BETFAIR SPIN-DOCTOR DID INDEED LISTEN TO BLOGGER MIKE SMITHSON.
• GUARDIAN BLOGGER: BETFAIR SPIN-DOCTOR DOES NOT SAY THE TRUTH ABOUT SPORTS CORRUPTION.

My answer to him/her:

Don&#8217-t give the first fig about the prediction market industry.

Go working at an exchange, preferably in Chicago, and learn everything you can about markets.

In 10 years, all the Chicago exchanges will float event derivatives.

Good luck,

Signed: Chris Masse

External Links:

To get all the links to the exchanges, visit the &#8220-Links&#8221- page on this blog (which David Pennock is so jealous of), or visit the &#8220-Exchanges&#8221- webpage at CFM.

That is all, folks. Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

• INTERNET USABILITY EXPERT ALEX KIRTLAND SLAMS NEWSFUTURES’ AWFUL COMPOUND CHARTING.
• Please, make WordPress a bit like Wikipedia.
• Bet2Give on CNBC – Friday, December 21, 2007
• BetFair-backed lobby files a formal complaint against the United States of America for discrimination based on violations of World Trade Organisation rules.
• Amateur Experts (Yahoo! Answers) Vs. Wisdom Of Crowds & Collective Intelligence (Wikipedia)
• Amateur Journalists (Bloggers) Vs. Professional Journalists (Media) Vs. Wisdom Of Crowds & Collective Intelligence (Wikipedia)
• Eric Zitzewitz now out of Silicon Valley and San Francisco’s rich and remarkable local clusters based on industry niches, skills, school ties, traffic patterns, ethnic groups and even weekend sports teams —ALAS.