December, 2007

A Sad Milestone: AOL To Discontinue Netscape Browser Development

TechCrunch

Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'

Telegraph: "The central banks are trying to dissociate financial problems from the real economy."

The Year The Industry Broke

MTV News: "a two-year criminal investigation led by Interpol (the international police organization headquartered in Lyon, France ... not the band)"

The Music Industry's talking points: "Hey, we're obsolete."

Cogitamus: "This, of course, is why teenagers should be sued in to penury, rather than something as revolutionary as the music industry putting together its own compilations that people want to buy."

Lakota Indians Announce Formal Separation from the United States

Cleveland Leader: "Representatives from the newly self-proclaimed Lakota country said that they plan to issue their own passports and driving licenses. Residents living there would free of taxes as long as they renounce their U.S. citizenship."

Giant rat found in 'lost world'

CNN: "'With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.'"

Code's Worst Enemy

Steve Yegge: Code's Worst Enemy: "A design pattern isn't a feature. A Factory isn't a feature, nor is a Delegate nor a Proxy nor a Bridge. They 'enable' features in a very loose sense, by providing nice boxes to hold the features in. But boxes and bags and shelves take space."

Rondee

My friend Andre recently started Rondee, a company offering free conference calling (although you do have to call San Diego). It doesn't force you to sit through ads before you get on the call, and it has some cool features:

• Register phone numbers with the service so you don't have to identify yourself every time you call in.
• Schedule calls via a web interface, and send out invitations via email.
• Export your calendar to iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar

I'm not spending 3 hours a day on conference calls like I was five years ago, but I still think this is pretty cool.

Who Invited the Dog?

New York Times: "OMITTING THE WORDS 'PLUS ONE DOG' ON THE INVITATION WAS NOT A PRINTER'S ERROR"

Straight Talk on the Mortgage Mess from an Insider

MarketWatch: "To get housing moving again in Northern California, either all the exotic programs must come back, everyone must get a 100% raise or home prices have to fall 50%."

None of the Above

Malcolm Gladwell: "There’s a world of difference between an I.Q. advantage that’s genetic and one that depends on extended car time with Graham Gladwell."

Our Solar System is Squashed

SPACE.com: "'So there's something outside pushing in on the southern hemisphere of the heliosphere,' said Voyager mission scientist Ed Stone, that is 'otherwise distorting a more or less spherical surface.'"

US says it has right to kidnap British citizens

Times Online: "Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the 'extraordinary rendition' of terrorist suspects."