links for 2009-07-15

"Earlier today, Valleywag ran a story about the U.S. government having access to Twitter’s “firehose” of data. The news apparently came from a source who presumably overheard a Twitter employee talking about it at lunch. To categorize that as “flimsy” would be an understatement. And so it should come as a shock to no one that Twitter is denying the allegations."

"This is the war in Afghanistan today, where death is measured less by the accuracy of bullets than by the cleverness of bombs. And though the Afghan insurgency’s improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, are less powerful or complex than those used in Iraq, they are becoming more common and more sophisticated with each week, American military officers say. This year, bomb attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan have spiked to an all-time high, with 465 in May alone, more than double the number in the same month two years before. At least 46 American troops have been killed by I.E.D.’s this year, putting 2009 on track to set a record in the eight-year war."

"Judge Sotomayor approached the task as a seasoned advocate. She struck a tone of attentive deference, avoided needless argument, said no more than she needed to prevail, stuck almost entirely to uncontroversial points and avoided antagonizing her questioners."

"Today, Google is adding the ability to migrate from another popular enterprise app, IBM’s Lotus Notes. The new tool lets customers migrate mail, calendar and contacts from Notes to Google Apps. The syncing tool, which Google says is a native Notes application, can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes, for multiple users at once. The tool has already been tested with 40 of Google’s enterprise clients, including JohnsonDiversey (10K users) and Valeo (32K users). The tool is free for Google Apps Premier and Edu customers."

"Judging by this screenshot taken by an IE6 user who was watching some videos on YouTube, it appears the Google company will be phasing out support for the browser shortly. I don’t have Internet Explorer 6 installed on my computer, so I can’t verify this first hand, but illogical it seems not and a simple Twitter search shows multiple people confirming the news. Heck, some are even downright ecstatic over the news." I am totally ecstatic, maybe YouTube will get a decent design.

"But now they’ve done it. I was watching on live webcam last night as the Falcon 1 rocket launched a Malaysian satellite into orbit." It was an awesome show.

"Include them — as the Labor Department does when calculating its broadest measure of the job market — and the rate reached 23.5 percent in Oregon this spring, according to a New York Times analysis of state-by-state data. It was 21.5 percent in both Michigan and Rhode Island and 20.3 percent in California. In Tennessee, Nevada and several other states that have relied heavily on manufacturing or housing, the rate was just under 20 percent this spring and may have since surpassed it." Also called the underemployment rate.

"Steve Ballmer’s extra-large mocha, triple-shot frap must have kicked in at just the right time. Microsoft’s chief executive put on one of his classic, chest-thumping performances on Tuesday for attendees gathered at the company’s partner conference in New Orleans." Oh Ballmer the amusement of my news day.

"Think about what this headline implies. The conviction of one particular financier is regarded as a message to all financiers. That is outrageous." Thought I would make a note to those that think I only disagree with blog, I agree with this statement.

"Kevin Mattson, a professor of history at Ohio University, lays out the events of that summer like a big, rolling banquet. This isn’t a high-end meal — Mr. Mattson’s prose would not warrant even one star on Michelin’s scale — but it is surprisingly tasty, if only because the historical ingredients are fascinating and first-rate." Love that last line.

"The tags used to track the rubbish are a departure from these more passive studies of city movements. Ultimately, the team hopes that the technology can be miniaturised and made cheap enough that the tags could one day be attached to everything." Tagging trash and seeing what happens to it.

"If Sarah Palin is resigning her position as Alaska's Governor to run for president, she faces doubts – even from Republicans – about her ability to be an effective one, according to a new CBS News poll. Less than one in four Americans, 22 percent in particular, say she does have the ability to be an effective president. Only 33 percent of Republicans say she does."

"Greg Sargent cuts right through the DC BS and nails Sessions for what he is. Greg notes that Sessions has repeatedly attacked Sotomayor for saying her heritage influences her. Sessions sees that as inherently evil. But, Sessions voted for Samuel Alito, who testified that his heritage guided him"

I personally haven't used Tasks, but good to hear it's so popular.