links for 2009-08-05

"Until fairly recently, SharePoint was one of those businesses. But now that Microsoft’s SharePoint sales have passed the $1 billion barrier (they were $1.3 billion for fiscal 2009, which ended for Microsoft on June 30), what’s Microsoft’s next big thing? What products is the company betting on to become the next big, near-term hits? At Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM) last week, company officials shared a few tidbits about one of those businesses: Microsoft System Center. System Center encompasses a variety of system-management tools that Microsoft sells to IT professionals who want to manage their Windows — and Linux/Unix — clients, servers, hypervisors and more." Really a billion for a cruddy system like SharePoint.

"The Restricted (age over 18) service lets you control a 3D scantily glad girl on your desk with a printed icon. All you need is a webcam for this fun looking augmented reality application. You can watch a brief tutorial video on how this works below.
The Society AR Girls are available on this site. Augmented Reality will over role us this year. Augmented Reality Apps will soon hit the iPhone and more and more websites offer experiences that only require a webcam." What a sexist, pos system.

"The Microsoft-Yahoo search deal was big news this past week, and I took plenty of press calls about it, including from the AP. But to quote what I told the AP, I have to pay them $17.50." AP really needs to start fixing this system.

"Conca’s position is not shared by the elected leaders of New Mexico—if it were, the arguing would be over by now. But it is an indication that while the problem of nuclear waste remains unsolved, there are a number of reasonable candidate solutions. Some, like Carlsbad, resemble Yucca in kind if not location—find a quiet area and bury the stuff. Others rely on increasingly complex recycling schemes. But until elected officials implement an alternative plan—a process, if Yucca is any guide, that could take decades—the waste will languish at 131 storage sites around the country." Evantually we are going to have to deal with the nuclear waste.

"Although the scientific case for anthropogenic climate change has never been stronger, the stumbles and the attacks may be influencing a U.S. public that does not fully understand how science works. A poll in May by Rasmussen Reports found 39 percent of voters believe humans are to blame for global warming, down from 47 percent a year ago. These days climate researchers have to scrutinize their work for not only its scientific implications but also for the public-relations ramifications, too." Real time data hurts the scientific world.

"The Sears case also signaled a departure from what the commission’s presumed position that as long as marketers wrote detailed privacy policies, they were protected. Sears had included information about tracking in its user license agreement, but that wasn’t good enough anymore, Mr. Vladeck said. The changes Mr. Vladeck is considering could mean a different online world, where sites couldn’t depend on targeted ads to make money. But could a site refuse to allow access to people who wouldn’t hand over data? Mr. Vladeck said that the commission would have to consider whether that meant businesses were treating consumers unfairly, but over all, he said he was not troubled by the problems this might pose for marketers." The FTC is overreaching here in a big way and businesses/marketing firms are going to backlash.

"Former US President Bill Clinton has left North Korea with two American journalists whose release he has helped to secure. Mr Clinton's spokesman said the party was flying to Los Angeles, California, where the reporters would be reunited with their families. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il issued a special pardon to the journalists after meeting Mr Clinton on Tuesday."

"A really fast dictionary… fast like a ninja." Freaking fast.

"The list of omitted words includes some which have utterly non-objectionable senses: ass, snatch, pussy, cock, and even screw. (Ass and cock appear throughout the King James Bible.) Every time I think I’ve seen the most outrageous App Store rejection, I’m soon proven wrong. I can’t imagine what it will take to top this one. Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day." WTF???

"The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately. Yet many within the Pentagon’s highest ranks find value in the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield. The Marines say they will issue waivers to the Web 2.0 blockade, if a “mission critical need” can be proven. And they will continue to allow access to the military’s internal “SNS-like services.” But for most members of the Corps, access to the real, public social networks is now shut off for the next year."

"The EIA's analysis of the House climate legislation says the average U.S. family would pay $142 more in energy expenses in 2020, and $583 more in 2030, if it were enacted. The projection from the EIA is in line with projections made by the Congressional Budget Office and the Environmental Protection Agency, and contradict claims by energy and business trade groups that consumers would pay thousands of dollars more a year under the plan to fight global warming." Not bad.

"As I continue to flesh out my MooTools MVC framework, I found a neat way to implement a templating system, using only what MooTools gives me. The goal of templating systems is to allow you to write in your target format (usually HTML), and denote where variables should be tied in." Pretty neat.

"As we first reported the existence of a few days ago, Google’s Theme Gallery for Chrome has gone live. On the page, you can find 29 official themes that range from subtle (greyscale) to hideously ugly (legal pad)."

"Idly chit-chat and non-promotional conversation is kind of the point of Twitter, not whatever branding and synergistic strategy might be laid out in such an (alleged) memo."

"Horinaja is a slide-show ready-to-use for scriptaculous/prototype or jQuery. Horinaja is innovant because he use your mouse wheel for a best navigation." Very cool.

"Police in India are guilty of widespread human rights violations, including beatings, torture and illegal killings, a new report alleges. The US-based group Human Rights Watch says India's policing system facilitates and even encourages abuses. It says there has been little change in attitudes, training or equipment since the police was formed in colonial times with the aim to control the population."

"The global rise of Facebook is nothing less than astounding. In the month of June alone it gained 24 million unique visitors worldwide, compared to the month before, for a total of 340 million unique visitors worldwide. It is now the fourth largest site in the world, trailing only Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo sites, according to comScore (see table below). Facebook itself only officially acknowledges 250 million active registered users (but you don’t have to be a registered user to visit some Facebook pages)." Trailing Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, wow.

JPL and NASA provide info on objects approaching Earth.

"Mr. Ritholtz notes that the government wasn’t always so willing to provide a safety net to banks. He contrasts efforts of George W. Bush last fall to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression. Roosevelt, he says, came to the rescue of ordinary people, financing public works programs that created jobs and making mortgage loans to homeowners facing foreclosure. It all started to change in 1971, Mr. Ritholtz writes, when the government dished out $250 million in loan guarantees to Lockheed, which was ailing because it had submitted low bids to win government military contacts. That bailout paved the way for the $1.5 billion rescue of Chrysler in 1980. He writes that this rescue left the carmaker with the same management and did nothing to change onerous union contracts."

"Wall Street gossips tell us that Apple (AAPL) executives have dropped hints suggesting the company is considering creating a service that would allow iTunes Store account holders to use those accounts to make purchases on participating third-party sites across the Internet." I won't use it.

"And in general: is dealing with these government agencies any worse than, say, dealing with the cable company? The prejudice against government seems to have become free-floating, unattached to any actual experience." Good question.

Only FoxNews can contradict itself.

"North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has granted a "special pardon" to two jailed U.S. journalists which releases them from detention, the official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday." Bill Clinton just got there and they are already pardoned, dang.

"Brands and agencies alike, believe that changing your message is the best way to spark interest from the consumer. When you have nothing interesting to say, change something. I believe that doing the groundwork, understanding the place your brand fills in the consumer's heart, spend time creating a strategic platform, choose a brilliant positioning and live with it."