links for 2009-08-26

Proofs in haiku.

"So I went to Census data, county level. It turns out that about a quarter of the population lives in counties that are as dense or denser than Mercer County, New Jersey, which is where I live. Now, most daily life in the Princeton area depends on cars; but for medium-distance travel, at least as far as DC, trains really dominate, even at current speeds. With European-level high-speed rail, I wouldn’t fly anywhere in the Northeast Corridor. And while you can’t just rely on the county population densities, I think it’s fair to guess that at least a quarter of the US population is similarly positioned — which means that we’ve got a bigger potential market for fast rail than any European country."

"Apple has quietly added a new Snow Leopard feature to scan software downloads for malware, a no-brainer move that coincides with a noticeable spike in malicious files embedded in pirated copies of Mac-specific software. I have confirmed that Apple is not using the open-source ClamAV engine to handle these scans so it’s likely the company has entered into an agreement with a commercial anti-virus company."

"When it comes to Internet speed, the U.S. is still far down the ladder of industrialized nations, ranking 28th behind leaders South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Holland, according to a study by a labor union for telecommunications workers. Using data gathered from Speed Matters, a site that promotes greater Internet speeds, the Communications Workers of America compiled a list of broadband speeds in U.S. states and territories, and came up with the average speed for the nation — about 5 megabits per second. That's a quarter of South Korea's 20.4 Mbps, and about a third of Japan's 15.8 Mbps."

"An asshole is someone who says Obama is like Hitler because he wants everyone in the US to have health insurance."

"A Columbia University study released Tuesday suggests that viewing fewer than four hours of television a day severely inhibits a person's ability to ridicule popular culture."

Car shopping.