links for 2009-11-12

"It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves."

"Facebook developer Joe Hewitt, the man behind the immensely popular Facebook application for iPhone, has just tweeted that he’s done with the project" It's due all to the App Store policies.

"The new law will have far-reaching implications for all publishers of online content in Europe, as it essentially means that unless you agree to specific terms no website will be able to remember who users are – something which will be a threat to the online advertising industry and the sites that survive on this revenue." Can you say beyond insanity?

"jParse is a jQuery plugin that allows you to quickly and easily parse XML."

"U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that he plans to raise the issue of the yuan currency with Chinese officials when he meets with them in Beijing next week, a potentially disruptive topic for foreign exchange markets." Good news.

"All religions? Then why is there a Christian cross on the plate? And what about people of no faith? Bauer doesn’t care. He doesn’t get the notion that there are people who don’t subscribe to Christianity and some of us who find Christian beliefs offensive. Separation of church and state benefits everybody. There’s no need for the state to issue this license plate. The judge made the right decision and Bauer doesn’t know what he’s talking about."

"Lordy, lordy, lordy. They have no shame. It appears that Microsoft has just patented sudo, a personalized version of it. Here it is, patent number7617530. Thanks, USPTO, for giving Microsoft, which is already a monopoly, a monopoly on something that's been in use since 1980 and wasn't invented by Microsoft. Here's Wikipedia's description of sudo, which you can meaningfully compare to Microsoft's description of its "invention". This is why what the US Supreme Court does about software patents means so much. Hopefully they will address the topic in their decision on Bilski. Sudo is an integral part of the functioning of GNU/Linux systems, and you use it in Mac OSX also. Maybe the Supreme Court doesn't know that, and maybe the USPTO didn't realize it. But do you believe Microsoft knows it?"

"JavaScript unit testing"

"When we first launched public data on Google.com, we wanted to make statistics easier to find and to encourage debate based on facts rather than intuition. The day after we launched, a friend who worked at the World Bank called me, her voice filled with enthusiasm, "Did you know that the World Bank also just released an API for their data?" Excited, I checked it out, and found an amazing treasure trove of statistics for most economies in the world. After some hard work and analysis, today we're happy to announce that 17 World Development Indicators (list below*) are now conveniently available to you in Google search."

"The best thing to do is create a simple “Coming soon” page to notify visitors of what will eventually be there. Good “Coming soon” pages come in two basic varieties: the informational design, which simply tells visitors what will be there after launch; and the page that invites early visitors to sign up for updates or even to request a beta (or alpha) invitation. Below are some great examples of each, followed by some best practices for creating your own “Coming soon” page. You definitely won’t see among these the generic “Under construction” page (with the cute construction graphic) that used to litter the Web."

"The nation’s largest doctors’ group has agreed to join efforts to repeal the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. The American Medical Association also voted to declare that gay marriage bans contribute to health disparities for gay couples and their children."

"An anti-toxin that protects against ricin poisoning is to move into production for the first time."

"Create and collaborate (in real-time) user interface mockups for your software and websites."

Neat idea.

"Google spent $750 million buying AdMob today because the mobile ad network is growing like a weed, with ad requests at 10.2 billion in September, up from 2.5 billion in January 2008."

"There's a point where I think secularization is unnecessary. I personally feel Christmas has pretty much lost it's religious value; rather it represents having time off from school and work, being with family and friends, and spending a crapload of money on presents (yay capitalism). But to require all public schools to sing religious songs just isn't right. Maybe let each school decide if it's appropriate or not, but don't force religion on all public students in California."

"Sagan remains an important figure to the skeptical movement for various reasons. He made it popular to popularize science, and simultaneously showed us how it’s done. He condemned pseudoscience without seeming dismissive or judgmental. He emphasized the wonder and awe of science with poetry and power. And he had a way of forcing you to step back and take a broader perspective on the nature of things. His signature series – Cosmos – was a breakthrough, in my opinion. What separated that series from what was (and unfortunately often still remains) the standard in science documentaries was the way in which Sagan constructed the stories of science as a personal journey. It became our personal journey as we followed Sagan through the Cosmos. Most science documentaries are constructed of talking heads looking off camera, voice overs, and graphics. In Cosmos, Sagan was talking directly to us. He was taking us gently by the hand and leading us on an adventure of discovery."

"Another forehead-smack-worthy curse-laden moment: I’ve filled out a lengthy online form and hit the submit button only to find myself staring back at an empty form peppered with red errors. Has this happened to you? Of course it has. While considering how much I really need to complete this form, I start making notes on how I’d design it to be a better experience. Seriously, how many date formats am I going to have to try before I get this sucker right? Do I need to phone a friend?"

"A cartoon anthology filled with teenage angst, four-letter words and some drug and sexual references has been pulled from the student library collections at two Sioux Falls public middle schools. The school district averages about one complaint per year concerning library material, but this is the first time since at least 2001 that a book has been made unavailable to students. A committee that reviewed the graphic novel said unanimously that it's inappropriate for middle school students. The book's editor says the cartoons are true to life and could help struggling teens and pre-teens understand that they're not alone."

"A foreign power should not be able to censor publications in the United States, regardless of whether doing so suits the country's domestic law. At stake is the integrity of history itself. If all publications have to abide by the censorship laws of any and every jurisdiction just because they are accessible over the global internet, then we will not be able to believe what we read, whether about Falun Gong (censored by China), the Thai king (censored under lèse majesté) or German murders. Wikipedia appears ready to fight for write once, read anywhere history, and EFF will be watching this fight closely."

The people/reporters in here are beyond stupid.

"Glenn Beck fought the law and the law won. Parody website DidGlennBeckRapeAndMurderAYoungGirlIn1990.com attacked Beck using the same straw man arguments Beck himself is famous for: 'We're not accusing Glenn Beck of raping and murdering a young girl in 1990 — in fact, we think he didn't! But we can't help but wonder … Why won't he deny that he raped and killed a young girl in 1990?' Beck didn't see the humour and tried to have the site shut down. He sued the creator on the grounds the site 'violated his name as a trademark.' But in a sudden outbreak of common sense, WIPO rejected Beck's complaint finding the site 'can be said to be making a political statement,' which is a 'legitimate non-commercial use' of Beck's name. But after winning, the owner voluntarily handed Beck the domain anyway. Still, it's comforting to know that satire — the only weapon politicians and talking heads fear — is still safely in the hands of the public where it belongs."

"The Mormon church for the first time has announced its support of gay rights legislation, an endorsement that helped gain unanimous approval for Salt Lake City laws banning discrimination against gays in housing and employment." Best part where they claim you can commit violence towards "traditional" marriage.

"You can try to win a features arms race by offering everything under the sun. Or you can just focus on a couple of things and do ‘em really well and get people who really love those things to love your product. For little guys, that’s a smarter route. When you choose that path, you get clarity. Everything is simpler. It’s simpler to explain your product. It’s simpler for people to understand. It’s simpler to change it. It’s simpler to maintain it. It’s simpler to start using it. The ingredients are simpler. The packaging is simpler. Supporting it is simpler. The manual is simpler. Figuring out your message is simpler. And most importantly, succeeding is simpler."

"America is among the 33% of countries whose conditions for women deteriorated from 2008 to 2009. While disheartening, the ranking is also unsurprising, given the recession's disproportionate impact on conditions of living for women. The numeric determinants of political empowerment included the ratio of women with seats in parliamentary bodies to men, the ratio of women at a ministerial level to men, and the ratio of the number of years with a female head of state vs. a male head of state. It's no wonder that the U.S. won 61st place; Bangladesh, Nicaruagua, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, China, and Pakistan all foster more women political leaders than the United States."

"Here's a rule that's so inevitable that it's almost a law: As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. With more to lose and more people to lose it, meetings and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy."

"Thousands of gamers may have been cut off from Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live for modifying their consoles to play pirated games. Online reports suggest that as many as 600,000 gamers may have been affected. Microsoft confirmed that it had banned a "small percentage" of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide."

"For some reason, the Christians pushing this “I Believe” plate think everyone else ought to pay for promotion of their religion. It’s pathetic and it’s illegal."