The following links were collected from 12 to 18 May, shared via Google Reader, added to FriendFeed or highlighted on Twitter. They have been organised by Library category: Systems and the elements – People, Information and Technology (including Office, Search and SharePoint)
Big theme this week – the development of drugs to help your brain. Should/will they be treated like steroids in the future? Athletes who enhance their physical muscles are considered to be cheats. Will the same become true of students who enhance their thinking muscles?
Systems
- Social network marketing: getting from zero to critical mass – http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2008/05/social-network.html
- The religion of bringing social to software (debating Data Portability) – http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2008/05/the-religion-of-bringing-social-to-software
- Welcome to the social mess (more debating data portability) – http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9941984-36.html
- How auctions set ad prices – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-auctions-set-ad-prices.html
- Lessons from the casino industry: engagement metrics and lifetime value – http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2008/05/learning-about.html
- Google Search to surpass size of Windows in 2009 – http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/google_to_surpass_size_of_microsoft_windows_in_2009
- Where does Google go next? (the inevitable rise of bureaucracy) – http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/where_does_google_go.fortune/
- Xobni: the path from wrong product to killer app – http://gigaom.com/2008/05/11/xobni-our-path-from-wrong-product-to-killer-app/
- The computer industry comes with built-in term limits (the good old innovator’s dilemma) – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/technology/18digi.html
- Removing friction at the bottom of the pyramid – http://anand.typepad.com/datawocky/2008/05/removing-fricti.html
- Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine – http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php
People
- The growing business of drugs to enhance brains – http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/05/how_neurotech_will_c.html
- Viagra for the brain: experimenting with smart drugs – http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1298
- Folding your arms can help your brain – http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=fb05abc6-149a-499d-b3b4-e9df6007675a
- The problems with pretending teens aren’t adults – http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070302-000002.html
- Guantanamo makes us all less safe – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/13/guantanamo.humanrights
- Two Good Things: the power of being positive – http://www.stubbleblog.com/index.php/2008/05/two-good-things/
- We specialise in everything – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/we-specialize-i.html
- A to Z of how to be an even better version of you (personal dev) – http://nicholasbate.typepad.com/nicholas_bate/2008/05/how-to-be-an-ev.html
- Whispers: noticing the little things – http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/05/whispers.html
- From farm labourer to brain surgeon – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/science/13conv.html
Information
- Our Data, Ourselves: what happens to our data happens to us – http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/05/securitymatters_0515
- Magic numbers: a good reminder about the importance of 5, 15 and 150 – http://www.cognitive-edge.com/blogs/dave/2008/05/magic_numbers.php
- Data, Algorithms and Powerset: volume of available data beats algorithms – http://anand.typepad.com/datawocky/2008/05/data-algorithms.html
- Excel at visualising data (JD blog post) – http://www.joiningdots.net/blog/2008/05/excel-at-visualizing-data.html
- SEC votes to require data ‘tagging’ in reports (using XBML) – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121090530497497763.html
- That’s impossible – http://math-blog.com/2008/05/11/thats-impossible/
Technology
- Microsoft WorldWide Telescope – https://blogs.technet.com:443/harveys/archive/2008/05/13/microsoft-worldwide-telescope.aspx
- Crunchgear report on Touchwall, including video and images – http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/14/microsoft-touchwall-can-inexpensively-turn-any-flat-surface-into-a-multi-touch-display/
- Google begins blurring faces in StreetView – http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9943140-7.html
- Hiding data on your travels – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/15/computing.security
- Good introduction to Hyper-V architecture – http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit/archive/2008/05/16/getting-my-head-around-the-hyper-v-architecture.aspx
- Cloud Computing: You may need it if you go viral on Facebook – http://simeons.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/cloud-computing-facebook-amazon-web-services/
- Top 10 tech tren
ds according to the top VCs – http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/14/top-10-tech-trends-the-boomer-internet-smart-phones-and-more/ - Computational geometry (from 1996) – http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/161/960307.html
- Loving robotic jellyfish – http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/05/loving_robotic.php
Search
- Search Relevance Tuning (MS SharePoint and MS Search Server) – http://blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch/archive/2008/05/14/search-relevance-tuning.aspx
- Google’s Friend Connect – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/friend-connected-web.html
- Rumour: Google retiring the mini and switching to hosted option – http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/15/rumor-google-to-launch-hosted-site-search-ditch-mini/
- Viewzi takes visual search to another level – http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/viewzi_takes_visual_search_to.php
SharePoint
- WSS FAQ: list of SharePoint books – http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx
- Microsoft Popfly and SharePoint – http://wssdevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/05/microsoft-popfly-and-sharepoint.html
- New governance content published on Technet – http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/05/16/new-governance-content-for-sharepoint-published-on-technet.aspx
- Using SharePoint Designer to create workflows – http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdesigner/archive/2008/05/14/create-compact-and-powerful-conditions-in-your-workflows.aspx
- Visual Studio extensions for SahrePoint released – http://blogs.msdn.com/emre/archive/2008/05/13/user-guides-samples-and-walkthroughs-visual-studio-extensions-for-sharepoint-released.aspx
- Building a news workbench on MOSS 2007 (MS Internal Portal example) – http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/05/13/how-we-did-it-building-a-news-workbench-on-moss-2007-for-microsoft-s-corporate-intranet-portal.aspx
Funny video of the week (think this might become a regular feature) – The Real Facebook:
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Joining Dots 
The article discussing modafinil were a little over-enthusiastic, I think. It's more suited for people who have to say alert and watchful for long periods of time, rather than people who need to make better decisions. It would help night watchmen or troops on combat missions more than it would help a scientist or software developer.The comparison to sports steroids is ridiculous, though. Sports is more fun to watch when one team doesn't have an unfair advantage, but business and research aren't spectator sports, and there's no one to complain to if China has a competitive advantage over the US because people over there use it more.
I'm not sure it's so ridiculous. On a global level, it may be harder to complain. But when entry into top unis within a country is so competitive, drugs to enhance exam performance add to extra tuition and all the other options to gain an advantage beyond raw ability.If nothing else, I guess it is yet another early lesson to remind that life is rarely fair…