Links last couple of months

Normally, the title is links last week, but since this is the first one after a Summer break… 🙂

Here’s a small selection to get back into the swing of things. Usual topics: systems, the design of them and the individual dots – people, information and technology. Enjoy.

Systems

• Enterprise 2.0: The Nature of the firm – nice summary from ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/enterprise_20_nature_of_the_firm.php
• Corporate blogging begins to pay – Marriot has made over $5m from customers linking to reservations from blog posts: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401517_2.html
• What will life be like in 2008… written in 1968! Some interesting predictions (watch out for the related blog post coming up): http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/03/24/what-will-life-be-like-in-the-year-2008/
• How I stole someone’s identity – good primer on how technology alone is not enough: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=anatomy-of-a-social-hack&sc=rss
• Out of Control – Kevin Kelly has published a free-to-download illustrated edition of his book ‘The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World’: http://www.kk.org/2008/08/out-of-control-the-illustrated.php

Design

• Simplicity is not the answer – a great retort by Don Norman (he who wrote ‘The Design of Everyday Things’) to the current preference to reduce everything down to two features: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_not_th.html
• Why have a Start button to shutdown Windows? Interesting telling of the true story behind it. UI experts, take note: http://www.followsteph.com/2008/08/03/why-have-a-start-button-to-shutdown-windows/
• 10 futuristic user interfaces – well worth a look: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/17/10-futuristic-user-interfaces/

People

• How to use pay to increase productivity (note: only suitable for certain environments, risky for others): http://www.slate.com/id/2197735/
• The paradox of the digital network – mobile phone companies look set to become the oil companies of the 21st century: http://potlatch.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/the-paradox-of-the-digital-network.html
• Juggling can change brain structure within 7 days …now I know why that’s the first thing they teach you when you join Microsoft… 😉 http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/07/juggling_can_change_.html
• China’s net nation: http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/07/28/chinas-net-nation/

Information

• Datamining 101 – discovering subversives from their Amazon wish lists: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/17/10-futuristic-user-interfaces/
• How to fold paper in half 12 times (love this, it’s difficult to go beyond 6 regardless of paper size or depth): http://www.pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm
• MIT’s introduction to algorithms – not for the faint-hearted 🙂 but if you want to learn about computer algorithms… http://www.catonmat.net/blog/mit-introduction-to-algorithms-part-one/
• The powers of ten – an old video that shows how to display information effectively: http://www.vimeo.com/974259
• The Linear Algebra behind Search Engines – some great content including explanations of vector space models: http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/4/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=636&pf=1

Technology

• Very long term backup – Kevin Kelly on the challenges of retaining data in a digital world (I want a Rosetta disk): http://kk.org/kk/2008/08/very-longterm-backup.php
• David Hasslehoff creates his own MySpace for fans – are we seeing the beginning of the end for dedicated platforms vs social networking as a feature of all web sites? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/david_hasselhoff_creates_his_own_myspace_for_fans.php
• pptPlex – new toy from Microsoft Office Labs, enables you to use a zoomable canvas instead of the traditional linear sequence of slides: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/pptplex/pages/default.aspx

And finally, a video to make you smile and remember that most people, pretty much, want to be nice and have fun. Hat tip to Zappos for sharing:

Link to Where is Matt? on YouTube
(Worth going to YouTube, you can see a high quality version of the video there)

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