Links For A Sunday Morning

• Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Mock the Vote
  With just five weeks left until Election Day, our favorite pundits discuss the power of Sarah Palin, why TV news is about as credible as Muzak, and whether Barack Obama is going to be “sworn in on a gay baby”.
• Sarah Palin Disney Trailer
  An Alaskan hockey mom becomes Vice President in the wackiest family comedy of the year! Sound familiar?
• Comic – Listen to Yourself
  
• Critters – a set on Flickr
  I like squirrels.
• Cleverly Convenient Packaging Design
• Why is almost half of Google in beta?
• Video of people getting punched in the face at 1000 frames/second
• 2008 Best Magazine Cover Finalists
• Where is Your Username registered
  Find out.
• Yahoo! Messenger 9.0
  I have been trying out Pidgin and Digsby because everybody seems to have moved to GTalk but I still am partial to Yahoo Messenger.
• 6 Brainwashing Techniques They’re Using On You Right Now
• Intense Debate Goes Automattic
  Automattic acquires commenting platform, Intense Debate. Some of its features like threading etc. will be integrated into WordPress.
• The first Android-powered phone
  Google’s Android mobile unveiled – The first mobile telephone using Google’s Android software has been unveiled.
  Google’s G1: First Impressions
• Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism
  

  Ask yourself: how has ‘elitism’ become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.

• Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30
• Windows 7 Starts to Come Into Focus. Slowly.
  Features include – A fancier calculator, Office 2007’s Ribbon interface in WordPad and Paint, a possibly less intrusive version of User Access Control, My Documents is now Libraries, Control Panel now has System Tray settings, a light version of Windows Media Player that appears when you play videos.
  Also , E-mail, photo programs stripped from Windows 7 – Microsoft has decided to remove those features entirely from Windows 7 and instead offer only the service-connected Windows Live versions as optional free downloads.
• Technorati: State of the Blogosphere 2008
• Scenes from India
  The Big Picture comes to India. They’ll need more than one post to cover India.
• Hawking unveils ’strangest clock’
• Study calculates value of bees
  If bees were wiped out, the impact for the consumer would be between $273 million and $446 billion, expressed in higher prices as a result of lower production, the study says.
  I have been following the story about the steady decline in bee populations around the world for some time now but friends whom I have talked to about this don’t take it seriously. This will put things in perspective.

Links For A Sunday Morning

• Comic – Great PR
  Some day in Microsoft’s PR department…
• Observing Ramadan
  I am linking just about every post on The Big Picture, so everybody just subscribe to it.
• Yahoo Launches Social Network — In India
• Catch me on the web, says tech-savvy Modi
  When you write a whole bloody article mentioning a website the least you can do is mention the URL of the site!
• New FriendFeed design launched… with an exciting new feature!
• Twitter Blog: Changes Afoot
  Twitter is redesigning.
• New Microsoft Commercials Are Live
• Digging Deeper
  On the Apple and Microsoft ads debate.
• You give out too many stars
  Roger Ebert explains how he decides how many stars to give a film and why his ratings are usually higher than those of other critics.
• too
  Sergey Brin is blogging.
• Testing, testing…a new Yahoo.com
  Yahoo is working on a new homepage.
• Comic – Shock
  My reaction isn’t so extreme. It is usually absolute disbelief.
• Admiring a flawed Gandhi
  

  I am glad many Indians whose pride trumps their sense of humour don’t read advertisements for Danish newspapers. Otherwise they’d be out protesting an ad of the daily Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten.
  The ad says: Life is easier, if you don’t speak up. The ads show the Dalai Lama admiring the Himalayas while preparing to ski down a slope; Nelson Mandela relaxing on a beach, carrying a surf board; and Mohandas Gandhi, smiling with a beer bottle in one hand, with the other, he is barbecuing sausages, empty beer bottles at his feet.

• The story behind the Palin e-mail hacking
• It’s Over For Seinfeld, But Crispin Porter Keeps Microsoft Business
  Seinfeld is out for now from the strange new Microsoft ads.
• Barbed Wire Cuff Bracelet
  I have a thing for barbed wire.
• Flatshare fridge
  The fridge consists of a base station and up to four stackable modules. The modules allow each individual user to have his or her own refrigerator space and can be customized with various colorful skins as well as with add-ons like a bottle opener or a whiteboard.
• Watch Full-Length Movies, TV Shows, and More — Free!
  IMDb is now showing full-length movies and a selection of full-length TV episodes directly on their site — for free.
• Nintendo’s Wii will be priced at Rs 19,900 in India
• Tribute To Graffiti: 50 Beautiful Graffiti Artworks
• Drudge Report: News Site That Sends Readers Away With Links Has Highest Engagement
  There are two main reasons why news sites are reluctant to send readers away by linking to third-party content. First, you shouldn’t send people away or else they won’t come back to your site. Second, a page with links that sends people away has low engagement, which doesn’t serve advertisers well.
  But if you actually look at the data, both of these assumptions are completely wrong.
• Anti-theft lunch bag
  Nice.
• On how RGV became a director.
  Part 1, 2, 3
• The short – but eventful – life of Ike
  Pictures of the havoc caused by Hurricane Ike.
• Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live
  
• Carl Lewis questions Usain Bolt’s record-setting performances
  

  But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don’t question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you’re a fool. Period.

  He is right and it has been proven time and again.

• How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes
• Tremors in B’lore were due to meteorite impact
  I slept through it. Anyway…

Links For A Sunday Morning

• Hackers attack Large Hadron Collider
  Hackers have mounted an attack on the Large Hadron Collider, raising concerns about the security of the biggest experiment in the world as it passes an important new milestone.
  They were probably disappointed that it didn’t end the world on its own. So they are just giving a helping hand.
• 2008 Summer Paralympic Games – Pictures
  This is something else…
• New Family
  Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates’ Microsoft ad. Second in the series.
  I still don’t get it. (Clarification that these ads are meant to be “ice breakers”. But why would you want to suggest that the company has lost touch with its users?)
• New Texting Acronyms for the Elderly
  
• All I Really Need to Know I Learned in My Spam Box
  
• Driven: Shai Agassi’s Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road
  I have been following this with a lot of interest for some time now. Do read.
• Fitbit
  

  The Fitbit Tracker contains a motion sensor like the ones found in the Nintendo Wii. The Tracker senses your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities. The Tracker measures the intensity and duration of your physical activities, calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled, how long it took you to fall asleep, the number of times you woke up throughout the night and how long you were actually asleep vs just lying in bed. You can wear the Tracker loosely in your pocket or clipped to your clothing, even bras.

• Twitter From the Cradle
  Social networking for babies.
• Bollywood Dance Dhamaka: The forgotten classics
  Jhakaas!
• How often should you publish?
• Beyond the Blues
  Aakash Chopra begins his 2008-09 diary.
• Saree Dreams
  A blog showcasing the saree.
• True Blood – Main title sequence
  Nice. From the same guys who made the Six Feet Under title sequence. NSFW.
• Asics Runspark
  Nice looking shoes. Me want. My Reeboks have worn out.
• On the road looking for typos
  Grammar-conscious pals set signs straight.
• Esquire E-Ink Cover Video
  To commemorate Esquire’s 75th Anniversary, we have published an experimental limited-edition of the October 2008 issue that features something called electronic ink, with moving words and flashing images.
• Bringing history online, one newspaper at a time
  Google launches an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives.
• Ow, My Eyes!
  If you know someone whose blog features a lot of light text on a dark background, you can forward this link to the visual offender.
• New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

Links For A Sunday Morning

• Big B reveals his blog’s stats
  Does any other Indian blog best those?
• Important work can be done while daydreaming
  In recent years, scientists have begun to see the act of daydreaming very differently. They’ve demonstrated that daydreaming is a fundamental feature of the human mind – so fundamental, in fact, that it’s often referred to as our “default” mode of thought. Many scientists argue that daydreaming is a crucial tool for creativity, a thought process that allows the brain to make new associations and connections. Instead of focusing on our immediate surroundings the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings.
• How to read a movie by Roger Ebert
• SideTaker.com
  

  Fighting with your significant other? Who’s right and who’s wrong? Air it out anonymously while letting people of the world give you advice and make the decision on who should apologize.

• More Than Black & Blue: The Color Of Bruises
  Anybody wants a website based on these palettes?
• Michael Moore plans Net-only film premiere
  Filmmaker Michael Moore plans to premiere his latest documentary exclusively on the Internet for free, forgoing the traditional theatrical release.
  Well, he has been ok with people downloading his previous documentaries for free…so…
• The new Microsoft ad with Bill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld
  Jerry found success making a sitcom about “nothing” but I don’t think the same approach will work here.
• A House By The Park
  

  A House By The Park is a first-hand chronology of the design, planning, and construction of a modern home in Seattle.

• The 8 Most Obnoxious Internet Commenters
• Telescopic Text
  Read as little or as much as you want to.
• Introducing Picasa 3.0 (and big changes for Picasa Web Albums)
• PollTrack : Tracking Elections from the Ground Up
• Inspiration series: Movie credits
• A fresh take on the browser
  Has dominated the news this week – Google’s new browser, Chrome. Download / The comic book explaining Google’s approach to the new browser / Screenshot Tour
  I quite like their approach but without some of the extensions of Firefox it can never be my primary browser.
• Uh oh, the b-tards got their hands on Google’s Chrome comic
  More
• Comic – The End is Not for a While