Links 2008-03-12

• But won’t someone think of the bears? – Both a cute story about tracking bears _and_ a depressing view of political posturing in a semi-ironic tone
• The Cute Cat Theory, or “first comes the porn, then the activists” – this looks like the most interesting talk I missed so far this year, and the notes are really an essay that I won’t forget
• Integrating game design techniques into functional software – hyperblogger Dave McClure puts up Amy Jo Kim’s fascinating talk on using the techniques that prolong game playing (points, feedback, etc.) in non-entertainment software.

Links 2008-03-05

• IE8 and How Decisions Get Made at Large Companies – This is a hyperliterate debunking of the standard myth around large companies – that they’re hive minds or well-oiled machines following a consistent plan, rather than an assorted group of individuals all grappling about, trying to figure out the right plan. The press echoes the hive mind when it says “Microsoft” or “Bill Gates” made a decision, that no doubt was made up and down a chain by dozens of people. My stories on how things happen are different but the result is the same.
  
• You used <X> to write what? – a set of articles in CIO magazine talking about pluses and minuses of using different dynamic languages for different problems, at a good level for the technologist who doesn’t have time to read every devblog in the universe. Unfortunately each one is written by a different person and the quality varies tremendously – the Ruby one is very good, the Perl one is pretty terrible.
  
• Hanging out at the 2008 Crossword Puzzle Tournament – made famous by Wordplay, this is a good narrative on this year’s tournament. (Random fact: a member of my Puzzle Hunt Team wrote one of the puzzles featured in the film.)
  
• CAPTCHA hacking and farming – A solid article about Google/Yahoo/Hotmail CAPTCHA’s all being broken (or, more likely, farmed), with a good collection of links in the comments. (Updated, via Waxy: a blog post about human CAPTCHA farming becomes a marketplace for farmers – and it looks like the price keeps dropping.)
  
• Dancing with the Data Center – WhitePages migrates every server in its colo, one at a time, with no downtime – with photos. (Insert obligatory disclaimer here.)

Hey, this is fun. Maybe I will actually do it every week…

Links 2007-07-13

Twitter Hide-and-Seek: Aric hides somewhere in the Twin Cities and leaves twitters for people to find him: winners get Threadless Tees, etc.
Improving Highway Sign Fonts: including measurement methods