Links for 04-07-2008

• TinkerX » Trends: neither heads nor tails - Is the "Tipping Point" largely random?


• A VC: The Declining Power Of The Firm - In the context of cloud computing it's worht not completely losing sight of why we outsource tasks (or don't).


• What Newspapers and Journalism Need Now: Experimentation, Not Nostalgia -Britannica Blog - "What’s worth saving, as a critical function, is investigative journalism. We need someone, many someones, to do long, deep, boring research, for stories that may not even pan out."


• Should anonymous people be allowed to conduct business? — My Infocalypse - In this case, legal action is involved, so I would say "no." But the more general answer seems less clear.


• PC World's Techlog The Frustratingly Unfulfilled Promise of Google Gears - Is Gears deficient, is adding offline capability to Web apps particularly difficult, or is the basic idea flawed?


• Map Channels Hotel Directory Availability Search - A mashup with hotel listings and a map. Looks like it could be handy when you're looking for hotels near a specific location.


• New York Times: blog trolling 101 - mathewingram.com/work - I generally agree with Matthew's take. But there's also truth in Paul Kedorsky's comment: about the "...emergence of a piecework occupation where there is an economic incentive to produce 24x7."


• Marginal Revolution: Predictions about 2008 - Predictions about computers fundamentally missed how small and cheap they would be--and hence distributed and used for so many frivolous things.


• Cloud computing is well and good, but it can't beat the desktop computer. - By Paul Boutin - Slate Magazine - A skeptical look at cloud computing.


• Doc Edgerton Films on MIT TechTV - The Edgerton Center is putting a lot of Doc's work online--including, eventually, his lab notebooks. Quite a few videos are here.