Links for 04-09-2009

I've been busy with projects and/or traveling so I haven't been saving as many links of late. But here are a few from the past couple of weeks.

• GPL's cloudy future | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com - Jeremy Allison thinks the AGPL is needed to preserve freedom in cloud computing. By current thinking is not.
• The Birth of Book Pirates? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com - I've written about this previously and I tend to agree. Ebook readers just aren't widespread enough yet. (Also, people consume fewer books than songs.)
• Tips From a Road Warrior - Some of these I do as well, some I don't, and some are 180 degrees from my preference but good list.
• Tilt Shift Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make Fake Miniature Scenes » Visual Photo Guide - Faking tilt-shift miniature faking using Photoshop.
• The A.P.’s Real Enemies Are Its Customers - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com - "Of course, news executives are well aware that their electronic pennies don’t come close to replacing their lost paper dollars. That’s why so many are hoping that consumers can be persuaded to pay for news online. " It's a numbers game and just because you see the steamroller coming at you doesn't mean you can avoid it.
• Technology Review: The Best Computer Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future
• eBay power sellers: Amazon is kicking eBay's tail | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com - "Meanwhile, Saxton noted that eBay buyers can be high maintenance. Simply put, haggling is out. Automation is in. "
• 'Guiding Light' leaves a lasting glow despite CBS cancellation - What I found fascinating about this is that this soap was actually older than television. (It began on radio.)
• Content Log: Building a stronger open source product - John Newton walks through Alfresco's thinking and principles around proprietary extensions to software with an open source core.
• IT 2.0 Main Blog : Cisco UCS: there is something I am still missing - Good deep-dive into UCS.
• How Google Shot Microsoft After It Took A Knife To A Gunfight - "With this latest round, I kind of feel sorry for Microsoft. It poked at Google with a stick, and in short order, Google took a baseball bat to Microsoft’s head."
• GDC 2009: Iwata keynote--LIVE! - News at GameSpot - Nintendo's Iwata "then shows a bar which touts the Wii Balance board as the fourth console on the market. The peripheral has now nearly sold as many units as the PS3 in the US."
• On the ideal of real names on story comments | STL Social Media Guy - Personally, I think quantity of comments is overrated. I have no problem with a site using a system that makes at least a modicum of effort to validate against "real names" (or at least stable, online identities.
• How the Kindle will change the world. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine - I agree (at least up to a point) with much of this. There's less bundling and cross-subsidies with books than with newspapers. What Jacob doesn't mention but will become a significant topic if e-books become widespread is that of unauthorized copying.
• BSG Watch: A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away :: Tuned In - TIME.com - This comes pretty close to summing up my mixed feelings about the BSG finale.