Links for 05-24-2011

• Is the Launch Speed in Angry Birds Constant? | Wired Science | Wired.com - A system dynamics analysis of Angry Birds.
• Dorsey's Square tries to eliminate the card swipe by bringing back the tab - Fortune Tech - Hey guys. Watch the "many generations ago" thing. I can remember accounts with local stores when growing up. "They call it opening a tab, a high-tech homage to the pad-and-paper accounting that barkeeps, druggists and general store clerks were accustomed to many generations ago."
• Tom West; engineer was the soul of Data General’s new machine - The Boston Globe
• ...but rarely anyone else's. MIT fields teams in a record - 05.26.75 - SI Vault
• The Culture Crash by James Panero, City Journal 20 July 2009 - "The reductions in arts endowments reported over the past year have been significant, raising the question of how they have been managed. If the investment goal of arts endowments is the preservation of capital, how can they now face decreases of 35 percent, aside from the criminal actions of investors like Bernard Madoff?"
• Column: When You Shouldn't Listen to Your Critics - Harvard Business Review - "If businesses all try to please the same segment of reviewers, they risk forgoing the differentiation that comes from targeting specific markets. As we’ve learned this lesson in our business, we’ve increased our investment in traditional focus groups to ensure that we respond to the needs of our core market. That doesn’t mean we ignore online feedback—indeed, we even welcome it from one-shot customers, who may someday come to appreciate our premium niche. But when a reviewer says that the price of a $6 sandwich is “seriously whacked,” I have a better understanding of what—and who—is behind it."
• Watch: John Lithgow performs a dramatic reading of Newt Gingrich's press release | Nerve.com
• Open Virtualization Alliance Aims to Challenge VMware - "We were a bit surprised to see that only a small number (29%) were satisfied with a single virtualization mechanism (see chart below). An almost equal number (26%) were using four or more different virtualization packages, and almost half of them were using two or three."
• The Twitter Trap - NYTimes.com - "Basically, we are outsourcing our brains to the cloud. The upside is that this frees a lot of gray matter for important pursuits like FarmVille and “Real Housewives.”"
• Ranked: Woody Allen Films from Worst to Best | Nerve.com - Strongly disagree with the position of a few films on this list but overall pretty good.