Links for 11-19-2009

• Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization « Clay Shirky - "The local bookstore creates all kinds of value for its community, whether its hosting community bulletin boards, putting rocking chairs in the kids section, hosting book readings, or putting benches out in front of the store. Local writers, harried parents, couples on dates, all get value from a store’s existence as a inviting physical location, value separate from its existence as a transactional warehouse for books... Online bookselling improves on many of the core functions of a bookstore, not just price and breadth of available books, but ways of searching for books, and of getting recommendations and context. On the other hand, the functions least readily replicated on the internet — providing real space in a physical location occupied by living, breathing people — have always been treated as side effects, value created by the stores and captured by the community, but not priced directly into the transactions."
• The Economics of Pinball « Cheap Talk - Fascinating look at the end of pinball.
• Beowulf Page 1 - Fascinating piece on Beowulf translations.
• Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com - Wine ratings are apparently repeatable only within a range of about +/- 4 points.
• psu_sharp.pdf (application/pdf Object) - Good overview of sharpening in Lightroom.
• 5 things missing in VMware's new virtual desktop app, View 4