Linden Labs
IBM and Linden Lab to create enterprise-safe virtual worlds – This move by Linden Labs should have happened years ago, I personally think the appeal of SL is more in a b2b scenario for virtual meetings and for times when video conferences are called for but without the weirdness that you get as you approach Uncanny Valley. Linden Labs founded in 1999, employs numerous established high-tech veterans, including former executives from Electronic Arts, eBay, Disney, Adobe, and Apple. One could see Linden Labs as an extension of the mid-to-late 1990s fascination with a VR metaverse of interoperability
China
In China, returning to greener pre-plastic shopping tech – China way ahead of Target in environmentally friendly shopping
Consumer behaviour
What Do Teens Want? Just Ask. – interesting feedback on IM (out for people old enough to have a mobile phone, video – Veoh is the new YouTube
Interesting research on consumer behaviour and mobile devices – What Hijazi-Omari and Ribak are finding with Palestinian girls is that the mobile is allowing them to have private encounters and relationships when these would be otherwise impossible.
apophenia: does work/life balance exist? – danah boyd’s take on the New York Times article on blogger stress-related deaths.
Communities Dominate Brands: Nomadic Generation C in the space of information flows
Design
Manufacture and Sell Anything — in Minutes – Ponoko
How to
Household: De-Clutter with a Six-Month “Maybe Box”
OpenID Status Check: A Guide to Getting and Using Your OpenID – ReadWriteWeb
Ideas
William Gibson: The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary Interview : Rolling Stone
Droste Effect: when a package’s artwork features the package itself – Boing Boing
Japan
J-List side blog: The Honesty You Find in Japan – somehow I don’t think Dixons would do all that well in Japan.
Elle Plus anticipates aging Japan
Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan – TOKYO (Reuters) – Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country’s population shrinks. Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030…
Media
95% of youngsters copy music – but the sneakernet of ripping and burning copies of CDs is still in the majority
BPI – Music Business Group Response to UK IPO consultation on copyright exceptions – Music industry wants to tax consumers for format transfer. Either a flight of fancy or a speculative shake down racket that will not benefit artists one iota
Online
Top UK sites for 2007, according to Hitwise | Technology | Guardian Unlimited
MySpace Becoming a Portal to Artists’ Own Networks – ReadWriteWeb
FAROO – Could P2P Search Change the Game? – ReadWriteWeb
Yahoo CEO: gray areas make foreign business hard – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Jerry Yang, whose company helped identify a Chinese dissident who was later jailed, said on Thursday that legal ”gray areas” overseas made doing business internationally difficult.
Yang to Ballmer: Stop lying and don’t be cheap. » VentureBeat – this doesn’t even address the open source elephant in the room
Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab – Communitied out – building communities and social media are currently too hard work. Scaling issues?
Retailing
IKEA transforms Kobe train into showroom – really nice piece of experiential marketing
Security
Cambridge expert: use Safari to evade Phorm | Technology | Guardian Unlimited
Perspectives – Learning the importance of privacy – interesting reflection by my friend Rachel Lee who works in our HKG office about what a private life and privacy means in connected times
Software
World’s Hottest Tech Markets Voted Against Microsoft OOXML — Microsoft — InformationWeek
Gartner: Open source will quietly take over – ZDNet.co.uk
Google Jumps Head First Into Web Services With Google App Engine
Where to Find Open Data on the Web – ReadWriteWeb
nihilogic: Super Mario in 14kB Javascript – this is awesome
Why Vista Is Failing Part II: It’s Slow And Expensive – Silicon Alley Insider
Mac OS X: Free Alternatives to the MacHeist Bundle
Gartner: Windows collapsing under its own weight; Radical change needed | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com – this is an interesting article, especially when you read Linus Torvald’s explanation on why monolithic systems are better than modular systems in the O’Reilly book Open Sources, this looks like a ball that could go back and forward like the red-top newspapers debating the tactics of the English football manager
Computerworld – Windows is ‘collapsing,’ Gartner analysts warn – the key argument
Style
GAMA-GO – hot limited edition streetwear with a geeky vibe
LOOPWHEELER – looks to do for t-shirts and sweatshirts what the Japanese selvage movement ( Evisu, Edwin etc) did for vintage denim manufacture
Technology
What Cloud Computing Really Means – New York Times
Low Apple demand to hurt NAND flash growth, says iSuppli
Telecoms
Philippines Long Distance Telephone: Wired to Currency and BPO – Seeking Alpha
BBC Brings iPlayer To Wii; ISP Grumbles As Traffic Grows | paidContent:UK – Tiscali’s whining is a ploy to cling on the PR coat to mask the failure of their own media model in comparison to the Beeb and QoS issues that may spring up