World Airmail Links

Aug 4

“Going ‘social’ online… means understanding the real value of creating a ‘transparent’ company; it means understanding why sharing and collaborating beat hiding and competing; it means learning to work with unfamiliar measures of success….” Douglas Rushkoff, Real Social

M.T.A. Shortfall Renews Talk of Congestion Pricing

Mayor Bloomberg: “Congestion pricing will come, in New York and lots of other cities, because it is the only way where you were going to do the two things that you need to do: reduce people driving and find money for mass transit.”

Aug 3

Amazon.com (US) says Neal Stephenson’s novel Anathem will be released on September 9th (see the top of the composite image above), while Amazon.ca (Canada) reports that it will be released eleven days earlier, on August 29th (bottom).

I know long delays can be common for US vs. UK book releases, but I find the the fact that there’s a delay between the US and Canadian release dates, along with the relatively short duration of said delay, rather surprising.

(And, for what it’s worth, the novel will be released on Septemeber 1st in the UK according to Amazon.co.uk.)

Aug 2

Dell tries to trademark "cloud computing"

“Considering that cloud computing is a generic term that’s been used countless times in articles, papers, and books, it would seem obvious that the trademark application should be killed.”

Jul 31

ATM Available Only During Banking Hours: This seems to defeat one of the main benefits of an ATM — availablity when the bank itself is closed.

Google Maps walking directions to the closer of the two other branches listed indicate that it is 0.9 miles away.

“If those passengers could have torn up their virtual JetBlue frequent flyer cards to board a Virgin America flight right then to JFK, there would have been a long line at the Virgin America desk. The basics of the customer experience - on-time departure, on-time arrival - are so much more important than any marketing nonsense on a billboard or TV commercial.” Mark Hurst, The JetBlue customer experience, sliding

Jul 28

Astor Place Moves Closer to Becoming a Great Public Space

Plans to change traffic patterns and add green space around Cooper Square/Astor Place

Jul 27

“It’s simple: when data is gathered and used for the people as part of civic processes (voting is a good example), processing it using secret software, especially if it’s a private-sector secret, should be totally out of bounds.” Tim Bray, discussing Christine Peterson’s OSCON talk (and undoubtedly helping to popularize the term “secret software” to refer to closed source software), in No Secret Software!

Jul 26

An Introduction to "Anathem"

In a video (3m 42s) from Amaon, Neal Stephenson talks about his upcoming novel.

Jul 25

“Congestion pricing will come, in New York and lots of other cities, because it is the only way where you are going to do the two things that you need to do - reduce people’s driving and find money for mass transit….The politics of New York State are such that they will not do anything until after the election.” NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, quoted by the Daily News

Food industry bitten by its lobbying success

“The apparent but unintended consequences of the lobbying success: a paper record-keeping system that has slowed investigators, with estimated business losses of $250 million.”

Jul 24

Prophet — Syncable tools for the offline web

“Prophet is a new kind of database designed for the post Web-2.0 world. It’s made to let you collaborate with your friends and coworkers without needing any kind of special server or internet provider.”