Category: linkblog

Focused product offerings are more appealing to customers than do-everything offerings.

Democratic congressional elections indicate that the progressive mandate is bigger than just Obama.

Tracing the rhetorical effects and allusions in Obama’s victory speech.

A review of recent books about overparenting.

Nate Silver gets his moment in the sun. I’d like to have read more about the methodology.

This would be the liberal equivalent of Ronald Reagan removing the solar panels from the White House on his first day in office, only with much greater impact.

Because if any election needed an epilogue, it was this one.

A review of some of the tactics and strategies used by the Obama campaign to win the race.

Results in progress for the 2008-2009 Pragmatic Marketing survey.

It’s a little early for broad historical strokes.

The Obama administration’s technology policy.

Nice timing on IBM’s Smart Planet initiative.

Look at that: the President and executive branch are subordinate to the constitution! And the VP is in the executive branch! How radical!

Behind the scenes for the debates.

I like this strategy, but I think if it isn’t working for DC residents it’s unlikely to work for California LGBT folks. But let’s see where it goes.

Chicken chicken chicken, chicken, chicken chick chickens. Chicken chicken http://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf.

So this is what the campaign web staff were cooking up in their spare time.

Social engineering, fake domain, and backdoors, oh my.

This is probably the most significant non-election related news from yesterday. Too much spectrum has been locked up for too long.

“As she waited for her beverages, a local reporter asked the governor how she envisions her role in national politics if McCain loses the election. Palin did not hesitate to muse about a future that might not include being vice president come January. ‘You know, if there is a role in national politics it won’t be so much partisan … My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together and progress this state. … It would certainly be a uniter type of role,’ she added.”

You betcha.

Enabling the new WordPress 2.7 comments functionality in a legacy template. Very interesting.

I don’t think this will be the last marginal retailer to go by the wayside in the next year.

Did someone say dirty tricks?

Hmm. Interesting stab at true online identity.

The line at my precinct (which votes alongside Precinct 14) just 80 minutes before I got there.

“Where’s the ‘super’?” Heh.

And that’s what it’s all about.

So, anti-Obama blogs that don’t link to anything but themselves aren’t really read as blogs but help propagate smears into Google search results. Y’know, where I come from, we call those spam blogs, link spamming, and a bunch of other nasty names.

This will stand as the election in which voters shook off the shackles of television and reclaimed a fraction of their power.

Brilliantly written review of the history of the vote in America, including fisticuffs and the importing of secret voting from Australia.

It’s tempting to sniff about critics who don’t understand finance making precious analogies between Black-Scholes and Derrida, but y’know, maybe there’s something there.

This is the kind of physicist I always wanted to be.

More fun and games with the voter rolls… in Colorado.

You know, price cuts on big screen TVs sound interesting, but only if you think the buyer is going to have a job.

Breaking: Fox is right wing and MSNBC is left wing!

“A government of national unity starting at 8:45 pm tomorrow” sounds about right.

Another interesting Obama related song from Funky16Corners.

Oh my. Hours of fun ahead, I can tell.

On the benefits of being an outsider in an insider club.

Heh. Nice one from Woody, a little more stream of consciousness than his old work but sill funny.

Chatting the election as it goes. Sounds like a party.

More safe for work than the name suggests. I think they missed a few kerfluffles, but I’m not going to point it out to them.

Some more thoughts on using Twitter to route around election problems.

Twitter Vote Report looks like a good way to remind the dirty tricksters that they’re being watched.

The Candy Code! I’m particularly amused by the chalk drawing that means “produced in a factory that processes nuts and oils.”

Interesting tablet mod of a Mac, with a killer service option to convert an existing Macbook.

Interesting speculation on cabinet posts.

A new cryptographic algorithm, a candidate replacement for SHA, and a bunch of really fascinating reading…

Interesting and righteous take on the abortion rights issue. You go, cafe!

Qualitative research, or anecdotes? Interesting profiles of Republicans and independents voting for Obama.

What will we follow obsessively once the election is over? Try Mark Cuban’s BailoutSleuth.com, following public artifacts of the bailout.

LinkedIn’s response to Facebook positions it as the “serious cat” of social networking.

The most surprising thing about the proposal to turn Hereford into first-year housing while the Alderman Road dorms are rebuilt is that some students are upset about having to leave.

I think I can get away with getting a compost bin this fall. Now I just have to figure out where it goes.

“We’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”

Nice summary of reactions from conservative politicians and media to the Palin selection. I can’t help but think it would look more impressive as a printed page rather than with the Flash mouseovers.

Yes We Can remix record. Lee Dorsey ftw.

C-Ville’s review is positive but I think a little misguided. A song about fleeing the state after burning down a house (metaphorically or literally) is not rose-colored nostalgia.

Torrent of Shannon Worrell record release show.

Get your Flickr photos out of the trunk.

The French Toast alert system is back!!

I’m surprised it took this long for someone to surface who was this crazy.

Pursue those talking points, fearless independent media!!!

Cool image processing stuff.

CNN looks at the other side of the “vote fraud” question–allegations of voter suppression and “purges.”

Interesting lessons learned from the development of the iPhone version of Flickr.

What sort of nerve does it take to bug your opponent during a debate, and then file a criminal complaint for theft and destruction of property when he confiscates the recorder and erases the tape?

Interesting overview of Chuck Hagel and his differences with McCain.

OMG. Watching Andy Griffith do this spot is one of the sweetest things I think I’ve ever seen.

The Met may finally have found something to replace Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts. I would never in a million years have predicted this movie theatre thing would take off like this, but hey, awesome.

Interesting notes in here about taking an iTunes XML file, doing some transforms on it, and then using it to publish a playlist description.

Yes, I’m eating it too. Go Hoos!

Quick steps if you get turned away at the polls. Key is call 1-866-OURVOTE or 866ourvote.org.

As someone who lost his last grandparent in January, I have to say this is among the most personally moving articles this election cycle. Mrs. Dunham, our thoughts and prayers and blessings with you and your grandson.

Time to reign in the border patrol. Unreasonable search and seizure 100 miles from the border is a moronic extension of the Border Patrol’s powers.

Nice summary of McCain’s uphill battle in the last ten days of the campaign.

Amazing photoessay of Barack Obama starting in 2006. Some really nice intimate moments during the campaign.

Why did Social Security privatization fail? And why is it so hard to tell the story straight?

First voice of dissent about the first Android phone points out what should be obvious: it’s got serious design issues.

Oboy. This is not good–a potentially wormable hole in Windows file sharing might as well just say “get ready for the next Blaster.”

An automated iPhoto to Flickr sync engine sounds good but doesn’t solve my problem–sharing some photos while setting privacy settings on others.

JP makes BoingBoing–a post about the new Make TV preview reel that’s out that gives a shout out to John Park as host.

There’s a certain amount of organized idiocy at work in the ballot question to eliminate the state income tax. I hope enough people see it for the idiocy that it is.

What’s striking in this review of the different phases of McCain’s campaign messaging and the decisions that led to each shift is how tactical it all is. And yes, I know all elections are tactical. But the best candidates–and for that matter the best products–have a core underneath them that is consistent from positioning to positioning, and message to message. Reading the story reinforces for me the feeling of a campaign that’s twisting in the wind.