- Microsoft has released a 6 minute long video of its vision for the future. It’s slick, on the cutting edge of technology and not more than 5-10 years into the decade. I, for one, found it impressive, if a little cold. A lot of others agreed, including Ian Douglas of the Telegraph.
- India is doing something it normally doesn’t do: it’s being proactive about the internet, albeit in an adorably naïve and innocent sort of way. At the UN Assembly, Dushyant Singh, Member of Parliament and India’s spokesperson, explained the necessity of maintaining the internet’s independence. To this effect, he recommended the creation of a separate UN governing body, the United Nations Committee for Internet-Related Policies. Possible? Perhaps.
- Here’s a list that doesn’t actually suck. 24/7 Wall St. has just released a list of the 25 most valuable blog/blog networks on the internet, and everyone’s favorite suspects find a place on the list, topped by, of course, the Gawker network, which has thrice the valuation of the runner-up, The Drudge Report. Missing in the list are two recent AOL acquisitions: TechCrunch and HuffingtonPost. Also missing: ArsTechnica. GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, all find mentions as well.
- Tim of Tim’s Blog (creativity win) hits the nail right on the head: stop using Steve Jobs as an example to explain or justify your own actions. That guy was a genius. You are not. Don’t skip college, take up typography classes, shave your head and drop acid in India (especially not the 2011 India; it’ll be cheaper to hit up Europe instead). You’ll end up broke and homeless with a raging acid-addiction. On the plus side, you might be able to create beautiful typefaces. Good bargain?
- The Verge. Memorize the name because you’ll soon start seeing it a lot in news results, on blogs, and in Tweets. The new technology blog founded by former Engadget editor, Joshua Topolsky and Marty Moe has just opened its doors with a rock-star list of writers. The scoops are already flying in thick and fast. The site looks great. The team looks great. The production values are top-notch. Do we have a Giz killer on our hands?
- Feel good about your political freedom by reading this New York Times story about political outsiders in China, who, poor creatures, have to resort to microblog services to get the word out, instead of multi-million dollar slander campaigns.
- Stanford’s just wrecked a massive hole in the internet’s spam-check apparatus by decrypting the CAPTCHA. Stanford, of course, being all geeky, is throwing money at a problem cheap third-world labor has already solved (hint: type in decaptcher dot com into your browser. No, I won’t link to it).
- And finally for obvious-news-of-the-day, Steve Jobs biography is, astonishingly, topping all best-seller charts! Do we have another sleeper hit on our hands, folks? A Harry Potter for nerds (wait. Harry Potter was for nerds) perhaps? What else could explain a little know authorized biography on the world’s leading recently deceased demi-God written by the former CEO of CNN getting to the top of the charts?
This gorgeous image courtesy of: Noah Bulgaria
