Blue Sky On Mars

• Official Google Mac Blog: Google Notifier tips and tidbits
  (tags: google Gmail notifier osx tips)
• Ajaxian » Joe Hewitt Firebug power user demo
  (tags: firebug screencast tutorial firefox debugging javascript)

LouderVoice seems interesting. The goal is to allow you to post reviews on your blog, but have them aggregated back in a meaningful way on the LouderVoice website. It sounds like a neat idea, and I’ll be interested to see how it feels.

By the way, they’re hiring and the site is based on TurboGears.

The Michigan Python Users Group will be meeting on Thursday, February 1, 2007 at Arbor Networks’ office in downtown Ann Arbor. Our topic this time around is template engines, so come with comments and questions about your favorite or least favorite template engines. (Other Python topics are welcome as well…)

• Don Norman’s jnd.org / in praise of good design
  A number of examples of well-designed products, including a new stapler design and a way to attach your kid to your suitcase.
  (tags: design usability)

• creativepro.com - Bit by Bit: Forget Cue Cards, Make a Teleprompter!
  (tags: teleprompter video howto)

• ‘There is no war on terror’ | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
  But he said: “It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon o
  (tags: politics terrorism security)
• perl.com: Quick Start Guide with SOAP Part Two
  (tags: Perl SOAP programming)
• Presentation Prompter
  (tags: presentation teleprompter software)
• instructables : Full-screen scrolling teleprompter
  how to build a teleprompter on the cheap
  (tags: video teleprompter)

• Introducing Scala, Step 2 - David Pollak’s Blog
  good intro including Actors, an important concept.
  (tags: programming scala java)
• Refwell Blog » Blog Archive » Full-Duplex Ajax module for Lighttpd
  (tags: ajax comet lighttpd fdajax javascript)

Apparently, the folks at aquafresh’s ad agency are astroturfers. My friend’s solution? change all of the posts to say Crest instead: anyone try teeth whitening?

Bruce Schneier has often spoken out against “security theater” (if you don’t know that term, it’s worth reading his new article). In Schneier on Security: In Praise of Security Theater, Schneier actually talks about the real pros and cons of security theater and instances in which it even makes sense. I don’t read tons of security-related material, but this is the best accessible, high-level description I’ve seen for “how to think intelligently about security”. This kind of thing should be a must-read for our members of Congress.

• Svnmerge.py - SubversionWiki
  svnmerge is a tool that fixes subversion’s less-than-desirable merging behavior (notably, you don’t have to keep track of versions that you’ve already merged from trunk to your branch)
  (tags: subversion svn)