Links to cool places or things.
There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 91 of 153).
Whoops! I guess Romney’s team has no original ideas.
After months of telling Democrats that they didn’t build that, the charge may be ironically accurate when it comes to Mitt Romney’s website. The Romney campaign’s “victory wallet” donation page bears a striking resemblance to the Obama campaign’s “quick donate” page. The Obama campaign published its in March and Romney’s site went up in late August.
The wizards at Five Thirty Eight give Obama an 80% chance of being reelected.
Personally, I predict Obama will be reelected but will lose North Carolina in a close race. I hope I’m wrong about him losing NC but that’s how I see things today. It’s still a long way until Election Day, however.
Nevertheless, the polling movement that we have seen over the past three days represents the most substantial shift that we’ve seen in the race all year, with the polls moving toward Mr. Obama since his convention.
How far will Mr. Obama’s numbers rise, and how long will his bounce last? We don’t know that, of course. But the range of possible outcomes reads pretty favorably for him.
Reuters takes a good look at Facebook’s efforts to deal with the issue of fake “Likes.”
Facebook Inc is weeding out fake “Likes” on its social network that are being caused by spammers, malware and black marketeers as it strives to maintain credibility as an advertising platform.
Facebook said the number of Likes, or endorsements by users, on corporate pages is likely to drop by less than 1 percent, on average, after the crackdown.
“Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes,” Facebook said in a post on its official blog on Friday.
“While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes,” the post continued.
Last night Facebook gave me this customer feedback quiz which morphed into a political quiz. I, too, thought it was quite bizarre.
Facebook claims it was a “test survey” that has since been removed, but it doesn’t say whether the results were destroyed or not. While its bizarre shift from customer feedback into politics was startling, the questions seemed fully-formed to me and I’m somewhat skeptical of Facebook’s claims that this was actually a “test survey.”
Did you get an invite on Facebook to be surveyed about your experiences on the social network, only to find the actual survey turned into a bizarre political news quiz? I did, as did others. Facebook’s now stopped the survey, saying it was an incomplete test that got out into the wild.
via Facebook Runs Strange Political News Quiz, Says It Was A Test.
Also, see CNET’s coverage of this issue.
Downtown’s where it’s at. Just ask Red Hat and Citrix!
For as long as many of us can remember, high-tech industries have flourished in the suburban office parks that are so ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and other "nerdistans." But in recent years, high-tech has been taking a decidedly urban turn.
Silicon Valley remains the world’s pre-eminent center of high-tech industry, of course. But even in the Valley, denser, more mixed-use and walkable places, like downtown Palo Alto, are becoming the preferred locations for start-ups and smaller firms. And many other start-ups—Pinterest, Zynga, Yelp, Square and Salesforce.com, to name just a notable few—are taking up residence in downtown San Francisco.
via Why High-Tech Companies Are Moving to the City – WSJ.com.
I found this on another website and thought it was funny. If you’ve ever been in the Navy you’ll recognize these.
How to Simulate Being a Sailor
My friend Greg Flynn has unearthed some interesting links between a firm hired by the North Carolina Republican Party to register voters and other similar firms alleged to have destroyed and changed voter records. The firm apparently tried to cover its tracks but not before Greg found it.
Good sleuthing, Greg!
An effort by Republicans to register voters with paid workers is underway in North Carolina and across the nation. In the past month various ads have appeared on Craigslist, Facebook and other online job listings offering amounts from $11 to $13 per hour and in some cases internship credit to help Republicans and Mitt Romney win in North Carolina in November by identifying conservatives and registering them as voters. The operation is linked to an Arizona company with a history of fraud allegations including the destruction of Democratic registration cards.
via Republican paid voter registration operation linked to fraud « gregflynn.
Our patent system is definitely broken. This is worth a read.
Samsung too closely copied some elements of the Apple iPhone, and for that it should be hung up in the public square. But Samsung should be hung by its thumbs, at worst, not its neck.
Copying in some measure is all around us. It is continuously present in many parts of a free enterprise system and in some ways is a yardstick to the health of that system. I often see small, muscular-looking cars with lines similar to the BMW 300 series, but they have Swedish or Japanese nameplates on them. Watching what sells is a basic premise of anyone engaged in a competitive race. Matching a competitor under your own brand is a time-honored practice.
via Apple Worked A Broken Patent System – Mobility – Smartphones – Informationweek.
By the way, here are the aforementioned photos from the aforementioned stream cleaning workshop.
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| City of Raleigh Stream Monitoring Workshop |
Thinking that Facebook just might be a good place to find other Facebook users who’ve been profile slammed (i.e. hacked) by Mitt Romney’s campaign, I created a Facebook page called (wait for it) … Hacked By Mitt Romney! We’ll see if it gains any attention.
I went through a ridiculous number of naming attempts before Facebook would let me choose the one I chose. Also, the “Facebook name” (the custom URL of http://www.facebook.com/MittYouDidntBuildThat) was also nearly impossible to choose. A number of obvious choices were already taken. Nothing with Romney in the name would be accepted. I’ve got screenshots of this and will share these when I get more time today.
