Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Rednod, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, Bite-Sized Edits, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

1. Looking back at the Infocom era: a review of Get Lamp – Ars Technica. "Last week, I shared a link to an interactive story told in the old world of BBSes. Well, the text adventure is a close cousin to that world, and Ars Technica has a good story on Get Lamp, a documentary about the text adventure. These were one of the first forms of interactive narrative (unless you count the Choose Your Own Adventure books) and I can’t wait to watch the movie, having been killed by a Grue so many times in Zork. Plus, here’s a trailer." (Alistair for Hugh).
2. Is it better to fade away than burn out? – BBC. "I never gave much thought to the fade. But apparently it’s got some musical history – from the early fade, when they simply moved the microphones away from the musicians, to modern pieces that use the fade for creative effect. This BBC piece on the fade  will appeal to anyone who’s worked in some part of the music industry, or even just wondered why The Smiths‘ Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ simply fades in the middle." (Alistair for Mitch).
3. Ray Kurzweil Does Not Understand the Brain – Pharyngula. "Ray Kurzweil is a visionary, an inventor, and purveyor of the cult of Singularity: that moment, nigh, when computers’ processing power will finally outshine human intelligence. Kurzweil a smart fellow, and invigorating to read and listen to …but, PZ Meyers says, one thing he doesn’t know much about is the human brain. I don’t have strong opinions on the validity of either argument, but it is fun to watch such geekery in mortal, snarky combat." (Hugh for Alistair).
4. A Letter to the Editor of the Charleston Gazette – Pat Conroy. "This week is Banned Books Week, and in honour of all those books that will corrupt the mind of our youth, here is Pat Conroy‘s passionate letter to the editor of The Charleston Gazette, in defense of English teachers, reading, and readers. I love this: ‘Because bookbanners are invariably idiots, they don’t know how the world works — but writers and English teachers do.’" (Hugh for Mitch).
5. This is a news website article about a scientific paper – The Guardian. "We all get a kick out of watching science unfold in the era of Social Media. While peer review is still the industry standard, more and more people are leveraging these publishing platforms to share their insights and research. Most of that content reads as long-winded dribble to the average person (like me). Here is a very funny and sarcastic play on what these typical papers and Blog posts look like. This one really cracked me up. It also made me realize how huge of a nerd I actually am." (Mitch for Alistair).
6. The iPad vs magazines – The Wall. "As Alistair noted in last week’s selections, the three of us really like infographics. And if there’s something we like more than infographics, it is talking about the publishing industry. Here’s a killer combo of the two that focuses on the price and challenges of this very disruptive media in a time where the traditional business models for the magazine industry is also shifting (and at stake)." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now, it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.