Daily Reading from December 09, 2008

Links to what I’ve been reading recently.

• Piwik - Web analytics - Open source — "Piwik aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics. "
• A List Apart: Articles: Getting Real About Agile Design — "There are still ways to fit quality design work into an Agile world. "
• Flashbulb Interaction | Working through Screens Book — "Working through Screens is a reference for product teams creating new or iteratively improved applications for thinking work. Written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides teams with a broad range of considerations for setting the overall direction and ..."
• In the Cloud or Not? — "...Compare different styles of cloud services to different ways landlords can run their business. (E.g. with Google App Engine you get carpet and furniture as part of the deal, and meals delivered as an option, while Amazon EC2 rents out ..."
• Would Email Marketing Work If Your List Had To Re-Subscribe To Every Email? | Speakr — "How successful would you be with email marketing if you asked your subscribers, on every email and before they could read the message, to re-subscribe to your list? "
• On-Demand Subscription Management – Billing and Payment Solutions — "Zuora is the leader in subscription billing and recurring payments. "
• Subscription Billing | Aria Systems — "Aria’s configurable Subscription Billing Engine automates invoicing, collections, and exception management processes. "
• techvideoblog.com » Blog Archive » Online video sites HD quality comparison — "Here are my measurements of the HD qualities among the different video services for 16:9 content. "
• How to Make a Powerful First Impression - Making a good first impression - Entrepreneur.com — "Learn the art of presence and small talk from communications experts who swear you can do it even if you don’t think you can. "
• Secret Geek A-Team Hacks Back, Defends Worldwide Web — "Kaminsky was alone in his Seattle apartment when he discovered asecurity vulnerability that could leave banks, online retailers, and ISPs open to hackers. "
• How Online Gamblers Unmasked Cheaters, 60 Minutes/Washington Post Joint Investigation Questions Honesty, Security Of Gambling Sites - CBS News — "A 60 Minutes and The Washington Post joint investigation reveals how poker players helped break the biggest cheating scandal in Internet gambling, Steve Kroft reports. "
• Seth's Blog: What to do about Detroit — "Shared by akalsey Seth Godin on bringing innovation back to the auto industry. I’d spend a billion dollars to make the creation of a car company turnkey. Make it easy to get all the safety and regulatory approvals... as easy ..."
• The art of the bootstrap — "[Editor’s note: With the economic downturn drying up venture capital in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, more early-stage companies will be forced to bootstrap their way to profitability. But what does that actually mean for the companies who go this route? ..."
• How to Handle a Workplace Bully
• How the tough get going — "[Editor’s Note: One of the benefits of inviting guest columnists from the business community is the ability to present first-hand accounts of their experiences (good and bad)—and the lessons they’ve learned. Below, venture capitalist and founder of user-generated ..."
• Be a Man: Learn to Cook — Image from jazzejungueinc Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Scott Kustes, author of the Modern Forager blog. Check it out and sign up for his RSS updates. Back at the beginning of July, Brett asked the question, ...
• 6 Lessons in Manliness from James Bond — Editor’s Note: In honor of Quantum of Solace being released today, AoM contributor Cameron Schaefer has put together this rundown of Bond’s most manly qualities. Admit it, if you’re a man, you’ve thought about how cool it would be ...
• File Descriptors are Yummy or Common Pitfalls of Ejabberd | metajack.im — "Shared by akalsey Good description of ejabberd’s usage of file descriptors on Linux Most operating systems of the Unix lineage give users a maximum of 1024 file descriptors to play with. Normally this is plenty. With Erlang, this limit soon ..."
• The Onion pits OS X Snow Leopard against Windows 7 — "The satirical website The Onion often has hilarious takes on current events. This week, it turned its sights on what will undoubtedly be a big debate next year: OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) versus Windows 7. The new operating systems ..."
• Warren Noronha: MySQL Master-Master Replication Manager
• With Eye on Future, Microsoft Offer Startups Freebies — "Updated: Microsoft, in an effort to woo startups and combat the open source movement, is going to start offering free software and online services to certain types of startups across the world, the company announced today. This effort, dubbed “Biz ..."
• Non-Compete Agreements and the Abyss — "With all the hoopala regarding the recent IBM/Apple spat over Mark Pappermater’s non compete, I thought I might add to my “Abyss” series of blogs. You could say I earned my law degree on the street. I always joke that ..."