Linked List: January 8, 2011

Saturday, 8 January 2011

‘There’s Consequences to That Action’ ★

Gabrielle Giffords, back in March:

We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. People who do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.

iPhone = Mac 2.0 ★

Jean-Louis Gassée on the “iPhone is going the way of the Mac” trope:

I have my own set of questions about the Mac’s “failure”.

First, shall we agree that Microsoft “open” model is the exception rather than the rule? How many other examples of the Microsoft platform licensing model, with its caveats, prohibitions, and insistence on fealty, do we see? Have we forgotten that Microsoft’s methods led to a conviction of being a monopolist?

Second, there is the Mac’s rebirth. Last year, its US market share approached 10%, with a 90% unit share in the $1k-and-greater segment. For the past five years, Mac unit sales have grown faster than the PC industry.

Great piece.

Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot in the Head at Public Event in Arizona ★

Sarah Palin’s political action committee placed ads which put a gunshot target over Giffords.

Her opponent in last year’s election held a campaign event at a gun range, to “get on target” to “remove Gabrielle Giffords from office”.

DOJ Subpoenas Twitter Records of Several WikiLeaks Volunteers ★

Glenn Greenwald:

It was issued on December 14 and ordered sealed — i.e., kept secret from the targets of the Order. It gave Twitter three days to respond and barred the company from notifying anyone, including the users, of the existence of the Order. On January 5, the same judge directed that the Order be unsealed at Twitter’s request in order to inform the users and give them 10 days to object; had Twitter not so requested, it would have been compelled to turn over this information without the knowledge of its users.

Kudos to Twitter. They didn’t have to ask for this.