Links for 06-26-2008

• Intel stays behind the curve … again | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com - I still have a nagging suspicion that there's more resistance to and less interest in Vista than one would normally expect from a major upgrade. However, I agree with Ed that a lot of what we're hearing now we heard when XP came out.
• Facebook: Better Cloud Servers Needed - Data Center Knowledge - Computers in shipping contaienrs do seem to be a legit trend--at least for a few mega-scale service providers.
• North Carolina will pay IBM $750,000 for 10 jobs | The Register - Leaving aside Ashlee's customary snark, I found the small staffing numbers for next gen datacenters interesting. This reinforces some of Nick Carr's more negative ponderings in The Big Switch.
• The Long Tail: Where to run the One Machine? - Location matters in the cloud. Three strategies.
• Megan McArdle (June 26, 2008) - The vast neo-con conspiracy turns its eyes to Europe - "I am reminded of PJ O'Rourke's comment that America is like the most popular (and hated) girl in the class. Canada and Europe, particularly, seem to be prone to the illusion that we spend all of our time thinking up ways to make them feel bad, when in truth we barely think about them at all. "
• The Mouse Is Dead - I don't especially buy the "mouse is dead" meme. But, as I've written about, I do think that there's plenty of opportunity for new input devices to come on the scene.
• louisgray.com: Smart People, Stupid Tweets. Fake News Spreads Fast on Twitter. - Amen. Speed is not always your friend. "Whether you're writing a blog post or entering something on Twitter, it absolutely makes sense to take a cue from traditional media and check your facts."
• Monospace/Fixed Width Programmer's Fonts - If you're tired of using Courier for your monospaced font needs.
• Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant -
  "So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package. The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind."