Links for 07-31-2008

• Xobni Can Make Good Old Email Even More Useful | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD - I'm still on the fence about this. Some useful features, a lot of useless analytical stuff that tends to get in the way.
• The Long Tail: How big is the free economy? - Interesting numbers here. So online game revenue about the same as all non-Linux Open Source (c. $1B)?
• Coding Horror: Alpha, Beta, and Sometimes Gamma - "there are two clear trends: The definition of beta grows more all-encompassing and elastic every year. We are awfully eager to throw alpha quality code over the wall to external users and testers."
• Call Me Fishmeal.: “The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing - Great line: "Vista is known for people initially liking it, then after a while discovering it’s not working for them, and “downgrading” to XP. This study has told us exactly what we already knew: that, initially, people like Vista. (Initially, people like having sex without condoms, too... it’s simply not a very good criterion all by itself.)"
• Mike On Ads » Blog Archive » Using your browser URL history to estimate gender - No question there (92% male). And it's not like I visit porn sites. Drivers seem to include digg (popular headlines), noaa (weather??!), newegg (ok, I build computers). Does suggest how powerful even high-level data mining can be.
• A Windows-Based Bar Exam Policy: No Macs Allowed - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog - I get hand cramps writing more than a few sentences these days. I'd be at a huge disadvantage if I had to write a time-limited essay by hand. Plus I'm not sure even I would be able to read it.
• Center for Citizen Media: Blog » Blog Archive » Journalists and Communities: What I Told AJR - The bigger theme is that local is one area that the Web does, at best, inconsistently. (But more traditional media could better leverage what is there.)