links for 2009-12-15

Right from Obi Wan & Yoda to Transformers, the geekiness universe visualized.

The current leader will always try to control growth, and thus slit its own throat. Call that Gates' Law, because he both discovered it (as it applied to IBM) and fell victim to it (in his struggle to control the web).

'Using a male pseudonym when you're a woman isn't anything new. Writers have been doing it for centuries. George Eliot, George Sand, Isak Dinesen. Even the Brontë sisters, championed today, wrote as Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell back in their time.
Why did they do it? To have their work accepted, because women weren't supposed to be writers. Their work had a much better chance if their audience didn't have to get over initial skepticism that a woman could write at all, much less do it well.'

Text of a speech Bill Watterson gave at Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio, to the 1990 graduating class. Includes his experiences like painting a copy of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" from the Sistine Chapel on the ceiling of the dorm room.

Now you know what to do & how to do it. Wonder whether they'll come out with the perfect automated pizza cutter next…

Leveraging word of mouth & an incentive driven system to maximize impact

'Rainmeter is a desktop customization platform. Through Rainmeter, you can enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins: handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gagdgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac.'

A very handy list of freeware tools, including Win 7 shortcuts, virus scanners, Firefox, Thunderbird etc

A handy way to run Ubuntu Linux within Windows, especially to run Linux only Apps. Should also run off a USB drive.

Very handy utility to enable the Windows 7 shortcuts like dock window to the left/right, show desktop etc, for Windows XP & Vista

A bunch of windows recovery tools