Notes for 11/23/2008

Here are my weekly notes:

• As I write this, Sharon is busy watching 24: Redemption. The DVD will be released on Tuesday. I have written about simultaneous movie releases in the past, and this is pretty darn close. Start of a trend, perhaps?
• Here’s another interesting post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog, this time about the taskbar.
• Interesting map of alcohol consumption around the world.
• The Dark Knight, the most successful movie of 2008, is also the most pirated. I think the lesson there is to make great movies, and the money will follow.
• Fascinating article about The Netflix Prize in the NYTimes recently. Apparently “Napolean Dynamite” and a handful of other films are preventing the leaders in the competition from making further progress.
• All good technologies will be used for negative purposes, there’s no avoiding that. Still, it’s sad to hear that a 19-year-old committed suicide on Justin.tv.
• I love looking at pictures of Dubai. Here’s another great set from Boston.com. I really like their “The Big Picture” feature.
• Something I’ll need to look into further: Twilio, an API for phone services.