Links I enjoyed this week from around the internet.
Business
• Why Your Customers Don’t Want to Talk to You. This is a very interesting study in how customers like easy, low-bar self-service. I think this is very important as there are many days, I love the self-service checkout at the grocery store.
Environment
• What BP Could Have Bought With All the Money They Lost. I love infographics. And this is kind of a crazy, crazy amount of profit. Like does any company need this much money? It could do so much good in the world.
• China launches oil spill clean-up after pipeline blasts. There’s another oil spill happening, only this time in the Yellow Sea in China. Two oil pipelines going into a port burst.
Fandom and Feminism
• Live Nerd Girls. Lucy Knisley’s comic about how women are treated by men in nerd fandoms. And about the stories we tell ourselves in our heads.
• Friends of Lulu Slated to Shut Down in September. This is really sad. Friends of Lulu helps out women comic writers and artists.
• ‘Cause I’m Nerdcore Like That: Toward a Subversive Geek Identity.
When we’re talking about the Avengers, I want to bring up the Young Avengers, especially the relationship developing between Wiccan and Hulkling, and speculate when they might get around to kissing. But that is going to raise some hackles. Iron Man is an Avenger, Thor is an Avenger, Captain America is an Avenger, and some comic book readers feel that a gay Avenger is beyond the pale, let alone two. They fall in love with the object, the idea, the past and forget that the things they love are constantly evolving. They care more about the “integrity” of the series than they do about people.
• Jane Austen’s Fight Club. No hat pins, no corsets, and no crying.
• Real Live Girls. Yes, there are women at ComicCon. And no, it’s not news.
Literature
• And Now, a Dollop of Poetry Atop Your Blog Sundae. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who say they don’t read poetry because they don’t understand it. Chuck Wendig does a great post about the two things you need to understand to read poetry and understand it.
Social Media
• Can Google Challenge Facebook in Social? Key Industry Thinkers Say… Maybe. This is really interesting. I don’t know if Google going social will crush Facebook, but soon or later, something will.
• 6 Actually-Useful Facebook Apps For SMBs. Actually, useful apps on Facebook. No way.
• The Worst Email Habits and Annoyances You Should Avoid (or At Least Be Aware Of). Usually, I am not a big fan of Lifehacker, but this was actually pretty good. As were the comments. Especially since it focused on corporate e-mails, not forwards from relatives.
Technology
• If you were hacking since age 8, it means you were privileged.
Often, computer geeks who started programming at a young age brag about it, as it is a source of geeky prestige. However, most computer geeks are oblivious to the fact that your parents being able to afford a computer back in the 1980s is a product of class privilege, not your innate geekiness. Additionally, the child’s gender affects how much the parents are willing to financially invest in the child’s computer education. If parents in the 1980s think that it is unlikely their eight-year-old daughter will have a career in technology, then purchasing a computer may seem like a frivolous expense.
• WordPress Theme Thesis Maker Backs Down, Adopts GPL. WordPress is awesome and open source. And Thesis was expensive, made its developer/designer Chris Pearson a lot a money, and well, now it’s going to be free. I’d hate to be someone who paid for it right now.
• India unveils prototype for $35 touch-screen computer. Step over, iPad. Step far, far away.