Link roundup

1. From a Q&A on The Old Republic:

GnovaD: Are there any plans to introduce mobile apps to the game? Eg. Use smart phone/tablet to send companions on missions while offline.

Damion Schubert: Let's just say that this has always been a dream of mine for crew skills - it's almost as if this design was created specifically with this in mind, doesn't it? Good news, sometimes dreams do come true! The bad news is that I have no ETA for you, though, as this is a significant technical endeavor.

2. Assassin of Secrets was supposed to be a hot new spy novel, but then readers started to recognize entire passages lifted from other novels. The resulting investigation into the mysterious author is almost certainly more interesting than the novel itself.

3. GQ has An Oral History of Tim Tebow. Sample:

JOHN FOX (head coach, Denver Broncos): The minute you meet him, he has that presence. I went and met him for dinner during the draft process down in Gainesville. He's got a notebook, and he's into it. He just likes talking ball. And he picked up the tab—I've never had that happen before.

4. How to Prevent YouTube from Keeping a Record of The Videos You Watch .

Link roundup

1. MS Corley is giving away a free sketch if you buy a copy of The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde, which is currently $10 at Amazon.

2. LA Times:

Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Blacks are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%.

Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership.

Via.

3. Bug Agentes Biologicos "perfected a way to spray its wasps onto soy fields, just as pesticides are spread via airplane" to kill parasites.

4. NY Times:

People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.

5. Play This Thing:

The Problem with Gamification is that it tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist. We already have a universal points system, across all aspects of life, that represents status and is redeemable for real world prizes. It's called "money."

Link roundup

1. Cory Doctorow:

I believe that Google has created an enormous internal urgency about Google Plus integration, and that this pressure is leading the company to take steps to integrate G+ at the expense of the quality of its other services. Consider the Focus on the User critique of Google's "social ranking" in search results, for example. In my own life, I've been immensely frustrated that my unpublished Gmail account (which I only use to anchor my Android Marketplace purchases for my phone and tablets, and to receive a daily schedule email while I'm travelling) has somehow become visible to G+ users, so that I get many, many G+ updates and invites to this theoretically private address, every day, despite never having opted into a directory and never having joined G+.

2. Warren Ellis on what would get him writing more comics:

Loads and loads of money would be nice. Access to trusted collaborators would be a bigger part of it. Without going into details, I’ve had some fairly bad luck with artists over the last several years, and it gets dispiriting! There are other factors that tend to discourage me from developing new comics work right now, but that’s one of the main ones — I ran out of people to work with.

3. I love Max Silvestri's bad movie reviews.

4. Million dollar jewelry heist at my local mall.

5. My thanks to current sponsor Alien Vault. The book's terrific - - I posted several photos of its contents in November.

Link roundup

1. How China bought its first aircraft carrier. (Hint, they lied about it.)

2. MIT students receive their acceptance letters in cardboard tubes and are encouraged to modify them. One student sent hers into space. (Have you noticed that all of the interesting stories about space have nothing to do with NASA?)

3. Mysterious new Google device being tested. Via.

Link roundup

1. Panasonic lost $10.2 billion for the year. Via.

2. How (and why) to set up Google Cloud Print.

3. A lawyer has the url rapesq.com. Via.

4. Bacon-flavored shake at Jack in the Box. Via.

Link roundup

1. Use Google Alerts as an Identity Theft Watchdog.

2. Relatedly, find out how old Google thinks you are.

3. And here's one more: Ever since the big Google Reader change, the "explore" function has been useless - - I used to find lots of neat links there, but now it just shows me Lifehacker and XKCD posts (and I'm already subscribed to those feeds!). I'm guessing that the Explore feature never points to obscure, cool posts any more because it's now reliant on Google+, and no one uses Google+ to mark blog posts they like.

4. Visit The Village from The Prisoner on Google Maps.

5. Free download of an audiobook version of Cory Doctorow's Martian Chronicles.

Google announced a new pseudonym policy for Google+

New Google+ policy:

On Google+, we try to flag names which don’t represent individuals, such as businesses or abstract ideas which should be +Pages. Sometimes we get this wrong, so starting today we’re updating our policies and processes to broaden support for established pseudonyms, from +trench coat to +Madonna.

If we flag the name you intend to use, you can provide us with information to help confirm your established identity. This might include:

- References to an established identity offline in print media, news articles, etc
- Scanned official documentation, such as a driver’s license
- Proof of an established identity online with a meaningful following

We’ll review the information and typically get back to you within a few days. We may also ask for further information, such as proof that you control a website you reference. While a name change is under review, your old name will continue to be displayed. For new accounts without an old name, your profile will be in a non-public, read-only state during the review. Either way, you'll be able to see the status of your review by going to your profile.

For more details, check out the Google+ Names Policy: http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1228271

To reiterate, the features described herein will be rolling out over the next couple days.

Via.

One Hour Per Second

One Hour Per Second, a charming site filled with information about how much video is uploaded to Youtube. (Every time I see one of these delightful HTML experiments, I'm reminded of the inexplicably horrendous Google Reader redesign.) Via.

Link roundup

1. Nightmare fuel.

2. Apparently Google's new signup form for Google accounts now requires users to join Google+ and use Gmail, as well as provide name and gender.

3. Sean Hartter has a new coloring book for sale.

4. Chris Dodd explains American politics:

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," Dodd said on Fox News on Thursday.

Google Minecraft

Now this is seriously cool. Make it happen, Google!