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• London teen orders 'cab, innit' - Barely believable but very funny!
• Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich? - "I never bought that Home Taping Is Killing Music shit in the 1980s that the record companies tried to lay on us. In fact I printed on the front of my fourth album that Capitalism is Killing Music. And that's what's happening now. The powerful start-ups a
• What Idiot Wrote These Ten Commandments? - "Where's the stuff we can use? Where's 'No pushing'? Or 'Bag your leaves so they don't blow around in your neighbor's yard?' And don't even get me started on right-of-way. Didn't they have real problems back in Bible days?"

I hesitate to say that it happens often, but people do sometimes talk about special abilities or super-powers, even if it’s phrased as a “party trick.” Today I realised that I have what might best be described as a special inability.

I took a quick wander into Wimbledon, the nearest town to where I live. It looked gloomy outside and the weather the previous day had been windy and a little chilly. I decided to wear a jumper and my jacket. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had misjudged the weather and that I was very warm.

This happens to me all the time.

It’s a skill that I’ve never had. I often go out only to find that I dramatically underestimated the weather. This time I dressed for arctic conditions but I can’t count the number of times that I’ve misjudged the situation the other way around.

Does this happen to everyone? In town no-one else seemed to have been caught out. Many were dressed in small jackets or jumpers — but not both — a few were in t-shirts.

How do they know?

• The Cost of E-Voting - One of the many reasons that I am against e-voting machines: the cost. "The cost … increased 179 percent per voter on average." All that money for a less reliable system. Bargain!
• Change we can believe in - I didn't realise that we were in line for some new coins. They look surprisingly good, certainly much better than the new US notes. (Originally from daringfireball.net)
• Bali bombings: A sister's search for justice - I've always said that it's much easier to be against capital punishment when it's just an abstract idea. Here the sister of one of the Bali bombing's victims argues why she's still against it.

Daniel Jalkut in his recent blog discusses a generally positive review of a useful Mac utility that closes with the suggestion that it “should be free.” The crux of his piece seems to be:

In short, if the product were free as in charity, would the product even exist, and be good enough to mention on MacBreak Weekly, where Leo could wish that it was free?

People have different motivations for making good software¹ but I think it’s fair to say that the most polished software usually has some form of income stream, whether that’s a licence fee, banner adverts or something less direct.

Of course one problem about selling software is piracy, but fortunately Brad Wardell wrote a great blog entry about just that and the effect that it has on his games company:

It’s irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you’re in the business of selling games that is). It’s only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game.

How, you might ask, is this connected with Jalkut’s argument? Well, the simple truth is that reviewers of your software are not paying customers. Their needs and desires and value judgements are not the same as yours². Of course reviewers can raise the profile of your program but unless it results in more sales and not just more usage of your software then adding features or lowering the price only to please them is a waste of time.

If you want to sell software, your first priority should be keeping your customers happy, not reviewers.

1. Jesper notes his reasons for offering his software for free. His argument makes complete sense but does not invalidate Jalkut’s complaint.↩
2. I’m reminded of the comparative reviews of word processors that you got before there was little alternative to Microsoft Word. No matter how fully featured the program was, disregarding how user-friendly it was and regardless of the quirky or unique innovations it had, no word processor would ever get an unreserved recommendation without a decent word count feature. How many people even use a word count?↩

• Everything you ever wanted to know about "Rickrolling"… - The man who sang "Never gonna give you up," the classic Stock-Aitken-Waterman pop song, makes an unexpected come back. (What's wrong with Debbie Gibson by the way?!)
• Lies and Statistics - Most people in Britain believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Or do they…?
• Our Bad. Wired Had Some Tips For Apple — We Were Wrong. - Fascinating to see how much things have changed in the last ten years.

• The Best of Technology Writing 2007 - I just finished reading this book myself yesterday. I was considering writing a review but Ars got there first and said it better than I would have done!
• Protests in Tibet erupt into violence - Violence is never a good thing, but the Olympics is undoubtedly a good time to try to raise the profile of the plight of the Tibetan people.
• Open Rights Group questions Phorm - Good to see TalkTalk, BT and Virgin Media's abuse of their own customers getting more press.