There’s no PhotoFriday this week but I thought I’d post an picture anyway. This one was taken in August 2001 and is from Sirmeone looking back down the peninsula towards Colombare. It was this holiday, in Northern Italy, when I first started getting into photography more seriously. I went to Desenzano with no plans and a stack of different types of film. I’d read a lot about Velvia 50 and really wanted to like it but I ended up sticking to Sensia which tended to work better for me and was significantly cheaper!

• UK ID Card Technology Cloned… – “… in 12 minutes.” Wonder when the government will get the message that ID cards are a bad idea. Oh, and there’s no such thing as unforgeable.
• The hidden truth behind drug company profits – “The idea of ring-fencing life-saving medical knowledge so a few people can profit from it is one of the great grotesqueries of our age. We have to tear down this sick system – so the sick can live.” Big companies and the patent system effectively kill the poorest and most vulnerable people.
• Bodega – Interesting idea: an app store for the Mac. Not run by Apple and hence no crazy review process!

• In pictures: Satellite eye on Earth – July – Awesome images.
• Amber Ale: Brewing Beer From 45-Million-Year-Old Yeast – Science, history and beer, and all in one story. How could I not bookmark this article?
• Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline – “The evidence is staring Microsoft’s leadership in the face that they have lost the most lucrative segment of the market, but, judged by their actions and public remarks, they seem to think it’s all a big joke. They should be sweating this but they’re laughing it off.”

In fact this isn’t the first “Cameraphone Shot” that I’ve entered as an entry to PhotoFriday. This shot isn’t perfect but I think it makes good use of the available light. It kind of goes back to the old adage that the best camera is the one that you have with you. I could have done better with my 50D but that was at home.

• Anatomy of a feature – Great post describing how hard it really is to add a supposedly easy feature.
• The Matrix, but with money: the world of high-speed trading – Good introductory piece about algo trading and the technology used to implement it.

• Senior City-zens: The World’s 10 Oldest Still-Inhabited Cities – “I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from.” Maybe Eddie Izzard should have gone with “I was born in the middle east, where the really old history comes from.”
• Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule – If you can’t actually avoid meetings, then at least try to schedule them so you can maximise your productivity. Rings true…
• There’s a pretty significant problem in the new… – I’m starting to expect Graham Chapman to burst in at any second and announce that this is getting far too silly. Apparently any iPhone app that allows “unfiltered internet access,” everything from web browsers to Twitter clients to, presumably, delicious.com clients, now requires a 17+ rating.

For this weeks PhotoFriday, “My Favourite Spot,” you could interpret my picture in one of two ways. Firstly as “with friends and family.” The second would be “with a glass of beer in my hand.” I picked this one just to be contrary, as most of the other entries appear to be sunsets!

I’m running a bit late this week, but if there’s still time then please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Eyes.” I’m entry number 66.

• The giant Apollo 11 post – The best of the web on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
• Year two – Nice analysis of where the App Store need to change in order to keep both customers and developers happy.
• Let’s all take a deep breath and get some perspective – “[Google are] starting to look like the new Scott McNealy. Remember him? Ran a company called Sun, which had a great little business going until McNealy became obsessed with Gates and started doing things like paying millions of dollars to buy StarOffice so he could get into that booming free software business.”

For this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Eyes,” I was very tempted to use the image I took for the “Extreme Closeup” challenge but then realised that it was only a couple of months ago, a bit too soon to use it again.

Instead I picked the above picture of Lena, which was taken in my first time working in a studio. It’s actually a crop of a picture I normally use in black and white.

• Evolution Test – I just don’t get it. Is evolution really that hard? How can you misunderstand it so badly that you can come up with this list of questions and think it proves… well, anything? (Part of me hates to single out this site as there are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar ones.)
• Crash Could Free Up Wall Street’s Grip on Bright Young Minds – “But the big paychecks came with what economists call opportunity costs. Instead of spending their days searching for exotic trades, some of these Wall Street wizards could’ve been creating drugs, imagining software, or solving energy problems.”
• The Norway Lesson: The Benefits of Good Financial Behavior – “Norway made it a point to budget, to save, and to protect against unnecessary risk. Then, it went on to buy when everyone else was selling.” Any other country would have spent all earnings from oil on tax cuts (that’s what happened with North Sea Gas in the UK), but Norway did the smart thing.