Weekend Clippings

This is the first of what will hopefully become a regular series of links for the weekend. It contains headlines and links to any stories I’ve enjoyed reading through the week, but haven’t had time to write about.

Usually this feature will focus on internet, technology, science and gaming-related news, but from time to time other topics may creep in too. Basically, it’ll be anything and everything that annoys, interests, excites, scares, amuses, and fascinates me from this week’s news.
I cull links throughout the week from a number of sources: reddit, del.icio.us, digg, and bloglines clippings are the main ones. As usual, I’ll endeavour to give credit where credit’s due:

• Contact Sport (The Guardian) | How social networking can be a good thing for businesses.

• Track Browsing Habits and Curb Procrastination with MeeTimer (Lifehacker) | Find out how much time you waste every day. Don’t tell your boss about this one though!

• University Presses Being Left Behind by Digital Era (ArsTechnica) | How new web technologies are helping to bring an end to the reign of the large academic publishing houses.

• Facebook Takes Action Against Black Hat Apps (TechCrunch) | Facebook fights back against applications which use dubious spamming tactics to spread among users.

• Preview of Spore (Eurogamer) | An excellent preview of Will Wright’s (The Sims) highly anticipated new evolution game for PC.

• YouTube Makes Video Ads Optional for Content Owners (Mashable) | In what could be seen as a U-turn, Google announced that the new overlay ads will only be available for those who subscribe to their InVideo service.

• Most Popular YouTube Videos of All Time (ReadWriteWeb) | Ever wondered what is the most viewed, most favourited video ever? Wonder no more.

• Google Invades Outer Space (The Register) | More Google-related fare: this week the big G announced an extension to Google Earth — Google Sky, allowing users to conduct free desk-based astronomy.

• Astronomers Find Gaping Hole in the Universe (PhysOrg) | Astronomers from the University of Minnesota have found an area of the Universe which is completely and utterly empty…

• Illuminating the Net’s Dark Ages (BBC News) | Interesting insight into a poorly documented period in Internet history.

• Warner Bros. Videos Audience To Catch Audience Videoing Movies (BoingBoing) | And finally, in what is surely one of the most bizarre anti-piracy moves yet, Warner Bros. has resorted to employing some guy to stand in the corner of a cinema and film the audience to make sure no one is taping the movie. BoingBoing strikes another blow against corporate absurdity.