Why sf book-to-movie adaptations suck; golden ratio in web design; more stupid surveillance paranoia – aircraft seat-back edition; dialogue in non-fiction …

• 1 – Open source a more disruptive [M$oft] competitor than Google
  “Google has nothing on open source when it comes to potential competitive threats to Microsoft, according to Redmond’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie.”
  (tags: microsoft competition industry software economics opensource FOSS)
• 2 – Why the Movie Version of Your Favorite SciFi Book Stinks, Part I
  Scalzi: “… she looked at me and asked: “Why does Hollywood do such a bad job turning science fiction books into movies?” To which I said, “Because it doesn’t matter if they do a bad job or not.”" Point.
  (tags: adaptations movies books fiction science scifi sf)
• 3 – Giant space vegetables ‘could feed the world’
  “How sending seeds into space produces such enormous fruit is yet not fully understood, but it is thought cosmic radiation, micro-gravity and magnetic fields may play a part.” Biggest. Pumpkin. Evar?
  (tags: research science microgravity vegetables food agriculture space)
• 4 – Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs
  “This article explains what is the Divine proportion and what is the Rule of Thirds and describes how you can apply both of them effectively to your designs.” Golden Ratio FTW.
  (tags: golden-ratio proportion layout design webdev)
• 5 – In-flight surveillance could foil terrorists in the sky
  “A prototype European system uses multiple cameras and “Big Brother” software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.” Oh, for f*ck’s sake. I despair, sometimes.
  (tags: terrorism system CCTV paranoia surveillance aircraft)
• 6 – 3 Things You Need to Know about Using Dialogue in Non-fiction
  “Dialogue works as a hook because it makes a story out of mere information. Open a daily paper at random and observe how journalists use this technique.”
  (tags: tips dialogue writing nonfiction)
• 7 – Strange Ring Found Circling Dead Star
  “Wachter and her colleagues think that the ring, which is unlike anything ever seen before, formed in 1998 when the crusty iron surface of the magnetar cracked and erupted in a giant flare.” Space is awesome.
  (tags: science astronomy ejecta metallic ring magnetar star space)