This Harvard Book Store-sponsored reading was, in typical Gladwellian fashion, mesmerizing.

Recently:

His gift for spotting an intriguing mystery, luring the reader in, then gradually revealing his lessons in lucid prose, is on vivid display.

Also:

"It's a yarn. In this case, it's an elaborate joke: it's a send-up of the seriousness with which journalists take themselves."

Finally:

Consider Joe Lockhart.

Malcolm Gladwell at First Parish Church

It's almost 2009, and honestly, all you really need to know to be a success in this business you can read in the Cuckoo’s Egg.

Recently:

The first rule of Confidential Document Fight Club is you cannot acknowledge the existence of Confidential Document Fight Club.

From years ago:

Many system security failures occur not so much for technical reasons but because of failures of organisation and motivation.

And yet we still ask ourselves:

Why is information security so dysfunctional?

Fight Club

Lynda Gratton:

If the crowd is indeed wise, why do we put our faith in the decisions and knowledge of a tiny fraction of people? I expect to see over the coming years a growing realisation that distributed decision-making and leadership to a wider group of diverse people results in better decisions. This will have profound implications for the selection and development of leaders.

Recessions give space for new ideas to flourish

Daniel Soar:

It’s an approach that leads to a few pleasing surprises, and it has the advantage of being characterful. But a sense of authority is lost.

It's that time of year.

Listing, and Listlessness | LRB

Native Client is an open-source research technology for running x86 native code in web applications, with the goal of maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability, and safety that people expect from web apps. We've released this project at an early, research stage to get feedback from the security and broader open-source communities. We believe that Native Client technology will someday help web developers to create richer and more dynamic browser-based applications.

Naturally it is easier to run OpenOffice in a browser if you can just run OpenOffice in your browser.

Native Client

Jeffrey Rosen:

Six years on, the Department of Homeland Security is still a catastrophe.

Man-Made Disaster

Malcom Gladwell:

We should be lowering our standards, because there is no point in raising standards if standards don’t track with what we care about.

Most Likely to Succeed

"Can you track me now?"

Zoombak, a privately held subsidiary of Liberty Media, develops leading edge solutions that keep consumers connected to their families, pets and possessions.

Zoombak now offers consumers a compact, assisted (A-GPS) locator that employs satellite-enabled GPS and a location network server to provide fast, reliable and accurate location technology to its customers.

The Zoombak Advanced GPS Locator features capabilities for a broad number of services ranging from locating lost pets and stolen cars, to helping concerned parents monitor teenage and senior drivers in their family. Through a secure area of Zoombak.com, users can establish customized “safety zones” which alert them via email and mobile phone text message if the locator device leaves or enters its intended location.

Zoombak

Are the new ascetics masters of self-denial or just self-promotion?

Thoreau's Worst Nightmare

Gabriel Sherman, in New York:

In the bleakest stock market of the past 70 years, when hedge funds and 401(k)s alike have cratered, few people are smiling. But short-seller Jim Chanos, whose fund is up 50 percent, is having the time of his life.

How Short-Seller Jim Chanos Is Profiting From the Suffering Stock Market