links for 2010-07-29

Nice and simple explanations: "While tasting coffee, you should try to discern whether the flavor, body, acidity and aroma of the coffee is pleasant, or unpleasant."

"Follow ThingMagic’s 100 Uses of RFID campaign to learn about innovative ways in which Radio Frequency Identification and Sensing (RFIDS) is being used to automate data collection, identification, and location systems worldwide. Track the updates below, follow the ThingMagic RFID Blog and join the discussion on Twitter using hashtag #RFID100."

"I'm a fairly competitive person. I like to win. And thanks to many hours spent in front of the screen, I find myself pretty motivated when I see an opportunity to "level up." But that being said, I still question the rush lately to add "game mechanics" to every new product and experience. As we've written before, the arguments for doing so are compelling. Game mechanics can be fun and rewarding. They can increase user engagement and can aid user adoption, referral, and retention. But does the addition of levels, leader-boards, and virtual trophies necessarily lead to a better user experience? Of course not."

"I work in online marketing and it's no secret that I blog, tweet and check in on Foursquare. Social media is largely responsible for some of my closest friendships. I've never felt unsafe participating and generally trust that the community will police itself and follow the unwritten rules. But sometimes I don't think about the consequences. Then I had a bit of a wake-up call."

""The issue with location-based information is that it exposes another layer of personal information that, frankly, we haven't had to think much about: our exact physical location at anytime, anywhere," explained the creators of PleaseRobMe.com, a website set up to expose how vulnerable Twitter users can be when displaying location-based messages, earlier this year. "If you're comfortable being a human homing beacon, that's fine, we just want you to be fully aware of what that means and the potential risks it might involve."

"Are location-based mobile applications like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla just hype? That's the potential, at-a-glance takeaway from a new study released today by Forrester Research. Only 4% of U.S. online adults have ever used location-based apps such as these, and only 1% out of those that use them do so more than once per week. Meanwhile, 84% said they weren't familiar with these apps."

"When mobile augmented reality experiences started popping up on smartphones in the last year, the majority of the apps helped people find businesses and other points-of-interest. Now as the social Web becomes increasingly mobile, the data it provides is more likely to contain location information. Foursquare and Gowalla are obvious examples of the growing social location trend, but even Twitter and YouTube can now link tweets and videos to a specific location."

"Over the last few years the consensus about privacy on the Internet seems to have changed a lot. A few years ago, people were still hesitant about using their real names online, but nowadays people are comfortable sharing their exact location with the whole world. Where does this change in consensus come from? Are people starting to feel too comfortable? We're not sure, but over-sharing might result in more risk and unintended consequence than one might think, especially in the long run."

"With universities facing swingeing funding cuts, a handful are already officially classified as "at risk" and in danger of complete financial collapse. Vince Cable, the Secretary of State with responsibility for Universities has warned that if that does happen – there'll be no Government bail-out. Meanwhile as the cuts bite, courses are being scrapped and jobs are being axed. We hear from one university where one third of the Board of Governors have stepped down after a report into their effectiveness described them as naive after presiding over an unsustainable annual deficit. "