This is the group that runs the Wayback Machine. As you’d expect, their data is all online, so the data loss was limited to documents that were in the scanning center. But they are a non-profit and the fire damage is substantial.

An early estimate shows we may have lost about $600,000 worth of high end digitization equipment, and we will need to repair or rebuild the scanning building. It is in difficult times like these that we turn to our community.

Here’s a link to the blog post describing the fire. Consider making a donation.

Some great tips here from Rich Tozzoli.

A pair of Google Inc employees involved with the internet company’s security systems have publicly lashed out at the National Security Agency, with one of the employees accusing the organization of subverting the law by intercepting communications on cables linking Google’s various data centers.

Many people have been concerned about the features removed from the latest version of iWork. Apple posted a support note detailing the features that will return in the next six months.

As Jim (and many others) reported yesterday, Apple has published a transparency document, detailing governmental requests seeking information about individual users or devices.

At the very end of the main body of the report are these two sentences:

Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.

As stated in the linked article, if Apple is ever served with a Section 215 order, they will not (unless they are granted some relief) be able to publicly discuss that fact. But, if Apple continues to publish transparency reports, the sentences quoted above will obviously be left out. A bit of a canary in a coal mine. Good move, Apple.

I will definitely get some use from this.

Dr. Karl Ulrich, Vice Dean of Innovation at the Wharton School, is an ice cream scoop collector. He turned his attention to designing the perfect scoop, and I think he got it right.

Twitter is about to go public. This is an easily digestible walkthrough of the IPO process.

Thoughtful analysis on the nature of Samsung’s smartphone sales.

In a meeting with its concerned investors on Wednesday, the head of Samsung Mobile revealed numbers illustrating that the company sold fewer high end smartphones than Apple this year, and that only about a third of the company’s total “smartphone” shipments are of a class really comparable to the iPhone.

This is a problem for Samsung. They are seeing the beginning of market saturation for their high-end smartphones, are relying on older/lesser model sales to bolster revenues. With minimal exceptions, all of Apple’s phone sales are high-end smartphones. And that’s where the margins are. Hard for Samsung to keep this going, especially without making inroads on battery life and processing power (still no 64-bit devices).

Lots to absorb, worth a read.

Wired:

Thor’s hammer Mjölnir would be the most badass weapon in comicdom even if its name didn’t sound like a Norwegian black metal band. But Marvel would have us believe that the hammer is also the god of thunder’s primary mode of transportation, and that is an unforgivable crime against the laws of physics. So we’re supposed to believe that he spins it, hurls it, and then hitches a ride on it? It’s like these people have never heard of the law of conservation of momentum!

By all means, watch the video but, and I’ve never said this before, make sure you read the comments section for the absolute nerd-gasm that is going on.

We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world.

Speaking of Warren DeMartini, Charvel has a Q&A with him posted on their site. I especially like the part about Warren and Jake E. Lee:

Imagine this: We’re both hanging out in the middle of the night watching a crappy TV with bad reception, sitting on the floor with our backs against the couch. I’m chipping away at the chords to “Round and Round,” and he’s chipping away at the chords to “Bark at the Moon.” We had no idea where those songs would take us.

Indeed.

NBC News:

The cameras strapped to the skydivers’ helmets were supposed to memorialize their perfectly timed jumps and exhilarating descent from two small planes to the earth 12,000 feet below.

When I first read about this story, it sounded like a headline out of The Onion.

I love Charvel guitars. It’s one of the few guitars that I’ve wanted, but never owned. Christmas is coming though.

Need is a monthly retailer and lifestyle magazine for the modern, discerning man. Each month, Need curates and sells an extremely limited quantity of items — including clothing, literature, furniture, artwork, alcohol, coffee, and so forth — whilst also commissioning independent journalism, photography, video, and so forth.

My good friend Matt Alexander launched his new company today. Looks good Matt, congratulations!

The Verge:

“It succeeded in every possible way,” said Jason Eberle, who built the web version of Everpix, “except for the only way that matters.”

Interesting story on the life and death of a beloved but little used startup company.

Om Malik:

Twitter is making its debut on the public markets and with that the fortunes of its founders, employees and many of its investors will change. As it crosses into adulthood, Twitter and its new owners need to remember this one thing — Twitter is us!

Sage advice from Om.

Lex Friedman asked me to participate in this story for Macworld. My desktop is usually a mess.

Apple is repurposing this First Solar facility to create sapphire glass:

Apple will build a new 700-employee manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, to make sapphire glass, according to releases from the State of Arizona and GT Advanced, a New Hampshire-based materials manufacturing company. Apple purchased the vacant manufacturing building from First Solar, and has contracted with GT Advanced to “own and operate furnaces and related equipment” at the facility.

Question is, how will Apple use sapphire glass. An alternative to Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for smart-phones? As a crystal for a smart-watch? Time will tell.

First shown off in October’s iPhone 5s rollout, the Nike Move+ app went live yesterday. If you’ve got an iPhone 5s, you can take advantage of the app to see where and how much you move during the day. I suspect this is the first of many such apps that will take advantage of the M7 motion coprocessor. Another marketing discriminator for the iPhone 5s.

First things first, open up a new Google Maps window and copy and paste these coordinates:

16°51′53″N 11°57′13″E

This should put you in the middle of Niger, Africa, smack-dab in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Start zooming in. Keep going. Eventually, the memorial to UTA Flight #772 will appear.

Flight #772 was taken down by a suitcase bomb back in September, 1989. Switch over to satellite view and you’ll get a sense of what the memorial looks like from the air. Then, follow the headline link to see pictures of the construction of the memorial, using pieces of the wreckage from the crashed jet.

Tragic and beautiful.

Virgin America really raised the bar with this one.

Dogs photographed mid-lick.

Jimmy Page:

“You shouldn’t really have to use EQ in the studio if the instruments sound good. It should all be done with microphones and microphone placement. The instruments that bleed into each other are what create the ambience.”

Great advice.

Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility:

“iPad activations on AT&T increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend, driven by consumer excitement around the new iPad Air and the popularity of AT&T Mobile Share, which lets customers add an iPad to their existing data plan for just $10 a month. We also saw strong demand for AT&T Next, which offers customers an iPad for $0 down on the nation’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network.”

I wish they would give some numbers—that statement feels like something Amazon would do. The obvious question is 200% of what?

A funny comic.

Love the sound of your Apple Earpods but can’t keep them in your ears? You don’t have to replace them, simply snap on a pair of Sprng clips to make them stay put.

Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones.