Links for August 5th through August 7th

• The Place Of The Telephone Call In Today’s World
  The short, happy life of the phonecall.
• Is LaGuardia the new Las Vegas?
  "Does it mean that people now expect to spend so much time waiting in airports that they’ve become dining destinations? Or does it mean that airports are changing their profiles, and every vacation will now begin with a few lovely hours before the plane departs?"
• Strange Loop 2010!
  Java nerdery in St. Louis.
• Hyperic Broadens vSphere Support through vCenter APIs in Version 4.4
  in-depth vSphere integration, moving towards filling out the virtual application development vision.
• State of the Cloud – August 2010
• Digging Into Demand Media IPO: Losing Money And Domain Name Business Still 44% Of Revenues
  Domain name registration and eHow generating nice chunks of revenue. Who's buying all those domain names?
• Amazon: Enterprises should adjust cloud expectations | Cloud Computing – InfoWorld
  Ironing out legal issue around cloud use.
• Google boss turns Wave demise into success of sorts • The Register
  A Google version of "privacy is dead": "in a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."
• Autonomic Resources Launches Government Cloud Solutions
  targeting US federal government cloud sales.
• Inflated billions hide cloud’s cash potential
• Microsoft SaaS Free Month Of Windows Azure For US Developers
  Get the Azure PaaS free for month, with support.
• SoftLayer and ThePlanet merge
  trying to build the next Rackspace.
• New set of MOF 4.0 Materials Released
  New release of Microsoft's self-proclaimed "ITIL lite."
• Mac usage surges amongst University of Virginia freshmen since 2004
• The Middle: WP Engine
  WordPress hosting for $50 a month.
• Global IT spending set to rise
  Let's hope they're right: "According to the research, services expenditure is set to rise two percent, software spending by four percent and hardware spending by a whopping 11 percent."
• Ballmer's 'lost generation' note finds resonance • The Register

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