David S.F. Portree for Wired:

On 10 June 1977, former Skylab Deputy Director John Disher, NASA’s Director of Advanced Programs, directed NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, to conduct an in-house study of the feasibility of reusing Skylab in the Space Shuttle program. On 16 November 1977, MSFC engineers J. Murphy, B. Chubb, and H. Gierow presented results of the study to NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight John Yardley. Before coming to NASA in 1974, Yardley had managed Skylab assembly at McDonnell Douglas, the Orbital Workshop’s prime contractor.

A fascinating look inside a NASA program to fix America’s first space station and use it as a way station for the Space Shuttle. The projected costs were fairly modest, and would have kept Skylab operational through the 1980s.

Skylab is a footnote to the history of America’s space exploration. Skylab was crippled from the start because of damage incurred at liftoff, and only hosted three crews.

Delays associated with the Space Shuttle program doomed any chance of the Skylab reuse effort coming to fruition. It re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in 1979, breaking up into pieces and crashing into the ocean near Perth, Australia.

Matt Gemmell:

Piracy isn’t a symptom of social disease. Well, it might be, but your bank manager won’t care about that inconsequential detail. Piracy is a symptom of failure to find an effective business model.

So many good points in this article.

Sprite Cow looks really cool.

Jordan Robertson for Bloomberg:

In the 15 years that computer hackers have gathered in Las Vegas for the Black Hat conference, an event where unknowns can become stars and tech heavyweights are skewered for security failures, one company has been noticeably absent: Apple.

…

That will change Thursday when Dallas De Atley, manager of Apple’s platform security team, is scheduled to give a presentation on key security technologies within iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads.

Folks from Apple have certainly attended security conferences in the past, but this is the first time that they’ve actually spoken at this event, according to its general manager.

Jeff Blagdon for the Verge:

A ruling from the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court in Germany turns a new page in the ongoing legal saga between Apple and Samsung, clearing the way for the Korean maker’s redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1N, but extending a German ban on the smaller Galaxy Tab 7.7 to the entire EU.

Apple has been trying to get the Galaxy Tab 10.1N blocked for months, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. The German courts say it’s different enough from its predecessor.

One of the best backup applications for your Mac is Mike Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner, now up to version 3.5. The new release brings Mountain Lion support and has “transitioned” to a fully paid application – while Bombich worked for Apple, the software was donationware. Mike is no longer at Apple and he wants to get paid!

CCC creates automated, incremental and bootable backups and makes backing up simple and easy.

The new version costs $39.95 but is on sale for $29.96 for a limited time.

Igloo Software is the best way to collaborate at work, whether you want to improve the way one team shares information or connect people and processes across your entire business. Think of it like an intranet you actually want to use. Igloo’s digital workplace is delivered in the cloud, so it works on any device – from iPhone to iPad to Mac – anywhere you are.

The Igloo team is always working to make their platform better. In fact, they update the platform every 90 days. Pearl, Igloo’s latest software update, instantly brings over 20 new features to every Igloo customer. Updates include social content archiving, support for multi-lingual content, instant translations of user generated content and social analytics.

Igloo for teams starts at just $99 a month for up to 25 users.

You can also sign-up to win a Krups Heineken tap of your very own.

Steven Sande:

In a strangely humorous case of “what goes around comes around”, the law firm that helped Chinese manufacturer Proview win a US$60 million settlement against Apple for use of the trademark “iPad” in China is now suing Proview to get back at least $2.4 million in legal fees that have been left unpaid.

A couple of pieces from Banksy.

By examining last apple’s statement about in-app purchases in iOS 6, I can say, that currently game is over. Currently we have no way to bypass updated APIs. It’s a good news for everyone, we have updated security in iOS, developers have their air-money.

Samantha Grossman:

Over the past five years, the average net worth of Canadian households has exceeded that of American households. So for the the first time in history, Canadians are wealthier than Americans — by more than $40,000, on average. In 2011, the average net worth of a Canadian household was $363,202, compared to $319,970 in the U.S., according to Environics Analytics WealthScapes data published in the Globe and Mail. (‘Average net worth’ measures the total combined value of a household’s liquid and real estate assets, minus debt.)

The collapse of the American housing market in 2008 is one of the major factors, according to the report.

Wired:

Jobs has been dead for nearly a year, but the biography about him is still a best seller. Indeed, his life story has emerged as an odd sort of holy scripture for entrepreneurs—a gospel and an antigospel at the same time.To some, Jobs’ life has revealed the importance of sticking firmly to one’s vision and goals, no matter the psychic toll on employees or business associates. To others, Jobs serves as a cautionary tale, a man who changed the world but at the price of alienating almost everyone around him.For those who, like Jobs, have pledged to “put a dent in the universe,” his thorny life story has forced a reckoning. Is it really worth being like Steve?

Peter Kafka:

The Department of Justice posted the settlement, invited public comment, and then ignored the public comment.

Why bother asking for public comments if you’re just going to ignore them anyway?

Francie Diep for InnavationNewsDaily:

A half-inch-long juvenile jellyfish pulses and swims much like any of its compatriots in oceans all over the world. The major difference? It’s entirely man-made. “It’s a biohybrid robot. It’s part animal, it’s part synthetic material,” said Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University who led the jellyfish-building effort.

The “jellyfish” was engineered to help scientists understand how biological pumps work, to aid them ultimately in creating artificial hearts using biological material. It’s an amazing step forward, if a bit creepy. The “biohybrid robot” comprises silicone material and heart cells harvested from rats.

There’s a video embedded on the page that show you the “artificial jellyfish” in motion, and it really does look like a jellyfish.

Jeff John Roberts for paidcontent.org:

The Justice Department released a document today that characterized criticism by Apple and publishers of a controversial price-fixing settlement as “self-serving” and ill-founded. The Department also pointed to recent ventures by Google and Microsoft as evidence that the e-book market is thriving and that Amazon’s dominant position has been overstated.

The Department of Justice is on its heels after Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) told them to call off their lawsuit in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that ran earlier this month.

There’s a lot in here, from how the DoJ perceives Apple’s role in all this, to responses to the Authors Guild, another outspoken critic of the settlement, and more. Suffice to say that the Department of Justice has not been convinced that its settlement wasn’t acting in the best interest of the public.

And even uglier than before.

Luthier Andrew Guyton adds a neck to Brian May’s Red Special.

Look what FedEx just delivered. I’m going into the studio to play.

Aaron Souppouris for The Verge:

Dead Trigger, a zombie FPS for smartphones from the makers of Shadowgun, is now free to download on Android thanks to rampant piracy on the platform. In a statement on Facebook, developer Madfinger Games says that even at $0.99, the piracy rate on Android devices was “unbelievably high.”

Anecdotally, I’ve heard similar stories from other game developers. While piracy on jailbroken iPhones can lead to a loss of income for iOS developers as well, most everyone agrees that the problem isn’t just rampant on Android devices – it’s endemic.

The more experienced among you already know these, but it’s a helpful tip.

Great tip from Chris Oldroyd.

M.G. Siegler:

I have no problem if someone wants to hurt themselves. I have a problem with people who want to hurt other people. My right to extend my arm ends at your face.

Microsoft went from businesses to the home. Apple has gone from the home to businesses.

Mark Crump takes a look at a number of audio interfaces for the iPhone and iPad. Good article.

Marco Tabini:

Customers are not investors. When you buy something, you are not taking on a stake in the manufacturer. You need to want to buy software because it’s the best fit for your needs, and not because you want to do someone a favour, or because of some hope about its future. To do otherwise creates an unhealthy relationship between buyer and seller that does not reflect the simple reality of commerce.

There’s been a lot written in the past 48 hours or so about Google’s acquisition of Sparrow, the developer of e-mail software for iOS and OS X. Some are squarely siding with displaced customers, who say they’ve been ripped off by the company, who’s taken the money and run. Others lament that acquisitions like this hurt indie software development in the long run because it makes customers gun-shy about future purchases.

Tabini throws in a much needed dose of reality: smart customers should pay for software that has the features they need, instead of banking on the developer’s promises (or their own wishes) for future development. That’s a fool’s bet.

“You are doing important work — please don’t stop.”