Empty nest.

This is a great solution to a first-world problem:

MetroTwit developer Pixel Tucker and Rowi developer Hidden Pineapple on Friday took the wraps off a new project they’re preparing to roll out soon. Dubbed “The Nest,” their new joint endeavor is a cloud-based backend solution that allows their respective apps to sync data across platforms — MetroTwit, of course, being a popular Windows desktop app for Twitter, and Rowi being a terrific Windows Phone app. In its first iteration, The Nest will sync two crucial types of data: column configurations and unread tweet state. Add or delete a column in one app, and the same column will be added or deleted in the other. Read tweets in one app, and you won’t have to bother reading them again in the other. Fantastic.

Of course, this doesn’t help iOS or Android users (never mind the many different apps for each platform), so I hope some enterprising devs copycat this functionality. It’s pretty smart.

Linkwad.

1. Hacking AirPlay onto other devices. The comments embody “missing the forest for the trees.”
2. T2 using only Shakespeare, which “enabled us to accurately retell the story of Terminator 2: Judgment Day while remaining true to the words of Shakespeare in form (if less so in intent).” Via @RyanQNorth.
3. David Grann is pretty fucking awesome.

Linkwad.

1. Via @AnnieLowrey, Wachovia helped Mexican drug gangs launder $378 billion. The resultant fine totaled less than 2% of the bank’s profit… in 2009 alone.
2. Baltimore bans smoking at farmers’ market, upholding the tradition of the equally-asinine Four Loko ban. For the children, of course.
3. Reasons to avoid Amazon. I don’t think all of them hold water, but it’s a good counterweight to the constant stream of good vibrations I read in the tech press.
4. New research puts the NYT‘s paywall development cost at “only” $25 million, via @NiemanLab.
5. According to the tweet machine, there was just another magnitude 7.3 quake off Japan’s coast. [Update: @BoingBoing has more.]

Linkwad.

Not a great weekend, worldwide:

1. Death toll from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami tops 5,000; two nuclear reactors are still near meltdown.
2. P.J. Crowley is pushed out of the State Dept. after calling Bradley Manning’s treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” President Obama calls Manning’s treatment “appropriate” the next day. It goes without saying at this point, but the Obama administration’s record on human rights is depressingly bad, and getting worse.
3. The NFL lockout is under way. Here’s PFT’s basic breakdown.
4. Libel fine for a tweet totals £53,000.
5. Gadhafi’s military makes a major push against Libyan rebels. Spencer Ackerman points out that a no-fly zone won’t hinder an army; Ross Douthat argues that the US shouldn’t intervene.

“fuck you right in your fucking face-hole.”

“People loved @MayorEmanuel first and foremost because it was funny. Sure, there were the giggles and guffaws that come with inappropriate swearing. But I think the humor of the feed as a whole had deeper roots. Deep enough that we might need to bring in some Russian cultural criticism.”

Read it all.