Nelson's Linkblog 2012-04

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Moving Django from svn to github

Turns out git-svn works even for big projects

2012-04-29 django • git • github • svn • vcs • via:hackernews

Apple's tax shelters

Various tricks tech companies do to avoid taxes; Google does this also

2012-04-29 apple • government • taxes

All you had to do was ask

A nuanced exploration on privacy expectations

2012-04-28 instagram • photos • privacy

Data logging / storage format, self describing

2012-04-27 archive • avro • flume • logging • protocolbuffers • thrift

Shell script shims for executing remote jobs

2012-04-26 distributed • gnu • shell • tool

Google selling SketchUp?

Trimble to acquire the 3d modelling software

2012-04-26 3d • google • modelling • sketchup • trimble

Dropbox: What’s yours stays yours

Google has the same stupid terms of service that Dropbox abandoned

2012-04-25 copyright • dropbox • google • googledrive • userrights

Control an iPhone/iPod's music playback from a Mac

2012-04-25 apple • iphone • ipod • music • remote

Alta Sierra Airport

Funky little airport near Grass Valley, CA

2012-04-25 airport • aviation • california • grassvalley

Super Mario Summary

Genius: classic game compressed to single screens

2012-04-24 games • nes • smb • supermariobros • via:kottke

A new visualization library for time series data

2012-04-24 d3 • horizonchart • javascript • library • programming • timeseries • visualization

Geologic database

Macrostrat is a collection of information on the earth's crust

2012-04-24 data • database • geology • rocks • science

The Horizon Graph

A compact time series visualization

2012-04-24 graphs • visualization

China's Twitter-equivalent launches a cool map feature

2012-04-23 china • geo • maps • twitter • weibo

Flashback's spread

Seeded via WordPress exploits

2012-04-23 badtech • flash • flashback • mac • macos • wordpress

Context-Free Patent Art

Funny collection of images from patent filings

2012-04-23 art • funny • patents • via:metafilter

Ben Horowitz on Instagram

Completely classy and clear explanation of how the VC handled a conflict

2012-04-23 instagram • investment • picplz • startups • vc

Prisoner's Dilemma in action

Great gameshow video of a novel solution to the classic game theory problem

2012-04-22 games • gametheory • prisonersdilemma • tv

Interesting form of body art, unique to women in Northern Japan

2012-04-22 ainu • bodyart • japan • tattoo

Universal iPhone unlock

Could be big news

2012-04-22 hacking • iphone • jailbreak • unlock • via:hackernews

Crazy enzyme that you can use to glue two pieces of meat together

2012-04-22 transglutaminase • cooking • food

Twitter Code Class!

This is genuinely funny

2012-04-21 adammessinger • coding • funny • twitter

Cool optical illusion of colors seen in a rotating black and white image

2012-04-20 color • illusion

Andreessen Horowitz and Instagram

Funny story about VC conflicts. Still, their "failure" netted a $50m+ return

2012-04-20 instagram • investment • startups • vc

Master / Master at Etsy

overturning common database wisdom

2012-04-20 database • engineering • etsy • mysql • ops

Fairlight profile

Personal stories from members of the most famous pirate/demoscene group

2012-04-20 demoscene • fairlight • scene • via:hackernews

A stored value card used in lieu of cash in Hong Kong

2012-04-20 cash • china • currency • hongkong • payments

radiohead / creep: animation

Lovely little cartoon

2012-04-20 cartoon • creep • music • radiohead

Not quite as pernicious a trope as the Magical Negro, but still a thing

2012-04-20 film • gay • stereotypes

Diablo® III open beta

Highly anticipated game has a free preview this weekend

2012-04-20 beta • blizzard • diablo • games

Bitcoin value graph

The currency has stabilized in the past few months, also more volume than ever

2012-04-20 bitcoin • currency • money

Pioneer Anomaly Solved

Recovering 30 year old data confirms it's uneven heat loss

2012-04-20 physics • pioneer • space

Copying Is Not Theft

2012-04-20 copyright • funny • piracy

May 20 2012 solar eclipse

Should be a pretty good one, visible in California

2012-04-19 california • eclipse • solar • sun

Apple USB charging

Details on iPad's bizarre charging and power usage

2012-04-19 apple • charging • ipad • usb

Plane crash flight track

Sad story: first guess is the plane lost cabin pressure

2012-04-19 atc • aviation • flightaware • flying • n48dl

Twitter v Weibo

London's mayor tries to figure out how to use China's Twitter clone

2012-04-19 culture • london • microblog • twitter • weibo

3d printed screensavers

"dusty with leftover placenta from the 3D printer's birthing vats"

2012-04-19 3dprinting • fabrication • fractals • screensaver

Memeorandum Colors 2012

Andy and Joshua's awesome hack from 4 years ago updated

2012-04-19 memeorandum • politics • svd

China: Hierarchies of Snobbery

Fascinating list of preferences for Internet services, films, etc in China

2012-04-19 china • culture • google • internet • twitter • weibo

Amazing WebGL app for designing custom jewelry

2012-04-19 design • jewelry • webgl

Ray Odierno on Pinterest

Image collection of US Army Chief of Staff

2012-04-19 army • military

Cassini animations

Lovely time lapse video of Jupiter and Saturn

2012-04-19 jupiter • nasa • saturn • space • via:metafilter

Some notes on javascript options

2012-04-19 d3 • javascript • maps

2 Months Of Eve Online

Kills in the space MMO visualized

2012-04-19 ccp • eve • eveonline • games • mmos • visualization

Verizon: $0.25/MB international

That new roaming rate is half the current price, a quarter last year's

2012-04-18 cellular • internet • roaming • travel • verizon

Dick Clark's groovy house

Totally wacky LA architecture

2012-04-18 architecture • dickclark • house • la • losangeles

Instagram deal terms

I wonder who's benefitting by all this leaked info?

2012-04-18 facebook • instagram • startups

terminal colors with grc

A generic colorizer for the output of various programs

2012-04-18 bash • color • commandline • customization • grc

Details on Instagram deal

Says it really was Zuckerberg's idea and done quickly

2012-04-18 deals • facebook • instagram • startups

Nevada County GIS

Remarkably good web site; standard software?

2012-04-18 california • gis • maps • nevadacounty • realestate

Apache mod_spdy

Google makes a new release of the optimized web protocol

2012-04-17 apache • optimization • spdy • web

Former U.S. President Charmed by Kim Il Sung

An official North Korea press release

2012-04-17 carter • dprk • news • northkorea • totalitarianism

2012-04-17 creepy • kiss • via:sutter

Twitter's patent agreement

Radical change in how tech patents work; guarantees defensive only, inventor control

2012-04-17 intellectualproperty • ipa • patents • twitter

iPhone app updates

Reports on how often iPhone users update

2012-04-17 iphone • updates • versioning

CartoDB vs Google Fusion Tables

Nice examples of the importance of unlimited data

2012-04-17 cartodb • fusiontables • google • mapping • maps • visualization

Citizen aerial imagery

Google Earth features Public Laboratory's do-it-yourself kite and balloon photography

2012-04-17 aerial • googleearth • images • mapping • maps • publiclaboratory

Google's stock split

Lots of detail on the unusual voting rights arrangement

2012-04-17 google • governance • stock

Kerbal Space Program

Cute rocket simulator

2012-04-17 games • orbit • rocket

Interesting post about using cheap TV tuners and software radios

2012-04-16 gnss • gps • hacking • radio

Battle for the internet

Guardian series on cyberwar

2012-04-16 china • cyberwar • internet • war

Islands of Mankind

Great visualization of population density

2012-04-16 maps • population • visualization

Amish spring break

Sweet story of a Florida town popular for Amish vacations

2012-04-16 amish • culture • florida • religion • via:kottke

Instagram is not about silly filters

Nice explanation of Instagram's social success

2012-04-16 instagram • photography • photos • social • socialmedia

Hacking SPOT connect

Send your own messages via the consumer satellite service

2012-04-16 hacking • messages • satellite • spot

Hitler in Homes & Gardens

1938 English article about Hitler's lovely summer home architecture

2012-04-16 architecture • hitler • wtf

Migurski plays with cartography

2012-04-16 cartography • maps • migurski • stamen

Spatial Reference

Database of SRIDs used in geographic apps

2012-04-16 epsg • gis • reference • srid

A search engine that lets you search for punctuation, etc

2012-04-16 code • search • web

guide for the snowboarding game

2012-04-15 faq • games • ssx

True Adventures in Better Homes

Funny commercial art mashup

2012-04-15 art • betterhomes • magazine • trueadventures • via:jwz

Software for taking low level GPS data and deriving location fixes

2012-04-15 geolocation • gps • location

Neighborhood map inferred from social checkins

2012-04-15 foursquare • maps • neighborhoods • social

Charlie Stross on Amazon

Interesting insight into ebook business

2012-04-15 amazon • ebook • kindle • monopoly • pricing

An ISP for US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq

2012-04-15 afghanistan • internet • iraq • isp • military

A new-to-me type of emoticon

2012-04-15 culture • emoticon • language • smiley

Waxy.org turns 10

Retrospective from one of my favorite bloggers (and linkbloggers)

2012-04-15 blogs • culture • linkblogs • via:metafilter • waxy

i saw her standing there

Romance as platform video game

2012-04-15 games • zombies

Mach 5 controls

Explained by Speed Racer himself!

2012-04-14 cartoons • mach5 • speedracer

Sonic.net subpoenas

My ISP discloses how many requests for customer data it gets a year

2012-04-14 isp • sonic • sonicnet • subpoena • transparency

A scam financial instrument; stock certificates that belong to the bearer, not a named owner

2012-04-14 governance • investment • scam • stock

FreeIndieGam.es

Amazing set of screenshots for indie games

2012-04-14 games • indie • indiegames • screenshots

Garmin Pilot iOS

A new ForeFlight competitor

2012-04-14 aviation • flying • foreflight • garmin • ios • ipad • iphone

Graffiti Archaeology

Archival photos of popular graffiti spots

2012-04-14 art • graffiti • history • streetart

Hot dog crust pizza review

"I soon neared the end of my slice and its bedoughed, pink-brown phallus."

2012-04-14 food • funny • pizzahut

Gizmodo's new low

Jesus Diaz meets a deadline with a cute cat video

2012-04-13 cat • journalism • kitty

Serious Eats guide to Bourbon

Details on the American whiskey

2012-04-13 alcohol • bourbon • drinks • kentucky • whiskey • whisky

New Instagram filters

Adapting to the Facebook audience

2012-04-13 culture • facebook • funny • instagram

A hack for hi-res images for high density displays

2012-04-13 graphics • javascript • web

Castle Wolfenstein

Nice appreciation of the classic Apple ][ game

2012-04-13 ][ • apple • apple2 • castlewolfenstein • games • nazis

IAMA Malware Developer

Summary of answers from a malware author

2012-04-13 badtech • malware • reddit • viruses

rsc digs into all the places you can mess with QR code images

2012-04-12 art • barcode • errorcorrection • qrcode

Stuxnet worm planted?

Shadowy sources claim double agent brought worm into Iranian nuclear power plants

2012-04-12 cyberwar • iran • israel • nuclear • security • stuxnet • us

CCOKC (NSFW audio)

Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron. It's funny.

2012-04-12 childstars • funny • gay • kirkcameron

What people in the Bay Area make for various jobs

2012-04-12 bayarea • economy • jobs • sanfrancisco • wages

Google+ user stats

Google continues to give misleading and uninformative stats on usage of Google+

2012-04-12 ads • google+ • stats • users

Twitter for Small Business

Great little guide for businesses trying to understand Twitter

2012-04-12 ads • business • marketing • twitter

SSL False Start fails

Google's effort to optimize a network protocol fails in the face of 1% of hardware that won't play along

2012-04-12 chrome • google • networking • optimization • ssl

A Unix utility I wrote in 1992; my first open source release?

2012-04-12 code • finger • opensource • unix • utmp • who

Geolocation trends

Nice roundup of current thinking on location data

2012-04-11 foursquare • geo • geolocation • geoloqi • mobile

MapBox rendering the world

Various clever optimizations for map making

2012-04-11 gis • mapbox • mapping • optimization • osm • tilemill

Meets the Eye studio

Green screen / sound stage a friend of mine created

2012-04-11 bayarea • greenscreen • movies • production • soundstage

Blade Runner - Esper Edition

A fan produced version of a Blade Runner soundtrack

2012-04-11 bladerunner • bootleg • music • vangelis

X Lossless Decoder

MacOS tool for converting FLAC to ALAC, etc

2012-04-11 alac • convert • flac • macos • music • transcode • xld

lesser known comics villains

2012-04-11 comics • funny • ianmckellan • magento • magneto • xmen

San Carlos Flight Center

Friend's new flight school in the Bay Area

2012-04-10 aviation • dandyer • flying • sancarlos

Finding Goatse (NSFWish)

Remarkably well researched article about the famous shock porn image

2012-04-10 goatse • meme • porn • pornography • sex

Demoscene (Metafilter)

Ridiculously complete collection of links

2012-04-10 demo • demoscene • metafilter • scene • via:waxy

Mosh: the mobile shell

An ssh replacement designed for crappy mobile networks

2012-04-09 mobile • ssh • telnet • tty • via:hackernews

Iran's insane Internet plan

Building their own Great Firewall

2012-04-09 china • freedom • internet • iran • privacy • security

Semicolons in JavaScript are optional

Persuasive argument?

2012-04-09 javascript • syntax • via:hackernews • whitespace

MySQL at Twitter

Twitter shares some performance changes they've made to the database

2012-04-09 code • database • mysql • opensource • twitter

Airport use visualization

Nice set of maps

2012-04-09 airports • maps • transportation • usage • via:kwickre

Great XKCD scale drawing

2012-04-09 comics • depth • ocean • xkcd

Smart Meter hacking

Field programmable to lower your electricity bill; obscurity is the only protection

2012-04-09 badtech • energy • security • smartmeters

Best engineers at Google

Well informed Quora answer

2012-04-09 engineers • google • quora

Simple, brilliant; view 3200 of your tweets on a page

2012-04-09 archive • history • twitter

Google Maps design process

Details from some of the visual designers

2012-04-09 cartography • design • google • maps

It Gets Better (Mormon edition)

Students at Brigham Young University take a risk for gay acceptance

2012-04-09 byu • gay • glbt • lds • lesbian • mormon • utah

Hacking The Shard

Group of folks break into London's tallest building, currently under construction

2012-04-08 architecture • exploring • london • via:metafilter

Great DOSBox wrapper for the Mac; makes playing old PC games a breeze

2012-04-08 dos • dosbox • emulation • games • mac • macos

1989 groundbreaking video game

2012-04-08 atari • design • games • graphics • midwinter • pc

Twitter spam lawsuits

Details on who they're suing and why

2012-04-08 spam • twitter

Groupon and Yelp ratings

Data showing how and why Groupon deals lower Yelp ratings

2012-04-08 consumers • groupon • via:hackernews • yelp

Helvetica revisted

Neue Haas Grotesk reimplemented after 50 years of bastardization

2012-04-08 design • fonts • helvetica • typography

Tell the Linux kernel you don't need a file cached in memory

2012-04-08 caching • coding • linux • optimization • performance • rsync

Lawrence Welk delivers

2012-04-08 easter • music • psychedelic • rabbit • via:metafilter • video • welk

A very interesting generic geolocation service for mobile devices

2012-04-07 api • geo • geolocation • gps • tracking

In depth story about the role of social media in the Arab Spring protests

2012-04-07 arabspring • egypt • facebook • politics • protests • socialmedia • tunis

Groupon financials trickery

Close parsing of SEC rules shows Groupon may get away with bad financial reporting for months

2012-04-07 fraud • groupon • ipo • via:hackernews

Subtle Patterns

Low contrast background textures

2012-04-06 design • pattern • texture • via:mariuswatz • wallpaper

Twitter sues spammers

A welcome aggressive move

2012-04-05 ads • advertising • badtech • spam • twitter

Revenue Extraction Hotspot

Evil router designed to subvert user's Internet traffic, as in a hotel

2012-04-05 ads • advertising • badtech • internet • router • via:waxy

Etsy encouraging women in tech

Direct and personal post from Marc

2012-04-05 engineering • etsy • hiring • women

2012-04-05 clippy • editors • funny • microsoft • unix • vi

Flashback MacOS botnet

A Metafilter post I made

2012-04-05 badtech • flashback • macos • trojan

IAmA: Bobcat Goldthwait

Legendary comic answers questions on reddit

2012-04-04 bobcatgoldthwait • comedy • reddit

Levy on Page at Google

Good insight into the changes at Google

2012-04-04 google • internet • larrypage

Import geospatial database gets an upgrade

2012-04-03 geo • opensource • postgis • postgres

Ai Weiwei's protest art, turning surveillance on himself

2012-04-03 aiweiwei • china • protest • weiwei

Rear Window panorama

Hitchcock's masterpiece re-projected into a single frame

2012-04-03 film • movies • panorama • rearwindow • via:metafilter

Terrafugia flight

Demo video of the driveable airplane

2012-04-03 aviation • flying • flyingcar • terrafugia

Java exploit, no password required

2012-04-03 apple • badtech • java • macos • security

Mass Effect 3 ending critique

Well written and detailed, but I don't entirely agree

2012-04-02 controversy • ending • games • masseffect • scifi • writing

Wood backs for iPhone, seems simple to install

2012-04-02 accessory • apple • iphone • wood

Python httpcore

Werkzeug, Flask, and Requests working together to improve Python HTTP

2012-04-02 flask • http • python • requests • via:hackernews • werkzeug

Relatively modern web browser for OS/2; Firefox 10

2012-04-02 firefox • mozilla • os/2 • os2 • os2warp

25 years of OS/2

Thoughtful retrospective

2012-04-02 ibm • microsoft • os/2 • os2 • os2warp • pcs • windows

Ocean shipping 1750-1800

Maps from log books

2012-04-01 history • maps • sailing • trading

CA court audit report

Full report of the auditor on the massive infosystem failure

2012-04-01 california • ccms • deloitte • fraud • government

CA court audit summary

3 pages on the failure of the CA court infosystem

2012-04-01 california • ccms • deloitte • fraud • government

CA court infofiasco

$500m wasted on a failed computer system

2012-04-01 california • contracting • courts • deloitte • fraud • government • justice

Dragon Warrior 3 overworld

Original Square/Enix map that inspired the Google map

2012-04-01 dragonwarrior • games • google • maps

Learn about knives

High end online knife store

2012-04-01 cooking • kitchen • knife • knives

Silverlight (Taiwan)

Microsoft uses manga on their Taiwanese page for Silverlight

2012-04-01 advertising • anime • manga • microsoft • silverlight