Nelson's Linkblog 2012-05

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Great collection of photos of artificial things

2012-05-31 artificial • photography • photos • simulation

Google censorship circumvention

Search engine predicts queries that will cause problems in China

2012-05-31 censorship • china • firewall • gfw • google

LLVM architecture

Lovely overview of a modern compiler

2012-05-31 architecture • clang • compiler • gcc • llvm

Secure boot and Fedora

Crazy hoops a Linux distro is jumping through to be able to boot on a modern PC

2012-05-31 drm • grub • linux • microsoft • pc • uefi • windows

Flame malware = Angry Birds

The stupid, it burns with a searing heat

2012-05-31 flame • lua • malware • stupid

Muni on time rates

Nice map of our 60% on time performance.

2012-05-31 map • muni • sanfrancisco • sf

Zeros in JavaScript

Fantastic little summary of the weird rules of Javascript

2012-05-31 coding • javascript • language • lulz

A new compression too; LZMA from 7Zip turned into a general Unix tool

2012-05-30 7zip • compression • lzma

Lessig's commencement address

Deeply personal entreaty to new lawyers to not be corrupt

2012-05-30 corruption • lessig • politics

Slides from a talk describing Google's replacement for MySQL in the ads system

2012-05-30 ads • database • google • mysql

Stamen Field Papers

Print out a map, scribble, scan and save. Walking Papers made into a product

2012-05-30 cartography • mapping • migurski • stamen

twitter.com performance

Twitter is moving away from Javascript heavy and back to server rendering

2012-05-29 javascript • performance • twitter

Apple's Crystal Prison

Excellent EFF editorial calling on Apple to respect open computing

2012-05-29 apple • eff • freedom

Diablo 3 in China

The game is not for sale in China, so retailers are selling it as "pineapples"

2012-05-29 china • diablo • games

After the Internet comic

Sweet story; don't have the original source

2012-05-29 comic • internet

DADT died quietly

Followup on allowing gays in the US military. No one gives a damn.

2012-05-29 civilrights • dadt • gay • military

Javascript compression libraries

Evaluation of a surprisingly difficult task

2012-05-29 compression • javascript • lzw

A small Python interpreter

2012-05-28 embedded • lua • python • via:onethingwell

A Canadian island only discovered in 1973, with a satellite image

2012-05-28 canada • islands • landsat • maps

1937 SF GGB opening

brochure, photos from the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937

2012-05-28 advertising • ggb • goldengatebridge • history • monas • sanfrancisco • sf

1890 NY demographic map

Crazy amount of textures

2012-05-28 infovis • maps • visualization

Flame disclosure

Kaspersky broke the news on the espionage malware

2012-05-28 badtech • espionage • flame • malware

Complex general purpose espionage malware

2012-05-28 badtech • espionage • flame • malware

Visual programming

An old friend of mine discusses programming environment evolution

2012-05-27 ide • lighttable • programming • smalltalk • tools

SF Geography data

Collection of shapefiles and other goodies from SFData

2012-05-27 data • geo • gis • sanfrancisco

Grindr for straight women

How do you make a casual hookup app for hets?

2012-05-26 gay • gender • grindr • mobile • sex

Nasdaq IPO snafu

Details of what went wrong with Facebook's opening

2012-05-26 facebook • ipo • markets • nasdaq • trading

Facebook IPO mistakes

Very detailed research on Facebook not following the S-1 IPO process properly

2012-05-25 facebook • fraud • ipo • startup

PEP 405: virtualenv

Popular Python management tool is going to be in Python 3.3

2012-05-25 deployment • ops • pip • python • virtualenv

Planet Money app

My favorite podcast has a bespoke iPhone app

2012-05-25 iphone • npr • planetmoney • podcast • radio

Name for when an organization falsely claims copyright on something

2012-05-25 copyfraud • copyright • ip • rights

892 grid partitions

A breakdown of design options

2012-05-25 design • grid • poster • via:robotwisdom

Great set of aerial photos of US prisons

2012-05-24 aerial • architecture • prison • ugly

America! by Bill Callahan

Funny song, great video; from the Jaar Essential Mix

2012-05-24 billcallahan • music • nicolasjaar

A challenger to Amazon Web Services, in China

2012-05-23 amazon • baidu • china • cloud

Popup shows keyboard shortcuts on Mac applications

2012-05-23 keyboard • mac • shortcut

Navy plebes covered in lard

A photodocumentary

2012-05-23 annapolis • beefcake • gay • men • navy

BART stop at 30th & Mission

Proposal for adding a BART stop, didn't get anywhere

2012-05-23 bart • mission • noevalley • transit

The endangered public company

Interesting article about corporate governance

2012-05-23 business • corporation • ipo • soes

Remarkable story of the lengths one goes through to hack Google Chrome

2012-05-22 browser • chrome • pwn • security

Lawlessness in Ukraine

Fascists beat gay pride parade organizer

2012-05-22 fascism • gay • gayrights • kiev • lgbt • ukraine

Great organizer, great time of year for Portland. I'm going!

2012-05-22 conference • etsy • internet • metafilter • waxy

TileMill compositing

Some nice Photoshop-like graphics abilities being added

2012-05-22 graphics • maps • tilemill

Google+ user study

Shows little social engagement

2012-05-22 facebook • google • google+ • googleplus • social • via:metafilter

Facebook IPO fraud?

Allegation Morgan Stanley withheld information from the public

2012-05-22 facebook • finance • fraud • investment • ipo • sec

teens' texting and Facebook

Some sociology data on teenagers uses of communication technology

2012-05-21 adolescence • facebook • sms • sociology • teenagers • texting

Linux 3.4 supports an x64 mode with 32 bit addresses, to save cache and RAM

2012-05-21 cache • efficiency • kernel • linux • x32 • x64 • x86

Very personal account of being a deaf engineer at a startup

2012-05-21 culture • deaf • minority • startups • via:hackernews

Another Javascript rich text editor. Looks pretty good.

2012-05-21 edit • editor • html5 • javascript • text • textarea

Nasdaq's IPO failure

Details on what went wrong with Facebook's IPO

2012-05-21 brokerage • facebook • investment • ipo • nasdaq

Plane vs eclipse

From 2010, great photo

2012-05-21 airplane • eclipse • photos

Plotting distriubtions

Alternatives to histograms

2012-05-20 graphs • histograms • statistics • visualization

Flickr liquid photos

New page layout, works great

2012-05-20 flickr • html • photos

Zuckerberg marries Chan

That's a hell of a photo. Day after the IPO

2012-05-20 facebook • ipo • wedding • zuckerberg

Why Aren't Cities Littered With Dead Pigeons?

Once asked, you must know the answer

2012-05-19 cities • ecology • pigeons

Google concept list

Interesting release; map words to Wikipedia pages to related words, an advanced Wordnet

2012-05-19 google • informationretrieval • semantics • wordnet • words

Facebook is not worth $33B

September 2010, dhh of 37signals proclaims

2012-05-18 economics • facebook • internet • ipo • startup • valuation

Inconsistent anti-aliasing

Interesting bug in Webkit's rendering

2012-05-18 antialiasing • css • fonts • via:hackernews • webkit

Harsh Diablo III review

I don't fully agree, but it's a well written perspective

2012-05-18 criticism • diablo • games • review

Nekogames Parameters

Surprisingly engaging minimalist role playing game

2012-05-18 games • rpg • via:waxy

A mathematical way to smooth out errors in measurements, as with a GPS track

2012-05-18 filtering • geo • gps • math • smoothing

How Web Maps Work

Excellent overview of web map technology

2012-05-17 geo • geography • mapping • maps • tiles

Diablo: Lore Summary

Readable backstory for Diablo 3

2012-05-17 blizzard • diablo • games • lore

ZeroN 3d tactile UI

Levitating objects in free space as a user interface

2012-05-17 hci • medialab • mit • ui

Twitter adopts Do-Not-Track

A big milestone in the privacy option Mozilla is promoting

2012-05-17 ads • advertising • firefox • mozilla • privacy • twitter

NYC trees visualization

Amazing beekeeper tool; graph of what trees are near your hive

2012-05-17 beekeeping • bees • d3 • d3js • honey • visualization

Javascript charts rendering to canvas

2012-05-16 charting • charts • javascript • visualization

In pre-modern Japan, sticks were used instead of toilet paper

2012-05-16 hygiene • japan • toilet • toiletpaper

Control appliances via wifi with a tiny adapter

2012-05-16 control • internet • tcpip • wifi • x10

Morgan Freeman being awesome on Electric Company

2012-05-16 electriccompany • morganfreeman • tv • via:metafilter

Judges should program

Great example where some basic familiarity with coding is good for society

2012-05-16 google • java • oracle • patents • programming

Yahoo's Flickr fiasco

How an acquisition of an innovative startup can go so wrong.

2012-05-15 acquisition • business • flickr • startup • yahoo

Wrongful execution

Texas case went very badly

2012-05-15 capitalpunishment • crime • execution • murder • prison • texas • via:metafilter

Buchanan, the gay president

Bit of history I didn't know

2012-05-15 buchanan • gay • history • politics • us

Miss.Tic in Paris

Website of the Parisian street artist

2012-05-14 art • misstic • paris • streetart • via:metafilter

Grand Old Party

Voter approval ratings cast as sex toys

2012-05-14 buttplugs • funny • gop • politics • republicans • sex • visualization

Wolfram's bibliography omission

Always wondered why New Kind of Science doesn't have a bibliography; here's why

2012-05-14 academics • ankos • bibliography • books • complexsystems • wolfram

Welcome to Life

Uploading your consciousness in the age of copyright maximalism

2012-05-14 copyright • life • movie • sciencefiction • singularity • video

Test your backups

Crazy Pixar story; almost lost Toy Story 2 in production

2012-05-13 backups • movies • pixar • toystory

Kim Jong-un bad heritage

Maternal grandfather collaborated with Japan: in North Korea that makes him "hostile class"

2012-05-13 kimjongun • korea • northkorea • war

FlightPrep sues Jeppesen

Ugly story continues to be ugly

2012-05-13 aviation • flying • jeppesen • patents

Nice little tutorial

2012-05-13 d3 • design • javascript • svg

Good explanation of how hand work is better than automatic anti-aliasing

2012-05-12 antialiasing • design • graphics • typography

Edmund White on Cranbook

Reminiscing about being gay at Romney's prep school, in the 50s

2012-05-11 edmundwhite • gay • memoir • romney • school

US Army Heraldry

Patches and badges

2012-05-11 design • graphics • images • military • usarmy

4k demo compression

Details on Crinkler, a .exe compressor used to make ultra-tiny programs

2012-05-11 compression • demo • demoscene • programming • scene

Amazing 4096 byte PC demo; YouTube video linked on this page

2012-05-11 art • demos • demoscene • games • graphics • procedural • scene

Extract the most interesting colors of an image

2012-05-11 code • color • design • python • via:hackernews

Details on Apple's rumoured new maps for iPhone

2012-05-11 apple • ios • iphone • maps

1500 Archers on a 28.8

Netcode for RTS games

2012-05-10 ageofempires • coding • development • games • rts

OkCupid: Gay vs Straight

Another pop-sociology survey

2012-05-10 gay • gender • sex • sexuality • straight

One-joke wonder Japanese comedians

Nice collection of video clips

2012-05-10 comedy • funny • hardgay • japan • via:metafilter

Trapani on "brogramming"

The trend is overinflated, but Trapani has some smart things to say here about sexism in software

2012-05-10 brogrammers • engineering • gender • klout • programming • sexism • software

Dark Shadows (TV)

A guide to the 60s soap opera

2012-05-10 darkshadows • television • tv • vampires • via:metafilter

$0.90 / megabyte

European Union moves to cap mobile phone rates

2012-05-10 bandwidth • charges • data • europe • mobile

Google vs. Bing

Same for me: I use so many Google products it's awkward not using their search

2012-05-10 bing • google • internet • lockin • search

John Travolta gay lawsuit

NMA has really upped their reporting

2012-05-08 celebrity • funny • gay • nma • travolta • wtf

Hindenburg photos

Nice collection

2012-05-08 aviation • blimp • dirigible • flying • germany • hindenburg • journalism • nazis • photos • zeppelin

Gay rights by state

Nice little visualization

2012-05-08 civilrights • gay • politics • us • visualization

HTML5 canvas performance

Various tricks for making rendering faster

2012-05-08 canvas • html • javascript • optimization • performance • web

Alternative obesity hypothesis

Taubes argues his side, that it's carbs that are America's problem

2012-05-08 carbohydrates • diet • fat • food • hbo • tv

Gestural UI demo

Exploring a galactic dataset using hand motions

2012-05-08 data • oblong • space • ui • visualization

Internet in Libyan revolution

Details on how Internet tech was used to bring down the end of Qaddafi

2012-05-08 freedom • libya • livestream • politics • socialmedia

ForeFlight hiring

Amazing aviation app maker hiring a software engineer

2012-05-07 aviation • flying • foreflight • ios • job

Not exactly news, but investing in venture capital funds is kinda broken

2012-05-07 investment • vc • venturecapital

Browser technologies

Nice summary of links for various Web things

2012-05-07 development • html • html5 • javascript • web

Merged global DEM

Slides from a talk presenting a unified digital elevation model combining previous surveys

2012-05-06 aster • dem • gdem • gis • maps • srtm • terrain

Critical news about North Korean

2012-05-06 korea • news • northkorea

Python flickrapi

Seems to be the winning Python interface for Flickr

2012-05-06 api • flickr • python

Patent mass aggregators

Law review of the shift in patents to being accumulated into patent troll portfolios

2012-05-05 freedom • innovation • intellectualventures • law • patents • stanford

A bit discouraging, but interesting that it's a commercial product

2012-05-05 camera • images • lytro • photography • photos

Light field camera, lets you adjust focus after the shot. For sale!

2012-05-05 camera • focus • lytro • photography • photos

The Filter Bubble

DuckDuckGo's explanation of how personalized search narrows what you see

2012-05-05 culture • duckduckgo • google • search

Andy Kaufman / Fridays

Amazing performance, he completely dismantles the show

2012-05-05 comedy • fridays • funny • kaufman • television • tv

feature films from North Korea

2012-05-05 korea • movies • northkorea

Keith Haring porny mural

Fun, sexually explicit line drawings by Keith Haring

2012-05-05 art • gay • haring • porn

Airship interiors

Cruise ships once floated through the sky

2012-05-04 aviation • blimp • dirigible • flying • hindenberg • history • travel • zeppelin

Multiple Mercators

Reprojecting the globe to different centers

2012-05-04 geometry • maps • math • mercator • projections

Innovative iPhone travel app

2012-05-04 demo • iphone • travel • triposo

Diablo 3 RMT auctions

Details on how the real money trade in the new game is going to work

2012-05-04 auction • diablo3 • games • rmt

Kindling for Campfire

Chrome extension to add some basic usability features to the web chat client

2012-05-04 campfire • chrome • development • extension • irc

Google Analytics social data hub

Google has an API for social networks to share data with webmaster Analytics

2012-05-04 api • facebook • googel • social • twitter

Awesome indie game has a nice chiptune soundtrack

2012-05-04 chiptune • fez • games • music

Twitter API objects

Nice guide to the various blobs of data the Twitter API returns

2012-05-03 api • docs • documentation • twitter

Postgres packaged as a launchable Mac application

2012-05-03 database • mac • macos • postgres • via:onethingwell

Automated product design

Exploration of algorithmic designs on Zazzle

2012-05-03 design • spam • via:metafilter • zazzle

Burn Jita results

CCP handles a massive Eve Online event

2012-05-02 ccp • eve • eveonline • games • jita • mmos • scalability

Thugs in the Mission

"Protest" gone bad. Great local news article.

2012-05-01 mission • news • occupy • occupysf • sanfrancisco

Nice highlights of features of the other open source database

2012-05-01 code • database • postgres • sql • via:hackernews

A beekeeper's song

Lovely reflections by a Metafilter user

2012-05-01 bees • metafilter