Nelson's Linkblog 2014-04

about • archive • mastodon • feed

How to Win at eBay

Simple rules for bidding to buy things

2014-04-30 ebay • auction • sniping

Paul Ford muses on 5 great pieces of software for the ages

2014-04-30 software • history • code

sonic.net on net neutrality

My awesome ISP takes a stand against bullshit pricing

2014-04-29 internet • sonicnet • dsl • isp • fcc

Rim Fire Landsat

Amazing satellite image of the big fire in California last year

2014-04-29 fire • rimfire • california • yosemite • maps • landsat

Tim Bray joins advisory board for an identity login provider

2014-04-28 login • passwords • identity • oauth • openid

Heroes of the Storm impressions

Good overview of Blizzard's new MOBA

2014-04-28 games • moba • hots • blizzard

Satoshi's 50 BTC

Bitcoin inventor only ever spent 50 bitcoins; here's where they are now

2014-04-27 bitcoin • blockchain • satoshi

Various optional features to rsync that are distributed separately

2014-04-26 rsync • code • unix

Javascript library for storing view state in a #hash in the URL, as for maps

2014-04-26 maps • leaflet • javascript • hash • history • state

Chosen (jQuery)

Better select UI for browsers

2014-04-26 ui • select • form • javascript • jquery

A fun dynamic DNS service

2014-04-25 ddns • dns • domain • name • router

SDL Mac fullscreen bug

Explains the annoying behavior of some games

2014-04-25 macs • games • sdl • bug • via:metafilter

Larry Page hagiography

Some details wrong, but good retrospective reporting

2014-04-24 google • larrypage

site:secret.ly search

You can search the anonymous messages posted to Secret

2014-04-24 google • secret • anonymous

Secret - Vic Gundotra

News about Google+ exec showed up as a rumor on Secret a week ago

2014-04-24 secret • rumors • google

Vic Gundotra out of Google+

Primary guy responsible for Google+ leaving the company

2014-04-24 google • google+ • social

TLD proliferation will never stop giving

2014-04-24 dns • icann • whois

Warhol 1985 Amiga art

Floppy disks turn up Warhol computer art experiments

2014-04-24 warhol • history • preservation • art • amiga

1909 Paris Air Show

2014-04-24 balloons • aviation • paris • 1909

Nien leaves CLG

Top LoL player quits, cites the discouragement of nasty fan trash talk

2014-04-23 lol • athletes • sports • esports • nien • clg • confidence • impostorsyndrome

Source Multiplayer Networking

Valve's documentation of netcode lag compensation in games

2014-04-23 games • lag • netcode • valve • steam

Intellectual Ventures fail

Big patent case backfires

2014-04-22 hawhaw • patents • trolls • myhrvold

Another Cisco back door

More nonsense in consumer routers

2014-04-22 security • badtech • netgear • linksys • cisco

1/3rd of Americans are gay

Or so a bunch of surveyed people thought

2014-04-22 gay • america • statistics

McKellan / Stewart marketing

Stats on the amazing social media campaign for the actors

2014-04-19 acting • advertising • twitter • viral • via:metafilter

Time is a flat Circus

True Detective / Family Circus mashup

2014-04-16 funny • comics • truedetective • familycircus • via:metafilter

Tom of Finland stamps

official postage featuring the iconic gay artist

2014-04-14 gay • tomoffinland • via:reddit • stamps

VLC region lock

iOS app will play audio for Canadian users, not American

2014-04-14 vlc • ios • canada • america • legal

Nice picture of the bridge with a hole in it

2014-04-13 bridge • engineering • cantilever • sanfrancisco

Passwords are Obsolete

Provocative essay saying online SMS/email verification is sufficient

2014-04-13 passwords • heartbleed • authentication

Mapbox Vector Tile Spec

a data format for efficient vector map data

2014-04-13 maps • data • vectortile • geo • mapbox

Data Science Toolkit

Free data sources, particularly a non-OSM geocoder

2014-04-12 osm • maps • geocoding

James Cameron AMA

Direct answers from the director

2014-04-12 movies • films • cameron • avatar • terminator • aliens

Dropbox welcomes Condi Rice to the board

Nasty bit of satire

2014-04-12 funny • satire • torture • dropbox

Artist who does skateboards, etc

2014-04-11 art • streetart • skateboard • skater

A Dropbox alternative without a torturer on the board of directors

2014-04-11 dropbox • spideroak • storage • sync

Google XXE attack

it's 2014 and this old XML bug is still around

2014-04-11 google • xxe • badtech • security

Turn Down for What (NSFW)

New Lil Jon video, quite nuts

2014-04-11 via:metafilter • music • liljon • thedrop

Heartbleed exploit last year?

Recorded server traffic shows exploits months before publication

2014-04-11 heartbleed • badtech • ssl • security • nsa

BitTorrent Sync

Another system for keeping files in sync between devices

2014-04-10 sync • rsync • unison • bittorrent • dropbox

Roche suppressed info their flu drug doesn't work

2014-04-10 healthcare • flu • scam • pharma • via:metafilter

The Miracle of Bali

1969 half hour video of Balinese gamelan

2014-04-10 via:metafilter • music • bali • gamelan

Austin's awesome fusion sushi place is in Houston too

2014-04-09 food • sushi • houston • uchi

Wolf Hunters of Wall Street

Article about de-escalating the high frequency trader arms race

2014-04-09 hft • money • trading • via:metafilter • wallstreet

Theo on Firebleed

Pointed comment from OpenBSD guy on OpenSSL code quality

2014-04-09 openssl • firebleed • badtech • ssl • security • openbsd

20 ways to slice Europe

Funny map about prejudices

2014-04-09 maps • europe • funny

Flickr and Creative Commons

Apparently the geniuses at Yahoo broke one of Flickr's best features

2014-04-09 flickr • yahoo • creativecommons • copyright

Game of Thrones houses done as corporate branding

2014-04-09 design • logo • gameofthrones • funny

Readable overview of the new high energy physics discovery

2014-04-09 cern • qcd • physics • via:reddit

Game of Thrones, 1992 style

Funny illustrations

2014-04-08 gameofthrones • funny • 1990s

Minecraft qCraft

Quantum properties applied to Minecraft blocks; great intro video

2014-04-08 games • minecraft • qcraft • computercraft

Microsoft's stats on usage; 20% or more in China

2014-04-08 msie • ie • china • microsoft • badtech

Twitter account of funny news stories

2014-04-08 funny • florida • news

Visit Singapore!

Hilariously bad tourist video; worth staying for the end

2014-04-08 singapore • funny • tourism • cringe

Chrome Extensions Reloader

Chrome extension to help you developing extensions

2014-04-08 chrome • development • code • extensions

Heartbleed patch

the specific fix for the OpenSSL security hole

2014-04-07 ssl • openssl • badtech • security • heartbleed

Serious flaw in OpenSSL

2014-04-07 badtech • ssl • openssl • security

Top Android App

It's an anti-virus. Worse, it's a scam.

2014-04-07 antivirus • android • phone • google • funny • fail • badtech

Replacement Mac menubar clock has a popup calendar

2014-04-07 mac • macos • menubar • via:onethingwell • calendar

Bali New Years photos

Nyepi, the celebration of the new year in Bali

2014-04-07 bali • photos • nyepi

Space Invader authenticity

Street artist points out you can't really steal his art

2014-04-07 spaceinvader • paris • streetart

The 49-U6U Slaughterhouse

Biggest space battle in Eve Online to date happened on the Chinese server

2014-04-07 eveonline • games • ccp • eve • china

IBM S/360 legacy

Fifty year old computing platform, still going strong

2014-04-07 ibm • mainframe • zos • s360

Visual math demos

Great collection of diagrams explaining math concepts

2014-04-07 math • visualization

D3 blocks search

Organization for Mike's awesome way to share D3 examples with gists

2014-04-07 github • d3js • d3 • gist • example • search

Managing iOS battery life

Apple's added enough background processing that battery drain is now a problem

2014-04-07 apple • ios • battery

Level0 OSM editor

Edit OpenStreetMap with text, a humane UI for the underlying XML

2014-04-07 osm • openstreetmap • editor

loophole cocktails

Cocktails that don't require a California liquor license

2014-04-07 cocktail • drinks • licenses • california • liquor

A MacPaint clone in your browser

2014-04-07 macpaint • mac • software • ui

HBO should show dongs

2014-04-06 gameofthrones • funny • penis

Amazon Fire review

Matt gets one and tries it out

2014-04-05 fire • amazon • tv • roku

GemCraft: Chasing Shadows

new tower defense game in a classic series

2014-04-05 via:metafilter • games • towerdefense • gemcraft

MeyeA & Houston gaymers

Pro LoL player talks about being gay, building community

2014-04-05 lol • leagueoflegends • gay • games

18 million password database

Yet another hacker trove

2014-04-04 via:metafilter • badtech • security • hackers

"you’re going to want more stings to the penis over the nose, if you’re forced to choose"

2014-04-04 via:metafilter • bees • pain • batshitinsane

Yul Brynner fashion

Pharoah had an awesome wardrobe

2014-04-04 movies • yulbrynner • tencommandments

Google DNS intercept

Official statement that Turkey hijacked the Google service

2014-04-03 badtech • google • turkey • dns

Russian GPS alternative was broken for 12 hours

2014-04-03 glonass • gps • outage • satellite

Explaining gay parents to kids

Simple no-nonsense advice

2014-04-03 kids • gays • gaymarriage • families • via:metafilter

GameSpy shutdown

Classic game matchmaking service is ending; old games will be harder to play

2014-04-03 games • gamespy • multiplayer • pvp

"Game of Thrones" reportage

Funny spoofs of how the press would report GoT. Spoilers.

2014-04-03 gameofthrones • journalism • reporting

Scientific computing language with parallelism and distributed computing

2014-04-03 programming • math • matlab • r • julia • parallelism • distributed

FAA charts go digital

Pilot map production process eliminates the "print and scan" step

2014-04-03 maps • faa • aviation • foreflight

Microsoft scam bust

One of those "This is Windows" telephone scams got busted

2014-04-02 badtech • scam • microsoft • windows

Twitter Manhattan

details on Twitter's distributed database

2014-04-02 database • distributed • consistency • twitter

70M eSports viewers in 2013

Statistics on how many people are watching games online

2014-04-02 games • esports • lol • tv

formerly Dan Bunten, famous game designer who made M.U.L.E.

2014-04-02 games • mule • transgender

"Git is to source code as Dat is to datasets"

2014-04-02 data • database • versioncontrol • git

National Parks Voronoi

Nice map showing which park is closest to you in the US

2014-04-02 via:reddit • parks • nationalparks • maps • voronoi

iOS software that maintains a VPN connection

2014-04-02 ios • iphone • cloak • vpn • security

Resilient Distributed Datasets

Distributed programming model that's like mapreduce but allows efficient data updates

2014-04-01 mapreduce • distributed • rdd • spark

Hilarious musical video for the zeitgeist

2014-04-01 music • funny • instagram • selfie

Gmail after 10 years

Nice history of the launch

2014-04-01 google • gmail • email • paulbuchheit

Amateur-launched satellite was lost at launch, they found it!

2014-04-01 satellites • skycube • cubesat

The Korean cable channel dedicated to broadcasting computer games

2014-04-01 games • korea • esports • lol

Imgur-to-Gfycat

Chrome extension rewrites Imgur animated GIFs to smaller Gfycat hosted versions

2014-04-01 imgur • gfycat • bandwidth • chrome • extension

Image of Altair

One of a few stars to be directly imaged; spins so fast it's squashed

2014-04-01 astronomy • star • altair

Read the comments

AT&T customers tear apart AT&T's argument against net neutrality on AT&T's blog

2014-04-01 att • netneutrality • netflix • funny

Extended Random is NSA sabotage

Another baffling RSA technical choice turns out to be government sabotage

2014-04-01 nsa • badtech • security • privacy • cryptography • rsa