Nelson's Linkblog 2014-06

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MPEG Streamclip

It's a bit ghetto, but it's simple software for trimming a video and saving it.

2014-06-30 edit • mpeg • trim • video

World map of natural hazards

Munich RE map showing earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, etc

2014-06-30 earthquake • hazards • hurricane • insurance • maps • tornado • via:reddit

Blackwater was out of control

Mercenaries hired by the US threatened assassination

2014-06-30 academi • assassination • blackwater • iraq • murder • via:metafilter • xe

SB Language Maps

Fascinating detailed language dialect maps

2014-06-30 languages • maps

Amazing amateur astrophotography

2014-06-29 astrophotography • mars • space • via:reddit

Football video tracking

Cameras on field in real time track player, ball movements

2014-06-28 football • soccer • sports • tracking • video

Bitcoin max transaction rate

The protocol works out to about 10 transactions / second, a toy

2014-06-28 bitcoin • currency

MH370 update report

New info from ATSB with a very thorough treatment of the search area

2014-06-28 aviation • mh370 • via:metafilter

Right wing nut job

Brent Douglas Cole tried to murder a ranger up in Nevada County

2014-06-28 guns • murder • nevadacounty • rightwing

Mt Gox stolen coins tagged?

Someone claims to have found the missing $billion worth of BitCoins and tagged the wallets

2014-06-28 bitcoin • fraud • mtgox

Voice Chat with strangers

League of Legends thinking on why no voice chat

2014-06-27 games • leagueoflegends • sexism

Timeseries aggregation software from Twitter engineering

2014-06-27 database • rrdtool • timeseries • twitter

Redesigning Google Maps

I/0 2014 talk about the WebGL maps

2014-06-27 design • google • googlemaps • maps • webgl

43,634 Detroit foreclosures

Amazing use of small multiples and Google street view

2014-06-27 google • maps • nytimes • smallmultiples • visualization

Muni contract status June 2014

A briefing that Muni has since removed from the web

2014-06-27 muni • sf • transit

Alraigo incident

Crazy 1983 aviation thing; lost pilot lands his VTOL on a random shipping vessel

2014-06-27 aviation • harrier • vtol

The Fermi Paradox

Clear, simple explanation of various theories of extraterrestrial intelligence

2014-06-27 civilization • life • seti • space • via:metafilter

Early Bob image

J.R. Bob Dobbs appeared in print even before his religion

2014-06-27 bob • funny • subgenius

Marc Collins-Rector found

The never ending story of gay pedophiles, Internet startups, and David Geffen

2014-06-27 culture • gay • ige • scandal • via:waxy • wowhead • zam

Twitter World Cup stats

Interesting data, very international audience

2014-06-27 football • twitter • worldcup

A Less-Angry Rainbow

Mike's experiments with color scales

2014-06-26 angryrainbow • color • d3js • design • rainbow

Gambletron 2000

Real time betting stats during a game

2014-06-26 gambling • games • odds • sports

Visualizing Algorithms

Mike Bostock's new essay, from his Eyeo talk

2014-06-26 algorithms • d3 • d3js • eyeo • visualization

Multics reunion panel

Video of a talk from one of the grand old timeshare operating systems

2014-06-26 greybeards • multics • operatingsystems

Simple wrapper to import a CSV file to a database and allow SQL queries

2014-06-26 csv • data • python • sql

Deep Space Network status

See live status of satellite communications

2014-06-25 communication • deepspacenetwork • dsn • satellite • space

World Cup flopping stats

Some data on football cheating

2014-06-25 cheating • flopping • football • games • soccer • worldcup

Lightning Map Tiles

Andy Allan (@gravitystorm)'s talk about his vector tile OSM work

2014-06-25 maps • osm • vectors • vectortiles

April GLONASS postmortem

Details on the failure of Russia's GPS-like system

2014-06-25 glonass • gps • positioning • satellites

Novel uses of blockchain tech

Discussion of non-currency uses of BitCoin's central design

2014-06-25 bitcoin • blockchain • consensus • distributed

Explaining the relationship, very nicely worded

2014-06-25 mapbox • maps • openstreetmap • osm

Don't buy Battlefield Hardline

Excellent editorial calling out EA for their abusive game releases

2014-06-24 battlefield • bugs • games

2013 Google/FTC anti-trust agreement

Forgot about this; Google made some concessions to avoid an anti-trust case

2014-06-24 ads • antitrust • competition • ftc • google

Spoof of the Google doodle, noting that Bing Video is particularly good for porn

2014-06-24 bing • funny • google

1967 song that's basically the Futurama theme

2014-06-24 futurama • music

Foucault: 100% polyamide

Famous philosopher *and* fashion model

2014-06-24 fashion • foucault • funny • turtleneck

Drone crashes visualization

Database of 400+ unmanned aircraft crashes

2014-06-23 aviation • drones • flying • military

Eliot reading The Hollow Men

annoying music underneath, but still a good clear recording

2014-06-23 despair • eliot • poem • poetry • thehollowmen • tseliot

ISEE-3 DSN postmortem

Detailed analysis of troubleshooting radio communication with the 30 year old spacecraft

2014-06-23 deepspacenetwork • dsn • isee-3 • space

How Mapbox Works

Overview of the map creation product

2014-06-23 mapbox • maps • tilemill

MapBox Outdoors design

Another new terrain map, quite lovely

2014-06-23 dem • mapbox • maps • terrain

League of Legends: The Basics

Riot finally made a good introductory video to the game

2014-06-23 leagueoflegends • lol • moba • riot

Permalink#History

Origins of the idea you should be able to link reliably to content, even on a changing site like a blog

2014-06-22 blogs • mathowie • pb • permalink • urls • web • weblogs

The world's population

Nice histogram visualization

2014-06-22 maps • population

ISEE-3 Trajectory 1978-1985

crazy orbut of a space probe

2014-06-21 isee-3 • lagrange • orbit • satellite • space

Israel vs. Palestine in RunKeeper

Stark map of the divide in the Middle East

2014-06-21 israel • maps • palestine • running

World Cup anti-gay slurs

Mexico fans yelling "puto" claiming it's no big thing.

2014-06-21 bigots • football • gay • mexico • sports • worldcup

Uber private stock deals

The difficulty of trying to sell private company equity

2014-06-21 investing • privatemarket • startups • stock • uber

La Ferme Saint-Aubin

An excellent cheese shop in Paris, on the Ile St. Louis

2014-06-21 cheese • fromagerie • paris

Dakota Doomsday Pyramid

Drive-by in Google Street View

2014-06-21 dakota • google • military • northdakota • radar • streetview • via:bldgblog

US Radar Pyramid

"A Pyramid in the MIddle of Nowhere Built to Track the End of the World"

2014-06-21 apocalypse • architecture • dakota • military • northdakota • radar • via:mariuswatz

freshmeat.net, 1997-2014

Sad, direct recounting of one company's Incredible Journey into oblivion

2014-06-21 freshmeat • slashdot • sourceforge • startups

World Cup flowchart

A simple guide on whom to root for

2014-06-21 football • funny • soccer • via:hronk • worldcup

Runkeeper routes

Lovely maps from @enf of @MapBox; 1.5 million GPS tracks in a heatmap

2014-06-20 maps • runkeeper • running

EA Battlefield 4 apology

An explanation of sorts, but basically the game was still a giant disaster

2014-06-20 battlefield • dice • ea • games

The Invasion of America

Animated map of the US taking land from Native tribes

2014-06-20 america • history • indians • maps • nativeamericans • via:metafilter

RIP Freshmeat (Freecode)

Long standing open source site finally winds down

2014-06-19 freecode • freshmeat • opensource

Rabies in a human (NSFL)

Creepy, disturbing medical video of a man dying of rabies

2014-06-19 disease • nsfl • nsfw • rabies • via:reddit

Zynga CEO: $57M

The payoff for running one of the worst public companies in the tech industry

2014-06-18 ceo • compensation • salary • scam • zynga

Hawaii overprint note

During WW2 the US printed special currency for Hawai'i, in case the Japanese took it over

2014-06-18 currency • hawaii • money • worldwar2 • ww2

This Is Phil Fish

Thoughtful musing on the culture of fame in Internet subcultures

2014-06-18 culture • fame • fez • games • philfish • via:metafilter

19 years of astronomy pictures, presented as a heatmap on the sky

2014-06-18 apod • astronomy • nasa • visualization

Node.js Is Bad Ass Rock Star Tech

Like MongoDB, Node.js is web scale

2014-06-18 funny • javascript • mongodb • nodejs

The History of Mana

Details on how "mana" went from an Austronesian cultural idea to a video game concept

2014-06-17 anthropology • games • history • mana

@blaine's collaborative writing webapp

2014-06-17 collaborative • editing • gnip • googledocs • medium • webapp • writing

Strange little image meme from Walking Dead

2014-06-17 walkingdead • funny • meme • tv

Nevada County recreation map

The county GIS office does good things

2014-06-14 esri • grassvalley • hiking • maps • nevadacounty

Parody of what buying Internet may soon look like

2014-06-14 funny • internet • netneutrality • parody

SF buildings in OSM

MapBox funded an effort to trace every building in San Francisco

2014-06-13 mapbox • maps • openstreetmap • osm • sanfrancisco • sf

Visualizing Muni schedule performance

2014-06-13 muni • transit • visualization

Twitter Management Opera of Soap

Analysis of recent staff changes at Twitter

2014-06-13 costolo • politics • twitter

US Marshals Bitcoin auction

Government moves to sell Silk Road seizure

2014-06-13 bitcoin • silkroad • via:metafilter

Thunderforest Lightning maps

OpenStreetMap leading light is offering his own vector maps

2014-06-13 maps • openstreetmap • osm • vectormaps

Iraq war: $2 trillion

And nothing to show for it except more instability

2014-06-13 bush • debt • iraq • warcrimes

Mapbox GL label placement

More of the fiddly design stuff required to make good looking maps

2014-06-13 labels • maps • opengl • openstreetmap

1881 Isochronic map

Travel times from London, Royal Geographic Society

2014-06-12 geographic • maps • via:reddit

Public art gone bad

That filthy mass of hippy rope in Embarcadero finally being removed

2014-06-12 art • bart • embarcadero • macrame

Internet treasure @ftrain on the wonderful world of cat piss absorbants.

2014-06-12 cats • ftrain • funny • internet

A router scheduling algorithm that does a good job scheduling bandwidth with little user configuration

2014-06-12 bandwidth • openwrt • qos • quality • router

A router firmware from the Bufferbloat project, with good QoS and other proper networking features

2014-06-12 firmware • network • openwrt • router

Like Gist or Pastebin for JSON; presents a nice viewer

2014-06-11 data • gist • json • pastebin • share

Good astronomy podcast

2014-06-11 astronomy • podcast • science • space

Pan Inuit trails

Maps of traditional Arctic trails

2014-06-11 arctic • eskimo • inuit • maps

Feedly DDOS shakedown

Small web business comes public about an extortion attempt

2014-06-11 badtech • crime • ddos • feedly • rss

Drawing lines in OpenGL

Amazing detailed info on what should be simple. /cc @korkyplunger

2014-06-11 design • graphics • maps • opengl • webgl

The Nose Of Stephen Fry

Of course there's a Tumblr for it

2014-06-10 nose • stephenfry • tumblr

Boston T visualization

Amazing analysis of MBTA transit data

2014-06-10 boston • via:metafilter • visualization

Fine NodeJS rant

Some insight into how Node.js has its problems too

2014-06-09 javascript • node • nodejs • programming

Why Perl Didn't Win

An entire history of Perl written in the past tense

2014-06-09 internet • perl • perl6 • programming

Useful, hilariously cranky guide to USPS postage rates

2014-06-05 funny • postage • stamps • usps

A working Xanadu

Famous hypertext vaporware finally has a usable demo

2014-06-04 batshitinsane • hypertext • xanadu

World Atlas of Language Structure

Neat maps of different structural characteristics of world languages

2014-06-04 atlas • language • linguistics • maps

Twitter astronaut posting great photos from the ISS

2014-06-04 astronaut • nasa • photos • space • twitter

A Python3 interpreter for embedded systems; 200k for full runtime, 2k RAM for a REPL

2014-06-04 embedded • lua • python

Cities stop fiber ISPs

Local laws often grant monopolies to crappy slow ISPs

2014-06-04 fiber • internet • isp • politics

Contiki embedded OS

Nice article about the tiny open source OS for "Internet of Things" style computing

2014-06-03 contiki • embedded • opensource • os • via:mc

Cepheids in the Milky Way

Great astronomy result; gives us precise distance measures inside our own galaxy

2014-06-03 astronomy • cepheid • milkyway

Isa (sci-fi film)

New movie airing on the Syfy channel

2014-06-03 movies • scifi

WWDC 2014 summary

Bullet points, nothing terribly exciting

2014-06-02 apple • wwdc

Bob Bergdahl’s tweet

Weird story behind the recent Taliban prisoner exchange

2014-06-02 bergdahl • prisoner • taliban • twitter

Alfred and OS X 10.10 Yosemite

My beloved app launcher does not feel threatened by Spotlight

2014-06-02 alfred • apple • macos • spotlight

Disturbing art game from Cavanagh

2014-06-02 abuse • art • childabuse • despair • games

Clean thoughtful Windows backup

2014-06-01 backup • software • windows

Script to kick Google Glass off a wifi network

2014-06-01 funny • glass • google • privacy • via:jwz • wifi

NSA facial recognition database

Well of course they're doing this too

2014-06-01 facialrecognition • nsa • privacy • snowden

Watch Dogs graphic direction

Interesting view into the work of a game visual designer

2014-06-01 design • games • scifi • watchdogs

Big data on the farm

Prescriptive planting: using precise climate and soil data to choose what to plant

2014-06-01 agriculture • farming • fieldscripts • monsanto

Gamer slang from Twitch, "Kappa" indicates sarcasm

2014-06-01 funny • games • kappa • meme • twitch

Over the Hill at 24

Survey of Starcraft players find reaction time starts to suffer at 24

2014-06-01 aging • esports • games • reactiontime • starcraft

Hai - Road to Recovery

Sweet video feature on a pro LoL player and his collapsed lung

2014-06-01 c9 • cloud9 • esports • hai • leagueoflegends • lol • lung