Nelson's Linkblog 2014-12

about • archive • mastodon • feed

BART WiFi update

The company they chose to install has failed to deliver

2014-12-31 bart • wifi • internet

RIP Leelah Alcorn

Heartbreaking suicide note from a transgender teen

2014-12-30 transgender • gender • lgbt • gay • via:metafilter • suicide

Mavericks filesharing

Tips for dealing with MacOS's broken SMB implementation

2014-12-29 samba • smb • macos • badtech

Python logging practice

Some reasonable sounding suggestions

2014-12-29 python • logging • coding

A better JPEG encoder

2014-12-28 jpg • jpeg • graphics • compression • via:hackernews

A market for buying the anonymous release of secret data

2014-12-28 cryptography • bitcoin • secrets

Scan the entire Internet in 6 minutes, albeit with caveats

2014-12-28 via:hackernews • internet • nmap • portscanning • tcpip

2014-12-28 funny • gif • via:reddit • tinder • dating

Spatial statistics subtlety

Problems with Twitter maps

2014-12-26 statistics • maps • twitter

Sony hack not NK?

The argument against

2014-12-26 sony • northkorea • dprk

bro, dude, fella, pal, buddy: incidence by county

2014-12-23 language • twitter • maps • via:reddit

Downloading Java

Work around Oracle's willing brokenness

2014-12-22 oracle • java • download

Prosecute Torturers

NYT editorial on US torture includes list of who should be prosecuted

2014-12-22 torture • humanrights • cheney

Sony hack overview

Another synthesis

2014-12-22 sony • badtech • hacker • via:metafilter

Tor is being attacked

There were warnings this was coming

2014-12-22 tor • privacy • security • badtech

Sony hack overview

Excellent timeline of events from a Redditor

2014-12-21 reddit • sony • badteech • hack • malware

Explaining the appeal of one of YouTube's biggest things

2014-12-21 pewdiepie • games • twitch • youtube • culture • loneliness

On Internet outrage

Remarkably thoughtful piece from Sam Biddle about pitchfork-wielding mobs

2014-12-20 twitter • outrage • biddle • valleywag • sacco

NTP vulnerabilities

Several significant security flaws in timekeeping software

2014-12-20 security • badtech • ntp • time

Alfreda Bikowsky

Another CIA torture architect

2014-12-20 cia • torture • civilrights • america

28x collateral damage

Drone strikes: 27 other people killed for every 1 target

2014-12-20 drones • warfare • military • warcrimes

North Korea v Sony

FBI offers some info on the evidence for the unprecedented acquisition

2014-12-19 cyberwar • northkorea • sony • hack • badtech

The year of outrage 2014

Clever roundup feature

2014-12-18 outrage • socialmedia

Everyone's got to find someone somehow

2014-12-18 via:jwz • funny • icp • juggalo • dating

Details of the broken neogtiation

2014-12-17 uber • portland • government • regulation

A new trend towards degraded meme images

2014-12-17 memes • via:metafilter • instagram

United States of Torture

Majority of Americans in almost every demographic agree torture is sometimes justified

2014-12-17 torture • civilrights • america • poll

Unedited Footage of a Bear

NSFW: Adult Swim delivers WTF again

2014-12-17 video • adultswim • claridryl • horror

Top Star Trek episodes

Every single episode ranked. (SFW despite host.)

2014-12-15 via:kottke • startrek • tv • television • netflix

Tech policies on employee data access

What companies have thought through privacy of their customers from employees?

2014-12-15 privacy • uber • policy

Cheney on Torture

Analysis of his appearance on Sunday TV

2014-12-15 cheney • torture • civilrights • cia

Life of a CIA torturer

Matthew Zirbel continues to work for CIA despite being judged unfit

2014-12-15 torture • via:metafilter • cia

Unthinkable (2010)

A really disturbing but interesting film about torture

2014-12-15 movies • via:metafilter • torture • samueljackson

A Brenham synagogue

Jewish community near Houston has slowly shrunk, so they are moving the synagogue

2014-12-14 religion • texas • judaism

Like Scribd, but not awful. Publish PDF documents with annotations, search, etc on the Web

2014-12-14 scribd • documents • pdf

Bad Christmas cartoons

Metafilter roundup of 80s schlock

2014-12-13 christmas • cartoon • animation • tv • via:metafilter

Wikipedia calumny

Great paradox that such a terrible community produces a mostly great resource

2014-12-12 wikipedia • culture • sexism

CIA director's lying testimony

Details of the ways Hayden lied to the Senate

2014-12-12 democracy • civilrights • hayden • cia

More on CHP cop thug

KTVU stands behind story that an undercover CHP officer went way over the line

2014-12-12 police • civilrights • chp • oakland

CHP undercover in Oakland protest

Lots of photos alleging that undercover cops were armed, acting as provocateurs in a protest

2014-12-11 oakland • police • protest • civilrights

Lovely classic cocktail site

2014-12-11 cocktails • drinks • beverages • design

Auto-Password Change

LastPass moves further in to turning passwords into an actual authentication protocol

2014-12-10 authentication • passwords • security • lastpass

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Fun documentary is now on YouTube

2014-12-10 via:waxy • california • saltonsea • weird

Google ad coloring

12 years of data on how Google's ads have started to blend in to the page

2014-12-10 google • ads

Roman Empire map 211 AD

Lovely detailed historical map

2014-12-10 maps • rome • history

New Mapbox terrain map

Beautiful, better DEM data

2014-12-09 maps • mapbox • terrain

Browser tool to slice big GeoJSON files into vector tiles

2014-12-09 geojson • maps • javascript • tiles • vectortiles

A video game education

Andy raises his kid on classic games to good effect

2014-12-09 games • history • retro

Provocative argument to pardon the people responsible for torture

2014-12-09 bush • politics • torture • cia

Torture report problems

Last ditch effort by the Obama Administration to prevent the release of the torture report

2014-12-07 politics • torture • humanrights

A take on the NHD data set using CartoDB

2014-12-07 cartodb • maps

Data on game popularity

2014-12-06 steam • games • analytics

Lag and CRTs in games

Serious Smash Bros player talks about why analog displays are still preferred

2014-12-06 lag • video • crt • lcd • games

Owners of a looted store answer questions on Reddit.

2014-12-06 reddit • ferguson

FUSE filesystem that's in memory, temporary, per-process

2014-12-05 filesystem • code • programming • fuse • via:onethingwell

BPG Image format

Efficient lossy image format that can be decompressed in Javascript.

2014-12-05 compression • images • via:hackernews • javascript

Star Trek is funny on Twitter

2014-12-05 funny • twitter • tv • startrek

MacOS input bug

Apple logs all user keyboard input to a file in /tmp. Great job, geniuses.

2014-12-05 apple • macos • bugs • firefox

Golden Girls: Beautiful Guardians

A video game that should be

2014-12-04 funny • art • goldengirls • tv • gay

Berlin museum housing a contender for first digital computer

2014-12-04 computers • berlin • germany • zuse

Map tool to run queries on OpenStreetMap data and visualize results

2014-12-04 osm • openstreetmap • maps • query

Adding the price of coffee to OpenStreetMap. Not sure if performance art or brilliant.

2014-12-04 osm • openstreetmap • coffee

Apple Cabin foods

Funny bit from LiarTown

2014-12-04 ads • funny • parody • groceries • food

more open address machine

Work notes from making real stuff work

2014-12-04 coding • openaddresses • migurski

Detailed tweet map

Eric Fischer drops some dot map details

2014-12-04 maps • enf • mapbox • twitter

Satellite Internet from Medium Earth Orbit; better latency than geosync

2014-12-04 space • internet • satellite • broadband

Mat Honan to Buzzfeed

Becoming new Silicon Valley bureau chief. Quite a good gig for an interesting writer.

2014-12-03 mathonan • siliconvalley • journalism • gossip • sanfrancisco

Spectrum Dashboard

FCC's interactive database of spectrum allocations

2014-12-03 spectrum • broadband • fcc • regulation

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Beautiful chart from Westinghouse

2014-12-03 frequency • westinghouse • ge • spectrum • broadband

US Frequency Allocation chart

Details of who can use what parts of the electromagnetic spectrum

2014-12-03 bandwidth • broadband • spectrum • fcc • regulation

Unix Hater's Handbook

Much ancient wisdom from our greybearded elders

2014-12-03 unix • funny • computing

Sony Pictures hack

Very bad; 100TB of corporate internal data

2014-12-03 sony • hack • badtech • via:reddit

chan vs twitter

Thoughtful analysis of the conflict of culture, related to GamerGate, etc

2014-12-03 chan • 4chan • culture • twitter • gamergate

All the streams in Australia

Rivers map from someone based on Australian data

2014-12-03 maps • australia • rivers

Nice honest post about a business that's doing OK but not a doorbuster

2014-12-02 twitter • stats • analytics • anildash • ginatrapani • startups

LoL Worlds viewer numbers

esports growth, but not ridiculous amounts

2014-12-02 esports • lol • riot • games • leagueoflegends

2^31 views on a YouTube video

Gangnam Style breaks the YouTube view counter

2014-12-02 youtube • funny • via:reddit • psy

Chrome extension malware

Year old report that Chrome extensions are being subverted by ad trackers, etc

2014-12-02 chrome • security • badtech • extensions • google

Buy Viagra online?

Google's famous SEO spam fighter @mattcutts discusses the most popular Web topic

2014-12-02 funny • seo • viagra • cialis • mattcutts • google

Yik Yak funding

$62M on a $300–$400M valuation

2014-12-02 chat • anonymous • startup

Null Island weather

Buoy is actually anchored at 0°N, 0°E.

2014-12-01 weather • nullisland • gps • maps

Native wrapper for Javascript webapps. Like PhoneGap, but for MacOS desktop

2014-12-01 apps • macos • phonegap • javascript

Internet monopolies

Excellent overview of the state of Internet competition, particularly Google

2014-12-01 monopoly • antitrust • ftc • google • amazon