Nelson's Linkblog 2015-03

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Star Citizen update

$77M spent on the game and it still doesn't exist

2015-03-31 games • starcitizen • scam • crowdfunding

EFF's browser extension for blocking trackers. It has a learning component

2015-03-31 eff • privacy • cookies • tracking

GreatFire statement on China DDOS

More details of Chinese attacks against GreatFire, Amazon, and GitHub

2015-03-31 github • amazon • china • greatfire • ddos • security • badtech

Riot Games and Reddit

Details of how the League of Legends company influences the 650,000 member subreddit about the game

2015-03-31 games • moderation • lol • riot • marketing • reddit

Amazon Dash button

Simple pushbutton to order more of any product automatically

2015-03-31 amazon • dash • funny • via:Waxy

Lovely thematic maps of the United States

2015-03-30 maps • data • unitedstates

Choose boring technology

Words of wisdom on engineering choices

2015-03-30 programming • technology • etsy • architecture

Library of Babel

A universal library, in the Borgesian sense

2015-03-30 borges • via:reddit • books • funny

MapBox Tippecanoe

Vector tile generation tool

2015-03-30 gis • maps • mapbox • vectortiles

April Fools is for sociopaths

Excellent critique by John Oliver

2015-03-30 aprilfools • via:kottke • funny

3 day course in learning evasion and escape techniques

2015-03-30 sanfrancisco • via:metafilter • spycraft • evasion

63 pass FORTRAN compiler

Code from the long long ago when memory was precious. IBM 1401 compiler.

2015-03-30 history • computers • programming • compiler • fortran • mainframe • ibm • via:hackernews

DDoS visualization

Global statistics; the attack types graph is particularly interesting

2015-03-29 internet • badtech • ddos

China vs GitHub

3 days in now to a massive DDoS attack, apparently by the Chinese government

2015-03-29 china • github • ddos

OpenAddresses praise

Nice essay explaining why the geodatabase is so valuable

2015-03-28 maps • openaddresses • opensource

Interview with a pro League of Legends player

2015-03-27 hai • c9 • cloud9 • lol • games • esports

Git from the inside out

How git works, how it tracks data

2015-03-26 git • scm • software • via:hackernews

Homes without broadband

Sad, insane story of an underserved residential area

2015-03-26 network • broadband • isp • competition • via:metafilter

A visit to Naypyidaw

Myanmar's artificial capital city is empty

2015-03-26 burma • myanmar • abandoned • city • Naypyidaw

RIP FoundationDB

Apple buys promising open source database, yanks it offline

2015-03-25 foundationdb • apple • opensource

Raffi Krikorian to Uber

Old friend and former Twitter VP heading up "advanced technologies" for Uber

2015-03-25 uber • cmu • raffi • twitter • engineering

Includes details on the Adwords API licensing making competition difficult

2015-03-25 adwords • api • google • ads • antitrust • monopoly • ftc

Chris Sacca profile

Angel investor, financier, former Googler

2015-03-25 sacca • startups • financing • twitter • investment • venturecapital

Ridiculous Olympic Committee requests

2015-03-24 olympics • corruption • oslo

Bazel build tool

Google's internal make replacement, now open source

2015-03-24 build • make • google • bazel • blaze • ant

DEM tool to make Cities: Skylines game maps from real world data

2015-03-24 games • citiesskylines • dem • maps

Goldman's plan for the White House

Blogger / Twitter product guy heads to the White House, his words on why and what he's doing

2015-03-24 goldman • twitter • blogger • whitehouse • government

WWII B-17 pilot IAmA

Great set of answers from a World War 2 bomber pilot. he's hilarious.

2015-03-23 pilot • aviation • ww2 • history • b17

There is No Now

Nice simple paper about problems of time synchronization

2015-03-23 via:metafilter • distributed • ntp • time • systems

Neutral typeface

A font designed to be unnoticed

2015-03-22 fonts • text • sansserif • neutral • typography

Chinese Mobile App UI Trends

Invaluably detailed info for how Chinese mobile apps differ from US

2015-03-21 china • internet • product • mobile

RiotLyte interview

More details on how League of Legends is trying to shape its community

2015-03-21 riot • games • lol • behavior • community

Solar power during eclipse

Neat graphs show the effect of the eclipse on German solar electricity generation

2015-03-21 power • solar • eclipse • germany

Phenomenal astrophotograph

2015-03-21 photos • sun • astronomy • eclipse • iss • astrophotography

Powerline ethernet

New AV2 standard promises decent speeds for routing network over your home power lines

2015-03-21 ethernet • network • hardware-cellphones

Tangram map library

Slippy maps in WebGL with shader support

2015-03-20 maps • visualization • graphics • fun • webgl • glsl

1918 Portland traffic

Lovely old traffic visualization. Attn @enf!

2015-03-20 maps • portland • traffic • via:metafilter

A Medium critique

Counterpoint to the excellent Web publishing company

2015-03-20 medium • publishing • blogging

Rocket: the making of a space raccoon

Notes on the Guardians of the Galaxy character, some excellent animation

2015-03-20 movies • guardiansofthegalaxy • mcu • rocket • racoon • animation • graphics

Google skewed search results

FTC found Google deliberately manipulated ranking to favor its own lower quality properties

2015-03-20 google • search • seo

Pyramiden photos

More from the abandoned Russian town in Svalbard

2015-03-19 svalbard • russia • sovietunion • pyramiden • via:metafilter

Nicely done 3d chart

2015-03-19 visualization • yield • debt • finance • 3dchart

Shower with your dad simulator

Parody games go ++

2015-03-19 games • dad • shower • funny • daddicks

Mercedes' self driving car

Lovely concept vehicle ad

2015-03-19 mercedes • cars • ai • selfdriving • ad

The end of Tex-Mex?

Bemoaning the loss of the traditional slightly trashy cuisine

2015-03-19 food • cooking • texmex • houston

Reed sexism controversy

Remarkably good student paper article from my alma mater

2015-03-19 reed • feminism

Add patterns to SVG and D3 graphics

2015-03-19 d3js • d3 • svg • visualization

Photographs and diagrams sent on the Golden Record in to deep space

2015-03-19 space • voyager • anthropology • goldenrecord

.gov web analytics

Details of web traffic, shows the mass crush ordering Covid tests

2015-03-19 government • usps • covid • website • development • analytics • tootme

Pyramiden, Svalbard

An abandoned Russian coal mining town in the far, far north

2015-03-19 russia • sovietunion • svalbard • spitsbergen • via:metafilter

Tab Closed; Didn't Read

A gallery of shame

2015-03-18 via:jwz • ads • advertising • popups

Schock: reporting matters

Details of how journalism resulted in rooting out a corrupt politician

2015-03-18 politics • journalism • reporting • schock • gay

Groups.io Update

Mark Fletcher's new mailing list service is adding good features

2015-03-17 email • mailinglists • googlegroups • yahoogroups • mailman

The Book of Shaders

Promising interactive primer on GL shader programming

2015-03-17 gl • graphics • opengl • glsl • shaders • programming • visualization

Alternate Brewer schemes

Tools and theories for designing color schemes like the Brewer scales, but different.

2015-03-17 hsl • hsv • lab • colorbrewer • design

YouTube loudness normalization

Third party claims YouTube has been adjusting audio for consistent volume

2015-03-17 music • loudness • volume • youtube

Netanyahu goes racist

Crazy rhetoric in Israeli elections

2015-03-17 israel • politics

Silent Protagonists

Borderlands game developer talks about the problems of having the main character not talk

2015-03-17 games • borderlands • narrative

MIT's ongoing suicide problem

4 students have committed suicide in the last year

2015-03-17 mit • via:hackernews • depression • suicide • mentalhealth • health

GDC talk on LoL community management

Riot's PhD updates us on what they're doing to fight and ban trolls

2015-03-16 riot • lol • leagueoflegends • gdc

GPSD time HOWTO

Notes on rolling your own GPS-driven accurate clock

2015-03-16 gps • ntp • time

On "My Immortal"

Is the world's worst fanfic satire? Or just fanfic?

2015-03-15 via:metafilter • fanfic • funny

Details from the 4chan creator, trying to move on

2015-03-14 4chan • moot

Dalek Relaxation Tape

2015-03-14 via:jwz • daleks • doctorwho • funny

Mail a printed photo a day to someone.

2015-03-14 photos • printing • delivery

Notes from a guy rewriting ntpd from scratch

2015-03-13 ntp • time • programming • opensource • phk • ntimed

Maintainer of NTP looking for more funding

2015-03-13 time • ntp • opensource • via:metafilter

SF frequent transit

Muni and BART that runs every 12 minutes or faster

2015-03-12 sf • transit • muni • maps • via:metafilter

Consumer drives can be written to 1000 times or more before failing

2015-03-12 flash • ssd • via:hackernews

Reddit's moderation problem

Great article about the troublesome but productive community

2015-03-12 reddit • community • moderation • internet • culture

US hillshade map (5000x3136)

Beautiful large JPG

2015-03-11 unitedstates • maps • terrain • hillshade

Render geodata pictures in ASCII graphics

2015-03-11 ascii • geo • maps • hack

Colorized radio astronomy

Lovely image visualizing some radio astronomical phenomena

2015-03-10 radio • astronomy • imaging

Mario Kart drag show

Featuring the Castro Rainbow Road

2015-03-10 games • mariokart • nintendo • gay • drag • sanfrancisco • fabulous

In Praise of CSV

Excellent essay endorsing the simplest of data formats

2015-03-10 csv • data • json • opendata

Kindle Cover Disasters

Amateur book cover design is terrible. /cc @bookscout

2015-03-10 books • funny • amazon • kindle

Excellent aggregator basically ended when Facebook bought it, but is now dead for real

2015-03-10 facebook • friendfeed • aggregator • rss

Dal Makhani history

Origins of a popular restaurant dish

2015-03-09 food • cooking • india • dal

1980s Leningrad music

A forgotten era in Soviet dance and experimental video

2015-03-09 music • video • via:metafilter • russia • sovietunion

Map of human migrations

Nice use of an unusual projection

2015-03-08 maps • history • via:vruba • migration

Reconstruction of the famous lentil dish (dal makhani-like) at Bukhara in Delhi

2015-03-08 food • indian • dal • bukhara • recipe

Pre-chip computer designs, modular cards

2015-03-08 ibm • computer • architecture • hardware

Comcast blocks HBO Go

Playstation 4 app does not work for Comcast cable customers. Is it time for an anti-trust action yet?

2015-03-08 playstation • netneutrality • comcast • hbo • via:reddit

The Guy Who Ruined Dogecoin

Cryptocurrency that is more of a joke than the others also victim to a scam

2015-03-06 scam • bitcoin • dogecoin

2010 Redistricting

Algorithmic results for drawing voting districts.

2015-03-06 voting • politics • maps

$1.3B wasted on bad AIDS education

Insane US plan to try to promote abstinence in Africa had no effect

2015-03-05 africa • aids • hiv • religion • stupid

"Exclusive club for Kickstarter Backers". They charge $189 or 2% to be listed

2015-03-05 kickstarter

10 years of OpenStreetMap

Map showing change over time

2015-03-04 maps • osm • openstreetmap

mathowie leaving metafilter

The founder and operator of my favorite online community is moving on

2015-03-04 metafilter • community • mathowie • haughey • culture • internet

B4-XVI beforesixteen

Hip-hop vs. Renaissance art

2015-03-04 hiphop • art

Mechanical Turk workers review employers

2015-03-04 labor • jobs • amazon • mechanicalturk

Browser programming environment for visual and audio art

2015-03-04 processing • music • art • livecoding • javascript • via:metafilter

Coded life of William Prestwood

Diaries of an 19th century American farmer and his many trysts

2015-03-04 sex • diary • via:metafilter

Kleiner Perkins update

Report from Ellen Pao's lawsuit alleging gender discrimination

2015-03-04 gender • sexism • vc • venturecapital • kleiner • doerr

Code for America, Mapzen, and OpenAddresses

Update on a fun geodata project

2015-03-04 maps • geodata • gis • openaddresses

Notch interview

Post-billions, sounds like he's doing poorly

2015-03-04 minecraft • notch • billionaire • games

School for Poetic Computation

Art / code program in New York

2015-03-03 coding • design • art • programming

Al3x and Jacobin

Wealthy engineer allies with democratic socialism; thoughtful piece

2015-03-03 jacobin • socialism • politics • twitter

Penis size metastudy

Definitive survey of various medical measurements

2015-03-03 via:reddit • penis • sex • science

BuzzFeed's model

Analysis of how BuzzFeed could end up being good for journalism. Wish I shared his optimism.

2015-03-03 journalism • news • buzzfeed • viral

Star Citizen interview

Thoughtful discussion with Chris Roberts about the game you can't play yet with $75M in sales

2015-03-03 games • starcitizen • kickstarter • crowdfunding

Character codes 1874–1968

Thoroughly researched article about the history of Baudot, ASCII, etc

2015-03-03 ascii • computing • history • character • unicode

Some very fiddly little details on the history of character encodings for computers

2015-03-03 ascii • unicode • history • computing • fidonet

Chinese website that I'm told is a bit like reddit

2015-03-02 reddit • china • via:metafilter

Another movie player for iPad

2015-03-02 vlc • movies • video • ipad • ios • via:metafilter

Writing on the wall that Google is dismantling their ill-advised product

2015-03-02 google • google+ • plus • photos

Ev / Medium interview

Great insights into how Evan is thinking about Medium, the publishing platform

2015-03-02 medium • publishing • ev • blogging

A tool for sharing screenshots and snippets of text on Twitter

2015-03-02 twitter • screenshot • ios • mobile • goldman

New Books Network

Podcasts with authors about new books

2015-03-01 books • reading • podcasts

Details on how Ken Thompson designed the text encoding. /cc @migurski

2015-03-01 text • encoding • utf • utf-8 • unicode