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 crowdfunding • games • scam • starcitizen

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

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

GreatFire statement on China DDOS

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

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

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 • lol • marketing • moderation • reddit • riot

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 data • maps • unitedstates

Choose boring technology

Words of wisdom on engineering choices

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

Library of Babel

A universal library, in the Borgesian sense

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

MapBox Tippecanoe

Vector tile generation tool

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

April Fools is for sociopaths

Excellent critique by John Oliver

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

3 day course in learning evasion and escape techniques

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

63 pass FORTRAN compiler

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

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

DDoS visualization

Global statistics; the attack types graph is particularly interesting

2015-03-29 badtech • ddos • internet

China vs GitHub

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

2015-03-29 china • ddos • github

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 c9 • cloud9 • esports • games • hai • lol

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 broadband • competition • isp • network • via:metafilter

A visit to Naypyidaw

Myanmar's artificial capital city is empty

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

RIP FoundationDB

Apple buys promising open source database, yanks it offline

2015-03-25 apple • foundationdb • opensource

Raffi Krikorian to Uber

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

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

Includes details on the Adwords API licensing making competition difficult

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

Chris Sacca profile

Angel investor, financier, former Googler

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

Ridiculous Olympic Committee requests

2015-03-24 corruption • olympics • oslo

Bazel build tool

Google's internal make replacement, now open source

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

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

2015-03-24 citiesskylines • dem • games • 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 blogger • goldman • government • twitter • whitehouse

WWII B-17 pilot IAmA

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

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

There is No Now

Nice simple paper about problems of time synchronization

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

Neutral typeface

A font designed to be unnoticed

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

Chinese Mobile App UI Trends

Invaluably detailed info for how Chinese mobile apps differ from US

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

RiotLyte interview

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

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

Solar power during eclipse

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

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

Phenomenal astrophotograph

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

Powerline ethernet

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

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

Tangram map library

Slippy maps in WebGL with shader support

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

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 blogging • medium • publishing

Rocket: the making of a space raccoon

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

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

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 pyramiden • russia • sovietunion • svalbard • via:metafilter

Nicely done 3d chart

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

Shower with your dad simulator

Parody games go ++

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

Mercedes' self driving car

Lovely concept vehicle ad

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

The end of Tex-Mex?

Bemoaning the loss of the traditional slightly trashy cuisine

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

Reed sexism controversy

Remarkably good student paper article from my alma mater

2015-03-19 feminism • reed

Add patterns to SVG and D3 graphics

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

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

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

.gov web analytics

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

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

Pyramiden, Svalbard

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

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

Tab Closed; Didn't Read

A gallery of shame

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

Schock: reporting matters

Details of how journalism resulted in rooting out a corrupt politician

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

Groups.io Update

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

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

The Book of Shaders

Promising interactive primer on GL shader programming

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

Alternate Brewer schemes

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

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

YouTube loudness normalization

Third party claims YouTube has been adjusting audio for consistent volume

2015-03-17 loudness • music • 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 borderlands • games • narrative

MIT's ongoing suicide problem

4 students have committed suicide in the last year

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

GDC talk on LoL community management

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

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

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 fanfic • funny • via:metafilter

Details from the 4chan creator, trying to move on

2015-03-14 4chan • moot

Dalek Relaxation Tape

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

Mail a printed photo a day to someone.

2015-03-14 delivery • photos • printing

Notes from a guy rewriting ntpd from scratch

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

Maintainer of NTP looking for more funding

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

SF frequent transit

Muni and BART that runs every 12 minutes or faster

2015-03-12 maps • muni • sf • transit • 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 community • culture • internet • moderation • reddit

US hillshade map (5000x3136)

Beautiful large JPG

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

Render geodata pictures in ASCII graphics

2015-03-11 ascii • geo • hack • maps

Colorized radio astronomy

Lovely image visualizing some radio astronomical phenomena

2015-03-10 astronomy • imaging • radio

Mario Kart drag show

Featuring the Castro Rainbow Road

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

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 amazon • books • funny • kindle

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

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

Dal Makhani history

Origins of a popular restaurant dish

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

1980s Leningrad music

A forgotten era in Soviet dance and experimental video

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

Map of human migrations

Nice use of an unusual projection

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

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

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

Pre-chip computer designs, modular cards

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

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 comcast • hbo • netneutrality • playstation • 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 bitcoin • dogecoin • scam

2010 Redistricting

Algorithmic results for drawing voting districts.

2015-03-06 maps • politics • voting

$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 • openstreetmap • osm

mathowie leaving metafilter

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

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

B4-XVI beforesixteen

Hip-hop vs. Renaissance art

2015-03-04 art • hiphop

Mechanical Turk workers review employers

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

Browser programming environment for visual and audio art

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

Coded life of William Prestwood

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

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

Kleiner Perkins update

Report from Ellen Pao's lawsuit alleging gender discrimination

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

Code for America, Mapzen, and OpenAddresses

Update on a fun geodata project

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

Notch interview

Post-billions, sounds like he's doing poorly

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

School for Poetic Computation

Art / code program in New York

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

Al3x and Jacobin

Wealthy engineer allies with democratic socialism; thoughtful piece

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

Penis size metastudy

Definitive survey of various medical measurements

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

BuzzFeed's model

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

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

Star Citizen interview

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

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

Character codes 1874–1968

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another movie player for iPad

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

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

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

Ev / Medium interview

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

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

A tool for sharing screenshots and snippets of text on Twitter

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

New Books Network

Podcasts with authors about new books

2015-03-01 books • podcasts • reading

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

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