Nelson's Linkblog 2015-04

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Penrose Binning

A fun goof on data visualization

2015-04-30 cartography • maps • penrosetiling

Leaked Lyft financials

Inside view of the ridesharing company

2015-04-30 lyft • rideshare • startups

"middlebrow dismissal"

A term for the unenlightening disdain demonstrated on Hacker News, other nerds places

2015-04-30 criticism • hackernews • language

6 square meter wall map

Printing a giant, detailed map for the wall

2015-04-30 cartography • crafting • googlemaps • maps • project

Census bump chart in D3

Famous historical visualization recreated in Javascript

2015-04-30 d3 • d3js • javascript • visualization

Basketball to ice hockey

Neat animation showing them laying down an ice floor

2015-04-29 basketball • floor • hockey • sports • stadium • via:reddit

Bud Light: rape beer

Stupid marketing campaign

2015-04-28 advertising • beer • budlight • feminism • rapeculture • upforwhatever

OSM data formats

Alternate representations of map data

2015-04-28 formats • maps • openstreetmap • osm • xml

a 5000 megapixel image of the night sky

2015-04-28 astronomy • astrophotography • photography

Photographing the full night sky

Details of an amateur's quest to photograph the Earth's entire sky at night

2015-04-28 astronomy • astrophotography • photography

What value creating winners do all day

2015-04-28 funny • parody • startups

Stamen makes a free / open terrain map for Nepal

2015-04-27 cartography • dem • maps • nepal • srtm • terrain

“Does Stanislaw Lem live here?”

Marcin Wichary's loving memories of an author

2015-04-27 krakow • lem • poland • writing

Shell tool for ASCII graphs of histograms, etc

2015-04-27 graphs • shell • stats • unix • via:onethingwell

RFC 6570, a standard way to encode query requests RESTfully

2015-04-26 programming • rest • templates • uri • web

The Twelve-Factor App

Guidelines for building software as a service

2015-04-26 architecture • heroku • saas • service

$18,000 integer overflow

Bad Bitcoin software charges a fee of 0x20000C350 instead of 0xC350

2015-04-26 badtech • bitcoin • funny • overflow • via:jmason

Apple Watch complaints

Funny cranky review about awkward stuff for a new category of product

2015-04-26 apple • design • watch

SF homelessness

Thoughtful letter about San Francisco's greatest shame

2015-04-25 homeless • mentalillness • poverty • sanfrancisco • sf

GitHub DDOS statistics

Excellent detailed info from Google

2015-04-24 badtech • china • ddos • github • google

Kubernetes and Borg

Details on how the open source Borg equivalent compares

2015-04-24 borg • deployment • devops • google • kubernetes • ops

Google finally published a paper on their server deployment system!

2015-04-24 borg • cloud • devops • google • ops

A new approach to map routing. Valhalla: THOR+ODIN+TYR. Open source.

2015-04-24 maps • mapzen • opensource • routing

US political polarization

Visualization of the separation in Congress

2015-04-24 congress • politics • visualization

Ancestry destroyed data

Export tool didn't include any of the text

2015-04-24 ancestry • data • family • genealogy • preservation

Apple Watch Teardown

2015-04-24 apple • ifixit • teardown • watch

Android = Calvin

Hilarious vulgar Google Maps graffiti

2015-04-24 android • apple • calvin • funny • google • maps

Reddit questions for a rock climber

2015-04-24 climbing • iama • reddit • sports • women

Very early interactive fiction game

2015-04-24 computers • games • history • if • interactivefiction • via:metafilter

Put text in a Mac menu bar

2015-04-23 mac • menubar • osx • software • via:onethingwell

Ted Cruz gay scandal

Not really a scandal; he's just happy to have gay friends while openly discriminating against gay people

2015-04-23 civilrights • cruz • gay • politics • tedcruz

The New Neocities

Build your own website, from an old Web tradition

2015-04-23 geocities • hosting • neocities • web

Attack on Tor site

Secure email service finds evidence of state actor manipulating the Tor Network

2015-04-23 email • nsa • privacy • tor • via:hackernews

Apple banning Pebble?

Developer rejected from the App Store for mentioning Pebble Smartwatch support

2015-04-23 antitrust • apple • competition • pebble • via:hackernews

Daredevil fight narrator

Alternate audio track for visually impaired; interesting translation

2015-04-22 blind • choreography • daredevil • fight • narration • tv

Oldboy Hallway Fight

Inspiration for the great scene in Daredevil

2015-04-22 choreography • daredevil • movies

Genetic Football

Evolve game players to play American Football

2015-04-21 america • evolution • football • ga • geneticalgorithm

World religion map

Interesting visualization, regions colored by majority religion

2015-04-21 data • maps • religion • visualization

MtGox forensics

A reconstruction of how many Bitcoins "went missing"

2015-04-21 bitcoin • fraud • mtgox • scam

Stripe interviews

Notes for candidates on what to expect

2015-04-20 engineering • interview • stripe

Liberty Reserve saga

Details of the money laundering case for a digital currency

2015-04-20 bitcoin • crime • fraud • libertyreserve

High performance ssh

Make scp faster; seems relevant for gigabit networks

2015-04-20 buffers • networking • performance • ssh

Evergreen aviation museum woes

Airplane museum in Oregon that has the Spruce Goose; it's completely broke

2015-04-18 aviation • finance • museum

Google employee settlement

Website for the class action lawsuit against Google, Apple, etc for illegal collusion against employees

2015-04-18 apple • fraud • google

A library for writing Minecraft mods in Javascript

2015-04-18 javascript • minecraft • mods

Details about the Germanwings crash, other recent suicidal commercial pilots

2015-04-18 aviation • depression • germanwings • lufthansa • suicide

Louis CK on Twitter

Thoughtful critique about it being too instant, thoughtless

2015-04-18 comedy • louisck • twitter

Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows

Great little video on black culture appropriation

2015-04-17 america • hungergames • racism • via:waxy

First Apple Homepage

Screenshot unearthed from a CD-R backup

2015-04-17 apple • history • web

Twitter API strategy

Excellent critical analysis of channel conflict

2015-04-17 antitrust • api • business • google • twitter

Victorian jewelry; a chain with tools worn by women around the waiste

2015-04-17 fashion • via:metafilter • victorian

Great new article about how the payment company is doing

2015-04-16 square • startups

Tool for visualizing data and then having people comment / collaborate

2015-04-16 charts • d3js • data • plots • sharing • visualization

Open parcel data

The challenges of getting basic property map data in the US

2015-04-16 maps • openaddresses • opendata • osm • parcels

Popular ad blocker got forked. Looks amicable, but confusing.

2015-04-16 adblocker • ads • chrome • ublock

Startup advice from a friend who's on the technical side

2015-04-15 entrepreneurship • marketing • sales • startups

Britain in the Dark Ages

Lovely detailed map

2015-04-15 britain • england • history • maps • via:reddit

Jaw-dropping TV ad

2015-04-15 90s • advertising • funny • sizzler • via:migurski

SF 1878 Panorama

By Muybridge, no less.

2015-04-14 1870s • muybridge • panorama • photography • sanfrancisco • via:reddit

Agents deliberately flagged attractive men so they could sexually assault them

2015-04-14 airports • civilrights • tsa

An alternate, awesome style of explanation for a useful Unix tool

2015-04-14 kernel • programming • strace • unix

10 questions with Jason Goldman

Live from the White House

2015-04-14 goldman • twitter • whitehouse

NSFW text: Subreddit for posting creepy, predatory sexual text messages, etc

2015-04-14 creepy • dating • redpill • sexism

The Work Number

Equifax service to verify the salary of anyone you ask about

2015-04-14 employment • privacy • salary • via:metafilter

Eve Online espionage

Great comment explaining how creepy the game gets as it leaks into real life

2015-04-13 ccp • espionage • eveonline • games • security

Adderall in eSports

Computer sports have doping, too

2015-04-13 adderall • esports • lol • medication • medicine • via:boingboing

Get Satisfaction comments

Overview and detail of the startup firesale from Lane Becker

2015-04-13 entrepreneurs • financing • getsatisfaction • lanebecker • monstro • startups

Proper statistical testing is hard

2015-04-13 statistics • testing • usability

Americanisms | The Economist

Amusing insight into US english

2015-04-12 english • language • style • theeconomist • via:kevinmarks

Patrick Bateman reviews Apple Watch

Delicious satire

2015-04-12 americanpsycho • apple • funny • satire

Use mature tech

Nice engineering blog post by Pinterest in defense of proven technologies

2015-04-12 engineering • nosql • trends

Apple app store problems

Thorough critique of the problem with the walled garden

2015-04-12 apple • apps • freedom • software

.SUCKS shakedown

New TLD seems to exist solely for extortion

2015-04-11 icann • internet • names • reputation • tld

National Address Database

Notes from a meeting to get something good going

2015-04-10 addresses • government • maps • openaddresses

Filtered linkblogs

Nice piece on belong.io and latest.is

2015-04-10 blogs • culture • linkblogs • web

Python hypothesis

Unit testing tool that generates randomized input

2015-04-10 programming • python • testing • unittest

China's Great Cannon

Technical details on a new Chinese cyberwar capability

2015-04-10 badtech • china • cyberwar • ddos • github

Portland neighborhood names

History of various names. /cc @celesteramsay

2015-04-09 names • neighborhoods • portland • reed

Another way to fool god

2015-04-09 funny • judaism • kosher • sabbath • via:metafilter

Street address standard

US government's official standard for street addresses

2015-04-09 fgdc • geo • maps • openaddresses

4 angles on a mid-air

Crazy skydiving accident; everyone lived

2015-04-09 aviation • flying • midair • skydiving • via:reddit

Stewart B. on money

Nice to see a humble perspective

2015-04-09 money • slack • startups • stewart

Lucien Gaudin cocktail

A variant on the Negroni

2015-04-09 campari • cocktail • negroni • via:metafilter

Mad Style: Severance

Detailed analysis of costumes from an episode of Mad Men

2015-04-08 clothing • costume • fashion • madmen • tv • via:metafilter

Call metadata back to 1992

Illegal blanket surveillance by DOJ and DEA goes back to 1992

2015-04-08 civilrights • privacy • surveillance

Pay phones converted to free service, a sort of hacker / arty project

2015-04-08 futel • karlanderson • kra • phones

Put a dot in your Mac menu bar, control its color however you want

2015-04-08 mac • menubar • simple • status • via:onethingwell

AFK Gamer Lounge

New eSports bar in San Jose

2015-04-07 bar • games • lol • sanjose • via:reddit

X Lossless Decoder

Useful music conversion tool for MacOS

2015-04-07 alac • flac • handbrake • macos • mp3 • mpeg

Stack Overflow dev survey

It's a biased sample, but good data and analysis

2015-04-07 careers • developers • programming

IPv4 address market

Romanians selling 32 bit numbers for $10/addresses

2015-04-06 badtech • internet • ipv4 • romania • via:hackernews

Snowden monument

Artists drop a bust of Snowden in to a New York park

2015-04-06 art • funny • snowden • via:hackernews

Late stage fundraising

Growing trend to very large private financing for tech companies

2015-04-06 financing • funding • ipo • startups • tech

Remarkable collection of maps that mix time and space

2015-04-05 maps • minard • visualization

Amazing 80s TV show crossover

2015-04-05 funny • startrek • webster • worf

Economist editor interview

How the weekly newspaper sees the future of journalism

2015-04-03 advertising • business • journalism • news • theeconomist

Beautiful and depressing photos of the American West

2015-04-02 america • drought • water

Certificate Transparency

Make SSL more secure by requiring registrars publish authenticated logs of every certificate they issue

2015-04-02 google • security • ssl

Growth of tech stock secondary market

More info on trends in startup financing, raising money directly through SPV funds

2015-04-02 financing • investment • money • spv • startups • stock

Truecrypt report

Audit complete; code mostly looks OK

2015-04-02 encryption • privacy • truecrypt • via:hackernews

Apple Watch development

Nice insider story about product development

2015-04-02 apple • ios • watch

Gruber eats his words

2013 Daring Fireball had nasty things to say about Kevin Lynch. Turns out he's the Apple Watch head.

2015-04-02 apple • gruber • ios • watch

"GIS for web maps"; Javascript for doing geographic computations

2015-04-02 gis • javascript • mapbox • maps

Photos of my friend Karl's phone project

2015-04-01 dclxvi • futel • karlanderson • kra • phones • phreaking

Cassandra security hole

Default config includes an open RMI interface. /facepalm

2015-04-01 badtech • cassandra • security

Reddit: "the button"

An April Fools thing that's actually kind of clever

2015-04-01 aprilfools • funny • reddit

Twitter harassment filter

New feature like a spam filter, being tested now

2015-04-01 harassment • spam • twitter

Periscope harassment

Trolls already ruining Twitter's new video service

2015-04-01 harassment • periscope • sexism • twitter

5% adware infection rate

5% of Google users have some sort of malware injecting ads into pages

2015-04-01 ads • adware • badtech • google • malware

Tech stock secondary market

The wild and wooly world of non-public securities

2015-04-01 ipo • markets • stocks • tech