Nelson's Linkblog 2015-04

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Penrose Binning

A fun goof on data visualization

2015-04-30 maps • cartography • 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 hackernews • language • criticism

6 square meter wall map

Printing a giant, detailed map for the wall

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

Census bump chart in D3

Famous historical visualization recreated in Javascript

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

Basketball to ice hockey

Neat animation showing them laying down an ice floor

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

Bud Light: rape beer

Stupid marketing campaign

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

OSM data formats

Alternate representations of map data

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

a 5000 megapixel image of the night sky

2015-04-28 photography • astronomy • astrophotography

Photographing the full night sky

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

2015-04-28 astronomy • photography • astrophotography

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 nepal • terrain • maps • cartography • dem • srtm

“Does Stanislaw Lem live here?”

Marcin Wichary's loving memories of an author

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

Shell tool for ASCII graphs of histograms, etc

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

RFC 6570, a standard way to encode query requests RESTfully

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

The Twelve-Factor App

Guidelines for building software as a service

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

$18,000 integer overflow

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

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

Apple Watch complaints

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

2015-04-26 apple • watch • design

SF homelessness

Thoughtful letter about San Francisco's greatest shame

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

GitHub DDOS statistics

Excellent detailed info from Google

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

Kubernetes and Borg

Details on how the open source Borg equivalent compares

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

Google finally published a paper on their server deployment system!

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

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

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

US political polarization

Visualization of the separation in Congress

2015-04-24 politics • visualization • congress

Ancestry destroyed data

Export tool didn't include any of the text

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

Apple Watch Teardown

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

Android = Calvin

Hilarious vulgar Google Maps graffiti

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

Reddit questions for a rock climber

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

Very early interactive fiction game

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

Put text in a Mac menu bar

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

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 politics • gay • civilrights • tedcruz • cruz

The New Neocities

Build your own website, from an old Web tradition

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

Attack on Tor site

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

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

Apple banning Pebble?

Developer rejected from the App Store for mentioning Pebble Smartwatch support

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

Daredevil fight narrator

Alternate audio track for visually impaired; interesting translation

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

Oldboy Hallway Fight

Inspiration for the great scene in Daredevil

2015-04-22 daredevil • movies • choreography

Genetic Football

Evolve game players to play American Football

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

World religion map

Interesting visualization, regions colored by majority religion

2015-04-21 maps • religion • data • 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 • stripe • interview

Liberty Reserve saga

Details of the money laundering case for a digital currency

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

High performance ssh

Make scp faster; seems relevant for gigabit networks

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

Evergreen aviation museum woes

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

2015-04-18 museum • finance • aviation

Google employee settlement

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

2015-04-18 google • fraud • apple

A library for writing Minecraft mods in Javascript

2015-04-18 minecraft • javascript • mods

Details about the Germanwings crash, other recent suicidal commercial pilots

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

Louis CK on Twitter

Thoughtful critique about it being too instant, thoughtless

2015-04-18 twitter • louisck • comedy

Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows

Great little video on black culture appropriation

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

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 twitter • business • api • google • antitrust

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 visualization • data • sharing • plots • charts • d3js

Open parcel data

The challenges of getting basic property map data in the US

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

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

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

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

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

Britain in the Dark Ages

Lovely detailed map

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

Jaw-dropping TV ad

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

SF 1878 Panorama

By Muybridge, no less.

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

Agents deliberately flagged attractive men so they could sexually assault them

2015-04-14 tsa • airports • civilrights

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

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

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 sexism • dating • creepy • redpill

The Work Number

Equifax service to verify the salary of anyone you ask about

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

Eve Online espionage

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

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

Adderall in eSports

Computer sports have doping, too

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

Get Satisfaction comments

Overview and detail of the startup firesale from Lane Becker

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

Proper statistical testing is hard

2015-04-13 testing • usability • statistics

Americanisms | The Economist

Amusing insight into US english

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

Patrick Bateman reviews Apple Watch

Delicious satire

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

Use mature tech

Nice engineering blog post by Pinterest in defense of proven technologies

2015-04-12 engineering • trends • nosql

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 internet • names • reputation • tld • icann

National Address Database

Notes from a meeting to get something good going

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

Filtered linkblogs

Nice piece on belong.io and latest.is

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

Python hypothesis

Unit testing tool that generates randomized input

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

China's Great Cannon

Technical details on a new Chinese cyberwar capability

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

Portland neighborhood names

History of various names. /cc @celesteramsay

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

Another way to fool god

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

Street address standard

US government's official standard for street addresses

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

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 stewart • slack • money • startups

Lucien Gaudin cocktail

A variant on the Negroni

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

Mad Style: Severance

Detailed analysis of costumes from an episode of Mad Men

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

Call metadata back to 1992

Illegal blanket surveillance by DOJ and DEA goes back to 1992

2015-04-08 privacy • civilrights • surveillance

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

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

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

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

AFK Gamer Lounge

New eSports bar in San Jose

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

X Lossless Decoder

Useful music conversion tool for MacOS

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

Stack Overflow dev survey

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

2015-04-07 programming • careers • developers

IPv4 address market

Romanians selling 32 bit numbers for $10/addresses

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

Snowden monument

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

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

Late stage fundraising

Growing trend to very large private financing for tech companies

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

Remarkable collection of maps that mix time and space

2015-04-05 maps • visualization • minard

Amazing 80s TV show crossover

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

Economist editor interview

How the weekly newspaper sees the future of journalism

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

Beautiful and depressing photos of the American West

2015-04-02 water • america • drought

Certificate Transparency

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

2015-04-02 ssl • security • google

Growth of tech stock secondary market

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

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

Truecrypt report

Audit complete; code mostly looks OK

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

Apple Watch development

Nice insider story about product development

2015-04-02 apple • watch • ios

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 • watch • ios

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

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

Photos of my friend Karl's phone project

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

Cassandra security hole

Default config includes an open RMI interface. /facepalm

2015-04-01 badtech • security • cassandra

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 twitter • harassment • spam

Periscope harassment

Trolls already ruining Twitter's new video service

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

5% adware infection rate

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

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

Tech stock secondary market

The wild and wooly world of non-public securities

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