Nelson's Linkblog 2017-03

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Tiny but sort of readable

2017-03-31 fonts • pixel • text

Andy Baio relaunches his event website

2017-03-31 events • upcoming • waxy

Precinct voting map 2016

Enormous amount of work collection data

2017-03-30 2016 • election • gerrymandering • maps • politics • precincts • voting

DNS client resolver that uses Google's DNS-over-HTTPS

2017-03-29 dns • go • golang • google • privacy • security

They are not a good solution to the ISP privacy debacle

2017-03-29 badtech • internet • isp • privacy • vpn

OSM Then And Now

10 years of open mapping evolution

2017-03-29 maps • openstreetmap • osm • tiger

Pronounce Names

Zillions of videos of people pronouncing names in various languages and accents

2017-03-28 language • name • pronunciation

Git at Microsoft

Details on a major project to switch source code control

2017-03-27 engineering • git • microsoft • sourcecode • vcs

My life with Oliver Sacks

Excerpts of a memoir; sweet and heartbreaking

2017-03-26 gay • lgbt • oliversacks • via:metafilter

Out Late With Oliver Sacks

2016 essay about a gay bar visit with Dr. Sacks

2017-03-26 gay • julius • lgbt • newyork • oliversacks

A gross kind of bottom feeding Internet ads

2017-03-26 ads • gross • internet

Franz messaging

A new approach to multiprotocol chat; basically a full web browser

2017-03-26 aim • chat • franz • gchat • gtalk • im • messaging • slack • web • whatsapp

Google's IM products

Someone tries to make sense of Google's 9+ products with text chat capability

2017-03-26 chat • gchat • google • gtalk • hangouts • im

Uber autonomous car accident

Serious accident, although possibly Uber's car not to blame

2017-03-26 ai • arizona • atc • machinelearning • uber

More on Trump/Russia

Former NSA analyst says there's lots of hard intelligence of collusion

2017-03-25 nsa • politics • russia • trump

Who stopped the AHCA?

Details on 33 Republicans who opposed the healthcare bill

2017-03-25 aca • ahca • gop • healthcare • politics • republicans

No Soviet Domination

Trump has a precedent; insane Ford quote from 1976

2017-03-25 ford • politics • sovietunion • trump

Trump anti-LGBT appointment

Anti-gay jerk appointed head of Civil Rights Office

2017-03-25 civilrights • gay • lgbt • politics • trump

Trump in the Big Boy Truck

Precise reporting from BuzzFeed

2017-03-24 buzzfeed • funny • politics • satire • truck • trump

Simple differential equation systems simulator

2017-03-24 complexsystems • systems • teaching • visualization

Orion satellites

Enormous spy satellites in near-geosync orbit. 100m radio dishes!

2017-03-24 nro • satellite • sigint • space • spying

Geosync satellite database

Query for geosynchronous satellite slots, no login required

2017-03-24 geosync • itu • satellite • space

Geosync orbital slots

Crowded space real estate is administered by the ITU

2017-03-24 international • itu • satellite • space

Donald Trump reddit

Latent semantic analysis applied to pro-Trump community

2017-03-23 hate • lsa • misogyny • nlp • politics • racism • trump

Symantec SSL armageddon

Google no longer has confidence in Symantec's SSL process, is slowly pulling trust

2017-03-23 badtech • ssl • symantec

The token American

Report from the bizarro world of Russian political tv

2017-03-23 america • journalism • politics • russia

Google + Howard

Google partners with Howard University in a diversity initiative

2017-03-23 diversity • education • google • howard • tech • university

Terminal emulator written in Javascript

2017-03-23 javascript • ssh • terminal • tty • vt100

Origins of The Expanse

History of how the novels / TV show got started as a game world setting

2017-03-23 games • mmos • scifi • theexpanse • writing

Rick Perry on Texas A&M

New Secretary of Energy has time to weigh in on a student election

2017-03-23 bigotry • gayrights • lgbt • tamu

Remembering Teresia Teaiwa

Scholar of Pacific studies passed away mid-career

2017-03-23 kiribati • obituary • pacific • polynesia • scholarship

Starship 1 Easter Egg

1977 videogame may have the oldest game easter egg

2017-03-23 atari • backdoor • easteregg • games • via:metafilter

Voter Fraud in 2016!

Republican loudmouth accused of filling out his ex-wife's absentee ballot

2017-03-22 colorado • funny • irony • politics • voterfraud • voting

Details of efforts to fix a 32 bit limitation in Linux before 21 years goes by

2017-03-21 linux • posix • software • time

Alexsey’s TTPs

Details of the activities of m4g, a Russian hacker

2017-03-21 2fa • badtech • hacking • russia

Cloud9's business

Profile of one of the better maanaged eSports teams

2017-03-21 cloud9 • esports • games • leagueoflegends • lol • riotgames

District plans by the hundredweight

Experiments with randomly generating voting districts

2017-03-20 gerrymandering • politics • voting

What to ask about Russian hacking

Some orientation on the investigation

2017-03-19 politics • russia • trump

The Weight of Oneself

Male nude sculpture in Lyon

2017-03-18 art • classical • france • gay • lgbt • lyon • sculpture

Nevada County racism

Locals mistake Sikh business owner for another Sikh 100 miles away

2017-03-18 nevadacounty • pennvalley • racism • sikhs

Ken Rudolph sample reel

Friend of mine's film editing work in the 70s-80s

2017-03-18 analog • film • kenru • movies

Story about why landing gear levers are shaped like wheels

2017-03-17 airplane • aviation • ui • userinterface • ux

Bad-ass New Orleans motorcycle club

2017-03-17 africanamerican • black • motorcycle • neworleans • women

Formal US apology

Trump's minions insult the UK, have to apologize

2017-03-17 gchq • politics • spicer • trump • uk

Wilmington insurrection

Successful racist coup in American, 1898

2017-03-17 america • history • politics • racism • wilmington

Jacob Appelbaum's abuse

Upsetting account from a colleague of a well known computer security person

2017-03-17 abuse • appelbaum • djb • tor

Political polarization in media

Major new Columbia Journalism Review study of politics in American media

2017-03-16 breitbart • democracy • journalism • news • politics • trump • truth

Binding a demon

Drawing a protective circle around an autonomous car

2017-03-16 ai • cars • funny • selfdrivingcars

Acing the technical interview

Reversing a linked lisp

2017-03-16 aphyr • engineering • funny • haskell • lisp

League of Legends site has new logo doodles frequently

2017-03-16 art • doodle • games • leagueoflegends • logo • lol

Trump budget visualized

Excellent data oriented breakdown

2017-03-16 budget • politics • trump • via:reddit • visualization

Auto-Redistrict

A redistricting simulator / genetic algorithm toy. Has lots of data embedded in it.

2017-03-15 gerrymandering • politics • redistricting

Public Mapping election data

Very detailed records on elections, districts, etc

2017-03-15 data • election • gerrymandering • politics • voting

Flawless Widescreen

Patches for various games to enable ultra-wide resolutions

2017-03-15 games • lcd • monitor • ultrawide

Quantum satellite

Chinese space experiment to facilitate quantum encryption with a satellite distributing entangled photons

2017-03-15 china • crypto • encryption • quantum • space

Swiss languages

Map mixing language and terrain

2017-03-15 demographics • maps • switzerland

Art photos of personal items taken by border patrol

2017-03-15 art • borderpatrol • cbp • immigrants • migrants • photography • via:metafilter

Tech support scams

Detailed investigation

2017-03-14 india • microsoft • scam

Seattle synagogue vandalism

2017-03-14 jews • nazis • politics • synagogue • trump

Evgeniy Bogachev

Russian cybercrime guy also useful to Russian intelligence

2017-03-14 badtech • cyberwar • hacking • russia

Going to prison with Defy Ventures

Another account of volunteering for an entrepreneurship program at a prison

2017-03-13 defyventures • entrepreneur • prison • rehabilitation

No One Else Will Hire Them

Friend's experience supporting convicts turned entrepreneurs

2017-03-13 prison • rehabilitation • startup

Potential Uber bombshell

Detailed speculation on the nature of Google's case about intellectual property theft

2017-03-13 levandowski • alphabet • google • uber • via:metafilter • waymo

Prevarication on wiretapping

Redefining what Trump meant

2017-03-13 obama • politics • trump • wiretapping

Deconstructed Planet

Bill Morris' gallery of machine learning art with planet imagery

2017-03-13 ai • art • machinelearning • photos

About MobileEye, the company Intel just paid $15B for

2017-03-13 cars • intel • mobileeye • selfdriving • sensors

Empty executive office

Trump White House is not hiring people to do the work

2017-03-12 incompetence • politics • trump • whitehouse

LGBT center vandalism

Trump Era wave of attacks against LGBT facilities

2017-03-12 lgbt • politics • trump

Virginia gerrymandering subtlety

Specific precedent on criteria for districting

2017-03-12 gerrymandering • virginia • voterrights • voting

Texas gerrymandering decision

Republicans found to be suppressing Latinx vote

2017-03-12 gerrymandering • latino • latinx • politics • voting • votingrights

Voter fraud investigation update

tl;dr: Trump/Pence is doing nothing

2017-03-12 politics • trump • voterfraud • voting • votingrights

Where does Bannon live?

It's confusing, but his claim to live in Florida is pretty thin

2017-03-11 bannon • florida • politics • taxevasion • trump

Trump's NJ cemetery

Bizarre story of a cemetery project's stops and starts

2017-03-11 corruption • newjersey • politics • trump

Recovering Python code

McGyver decompiles code from a running process to fix a git mistake

2017-03-11 decompile • python • reverseengineer • via:reddit

Social media and politics

Comparisons of Europe and the US

2017-03-11 europe • journalism • news • politics • telegraph • twitter

Horizon Zero Dawn road trip

Popular new game is based on Colorado/Arizona/Utah

2017-03-11 games • horizonzerodawn • maps • roadtrip

Mar a Lago security

Or rather lack thereof, wide open for espionage

2017-03-11 maralago • politics • russia • security • trump

Trump's campaigner was also working, undisclosed, for Turkey

2017-03-11 corruption • flynn • politics • russia • trump • turkey

White supremacists in Silicon Valley

Interviews with misogynists and racists who work in tech

2017-03-11 altright • politics • racism • siliconvalley • tech

Facebook hardware

Details of server hardware

2017-03-10 datacenter • facebook • hardware • via:hackernews

Roger Stone + Guccifer 2.0

Trump campaign buddy had some chats with presumed Russian cyberespionage

2017-03-10 guccifer • hacking • politics • rogerstone • russia • trump

BBC father broken down

It gets funnier when analyzed carefully

2017-03-10 bbc • father • funny • homeoffice • tv

Laughing as democracy crumbles

Everyone gets a big laugh at Trump's distortions of economic reality

2017-03-10 politics • spicer • trump

Pidgin or creole mixing English and Russian

2017-03-10 brightonbeach • creole • english • language • pidgin • russian

New journalism outlet founded by Politico alumni

2017-03-10 axios • journalism • news • politico • politics

Apache Struts exploit

Old web app framework has significant security hole

2017-03-10 apache • badtech • exploit • ognl • struts

General Magic Home Page

Resurrecting the web page of the pioneering 1990s company

2017-03-09 agents • generalmagic • magiccap • mobile

Pharmacy vs Organics

Hilariously awful propaganda

2017-03-09 funny • hippies • organics

Mapzen bike map

Beautiful work from Mapzen

2017-03-09 bicycling • bikes • maps • mapzen

Brady Bunch art

An exhaustive analysis of the set dresser's art

2017-03-09 art • bradybunch • tv • via:metafilter

Notepad++ vs CIA

Popular code editor hardens itself against compromised third party DLLs

2017-03-09 badtech • cia • hacking • notepad

SF 1943 streetcars

MUNI rail map from before everything was replaced by busses

2017-03-08 muni • rail • sanfrancisco • sf • streetcar • transit

Wall Street bull gets a friend

Sculpture of a defiant girl added

2017-03-08 bull • feminism • protest • sculpture • statestreet • wallstreet

GPU procedural games

Horizon: Zero Dawn's beautiful landscapes are generated on the GPU

2017-03-08 games • gpu • graphics • horizon • programming

Google and onions

Another AI failure; this feature of Google's is harmful

2017-03-08 cooking • funny • google • onions • via:metafilter

The Horse Brass

A great bar in Portland, OR

2017-03-08 bar • beer • drinking • portland

Hot Springs map

NOAA slippy map of thermal springs

2017-03-07 geothermal • hotsprings • maps • via:reddit

CIA hacking tools

Wikileaks releases "Vault 7", a dump of info on CIA hacking tools

2017-03-07 badtech • cyberwar • espionage • hacking

American Whiskey Distilleries

Comprehensive and nerdy list of American distilleries

2017-03-07 alcohol • bourbon • whiskey • whisky

Removing OneDrive

Microsoft's easy 15 step manual process for disabling bundled crapware

2017-03-06 bundling • crapware • dropbox • microsoft • onedrive

Stock options are really complicated

Another guide to understand equity compensation

2017-03-06 equity • options • startups • stock • via:hackernews

Is Obama planning a coup?

Machine learning strikes again

2017-03-06 badtech • funny • google • machinelearning • politics

Letterman interview

Funny and political

2017-03-06 funny • letterman • politics • trump

Trump's reasons

Details on why he'd make an unfounded allegation about wiretapping

2017-03-06 batshitinsane • politics • trump

Trump's tantrum

More evidence he acts like a petulant child

2017-03-06 politics • trump

US DNA analysis

Combining genealogy and genetic data to get a picture of where people in the US came from

2017-03-05 america • dna • genealogy • genetics • history • race

Is there a FISA wiretap?

Detailed investigation of the White House's scant evidence for a wiretap on Trump

2017-03-05 fisa • politics • trump • wiretap

Overview of the challenges of 802.11

2017-03-05 networking • wifi • wireless

SF racial disparity

Only 4% of SF is Black, and those folks are disproportionately unemployed

2017-03-04 africanamericans • blacks • civilrights • demographics • sanfrancisco

Unethical program to hide their lawbreaking from government officials

2017-03-04 ethics • fraud • greyball • police • uber

Measuring the efficiency gap

Mike's notes on measuring redistricting

2017-03-04 efficiencygap • gerrymandering • maps • politics • redistricting

Discord communities

People using Discord as a means to avoid bad people online

2017-03-03 discord • games • harassment • overwatch

Far right memes

Layers of irony wrapped around a burning core of hate

2017-03-03 4chan • altright • culture • facebook • meme • nazis • reddit • trump

Reducing Slack’s memory footprint

Awesome engineering post, includes data on multi-team Slack usage

2017-03-03 engineering • memory • optimization • slack

EU may require visas for Americans

Long standing dispute about US requirement for some EU citizens to get visas

2017-03-03 america • eu • politics • travel • trump • us • visa

Pence's AOL email

VP used AOL for state business when governor. He got hacked.

2017-03-03 aol • badtech • pence • politics • trump

Kushner meetings with Trump

Trumps son-in-law and advisor also met with Russian officials in December

2017-03-03 politics • russia • trump

Details on what happens now that Sessions has recused himself. Still not clear there will be an independent investigation

2017-03-02 boente • ethics • politics • russia • sessions • trump

Gay psychological trauma

Lingering effects of coming out; anxiety, loneliness

2017-03-02 closet • gay • lgbt • psychology

Palantir and deportation

Silicon Valley firm aiding Trump's roundup of immigrants

2017-03-02 immigration • palantir • politics • trump

IBM Death's Calculator

Details and images of IBM's support of the holocaust

2017-03-02 germany • history • holocaust • ibm • nazis • palantir

ESRI: Because good tools matter

2017-03-02 esri • funny • gis • maps

Lyft vs Uber market share

Analyzing credit card transactions shows a bump for Lyft

2017-03-02 lyft • marketshare • rideshare • transaction • uber

Preserving evidence

Obama Administration used final days to make sure Trump couldn't remove intelligence about Russia hacking

2017-03-02 obama • politics • russia • trump

Why Uber is awful

Roundup of the various terrible things the company has done

2017-03-02 ethics • uber

CNN played by Trump

Appears Trump or senior staffers deliberately misled the press

2017-03-01 immigration • journalism • politics • press • trump

Trump eschewing responsibility

Doesn't want to be in the decision chain to launch raids, says it's about speed

2017-03-01 military • politics • trump

2001: instant messenger compatibility

A political history that could have been, AOL was at one point required to open up AIM. They never did.

2017-03-01 aim • aol • instantmessenger • politics • socialmedia

Aspect & Lang Belta

A detailed analysis of a point of grammar in the fictional language for The Expanse

2017-03-01 grammar • langbelta • language • theexpanse

Bio-psycho-social profiling

Details of AI, Facebook, and Trump's efforts to manipulate the media and public opinion

2017-03-01 ai • analytics • bigdata • facebook • media • trump

70 minutes of heaven

A remarkable tape loop experiment

2017-03-01 intheair • loop • music • philcollins • stevereich

Data brokers and human rights

The risks of modern profiling in the Internet age

2017-03-01 civilrights • data • muslims • politics • privacy

Trump TV tweets

The President watches teevee, the uses the tweeter to share his hot take

2017-03-01 cnn • news • politics • president