July 2009
83 posts
NIH to Edit Wikipedia – A Slippery Slope? →
Not sure how I feel about this. As long as government scientists have no more power than any other Wikipedian, I don’t see the problem, although I have intuitive alarm bells going off. Government employees will have certain motives and biases that will color their edits, but so does everyone else on Wikipedia, no?
How to Avoid Having Your Pictures Shown in... →
“The internet is the greatest generation gap since rock and roll.”
– Bruce Schneier
NY Times On Language: The case for "they" as a... →
Associated rePress →
Clever use of Tumblr to put a lie to the AP’s futile attempt to control their content.
A tribute to “fair use” and the AP’s misguided crusade against the hyperlink. All content on this site was generated automatically from the AP’s own RSS feeds. (Sorry, we forgot to include your magic DRM beans.) ♥
My Life Offline →
Aaron Swarz writes about going offline for 30 days.
I am not happy. I used to think of myself as just an unhappy person: a misanthrope, prone to mood swings and eating binges, who spends his days moping around the house in his pajamas, too shy and sad to step outside. But that’s not how I was offline. I loved people — everyone from the counter clerk to the old friends I bumped into on the street....
Send a web page on your desktop browser to your... →
A bookmarklet by Tom Lee.
A Grown-Up Letter to Santa Claus →
An article by new AFF Executive Director Jessica deGraffenreid. Here are more.
Fix your terrible, insecure passwords in five... →
A foolproof technique to secure your computer, e-mail, and bank account.
Cord is the Boss.
Bernie's Credit Card Statements Posted Online →
Great Moments In Marketing: Disney Pulls Movie... →
Speaking of copyright zealotry, this is pretty funny. While there are good reasons to take down an advertisement that was leaked before you were ready to show it, they should have known this has Streisand Effect written all over it.
A.P. Cracks Down on Unpaid Use of Articles on Web... →
Each article — and, in the future, each picture and video — would go out with what The A.P. called a digital “wrapper,” data invisible to the ordinary consumer that is intended, among other things, to maximize its ranking in Internet searches. The software would also send signals back to The A.P., letting it track use of the article across the Web.
Any smarties know what they’re talking...
“FLASH: Obama apologizes to cops: “I meant to say they were acting like...”
– daveweigel
How The Times' Home Page Gets Made | The New York... →
Mr. Rosen, the journalism professor, scoffed at the thought of editors dismissing Web stats. “What world are you living in if you don’t know where your users are flocking to?” he asked. “How can you edit your website?”
True, but I think there’s value in a product that is the result of editorial and aesthetic judgments of experienced professionals that you can...
Recovery.gov’s maps tell you where the money is... →
Recovery.gov's maps tell you where the money is...
Any time I’ve heard government officials talk about the future of Recovery.gov, I’ve heard them mention maps. Maps that will let you drill down to your neighborhood and see the stimulus spending right around you. Well, the maps were rolled out last Thursday, and there was even a congratulatory press release from Vice President Biden. Tell me if you notice anything interesting in this...
The Manhattan Airport Foundation [Has Balls] →
“The Manhattan Airport Foundation is a land-use constituency committed to the immediate development of a viable and centrally-located international air transportation hub in New York City for the benefit of all New Yorkers.” (Via PJ.)
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Tommy Seebach - Wikipedia →
“The 1990s were lean years for him as a performer and recording artist. … Seebach’s problems with alcoholism took their toll on him and he died at the age of 53 from a heart attack at amusement park Bakken, where he was head of musical entertainment during the past several years.”
The Geekdom of Crowds - Charles Homans →
Most down-to-earth account of the open government movement—its promise and its pitfalls—I’ve seen.
“What we’re trying to accomplish is to fundamentally change the default setting in the public sector when it comes to information and transparency in general,” [Kundra] explained. “We want to by default assume that data is going to be public.”
Can't Get Approval for your App? Sell the Source... →
What’s a developer to do when his app won’t make it into the app store because it violates the terms of service? Be awesome: “[H]e’ll sell you access to the source code for $15, and you can compile the App yourself to load onto your own devices.”
“What’s with the lunar nostalgia? It’s like the Taj Mahal: impressive...”
– Clay Shirky
Wired: How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved... →
1 tag
Wikipedia: List of unusual deaths →
“This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completion.”
In case you were looking for a ringtone of...
Folks who live next door to the cast of the "Real... →
Humor In The Workplace - Federal Business... →
Cord Blomquist Web Design, Inc., should bid on this government contract.
Is cybersecurity a private or public problem? →
Is Cybersecurity a Private or Public Problem?
Evgeny Morozov has an op-ed in the New York Times today that makes the case that cyberattacks are not an existential threat to the country or anything even close. He also argues that more secrecy around cybersecurity is exactly the wrong way to address the problem, citing the old geek adage “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” He even explains that “Much of the real...
“It’s no secret that many computer science graduates perceive government jobs as...”
– Evgeny Morozov in the NY Times on cybersecurity
Official Google Reader Blog: Following, liking and... →
Google reader is starting to look a lot like Tumblr and Friendfeed. I wish it would let me find out which of my Google contacts are sharing publicly, though. Also wish I could set a threshold for number of likes.
