June 2012
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Beware email’s cunning little ways
[shared via Google Reader from Tim Harford]
It has many key attributes but email is still inferior to pen and paper
I recently heard a question that brought me up short: what does email want? The questioner was Tom Chatfield, author of How to Thrive in the Digital Age, although the question itself draws some inspiration from an older philosopher of technology, Kevin Kelly. Of course, email does...
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Episode 186: Martin Fowler and Pramod Sadalage on...
[shared via Google Reader from Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers]
Recording Venue: Skype Guest: Martin Fowler and Pramod Sadalage In this episode, we talk with Pramod Sadalage and Martin Fowler about database evolution and agile database development. We discuss the basic challenges for working with a database in an agile development culture and how to...
2 tags
How To Kill A Currency
[shared via Google Reader from Planet Money]
Listen to the Show
[18 min 8 sec]
...
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EFF’s New Privacy Scorecard: Twitter wins,...
[shared via Google Reader from ZDNet | Pulp Tech Blog RSS]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s scorecard - now in its second annual year - rates today’s top tech companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook according to how well they protect users’ rights. With this week’s revelation that privacy activists are responsible for Facebook allowing input on its upcoming Data Use...
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Największy wspólny mianownik
[shared via Google Reader from Ziemia Niczyja | Mariusz Herma]
Jest godzina 2:56 i przed chwilą wysiadłem z metra. Gdy na początkowej stacji na Kabatach wskakiwałem do pociągu, w wagonie znajdowały się może trzy inne osoby. Natolin również spał. Dopiero na Imielinie dołączyła jakaś wybitnie wesoła sześcioosobowa grupka, ale nie rozpoznałem w nich zapowiedzi tego, co nas czeka na następnym...
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Tax Return Identity Theft
[shared via Google Reader from Schneier on Security]
I wrote about this sort of thing in 2006 in the UK, but it’s even bigger business here:
The criminals, some of them former drug dealers, outwit the Internal Revenue Service by filing a return before the legitimate taxpayer files. Then the criminals receive the refund, sometimes by check but more often though a convenient but...
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Another podium finish for PUMA Ocean Racing. PUMA...
[shared via Google Reader from PUMA Sailing]
Another podium finish for PUMA Ocean Racing. PUMA moves into third overall. (Ian Roman/Volvo Ocean Race)
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Antigen
[shared via Google Reader from One Thing Well]
Antigen:
Antigen is a small set of functions that help you easily manage your shell (zsh) plugins, called bundles. The concept is pretty much the same as bundles in a typical vim+pathogen setup.
I only use a couple of zsh plugins1, so I just keep them as git submodules in my dotfiles repo and source them in my zsh config file, but if you’ve got...
2 tags
API copyrights are dead
[shared via Google Reader from Armed and Dangerous]
I’ve now read Judge Alsup’s ruling in the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit addressing the copyrightability of the Java APIs as a matter of law. This is a bigger win for the good guys than appears at first glance; Alsup has subtly but definitely driven a stake through the heart of API copyrights. The interesting part is how he did it.
Some early...
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Kill Hitler
[shared via Google Reader from xkcd.com]
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Udacity expands course offerings: Five premiere...
[shared via Google Reader from Udacity]
Udacity is excited to announce five premiere classes that are now open for enrollment! This time around, we are expanding the breadth of our courses by offering classes in physics, Intro to Physics, and mathematics, Intro to Statistics and Logic & Discrete Mathematics.
Premiere courses will begin again on June 25, 2012. Each week for seven weeks a...
May 2012
2 tags
Command Line Tools for Xcode
[shared via Google Reader from One Thing Well]
Command Line Tools for Xcode:
This package enables UNIX-style development via Terminal by installing command line developer tools, as well as Mac OS X SDK frameworks and headers. Many useful tools are included, such as the Apple LLVM compiler, linker, and Make.
Apple’s official version of the OS X GCC Installer I mentioned the other day.
...
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The Single Best Thing For My Career
[shared via Google Reader from Jay Fields’ Thoughts]
In 2004 I was working at nelnet - for one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. I was the lone developer working on NextGen projects, our customers were happy, I was paid well, & I had plenty of vacation - things were good. Truthfully, I felt like I was on top of the world. However, I couldn’t help but feel like something was...
2 tags
Mrs. Sinclair Lewis to you
[shared via Google Reader from Letters of Note]
In 1930, after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, author Sinclair Lewis began to receive a steady stream of fan mail, from all corners. One woman in particular wrote and offered to become his secretary, adding, “I’ll do everything for you—and when I say everything I mean everything.”
The following brief letter was sent to the young...
2 tags
Ian Hickson
[shared via Google Reader from The Setup]
Who are you, and what do you do?
Hixie; I edit the HTML standard.
What hardware are you using?
Whatever I happen to be in front of. Right now it’s a 27” 2010 i7 iMac with 16GB of RAM, 9GB of which is free, to which is attached a Kinesis Advantage keyboard in Dvorak mode, a Drobo, and various other peripherals. I also have a Chromebook...
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GPW rozpoczęła obliczanie indeksu spółek z regionu...
[shared via Google Reader from RSS - ETF.COM.PL]
Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie od 30 maja 2012 r. rozpoczyna obliczanie i publikację indeksu spółek z regionu Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej – WIG-CEE. Wskaźnik ten jest trzecim, po WIG-Poland i WIG-Ukraine, indeksem obliczanym przez GPW, dla którego głównym kryterium doboru spółek jest kraj pochodzenia. Indeks WIG-CEE jest indeksem...
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"Secure Boot" and free software
[shared via Google Reader from jwz]
Interesting, long post on how the hell Linux vendors make their product work now that MICROS~1 has enabled BIOS DRM. (The tl;dr version: running a custom kernel on modern hardware just became rocket surgery.)Fedora 18 will be released at around the same time as Windows 8, and as previously discussed all Windows 8 hardware will be shipping with secure boot...
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Od śmierci po bezsens
[shared via Google Reader from Ziemia Niczyja | Mariusz Herma]
Actress – R.I.P. (Honest Jon’s)
Z miejsca zachwyciło mnie „Holy Water” ze swoim ślicznym sound designem, jak to ślicznie określił Paweł Gajda. Actress wpisał się tym utworem w znaną m.in. z floydowskiego „Money” tradycję słuchawkowych zapieraczy dechu. Muzycznie „Holy Water” to jednak ni mniej, ni więcej jak kilka fajnie...
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OFF Festival named one of Pitchfork’s 20 essential...
[shared via Google Reader from Off festival]
The website Pitchfork — an unquestioned authority in the world of music — has named the OFF Festival among this year’s 20 essential summer festivals.
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Workshops are measured in years
[shared via Google Reader from Infovore]
I’ve been making a lot of things recently, both at work and at home. And as a result, I’ve been having to buy tools.
Not a lot, but a steady trickle: discovering I need one of these, or one of those. A box of screws or bolts here; some wire there; a different kind of this to fit a particular need.
I’m trying to artificially acquire odds and ends.
This...
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Hunting down my son's killer
[shared via Google Reader from Matt Might’s blog]
I found my son’s killer.
It took three years.
But we did it.
Not quite like this.
I should clarify one point: my son is very much alive.
Yet, my wife Cristina and I have been found responsible for his death.
My son Bertrand has a new genetic disorder.
Patient 0.
To find it, a team of scientists at...
2 tags
OS X GCC Installer
[shared via Google Reader from One Thing Well]
OS X GCC Installer:
Downloading and installing the massive Xcode installer is a huge hassle if you just want GCC and related tools.
The osx-gcc-installer allows you to install the essential compilers from either pre-built binary packages or helps you create your own installer.
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From “Never Again” to “Once More” …. We Are There...
[shared via Google Reader from Iconic Photos]
These are the events and photos too graphic even for those who deal with them daily. The Times will not publish more photos from the massacre; neither will CNN. Iconic Photos will not either (at this particular time), but I will link them here. (WARNING: extremely distressing, gory, and haunting. Viewer discretion advised).
It will need thousands of...
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Is Productivity Killing Your Creativity?
[shared via Google Reader from Jay Fields’ Thoughts]
I listen to audio books while I work out. I’ve been known to leave earworms ‘Rapid Italian’ on while trying to go to sleep. I read books on trains. I answer emails while eating dinner. I clear out my Google Reader while watching TV with my wife. I wanted to learn Ruby and Blackjack perfect strategy, so I wrote a perfect...
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Twitter finally rejects their all-JavaScript...
[shared via Google Reader from rc3.org]
When Twitter launched “new Twitter” in 2010, a lot of people decried it as a bad idea. The big change was sending every request to the site to one URL, which hosted a JavaScript application that requested the appropriate data and then converted it to HTML within the browser. Here’s Tim Bray explaining exactly why Twitter’s approach was wrongheaded.
About...
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The World's Richest Countries And Biggest...
[shared via Google Reader from Planet Money]
by Lam Thuy Vo
Gross Domestic Product — GDP — may have its limits. But it’s a useful, broad measure for looking at national economies. It’s basically the total...
2 tags
New Podcast Coming Your Way: In Beta
[shared via Google Reader from Smarterware]
Exciting news! I’m starting a new tech podcast with my pal Kevin Purdy next week. It’s called In Beta, and the first episode airs live on Tuesday.
Here’s the official show description:
In Beta is a talk show about the ever-changing state of web-based and open source software. We examine how “ship first, fix later”...
2 tags
A Champion Racing Yacht Designer, Chasing...
[shared via Google Reader from PUMA Sailing]
A Champion Racing Yacht Designer, Chasing Perfection
Juan Kouyoumdjian has become the dominant designer of the ultimate yacht race through cutting-edge R&D and an indefatigable perfectionism.
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Yes, you can have fun with downloads
[shared via Google Reader from lcamtuf’s blog]
It is an important and little-known property of web browsers that one document can always navigate other, non-same-origin windows to arbitrary URLs; in more limited circumstances, even individual frames can be targeted. I discuss the consequences of this behavior in The Tangled Web - and several months ago, I shared this amusing proof-of-concept...
2 tags
Review: Vim for iOS
[shared via Google Reader from usevim]
Vim by Applidium (GitHub: applidium / Vim, License: Vim) is an open source Vim port for iOS. I realise that might sound impractical, but Vim’s modal nature means it can actually work fairly well with touchscreen keyboards. It’s not the ideal interface, but it’s at least possible to reuse some of your hard-won Vim skills in a mobile...
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Game of Thrones and the tedium of Season 2′s war...
[shared via Google Reader from The Story’s Story]
Scott Meslow writes that “In ‘Game of Thrones,’ War Changes Everyone: The stunning, episode-long Battle of Blackwater* leaves no character untouched,” and while he might be correct on that front, the episode, like its predecessor, was also surprisingly tedious. Meslow thinks that “it’s clear that each character has been forced, in the heat...
2 tags
The tools I use when I get to choose
[shared via Google Reader from rc3.org]
Last week Noah Sussman gave a talk and said that developers should ideally program in an environment that resembles as closely as possible the environment they’d use if they were programming just for themselves, because that’s most likely to be the most productive approach.
Usually, I start with something at least a little bit new every time I build a new...
2 tags
Stronger winds and rougher weather ensure a faster...
[shared via Google Reader from PUMA Sailing]
Stronger winds and rougher weather ensure a faster few days ahead for PUMA’s Mar Mostro.
2 tags
tinypy
[shared via Google Reader from One Thing Well]
tinypy:
tinypy is a minimalist implementation of python in 64k of code
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→ Three Things That Should Trouble Apple
[shared via Google Reader from Marco.org]
Great article by Guy English.
A big one I’d add: Apple’s software quality is declining.
I’m not just talking about the most recent releases of everything, or the last couple of months — I’ve noticed this trend for about 2–3 years. As Apple’s software has grown to address larger feature sets, hard-to-solve problems such as sync and online services,...
2 tags
Feed Web Intent Viewer
[shared via Google Reader from persistent.info]
Chrome 19 (just released to the stable channel) includes support for Web Intents, and the support is further improved in Chrome 20 (currently in the beta channel). One of the improvements is that downloaded RSS and Atom feeds will now dispatch a view intent. This is neat, getting things a bit closer to truly fixing one of the earliest Chrome bug...
2 tags
last days
[shared via Google Reader from Bart Pogoda | blog and photography | www.bartpogoda.net]
2 tags
Reddit Sync Pro | Google Play link
[shared via Google Reader from Android niceties]
Reddit Sync Pro | Google Play link
2 tags
The Linux Setup - Lee Hachadoorian, Geographer
[shared via Google Reader from My Linux Rig]
It’s kind of surprising to realize this, but Lee Hachadoorian is the first The Linux Setup interviewee I’ve met face-to-face. We were both on a panel that actually didn’t have much to do with Linux, but once I saw what Lee was doing with it, I knew he’d be perfect here.
Lee does a great job outlining an academic Linux setup. His love of Freeplane is...
2 tags
Hello people, There are two new John Frusciante...
[shared via Google Reader from John Frusciante]
Hello people,
There are two new John Frusciante records coming out. The first is an EP entitled Letur-Lefr, and the second is an LP entitled PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone. I sing, play the instruments and am the engineer. The EP features a few friends on vocals, mostly MC’ing. The LP has one feature, the rest of the vocals being my own.
I...
2 tags
EST
[shared via Google Reader from xkcd.com]
2 tags
The Banality of Surveillance Photos
[shared via Google Reader from Schneier on Security]
Interesting essay on a trove on surveillance photos from Cold War-era Prague.
Cops, even secret cops, are for the most part ordinary people. Working stiffs concerned with holding down jobs and earning a living. Even those who thought it was important to find enemies recognized the absurdity of their task.
I take photos all the time and these...
2 tags
→ Old Farts Know How to Code
[shared via Google Reader from Marco.org]
Nick Bradbury:
The startup culture is similar to professional sports in that it requires a fleet of fresh-out-of-college kids to trade their lives and their health for the potential of short-term glory.
“Old farts” are often excluded from that culture, not because we’re lousy coders but because we won’t put up with that shit. We have lives, we...
2 tags
John MacFarlane
[shared via Google Reader from The Setup]
Who are you, and what do you do?
I’m a philosophy professor at UC Berkeley. I’m also a hobbyist programmer with several open-source projects, most prominently pandoc, which converts between many different text markup formats, and gitit, a wiki that uses git, darcs, or mercurial as a file store and pandoc for markup conversion.
What hardware...
2 tags
Happy 75th Birthday, Golden Gate Bridge! See you...
[shared via Google Reader from America’s Cup]
Happy 75th Birthday, Golden Gate Bridge! See you on the Bay this Sunday to celebrate.
2 tags
Leg 7 is turning out to be a lot tougher than...
[shared via Google Reader from PUMA Sailing]
Leg 7 is turning out to be a lot tougher than anyone had anticipated.
2 tags
Why Is Syria Locked In Endless Conflict?
[shared via Google Reader from Planet Money]
Listen to the Show
Add to Playlist
Download
...
2 tags
Sweet Little Lies
[shared via Google Reader from kuba dabrowski]
Z ostatniej chwili! Trochę to trwało, ale wychodzi moja druga książka! Nazywa się „Sweet Little Lies”, wydajemy ją z Art Bazaar. Książka jest o wyobrażaniu sobie świata, o którym myślimy, że odszedł, ale tak naprawdę pewnie nigdy go nie było. Romantycznego świata ze starych włoskich piosenek i polskich filmów o łobuzach. Czyli w skrócie o tym, co...
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The Golden Gate Bridge turns 75! To celebrate and...
[shared via Google Reader from America’s Cup]
The Golden Gate Bridge turns 75! To celebrate and recognize this significant milestone Oracle Team USA will be sailing under the bridge around 1:30 on Sunday. We hope to see you out on the Bay, or from the shore of Crissy Frield / Marina Green for the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary
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Playing shadow puppets on the Code-0.
[shared via Google Reader from PUMA Sailing]
Playing shadow puppets on the Code-0.