Nelson's Linkblog 2014-12

about • archive • mastodon • feed

BART WiFi update

The company they chose to install has failed to deliver

2014-12-31 bart • internet • wifi

RIP Leelah Alcorn

Heartbreaking suicide note from a transgender teen

2014-12-30 gay • gender • lgbt • suicide • transgender • via:metafilter

Mavericks filesharing

Tips for dealing with MacOS's broken SMB implementation

2014-12-29 badtech • macos • samba • smb

Python logging practice

Some reasonable sounding suggestions

2014-12-29 coding • logging • python

A better JPEG encoder

2014-12-28 compression • graphics • jpeg • jpg • via:hackernews

A market for buying the anonymous release of secret data

2014-12-28 bitcoin • cryptography • secrets

Scan the entire Internet in 6 minutes, albeit with caveats

2014-12-28 internet • nmap • portscanning • tcpip • via:hackernews

2014-12-28 dating • funny • gif • tinder • via:reddit

Spatial statistics subtlety

Problems with Twitter maps

2014-12-26 maps • statistics • twitter

Sony hack not NK?

The argument against

2014-12-26 dprk • northkorea • sony

bro, dude, fella, pal, buddy: incidence by county

2014-12-23 language • maps • twitter • via:reddit

Downloading Java

Work around Oracle's willing brokenness

2014-12-22 download • java • oracle

Prosecute Torturers

NYT editorial on US torture includes list of who should be prosecuted

2014-12-22 cheney • humanrights • torture

Sony hack overview

Another synthesis

2014-12-22 badtech • hacker • sony • via:metafilter

Tor is being attacked

There were warnings this was coming

2014-12-22 badtech • privacy • security • tor

Sony hack overview

Excellent timeline of events from a Redditor

2014-12-21 badteech • hack • malware • reddit • sony

Explaining the appeal of one of YouTube's biggest things

2014-12-21 culture • games • loneliness • pewdiepie • twitch • youtube

On Internet outrage

Remarkably thoughtful piece from Sam Biddle about pitchfork-wielding mobs

2014-12-20 biddle • outrage • sacco • twitter • valleywag

NTP vulnerabilities

Several significant security flaws in timekeeping software

2014-12-20 badtech • ntp • security • time

Alfreda Bikowsky

Another CIA torture architect

2014-12-20 america • cia • civilrights • torture

28x collateral damage

Drone strikes: 27 other people killed for every 1 target

2014-12-20 drones • military • warcrimes • warfare

North Korea v Sony

FBI offers some info on the evidence for the unprecedented acquisition

2014-12-19 badtech • cyberwar • hack • northkorea • sony

The year of outrage 2014

Clever roundup feature

2014-12-18 outrage • socialmedia

Everyone's got to find someone somehow

2014-12-18 dating • funny • icp • juggalo • via:jwz

Details of the broken neogtiation

2014-12-17 government • portland • regulation • uber

A new trend towards degraded meme images

2014-12-17 instagram • memes • via:metafilter

United States of Torture

Majority of Americans in almost every demographic agree torture is sometimes justified

2014-12-17 america • civilrights • poll • torture

Unedited Footage of a Bear

NSFW: Adult Swim delivers WTF again

2014-12-17 adultswim • claridryl • horror • video

Top Star Trek episodes

Every single episode ranked. (SFW despite host.)

2014-12-15 netflix • startrek • television • tv • via:kottke

Tech policies on employee data access

What companies have thought through privacy of their customers from employees?

2014-12-15 policy • privacy • uber

Cheney on Torture

Analysis of his appearance on Sunday TV

2014-12-15 cheney • cia • civilrights • torture

Life of a CIA torturer

Matthew Zirbel continues to work for CIA despite being judged unfit

2014-12-15 cia • torture • via:metafilter

Unthinkable (2010)

A really disturbing but interesting film about torture

2014-12-15 movies • samueljackson • torture • via:metafilter

A Brenham synagogue

Jewish community near Houston has slowly shrunk, so they are moving the synagogue

2014-12-14 judaism • religion • texas

Like Scribd, but not awful. Publish PDF documents with annotations, search, etc on the Web

2014-12-14 documents • pdf • scribd

Bad Christmas cartoons

Metafilter roundup of 80s schlock

2014-12-13 animation • cartoon • christmas • tv • via:metafilter

Wikipedia calumny

Great paradox that such a terrible community produces a mostly great resource

2014-12-12 culture • sexism • wikipedia

CIA director's lying testimony

Details of the ways Hayden lied to the Senate

2014-12-12 cia • civilrights • democracy • hayden

More on CHP cop thug

KTVU stands behind story that an undercover CHP officer went way over the line

2014-12-12 chp • civilrights • oakland • police

CHP undercover in Oakland protest

Lots of photos alleging that undercover cops were armed, acting as provocateurs in a protest

2014-12-11 civilrights • oakland • police • protest

Lovely classic cocktail site

2014-12-11 beverages • cocktails • design • drinks

Auto-Password Change

LastPass moves further in to turning passwords into an actual authentication protocol

2014-12-10 authentication • lastpass • passwords • security

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Fun documentary is now on YouTube

2014-12-10 california • saltonsea • via:waxy • weird

Google ad coloring

12 years of data on how Google's ads have started to blend in to the page

2014-12-10 ads • google

Roman Empire map 211 AD

Lovely detailed historical map

2014-12-10 history • maps • rome

New Mapbox terrain map

Beautiful, better DEM data

2014-12-09 mapbox • maps • terrain

Browser tool to slice big GeoJSON files into vector tiles

2014-12-09 geojson • javascript • maps • tiles • vectortiles

A video game education

Andy raises his kid on classic games to good effect

2014-12-09 games • history • retro

Provocative argument to pardon the people responsible for torture

2014-12-09 bush • cia • politics • torture

Torture report problems

Last ditch effort by the Obama Administration to prevent the release of the torture report

2014-12-07 humanrights • politics • torture

A take on the NHD data set using CartoDB

2014-12-07 cartodb • maps

Data on game popularity

2014-12-06 analytics • games • steam

Lag and CRTs in games

Serious Smash Bros player talks about why analog displays are still preferred

2014-12-06 crt • games • lag • lcd • video

Owners of a looted store answer questions on Reddit.

2014-12-06 ferguson • reddit

FUSE filesystem that's in memory, temporary, per-process

2014-12-05 code • filesystem • fuse • programming • via:onethingwell

BPG Image format

Efficient lossy image format that can be decompressed in Javascript.

2014-12-05 compression • images • javascript • via:hackernews

Star Trek is funny on Twitter

2014-12-05 funny • startrek • tv • twitter

MacOS input bug

Apple logs all user keyboard input to a file in /tmp. Great job, geniuses.

2014-12-05 apple • bugs • firefox • macos

Golden Girls: Beautiful Guardians

A video game that should be

2014-12-04 art • funny • gay • goldengirls • tv

Berlin museum housing a contender for first digital computer

2014-12-04 berlin • computers • germany • zuse

Map tool to run queries on OpenStreetMap data and visualize results

2014-12-04 maps • openstreetmap • osm • query

Adding the price of coffee to OpenStreetMap. Not sure if performance art or brilliant.

2014-12-04 coffee • openstreetmap • osm

Apple Cabin foods

Funny bit from LiarTown

2014-12-04 ads • food • funny • groceries • parody

more open address machine

Work notes from making real stuff work

2014-12-04 coding • migurski • openaddresses

Detailed tweet map

Eric Fischer drops some dot map details

2014-12-04 enf • mapbox • maps • twitter

Satellite Internet from Medium Earth Orbit; better latency than geosync

2014-12-04 broadband • internet • satellite • space

Mat Honan to Buzzfeed

Becoming new Silicon Valley bureau chief. Quite a good gig for an interesting writer.

2014-12-03 gossip • journalism • mathonan • sanfrancisco • siliconvalley

Spectrum Dashboard

FCC's interactive database of spectrum allocations

2014-12-03 broadband • fcc • regulation • spectrum

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Beautiful chart from Westinghouse

2014-12-03 broadband • frequency • ge • spectrum • westinghouse

US Frequency Allocation chart

Details of who can use what parts of the electromagnetic spectrum

2014-12-03 bandwidth • broadband • fcc • regulation • spectrum

Unix Hater's Handbook

Much ancient wisdom from our greybearded elders

2014-12-03 computing • funny • unix

Sony Pictures hack

Very bad; 100TB of corporate internal data

2014-12-03 badtech • hack • sony • via:reddit

chan vs twitter

Thoughtful analysis of the conflict of culture, related to GamerGate, etc

2014-12-03 4chan • chan • culture • gamergate • twitter

All the streams in Australia

Rivers map from someone based on Australian data

2014-12-03 australia • maps • rivers

Nice honest post about a business that's doing OK but not a doorbuster

2014-12-02 analytics • anildash • ginatrapani • startups • stats • twitter

LoL Worlds viewer numbers

esports growth, but not ridiculous amounts

2014-12-02 esports • games • leagueoflegends • lol • riot

2^31 views on a YouTube video

Gangnam Style breaks the YouTube view counter

2014-12-02 funny • psy • via:reddit • youtube

Chrome extension malware

Year old report that Chrome extensions are being subverted by ad trackers, etc

2014-12-02 badtech • chrome • extensions • google • security

Buy Viagra online?

Google's famous SEO spam fighter @mattcutts discusses the most popular Web topic

2014-12-02 cialis • funny • google • mattcutts • seo • viagra

Yik Yak funding

$62M on a $300–$400M valuation

2014-12-02 anonymous • chat • startup

Null Island weather

Buoy is actually anchored at 0°N, 0°E.

2014-12-01 gps • maps • nullisland • weather

Native wrapper for Javascript webapps. Like PhoneGap, but for MacOS desktop

2014-12-01 apps • javascript • macos • phonegap

Internet monopolies

Excellent overview of the state of Internet competition, particularly Google

2014-12-01 amazon • antitrust • ftc • google • monopoly