- The Magistrate's Blog: Contempt
This one is worth flagging up, for those of my friends who are shocked and appalled at the actions of Wandsworth (and other councils) in their attempts to evict the families of those who are convicted in connection with the riots. Broadly speaking the message is this: don't worry, it isn't going to happen. The courts quite literally cannot allow it to happen. So: spread the word about that, because the only think this tactic is for is bullying and scaremongeriing, and that's easy to stop with information. But other than that, expend your energy on other matters, because this one's sorted.
Author: Alasdair
Bookmarks for August 12, 2011
- Designersgotoheaven.com by @andreirobu How the Dead Live
Absolutely brilliant cover design for an absolutely excellent book.
- Imaginawesome
This is brilliant – kids drawings, redone by a professional illustrator. Absolutely superb.
Bookmarks for August 9, 2011
- Not by the Direct Method., Cheering myself up with the pulp ideasplosion.
Just go and read these. And then tell me you don't want to read at least half of them. I cannot express just how much I'm looking forward to Jess' Enyclopedia of Pulp Heroes.
Bookmarks for August 5, 2011
- Ghostery
An ad-network and spyware blocker for most of the major ad networks. May ad-blockers just stop the ads from displaying. This one can stop them from spying on you, too. Nice.
- danah boyd | apophenia » “Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power
An excellent summary of the what the "real name" policy Google are attempting to enforce is, basically, Evil. Me, I'm absolutely in favour of real names being used on-line, and I certainly insist on it in forums I moderate. But those forums tend to be small, relatively closed membership things, formed with the intent of supporting offline in-the-flesh interaction. That's a very different use case to massive social networks, where the ability to feel comfortable using one's real name is a privilege that all sorts of people don't possess for all sorts of reasons.
- One tweet takes a journalist on a voyage of discovery | Media | guardian.co.uk
Here's a thrilling example of our lack of privacy in the 21st century. There really not a lot that's going to be done about it,I'm just linking because I think this is good illustration of how the world work now. It's probably not an earth-shattering revelation to most of you, but nonetheless, it's interesting background in these days of phone hacking…
Links for Thursday August 4th 2011
- Simon Spurrier: A Serpent Uncoiled: LAUNCH DAY
I tweeted about this earlier, but tough. Simon Spurrier's "Contact" was one of the best novels I read last year. "A Serpent Uncoiled", his new weird crime novel shows signs of being the best novel I'm going to read this year – I haven't finished it yet, having only bought it this morning, and the year isn't done yet, but so far, I'm fucking riveted. It is out now and both dead-tree and electronic editions for Kindle, and on the iBooks store, so you really don't have an excuse for now buying it at once. Get to it. You won't regret it. - Open the Future: Sword of Taxation, +5
You may or may not have heard/give too hoots about Diablo 3, but if you have, you might also have heard about their plan for an in-game auction house, where players will be able so sell the in-game items they acquire for real world cash. Leaving aside the fact that is going to take gold-farming to a whole new level of third world sweatshop labour, Jamais Cascio makes an excellent point, here: because these items will have a directly-measurable real world value, they will be be taxable in the US, the UK, and other places. Not taxable-when-you-sell-them, you understand. Taxable when the game randomly gives them to you. This could get very interesting, and I'm certainly going to think twice about playing – I just don't need the paperwork. - The Robot-Readable World – Blog – BERG
Absolutely 100|% mandatory reading for anyone interested in the future-present. If this doesn't spark at least six exciting ideas in you, then I fear you do not understand when you are living. Also of interest: the Louis Vutton QR code. Suddenly, there's space for design in a barcode.
Bookmarks for August 3, 2011
- Planning a photography exhibit
This has been on my to-do list for a few years now, and this article has a useful checklist of stuff that would be required.
Bookmarks for July 29, 2011
- Don't Be Evil
As a general rule, I'm fairly cynical about Evgeny Morozov, the writer of this piece, and I think it's certainly worth bearing his general anti-internet outlook in mind, as one reads this. Still, even with a more optimistic slant, this peice give a good picture of the ethical challenges that Google face, and makes a good case for the fact that, with a business of Google's complexity, using an idea as simple as "Don't Be Evil" as your guiding moral point is probably asking for trouble. (Which I would be reasonably certain Google know, hence my suggestion to bear Morozov's bias in mind while reading.)
Bookmarks for July 28, 2011
- EL BULLI – COOKING IN PROGRESS (official film website)
I'm really, really hoping this airs in London, are that there's a DVD or download release soon – I'd love to watch it.
- Page One: Banish Multi-Page Articles (Global Moxie)
Sick of multi pages articles, like I am? This extension for chrome and safari will turn them into one pages articles on a lot of popular sites.
Bookmarks for July 26, 2011
- Google Plus – Is Google Taking Over the World?
If I were Facebook, I would be bricking it right now, based on these numbers. Google+ is just getting warmed up, and there are some very obvious features to come, just in terms of catching up to Facebook's functionality. They're already signing people up at a frightening rate, and honestly, once they role out events, tied in to Google Calendar, what's the point of Facebook any more?
Bookmarks for July 25, 2011
- Atos case study: Larry Newman | Society | The Guardian
A man who *was dying* of a degenerative condition was refused incapacity benefit. His last words: "It's a good thing I'm fit to work". I don't mind the idea that we assess people to determine if they're fit to work when working out who to give benefit to – it is not, in itself, an unconscionable idea, that a neutral 3rd party make some kind of informed judgement, before we start giving people free money, however well deserved and much need that money may be. I mind that that we do in in such a a shockingly inhumane and incompetent manner, without apparent reference to people's actual medical conditions.