- 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.
Links for Friday August 5th 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.
Links for Wednesday August 3rd 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.
Links for Friday July 29th 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.)
Links for Thursday July 28th 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.
Links for Tuesday July 26th 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?
Links for Monday July 25th 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.
The Howling Wasteland Of Russian Spam Ghosts
Or, to use its given name, Livejournal.
So, in the last few weeks, several of my friends have actively served notice that they’re fucking off from LJ – not just spending less time there, but actively saying “bye bye, not updating, not reading here any more”.
Now, it costs me nothing to stay – all of the stuff I post on my actual proper blog is simply auto-reflected there, and as of this post, I’m also punting a notification to twitter, just in the hopes of occasionally generating conversation. Because this is what I miss about Livejournal. The actual conversation with honest to god humans. Now, I know that 90% of what I post is links, because I don’t really devote time to actual write-about-a-topic type posts these days, so I’m not exactly surprised, but still – even if people aren’t commenting on what I write, I used to be moved to comment on what other people wrote, and, generally speaking, I no longer am, because most people aren’t writing very much.
So here is what I’m wondering: how many of my former LJ chums are blogging elsewhere now, and I’m simply not reading? Basically: if you’re reading this, and blogging somewhere that isn’t LJ, this is your excuse to plug said blog in the comments, so’s I can find it and add it to my RSS reader.
And, of less importance, but by no means unimportant: if I stopped cross-posting, would anyone care? If they did, would they start following my blog via RSS, and/or commenting on said blog? Because yes, I do like to get my ego fed, and I like it when people make with the comments.
(NB: anyone who is thinking of saying they’d just use LJ to syndicate an RSS feed from my blog to LJ can, with respect, shit right off. Get a proper RSS reader, that actually directs conversation to a place where people can listen, rather than LJ’s outright content-thieving tools.)
Opinions sought, please. Comment wherever you’d like, I’m sure I’ll find you.
Links for Monday July 18th 2011
- How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History | Threat Level | Wired.com
This is absolutely fascinating reading. I don’t care if you’ve got no interest in computers, security, or anything like that. The story of Stuxnet is an insight into 21st century espionage, the likes of which you don’t often get. This is the world James Bond lives in now.