- Everything you need to know about the trans Supreme Court case
A genuinely solid write up, that explains how we got here, and what I very much hope will happen next – and/or the possibly scary consequences of further political cowardice from the Labour Party.
- Daring Fireball: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Rules, in Excoriating Decision, That Apple Violated Her 2021 Court Order Regarding App Store Anti-Steering Provisions
A judge in the US has just ruled that Apple have to drop a lot of the measures that prevent apps from linking out to alternate payment methods, and that payments processed externally don't need to have a cut paid to Apple. I find myself quite happy about this. Gruber's analysis is, as ever, pretty bang-on.
Tag: news
Bookmarks for August 22, 2018
- Now That's What I Call Music: How one compilation came to rule them all – BBC News
A history of the music compilation albums. Lots of interesting stuff in here. (In case you're curious: I owned NOW 3 and listened to it exhaustively. It was ace.
Bookmarks for October 15, 2014
- Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project | Reuters
I… don't know what to make of this. If it's true, this is *huge* news. Just enormous, on a sort of I-can't-quite-believe-this scale. But this isn't "mad scientist with basement lab makes mad claims" like we've seen with fusion before, this is a major military industrial player that is apparently seeking partners to actually *build* the thing! I really hope this is true. Wow.
Bookmarks for April 2, 2012
- Planning a trip to Canada or the Caribbean? US Immigration may have other ideas… – News & Advice – Travel – The Independent
I await the first tales of someone's holiday being fucked up because they happened to share a name with someone who is on the US list, even despite the fact that they're not even flying near the US. I also await being allowed to deny US citizens the right to enter France.
- BBC News – 10 stories that could be April Fools pranks but aren't
Several of these are fascinating. Others are just mad. Either way, I like 'em.
- What Lies Beneath: Excavating Crossrail's tunnels | In-depth | The Engineer
This is fascinating reading. Example facts from this piece: tunnel boring machines go at about 100m per week, and have a turning radius of 250m. Inpressive enough, but in places the tunnels these things are cutting are passing with 1m of existing tunnels, which, obviously, it would be very bad if they were to hit. "Lads, we've got to start turning now, so that we're in the right place in 2 weeks time. If we're out by over a foot, were going to cause major damage to something expensive. No do-overs. Everyone ready?"
Bookmarks for December 15, 2010
- Dan Ariely » Blog Archive Locksmiths «
Here's an interesting thing to think about, particularly in light of the fact, that at my company, for example, I often get certain tasks because I know the code better, and can therefore accomplish the same task faster. Yet, we charge by the hour (well, actually by the ten-minute block). This essentially means that exactly because I've got more experience than some of my colleagues, clients pay less for my services. Yet the company has far more cash and training time invested in me. The obvious solution would be to charge more for my time than for some of my less experienced colleagues, but obviously, that's a hard sell to clients, not least because they lack the skills and knowledge to correctly evaluate whether it's better to get me, or someone else, on a given project. Especially when for some projects, I will work faster, and for others, I will be slower, because it's code I don't know so well, but one of my colleagues might know better.
- AWS SDK for iOS (Beta)
Hmm. This sounds like the good business to me. At some point in the not *too* distant, I need to get to grips with iOS development, and I like that there's now a simple Cloud-based DB that I can use for storage/sync.
- Naomi Wolf: J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide
Naomi Wolf produces a far clearer, far more on the nose, summation of the point she was articulating when she got leapt on but the left wing blogosphere last week. It is not a defence of Assange, it is a condemnation of the current rate of international prosecution for crimes far worse than what Assange is accused of. It wasn't a defence of Assange when she wrote it last week, but plenty of people out there got distracted by about seven words in amongst a much wider point, and her real point got lost. So she's restated it, and you should read what she has to say.
- flip flopping joy » Blog Archive » re: wikileaks
This is interesting. I've been trying to find numbers/commentary on wikileaks from a feminist perspective that isn't focused on Assange and the allegations against him, and failing. I'd like to produce an article on the real-world effects of wikileaks as regards women and/or social justice, but it's proving very hard to find even vague commentary in that vein, never mind hard numbers. This is the closest to useful commentary (that isn't about the allegations) I've found thus far.
Bookmarks for November 9, 2010
- Kicker Studio: Everything I’ve Ever Learned About Giving Design Critiques I Learned from Tim Gunn
You could apply these set of rules to any form of critique/review not just design, and you'd probably come out doing pretty well.
- The Times’ Paywall and Newsletter Economics « Clay Shirky
Lots in here, but here's the key thing: "This re-engineering suggests that paywalls don’t and can’t rescue current organizational forms. They offer instead yet another transformed alternative to it."
- danah boyd | apophenia » Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook
Not blogging this as an anti-Facebook thing, just as some interesting information about non-standard ways people use social networking software in a privacy intensive manner.
- EaaS (ECONOMY as a SERVICE) – Global Guerrillas
It's one way of looking at MMOs (and related industries), I guess. I'm aware that Warcrack has a GPD higher than some countries, and that there was a point (I haven't checked, it may still be true) where the virtual currency in Eve online was worth more that the currency of Iceland, where the game is based, but they're both entirely virtual, and I'm not 100% convinced that we're going to get the ability to rapid deploy and re-use these things in a full physical-world context (that a full EaaS would need) any time in the next five years.
Bookmarks for October 19, 2010
- Surviving the Future: Jamais Cascio excerpts on Vimeo
Mr Cascio being clever, as per. Wouldn't mind seeing the whole documentary if the opportunity were to arise, but these bits from Jamais are worth the price of admission on their own.
- Noteshelf for iPad on the iTunes App Store
If and when I get round to buying an stylus for the ipad, I could see this getting a lot of use, mostly at work. (I've tried handwriting without a pen, just using a fingertip, but it's a but rubbish.)
- Facebook in Online Privacy Breach; Applications Transmitting Identifying Information – WSJ.com
By this point, there really isn't a lot of point in saying anything. I'm just y'know, sighing and rolling my eyes.
Bookmarks for September 16, 2009
- Eleven Things I’d Do If I Ran a News Organization « Mediactive
Yes. This. Get to it, news organisations.
Bookmarks for August 13, 2009
- YouTube – The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D
This is where you live. Go and look.
- The Trouble with the Segway
Interesting piece on the design of objects, and the effect it can have on perceptions of their use.
- New consumers and new business opportunities
My brain is a bit fried right now, and even though I'm mainlining coffee, I'm not in a state to really retain serious information. So I'm marking this as one to come back to, as it looks interesting.
- Local newspapers in peril: The town without news | The Economist
I cut my teeth building systems for a local newspaper company – one, in fact, that I had delivered as a teenager, for pocket money. It's very easy to dismiss local papers as lacking in real news content, and full instead of trivial local rubbish, but the reality is that they provide local-community level news that really is important to the daily lives of many people. There is a very real need to find alternative infrastructure to distribute this information, ideally in a non-digital form.
- Introduction To LED Lighting | DIYPhotography.net
I think I could have fun with some of this shit. Need to go LED shopping soon.
Bookmarks for July 23, 2009
- BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | British blamed for Basra badgers
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." I am saddened to hear that. All wars should be fought by man-eating badgers.
- ‘camoflague’ by liu bolin
Awesome artist who, well, he camoflages himself, which doesn't sound that exciting, but serious, go look. It's ace.