Bookmarks for January 27, 2011

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 July 18, 2010

  • New Statesman – We need a retroactive graduate tax
    I am 100% in favour of this. And I fully support backdating it quite massively. But then, unlike most of my friends, I'm not a graduate. But I find it hard to argue against the point that if it is now reasonable for society to ask students to pay for their education, then it must surely also be reasonable for society to ask those who got their education for free to give the money back? (Mind you, I think her educationally-privileged background is showing a bit in the comments thread.)
  • 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
    If you still make a distinction between "in the real world" and "on the internet", then frankly, you're probably quite stupid. Some of this article is hippy claptrap, but it captures something I've been thinking about for a while now, when faced with friends who say that they "don't like doing X on the internet", when what they really mean is that they "can't be bothered to develop the skillset to do X on the internet". It's *not* a separate conversation to the one going on in the rest of your life. The issues are the same, the information the same, if not better, and if you can't engage with them on the internet, then you can't engage with them properly in other areas of your life.

Bookmarks for July 24, 2009

  • San Diego, Why Don’t You Come To Your Senses?
    Please, pass this link around. It's worth doing. Reblog, re-tweet, pass it on to your friends so they can do the same. If you are a geek or a nerd of any stripe, you should be aware that some small fraction of the money you spend on entertainment media is going to fuel homophobia (if you're giving money to companies that are then giving money to an operation that is fuelling homophobia, then yes, that *is* what is happening), and that this should be stopped. And unless they are publically shamed, then there is no reason for companies like Marvel to grow a spine. So you should circulate this link.
  • Strange Fish Identification Site
    It does exactly what it says on the tin. I have no use for this, but I love that it exists.
  • Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good
    Watching this, I had to keep reminding myself that he's a politician, and that his words are unlikely to be backed up by action, that he's not going to be called on the content of this speech, and that he has teams of people whose job it is to help him seem engaged, aware and generally serious about the world. Still: this is a good speech, talking sense, and it's quite nice to see him saying things I agree with 100%.

Bookmarks for June 26, 2009