February 2012
66 posts
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Right versus pragmatic – Marco.org →
More on media piracy and the Oatmeal’s comic by Marco Arment. He’s making the case that while the studios are right, they’re not being pragmatic, which isn’t helping them, and hurting their customers who are willing to pay.
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Secret Renaissance Letter Reveals Plan to Save... →
Political philosophy always begs to be implemented. So those “old” philosophers, Hobbes in this case, were hip deep in actual conspiracies and plots. Not so abstract now, huh?
infoneer-pulse:
A newly discovered document, written by one of Europe’s most famous philosophers, Thomas Hobbes, reveals a plan that, if successful, could have turned the tide of one of England’s bloodiest...
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SQ Chips
So SQ Chips is right now my favorite album I’m listening to. What is SQ Chips you ask? Well, it’s a set of chiptune arrangements of Square (see?) songs in modernized chiptune form. I found it after it was added to Rainwave.cc. I’m really loving the Chrono Triggers songs, but also the Xenogear and SaGa songs as well. There’s plenty of other game’s music thrown in as well. I’d highly recommend it.
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“Today is the anniversary of the flag-raising, made famous in photographic...”
– Just how cynical are people today when it comes to history? I run into this type of cynicism all the time. Every fact is suspect and nothing written should be taken as true to some people. It’s true that history is written by people with motivations of their own, but to me that doesn’t mean that we...
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Protect yourself from being tracked by Google,... →
A really in depth guide to setting up single site browsers with Fluid and a couple other procedures to protect against cookies and whatnot. Mostly a very draconian set of solutions here.
I personally use Cookie ($10) to selectively allow for cookies from some sites, but not others.
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“LAUGH as the security forces of an oppressive fascist dictatorship try to crush...”
– This description of ruggedized SD cards from Samsung amused me to no end.
Samsung’s Metal SD Cards Are Harder To Kill Than A Cockroach | Cult of Mac
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Amazon Pulls Thousands of E-Books in Dispute →
And things continue on this front as well.
infoneer-pulse:
Amazon.com yanked the buy button on its site from thousands of e-books this week after failing to extract better terms from their distributor, the Independent Publishers Group.
I.P.G., one of the country’s largest distributors, said Amazon sought new discounts that it could not afford.
“There’s only so far we can go,” said Mark...
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As Video Gaming Goes Pro, Viewers Pay Up : NPR →
A short clip on the Starcraft II esports scene with HuskyStarcraft (aka Mike Lamond) on NPR.
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From The "Um, What?!" Department
Hmm, pushy yes?
parislemon:
Google now asks you to enter your credit card as part of the Gmail signup flow. Bold. twitter.com/rmatei/status/…
— Robert Cezar Matei (@rmatei) February 22, 2012
This is going to go over well.
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This is Not a Conspiracy Theory by Kirby Ferguson... →
This looks really interesting. I’ve heard nothing but good about his previous series, “Everything is a Remix”, so I’ll be eagerly waiting for the public release of this one. Should be good.
I also need to sit down for an hour and watch his last series myself, rather than depending on just about every major mac pundit ever.
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Reformatting Confucius with Regular Expressions -... →
A quick sampling of what regex (regular expressions) can do in practice. This time via find & replace!
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Eternal Copyright: a modest proposal – Telegraph... →
Quite a modest proposal. Take heed!
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parislemon: To Catch A Hypocrite →
Copyright scofflaws in odd places, no wait, I meant common places.
parislemon:
Yesterday, Jason Kincaid posted damning evidence of VEVO, the online music video entity jointly owned by a few major record labels, committing piracy at their boozy event at Sundance this year.
Watch the video, then read Jason’s full story. It’s worth it.
Today, VEVO’s CEO has responded….
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Play of the Day: Hexagonal Rochambeau is part...
I’m enjoying this game. I wish I had a few more people to test it out with, but so far quite fun. And it’s for the fun price of free!
killscreendaily:
One of minds that worked on games like Glow Artisan has launched a new twist on rock, paper, scissors called Hexagonal Rochambeau. While the name sounds complicated, the game play as not. I spent the weekend playing my girlfriend with lovely...
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14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You. →
A bit late, but still pretty cheesy.
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Hypercritical: Better Pasta →
Why should you listen to this tech geek lecture you on what you’re doing wrong with your pasta? Well, mostly because he’s dedicated to making sure that the minutia of life all mesh properly. That’s why you should listen to a tech geek about pasta. Also, because it works. I’ve been trying most of his suggestions over the past week, and my pasta does taste better after following his advice. If...
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6-Month-Old Infants Understand Words →
Well then, baby talk should be relegated even further back then, if this holds up.
infoneer-pulse:
While his mother is cooing “Does baybee want his bahbah?” that 6- to 9-month-old infant may just be thinking something along the lines of “Yes, I do want my bottle!” New research indicates that infants as young as 6 months can understand the meaning of many spoken words.
“Kids at this age aren’t...
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“Most people who use the Internet seem take its nature and characteristics for...”
– The Fight for a Fair and Free Internet - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic (via infoneer-pulse)
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Why I use DuckDuckGo, and you should too - Clif... →
I’m now also using Duck Duck Go, but here’s a better explanation of their “Bang Syntax”. Pretty sweet.
(Via Brooks Review)
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The Super Sweet 1Password Trick You’re Almost... →
A neat little 1Password trick.
(Via Brooks Review)
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The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For… →
This is what coding is all about. Also, the plural of LEGO is LEGO. Jeb almost makes that mistake.
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Why Urban, Educated Parents Are Turning to DIY... →
A quick look by the Daily Beast on urban homeschooling. I’ll admit that it’s not a sphere of homeschooling I’ve had much contact with, I would mostly agree with the characterization of things in the post.
Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell
webcomicsweekly:
Let’s just dive right in shall we?
Gunnerkrigg Court, a particularly popular comic, is one of those genre-defying megabeasts that makes first-time comic readers quake with fear. The story is vast and complex when you try to explain it, and yet despite this enigma wrapped in a conundrum, we keep coming back for more.
The reason for this is that despite all the mystery and...
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parislemon: To Catch A Hypocrite →
I agree completely. There is something wrong with the fundamentals of copyright enforcement right now.
parislemon:
Yesterday, Jason Kincaid posted damning evidence of VEVO, the online music video entity jointly owned by a few major record labels, committing piracy at their boozy event at Sundance this year.
Watch the video, then read Jason’s full story. It’s worth it.
Today, VEVO’s CEO has...
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Content Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink
A stark look at tech journalism. However, I think that there are a number of options available to help stem this tide. I’ve read about a couple Mac sites that are cutting back on the number of their stories to focus on quality. I’ve also seen Macstories start publishing a “Reading List” of what their reading for the week (which might be construed as more linkbait, but I’d disagree with...
Uplifting Anime Music Loop
So here I am, checking out some new anime, and like always, a couple opening sequence songs (OP) have caught my ear. So I’ve been listening to these four songs on loop, and I’m really loving it. It’s an upbeat/uplifting set of four, so here’s some links to youtube that will let you grab a taste of what I listened to for an entire commute rather than listening to 5by5’s podcasts.
Rinne no...
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Fountain | A markup language for screenwriting. →
This looks really cool. Inspired by John Gruber’s Markdown, Fountain is a plain text markup syntax.
(Via Daring Fireball)
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Kill Screen: Adam Sandler signs on to the Candy... →
What. No really, what? Why are board games being transformed/mined into movies? First Battleship turns into an “aliens invade/are underwater” and now we get Candy Land with Adam Sandler?
What’s next? A version of Settlers of Catan where resource barons ruin a small town?
killscreendaily:
Yes it’s still in production. No, no one knows why. But now Adam Sandler has signed on to...
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“What if there was a similar system that let us, the community of readers, buy...”
– This is an awesome idea. I have no idea if this will take off, but it is a great attempt. I know from reading some of Eric Flint’s thoughts on copyright that the effort and cost to bring an out of print book back into print isn’t actually that much (a couple thousand dollars for an entire estate) so...
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Kill Screen: Is pruning our online lives some type... →
A glance at how social media is gamifying social relations, including defriending.
killscreendaily:
It is as inevitable a part of growing up as broccoli or homework, and has been for years in our social circles. Psychologists call it “socioemotional selectivity theory.” Today, we call it “defriending.” While the pruning of our social branches has always gone on, the recent explosion of...
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Here's the Number That Matters in Facebook's IPO... →
If you’re thinking that Facebook’s IPO has no bearing on your life, read this. Facebook needs to up the revenue per user it generates every year, or it’s share price will more likely than not collapse. That means more ads, as there’s a hard population limit that can use Facebook.
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How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other... →
And to go along with the news about Penguin Books, here’s a couple scripts that you can use yourself, or can share to help express your displeasure with this decision to prevent libraries from lending books.
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“What is crucial to understand is that academic publishing is not a free market....”
– From the same amazing Boston Globe piece, the quickest and clearest summary of academic publishing’s dysfunction I’ve ever seen. It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that everyone in the ecosystem understand these basic facts. (via arlpolicynotes)
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Penguin Group Terminating Its Contract with... →
Now then, this is not a good thing. These libraries cannot offer up the books they paid for, because the supplier to their supplier has pulled out of the deal. And there are no monetary penalties on Penguin for backing out?
infoneer-pulse:
libraryjournal:
In a stunning development, Penguin Group has extricated itself from its contract with OverDrive, the primary supplier of ebooks to public...
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Journals Inflate Their Prestige by Coercing... →
Oh, now that can’t be good. And why does the education establishment use these guys as the key point in determining tenure again?
infoneer-pulse:
A survey published today in Science shows that journal editors often ask prospective authors to add superfluous citations of the journal to articles, and authors feel they can’t refuse. (The Science paper is for subscribers only, but you can read a...
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PAUSE: Two computers walk into a bar. One says to...
killscreendaily:
Q: What’s 1 divided by 998,001?
A:…
Turns out that it’s every number from 000 to 999 in sequential order… except 998.
Except 998!! If you were a computer, you’d find this HILARIOUS. Trust me.
-Jason Johnson
[via It’s Okay to be Smart]
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Daring Fireball Linked List: Tweetbot for iPad →
Also, this is neat. I’ve been wanting this for a while. While I’m a bit sad that it’s not a universal binary, I did pay for this again.
Sorry Twitterific, but you just got replaced as my primary iPad Twitter client.
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Stanford pioneering a wireless electric highway →
This sounds like a useful idea, as we’re going to have to rebuild a huge amount of our transportation infrastructure anyway. Might as well modernize as we do it.
infoneer-pulse:
Stanford researchers may have solved the problem of range anxiety by wireless charging technology that could one day create an electric highway.
Wireless recharging already is used by some electric vehicle charging...
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