October 2010
31 posts
Lost in Space →
This is a riveting Fortean Times account about the radio-eavesdropping exploits of Turin’s Judica-Cordiglia brothers at the dawn of the space race.
Did they really catch the last moments of a “stealth” cosmonaut before she was burned alive? Is there really a space capsule tomb leaving our solar system at this very moment, hurtling to the ends of the galaxy?
Read on.
[via...
200 Free Movies Online →
Open Culture shares a ton of great online movies, with descriptions and links to each. As a bonus, they’ve collected an extensive list of video sites at the end of the article.
Ditch that cable television!
[via @brainpicker]
Watch out for Firesheep
This week a new, easy-to-use hacking tool called Firesheep has been released and is quickly spreading. It makes it trivial for individuals to hijack personal accounts on popular services like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and others using a method known as sidejacking. Once hijacked, these services can’t tell the difference between you and the hacker. Until the problem that...
Rapleaf →
The Wall Street Journal shows us just how much personal information can be collected online without our knowledge.
They analyze the code of Rapleaf, a marketing service that aggregates personal preference data from many popular sites, tying it to our names and email addresses. I was startled at the amount of information they had on me!
Opt out of Rapleaf tracking here (but realize they’re...
Small-scale production: An atom-based product,... →
The Economist reports on a phenomenon that was impossible just a short time ago:
First, two people get together and have an idea to design something cool. This, they’ve always been able to do.
They then use a free beta version of software to create a mockup of their design idea on their computer. Software like this used to go for thousands of dollars, and is getting cheaper all the...
the creative internet →
If you’d like to get an idea of how the Internet is being used by some of the most creative innovators on our planet, check out this presentation by Google’s Creative Labs team.
It’s incredibly inspiring to see what others are doing with a platform that’s free and open for experimentation.
The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It →
I’ve had the great fortune to see Jonathan Zittrain speak twice, now. The man is truly a visionary, and his work helps us to see pitfalls in the emerging Internet society we’re creating together.
What’s particularly compelling to me is the rise of network devices that are “closed systems”, controlled from afar, offering restricted options rather than whatever we...
Think Again: Global Aging →
Phillip Longman writes on the aging of the world for Foreign Policy, and it’s a riveting tale.
The population increase we’re experiencing isn’t from additional births, contrary to what I thought. It’s actually because more people are living longer — the boom is old people, not babies.
Thinking about the near future, when the elderly dominate the planet, and the...
Kick those Cookies →
Loads of companies track what you do online via small data files stored on your computer called cookies.
Not all cookies are bad, mind you. I like that Amazon knows me when I visit their site, for example. But I don’t like my online behavior being tracked and analyzed by third parties, especially for the sake of advertising.
Thankfully a bunch of leading tracking companies realize just...
7 Essential Skills You Didn't Learn in College →
I am loving this article in Wired.
As a tech educator, I’d like to see a lot of these competencies integrated within regular school work, but I realize that it’s a very tough thing to accomplish.
The reading lists alone will have me going for months.
[via Kottke]
And the Hypocrite Award Goes To...
Me?
Well, perhaps. I finally broke down and picked up an iPad, even though I said in this very blog that I wasn’t going to, for some very good reasons.
After all, why pay an early adopter price now without the benefit of being able to use the thing since it came out? And aren’t there a bunch of competing products coming out soon that might be better choices, or drive down the price...
All Songs 24/7 Music Channel →
NPR has released a new online music channel featuring 10 years worth of All Songs Considered music selections, and I find it perfect for enjoying an eclectic mix of high-quality tunes.
I just wish I could play the stream in iTunes!
The Fundamentals of Game Design →
Raph Koster has re-posted his article about how to start thinking about designing a game, and it’s inspired reading.
I never thought about bringing games down to an “atomic” level, but it makes a great deal of sense. It’s also got me thinking about some of my favorites in a new light.
[via BoingBoing]
US Library of Congress: Copyright Is Destroying... →
How sad. OS News breaks down the results of a 10-year study undertaken by the LOC to determine the effects of copyright on the preservation of historic audio recordings.
Highlights include the fact that “legal restrictions governing access to a cylinder produced in 1909 are the same as those governing a compact disc made in 2009, even though it is highly unlikely that the 1909 recording...
Longform.org →
Sometimes you start looking for something cool, and just can’t find it. So you stop looking, only to have it drop in your lap the moment you give up.
This is exactly what happened to me with Longform.org — I dearly wanted to find a place that collected the best long-form articles and essays from across the web so that I could load up on my Instapaper account. My search skills were...
WatchNina Paley — All Creative Work is Derivative
Right On!
The Meraki WiFi Stumbler →
This is a great web-based tool for finding out about wireless networks near you. It helped me find the right channel to put my new wireless router on, and offers an interesting peek into my neighbor’s network setup.
Where I live, I have 18 other wireless networks to contend with, making my old wireless setup virtually useless as signals conflicted with one another. To say it was...
Taking time to read on the web: Instapaper gets... →
Capital New York talks with Instapaper’s Marco Arment about the future of this must-have reading tool, and how it promotes more in-depth consumption of content.
If you enjoy reading more than quick blurbs online, this service allows you to easily save articles and other long-form text from the web, strip away the ads and other distractions, save it in a personal account, and retrieve it on...
The Day Has Come: Some Kindle Versions More Pricey... →
This is ridiculous, and has me fuming. Since Amazon lost the good fight to keep Kindle versions of books cheap, publishers have jacked up prices to the point where some electronic versions are actually more costly than hardcovers.
Bits that have no physical presence, cost nothing to duplicate, and barely cost anything to distribute and store are more expensive than a hardcover book that requires...
Game: Minecraft →
I spent six hours on this unparalleled building and exploration game the first time I played it, and am actually feeling withdrawal now. I want to get back to my world!
At this point the game is still in Alpha (very early development), and the gameplay is very difficult to explain, so I’ll just say that it’s the most fun I’ve had gaming in years, and I’m totally hooked.
...
Lessig on 'The Social Network' →
I’m looking very forward to seeing The Social Network, both as a long-standing fan of Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing TV series, and as someone with pretty strong opinions about Facebook.
Reading Lawrence Lessig’s New Republic review of the film doesn’t diminish my desire to see it one bit, but it does disappoint me. It seems as though there’s an opportunity lost here...
BIOS is Dead. Long Live UEFI! →
Okay, I realize that this is incredibly geeky. I’ve been dealing with BIOS for 25 years, though, and it’s often been a cause for extreme angst. I can’t wait to see it go away, and can’t believe it hung around this long. What’s in it for the rest of you normals? Computers that act the way you think they should when you turn them on. This step is removing us a level...
