Nelson's Linkblog 2012-04

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Moving Django from svn to github

Turns out git-svn works even for big projects

2012-04-29 django • git • github • vcs • svn • via:hackernews

Apple's tax shelters

Various tricks tech companies do to avoid taxes; Google does this also

2012-04-29 taxes • apple • government

All you had to do was ask

A nuanced exploration on privacy expectations

2012-04-28 privacy • instagram • photos

Data logging / storage format, self describing

2012-04-27 avro • thrift • flume • protocolbuffers • logging • archive

Shell script shims for executing remote jobs

2012-04-26 gnu • shell • tool • distributed

Google selling SketchUp?

Trimble to acquire the 3d modelling software

2012-04-26 google • sketchup • trimble • 3d • modelling

Dropbox: What’s yours stays yours

Google has the same stupid terms of service that Dropbox abandoned

2012-04-25 dropbox • google • googledrive • userrights • copyright

Control an iPhone/iPod's music playback from a Mac

2012-04-25 apple • iphone • remote • ipod • music

Alta Sierra Airport

Funky little airport near Grass Valley, CA

2012-04-25 aviation • airport • california • grassvalley

Super Mario Summary

Genius: classic game compressed to single screens

2012-04-24 games • nes • smb • supermariobros • via:kottke

A new visualization library for time series data

2012-04-24 d3 • javascript • library • programming • visualization • timeseries • horizonchart

Geologic database

Macrostrat is a collection of information on the earth's crust

2012-04-24 database • geology • rocks • science • data

The Horizon Graph

A compact time series visualization

2012-04-24 visualization • graphs

China's Twitter-equivalent launches a cool map feature

2012-04-23 weibo • china • twitter • maps • geo

Flashback's spread

Seeded via WordPress exploits

2012-04-23 macos • mac • wordpress • flash • badtech • flashback

Context-Free Patent Art

Funny collection of images from patent filings

2012-04-23 patents • art • funny • via:metafilter

Ben Horowitz on Instagram

Completely classy and clear explanation of how the VC handled a conflict

2012-04-23 instagram • picplz • investment • vc • startups

Prisoner's Dilemma in action

Great gameshow video of a novel solution to the classic game theory problem

2012-04-22 games • prisonersdilemma • gametheory • tv

Interesting form of body art, unique to women in Northern Japan

2012-04-22 japan • ainu • tattoo • bodyart

Universal iPhone unlock

Could be big news

2012-04-22 iphone • unlock • hacking • jailbreak • via:hackernews

Crazy enzyme that you can use to glue two pieces of meat together

2012-04-22 food • cooking • Transglutaminase

Twitter Code Class!

This is genuinely funny

2012-04-21 twitter • funny • coding • adammessinger

Cool optical illusion of colors seen in a rotating black and white image

2012-04-20 color • illusion

Andreessen Horowitz and Instagram

Funny story about VC conflicts. Still, their "failure" netted a $50m+ return

2012-04-20 vc • investment • instagram • startups

Master / Master at Etsy

overturning common database wisdom

2012-04-20 etsy • ops • mysql • engineering • database

Fairlight profile

Personal stories from members of the most famous pirate/demoscene group

2012-04-20 fairlight • demoscene • scene • via:hackernews

A stored value card used in lieu of cash in Hong Kong

2012-04-20 cash • payments • hongkong • china • currency

radiohead / creep: animation

Lovely little cartoon

2012-04-20 music • radiohead • creep • cartoon

Not quite as pernicious a trope as the Magical Negro, but still a thing

2012-04-20 film • stereotypes • gay

Diablo® III open beta

Highly anticipated game has a free preview this weekend

2012-04-20 games • diablo • blizzard • beta

Bitcoin value graph

The currency has stabilized in the past few months, also more volume than ever

2012-04-20 bitcoin • currency • money

Pioneer Anomaly Solved

Recovering 30 year old data confirms it's uneven heat loss

2012-04-20 pioneer • physics • space

Copying Is Not Theft

2012-04-20 copyright • funny • piracy

May 20 2012 solar eclipse

Should be a pretty good one, visible in California

2012-04-19 eclipse • sun • solar • california

Apple USB charging

Details on iPad's bizarre charging and power usage

2012-04-19 ipad • usb • apple • charging

Plane crash flight track

Sad story: first guess is the plane lost cabin pressure

2012-04-19 flying • aviation • atc • flightaware • n48dl

Twitter v Weibo

London's mayor tries to figure out how to use China's Twitter clone

2012-04-19 twitter • weibo • microblog • london • culture

3d printed screensavers

"dusty with leftover placenta from the 3D printer's birthing vats"

2012-04-19 3dprinting • fabrication • screensaver • fractals

Memeorandum Colors 2012

Andy and Joshua's awesome hack from 4 years ago updated

2012-04-19 politics • memeorandum • svd

China: Hierarchies of Snobbery

Fascinating list of preferences for Internet services, films, etc in China

2012-04-19 china • culture • internet • weibo • google • twitter

Amazing WebGL app for designing custom jewelry

2012-04-19 webgl • jewelry • design

Ray Odierno on Pinterest

Image collection of US Army Chief of Staff

2012-04-19 army • military

Cassini animations

Lovely time lapse video of Jupiter and Saturn

2012-04-19 nasa • jupiter • saturn • via:metafilter • space

Some notes on javascript options

2012-04-19 d3 • maps • javascript

2 Months Of Eve Online

Kills in the space MMO visualized

2012-04-19 visualization • games • eveonline • eve • ccp • mmos

Verizon: $0.25/MB international

That new roaming rate is half the current price, a quarter last year's

2012-04-18 roaming • cellular • internet • verizon • travel

Dick Clark's groovy house

Totally wacky LA architecture

2012-04-18 dickclark • house • architecture • la • losangeles

Instagram deal terms

I wonder who's benefitting by all this leaked info?

2012-04-18 instagram • facebook • startups

terminal colors with grc

A generic colorizer for the output of various programs

2012-04-18 grc • color • customization • bash • commandline

Details on Instagram deal

Says it really was Zuckerberg's idea and done quickly

2012-04-18 facebook • instagram • deals • startups

Nevada County GIS

Remarkably good web site; standard software?

2012-04-18 nevadacounty • california • realestate • gis • maps

Apache mod_spdy

Google makes a new release of the optimized web protocol

2012-04-17 spdy • optimization • web • apache

Former U.S. President Charmed by Kim Il Sung

An official North Korea press release

2012-04-17 news • northkorea • dprk • carter • totalitarianism

2012-04-17 via:sutter • kiss • creepy

Twitter's patent agreement

Radical change in how tech patents work; guarantees defensive only, inventor control

2012-04-17 patents • twitter • intellectualproperty • ipa

iPhone app updates

Reports on how often iPhone users update

2012-04-17 iphone • versioning • updates

CartoDB vs Google Fusion Tables

Nice examples of the importance of unlimited data

2012-04-17 google • mapping • maps • cartodb • fusiontables • visualization

Citizen aerial imagery

Google Earth features Public Laboratory's do-it-yourself kite and balloon photography

2012-04-17 images • aerial • mapping • maps • googleearth • publiclaboratory

Google's stock split

Lots of detail on the unusual voting rights arrangement

2012-04-17 google • stock • governance

Kerbal Space Program

Cute rocket simulator

2012-04-17 games • rocket • orbit

Interesting post about using cheap TV tuners and software radios

2012-04-16 gps • gnss • hacking • radio

Battle for the internet

Guardian series on cyberwar

2012-04-16 internet • cyberwar • war • china

Islands of Mankind

Great visualization of population density

2012-04-16 maps • visualization • population

Amish spring break

Sweet story of a Florida town popular for Amish vacations

2012-04-16 amish • culture • religion • via:kottke • florida

Instagram is not about silly filters

Nice explanation of Instagram's social success

2012-04-16 socialmedia • instagram • photos • photography • social

Hacking SPOT connect

Send your own messages via the consumer satellite service

2012-04-16 spot • hacking • messages • satellite

Hitler in Homes & Gardens

1938 English article about Hitler's lovely summer home architecture

2012-04-16 hitler • architecture • wtf

Migurski plays with cartography

2012-04-16 cartography • maps • migurski • stamen

Spatial Reference

Database of SRIDs used in geographic apps

2012-04-16 gis • srid • epsg • reference

A search engine that lets you search for punctuation, etc

2012-04-16 search • web • code

guide for the snowboarding game

2012-04-15 games • ssx • faq

True Adventures in Better Homes

Funny commercial art mashup

2012-04-15 via:jwz • art • magazine • trueadventures • betterhomes

Software for taking low level GPS data and deriving location fixes

2012-04-15 gps • location • geolocation

Neighborhood map inferred from social checkins

2012-04-15 maps • neighborhoods • foursquare • social

Charlie Stross on Amazon

Interesting insight into ebook business

2012-04-15 ebook • kindle • amazon • pricing • monopoly

An ISP for US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq

2012-04-15 isp • internet • military • afghanistan • iraq

A new-to-me type of emoticon

2012-04-15 emoticon • smiley • language • culture

Waxy.org turns 10

Retrospective from one of my favorite bloggers (and linkbloggers)

2012-04-15 blogs • linkblogs • waxy • culture • via:metafilter

i saw her standing there

Romance as platform video game

2012-04-15 games • zombies

Mach 5 controls

Explained by Speed Racer himself!

2012-04-14 cartoons • speedracer • mach5

Sonic.net subpoenas

My ISP discloses how many requests for customer data it gets a year

2012-04-14 sonicnet • sonic • isp • transparency • subpoena

A scam financial instrument; stock certificates that belong to the bearer, not a named owner

2012-04-14 scam • investment • governance • stock

FreeIndieGam.es

Amazing set of screenshots for indie games

2012-04-14 games • indiegames • screenshots • indie

Garmin Pilot iOS

A new ForeFlight competitor

2012-04-14 foreflight • garmin • flying • aviation • iphone • ios • ipad

Graffiti Archaeology

Archival photos of popular graffiti spots

2012-04-14 graffiti • streetart • art • history

Hot dog crust pizza review

"I soon neared the end of my slice and its bedoughed, pink-brown phallus."

2012-04-14 food • funny • pizzahut

Gizmodo's new low

Jesus Diaz meets a deadline with a cute cat video

2012-04-13 cat • kitty • journalism

Serious Eats guide to Bourbon

Details on the American whiskey

2012-04-13 whiskey • bourbon • whisky • kentucky • alcohol • drinks

New Instagram filters

Adapting to the Facebook audience

2012-04-13 facebook • instagram • funny • culture

A hack for hi-res images for high density displays

2012-04-13 graphics • javascript • web

Castle Wolfenstein

Nice appreciation of the classic Apple ][ game

2012-04-13 games • apple • apple2 • ][ • nazis • castlewolfenstein

IAMA Malware Developer

Summary of answers from a malware author

2012-04-13 badtech • malware • viruses • reddit

rsc digs into all the places you can mess with QR code images

2012-04-12 qrcode • barcode • art • errorcorrection

Stuxnet worm planted?

Shadowy sources claim double agent brought worm into Iranian nuclear power plants

2012-04-12 iran • us • cyberwar • stuxnet • security • nuclear • israel

CCOKC (NSFW audio)

Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron. It's funny.

2012-04-12 funny • gay • kirkcameron • childstars

What people in the Bay Area make for various jobs

2012-04-12 wages • jobs • economy • sanfrancisco • bayarea

Google+ user stats

Google continues to give misleading and uninformative stats on usage of Google+

2012-04-12 stats • users • ads • google+

Twitter for Small Business

Great little guide for businesses trying to understand Twitter

2012-04-12 twitter • marketing • ads • business

SSL False Start fails

Google's effort to optimize a network protocol fails in the face of 1% of hardware that won't play along

2012-04-12 ssl • optimization • google • chrome • networking

A Unix utility I wrote in 1992; my first open source release?

2012-04-12 code • unix • opensource • utmp • finger • who

Geolocation trends

Nice roundup of current thinking on location data

2012-04-11 geolocation • geo • mobile • geoloqi • foursquare

MapBox rendering the world

Various clever optimizations for map making

2012-04-11 mapping • tilemill • mapbox • optimization • gis • osm

Meets the Eye studio

Green screen / sound stage a friend of mine created

2012-04-11 movies • production • bayarea • greenscreen • soundstage

Blade Runner - Esper Edition

A fan produced version of a Blade Runner soundtrack

2012-04-11 vangelis • music • bladerunner • bootleg

X Lossless Decoder

MacOS tool for converting FLAC to ALAC, etc

2012-04-11 music • macos • convert • transcode • xld • alac • flac

lesser known comics villains

2012-04-11 magneto • magento • ianmckellan • funny • xmen • comics

San Carlos Flight Center

Friend's new flight school in the Bay Area

2012-04-10 sancarlos • flying • aviation • dandyer

Finding Goatse (NSFWish)

Remarkably well researched article about the famous shock porn image

2012-04-10 goatse • sex • porn • pornography • meme

Demoscene (Metafilter)

Ridiculously complete collection of links

2012-04-10 metafilter • demo • scene • demoscene • via:waxy

Mosh: the mobile shell

An ssh replacement designed for crappy mobile networks

2012-04-09 ssh • mobile • telnet • tty • via:hackernews

Iran's insane Internet plan

Building their own Great Firewall

2012-04-09 iran • privacy • china • security • internet • freedom

Semicolons in JavaScript are optional

Persuasive argument?

2012-04-09 javascript • syntax • whitespace • via:hackernews

MySQL at Twitter

Twitter shares some performance changes they've made to the database

2012-04-09 database • mysql • opensource • twitter • code

Airport use visualization

Nice set of maps

2012-04-09 airports • usage • transportation • via:kwickre • maps

Great XKCD scale drawing

2012-04-09 xkcd • comics • depth • ocean

Smart Meter hacking

Field programmable to lower your electricity bill; obscurity is the only protection

2012-04-09 smartmeters • energy • security • badtech

Best engineers at Google

Well informed Quora answer

2012-04-09 google • quora • engineers

Simple, brilliant; view 3200 of your tweets on a page

2012-04-09 twitter • archive • history

Google Maps design process

Details from some of the visual designers

2012-04-09 google • maps • cartography • design

It Gets Better (Mormon edition)

Students at Brigham Young University take a risk for gay acceptance

2012-04-09 gay • lesbian • glbt • byu • mormon • utah • lds

Hacking The Shard

Group of folks break into London's tallest building, currently under construction

2012-04-08 exploring • via:metafilter • london • architecture

Great DOSBox wrapper for the Mac; makes playing old PC games a breeze

2012-04-08 games • mac • macos • dos • emulation • dosbox

1989 groundbreaking video game

2012-04-08 games • midwinter • atari • pc • design • graphics

Twitter spam lawsuits

Details on who they're suing and why

2012-04-08 twitter • spam

Groupon and Yelp ratings

Data showing how and why Groupon deals lower Yelp ratings

2012-04-08 via:hackernews • groupon • yelp • consumers

Helvetica revisted

Neue Haas Grotesk reimplemented after 50 years of bastardization

2012-04-08 typography • fonts • helvetica • design

Tell the Linux kernel you don't need a file cached in memory

2012-04-08 coding • linux • optimization • caching • rsync • performance

Lawrence Welk delivers

2012-04-08 music • welk • rabbit • psychedelic • video • via:metafilter • easter

A very interesting generic geolocation service for mobile devices

2012-04-07 gps • geolocation • geo • api • tracking

In depth story about the role of social media in the Arab Spring protests

2012-04-07 tunis • egypt • facebook • protests • politics • arabspring • socialmedia

Groupon financials trickery

Close parsing of SEC rules shows Groupon may get away with bad financial reporting for months

2012-04-07 groupon • fraud • ipo • via:hackernews

Subtle Patterns

Low contrast background textures

2012-04-06 texture • pattern • via:mariuswatz • design • wallpaper

Twitter sues spammers

A welcome aggressive move

2012-04-05 twitter • spam • ads • advertising • badtech

Revenue Extraction Hotspot

Evil router designed to subvert user's Internet traffic, as in a hotel

2012-04-05 ads • advertising • via:waxy • router • internet • badtech

Etsy encouraging women in tech

Direct and personal post from Marc

2012-04-05 etsy • women • engineering • hiring

2012-04-05 microsoft • funny • clippy • vi • editors • unix

Flashback MacOS botnet

A Metafilter post I made

2012-04-05 macos • flashback • badtech • trojan

IAmA: Bobcat Goldthwait

Legendary comic answers questions on reddit

2012-04-04 comedy • bobcatgoldthwait • reddit

Levy on Page at Google

Good insight into the changes at Google

2012-04-04 google • internet • larrypage

Import geospatial database gets an upgrade

2012-04-03 postgis • geo • opensource • postgres

Ai Weiwei's protest art, turning surveillance on himself

2012-04-03 weiwei • aiweiwei • china • protest

Rear Window panorama

Hitchcock's masterpiece re-projected into a single frame

2012-04-03 rearwindow • movies • panorama • film • via:metafilter

Terrafugia flight

Demo video of the driveable airplane

2012-04-03 flying • aviation • terrafugia • flyingcar

Java exploit, no password required

2012-04-03 apple • macos • java • security • badtech

Mass Effect 3 ending critique

Well written and detailed, but I don't entirely agree

2012-04-02 games • writing • scifi • masseffect • ending • controversy

Wood backs for iPhone, seems simple to install

2012-04-02 iphone • accessory • wood • apple

Python httpcore

Werkzeug, Flask, and Requests working together to improve Python HTTP

2012-04-02 python • http • werkzeug • flask • requests • via:hackernews

Relatively modern web browser for OS/2; Firefox 10

2012-04-02 os/2 • os2 • os2warp • firefox • mozilla

25 years of OS/2

Thoughtful retrospective

2012-04-02 ibm • microsoft • pcs • windows • os2 • os/2 • os2warp

Ocean shipping 1750-1800

Maps from log books

2012-04-01 maps • sailing • history • trading

CA court audit report

Full report of the auditor on the massive infosystem failure

2012-04-01 ccms • california • fraud • deloitte • government

CA court audit summary

3 pages on the failure of the CA court infosystem

2012-04-01 ccms • california • fraud • deloitte • government

CA court infofiasco

$500m wasted on a failed computer system

2012-04-01 fraud • california • deloitte • contracting • courts • justice • government

Dragon Warrior 3 overworld

Original Square/Enix map that inspired the Google map

2012-04-01 google • maps • games • dragonwarrior

Learn about knives

High end online knife store

2012-04-01 knives • cooking • kitchen • knife

Silverlight (Taiwan)

Microsoft uses manga on their Taiwanese page for Silverlight

2012-04-01 microsoft • silverlight • advertising • anime • manga