Nelson's Linkblog 2017-03

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Tiny but sort of readable

2017-03-31 fonts • text • pixel

Andy Baio relaunches his event website

2017-03-31 upcoming • waxy • events

Precinct voting map 2016

Enormous amount of work collection data

2017-03-30 voting • politics • 2016 • election • maps • precincts • gerrymandering

DNS client resolver that uses Google's DNS-over-HTTPS

2017-03-29 google • dns • privacy • security • golang • go

They are not a good solution to the ISP privacy debacle

2017-03-29 isp • internet • badtech • vpn • privacy

OSM Then And Now

10 years of open mapping evolution

2017-03-29 maps • osm • openstreetmap • tiger

Pronounce Names

Zillions of videos of people pronouncing names in various languages and accents

2017-03-28 language • name • pronunciation

Git at Microsoft

Details on a major project to switch source code control

2017-03-27 microsoft • git • vcs • sourcecode • engineering

My life with Oliver Sacks

Excerpts of a memoir; sweet and heartbreaking

2017-03-26 oliversacks • gay • via:metafilter • lgbt

Out Late With Oliver Sacks

2016 essay about a gay bar visit with Dr. Sacks

2017-03-26 oliversacks • gay • lgbt • newyork • julius

A gross kind of bottom feeding Internet ads

2017-03-26 ads • gross • internet

Franz messaging

A new approach to multiprotocol chat; basically a full web browser

2017-03-26 web • im • messaging • chat • franz • gtalk • gchat • aim • slack • whatsapp

Google's IM products

Someone tries to make sense of Google's 9+ products with text chat capability

2017-03-26 google • chat • im • gtalk • gchat • hangouts

Uber autonomous car accident

Serious accident, although possibly Uber's car not to blame

2017-03-26 uber • arizona • machinelearning • ai • atc

More on Trump/Russia

Former NSA analyst says there's lots of hard intelligence of collusion

2017-03-25 trump • politics • russia • nsa

Who stopped the AHCA?

Details on 33 Republicans who opposed the healthcare bill

2017-03-25 politics • gop • republicans • healthcare • aca • ahca

No Soviet Domination

Trump has a precedent; insane Ford quote from 1976

2017-03-25 politics • ford • trump • sovietunion

Trump anti-LGBT appointment

Anti-gay jerk appointed head of Civil Rights Office

2017-03-25 trump • politics • lgbt • gay • civilrights

Trump in the Big Boy Truck

Precise reporting from BuzzFeed

2017-03-24 buzzfeed • funny • trump • politics • truck • satire

Simple differential equation systems simulator

2017-03-24 systems • teaching • complexsystems • visualization

Orion satellites

Enormous spy satellites in near-geosync orbit. 100m radio dishes!

2017-03-24 satellite • space • spying • sigint • nro

Geosync satellite database

Query for geosynchronous satellite slots, no login required

2017-03-24 space • satellite • geosync • itu

Geosync orbital slots

Crowded space real estate is administered by the ITU

2017-03-24 space • satellite • international • itu

Donald Trump reddit

Latent semantic analysis applied to pro-Trump community

2017-03-23 trump • politics • racism • hate • misogyny • lsa • nlp

Symantec SSL armageddon

Google no longer has confidence in Symantec's SSL process, is slowly pulling trust

2017-03-23 symantec • ssl • badtech

The token American

Report from the bizarro world of Russian political tv

2017-03-23 russia • politics • america • journalism

Google + Howard

Google partners with Howard University in a diversity initiative

2017-03-23 diversity • tech • google • howard • university • education

Terminal emulator written in Javascript

2017-03-23 javascript • vt100 • terminal • tty • ssh

Origins of The Expanse

History of how the novels / TV show got started as a game world setting

2017-03-23 games • mmos • scifi • theexpanse • writing

Rick Perry on Texas A&M

New Secretary of Energy has time to weigh in on a student election

2017-03-23 lgbt • gayrights • bigotry • tamu

Remembering Teresia Teaiwa

Scholar of Pacific studies passed away mid-career

2017-03-23 obituary • pacific • kiribati • polynesia • scholarship

Starship 1 Easter Egg

1977 videogame may have the oldest game easter egg

2017-03-23 games • via:metafilter • backdoor • easteregg • atari

Voter Fraud in 2016!

Republican loudmouth accused of filling out his ex-wife's absentee ballot

2017-03-22 voterfraud • voting • politics • irony • funny • colorado

Details of efforts to fix a 32 bit limitation in Linux before 21 years goes by

2017-03-21 linux • software • time • posix

Alexsey’s TTPs

Details of the activities of m4g, a Russian hacker

2017-03-21 russia • hacking • badtech • 2fa

Cloud9's business

Profile of one of the better maanaged eSports teams

2017-03-21 cloud9 • lol • riotgames • leagueoflegends • games • esports

District plans by the hundredweight

Experiments with randomly generating voting districts

2017-03-20 voting • politics • gerrymandering

What to ask about Russian hacking

Some orientation on the investigation

2017-03-19 politics • russia • trump

The Weight of Oneself

Male nude sculpture in Lyon

2017-03-18 sculpture • art • classical • lyon • gay • lgbt • france

Nevada County racism

Locals mistake Sikh business owner for another Sikh 100 miles away

2017-03-18 racism • nevadacounty • pennvalley • sikhs

Ken Rudolph sample reel

Friend of mine's film editing work in the 70s-80s

2017-03-18 film • movies • kenru • analog

Story about why landing gear levers are shaped like wheels

2017-03-17 airplane • aviation • ux • ui • userinterface

Bad-ass New Orleans motorcycle club

2017-03-17 black • africanamerican • women • neworleans • motorcycle

Formal US apology

Trump's minions insult the UK, have to apologize

2017-03-17 trump • politics • spicer • uk • gchq

Wilmington insurrection

Successful racist coup in American, 1898

2017-03-17 politics • wilmington • racism • america • history

Jacob Appelbaum's abuse

Upsetting account from a colleague of a well known computer security person

2017-03-17 appelbaum • tor • abuse • djb

Political polarization in media

Major new Columbia Journalism Review study of politics in American media

2017-03-16 politics • news • truth • trump • breitbart • democracy • journalism

Binding a demon

Drawing a protective circle around an autonomous car

2017-03-16 funny • ai • selfdrivingcars • cars

Acing the technical interview

Reversing a linked lisp

2017-03-16 funny • engineering • lisp • haskell • aphyr

League of Legends site has new logo doodles frequently

2017-03-16 art • logo • doodle • lol • leagueoflegends • games

Trump budget visualized

Excellent data oriented breakdown

2017-03-16 via:reddit • politics • trump • budget • visualization

Auto-Redistrict

A redistricting simulator / genetic algorithm toy. Has lots of data embedded in it.

2017-03-15 politics • redistricting • gerrymandering

Public Mapping election data

Very detailed records on elections, districts, etc

2017-03-15 voting • gerrymandering • politics • election • data

Flawless Widescreen

Patches for various games to enable ultra-wide resolutions

2017-03-15 games • monitor • lcd • ultrawide • 21:9

Quantum satellite

Chinese space experiment to facilitate quantum encryption with a satellite distributing entangled photons

2017-03-15 space • quantum • crypto • encryption • china

Swiss languages

Map mixing language and terrain

2017-03-15 maps • switzerland • demographics

Art photos of personal items taken by border patrol

2017-03-15 cbp • borderpatrol • immigrants • migrants • via:metafilter • art • photography

Tech support scams

Detailed investigation

2017-03-14 scam • india • microsoft

Seattle synagogue vandalism

2017-03-14 jews • politics • trump • synagogue • nazis

Evgeniy Bogachev

Russian cybercrime guy also useful to Russian intelligence

2017-03-14 cyberwar • russia • hacking • badtech

Going to prison with Defy Ventures

Another account of volunteering for an entrepreneurship program at a prison

2017-03-13 prison • rehabilitation • entrepreneur • defyventures

No One Else Will Hire Them

Friend's experience supporting convicts turned entrepreneurs

2017-03-13 prison • startup • rehabilitation

Potential Uber bombshell

Detailed speculation on the nature of Google's case about intellectual property theft

2017-03-13 google • uber • waymo • alphabet • levandowski • via:metafilter

Prevarication on wiretapping

Redefining what Trump meant

2017-03-13 trump • politics • wiretapping • obama

Deconstructed Planet

Bill Morris' gallery of machine learning art with planet imagery

2017-03-13 art • ai • machinelearning • photos

About MobileEye, the company Intel just paid $15B for

2017-03-13 cars • selfdriving • mobileeye • intel • sensors

Empty executive office

Trump White House is not hiring people to do the work

2017-03-12 trump • politics • whitehouse • incompetence

LGBT center vandalism

Trump Era wave of attacks against LGBT facilities

2017-03-12 trump • politics • lgbt

Virginia gerrymandering subtlety

Specific precedent on criteria for districting

2017-03-12 voting • gerrymandering • voterrights • virginia

Texas gerrymandering decision

Republicans found to be suppressing Latinx vote

2017-03-12 voting • politics • gerrymandering • votingrights • latinx • latino

Voter fraud investigation update

tl;dr: Trump/Pence is doing nothing

2017-03-12 politics • voterfraud • votingrights • trump • voting

Where does Bannon live?

It's confusing, but his claim to live in Florida is pretty thin

2017-03-11 florida • politics • trump • bannon • taxevasion

Trump's NJ cemetery

Bizarre story of a cemetery project's stops and starts

2017-03-11 trump • politics • newjersey • corruption

Recovering Python code

McGyver decompiles code from a running process to fix a git mistake

2017-03-11 python • reverseengineer • decompile • via:reddit

Social media and politics

Comparisons of Europe and the US

2017-03-11 news • journalism • politics • telegraph • twitter • europe

Horizon Zero Dawn road trip

Popular new game is based on Colorado/Arizona/Utah

2017-03-11 games • roadtrip • maps • horizonzerodawn

Mar a Lago security

Or rather lack thereof, wide open for espionage

2017-03-11 maralago • security • trump • politics • russia

Trump's campaigner was also working, undisclosed, for Turkey

2017-03-11 trump • politics • corruption • flynn • russia • turkey

White supremacists in Silicon Valley

Interviews with misogynists and racists who work in tech

2017-03-11 siliconvalley • racism • tech • altright • politics

Facebook hardware

Details of server hardware

2017-03-10 via:hackernews • facebook • hardware • datacenter

Roger Stone + Guccifer 2.0

Trump campaign buddy had some chats with presumed Russian cyberespionage

2017-03-10 russia • politics • trump • rogerstone • guccifer • hacking

BBC father broken down

It gets funnier when analyzed carefully

2017-03-10 funny • bbc • tv • father • homeoffice

Laughing as democracy crumbles

Everyone gets a big laugh at Trump's distortions of economic reality

2017-03-10 trump • politics • spicer

Pidgin or creole mixing English and Russian

2017-03-10 english • russian • language • creole • pidgin • brightonbeach

New journalism outlet founded by Politico alumni

2017-03-10 politics • journalism • axios • politico • news

Apache Struts exploit

Old web app framework has significant security hole

2017-03-10 apache • badtech • struts • ognl • exploit

General Magic Home Page

Resurrecting the web page of the pioneering 1990s company

2017-03-09 agents • magiccap • generalmagic • mobile

Pharmacy vs Organics

Hilariously awful propaganda

2017-03-09 funny • organics • hippies

Mapzen bike map

Beautiful work from Mapzen

2017-03-09 maps • bikes • bicycling • mapzen

Brady Bunch art

An exhaustive analysis of the set dresser's art

2017-03-09 bradybunch • tv • via:metafilter • art

Notepad++ vs CIA

Popular code editor hardens itself against compromised third party DLLs

2017-03-09 badtech • hacking • cia • notepad

SF 1943 streetcars

MUNI rail map from before everything was replaced by busses

2017-03-08 streetcar • transit • sf • sanfrancisco • muni • rail

Wall Street bull gets a friend

Sculpture of a defiant girl added

2017-03-08 wallstreet • bull • sculpture • feminism • protest • statestreet

GPU procedural games

Horizon: Zero Dawn's beautiful landscapes are generated on the GPU

2017-03-08 graphics • gpu • programming • games • horizon

Google and onions

Another AI failure; this feature of Google's is harmful

2017-03-08 google • cooking • funny • via:metafilter • onions

The Horse Brass

A great bar in Portland, OR

2017-03-08 portland • drinking • bar • beer

Hot Springs map

NOAA slippy map of thermal springs

2017-03-07 maps • hotsprings • geothermal • via:reddit

CIA hacking tools

Wikileaks releases "Vault 7", a dump of info on CIA hacking tools

2017-03-07 badtech • hacking • cyberwar • espionage

American Whiskey Distilleries

Comprehensive and nerdy list of American distilleries

2017-03-07 whisky • whiskey • bourbon • alcohol

Removing OneDrive

Microsoft's easy 15 step manual process for disabling bundled crapware

2017-03-06 microsoft • onedrive • bundling • crapware • dropbox

Stock options are really complicated

Another guide to understand equity compensation

2017-03-06 stock • equity • options • startups • via:hackernews

Is Obama planning a coup?

Machine learning strikes again

2017-03-06 google • badtech • machinelearning • funny • politics

Letterman interview

Funny and political

2017-03-06 trump • politics • funny • letterman

Trump's reasons

Details on why he'd make an unfounded allegation about wiretapping

2017-03-06 trump • politics • batshitinsane

Trump's tantrum

More evidence he acts like a petulant child

2017-03-06 trump • politics

US DNA analysis

Combining genealogy and genetic data to get a picture of where people in the US came from

2017-03-05 dna • genetics • history • genealogy • race • america

Is there a FISA wiretap?

Detailed investigation of the White House's scant evidence for a wiretap on Trump

2017-03-05 trump • politics • fisa • wiretap

Overview of the challenges of 802.11

2017-03-05 wifi • networking • wireless

SF racial disparity

Only 4% of SF is Black, and those folks are disproportionately unemployed

2017-03-04 demographics • sanfrancisco • blacks • africanamericans • civilrights

Unethical program to hide their lawbreaking from government officials

2017-03-04 uber • ethics • greyball • police • fraud

Measuring the efficiency gap

Mike's notes on measuring redistricting

2017-03-04 maps • politics • redistricting • gerrymandering • efficiencygap

Discord communities

People using Discord as a means to avoid bad people online

2017-03-03 games • discord • overwatch • harassment

Far right memes

Layers of irony wrapped around a burning core of hate

2017-03-03 meme • culture • 4chan • reddit • facebook • altright • nazis • trump

Reducing Slack’s memory footprint

Awesome engineering post, includes data on multi-team Slack usage

2017-03-03 slack • memory • optimization • engineering

EU may require visas for Americans

Long standing dispute about US requirement for some EU citizens to get visas

2017-03-03 travel • america • us • politics • trump • eu • visa

Pence's AOL email

VP used AOL for state business when governor. He got hacked.

2017-03-03 aol • badtech • pence • politics • trump

Kushner meetings with Trump

Trumps son-in-law and advisor also met with Russian officials in December

2017-03-03 russia • trump • politics

Details on what happens now that Sessions has recused himself. Still not clear there will be an independent investigation

2017-03-02 politics • trump • russia • sessions • ethics • boente

Gay psychological trauma

Lingering effects of coming out; anxiety, loneliness

2017-03-02 gay • lgbt • psychology • closet

Palantir and deportation

Silicon Valley firm aiding Trump's roundup of immigrants

2017-03-02 palantir • politics • trump • immigration

IBM Death's Calculator

Details and images of IBM's support of the holocaust

2017-03-02 holocaust • ibm • nazis • germany • history • palantir

ESRI: Because good tools matter

2017-03-02 funny • gis • esri • maps

Lyft vs Uber market share

Analyzing credit card transactions shows a bump for Lyft

2017-03-02 lyft • uber • transaction • marketshare • rideshare

Preserving evidence

Obama Administration used final days to make sure Trump couldn't remove intelligence about Russia hacking

2017-03-02 politics • russia • trump • obama

Why Uber is awful

Roundup of the various terrible things the company has done

2017-03-02 uber • ethics

CNN played by Trump

Appears Trump or senior staffers deliberately misled the press

2017-03-01 journalism • press • politics • trump • immigration

Trump eschewing responsibility

Doesn't want to be in the decision chain to launch raids, says it's about speed

2017-03-01 trump • politics • military

2001: instant messenger compatibility

A political history that could have been, AOL was at one point required to open up AIM. They never did.

2017-03-01 politics • aim • aol • instantmessenger • socialmedia

Aspect & Lang Belta

A detailed analysis of a point of grammar in the fictional language for The Expanse

2017-03-01 grammar • language • langbelta • theexpanse

Bio-psycho-social profiling

Details of AI, Facebook, and Trump's efforts to manipulate the media and public opinion

2017-03-01 trump • media • ai • facebook • bigdata • analytics

70 minutes of heaven

A remarkable tape loop experiment

2017-03-01 music • philcollins • intheair • stevereich • loop

Data brokers and human rights

The risks of modern profiling in the Internet age

2017-03-01 civilrights • muslims • politics • data • privacy

Trump TV tweets

The President watches teevee, the uses the tweeter to share his hot take

2017-03-01 president • news • politics • cnn