Nelson's Linkblog 2017-07

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Reddit financing

Raises a lot of money

2017-07-31 reddit • startup • finance • investment

Apple vs VPNs in China

Apple removed VPN apps from the iOS store at the request of the Chinese government

2017-07-31 vpn • privacy • apple • china • ios • walledgarden

RAM is O(sqrt N)

Empirically measured memory speeds heavily dependent on caching

2017-07-31 cache • memory • speed • ram • complexity • programming

Behind Trump trans hate

Bottom of the article has details on how Trump's anti-transgender statement came about

2017-07-31 transgender • lgbt • trans • civilrights • military

Wave gigabit Internet

A second option for fast fiber ISP in the Bay Area

2017-07-31 sanfrancisco • bayarea • wave • sonic • isp • internet

Wikipedia language maps

Terra Incognita by Trace Media; visualizations of geotagged articles by language

2017-07-30 language • wikipedia • distribution • maps

The insane lengths the Dolphin emulator developers go to to emulate old graphics hardware

2017-07-30 shaders • games • emulation • dolphin • nintendo

A world of languages

Nice visualization of how many people speak different languages

2017-07-30 language • culture • visualization

LBJ Orders Pants

Hilarious audio clip of the President asking for more room "down where your nuts hang"

2017-07-30 pants • lbg • president • funny • video • animation

June 2016 Russia info

Interesting old articles on Clinton being hacked by Russia. (Read reply comments for more context.)

2017-07-29 russia • politics • trump • clinton • journalism

A remarkable early woman pilot

2017-07-29 flying • aviation • via:metafilter • women

WebGL on laptops

Notes on choosing which GPU to use

2017-07-29 nvidia • webgl • graphics • games • performance • optimus

California vote hacked

Riverside County, but little investigation

2017-07-29 elections • security • votingrights • politics • badtech

DNA test surprises

Long, gentle story of a family finding their genetics aren't as expected

2017-07-28 family • genetics • ancestry • dna • genealogy • adoption

Poignant NYTimes story of casual sex mixing with tragedy

2017-07-28 gay • lgbt • casualsex • culture

Torture lawsuit

CIA psychologists facing trial

2017-07-28 torture • america • iraq • civilrights • bush

Trump lies about military

His claim he consulted the military about the transgender ban is transparently false

2017-07-28 trans • lgbt • transgender • military • politics • civilrights • trump

Under Trump, the FCC is ignoring legal requests for information

2017-07-27 foia • fcc • trump • politics • ajitpai

Trans in the Armed Forces

One person's story

2017-07-26 trans • lgbt • transgender • military • politics • comics

Transgender horse trading

Where Trump's hateful new policy came from

2017-07-26 trump • politics • lgbt • trans • transgender • military

Breaking the MtGox case

Tracking Bitcoins reveals a potential thief

2017-07-26 bitcoin • mtgox • theft • vinnik

2017 Transcontinental Race

Friend of mine is riding a 4000km bicycle race across Europe

2017-07-26 europe • bicycling • terryjones • terry • racing • endurance • batshitinsane

RAND on trans in military

Estimates of how many transgender people are in the US military and what health care would cost

2017-07-26 trans • transgender • lgbt • civilrights • military • us • politics • trump

Scaramucci's Deleted Tweets

A list with commentary

2017-07-24 politics • trump • twitter • scaramucci

Snopes' contract problem

Divorce, half of the company sold, fight with new owner

2017-07-24 snopes • divorce • tech • bad • contract • gofundme

Securing the Vote 2016

Detailed account of various Russian hacking efforts and the US response

2017-07-24 politics • trump • obama • badtech • voting • russia

Atom editor malware

Startup called Kite is taking over popular plugins and adding dangerous code to them

2017-07-24 kite • editors • atom • ads • badtech

Insider detail on his resignation

2017-07-22 spicer • press • trump • politics

Nondisparagement abuse

Gag orders harm workers

2017-07-22 harassment • tech • startups • freespeech • hr

Applied AI in China

Inside the Chinese tech scene

2017-07-21 china • technology • ai • machinelearning • ml • startups

40 year old boys

Sharp op/ed on grown ass men acting like irresponsible teenagers

2017-07-21 men • masculinity • politics • trump • gender

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

New game out today

2017-07-21 games • lgbt • gay • funny • daddy

Ethereum hack details

Decent breakdown of why code alone should not control property

2017-07-21 ethereum • badtech • theft • bitcoin

KQED ransomware victim

Local PBS station's computers have been compromised for a month

2017-07-20 kqed • journalism • ransomware • badtech • malware

HHS sabotaging health care

Under Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services has been producing anti-ACA propaganda

2017-07-20 trump • politics • healthcare • propaganda

NIST Randomness Beacon

Nice service; timestamped, hashchained random numbers

2017-07-20 nist • random • rng • via:hackernews

A small Jewish group in China dating back 1000 years

2017-07-20 china • jews • history

Fanna-Fi-Allah in Nevada City

Sufi Qawwali music in the California foothills

2017-07-20 grassvalley • nevadacity • music • sufi • islam • concert

FPS and human perception

Details from cognitive science on 144Hz monitors, 90Hz VR, etc

2017-07-20 oculus • games • perception • fps • vision

FCC comment malfeasance

Some details on a mess with telcos forging FCC comments and FCC apparently covering for them

2017-07-20 fcc • politics • netneutrality • fraud • comcast • verizon

Regex Crossword

Brush up on your regex

2017-07-19 regex • programming • games • regularexpressions • via:reddit

Gender and comics

Analysis of 34,476 characters

2017-07-19 gender • comics • via:metafilter • data • visualization

Swiss sport; a little like discus, if the enemy team is trying to catch your discus

2017-07-19 sports • switzerland • swiss • hornussen

The Voter Purges Are Coming

Op/Ed on the Pence/Kobach commission to suppress the vote

2017-07-19 vote • votingrights • pence • kobach • politics • trump

Animated optimal routes

Nice visualization of map routing from San Francisco

2017-07-19 sanfrancisco • maps • routing • routes • osm

How companies handle disasters

2017-07-19 pr • publicrelations • startups • kvox • press

Voting security

Friend in Texas talks about need to secure voting machines

2017-07-19 voting • security • votingrights • politics • texas

Building a tiny blockchain

Nice demystification of a piece of Bitcoin tech

2017-07-18 bitcoin • blockchain • python • ledger • via:hackernews

A vector tile server in Node, inspired by TileStache

2017-07-18 tiles • maps • vectortiles • postgis • tilestache

USB bandwidth problems

Oculus notes on high bandwidth USB usage

2017-07-18 usb • bandwidth • computers • hardware

Bitcoin disaster looming

Clear explanation of a potential community schism

2017-07-18 bitcoin • consensus • segwit

Inside the Uber gulag

Report of horrible working conditions, compensation, etc

2017-07-18 uber • culture • startups • evil • sociopathy

Civil War reasons

Refuting the revisionist lie that the Confederacy didn't fight for slavery

2017-07-17 slavery • politics • confederacy • civilwar • civilrights • south

Company working on 3d data visualization in Oculus Rift, etc

2017-07-17 oculus • vr • visualization • dataviz

Berlin party police

Patch for the police that got in trouble for having a raucous party

2017-07-17 party • berlin • germany • funny

Pinboard metrics

My favorite lifestyle business; I'm using it right now!

2017-07-16 pinboard • business • metrics • bookmarking

Trump's Russian buddies

Details on the sort of corrupt things Russian lobbyists are up to

2017-07-15 russia • politics • cyprus • trump • magnitskyact • sanctions • corruption

Trump <3 OpenGov

Tiny startup is a Kushner investment, gets to come to the White House

2017-07-15 whitehouse • kushner • corruption • trump • politics

Zuckerberg 2020

2017-07-14 funny • twitter • zuckerberg • politics

Trump legal team was informed of Russian collusion email weeks ago; the President has said he didn't know about it

2017-07-14 trump • politics • lies • scandal • russia

Through the Outback

Great Australian roadtrip

2017-07-14 australia • photography • photos • outback

Bot that forwards tweeted links to the Wayback Machine for archival

2017-07-13 wayback • archive • twitter • bot • linkblog

Bitcoin threat explainer

Accessible explanation of what's going on in the community

2017-07-13 bitcoin • badtech • network • scaling

Countdown to SegWit (Bitcoin)

Details on the possible changes to allow more scaling; still no consensus?

2017-07-13 bitcoin • badtech • network • scaling

Bitcoin disruption July 31

Major changes may make payments unreliable

2017-07-13 bitcoin • badtech • network • scaling

Election 2016: Too Many Cooks

Remarkable CNN produced parody

2017-07-13 toomanycooks • funny • politics • cnn

Origins of Gamergate

Re-examining Old Man Murray, it had a lot of awful sexism

2017-07-13 sexism • games • feminism • oldmanmurry • gamergate

Google's paid shills

Google gives money to academics doing work supporting their political positions

2017-07-12 google • corruption • academics • antitrust • regulation

Format a Twitter thread as a proper blog post

2017-07-12 blogs • twitter • content • tweetstorm • thread • hack

Famous scene about racism from the great sit-com Frank's Place

2017-07-12 franksplace • tv • racism • america • neworleans

Trump Russia denials

A trip down memory lane, with video on the record

2017-07-12 trump • russia • politics • lies

Verizon S3 breach

Customer database left online for anyone to download

2017-07-12 aws • s3 • verizon • badtech • security

1907 racist SF Chronicle

2017-07-12 racism • america • sanfrancisco • japanese • history

Mueller investigation rumors

Said to be looking at whether Trump campaign helped Russians target propaganda efforts

2017-07-12 trump • politics • russia • treason • kushner

How Discord Scaled Elixir

Erlang in practice for the Slack-like gamer product

2017-07-11 games • discord • slack • erlang • messages • performance • via:hackernews

Notes on Collusion

A summary and perspective on the Trump Russia scandal

2017-07-11 trump • russia • politics • treason • collusion

A Xen/Linux distro for secure laptops

2017-07-11 security • linux • operatingsystem • os • xen

DNC hiring full stack engineers

Work for the Democrats writing software to save the country!

2017-07-11 dnc • politics • engineering • hiring

More on SFO near miss

Pilot discussion, extra ground tracks, etc

2017-07-11 aviation • sfo • accident • faa • safety

SFO near-accident

Air Canada plane almost landed on a taxiway with airplanes on it

2017-07-11 aircanada • aviation • flying • sfo • safety

Google crayon graph

One of my favorite artifacts from early Google

2017-07-11 google • crayon • graph • timeseries • culture

Gerrymandering metrics

Some nuance on the efficiency gap and the coming Wisconsin case in the Supreme Court

2017-07-11 voting • politics • gerrymandering • wisconsin

Voter suppression panel stopped

EPIC files a lawsuit that temporarily stops Trump's voter panel from collecting data

2017-07-11 epic • privacy • trump • politics • votingrights

Homophobia in Trump opposition

A detailed treatment of an unpleasant smear from the Trump opposition

2017-07-11 trump • politics • lgbt

Why Persona failed

Succinct list of reasons Mozilla's login system failed

2017-07-10 mozilla • personal • login • openid • password • passport • authentication

.io TLD hijacked

Someone poking around accidentally siezes control over an entire TLD's nameserving

2017-07-10 dns • badtech • io • tld • nic

Baidu search scandal

Referrals to private hospitals with alleged business ties to the search engine

2017-07-10 baidu • maps • search • china

Funny broken video

2017-07-10 weed • funny • via:reddit • marijuana

Funny broken video

2017-07-10 weed • funny • via:reddit • marijuana

Health Care secrecy

Comparison of Democrat and Republican processes

2017-07-10 healthcare • politics • congress

Observations of Lagos

Ghanaian tech guy spends a month in Nigeria

2017-07-09 nigeria • lagos • tech • startups • entrepreneurs

50Hz power in the US

LA used a different AC standard until 1948

2017-07-08 losangeles • la • via:hackernews • standards • electricity • history

Clumsy Twitter propaganda

State Department trying to enlist private institutions in a fake Twitter feud

2017-07-07 propaganda • trump • politics • ip • stupid • twitter

Trump blackmails CNN

Threat to have DOJ block a merger if they don't like CNN's coverage of Trump

2017-07-06 trump • politics • press • media • journalism • ethics

Trump’s Voter Suppression Efforts

Detailed analysis on Kobach's voter suppression panel

2017-07-06 kobach • trump • votingrights • voting • election • politics

Documentary about a Black LGBT street gang in Washington DC

2017-07-06 via:kottke • documentary • lgbt • gay • black • dc • washingtondc • film • movie

It is as if you were doing work

Weird dystopian art game

2017-07-06 games • art • work • scifi

RCA art project, prosthetics that enhance humanity

2017-07-06 prosthetics • art • sculpture • hand • via:jwz

Trump voter suppression backfiring

Details on 45 states refusing to provide data to Trump's sham voter fraud committee

2017-07-06 votingrights • voting • trump • politics • privacy

Future football

Crazy sports / sci-fi experimental piece

2017-07-06 fiction • scifi • football • space • funny

Randomized kernels

Approaches to security through diversity

2017-07-06 security • linux • openbsd • aslr • karl • kaslr • tech

Why I’m leaving 18F

Well meaning tech civil servant finds the Trump regime impossible

2017-07-06 trump • politics • tech • government • corruption

Voter suppresion and privacy

Trump's voter suppression panel has asked for unprecedented personal data on voters

2017-07-05 voting • votingrights • politics • trump • election

July 4 1941, Oregon

Small town photos. (That photo #6 though.) /cc @adam_messinger

2017-07-05 photos • america • history • july4 • oregon

Emancipation Memorials

Statues honoring the ending of slavery around the world

2017-07-05 slavery • america • confederate • sculpture • statue • monument • humanrights

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

A nice text version of the full speech

2017-07-04 douglass • slavery • america • history • july4 • speech • rhetoric

Crazy story of fraud and hijacking /cc @korkyplunger

2017-07-04 slovakia • dns • icann • fraud

The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro

Amazing Frederick Douglass speech; listen to James Earl Jones read an excerpt

2017-07-04 douglass • history • slavery • america • freedom • july4 • julyfourth

Citi Bikes in NYC is 42x more efficient than a car parking place

2017-07-04 cars • bikes • transportation • newyork • via:hackernews

Chris Christie at the beach

Closes all the state beaches, then takes his family on a private beach vacation

2017-07-03 arrogance • politics • newjersey • christie

National Park Maps

Collection of free US park maps /cc @amitp

2017-07-03 maps • via:metafilter • parks • nps • america

Bootstrapped successes

List of companies that have gotten big without the usual early tech VC

2017-07-02 startups • vc • investment • companies • bootstrap

The President of the United States

Trump tweets a memer video of him pro-wrestling, attacking CNN

2017-07-02 cnn • twitter • president • dignity • politics • trump

Invalid username results in root escalation; author doesn't see the problem

2017-07-02 systemd • badtech • security • linux

Dave McClure's apologies and statement about his sexual harassment

2017-07-02 sexism • sexualharassment • 500startups • mcclure • women

China's LGBT crackdown

Trying to ban any depiction of gay life

2017-07-01 lgbt • gay • china • politics • humanrights