Nelson's Linkblog 2021-10

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A Jan 6 accounting

Very long, important narrative of what happened before, during, and after the Jan 6 coup attempt

2021-10-31 trump • corruption • politics • jan6 • coup • proudboys • terrorism • election • history

The polarization of death

Death rates in US counties by percentage of Trump vote

2021-10-30 trump • politics • death • covid • republicans • ignorance • deathcult

Technical details on how the theft of $130M happened against another stupid cryptocurrency. It's clown cars all the way down.

2021-10-29 cryptocurrency • fraud • scam • cream • hack • tootme

5162 Marios go in...

... 12 come out. Speedruns overlaid into one video. Someone should make a video game out of this (other than Braid, I mean).

2021-10-29 games • mario • speedrun • video • visualization • braid • tootme • via:waxy • via:kottke

IEEE visualization has a punk side

2021-10-29 visualization • via:flowingdata • graphs • charts • chi • ieee • tootme

Metaverse explained

Sharp parody (CW: sexual harassment)

2021-10-29 facebook • meta • funny • harassment • tirefire

News coverage and a leaderboard of various cryptocurrency scams and hacks

2021-10-29 cryptocurrency • crypto • fraud • scam • tootme

UCSB monster dorm

"97-year-old billionaire-investor turned amateur-architect Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the project with the condition that his blueprints be followed exactly."

2021-10-29 ucsb • dorm • architecture • beehive • cells • prison • tootme

A non-cryptographic hash function

2021-10-29 hashing • programming • algorithms • tootme • hash

Muslim prayer times

Lovely visualization and analysis of the five daily prayers and where a congregation might be praying at any moment

2021-10-29 muslim • islam • religion • maps • prayer • visualization • tootme

North American languages

A map of "living and dormant" languages in the US and Canada

2021-10-28 firstnations • nativeamerican • indian • languages • maps • tootme

Día de los Muertos themed add markets to me and I'm shamelessly here for it

2021-10-28 gay • lgbt • doritos • ads • tootme

Tony Hsieh's tragic last year

Sad story of drug addiction for a tech leader. This story could potentially be about a lot of people in my industry.

2021-10-28 tech • hsieh • drugs • addiction • death • zappos

PG&E grid failure

Solar installation impeded because PG&E's infrastructure can't handle it

2021-10-28 pge • piggy • electrification • globalwarming • electrify • solar • tootme

A short discussion on how shitty Google and its developer relations people have acted to the entire web

2021-10-27 google • amp • scam • monopoly • badtech • advertising • ads

About Hic Et Nunc

Details of an NFT that seems to be used by actual artists, not just a cryptocurrency scam

2021-10-27 nft • art • hicetnunc • caseyreas • processing • tootme

Meghan Markle abuse campaign

Details of a group operating to flood Twitter with hate content against the Duchess of Sussex

2021-10-26 twitter • tirefire • hatespeech • markle • racism

LGBT in Kakuma Camp

A queer person living in a refugee camp in Kenya (on the Sudanese border) makes appeals for help

2021-10-26 kenya • refugee • lgbt • sudan

comp.infosystems.gemini

A new Usenet group is created in 2021; for folks trying to build a new infosystem that's like a simpler Web

2021-10-26 internet • web • usenet • culture • gopher • tootme

Facebook Papers stories

A list of all the stories written about the major whistleblower documents released to journalists

2021-10-25 facebook • journalism • evil • community • propaganda • tootme

Seditious Congresspeople

Direct evidence that several Republican Congresspeople helped plan the Jan 6 coup attempt

2021-10-25 jan6 • violence • politics • coup • republican • treason • sedition

Inside the Facebook Leak

Details of how Frances Haugen decided to become a source for Jeff Horwitz at the WSJ

2021-10-25 wsj • journalism • facebook • whistleblower • leak • tootme

an encoding abomination

2021-10-25 unicode • ebcdic • ibm • mainframe • programming • funny • tootme

Python deprecation

Removal of some old libraries. RIP uuencoding. CGI too, that makes me a little sad.

2021-10-25 python • deprecation • maintenance • software • programming • tootme

CryptoEats scam

Rug pull cryptocurrency scam, simple fraud dressed up in fancy cryptography clothing

2021-10-24 crypto • scam • cryptocurrency • bitcoin • via:ericajoy • suckers

Africanfuturism

A subgenre of fiction separate from Afrofuturism

2021-10-24 scifi • fantasy • books • writing • africa • tootme

RFC 3339 vs ISO 8601

A guide to different date standards

2021-10-24 dates • iso8601 • timezones • time • tootme • vi • a:hackernews

List of IMAX venues

A list of actual IMAX as opposed to the Liemax "it's just a big screen" theaters

2021-10-23 imax • movie • liemax • aspectratio • theater • tootme

Google ad monopoly

Details from court filings about how Google did various anti-competitive things to maintain its ad monopoly

2021-10-23 google • antitrust • ads • facebook • criminal • monopoly • lawsuit

Truth Social is Mastodon

New Trumpy social media platform is Mastodon

2021-10-21 mastodon • trump • politics • socialmedia

Roku / YouTube stupidity

Situation between two companies just gets worse

2021-10-21 roku • youtube • youtubetv • streaming • tootme

AD 775 and AD 994

Two specific landmark years in carbon dating; a significant astronomical event resulted in larger amounts of C-14

2021-10-21 history • archaeology • c14 • carbondating • science • tootme

MIT donation for survivors of sexual abuse

From Jan 2020, the fallout of the Epstein scandal at MIT related to Media Lab funding

2021-10-21 mit • medialab • joi • joitio • donation • trafficking • sexualabuse

Weird Alibaba EVs

Selection of odd electric vehicles theoretically available from China

2021-10-20 china • engineering • vehicle • transportation • via:metafilter • funny • tootme

Google Real Tone

Some details on the Pixel phones' effort to capture human skin tones more accurately

2021-10-19 pixel • phone • camera • photography • computationalphotography • skintone • skin • racism • tech • tootme

Python types in practice

Some notes on converting a Python library to use static typing

2021-10-18 python • programming • typing • via:reddit • mypy • urllib3 • tootme

Bill Gates, broken stair

Executives told the Microsoft head to stop sexually harassing women in email

2021-10-18 creep • billgates • tirefire • microsoft • sexualharassment

US government: IPv6

Surprisingly aggressive policy to phase out IPv4

2021-10-18 ipv6 • ipv4 • government • it • internet • technology • tootme

Spyware outs kids

Stupid Gaggle software flags kids searching for LGBT related terms. Stupid school staff then tells the parents without talking to the kids

2021-10-16 privacy • kids • children • lgbt • gaggle • spyware

Migrant Mother, retouched

2021-10-16 via:migurski • photo • lange • depression • art • photoshop • tootme

Curio Python coroutines

An alternative to asyncio for concurrency programming

2021-10-15 python • concurrency • asyncio • threads • coroutines • totme • programming

Texas classroom stupidity

Terrible state law leads to the dismal conclusion that kids should be taught "both sides" of the Holocaust

2021-10-15 texas • education • stupid • politics • evil

“We have talked to the drivers, who don’t have much to say other than the car is programmed and they’re just doing their job”

2021-10-14 waymo • evil • ai • cars • driving • deathrobot

Bezos / Shatner awk

Hilariously awkward moment of Bezos interrupting Shatner's eloquent moment

2021-10-13 shatner • bezos • funny • stupid • space • blueorigin • tootme

Facebook blacklist

Details of the internals of a moderation policy

2021-10-13 facebook • hategroup • tirefire • terrorism • censorship • moderation • politics

Dave Chappelle’s Betrayal

Excellent pointed essay about how it feels for Dave Chappelle to embrace hate speech

2021-10-13 davechappelle • comedy • lgbt • bigotry • netflix

A list of Unix shell tools that can be bent a bit to give yourself elevated system access not exactly as an exploit, but more just working out of a restricted environment

2021-10-13 via:hackernews • unix • shell • sudo • security • tootme

Louis Lane (CW)

Arizona state senator is so dumb she can't even be homophobic right

2021-10-12 arizona • politics • homophobia • lgbt • funny • superman

Weatherspark fingerprints

Novel visualization of a year's temperatures in one diagram

2021-10-12 weather • map • climate • tootme

Walgreens closing in SF

Shops and pharmacies closing because retail theft has gotten too bad

2021-10-12 sanfrancisco • crime • business • walgreens

CO2 sensors for schools

Parents are clandestinely testing school air quality (for Covid, mostly) and it's making waves

2021-10-10 co2 • ventilation • covid • health • school • tootme

Hydrogen fuel uses

Thoughtful article about where hydrogen energy storage can help fight global warming and where it can't

2021-10-09 hydrogen • globalwarming • energy • fuel • tootme

NC Lt Gov outrage

Calls LGBT Americans "filth". Clearly and unapologetically, repeating it for emphasis.

2021-10-09 bigotry • lgbt • nc • northcarolina

AT&T microwave relays

1950s era telecom network, now abandoned

2021-10-09 maps • telecom • att • wireless • microwave • tootme

IRS call center DoS attack

Stupid company floods IRS with phone calls, then sells you the connected call so you can get tax advice

2021-10-09 irs • dos • database • government • bottomfeeder • trash • tirefire

Jellyfin media server

Alternative to Plex

2021-10-09 plex • tv • video • jellyfin • opensource • media • tootme

Samsung TV SSL breakage

Yet more fallout from the Lets Encrypt cert change: Samsung TVs stopped being able to make secure connections in the Plex app

2021-10-09 security • badtech • tv • television • tizen • samsung • tootme

RSS rides again

Android browser includes RSS subscriptions

2021-10-09 rss • atom • feeds • web • openweb • google • android • chrome • tootme

Circumcision and STIs

Large study in Denmark finds circumcision does not prevent STIs like HIV. If anything, is is positively correlated with some STIs.

2021-10-08 health • disease • sex • circumcision • hiv • aids • sti • std • tootme

Child jail depravity

America: a county in Tennessee jails an enormous number of children, some on fake charges

2021-10-08 america • police • tennessee • kids • civilrights • racism • outrage • scandal

Going public in 2021

An update on the status of IPOs, direct listings, and SPACs

2021-10-08 investment • startup • ipo • tech • tootme

Clearing house to opt out of personalized ads from many services. Turn off your ad blocker before using it.

2021-10-08 ads • blocking • advertising • tracking • privacy • optout • tootme

Facebook outage effects

Excellent Cloudflare analysis. They had 3x normal DNS traffic! Also an inference on which countries use Facebook the most

2021-10-08 facebook • outage • dns • cloudflare • postmortem • tootme

Our hard work by these words guarded

MacOS has a magic key that unlocks the ability to run under an emulator

2021-10-08 macos • emulation • security • rot13 • qemu • tootme

Firefox: in-browser ads

Sad to see this, they're selling ads on suggestions when I type in the browser bar

2021-10-08 firefox • ads • privacy • advertising • tootme

Let's Encrypt postmortem

Not the full story but an interesting analysis of some of the failures when a root certificate expired

2021-10-08 letsencrypt • ssl • web • via:lobsters • postmortem • tootme

Tether/Bitfinex history

Not well written but has lots of links to primary sources about the checkered history of the backbone of the cryptocurrency economy

2021-10-07 fraud • scam • bitcoin • tether • bitfinex • crypto • cryptocurrency • tootme

Casey Reas and Feral File

The NFT project of one of Processing's creators

2021-10-07 processing • nft • cryptocurrency • art • tootme • caseyreas

The day in 1992 when Giuliani and a bunch of drunk off duty cops rioted at New York city hall. Lots of racism on display

2021-10-07 newyork • giuliani • riot • police • politics • nyc • racism • dinkins

Spalter Digital Art Collection

Online site for digital art collectors

2021-10-07 art • generative • generativeart • digitalart • tootme

Twitch diversity

Or lack thereof; the top 100 is overwhelmingly white dudes

2021-10-07 twitch • streaming • diversity • tootme

WickedWhims NSFW

A porn mod for Sims 4

2021-10-07 games • sims4 • porn • nsfw • mods • tootme

DVR YouTube ads

Official confirmation Google sometimes inserts unskippable ads into YouTube DVR recordings

2021-10-07 ads • youtube • dvr • advertisement • badtech • tootme

Ozy, the Black Friend

Pointed Michael Harriott on the Ozy fiasco and how one of the dynamics was rich white investors not doing due diligence and how that racial dynamic does not serve Black people.

2021-10-07 ozy • fraud • scam • investment • racism • spades • finesse

Where is Tether's money?

A journalist tries to verify that Bitfinex / Tether has anything like the reserves they claim to

2021-10-07 fraud • bitcoin • bitfinex • tether • scam • leverage

Geolibrary sorta ported to Javascript, or at least the browser environment. Via Emscripten.

2021-10-06 gdal • javascript • browser • library • gis • wasm

A 1983 large-screen computer terminal. Could display four 3270 screens at once!

2021-10-06 ibm • terminal • 3270 • tty • history • computers • tootme • plasma

Twitch earnings leaderboard

From the Twitch leak, how much money various streamers are making

2021-10-06 games • twitch • revenue • leak • tootme

Evolved Apes NFT scam

To be fair, the scammer was named Evil Ape

2021-10-06 scam • crypto • nft • fraud • cryptocurrency

Sisyphus Industries

Computerized sand table draws with magnets and a metal ball

2021-10-06 art • sandtable • generative • drawing • tootme

US occupation of Haiti

The US stole Haiti's gold reserves in 1914 as part of our 19 year occupation of the country

2021-10-06 haiti • america • history • politics • wilson

Charlemagne Péralte (CW)

US marines killed a Haitian leader in 1919 and put his corpse on display

2021-10-06 haiti • history • america • marines • warcrime • politics • crucifixion

America and Haiti

A brief article about how America has influenced Haiti over the past two centuries

2021-10-06 haiti • america • history • politics

Massive Twitch breach

Payouts, all source code, Amazon's secret attempt at a Steam competitor

2021-10-06 twitch • security • badtech • leak • hack • games • gaming • amazon

One possible explanation for why modern jalapeños suck; they were bred to suck

2021-10-05 jalapeño • jalapeno • pepper • food • breeding • tamu • tootme

US Covid spread animation

Been waiting for this: a simple animated map showing Covid spread in the US

2021-10-05 covid • covid19 • us • health • map • animation • chloropleth • via:kottke

History of telephone interchange

The very earliest days of telephony were competing exclusive systems. Monopolization and interoperability came later

2021-10-05 telephone • monopoly • regulation • att • bell • tootme

Facebook outage statement

Bland but clear statement of what went wrong

2021-10-05 facebook • postmortem • network • outage • tootme

Tools to explore BGP

Nice roundup of ways to explore and understand the Internet's routing protocol

2021-10-05 bgp • routing • internet • tools • netops • networking • tootme

US rapid testing

How the US could get up to European standards for cheap quick at home Covid testing

2021-10-04 testing • covid • health • coronavirus • tootme

Facebook whistleblower

Text version of the 60 minutes interview. She's very insightful and clear, particularly on how Facebook's greed algorithms favor divisive posts that are corrosive to civil society

2021-10-04 facebook • politics • socialmedia • policy • whistleblower

Financial records of the rich and powerful. A multiyear investigation into millions of exfiltrated documents, with many scandals embedded

2021-10-03 reporting • journalism • pandorapapers • panamapapers • politics • scandal

SVG Path Visualizer

Handy web tool for working with SVG paths

2021-10-03 svg • graphics • debugging • tools • programming • path • curve • tootme

Haitians at the Darién Gap

Details of the incredibly difficult journey Haitian refugees are making to try to get to the United States

2021-10-03 panama • colombia • dariengap • immigration • migrants • haiti • refugees

A clean digital book format invented for making books accessible to people who can't read print books (because of blindness or other factors)

2021-10-03 ebook • drm • daisy • accessibility • blind • books • libraries • tootme

An excellent visualization of where DeVoy's mismanagement of our mail delivery will do the most harm

2021-10-03 usps • postoffice • devoy • trump • politics • vandalism

You wouldn't right click a NFT

Trenchant commentary

2021-10-03 nft • funny • intellectualproperty • analoghole • downloadacar • tootme

The NFT vernacular

Engaging with NFT art as if it were real art, using the tools of art criticism.

2021-10-03 nft • art • criticism • funny • crypto • cryptocurrency • critique • beeple

SF vaccination policy

SF requires people prove vaccination to go to bars and restaurants. No one is enforcing it.

2021-10-02 sf • sanfrancisco • covid • quarantine • vaccination

BLM agent provocateur

Boogaloo boy confesses shooting at a police station and setting it on fire while pretending to be a BLM supporter

2021-10-02 politics • boogaloo • blm • provocateurs • minneapolis

SF ticket corruption

City leases *mandate* free tickets for the opera, etc which are given to city employees

2021-10-02 corruption • sanfrancisco • politics

Choose Boring Technology

Evergreen advice from an experienced software engineer

2021-10-02 engineering • technology • innovation • risk • tootme

Fuck you Pat Robertson

Hateful Christian leader steps down at age 91 from his talk show / financial scam.

2021-10-01 homophobia • republican • politics • religion • robertson • bigot

NFTs are MLMs for Tech Elites

Not sure this captures all the scamminess of NFTs but it sure captures a big piece of it

2021-10-01 scam • cryptocurrency • crypto • nft • art

Handy website for a coming tech apocalypse

2021-10-01 unix • 2038 • 32bit • risks • badtech • failure • tootme

Mick Jagger at a bar

Fun article about the rockstar going to a random dive bar in Charlotte and no one recognizing him

2021-10-01 mickjagger • fame • rockstar • charlotte • funny • tootme

$90M gone, oops!

Cryptobros make a mistake, lose $90M. Threaten whoever got it with IRS enforcement if they don't return it. Also imply they don't ordinarily obey tax law, that this would be some sort of exception.

2021-10-01 crypto • defi • bug • badtech • cryptocurrency • fraud • taxevasion • irs

Blue Origin not safe?

Former and current employees of the space rocket company say the company has sacrificed safety

2021-10-01 safety • space • blueorigin • bezos • sexism