March 6, 2010
Some helpful sites
Stackoverflow is great for getting questions answered, but sometimes I want to
fix up someone else's code, or
learn Python by doing, or
solve some language-agnostic puzzles, even if they're meant for
high schoolers or
undergraduates.
Sometimes I try to wrap my mind around some
incomprehensible or
deceptively comprehensible programs. Sometimes I want to write
Haskell in C++ or
one-
liners in Python.
RIP Mark Linkous
Ishman Bracey, Delta bluesman, 1901-1970
The Victor Talking Machine Co. of Camden, New Jersey is proud to present the following Orthophonic Recordings by bluesman Mr. Ishman Bracey: Leavin' Town Blues - Trouble Hearted Blues - Brown Mamma Blues and Saturday Blues. And remember, for best results, use Victor Needles. [more inside]
Third-world (and first) diagnosis under $0.01
Detecting a handful of diseases with comic book ink and a postage stamp (well, not quite, but the technology is related to the ink and it's on a postage stamp sized piece of paper). What's best is that the result is a simple visual that can be sent to doctors far away for recognition.
Tracking the Knowledge Economy
It has been looked at for many years (link to a 2003 PDF revised edition of a 1983 report). Inspiring reports trying to predict where this was heading, the knowledge economy is incredibly difficult to get a grip on, mainly because its products are intangible. [more inside]
discovering a whole tiny world
My Father's Garden brings you up close and personal with some truly magnificent garden creatures. (video short, 6:37)
Inspiring final lines of a speech that douchebags will quote in their Facebook profiles!
A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever (single link cracked.com video)
The Idea of Anthropogenic Global Climate Change
In 1896, Swedish physical chemist and Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius calculated that doubling CO2 in the atmosphere would raise Earth's temperature 5-6°C. The idea didn't get traction at the time, in part because many believed it impossible for humanity to affect the climate (sound familiar?), but Arrhenius might have been on to something. Historian and physicist Spencer Weart's history of the century-long scientific investigation and popular debate will re-frame your perspective on today's crisis and arm you to educate the uninformed. If you don't know the history, you are probably repeating it. [After I-don't-know-how-many years, my first FPP]
Hilariously sleazy 'network marketing' with Yoli
Hilariously sleazy network marketing videos for Yoli. The "Yoli's Hybrid Comp Plan" video specifically is quite ridiculous, as are all the ones from the company founders. Yoli is a network marketing product, a health drink specifically, with some terribly creepy videos over-promising their get rich quick product to suckers worldwide.
...but can it run Crysis?
According to a customer report on the TribalWar forums, Newegg.com accidentally shipped bogus Intel i7 920 Retail CPUs. There are photos on Overclockers Forums and HardOCP. There's even a YouTube video of the fake CPU, fan and manual.
DNA’s Dirty Little Secret
Brooms - the Perfect Weapon
Ben Driscoll, the cartoonist behind Daisy Owl, made a timelapse video of the creation of this comic.
He's Not Literate, but He's Nice
“Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog?” What job opportunities are there for someone who graduated high school with a 1.8 GPA and who took 15 years to get his Bachelor's Degree (darn that pesky English proficiency requirement)? Why, president of the board of education, that's what! [more inside]
How to Succeed in Evil
How to Succeed in Evil is the story of Edwin Windsor, Evil Efficiency Consultant. He's like Arthur Anderson for Supervillans. A novel by Patrick E. Mclean (the guy behind the Seanachai podcast). The novel (promo mp3) will be available March 16th, but the entire thing is already available free in audiobook form as itunes files (zipped) (err..should be eventually but dropbox was giving a 500 error when I tried it) or mp3/stream. There is also a promo comic (pdf) illustrated by Nicolaus Rummel.
Spin Magazine's early days: putting the Gucci in Guccione
Founded in 1985, the first year of Spin Magazine spilled ink on all sorts of great American fringe music. Swans, Sonic Youth, Jandek, Glenn Branca, Hüsker Dü, and Squirrel Bait.
The magazine's entire run is available on Google Books. [more inside]
I Believe I Can Help You Fly
Ever wondered about the gadgets air traffic controllers use to get you back on the ground? The folks over at Ars Technica have a overview of the technology of air traffic control. [more inside]
Director of Research at Google and AI genius
Reddit interviews Peter Norvig (reddit discussion) related: Seeds of AI at Google -- how the internet is shaping intelligence and learning and, in turn, the role of human culture in natural selection1,2 and why we are not living in western civilization. (via)
Will the past last in the digital age?
Digital disappearance. "In a recent survey of 110 news organizations, the Toronto Star found that increasingly, publishers are fielding regular requests from anxious and embarrassed readers to “unpublish” information, sometimes months or years after it first appeared online." [more inside]
The homeless
Invisible people. A multi-link Vimeo post. Mark Horvath gives homeless people a forum, removes their invisibility. (Via NPR's Weekend Edition)
What if Twitter... came to life?
We asked some of our friends to film their favorite tweets. We didn't care how they did it. They could read it. They could act it. They could do it with puppets. Whatever they wanted. The only rules were it had to be a tweet written by someone else and it had to contain the entire tweet and nothing but the tweet. (via Matt Haughey's Twitter)
Food Choice Sometimes Isn't
Before You Criticize the Food Choices of Others… think about how people with disabilities face limitations on how vegan/organic/fair-trade/free-range/local/food-political they can be.
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out
With only three of the ten nominated best pictures in this years Oscars having big name leads and last year's top five earners in the film business being directors, is this the end of the big name, big earning, Hollywood star actor?
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