June 2011
24 posts
Textile
Markup | Test via @tweetitow Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
For all the good it will do ! Build your walls,...
via @tweetitow Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
A Big Surprise from the Edge of the Solar System
via science.nasa.gov It’s all bubbly out there. Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Forget piracy, U.S. government is going after...
via venturebeat.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Programming as writing
My current theory is that programming is quite literally writing. The vast majority of programming is not conceptually difficult (contrary to what a lot of people would have you believe). We only make it difficult because we suck at writing. The vast majority of programmers aren’t fluent, and don’t even have a desire to be fluent. They don’t read other people’s code. ...
OpenPlans
OpenPlans is a non-profit technology organization focused on open government and livable streets. We build open source software. We help agencies open up their data. We report on urban issues. via openplans.org Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Data Brewery and Cubes
Brewery is a Python framework and collection of tools for analysing and mining data. Goal is to provide functions and tools for: streaming and processing structured data from various sources, such as CSV, XLS files, Google spreadsheets, relational (SQL) databases, MongoDB (no-sql database),… data quality auditing data mining via databrewery.org Posted via email from...
Face Recognition: Creepy or Cool?
Imagine a future where you can hold your phone up, take a picture of a stranger and immediately get a full social profile of them – their Twitter account, Facebook profile, their job from their LinkedIn account and much more. While in some cases this would be incredibly cool, it would also be incredibly frightening for many people, and the opportunities for it to be misused for criminal purposes...
Producing Open Source Software
Producing Open Source Software is a book about the human side of open source development. It describes how successful projects operate, the expectations of users and developers, and the culture of free software. The book is released under an open copyright: it is available in bookstores and from the publisher (O’Reilly Media), or you can browse or download it here. via...
The Internet Archive, Now Preserving Printed Books...
The Internet Archive will now keep a physical copy of every book, record and movie that it is able to attract or acquire, all with the goal of making sure that there is at least one physical copy of a book or record or film preserved. Although it has built a large storage facility in Richmond, California, this isn’t a physical library per se. As before, the Internet Archive will...
To George R. R. Martin
Tomorrow I will create my own universes but tonight I seek solace in yours. Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Tinkering with technology education
It turns out that the context in which technology is presented has a large effect on how attractive it is to each gender. At the risk of gender essentialism, it seems that often boys are attracted to robot battles while girls are attracted to robots as a means of helping the disabled, for instance. Boys are attracted to competitive video games while girls are attracted to social software. In...
U.K. to Recruit "Cyber-Soldiers"
via readwriteweb.com Stuxnet. China’s Blue Army. Portents of war. How long will they be content with just posturing? One day, one of the players would do something stupid and the rest of us will suffer. I could only hope that it won’ t spill over to the real world. But with America’s policy towards cyberattacks, it most probably will. Posted via email from rk’s...
Bitcoin, the Peer-to-Peer Currency that Hopes to...
Bitcoin’s purpose is to provide an alternative to the centralized, traceable currency of most countries. With Bitcoin, we have a scarce decentralized currency that has no single point of failure, nor an authoritative issuing authority. The network itself makes the decisions. via thenextweb.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
6 Free E-Books and Tutorials on HTML5
Dive Into HTML5. Dive Into HTML5 probably offers the best balance of depth and accessibility to the would-be HTML5 developer that you can find online for free. Mark Pilgrim has been writing about HTML and Web development for several years. The “paid version” of this book is HTML5: Up and Running from O’Reilly. HTML5 Doctor HTML5 Doctor has been...
The Right to Read
Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By 2047, libraries offering free public access to...
Jack Dorsey - The Power of Curiosity and...
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/swf/vsync.swf&gapro.accountid=UA-101591-11 &vsync-label=Options&vsync-id=3779&gapro.trackpercentage=true&gapro.tracktime=true&javascriptid=player_js&image=http://ecorner.stanford.edu/repository/2635.i?width=500” quality=”high” style=”” width=”500” />via ecorner.stanford.edu From the page...
Isaac Asimov's letter to the future patrons of a...
via boingboing.net Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
What's your college major worth?
via cew.georgetown.edu Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Simple guide to drunkenness
via flowingdata.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
The National Academies to Release Its Books Free...
The National Academies Press announced today that it will soon be releasing the vast majority of currently published book as DRM-free PDFs. The titles include works released by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. “Our business model has evolved so that it is now financially viable to put this content out...
Coding the Universe
The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is responsible. Universes of virtually unlimited complexity can be created in the form of computer programs. ― Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
The Glass Box And The Commonplace Book
But there are worse things than paywalls. Take a look at this screen. This, as you all probably know, is Apple’s new iBook application for the iPad. What I’ve done here is shown you what happens when you try to copy a paragraph of text. You get the familiar iPhone-style clipping handles, and you get two options “Highlight” and “Bookmark.” But you can’t actually copy the text, to paste it into...
Drug Suppresses Recall of Bad Memories, Leaves...
At the University of Montreal, researchers have found a drug that seems able to decrease a person’s recall of a bad memory. It’s not exactly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but it’s a pretty remarkable step down the road to active memory modification. And it worked out so well in the movie, right? I haven’t watched the whole thing but it really did seem like Jim...
May 2011
29 posts
Heart of the Swarm cinematic teaser and 40 new...
via gamesradar.com Damnit. I haven’t even finished Wings of Liberty yet :( Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
batmen
via johnnywander.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
The Information Blanket
via coolinfographics.com Interesting concept. The possibilities are endless. A Filipino version would be nice. I can’t help thinking of one for sex ed but maybe that’d be too graphic. Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
You and Your Research
Over on the other side of the dining hall was a chemistry table. I had worked with one of the fellows, Dave McCall; furthermore he was courting our secretary at the time. I went over and said, “Do you mind if I join you?” They can’t say no, so I started eating with them for a while. And I started asking, “What are the important problems of your field?” And...
Asus Unveils Padfone Hybrid Android Smartphone
via hothardware.com Reminds me of those Modu phones with their jackets. The hybrids are here! Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
What's high school for?
What’s high school for? Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following: How to focus intently on a problem until it’s solved. The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success. How to read critically. The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority. An understanding of the...
Televisions that observe you
Japan based NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) is testing an interface which observes TV viewers, determines their interest and provides information related to the TV program in accordance with the way they are watching it. UTAN (user technology assisted navigation) TV viewing interface as it is called, has a camera mounted on the TV which photographs the viewer and...
Colour blind cartography
I am slightly red-green colourblind (in that I can still see red and green fine, but have difficulty with say a red and green line next to each other). Does make it a bit easier for me to make maps for people that are red-green colourblind. In addition to color brewer and vischeck mentioned above, the GIMP has colourblind filters built in so you can adjust images as part of post processing....
Testing autopost http://twitter.com
via @tweetitow Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Agency
A door is not responsible if it swings and hits you in the nose. Neither is the hand of the guy who punched you. Philosphers and lawyers talk about agency. Responsibility comes with the capacity to act in the world. If you can decide, if you can act, you have agency. Life without agency would be a nightmare. Trapped in a box, unable to do anything by choice, nothing but a puppet… ...
EveryJS.com
Contribute To contribute your favorite JavaScript library, visit the GitHub page, fork the repository, add the library to the EveryJS.libraries array, then submit a pull request. The order in which you add your library is unimportant. The list is automatically alphabetized. More sophisticated filtering is coming soon. via everyjs.com “The right tool for the job.” Posted...
3D Printing Conserves Earliest Communications Tech
There is very little in the way of research into the human past that does not now take advantage of the web, mobile technology and other scientific advances of the last several decades. One of the successful experiments with the greatest wow factor is 3D printing. It has been used to create a full-size reproduction of King Tutankhamun’s mummy and to repair Rodin’s sculture, The...
Open access repository of general GIS spatial...
As a newcomer to using GIS for research, I am wondering if there are online repositories for spatial data, similar to package repositories for Linux distributions. For instance, I would be able to find things like “bathymetric map of the world’s oceans”, or “administrative regions map for the United States”, etc. Is there such a repository/website where I can...
Tools for testing your internet connection
Use these tools running on M-Lab to test your internet connection and perform diagnostics. About the tools: By using these tools, you help advance research by contributing valuable data about broadband performance. The tools only collect data related to the specifically orchestrated communication “flows” between your machine and the M-Lab server. The tools do not collect...
The Revolution will not be on YouTube
The Revolution will not be on YouTube You will not be able to stay home, hacker. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on MySpace and skip, Skip out for espresso during reloads, Because the revolution will not be on YouTube. The revolution will not be brought to you by the Microsoft Research Group and will not star...
10 Free E-Books on Ruby for Beginners
via readwriteweb.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Pattern: A Bundle of Data Mining Modules for...
via readwriteweb.com Pattern is a collection of open source (BSD license) web mining modules for Python from the Computational Linguistics and Psycholinguistics Research Center. It contains tools for data retrieval, text analysis and data visualization and comes with over 30 sample scripts. Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
6 Free E-Books on Learning to Program with Python
via readwriteweb.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
An end of magic
Arthur C. Clarke told us, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Head back to the 1800s with a Taser or a Prius or an iPad and the townsfolk will no doubt either burn you at the stake or worship you. So many doors have been opened by technology in the last twenty years that the word “sufficiently” is being stretched. If it happens on a screen (Google...
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money...
Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Procrastination
I really should get started on that geomatics blog. via @tweetitow Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
Obsession Times Voice
There is an easy formula for doing it wrong: publish attention-getting bullshit and pull stunts to generate mindless traffic. The entire quote-unquote “pro blogging” industry — which exists as the sort of pimply teenage brother to the shirt-and-tie SEO industry — is predicated on the notion that blogging is a meaningful verb. It is not. The verb is writing. The format and medium are new, but the...
3 Free E-Books on jQuery
via readwriteweb.com Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
8 Free E-Books on C#
via readwriteweb.com I don’t really use C# but you folks might find this useful. Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »
MIT OpenCourseWare | Aeronautics and Astronautics...
The basic objective of Unified Engineering is to give a solid understanding of the fundamental disciplines of aerospace engineering, as well as their interrelationships and applications. These disciplines are Materials and Structures (M); Computers and Programming (C); Fluid Mechanics (F); Thermodynamics (T); Propulsion (P); and Signals and Systems (S). In choosing to teach these subjects in a...
Munch On Me Is A Groupon For Food, Done Right
via techcrunch.com Somebody please make a Philippine version? Posted via email from rk’s posterous | Comment »