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...