June 15, 2009
Digital Transgressions
It doesn't seem as if the digital transition has been the resounding success we were told it would be. The FCC has admitted that they're confounded by some of the problems that have arisen across the country. With frustrated tv viewers mobbing the FCC hotlines (and major metropolises like Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore amongst the largest numbers reporting ongoing problems), some have yet to experience the mind-blowing crystal clear pictures and sound promised in those ubiquitous DTV commercials. [more inside]
She Certainly Leaves an Impression
Great Moments in Movie History. Scenes in a film taken out of context can be very funny. Though sometimes they were just funny anyway. [more inside]
Data Centers
Data Center Overload. "Data centers are increasingly becoming the nerve centers of business and society, creating a growing need to produce the most computing power per square foot at the lowest possible cost in energy and resources."
GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador
Dear Mr. President
Dear Mr. President: ... I realized that although I and other LGBT leaders have introduced ourselves to you as policy makers, we clearly have not been heard, and seen, as what we also are: human beings whose lives, loves, and families are equal to yours. I know this because this brief would not have seen the light of day if someone in your administration who truly recognized our humanity and equality had weighed in with you. [more inside]
You dont want to battle me
This is what it would sound like if hip hop was translated to proper form trust me the results are nothing short of amazing!
A brief history of modern Iran
As the world watches the conflict in Iran unfold, many commentators have tried to make a connection between the current protests and either the coup of 1953 or the revolution of 1979. But what do we know of the history of that country and how well do we know its leaders? Some of the major political players who have dominated the trajectory of the recent history of Iran include Mohammed Mossadegh, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and Mir-Hossein Mousavi. All links above are to Wikipedia pages. For more extensive articles and information, check below the fold. [more inside]
Madoff Victims Speak
Bernie Madoff's being sentenced June 29th. 113 of his victims have submitted impact statements. Here they are.
How much is that gorilla man in the window?
"The next morning at 6:30 I'm at Lowe's, haggling over the price of carpet remnants."
The Accidental Slumlord. In 2005, Daniel McGinn, a writer for Newsweek, wrote a story about out-of-staters buying rental properties in Pocatello, Idaho. A year later, Daniel McGinn, who lives 2,450 miles away from Pocatello, bought a rental property there. Why? [more inside]
Awaken the researcher within you
DFG Science TV is back. Researchers documenting their work. If you missed the first series, it is still available for viewing.
The dry, technical language of Microsoft's October update did not indicate anything particularly untoward.
Its reach is impossible to measure precisely, but more than 3 million vulnerable machines may ultimately have been infected. : The inside story on the Conficker Worm at New Scientist.
All About the Benjamins.
Mark Wagner makes money into art.
Picky picky
Women may not be so picky after all. Researchers at Northwestern University have been finding some interesting things about human mating by holding and studying speed-dating events (pdf). [more inside]
Taking URL Shortening Further
There are few ways to make URL shortening any shorter, given the 90+ URL shortening sites available, unless you get tricky. Tinyarro.ws uses two tricks to further shorten URLs, and greatly expand the theoretical limit to short URLs: international domain names and unicode character encoding. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
Bonsoir, Monsieur COK!
Bonsoir, Monsieur COK!
Dans un formidable élan de générosité notre patron adoré nous offre enfin la possibilité de voir son FILM sur la toile!
A short film about efficiencies in bomb manufacturing.
Dans un formidable élan de générosité notre patron adoré nous offre enfin la possibilité de voir son FILM sur la toile!
A short film about efficiencies in bomb manufacturing.
Of course I want gimmicks, I'm a record producer!
DVDs to save the music industry (video interview) Record Producers discuss illegal downloads, home studios and why 5.1 DVD sound just might be the future. [more inside]
“So happens this dog achieved the rank of colonel in the United States Army.”
They were in the stairwell that led down to the commode, a dangerous place in its time, the Grand Central Station Men’s, but for different reasons. I saw the dirt tracks leading there, and I left the monkeys in the chandelier and followed them. I kept to the tracks careful as I could. There were pits and corrugations everywhere in the old tile, any one of which could hide a man killing gob of explosive. At my back I heard Spot complain: “Leave ‘em be, Blacks. We’ve warned ‘em, ain’t we? If they blow themselves up, it ain’t on us.”UXO, BOMB DOG by Eliot Fintushel (single-link short fiction)
Worth the wait.
It's the mid 1980's, computer games are stored on cassette tapes and they take a very long time to load. This lead to the creation of loading music. [more inside]
All the news that's fit to cromulate
The 50 words that generate the most click-throughs to the dictionary from the New York Times. The Nieman Journalism Lab reveals the words that sent NYT readers running to the Merriam-Webster. Key fact: Maureen Dowd is overly fond of the word "louche." If the post is TL;DR for you, here's the list in Wordle.
Bank insider steals 200 billion
Bank insider steals 200 billion - a director in EBank in Eve Online has stolen 200 billion ISK (approximately 10% of deposits), engaging in real money trading to fence his loot. Equivalent to ~US$12,000, the theft has left Ebank with concerns over liquidity, security, auditor failure, and a run on the bank by investors. Unlike the real world, there is no government bail-out.
Neo4j traverses depths of 1000 levels and beyond at millisecond speed
"Nowadays a chantey is worth 1000 songs on an iPod"
Stan Hugill, often known as "The Last Shantyman," authored a book called Shanties From the Seven Seas, based on his own work experiences in the last days of sail. Influential in the folk revival, the book is one of the most important written sources for music sung aboard ships in the 19th and early 20th century, the "Bible" of sea music. Decades of chanteying in pubs and at festivals have kept many of the songs alive, but in most cases they've strayed stylistically from the verses and versions Hugill collected, or dropped out of popularity entirely. Now, one musician is returning to the source and creating a new audio archive for the original versions of the songs as written, by singing through the more than 400 songs in the book, one song each week, and posting the songs on YouTube, with commentary. [more inside]
Just a hunch
Hunch picks up "where a search engine leaves off," according to cofounder Caterina Fake, who previously cofounded the photo-sharing site Flickr and later worked on Yahoo Answers. Fake points out that a normal search engine would provide a user interested in buying a digital camera with links to hundreds of sites that review and compare the latest models. The user then has to sort through that information and figure out which camera is right for her. Instead, Hunch asks users pointed questions and narrows down the list of results for the user.
Pox Torchlight presents
Gimme That Old Time Derivation
The Cornell Historical Math Monographs archive has a great many famous papers, including works by De Morgan, Hamilton, Descartes (warning: French) and of course Lewis Carroll. [more inside]
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