Category: linkblog

The history of NORAD’s Santa tracking activities, from a typo in a Sears ad.

May have to find some of that TJ’s Tavern Ale.

Guess I know what I’ll be doing on January 6.

The irony of my using Delicious to comment on the impending closure of Delicious is not lost on me. Anyone got another recommendation for a good shared bookmarking service?

How to do an app-store-less install with iOS 4.x.

If you’ve ever commented on a Gawker media site, including Lifehacker, Jezebel or others, change your password, and change that same password if you reused it somewhere else. This article includes pointers on how to find out if you were in the data dump.

Duh. If you can buy a terabyte of storage for less than $100 and stream a movie or even download it from iTunes in less than an hour, devoting shelf space and search time to physical media is just foolish.

While parts of this article are funny, I think it also marks the turning point where a Wikileaks based humor piece points to laziness on the point of view of the author, rather than acuity.

Brilliant web design tool.

Brilliant use of tech in support of protests.

Fascinating blog offering context on top of the wikileaked cables and other revelations.

Is the Wikileaks crackdown the beginning of the Internet war?

Detailed rundown of available web fonts for setting text. Good stuff. I like Fedra, Sabon and Minion (of course).

Yes, the kids are going to be all right.

One of my coworkers on what passes for “thought leadership” in information security. Probably applies to your field, too.

The “killer carrot” — the business opportunity that draws killer apps — is a concept whose time has come. It could really have only been so relevant in the age of the app, where everyone is a developer.

Brilliant initiative that pushes news organizations to crowdsource fact checking, and pushes readers to demand it.

The wall of Jimmy would be really interesting, and really creepy. I’m reminded of an old Drew Friedman cartoon: “fer crissakes, we’re all Borgnines!”

This is just ridiculous, and probably legally actionable: ” He then says “they” (aka TSA) saw me coming, have it out for me (from my complaint against TSA the week before when they didn’t know the breast milk rules then either), and I should travel out of a different gate in future weeks.”

The most recent doc dump proves something that was asserted: Operation Aurora was a targeted attack sponsored by a sovereign nation state.

Fantastic discussion of why the TSA’s unscientific security practices fail even to protect us.

Study of reasons that black box scanners fail.

Notable socialist Warren Buffett thanks the government for intervening with the 2008 bailout.

Opting out of being X-rayed with scientific backup. Make sure to read the letter from the UCSF faculty which raises a number of important points. Until better scientific evidence about the radiation dosage from the backscatter machines is made available, nobody should be accepting the body scanner, especially breast cancer survivors and anyone with a family history of melanoma.

I think this crystallizes why I think the closed playground of the iOS is ultimately a Good Thing. God knows I have enough lengthy support calls with people in my family or friends circle to help them deal with stuff they shouldn’t have to worry about just to burn a CD.

Dave Brubeck’s unique memento of his instructor Darius Milhaud.

Shorter version: The GOP won’t meet with the president in a bipartisan summit because they can’t be bothered to prepare well enough that he won’t make them look bad.

I wonder if those saved copies of people’s backscatter-naked bodies — you know, the ones that aren’t supposed to be saved — are ending up on Lieberman’s desk?

A little something for the Christmas list: ice cube trays for Old Fashioneds.

A beautiful appreciation of a superb cocktail.

I think I need this shirt.

Another Madison County Jarrett, this one a moonshiner.