firehose

submitted by plattyjo [link] [23 comments]

submitted by trackofalljades [link] [20 comments]

Dave Winer is becoming a Node.js developer:

Now I have a server on an Amazon EC2 Ubuntu micro instance. It’s running my fargoPublisher prototype. I have a pretty smooth deploy method with a folder shared between my desktop and the server, and the Macintosh Terminal program. I can upload a changed version of the software and reload the app in a few commands, a few seconds.

It’s cool that, after all these years, Dave and I are developing on the same platform again.

* * *

Were I looking to run a contracting business (I most emphatically am not), it occurs to me that there might be a business in being the server-person-for-hire for other Mac and iOS developers. Knowing the client side of development so well would give me an advantage over people who know the server side only.

Take that as a hint. There are other people like me who know both worlds — maybe that describes you — and there are plenty of iOS and Mac developers whose apps need online services. Could be a good business.

Yesterday, Kotaku published a piece by Rachel Edidin that went by the title "She Was Harassed By A Games Reporter. Now She's Speaking Out." While it was structured around telling the story of Alice Mercier (not her real name) a female member of the video games industry who recently anonymously publicized her sexually harassment on Facebook by a male peer, the piece also focused on how infuriatingly, personally familiar Mercier's story is to many women working in video games and the wider tech industry. Even so, despite the the entire article clearly laying out the reasons why women find it socially difficult and professionally dangerous to speak up about sexist behavior in the tech industry, it left lots of people asking why all of these ladies didn't "shut him down," "complain to HR," or "go public." Folks banded together with the #thatwoman hashtag to point out that one of the reasons is that pushing back against harassment or biased treatment, no matter how clear a case, can and even tends to follow and negatively affect the victim just as much as the accused. Nobody wants to become that woman.

Attack on Titan/Sesame Street mashup art by Olipop, via Neatorama.

Artist Mimi Yoon, whose withdrawn Powerpuff Girls variant cover has been the subject of much discussion over the past several days, has revealed one of her next projects for: a cover for BOOM! Studios’ Adventure Time, also licensed by Cartoon Network. As she pointed out in the comments on her Facebook page, it was painted [...]

…my first instinct, no matter how hard I try, is “who did I piss off/what did I do this time?”

I was told I would outgrow this.

I was lied to.

quietnet:

Simple chat program using near ultrasonic frequencies. Works without Wifi or Bluetooth and won’t show up in a pcap.

Warning: May annoy some animals and humans.

Neolithic amber bear, dated between 1700 B.C. and 650 B.C.

Ex-Soul Coughing singer Mike Doughty recently delved into his archives and came up with an old tape he recorded with Elliott Smith back in the late '90s. Apparently he recorded Smith performing some a cappella tracks with the intention that they'd be used in a future EDM project; Doughty rediscovered the tape in November and created new backing for Smith's vocals. (Pitchfork has more info.)

The songs, released earlier this week by Doughty under the UUL alias, are not very good, and perhaps that's what's annoyed fans of Smith, whose recorded legacy has generally been devoid of Hendrix and 2Pac-like repackagings and repurposements. The Boston Globe's BDCwire goes as far to say Doughty appropriated the Smith tapes in a way that wasn't compatible with Smith's original intent:

This was a collaboration between Smith and the band Soul Coughing, intended to appear as samples or otherwise in music created by the band for the “El Oso” album... In light of all of this information, doesn’t it seem unlikely that the EDM backing tracks for these new Smith songs, created in November 2013 by Doughty after finding the tapes, were somehow precisely the “form we intended” when they were by all accounts recorded expressly for other purposes during the “El Oso” sessions in 1997?

I wasn't there, and neither was BDCwire. Doughty was. Based on the evidence cited (which includes an awful lot of talk about a binaural microphone), it does seem likely that Smith dropped in during a Soul Coughing session and not specifically for an offshoot collaboration project, but who knows what agreement he had with Doughty at the time? To me, it seems Doughty's biggest crime was making bad music, but he's been guilty of that before, and whether this Smith collab came out in 1997 or now, it probably still wouldn't have been very good, even with Smith's blessing. But enough speculation. Listen to the new tracks, or don't (like I said, they're bad); perhaps there's room for a small amount of gratitude that we have just that tiny bit more of Smith to listen to.

In related, and better, Elliott Smith news, a song from 1994, "No Confidence Man," has been digitally re-released by UseMusic. It originally came out on a split 7-inch with Pete Krebs; Larry Crane at Jackpot remixed the track from the master tapes, according to the Oregonian. You can purchase it on UseMusic, and proceeds go to benefit Outside In.

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Of the eight movies and TV shows featured in Netflix’s new commercial, all but two—Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead—are also available on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

This important point was identified by BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield in a research note (registration required) published this morning. “We wonder whether consumers, let alone Amazon Prime subscribers, even realize that this content is available on Amazon Prime,” he writes.

It comes at a time when the debate about the limitations of Netflix’s video library is on the verge of becoming a cultural phenomenon. Even The Onion has latched onto it.

But Netflix seems to be aware of it: The ad is promoting content that appeals to mainstream audiences (Greenfield describes them as the “Wal-Mart shopper”) rather than its exclusive shows, like House of Cards, which appeal to niche audiences.

It raises a conundrum that only Netflix CEO Reed Hastings himself can probably answer: With more than 30 million subscribers, Netflix is now the fifth biggest TV channel in America. While original content is increasingly what makes the service worth paying for, it doesn’t necessarily appeal to people who haven’t already subscribed. But at the same time, popular movies like Skyfall or Hunger Games, which are featured in the new ad, can be streamed from a variety of sources in an increasingly crowded market for internet video.

Amazon, meanwhile, faces an even tougher challenge: Getting people to realize that it’s in the streaming video market in the first place.

Voice of America

China's Lenovo Buys Google's Smart Phone Business Voice of America China's fast-growing Lenovo Group technology business is buying the troubled smartphone manufacturing division owned by Google, the giant U.S. Internet company. Lenovo, already the world's biggest personal computer maker, is paying $2.9 billion for ... Google sells Moto: 'Rejoice,' says analystMarketWatch Tech stocks: Facebook opens at new high; Google risesUSA TODAY Google sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9BCBC.ca New York Times -Businessweek -Wall Street Journal all 1,075 news articles »

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Original Source

Fabulous watercolor-painted binding with handy mirror inside. Just acquired by @upennlib http://uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/fabulously-illustrated-and-easy-to-carry/ … pic.twitter.com/tNBoxaIwUo

andythelazysheep:

my entire experience in high school

Washington may be buzzing about Tuesday’s State of the Union, but many Americans are concerned about another issue facing the nation: the immigration status of Justin Bieber.

Amy Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, have a new book about why certain cultural groups tend to succeed more than others. They have no idea why this might be controversial.

Check it out, art lovers! The Portland Police Bureau is looking to unload a genuine copy of dead artist Thomas Kinkade's "Hometown Memories I" (subtitled: "Walking to Church on a Sunday Evening"), and it comes complete with a "certificate of limitation and authenticity."

It's on the police bureau's new auction site for the best of the best of the unclaimed property otherwise moldering in its evidence warehouse.

A lot of what the bureau takes in winds up destroyed or sitting around for years. Some of it's weird and sad. (This is an especially sensitive subject for people on the streets, whose belongings are supposed to wind up in the warehouse, and not a dumpster, after camp sweeps.) But a lot of it's pretty choice—tools, vehicles, instruments, bikes, etc. That's the stuff, provided no one ever claims it, that gets put up on the auction block.

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My coffee plans for today:

A woman covers her face to protect it from the biting -53C weather in Yakutsk’s central square.

Credit: Amos Chapple

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