11 Feb 2014 - permalink
Emily Lakdawalla from Planetary Society:
A big question is whether we even still know how to communicate with the spacecraft. It was built in the 1970s, at the same time as the Voyagers. But we’ve been in continuous communication with the Voyagers since their launch; the same isn’t true of ICE.
[…] in the 30 years since it departed Earth we’ve lost the ability to speak its language.
4 Apr 2013 - permalink
Joel Spolsky on software patent trolls:
It is organized crime, plain and simple. It is an abuse of the legal system, an abuse of the patent system, and a moral affront.
Indeed.
17 Mar 2013 - permalink
Bruce Schneier on surveillance online:
All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it’s efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.
17 Mar 2013 - permalink
In social news, the front page is king. Most users never go beyond the first or second page of top stories. […]
The effect of this is that we’re looking at a fast-flowing river of information through a pinhole.
21 Mar 2012 - permalink
Small Safari extension I wrote inspired by this XKCD that “improves” the internet by replacing all occurrences of keyboard with leopard.
25 Feb 2012 - permalink
In the next release a new feature will be impossible to implement because class A has intimate, incestuous, biblical knowledge about class B. It seemed to work but the child of this relationship is going to cause you problems for the rest of its life even if you manage to separate the star-crossed classes and send them back to their families.
Here’s the thing: you are not ruthless enough.
Do it right the first time or you’ll have a “Giger-esque state-driven nightmare”.
21 Nov 2011 - permalink
Anil Dash:
Facebook has moved from merely being a walled garden into openly attacking its users’ ability and willingness to navigate the rest of the web. The evidence that this is true even for sites which embrace Facebook technologies is overwhelming, and the net result is that Facebook is gaslighting users into believing that visiting the web is dangerous or threatening.
In this post I intend to not only document the practices which enable this attack, but to also propose a remedy.
17 Nov 2011 - permalink
For the past 5 months, I’ve been busy building the technical infrastructure for the British startup BlueDot. With BlueDot, you get “dots” for donating and volunteering and then spend your dots on exclusive content.
Today, BlueDot launched a partnership with BBCs Children in Need, offering exclusive backstage performances by brilliant artists such as Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Elbow if you donate £5 or more!
Needless to say, I’m immensely proud to be part of BlueDot :)
7 Aug 2011 - permalink
Paul Krugman on the S&P rating downgrade:
It’s hard to think of anyone less qualified to pass judgment on America than the rating agencies. The people who rated subprime-backed securities are now declaring that they are the judges of fiscal policy? Really?
6 Aug 2011 - permalink
Stanley Kubrick interview in Playboy, 1968:
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.