Pluralistic: 28 Apr 2020


scholarship,1201,apollo,apollo 1201,war on general purpose computing,acm,chi,metaphor shear,fraud,glam,libraries,canada reads,science fiction,canlit,toronto,adversarial examples, textfooler,nlp,sentiment analysis,ml,machine learning,infosec,mayday,essential workers,labor,class war,library of congress,hiphop,music,sampling,public domain,attack surface,science fiction, force multiplier,gnd,the lost cause,nyc,new urbanism,pedestrianization,makers,3d printing,accessibility,vulture capitalism,foreclosure,san francisco,decameron project,jo walton,terry pratchett,tv,discworld

A new Marcus Yallow/Little Brother story!; DRM and CHI; Talking with Toronto Public Library's Shelve Under podcast; The law is free; "Absolutely faithful" Discworld TV adaptations; Read the prologue of "The Lost Cause"; Foreclosure vultures hold illegal auctions on courthouse steps; Hands-free door-handles; NYC will pedestrianize 40 miles of city streets; Citizen DJ; "Essential" workers will strike across America for May Day; Synonyms vs machine learning

Pluralistic: 28 Apr 2020 force-multiplier



_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 28 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 24 Apr 2020


nyc,crowdfunding,comics,sf,bookselling,guillotine watch,hhs,alex azar,administrative incompetence, vaccines,brian harrison,poison,trumpism,media theory,emptywheel,both sides-ism,medicare for all,sicko,slate star codex,science,scholarship,masks,net neutrality,cable company fuckery,ajit pai,ajit fucking pai,opportunism,content moderation at scale,ad targeting,themepunks,minecraft,imagineering,disney,disneyland,california adventure,imagineering fun,wdi

Save Forbidden Planet NYC; Which guillotine is right for you; A labradoodle breeder is in charge of America's vaccines; "Inject disinfectant" vs both sides-ism; US healthcare fails insured people too; Masks work; US telcoms sector isn't doing better than Europe's; Amazon uses its sellers' data to figure out which products to clone; Facebook let advertisers target "pseudoscience" and "conspiracy"; Security expert conned out of $10,000; California Adventure, Minecraft edition

Pluralistic: 24 Apr 2020 slicey-boi



_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 24 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 16 Apr 2020

Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 16 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 10 Apr 2020

Today's links

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 10 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 09 Apr 2020

Today's links

  1. Neighbors treated to socially isolated buildingside screening: Scott Duggan treated his terrace to "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
  2. Philips quadruples ventilator costs: They reneged on their HHS deal and will get $646.7m for their trouble.
  3. Kansas GOP nukes ban on large Easter gatherings: What's wrong with Kansas?
  4. Kickpunch's Disney comics/horror movie mashups: Daniel Björk's terrifying poster children for fair use.
  5. Plastic-eating enzyme: Leaf-branch compost cutinase to the rescue.
  6. Cold brew coffee chemistry: Making the black stuff reproducible.
  7. Tails adds Secureboot support: Evil chambermaids, beware!
  8. Crisis makes heroes of IT workers: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.
  9. Automating fake PDF signatures: Make it look like you printed, signed and scanned.
  10. Pocket Art Director: Your high-handed boss in D20 form.
  11. This day in history: 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 09 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 07 Apr 2020

Today's links

  1. Pickled 2001 computer store: Deadstock ahoy!
  2. A farewell to APIs: Greed, spam and entropy killed mashups.
  3. Machine learning model performs butthole recognition: Peak Internet of Shit.
  4. Covid loteria cards: Cabronavirus.
  5. California's fiber for all bill: Tell your senator to support SB1130.
  6. 1978 Doonesbury stereotype: Come for the Indochina political humor, stay for the printer's lore.
  7. LA crime plummets: Down 23% (domestic violence is down 11%).
  8. US stimulus is one week's cash: Deflation ahoy.
  9. Private equity blinks on cuts to health workers' wages: Speeding up slow destruction makes it impossible to ignore.
  10. Virtual greenscreen: Incredible computer science paper from the 2020 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
  11. Landlord changes church's locks: The pastor of Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, CA refused to stop holding services.
  12. This day in history: 2010, 2019
  13. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 07 Apr 2020"

Pluralistic: 31 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. 100 Ideas for Dungeon Masters: Based on the Pathfinder Bestiary, readily adaptable for other systems.
  2. Attack Surface author's note: My latest podcast is the afterword from the third Little Brother book.
  3. Trump admits voter suppression: Proving intent was never easier.
  4. Reality endorses Sanders: Pandemics have an obvious leftist bias.
  5. Amazon fires walkout organizer: Low waged workers, doing the most important work in America, exposed to lethal risk.
  6. Monopolists stole your respirator: Dying a gasping death is pareto-optimal.
  7. Corporate welfare vs food stamps: A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
  8. How viruses experience social distancing: XKCD mixes atavistic satisfaction with science communications.
  9. Scarfolk pandemics: This isn't the worst timeline after all.
  10. This day in history: 2005, 2019
  11. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 31 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Ethiopian factory sports Jack Ma quotes: Global trade currents are shifting fast.
  2. Charter orders all workers to keep showing up: Even the 15% of its workforce who could work from home.
  3. MAGA firefighters dismiss coronavirus as Democrat hoax: And/or a Chinese bioweapon.
  4. Flatter Me, a compliments card game: Kickstarting now.
  5. American Airlines blew billions, now it wants a bailout: Socializing losses, privatizing gains.
  6. John Green's mutual aid manifesto: The only way through is together.
  7. How to split a single ventilator for four patients: Peer-reviewed simulations.
  8. Bigoted Republican Congressjerk votes against coronavirus relief because it might cover same-sex partnerships: Rep Andy Biggs wants to send us all to meet Jesus.
  9. Epidemiology and public health in 14 minutes: An epidemiologist and an sf writer make an outstanding science communications team.
  10. 3D printed ventilator hero got a patent threat: Human rights vs property rights.
  11. If nothing is for sale, how will covid stimulus work? Can you fix a supply shock with stimulus?
  12. How to make your own toilet paper: A craft for your isolated kiddos.
  13. Plague precautions from 1665: No feasting, but you can tipple in a bar until 9PM.
  14. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
  15. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 18 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 09 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Jesse Jackson endorses Sanders: "I stand with him because he stands with you."
  2. Choose Your Own Adventure was Milton Friedman for Kids: There Is No Alternative.
  3. Woman sues TSA over "pat-down" that penetrated her vagina: Las Vegas airport's finest.
  4. Shat-out pig pedometer sparks farm-fire: Beyond Thunderdome, free range
  5. UCSC strike prompts systemwide student and faculty solidarity strikes: Meanwhile, the regents are deporting striking TAs.
  6. An open syllabus on "housing struggles": Detailed resources from the Pirate Care collective.
  7. Yanis Varoufakis on how austerity leads to fascism: And how "constructive disobedience" can win support for alternatives.
  8. John Deere is Right to Repair's archnemesis: Digital feudalism has reinvented the tenant farmer.
  9. This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
  10. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 09 Mar 2020"

Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020

Today's links

  1. Daniel Pinkwater wrote a new novel! Yippee for "ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL!"
  2. Warner Chappel discoved a new form of copyright fuckery so dense it blew a wormhole into another dimension: From the people who fraudulently claimed to own "Happy Birthday" for decades.
  3. RIP, Jim Tyre: The free internet just lost one of its most dedicated defenders.
  4. Decentralizing the web is a human problem: The web needs stewards, not owners.
  5. Right to Repair is the right to resilience: Independent repair is how we keep things going during emergencies.
  6. Keyless car fobs can be defeated with a cheap RFID cloner: Car manufacturers wontfix a showstopper bug. Again.
  7. Bookstores, libraries, human thriving and mental health: Books are great, even if the science behind their greatness is thin.
  8. Copyright experts' panel on fair use removed from Youtube: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
  9. Radicalized is out in paperback: Just hit every one of Canada's national bestseller lists, too!
  10. African Whatsapp modders are outcompeting Facebook: Adversarial Interoperability is how you beat digital colonialism.
  11. This day in history: 2015, 2019
  12. Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 05 Mar 2020"