January 2011
The TSA agent wasn’t so thrilled when I attempted to tip after the pat-down.
Scobletitlement →
benkraal:
(n) The notion that new media blogging personalities have a right to be glorified wherever they go online
/via chipotle
Wow, that only took 2 days.
The Periodic Table of Google APIs →
Would-Be Suicide Bomber Killed by Unexpected SMS... →
Via Wired’s Threat Level.
1 tag
Google Launches Algorithm To Fight Content Spam →
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
Mother Jones: What's Happening in Egypt, Explained... →
theatlantic:
This is an incredibly useful guide. Give it a read.
Microsoft’s Kinectified game business grows 55... →
The perfect recession Christmas present: improve the things you already own and love.
“The other thing to worry, or at least wonder, about is how revolutions inspired...”
– Nicholas Thompson, in his post on Twitter and the Cairo riots (via newyorker)
Should Tumblr care? →
I try to avoid getting sucked into these hand-wringing, backseat driving posts on Hacker News. But this exhibits so many typical misperceptions that I can’t help myself.
First, Silicon Valley needs to stop thinking Tumblr is competing with Posterous and Wordpress. They’re missing the point and assuming ‘blogging’ is the goal. At this point, I don’t think Tumblr minds...
“Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. Since the...”
– From Amazon’s 4th quarter sales results.
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Wall Street Welcomes the Content Farm →
Demand Media has given skeptics plenty to chew on over the last six months: Accounting issues to hash out with the Feds; weird noises from Google, which it depends on; and debates about what “profitable” means.
A company that repackages bottom-of-the-barrel content and has trouble with the fed? Of course Wall Street loves it.
Sad news of the day: after today’s IPO, Demand Media is worth...
Anime Distributor Launches Piracy Assault, Sues... →
Not fake.
“you know what’s cooler than a million electric cars? a BILLION electric cars!”
– obama-rama during his energy talk (via humancomputer)
Someone’s been watching The Social Network.
“Today 64 percent of track and field world records have stood since 1993. One...”
– Boston.com on peaked performance, noted by Marginal Revolution.
I thought the same thing as we watched Stephen Strasburg strike out 14 in his debut, throwing 34 of his 94 pitches at more than 98 MPH, pitch two more games, then turn himself in for Tommy John surgery.
Eric Schmidt wants to host a TV show →
Not a joke. Talks have begun.
“Eric Schmidt has been looking for a TV job for over a year,” said a CNN insider. “But the pilot he filmed with Liza was a complete disaster.”
Geeks sure do love a standards war.
“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”
– Edison.
Sacha Baron Cohen to star in film of Saddam... →
Baron Cohen, 39, will star in a Hollywood adaptation of Zabibah and the King, the tender tale of a wise and good Iraqi leader who falls in love with a humble peasant girl. Re-titled The Dictator, the Paramount-backed production will be overseen by Larry Charles, who directed Baron Cohen on the feature-length Borat and Brüno outings.
“Do you get a tax break if you make a zombie game?”
– Yahtzee’s Year in Review
“It’s a week before the biggest day of her life, and Anna Williams is...”
– The Most Emailed ‘New York Times’ Article Ever, by The Awl
U.S. Gets to Keep Chinese Pandas Through 2015 |... →
“Hey, did China say anything about human righ—” “PANDAS!”
The Atlantic Wire nails the subhead.
Living Social offers $20 Amazon gift card for $10
A better marketing promotion could not be conceived.
Amazon just invested $175 million in Living Social, a Groupon competitor. After today, you won’t need to add that qualifier.
This is genius. A $10 acquisition cost is a steal for an email/mobile services site. Plus, the $10 could even be positioned as a loss-leader for Amazon who will reap a bit of revenue during a slow season by...
“More accurately, protesters say that it doesn’t tell the truth, because the...”
– GigaOm. Web developers are peeved that the brand is reductionist and overly simplistic. Similarly, I’m upset water is wet.
Guys, you want people to care about HTML5. You want executives to buy the hype and demand their sites are updated. You want adoption at this point, not deep...
George Lucas Believes the World Will End in 2012 →
Then why the hell is he waiting until Fall 2011 to release Star Wars on BluRay? (Via Gizmodo)
ideasfornewyorkercartoons:
Two men are facing a wall in a museum. One of them is observing a painting, the other is observing a water fountain piped into the wall.
Remix: A man drinking from a water fountain in a modern art museum is admonished by a guard, “Sir, please don’t touch the art.”
I hope Peter turns on photo replies.
Video Is 40% Of All Mobile Traffic, But Most Of Us... →
But right now, that usage is coming from a fairly small group of people: astoundingly, just 10 percent of subscribers consume 90 percent of total mobile network traffic.
(Via PaidContent)
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“In settling the lawsuit, the AP and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side...”
– Nieman Journalism Lab
Merchandizing is the new street art.
“Alex Trebek has joined us. He confirms that since Watson can neither hear nor...”
– CrunchGear asks the right questions.
8% of Internet Users Account for 85% of all Banner... →
I’m sure this will light up Twitter and a few media outlets shortly, but a few points/questions:
Many, if not most, media planners already take click through with a grain of salt. So within the industry, this isn’t a huge surprise.
I’d like to know their ad sample set. If we include cut-rate, procedurally generated ads that hawk weight loss supplements and offer-deals,...
France is Bacon →
mrgan:
This was voted the best comment on Reddit in 2010. Enjoy it.
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Has anyone used the C language drivers for the Kinect with a jailbroken AppleTV yet?
“I’ve often said that someone trying to write satirically in this country faces...”
– Calvin Trillin, in the Paris Review
“In fact, I dare say that Polaroid would’ve made a far better choice by simply...”
– ck/ck
Seriously: why hasn’t Polaroid made an app?
Secret businesses aimed to exploit vaccine fears,... →
It reveals how Wakefield met with medical school managers to discuss a joint business even while the first child to be fully investigated in his research was still in the hospital, and how just days after publication of that research, which triggered the health crisis in 1998, he brought business associates to the Royal Free to continue negotiations.
One business, named after Wakefield’s...
