June 2011
“I want to speak directly to Mr. Burns and Mr. Simon: Do another season of ‘The...”
– Attorney General orders more episodes of the “The Wire”, or a movie
May 2011
“Come Monday morning, when it was time to return to Area 51, the [Brown] Derby...”
– From LA Times journalist Annie Jacobsen’s book Area 51, which details the base’s history as a testing range.
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“Never Become a Sharecropper. Take a long, hard look at the power balance behind...”
– Pete Warden, on Why API Providers Hate You.
Worth revisiting given today’s news:
Twitter is launching a photo-sharing service.
Google is shutting or deprecating 17 APIs, while launching only 7.
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I like how some internet cliques are honestly aghast and surprised Google pulled video game emulator apps from the official store.
“Hard liquor is a Class 3 hazmat. Depending on its proof, it is either...”
– John McPhee, Uncommon Carriers.
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Chinese Prisoners are Forced to Mine for Gold in... →
Prisoners in Chinese labor camps now earn virtual currency in addition to breaking rocks and digging trenches.
“Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour,” Liu told the Guardian. “There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb...
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“Every age thinks it’s the modern age, but this one really is.”
– Tom Stoppard, “The Invention of Love” (1876)
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A US government-mandated backdoor allowed China to... →
Bruce Schneier writing for CNN:
Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn’t that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated — we knew that already — it’s...
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“For non-Solid State Drives (SSDs) I would use a tool like the open source...”
– Cool Tools, How To Sanitize A Hard Drive
Journalism as a Conversation: The Human Side of... →
sasquatchmedia:
The New York Times is experimenting this week with turning off the automatic headline feed in its main Twitter account and using real staffers to engage audiences. Brilliant and long overdue.
Another crack in the façade of objectivity.
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“85% percent of those new people who signed up are still posting a week later,...”
– David Karp
Absolutely incredible. Designers, programmers, and community managers: Tumblr is the case study for UX. You don’t achieve retention like that without perfection.
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Google Introduces Google Wallet, Works At Over... →
Seems like a smart workflow: enter pin, wave phone. Integrating their offers program with the system is really smart.
The big ‘if’ is whether or not Google’s past payment issues with Adsense and Checkout will crop up on with this new system. One slip and they’re dead. And the stakes are high: if Google Wallet becomes ubiquitous it’s PayPal, Mint, FourSquare, and...
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Insider Leak at Bank of America Results in $10... →
Internal employees at BofA leaked personal account details to a ring of scammers:
Jim Kollar, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Los Angeles office, said Secret Service and FBI agents arrested 95 suspects in the case in February. He said it’s possible the suspects have gang ties.
“It was a ring of people, based in Southern California, with an inside...
Oil Market Manipulation for Just $1 Billion →
Mark Gongloff raises an interesting question regarding the crude oil manipulation news this morning:
So, if I’m interpreting this correctly, the complaint alleges Arcadia et al spent about $1.1 billion to corner the market in physical crude at Cushing, and that was enough to rack up a $50 million illicit profit.
…
If we assume for the sake of argument that even the concept alleged here...
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“We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the...”
– Sen Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) alleges the Patriot Act is worse than you think. Especially the ‘business-records provision,’ which allows agencies to force businesses, doctors, banks, and others to turn over documents the agency deems relevant. (Via Danger Room)
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US Spy Researchers Want to Build Software that... →
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is challenging researchers to build systems to identify and understand metaphors in multiple languages. The software would then help the user understand the cultural underpinnings of the speakers:
IARPA wants some computer scientists with experience in processing language in big chunks to come up with methods of pulling out a...
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Zynga About to File for IPO →
Big news!
Zynga’s valuation in its last round of funding was $10 billion, but it is likely to price itself higher in an offering.
After all, LinkedIn now has a market valuation of $9 billion, double its pre-IPO price.
Whatever the price, a Zynga IPO is a major coup, especially given how quickly it has morphed into one of the most important forces in online gaming, largely via distribution on...
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“The Special Edition of Star Wars was frequently reported in the media as costing...”
– The Secret History of Star Wars details the herculean process of restoring, remastering, and modifying the Special Edition of Star Wars
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“It’s simple- you open up sonar and we tell you that the guy sitting across from...”
– Sonar founder Brett Martin on his new app.
Remember all the noise about the ‘filter bubble’ last week? The idea that over-personalization of the internet prevents you from being exposed to new and different content, ideas and people?
Sonar is the bubble at its worst. Download it if you...
“We obviously went too far, and that’s something we need to learn from.”
– Tom Evans, rapture preacher Harold Camping’s PR liaison. (Via latimes.com)
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Google Maps Teleporter →
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I’d like an eInk wall calendar that syncs.
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Zynga buys knockoff-maker DNA Games, signaling...
Zynga’s acquisition of DNA is fascinating, since DNA Games has been ripping off Zynga, which itself was heavily inspired by EA’s Sims line. DNA’s games (Casio City, Bar World, Slot City) are copies of copies; Zynga titles with different nouns. Manage a cafe shop farm acquarium casino…
So why would Zynga buy a company with such similar titles and skills?
They’d...
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Hey judgement day leader: do people get their...
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eBooks Outsell Print Books on Amazon →
A nice trend for Amazon:
Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
Amazon also revealed that the $114 ad-supported Kindle is now their best selling device. This is...
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“The agency reportedly has the capacity to intercept and download, every six...”
– Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Thomas Drake and the NSA is an essential read.
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“Microsoft will have four versions of Windows 8 for ARM processors, according to...”
– Business Insider
This reminds me of one Saturday night, riding the F back from Brooklyn. When we should have been arriving at our stop, the train started making making stops on the A line. We got out after two wrong stops and talked to the conductor.
“Is this still the F train?” I...
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Sony: Use the information we lost to reset your... →
It continues:
Just two days after the PlayStation Network was restored after a near month-long outage, the PSN password page has apparently been exploited. According to reports, the exploit allows other users to reset your account password using only your e-mail address and date of birth. This personal data was made available to hackers during the initial PSN attack.
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Amazon Appstore Gets Exclusive PopCap Games,... →
Seattle-based gamemaker PopCap Games announced today that it has struck a deal with Amazon to offer its next two Android games - Chuzzle and Plants vs Zombies - exclusively via the Amazon Appstore.
Amazon isn’t merely prepping a tablet launch, they’re throwing their full weight around to create optimum conditions. Exclusive deals like this will ensure a large install base of their...
It’s a pity public enthusiasm for NASA kicked in on the day of the last shuttle launch.
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Miramax and Netflix Announce Multi-Year Agreement →
Netflix Members Can Instantly Watch Hundreds of Iconic Miramax films, Including such classics as “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “The English Patient,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Bad Santa,” “Scream,” “Spy Kids,” “The Piano” and “Kill Bill”
Great news. Netflix PR should win an award...
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Amazon.com Server Said to Have Been Used in Sony... →
The debate that will emerge: how are ‘exported’ cloud services, especially powerful servers, regulated by the US government?
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Amazon's "Entire Family" Of Android Devices →
parislemon:
What happens when the war is not Apple/iOS vs. Google/Android, but Google/Android vs. Amazon/Android?
I don’t know, but I can’t wait to see. And I suspect we’ll see a whole lot of “open” fly out the window.
Great point.
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LimeWire Pays RIAA $105 Million, Artists Get... →
RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy previously told TorrentFreak that the ‘damages’ accrued from piracy-related lawsuits will not go to any of the artists, but towards funding more anti-piracy campaigns. “Any funds recouped are re-invested into our ongoing education and anti-piracy programs,” he said.
How much longer do you think the major labels will survive? 2 years?
“One of the things that I think concerns Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton and...”
– Defense Secretary Robert Gates understands the internet. (Via POLITICO.com)
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“We drew the line at adding anything that gets in the way of reading.”
– Jeff Bezos on adding features and advertising to the Kindle. This should be a mantra for any consumer-facing business: draw the line at adding anything that gets in the way of X. (Via Consumer Reports)
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“People are pissed”
– Unnamed major record label exec, on Google Music. (Via The Hollywood Reporter)
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Someone should make a Maysles-style documentary following a ‘social media consultant.’ It’d be like Salesman, but with more buzzwords.
