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"Someone making rational, informed choices might choose free software, but they might decide that..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:31:32 -0500

“Someone making rational, informed choices might choose free software, but they might decide that certain functionality or even aesthetics is worth paying for and accept the inherent risks that come with closed source products. They might decide that open source isn’t necessary for their purposes as long as they have open data.”

- Watts Martin on the blind spots of open source zealots

Nix the Share Buttons on News Sites?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:59:50 -0500

Nix the Share Buttons on News Sites?:

Most of the time a journalist puts a question mark in a title it’s safe to infer that their answer is no. In this case, Doreen Marchionni seems to be implying yes. Cool.

i hope next week we start making some noise about nixing the share buttons on university websites. UWM is up to seven (7!!! and Pinterest? really?) on the homepage alone. Still no RSS feed though.

Hotel Apple

Thu, 31 May 2012 14:12:09 -0500

Hotel Apple:

How to get the most out of your hotel, prison, OS, blogging platform, what have you:

Take some care to be sure that the data you care about most, the data you create, be it writings or images or code isn’t locked in a proprietary format.

→ Go read my whole Hotel Apple (Such a Lovely Place) response to the EFF crystal prison thing.

The Mischiefs of Faction

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:07:52 -0500

The Mischiefs of Faction:

A new blog from some of my favorite political scientists: Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, and Hans Noel. Self-recommending, as they say.

11 Reasons Your Infographic Isn’t an Infographic

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:34:00 -0500

11 Reasons Your Infographic Isn’t an Infographic:

Via Jim Ray.

If Merlin keeps with the Jean Grey porn he’s gonna pass...

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:30:37 -0500

If Merlin keeps with the Jean Grey porn he’s gonna pass Ari.

You May Vote in Wisconsin

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:59:24 -0500

You May Vote in Wisconsin:

If you will be 18 years old or older by Election Day.

If you are a U.S. citizen.

If you will be a Wisconsin resident for at least 28 days by Election Day.

If you have registered to vote – or you register to vote on Election Day.

To register at the polls on Election Day, bring a document with your name and voting address.

You may vote in Wisconsin even if you don’t have a driver’s license or photo ID.

For more information see: Know Your Voting Rights (via ACLU—Wisconsin).

"I illegally downloaded the Lower Dens record to make sure people were sharing it at 320 kbps...."

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:30:32 -0500

“I illegally downloaded the Lower Dens record to make sure people were sharing it at 320 kbps. They were; it sounds good.”

- Jana Hunter of the Lower Dens

WEST

Mon, 28 May 2012 01:22:13 -0500

WEST

"[T]he Republicans, led by Ryan, have made a strategic decision that the economic crisis offers them..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:54:00 -0500

“[T]he Republicans, led by Ryan, have made a strategic decision that the economic crisis offers them an expiring window of opportunity to pass the agenda of their dreams. Should they win the election, it is vital that they use their majority immediately and to maximal effect. That’s why Ryan insisted on boxing the party in by getting his fellow Republicans to take dangerous votes on his budget in 2011 and again this year despite having no chance of signing into law under Obama. By making virtually all Republicans in Congress take the vote now, they will have a hard time claiming next year that voters don’t want such radical change.”

- Jonathan Chait

Precisely Milwaukee

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:08:20 -0500

Precisely Milwaukee:

Forbes calls Milwaukee the number 10 city “Leading the U.S. Manufacturing revival,” writing about the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis MSA:

The center for manufacturing of machine tools and other precision equipment boosted its industrial employment 3.6% last year to 118,000 jobs.

A good sign for the area economy, particularly since some of the cities with higher rates of growth have much smaller manufacturing employment sectors.

Given the types of training required by the high-tech nature of manufacturing jobs today, perhaps now would be a good time to invest rather than cutback in our public universities, colleges, and technical schools.

A Web Which Won't Be World Wide

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:11:00 -0500

A Web Which Won't Be World Wide:

I don’t think the Web is dead. And I am not sure it is going to die. But if it’s going to die, it might die at the hands of the URL scheme. Which is sort of interesting, because URL schemes are the way we link apps together, but in the future they might become the way we unlink from the Web.

That’s me. But go over here to read more.

Tweeting from GUI Command Line Thingies

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:19:07 -0500

Tweeting from GUI Command Line Thingies:

Remiel explains how to use Quicksilver to post Tweets.

To use with Alfred, just follow his instructions but use {query} instead of “***”.

BTW if the title didn’t make it obvious, Quicksilver, Alfred, Launchbar, Butler — they are always called “launchers.” I think we should call them GUI Command Line Thingies.

"This shit makes me terrifically angry. I recently quit Facebook — deleted my account. I don’t want..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 20:24:05 -0500

“This shit makes me terrifically angry. I recently quit Facebook — deleted my account. I don’t want to quit Twitter too, but it’s on my mind now.”

- Brent Simmons responds to Dustin Curtis’s revelation that Twitter is tracking you on the web

"A blog isn’t about the feelings of the company, but rather a personal look at the writer. You can’t..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:52:31 -0500

“A blog isn’t about the feelings of the company, but rather a personal look at the writer. You can’t assign a blogger a story and hope the audience doesn’t get the fact that they have no idea what they’re talking about or worse yet, they don’t really care.”

- Jim Dalrymple (via MM)

"You have to mighty full of yourself to think: ‘we have no politics.’ You know who has no..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:44:36 -0500

“You have to mighty full of yourself to think: ‘we have no politics.’ You know who has no politics? God. Are you God? No, you’re not… Deal.”

- Jay Rosen on TED

Please

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:18:44 -0500

Please

Wake

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:07:05 -0500

Wake

Even The Wall Street Journal

Sat, 12 May 2012 16:03:00 -0500

Even The Wall Street Journal:

Congressman Daniel Webster (R-FL 8th) on the American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau:

the definition of the breach of personal privacy, the picture of what’s wrong in Washington D.C., unconstitutional.

That’s a quote provided by a Wall Street Journal editorial which all but implies that the Republican Party is looking a little insane by moving to eliminate funding for the ACS in the House.

Of course Daniel Webster and 209 other Republicans didn’t seem to have much of a problem voting to breach our personal privacy when they voted to extend the Patriot Act. Of course, the ACS asks citizens for innocuous information while Patriot Act gives the government sweeping powers to violate actual civil liberties as a way to investigate crimes justified by raising the specter 9-11 as justification.

Anyways. So we’ve learned that even the Wall Street Journal thinks congressional Republicans have gone off the rails and also that the WSJ does believe in government:

National statistics are in some sense public goods, which is why the government has other data-gathering shops like the Bureaus of Economic Analysis and Labor Statistics.

Amen. Link to editorial via John Sides but you have to use the Google trick to get to the full text.

On Brogrammers

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:30:40 -0500

On Brogrammers:

Gina Trapani on misogyny in programming culture:

The tech industry’s testosterone level can make the thickest-skinned women consider a different career. But the rise of the brogrammer joke and its ensuing backlash has some benefits: It helps talented women choose worthy employers, it gives a name and face to a problem that plagues the industry and it publicly shames some of the most sexist offenders.