Waxy.org: Links Archives: February 2010

Pictures for Sad Children, "Play Play Play" (Level End) [via]

Nieman Labs tallies original reporting vs. rewrites for the Google/China hacking story (121 different versions of the story, but only 13 did any original reporting)

Joel Johnson's extremely painful, personal story of sexual abuse (so horrible I hesitate linking to it, but I will, if only for Google justice)

Casey Neistat's excellent short film about Chat Roulette (includes demographics, vernacular, and how men and women are treated differently)

NYT on Bloom Energy's public debut (groundbreaking fuel cell tech used by Google, eBay, others; Mashable liveblogged the launch)

Yelp accused of extortion in class-action lawsuit (I maintain that business owners are confused over both sponsorship and the algorithm; a former Yelp account exec debunks the claims)

The Effing Typeface (a NSFW font by designer Alex Merto)

YouTube removes most popular, fan-uploaded Rickroll (update: it's back, Google says it was a mistake)

Neurosonics Live (real-time holographic projection synced to turntables and drums) [via]

Andrew vs. the Collective's "Search Engine Optimization" (short fiction about an alternate-reality Internet gone amok, using words and phrases created by Kickstarter backers) [via]

Italian court finds Google Video guilty of privacy violation for uploaded video (astonishingly terrible decision, here's Google's response)

danah boyd on ChatRoulette as a throwback to the early web (I've been thinking the same thing; related: Hearts, Hugs, and Kisses on ChatRoulette)

The Spy at Harrington High (digging into the tech behind the high school webcam spying scandal)

Sushi Cat (damn you, Cal) [via]

4chan on Jeopardy (you thought Dooce's mention was surreal? now your grandma knows about /b/)

Interview with the manager of Coney Island's Cyclone (from Last Summer at Coney Island, a documentary about Coney's revitalization)

The Gruber 10 at Macworld (thoughtful look at the top issues facing Apple, with an eye to their past) [via]

Auto-Tune the News #10 (a return to form after autotuning ads for Kotaku (great) and Sony (awful))

Passage in 10 Seconds (from the creator of You Only Live Once; some context)

Twitter releases growth stats for first three years (50 million tweets per day; compare to Kottke's cumulative estimates from 2007)

Matt Haughey's updates on Mechanical Turk human spam (the numbers are relatively small compared to the amount of spam, I wonder where the rest's coming from)

Slate on the government's alcohol poisoning during Prohibition (by some estimates, over 10,000 Americans were killed drinking tainted alcohol)

Filipinos scared to sing Sinatra after "My Way" karaoke murders (superstition stemming from the song's popularity in karaoke bars) [via]

Jesse Schell's DICE talk about Facebook, reality, and the future of pervasive gaming (from the author of The Art of Game Design) [via]

CodeOrgan (listen to your favorite website, the "About" explains the methodology) [via]

Google prototypes real-time OCR and translation in Google Goggles (incredible demo, simply tying existing pieces of Google tech together)

Music Journalism Is the New Piracy (the problem isn't Google, but the DMCA and litigious media organizations)

OK Cupid covers the effects of age on dating and attractiveness (as always, some incredible dataporn mined from their community) [via]

Please Rob Me (amusing, but only dangerous if someone knows where you live)

Bunnie Huang's forensic research into irregular MicroSD cards ("Kingston is revealed as simply a vendor that re-marks other people's chips in its own packaging") [via]

Plants vs. Zombies released for iPhone (one of my favorite games from last year, a steal at $2.99)

Esquire profiles Roger Ebert (I've said it before, his journal is one of the best things around right now)

Wired's magazine concept for tablet computers (reminds me of CD-ROM magazines of the mid-1990s)

David Crane's iPhone app on Atari 2600 programming ($1.99, cheap) [via]

Clive Thompson on obscurity and social scaling ("It's no longer a bantering process of thinking and living out loud. It becomes old-fashioned broadcasting.")

Mayor of the North Pole (Jim Bumgardner comes clean with his Foursquare API cheating)

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented reality maps at TED (in addition the recent Flickr integration, live geospatial video and space visualization)

Augmented hyper(Reality): Domestic Robocop (with an ad blocker, I'd be all over it) [via]

What makes Blip tick? (opening up a mechanical Pong-like toy) [via]

Chatroulette creator outs himself as Russian high school student (19k people currently online)

"Who else loves ice cream?" (also, just noticed that anyone can comment on any public Buzz post)

Nathan Myhrvold's Death Star laser kills mosquitoes in flight (built from parts found on eBay to fight malaria and demonstrated at TED)

Google Chrome for Mac beta gets extensions (I switched primary browsers last month, my first change since Firebird in 2003) [via]

YouTube's Video Speed History (not related at all: Google's fiber announcement) [via]

Ars Technica covers moot's TED talk (low-quality video of his talk; 4chan's raw nature is fueled by anonymity and no memory)

Bing Maps adds augmented Photosynth street views with Flickr photos (a detailed window into time using every CC-licensed geotagged Flickr photo from Seattle, Vancouver, and SF; requires Silverlight)

Confused Facebook users think ReadWriteWeb is the new Facebook login page (they're searching for "facebook login" on Google, using FB Connect, and posting hundreds of confused comments)

CNET's Daniel Terdiman digs into the evolution of Glitch's back story (including rejected concept ideas, inspired by paper cutouts, automatons, and daydreams)

Logorama (official full version of the Oscar-nominated animated short, using over 2,500 logos)

Adam Kempa helps spot the hidden image on New Yorker's 85th anniversary covers (covers by Brunetti, Tomine, Clowes, and Chris Ware, who also wrote an essay)

Google launches Buzz, social updates and sharing (Friendfeed makes its way into Gmail and mobile; now live, with Reader integration and APIs)

Mirror Scare Supercut (related: SNL's The Mirror) [via]

Tiny Speck announces Glitch, Flash MMO coming later this year (CNET has the exclusive behind-the-scenes and in-depth preview of the game)

ChatRoulette, videochat with a random person (like Omegle with a webcam, randomly NSFW; YouTube has some great video captures) [via]

Recursive webcast on Justin.tv (turn your radio down)

Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread (1987 short film finally digitized by a fan; cameos by James Randi, Andy Warhol, and Whodini)

We love xkcd (geek all-star remake of the comic on the Discovery Channel ad)

Choire Sicha interviews Paul Ford, Harper's web editor ("YOU ARE THE STUPIDEST WEBSITE IN STUPIDTOWN BECAUSE I WANT EVERYTHING FREE RIGHT NOW!")

Record Tripping (turntablist-inspired game samples Alice in Wonderland and music by Gorillaz, Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, and Spoon) [via]

Patrick Stewart on Twitter, the Internet, iPhone, and games (simplicity, not brevity)

Help Giant Robot (raising money for another year of publication)

Shutup, disable comments on popular websites (related: Engadget disables comments and the Macheist team adds them to Daring Fireball)

Where We Remain (you might also like Beulah & the Hundred Birds, also built on Flixel)

Loudon Wainwright III on the Sound of Young America (very personal interview and great performances inspired by Charlie Poole)

Google Chrome 4 adds support for native Greasemonkey scripts (yay!)

Greg Knauss time-travels to visit his 1990 self (everything is amazing, nobody's happy)

Gnilley, indie game where you kill enemies by screaming (see also: Racing Pitch)

Ze Frank's Pain Pack (songs built from samples of people in emotional distress)