SBO:links

laughingsquid: Social Roulette, A Game With a One in Six Chance...

zapp645 — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:01:07 -0400

Social Roulette, A Game With a One in Six Chance of Deleting Your Facebook Account

Digital life as analogy for just plain life. I like this.

"Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution."

zapp645 — Sun, 05 May 2013 10:00:45 -0400

“Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”

- The Shirky Principle (via explore-blog).

This quote encapsulates so much about modern America. It’s of my favorite quotes I’ve heard in a very long time.

"[W]hen we launch in a territory the Bittorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows. So I..."

zapp645 — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:00:44 -0400

“[W]hen we launch in a territory the Bittorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows. So I think people do want a great experience and they want access – people are mostly honest. The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options. One of the side effects of growth of content is an expectation to have access to it. You can’t use the internet as a marketing vehicle and then not as a delivery vehicle.”

- Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix (via laliberty)

thedailywhat: Stats Pr0n of the Day: Almost Half of Justin...

zapp645 — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:00:43 -0400

thedailywhat:

Stats Pr0n of the Day: Almost Half of Justin Bieber’s Twitter Following are Fake

According to a recently released study by Socialbakers, nearly half of Justin Bieber’s 37 million strong Twitter” followers are made of either fake or inactive accounts. Graph courtesy of Statista.

"We’re committed to broadcast, but we need to be fairly compensated from people who redistribute our..."

zapp645 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:00:50 -0400

““We’re committed to broadcast, but we need to be fairly compensated from people who redistribute our signal… The dual revenue system is essential,” Carey said. “We will pursue our legal rights and we want to be clear that if we can’t defend our rights, we will take our network and make it a subscription service… We’re not going to sit idly by and let someone steal our signal.””

- News Corp COO Threatens To Pull Fox Broadcast Signal If Aereo Prevails In Legal Battle | TechCrunch (via infoneer-pulse)

All I can say is, Fox should DO this. They’ll see how much worse things are for them once they’re a cable channel and they aren’t getting all of the freebies and privileges that come from being a broadcast network. Good luck, Fox!

"As an example, the Michigan Tech paper describes an item known as a “parametric automated filter..."

zapp645 — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:00:58 -0400

“As an example, the Michigan Tech paper describes an item known as a “parametric automated filter wheel changer.” The item would cost about $2,500 from a commercial vendor but could be made with a 3-D printer for less than $100. It’s essentially a plastic wheel that holds colored filters in place as they rotate, testing the effects of the varying colors on the number of electrons that are emitted for each photon fired into a solar cell, Mr. Pearce said. “It was $2,500,” he said, “and all it does is move the filter around.””

- Lab Equipment Made With 3-D Printers Could Cut Costs by 97% - Percolator - The Chronicle of Higher Education (via infoneer-pulse).

3D printing will change the world. At least that’s the hope.

Is Community A Postmodern Masterpiece? | Idea Channel. Maybe not...

zapp645 — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:12:06 -0400

Is Community A Postmodern Masterpiece? | Idea Channel.

Maybe not a challenging question, because obviously the answer is “yes.” But I love this for so many reasons, and the main one is not even “Community” related: it’s a great primer on postmodernism, and also mentions the problems with it. If you are not a regular Idea Channel subscriber, become one.

Cord-Cutters Rejoice: Streaming Broadcast TV Wins Big in Court

zapp645 — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:00:38 -0400

Cord-Cutters Rejoice: Streaming Broadcast TV Wins Big in Court:

This is really important. Traditional spectrum-using broadcast television could be a thing of the past. This is so cool.

Long Prison Term Shortened by Judge’s Regrets

zapp645 — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:01:00 -0400

Long Prison Term Shortened by Judge’s Regrets:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When Denise Dallaire was arrested at age 26 on charges of selling a few ounces of crack cocaine here a decade ago, she was sentenced to prison for more than 15 years. Last month, shackled inside the same court and facing the same judge, she received an apology and was set free.

The reversal by Judge Ronald R. Lagueux highlights how mandatory sentencing guidelines, though struck down by the Supreme Court eight years ago, continue to keep hundreds of small-time offenders behind bars for longer than many today consider appropriate.

Ms. Dallaire was lucky enough to get herself noticed and for a technical flaw in her case to have surfaced. The result was a moment of courtroom drama and human redemption led by an 81-year-old judge eager to make amends for a decision he had long regretted.

“I felt bound by those mandatory guidelines and I hated them,” Judge Lagueux (pronounced la-GUEUR) said from the bench as Ms. Dallaire sobbed quietly and the room froze with amazement. “I’m sorry I sent you away for 15 years.” He urged her to get home quickly to her ill mother but not to run down the court steps as people do in the movies. “Those steps are dangerous,” he told her.

I love this story. I have only once in my job as a public defender ever read a transcript of a sentencing proceeding in which a judge showed remorse for giving out a very long sentence. Often, at least in Ohio drug law, these kinds of long sentences are, in fact, mandatory and cannot be reduced by a judge. Federal guideline sentencing is a little more complicated. But this story is really great.

laughingsquid: The First Honest Cable Company...

zapp645 — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:00:36 -0400

laughingsquid:

The First Honest Cable Company Commercial

I’ve posted before about the illusion of choice in cable and Internet service providers. Here’s someone talking about it in a way more funny way.

jtotheizzoe: thebrainscoop: How much does it cost to make one...

zapp645 — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:00:59 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

thebrainscoop:

How much does it cost to make one episode of The Brain Scoop?

Someone left this question on our Facebook page once I mentioned that we are accepting donations in order to help support the channel, and I have been puzzling over it ever since. This type of thing is largely impossible to quantify, in my opinion; there are too many variables. I’ve made an attempt to break it down, however, using only the number of people profiting from the show (three; myself, Michael, and Hank), and weekly ad sales earnings based off of views on YouTube.

One week this month we made $173.28 from ad sales - the next week we made $404.51. That’s a big difference. So, the average between those two weeks is about $288. Divided by 3 people is $96/week per person. Divided by 2 episodes/week is $48, per person, per episode. Let’s assume we spend 10 hours on one episode — this includes my research time, writing, editing the script, filming it, watching footage, and editing it together for an easy episode (this is a very low estimate of time cost per episode, for the record).

We are each making $4.80/hour per episode.

But wait! That is just the (rough estimated) amount of time spent filming and editing. What about the time spent on social media? This is a large part of my job and takes up a significant amount of time as well - between Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and answering emails I estimate that I spend an additional 5-6 hours a day reading, responding, and doing whatever else to help foster this community we’ve established. If you include 20 hours/week filming and editing, and 35 hours/week spent on social media/emails/interviews/articles, that’s 55 hours/week for $96; I’m making less than $2/hr.

But what about videos we don’t earn anything from? It took us around 7 hours one day to skin the wolf, and another 5 the next. 12 hours of work time for filming alone - not to mention the days we spent editing footage to make it a 15-minute episode [there was probably an additional 20-25 hours editing time], and since it has become age-restricted we have earned virtually nothing from a video that took perhaps 30 or more hours to create.

This is why we appreciate your donations so much. I don’t enjoy asking for money, but I feel that it is important for our viewers to understand how much time and effort goes into producing one episode. There are many more variables we could factor in: meeting times, chats about merchandise, other investment costs - but I think you get the idea. This is my only source of income while I juggle six credits of graduate school work on top of everything.

I love our show and I would not stop creating content unless something completely out of my control forced me to quit.. like, if I died. It has certainly become one of the most important aspects of my life and I don’t want you to think I am complaining that I’m not making a living: even if I earned nothing I would still do everything in my power to continue producing episodes. We aren’t about to stop.. but your support certainly makes it easier for us to carry on.

[Photo by Kristen Franklin]

Channels like these rely on YOU, not only to share and watch, but to literally help get them made. Emily is doing great stuff, hopefully we can help her keep doing so.

"1. Be raised with access to clean drinking water and sanitation. (Every tech billionaire I’ve..."

zapp645 — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 10:00:34 -0400

“1. Be raised with access to clean drinking water and sanitation. (Every tech billionaire I’ve ever spoken to has a toilet!)”

- Ten Tips Guaranteed to Improve Your Startup Success - Anil Dash

Yeah. This is great.

The New Experience Economy: Activity as Currency

zapp645 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:00:32 -0400

The New Experience Economy: Activity as Currency:

This article explores an interesting result of the rise of quote-unquote big data. It’s a really interesting read.

On Rape, Cages, and the Steubenville Verdict

zapp645 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:00:24 -0400

On Rape, Cages, and the Steubenville Verdict:

thecriminalblawg:

“Elevating the experience of these boys above the experience of their victim is not okay. But, you know what is okay? Also feeling sorry for these boys. Not in the way that CNN did it. Not at the expense of the girl who was raped by these boys. But including these boys in our feelings of sadness is okay. I, unlike many people reacting to today’s verdict, am not just thrilled to death that two 16-year-old boys are going to jail. What they did was terrible. There is no excuse. They have to be two seriously fucked-up kids to have done what they did. But what I know for damn sure is that jail does not fix broken people. It only breaks them harder.”

This is a fantastic article. Mia draws attention to a very difficult issue in a gentle and thoughtful way that would be hard for the most narrowly focused victims’ rights advocate to ignore.

CNN has done so much fucking damage here. There is no doubt that the way they have framed the accused youth as young superstars fallen victim to their own misguided values was really shitty. Highlighting their promise adds salt to the very real wounds of victims who do not hear their voices reflected in our legal system.

Whats worse is that, in framing Ma’Lik and Trent in this way, they have made it near impossible to speak to the rights that these kids have and deserve in the system. The value of respecting and supporting offenders and their rights is hard enough as it is, but is certainly in all of our best interests. We don’t support capital punishment which means these kids will get out of jail eventually, and, given that they are so young, when they are released they will still have years of life to live in the community.

Who do we want them to be? Do we want to abuse and shame them into angry men with the issues they already face compounded by the stigma of this horrible act, or do we want them to feel like we value their lives enough to invest in the supports necessary to have them live out their lives among us in a healthy way? Either way, be clear, they will eventually be living among us.

I face challenge in my position as an offender rights advocate on the daily, without adding CNN’s fuel to that fire, and I will continue to do so. I hope you will too… in the mean time, fuck you CNN.

This is important. I haven’t had a chance to write anything about this, and I’m saddened to see friends that are otherwise critical thinkers being so vitriolic about this whole thing. This is a great response to that tendency, and it’s what I wish I’d written. Instead, this person did. Nice work.

Godspeed You Black Emperor Reviewed By Tough Critics On...

zapp645 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:00:42 -0400

Godspeed You Black Emperor Reviewed By Tough Critics On Soundcheck (by wnycradio).

I mostly wanted to post this for something Elizabeth said. She says it sounds like a Taylor Swift song. She’s right! It’s fuzzier and a little more challenging in texture, but it has the same sort of epic and swirly strings and stuff that modern pop music is all about. And that’s what makes it awesome. If only Godspeed You Black Emperor fans would see this, maybe they could enjoy Taylor Swift a little more.

"HBO could widen access to its HBO GO online streaming service by teaming up with broadband Internet..."

zapp645 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:00:45 -0400

“HBO could widen access to its HBO GO online streaming service by teaming up with broadband Internet providers for customers who do not subscribe to a cable TV service, according to HBO’s Chief Executive Richard Plepler.”

- HBO CEO mulls teaming with broadband partners for HBO GO | Reuters. This is almost certainly a result of the huge piracy numbers being reported for “Game of Thrones.” Not a bad idea. Interested to see how it plays out and is implemented.

clément gallet: “ritn eng iz ded,” a manifesto on a new...

zapp645 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:00:29 -0400

clément gallet: “ritn eng iz ded,” a manifesto on a new language.

Wide Eyes: Big ways the internet is changing our brains

zapp645 — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:00:42 -0400

Wide Eyes: Big ways the internet is changing our brains:

mega-mix:

THE INTERNET IS OUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

We don’t have to remember phone numbers or addresses anymore. Instead, we can just hop on our email or Google to look it up. According to a study by Science Magazine, “the Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where…

A great overview of what some studies say about how brains are changing. It’s not a full accounting, and, in fact, some of these results could be read to contradict each other. But it’s a good read.

think-progress: Good use of time They show people what they...

zapp645 — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:00:36 -0400

think-progress:

Good use of time

They show people what they want to see. People should want to see better things maybe?

Apple’s Diabolical Plan to Screw Your iPhone

zapp645 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:42 -0400

Apple’s Diabolical Plan to Screw Your iPhone:

Hardware choices ARE policy choices.