- Can Martha teach the government not to think it’s Google? « Labour Uncut
"During my time at the cabinet office, not a day went by where there wasn’t a Jim Hacker moment. “The problem with Google, minister” said the very high up IT man “is that it doesn’t find the pages we want people to read.” His solution was for the government to develop it’s own search algorithm in order to give citizens the information the government wanted them to find." Aaargh! Tom Watson, MP, on his frustrations with civil service and technology when Labour was in office, and in praise of Martha Lane-Fox's review of government internet services. (government labour_party technology tom_watson )
- Wired’s refusal to release or comment on the Manning chat logs – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
Glenn Greenwald accuses Wired of withholding vital evidence in the case of Bradley Manning while it gives a partial view of the situation. It should be done, he says, because that's what journalism is all about. Unfortunately I think the truth is that Wired needs to answer to no-one but the law and their owners, and what any one person's definition of journalism is is neither here nor there. (wikileaks journalism wired_magazine ethics )
- Exclusive: Why did BBC call on Christian who supports execution of gays to comment on Sir Elton’s baby? – Pink News
"The BBC’s flagship News at Six on BBC One featured a right-wing fundamentalist Christian who had previously supported the execution of gay people to comment on the birth of a surrogate son to Sir Elton John and his civil partner David Furnish. Incredibly, the BBC did not seem to realise that the same preacher had faced bankruptcy after losing an attempted private prosecution for blasphemy against the director general of the BBC after the character of Jesus described himself as “a little bit gay” in ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’." (homophobia bbc journalism )
- the nytpicker: NBC’s Brian Williams Declares NYT’s "Discovery" of Brooklyn As Media Story Of 2010. "It’s Like Marrakesh," He Says.
NBC News anchorman Brian Williams has declared the NYT's "discovery of Brooklyn" as the media story of 2010. [...] Williams's brilliant comic tirade at the NYT's expense came in response to Joe Scarborough's statement that he believed the iPad to be the media sensation of the year." Video also available. (ipad humour nyt video )
- Memo Pad: iPad Magazine Sales Drop – Fashion Memopad – WWD.com
"Remember when Wired’s debut issue for the iPad sold more than 100,000 times in June? It looks like it will be a while before that type of performance is seen again. Digital sales dropped toward the end of 2010 for all the magazines that make those figures available to the Audit Bureau of Circulations." The figures are all here. (ipad magazines statistics )
- Gawker was hacked six months ago, say sources close to Gnosis | Technology | guardian.co.uk
"Hackers had access to the gossip site Gawker's content management system (CMS) and password files for around six months, rather than the few days suggested by the company, the Guardian has learnt from sources connected to the break-in." (gawker hacking 4chan security )
- Duckworks – All boat design is a compromise – Rubbish
Painful story from journalist Dylan Winter on coming to depend on AdSense for income, and then being inexplicably and irrevocably blacklisted. (google adsense advertising youtube )
- Peter Vesterbacka, Maker of Angry Birds Talks about the Birds, Apple, Android, Nokia, and Palm/HP | Mobile and Social Media
Insightful interview with Peter Verterbacka, the “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio, makers of Angry Birds. One bit I was interested in: "HP-Palm webOS is a really cool OS and has been a pleasure developing for that one, but the volume is irrelevant for the time being." (games development angry_birds interview )
- Delicious In Purgatory
Oh dear. The problems of Yahoo trying (badly) to sell Delicious. (delicious yahoo business acquisition )
- Q: What Does Quora Mean For The Future Of Blogging? A: Business As Usual
The title says it all, and quite right, too. Good content, also. (quora future blogging )
- So long, ReportingOn | Invisible Inkling
"In 2008, I was awarded a Knight News Challenge grant to build ReportingOn, a backchannel for beat reporters to share ideas, information, and sources. The goal of the project was to provide journalists of all stripes with a place to talk about content, not craft, or process, or skillset. [...] Yesterday, I shut down ReportingOn." Valuable lessons from Ryan Sholin. (journalism tools failure knight_news_challenge )
- HOW TO: Attract Early Adopters to Your Social Startup
"Hashable CEO Michael Yavonditte says he “looked at all the successful [social] networks” when designing his product. “There are things to learn from all successful companies in adjacent spaces,” he says. Here’s a quick look at the science behind some of the most well-known social networks, and how they cracked the philosophical egg." Good analysis. (social_networking foursquare startups marketing facebook twitter )
- The History Of King’s Cross And St Pancras On One Billboard | Londonist
"Walking through the King’s Cross railway lands yesterday, we chanced upon what at first appeared to be a giant ransom note, cut and pasted from other billboards. Situated on Goods Way, the sign offers a potted history of this ever-chaging area in that semi-cryptic tone once favoured by Kenneth Kendall on Treasure Hunt – and in a garish ensemble of fonts." (history kings_cross london )
- Evan Williams: The Challenges of a Web of Infinite Info: Tech News and Analysis «
"A few weeks ago, [Evan Williams, a founder of Twitter] and I discussed the future of the Internet, Twitter and the curse of too much information. It was a long conversation, sometimes rambling, but quite enjoyable." Great stuff. (twitter interview data future )
- The Good, Bad and Ugly of Media iPad Apps: Tech News and Analysis «
"I thought the end of 2010 would be a good time to put down in writing some of the [media iPad apps] that have most impressed me, as well as some that I think still need work. As far as the criticisms go, I hope showcasing what some are doing well can help the weakest learn how to adapt and make better use of this new platform." (media magazines newspapers ipad review )
- The Unbearable Inevitability of Being Android, 1995 « counternotions
Slightly baffling piece by Kontra in response to a couple of pundits expecting/hoping 2011 will be "the year Android explodes". It's full of anger, but in the end says nothing more than if this does happen it will be difficult for Google's partners… and then undermines that by acknowledging that those partners aren't putting all their eggs in one basket, anyway. (android google apple mobile microsoft iphone )
- The Dimensions of Colour
"Since we normally experience objects as having definite colours without having to make a conscious effort of interpretation, it follows that this interpretation must be occurring subconsciously as part of the processing of the image by our visual system. This feature of our visual system allows us to recognize without conscious effort the local colour of objects under lights of differing hue, brightness, and saturation, a capability referred to as colour constancy." (colour )
By: Nik | 2301hrs, Thursday, 30 December, 2010 | Links | Trackback | Comments [RSS 2.0]
