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Could closed core prove a more robust model than open core?
By Andy OramDecember 1, 2011
The closed core model requires businesses to determine where their unique value lies and to be generous in offering the public extra code that supports their infrastructure but does not drive revenue. This model may prove more robust and lasting than open core, which attracts companies occupying minor positions in their industries.
Four short links: 25 November 2011 - MIND CONTROL COPTERS!, Better Security, Ratings Systems, and Lightweight Reference
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 25, 2011
Continuous Three-Dimensional Control of a Virtual Helicopter Using a Motor Imagery Based Brain-Computer Interface (PLOSone) -- direct brain control is becoming a reality, tiny step by tiny step. Also: HELICOPTERS! Forward Secrecy for HTTPS -- Google contributed a better HTTPS cipher suite to OpenSSL, one that doesn't share keys between conversations. Yay the Goog for giving back. Ratings Systems...
Strata Week: Why ThinkUp matters - ThinkUp and data ownership, DataSift turns on its Twitter firehose, and Google cracks opens the door to BigQuery.
November 17, 2011
Data democratization gets an important new tool with the release of ThinkUp 1.0. Also, DataSift offers another way to get the Twitter firehose, and Google offers a little more access to its BigQuery data analytics service.
Four short links: 15 November 2011 - Internet Asthma Care, C Fulltext, Citizen Science, and Mozilla
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 15, 2011
Cost-Effectiveness of Internet-Based Self-Management Compared with Usual Care in Asthma (PLoSone) -- Internet-based self-management of asthma can be as effective as current asthma care and costs are similar. Apache Lucy -- full-text search engine library written in C and targeted at dynamic languages. It is a "loose C" port of Apache Lucene™, a search engine library for Java. The...
Civic media competition attracts a new generation of change agents - A global conversation with finalists in Ashoka's civic media innovation competition.
November 14, 2011
Finalists in the Ashoka Foundation's civic media competition offered honest and perceptive observations about the role of civic media in the expanding information ecosystem.
Four short links: 9 November 2011 - Social Graph Dismissed, Anonymous Explained, Resistance Explored, and Android Improved
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 9, 2011
The Social Graph is Neither -- Maciej Ceglowski nails it. Imagine the U.S. Census as conducted by direct marketers - that's the social graph. Social networks exist to sell you crap. The icky feeling you get when your friend starts to talk to you about Amway, or when you spot someone passing out business cards at a birthday party,...
Developer Week in Review: The hijacking of an insulin pump - Medical devices are remotely hacked, Google Maps get a price tag, and Linus Torvalds really doesn't like a certain language.
November 3, 2011
If you own an insulin pump, someone out there might have a hack with your name on it. Google decides to make high-volume Maps API users pony up some cash, and the creator of Linux goes after C++.
Four short links: 3 November 2011 - Getting Feedback, Colour Design, Discovering Musicians, Weather Prediction App
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 3, 2011
Feedback Without Frustration (YouTube) -- Scott Berkun at the HIVE conference talks about how feedback fails, and how to get it successfully. He is so good. Americhrome -- history of the official palette of the United States of America. Discovering Talented Musicians with Musical Analysis (Google Research blgo) -- very clever, they do acoustical analysis and then train up...
Four short links: 24 October 2011 - Interactive Web Goodness, Location Based Security, Referer vs https, and Financial Charting
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 24, 2011
Tangle -- open source Javascript library for creating slider-type widgets in web pages, with built-in updating of other web elements. This is fantastic for exploring "what-if" scenarios. Check out the demos. Location-Based Security -- The researchers have created a customized version of Android controlled by a “policy engine” on a server. The Android devices use Bluetooth and near-field communications...
You say you want a revolution? It's called post-PC computing - An examination of the post-PC wave and its major players.
October 24, 2011
Spurred on by a Googler's rant against his own company and Apple's release of a new phone, a new OS and a new cloud infrastructure, Mark Sigal wonders what the "post-pc" revolution really looks like.
FLOSS Manuals books published after three-day sprint
By Andy OramOctober 21, 2011
Joining the pilgrimage that all institutions are making toward wider data use, FLOSS Manuals is exposing more and more of the writing process.
Wrap-up from FLOSS Manuals book sprint at Google
By Andy OramOctober 21, 2011
Mixtures of grassroots content generation and unique expertise have existed, and more models will be found. Understanding the points of commonality between the systems will help us develop such models.
Developer Week in Review: Talking to your phone - Getting serious about Siri, Open Office on the rocks, and Google embraces SQL.
October 21, 2011
This week, we ask if Apple's Siri has more than novelty value, and decide it does. Open Office needs you (or at least your money) to stay afloat, and Google bends to developer pressure and finally adds SQL support to its cloud computing platform.
Day one of FLOSS Manuals book sprint at Google Summer of Code summit
By Andy OramOctober 19, 2011
Four teams at Google launched into endeavors that will lead, less than 72 hours from now, to complete books on four open source projects.
Four short links: 18 October 2011 - Search Education, Classic Source, Analyzing Encrypted VoIP, and SQL Injection
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 18, 2011
Web Search Education (Google) -- lesson plans and materials for teaching people how to use search, from operators to critically evaluating sites. This latter area is the weakest: when I teach innocents about the web, I show them organic vs paid results, discuss why people advertise, how people pay for their sites, noticing domain names and organizations, etc. I...
FLOSS Manuals sprint starts at Google Summer of Code summit
By Andy OramOctober 18, 2011
Four free software projects have each sent three to five volunteers to write books about the projects this week. Along the way we'll all learn about the group writing process and the particular use of book sprints to make documentation for free software.
Four short links: 17 October 2011 - From Reddit to Movie, Google Audited, Web Delays, and Sugared CSS
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 17, 2011
Story Written in Reddit -- historical scifi based on the question "Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?" Movie rights were just acquired by Warners. (via BoingBoing) Auditing Google -- the comically complex games played to move profits to...
Developer Week in Review: Two giants fall - Steve Jobs and the App Store, goodbye to Dennis Ritchie, and an internal Google critique goes public.
October 13, 2011
Better late than never, a few thoughts on Steve Jobs. Also, a Unix pioneer leaves us, and Google's dirty laundry is accidentally hung out to dry.
Four short links: 13 October 2011 - Memorable Indexes, Mobile Sensors, Augmented Reality Toys, and Collaborative Editing
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 13, 2011
Memorable Indexes (Futility Closet) -- Carroll's index also includes entries for "Boots for horizontal weather," "Horizontal rain, boots for," "Rain, horizontal, boots for," and "Weather, horizontal, boots for". They're silly and whimsical, but the underlying problem of making multiple accessible entrypoints into a single corpus of content is with us today and only compounded by the vast growth of...
Data in the HR department - Google's Kathryn Dekas on how a data-driven mindset applies to human resources.
October 12, 2011
Google's people analytics manager Kathryn Dekas discusses the ways in which human resources departments can use data for the benefit of both employers and employees.
Four short links: 12 October 2011 - Google Platforms, Securing Software, Interactive Design, and Building Proverbs
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 12, 2011
Steve Yegge's Google Platforms Rant -- epic. Read it. (updated with new link) Guidelines for Securing Open Source Software (EFF) -- advice from the team that audited some commonly-used open source libraries. Avoid giving the user options that could compromise security, in the form of modes, dialogs, preferences, or tweaks of any sort. As security expert Ian Grigg puts...
Four short links: 10 October 2011 - Education Startups, Smartphone Robotics, Google SQL, and Deleted Timezones
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 10, 2011
Why Education Startups Do Not Succeed --This fundamental investment vs. expenditure mindset changes everything. You think of education as fundamentally a quality problem. The average person thinks of education as fundamentally a cost problem. This and many other insights that repay the reading. (via Hacker News) Romo -- smartphone robotics platform Kickstarter project. Google Cloud SQL -- Google offers...
Four short links: 28 September 2011 - Future Tech, Book Lawsuits, Site Design, and Sundae Problems
By Nat TorkingtonSeptember 28, 2011
Russell Davies: Four Thought (audio) -- some very nice thinking on the future of technology. The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books (The Atlantic) -- Authors Guild v. HathiTrust is a strange legal twist. For an association of professional writers, the Guild seems to have forgotten some of the basic principles of its craft, such as not placing...
Fighting the next mobile war - Recent moves by Apple and Google could ignite the external accessories space.
September 28, 2011
While you'll likely interact with your smartphone tomorrow in much the same way you interacted with it today, it's quite possible that your smartphone will interact with the world in a very different way. The next mobile war has already begun.
Strata Week: Crowdsourcing and gaming spur a scientific breakthrough - Fold.it users make a scientific breakthrough, Twitter open sources real-time processing tool, Google faces a senate hearing.
September 22, 2011
In this week's data news: Fold.it gamers help with HIV research, Twitter eyes data analytics, and Google testifies before the Senate.
ePayments Week: Google Wallet debuts - Google Wallet launches on the Nexus 4G, consumers not yet interested in mobile payment, and a new look at Android users.
September 22, 2011
Owners of Samsung's Nexus 4G on Sprint are the first to get Google's NFC-powered mobile wallet. Also, a new survey finds most Americans don't want mobile payment (yet), and a new batch of insights on Android users.
Four short links: 13 September 2011 - Lie with Research, Learning as You Teach, 3D Printing, and Future of Javascript
By Nat TorkingtonSeptember 13, 2011
Dan Saffer: How To Lie with Design Research (Google Video) -- Experience shows that, especially with qualitative research like the type designers often do, two researchers can look at the same set of data and draw dramatically different findings from them. As William Blake said, "Both read the Bible day and night, But thou read'st black where I read...
Publishing News: Google gets local with Zagat - The Google-Zagat acquisition, a speech-to-ebook platform, and Reuters puts a twist on aggregation.
September 9, 2011
Google goes deeper into local content with its Zagat acquisition. Also, anyone who can speak can now publish an ebook, and Reuters takes a different approach to aggregation.
Developer Week in Review: iPhone 5 is still on hold - Waiting for iPhone 5, patent madness continues, and the geeks will soon descend on New York.
September 9, 2011
We've been waiting for months, but the iPhone 5 is still getting ready. Elsewhere, Google lends HTC some ammo for the patent wars, and the Makers will soon gather in New York.
Four short links: 2 September 2011 - AutoUpdater, Extrapolation Apocalypse, C Compilers, and Authentication
By Nat TorkingtonSeptember 2, 2011
Invisible Autoupdater: An App's Best Feature -- Gina Trapani quotes Ben Goodger on Chrome: The idea was to give people a blank window with an autoupdater. If they installed that, over time the blank window would grow into a browser. Crackpot Apocalypse -- analyzing various historical pronouncements of the value of pi, paper author concludes "When πt is 1,...
Developer Week in Review: HP fires up the TouchPad production line one more time - HP's unique take on marketing, James Gosling leaves Google, and Apple continues its tavern distribution program.
September 1, 2011
The TouchPad's $99 price point proves enticing for consumers and — oddly — HP itself, James Gosling leaves Google, and a possible iPhone 5 leak bears a distinct resemblance to the iPhone 4 leak.
ePayments Week: Financial Times bets on its web app - Financial Times goes all-in on its web app, Flickr puts up fences, and daily deal fatigue sets in.
September 1, 2011
The Financial Times says subscriber data trumps Apple's reach, Flickr introduces geofencing to keep things private, and the cracks in the daily deal world start to show.
Four short links: 1 September 2011 - Android Charting, Illusion of Insight, Mapping API, and Science Storytelling
By Nat TorkingtonSeptember 1, 2011
A Chart Engine -- Android charting engine. The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight -- we are driven to create and form groups and then believe others are wrong just because they are others. Urban Mapping API -- add rich geographic data to web and non-web applications. Tell Us A Story, Victoria -- a university science story-telling contest....
Top Stories: August 22-26, 2011 - The legacy of Steve Jobs, the sweet spot between data and art, and a deep dive into Google+
August 26, 2011
This week on O'Reilly: Mark Sigal examined the legacy of Steve Jobs, we talked with New York Times data artist Jer Thorp about the commingling of data, art and science, and Tim O'Reilly and Google VP of Product Bradley Horowitz discussed Google+, data portability and more.
Digital copyright gets further complicated with "levels of rights" - How a freelancer ruling complicates copyright and affects the Google Books case.
August 26, 2011
A recent ruling in a case between publishers and freelancers could complicate the Google Books settlement as well. Here, attorney and literary agent Dana Newman explains why.
Inside Google+: The virtuous circle of data and doing right by users - Key points from a Google+ discussion between Tim O'Reilly and Bradley Horowitz.
August 24, 2011
Data liberation and user experience emerged as core themes during a recent discussion between Tim O'Reilly and Google+ VP of Product Bradley Horowitz.
Go inside Google+ with Tim O'Reilly and Bradley Horowitz - What does social data mean to Google? Find out in a free webcast on August 23.
August 19, 2011
Join Tim O'Reilly and Google VP of Product Management Bradley Horowitz on August 23 for a free webcast that will go behind Google+ and Google's embrace of social data.
Developer Week in Review: Google Goes Yardsaling - Google consumes mass quantities of mobile, social media gone bad, and C++ learns new tricks
August 18, 2011
We learned that Google liked Motorola products so much they decided to buy the company, that social media has a dark side, and that C++ isn't ready to join Sanskrit in the dead languages section just yet.
Four short links: 9 August 2011 - Android Peripherals, Security Asymmetry, Teaching on G+, and HTTP Load Testing
By Nat TorkingtonAugust 9, 2011
DSLR Controller -- Android app that lets you remote-control your DSLR. Much being made of the fact that iOS devices aren't as easy to interface with. For more, see the Wired article. (via BoingBoing) Asymmetric Security Warfare -- I found this nugget buried in this photo shoot talking about the differences between Black Hat and DEFCON conferences: [Mudge, Peiter]...
Top Stories: August 1-5, 2011 - Our fragile modern systems, the G+ Effect, and science gets democratized.
By Mac SlocumAugust 5, 2011
This week on O'Reilly: The fragility of our modern systems was made clear to Tim O'Reilly during a recent trip, Jonathan Reichental defined the G+ Effect, and we learned what can happen when the barriers to scientific exploration come down.
Scaling Google+ - Joseph Smarr of Google+ on early lessons, an API, and pseudonyms.
August 2, 2011
In a recent interview, Google's Joseph Smarr discussed what he's learned from Google+ thus far. Specifically: how quickly the social network has scaled, the importance of the user interface, and future plans for a Google+ API.
Easter egg obscenities - What's the source for Google's Official List of Bad Words?
By Nat TorkingtonAugust 1, 2011
Google's Official List of Bad Words (NSFW, duh) caught my eye, not least because I consider myself a student of obscenity.
Google Plus defines an era of disruption at a moment's notice - Google+ ushers in the G+ effect, a phenomenon that's unique to our times.
August 1, 2011
When an entrant quickly yields considerable power in an existing market, and elicits potential for rapid innovation, this is what Jonathan Reichental calls the "G+ effect."
Four short links: 26 July 2011 - Advertising Keywords, Javascript Koans, Etsy Open Source Testing, Wieldy Selections
By Nat TorkingtonJuly 26, 2011
Google Keyword Advertising -- interesting infographic about the most lucrative advertising categories for Google. #20 is an eye-opener! Javascript Koans (GitHub) -- an interactive learning environment that uses failing tests to introduce students to aspects of JavaScript in a logical sequence. (via Javascript Weekly) Etsy AB (GitHub) -- Etsy's framework for A/B testing, feature ramp up, and more. (via...
Top stories: July 18-22, 2011 - Google+ is a social backbone, how to fix the patent mess, and programming well with others.
July 22, 2011
This week on O'Reilly: We examined the deeper and broader implications of Google+, four solutions to the patent quagmire were offered up, and we learned about the "art of mass organizational manipulation."
ePayments Week: Is "0000" your passcode? - Bad passcodes, in-app payments for all, mainstreaming mCommerce.
July 21, 2011
In the latest ePayments Week: 10 iPhone passcodes make up 15% of all those in use. Also, Google In-App spreads its wings beyond the Chrome store, Isis signs deals with major credit cards, and execs expect mCommerce to be mainstream in 4 years.
Developer Week in Review: Mobile's embedded irony - Who really profits from Android sales? And does the world need another source control system?
July 20, 2011
Microsoft profits from Google's toils, why you shouldn't put older developers out to pasture, and a new source control system enters the fray.
Google+ is the social backbone - There's a lot more to Google+ than a challenge to Facebook
July 19, 2011
Google+ is the rapidly growing seed of a web-wide social backbone, and the catalyst for the ultimate uniting of the social graph.
Publishing News: Newspapers finally test tablet-content bundle - Newspapers bundle tablets and content, Google gets an ereader.
July 15, 2011
In the latest Publishing News: Sister newspapers in Philadelphia announced a tablet program, Iriver launched an ereading device with the Google eBookstore on board, and Peter Meyers says digital can fix footnotes.
Strata Week: There's money in data sifting - DataSift lands funding, popping the hood on Google Plus, data products for education
July 14, 2011
In the latest Strata Week: DataSift's access to the Twitter firehose proves compelling for investors, the inner workings of Google Plus are revealed, and contestants crank out apps for education.
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