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John Allspaw on DevOps

John Allspaw on DevOps
By Mike Hendrickson
May 15, 2012

John Allspaw discusses DevOps in high-volume web companies and the importance of cooperation between development and operations.

DIY learning: Schoolers, Edupunks, and Makers challenge education as we know it

DIY learning: Schoolers, Edupunks, and Makers challenge education as we know it
By Marie Bjerede
May 15, 2012

Schoolers, Edupunks and Makers are showing us what's possible when learners, not institutions, own the education that will define their lives.

Profile of the Data Journalist: The Data News Editor

By Alex Howard
May 15, 2012

John Keefe (@jkeefe) is a senior editor for data news and journalism technology at WNYC public radio, based in New York City, NY. He attracted widespread attention when an online map he built using available data beat the Associated Press with Iowa caucus results earlier this year.

Four short links: 15 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 15, 2012

Mobile Money (The Economist) -- Many people know that "mobile money"—financial transactions on mobile phones—has taken off in Africa. How far it has gone, though, still comes as a bit of a shock. Three-quarters of the countries that use mobile money most frequently are in Africa, and mobile banking in some of them has reached extraordinary levels. Akka --...

Why I can't shake my ereader

By Joe Wikert
May 14, 2012

Ereaders are now commodities — improvements are incremental at best — but the fundamental qualities of these devices still make them compelling.

Four short links: 14 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 14, 2012

Shiri = Japanese Robotic Ass (YouTube) -- I couldn't watch after 2m30s or so when he starts slapping the robot ass. I never imagined a butt as UI. I eagerly await the hobbyist version, the Arduino Ass Shield. (via Ed Yong) Facebook Tests 'Pay to Promote' Tool (BBC) -- pay to raise prominence of your message, feature being tested...

Making innovation: Open hardware, personal fab and collaborative design

Making innovation: Open hardware, personal fab and collaborative design
By Dale Dougherty
May 11, 2012

Being held May 15-16, MAKE's Hardware Innovation Workshop is an intensive introduction to the business of making and the makers who are creating these businesses.

Publishing News: Another publisher ends its app fling

Publishing News: Another publisher ends its app fling
By Jenn Webb
May 11, 2012

The publisher of MIT's Technology Review talks apps and HTML5, RWW's Antone Gonsalves reviews B&N's chances of survival, and Amazon hires Sara Nelson.

Top Stories: May 7-11, 2012

Top Stories: May 7-11, 2012
By Mac Slocum
May 11, 2012

This week on O'Reilly: We learned how the Velocity Conference site got a big makeover thanks to Velocity practices, Liliana Bounegru offered a brief history of data journalism, and Joe Wikert explained how booksellers can reinvent themselves.

Lucene conference touches many areas of growth in search

By Andy Oram
May 11, 2012

With a modern search engine and smart planning, web sites can provide visitors with a better search experience than Google. Why turn-out for the new "big data" track was lower than I expected, and other news from this week's conference about using Lucene big and small.

Jesse Robbins on the state of infrastructure automation

By Timothy M. O'Brien
May 11, 2012

OpsCode chief community officer Jesse Robbins discusses cloud infrastructure automation and the most surprising use of Chef he's seen so far.

Developer Week in Review: Java on trial

Developer Week in Review: Java on trial
By James Turner
May 11, 2012

Google and Oracle continue to duke it out in court, with more than just Android at risk. One developer uses cat feeders as a way to look at good software, and the PHP developers take a second try at fixing a critical bug.

You'll be live in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

You'll be live in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
By Mac Slocum
May 11, 2012

The introduction of Google+ Hangouts On Air marks the beginning of live video's disruption. Here's two reasons why this is a big deal.

Visualization of the Week: Avengers Assemble

Visualization of the Week: Avengers Assemble
By Audrey Watters
May 11, 2012

In this week's visualization, The New York Times' data artist Jer Thorp visualizes the appearances of "The Avengers" in the comic book series.

[Kickstarter:Wow!] Oh The Tangled Webs Once Wove: Wovyn Weaves Wireless Web, Untangles Internet of Things

By M. David Peterson
May 11, 2012

Quite possibly the most tangled titled I've ever chosen. But what it represents is the exact opposite; at least as it relates to those "Things" on the Internet which at present time have had very little opportunity for categorical refinement...

Four short links: 11 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 11, 2012

Stanford Med School Contemplates Flipped Classroom -- the real challenge isn't sending kids home with videos to watch, it's using tools like OceanBrowser to keep on top of what they're doing. Few profs at universities have cared whether students learned or not. Inclusive Tech Companies Win The Talent War (Gina Trapani) -- she speaks the truth, and gently. The...

O'Reilly Radar Show 5/10/12: The surprising rise of JavaScript

O'Reilly Radar Show 5/10/12: The surprising rise of JavaScript
By Mac Slocum
May 10, 2012

Fluent Conference co-chair Peter Cooper explains why and how JavaScript rose to prominence. Also, Steve Souders points the way to web performance tools and techniques.

Strata Week: Big data boom and big data gaps

Strata Week: Big data boom and big data gaps
By Audrey Watters
May 10, 2012

In this week's big data news, an IDC report points to the booming market for Hadoop and MapReduce (and if proposals for Strata are any indication, this is indeed a good time for big data).

The reinvention of the bookseller

The reinvention of the bookseller
By Joe Wikert
May 10, 2012

Once booksellers accept the reality they can no longer just sell books, they can begin evolving into something dynamic and unique.

I'm joining O'Reilly

By Jim Stogdill
May 10, 2012

Radar isn't just this blog, and it isn't a passive thing. We'll make some noise and listen for echoes.

Commerce Weekly: The competitive push toward mobile payment

Commerce Weekly: The competitive push toward mobile payment
By Jenn Webb
May 10, 2012

The New York Times takes a look at the different mobile payment solutions, MasterCard surveys the globe to see who's ready for mobile payments, and the CEO of i-Cue Design suggests a faster mobile shopping solution. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)

Four short links: 10 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 10, 2012

Gravity in the Margins (Got Medieval) -- illuminating illuminated manuscripts with Mario. (via BoingBoing) Hours Days, Who's Counting? (Jon Udell) -- What prompted me to check? My friend Mike Caulfield, who’s been teaching and writing about quantitative literacy, says it’s because in this case I did have some touchstone facts parked in my head, including the number 10 million...

Understanding Mojito

Understanding Mojito
By Simon St. Laurent
May 10, 2012

O'Reilly editor Simon St. Laurent talked with Yahoo's Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz about the possibilities Node opened and Mojito exploits. Yahoo's Mojito is a different kind of framework: all JavaScript, but running on both the client and the server.

Linux Hardware Support Myths and Legends

By Caitlyn Martin
May 10, 2012

With a new major Windows release just around the corner we are being treated to an onslaught of articles proclaiming the failings of Linux on the desktop. You'd think that such articles wouldn't be necessary if the Linux desktop had indeed failed. One recurring theme is the idea that Linux has terrible hardware support. The premise is always that Linux is impossibly difficult to install and that lots of hardware just doesn't work with Linux.

Theo Schlossnagle on DevOps as a career

Theo Schlossnagle on DevOps as a career
By Mike Hendrickson
May 9, 2012

In this Velocity podcast, OmniTI CEO Theo Schlossnagle discusses the skills of DevOps professionals and knowing how you've achieved excellence in the field.

Velocity Profile: Nicole Sullivan

By Mac Slocum
May 9, 2012

Nicole Sullivan discusses her favorite CSS tools and who she follows in the web ops & performance world.

Giving the Velocity website a performance makeover

Giving the Velocity website a performance makeover
By Tony Quartarolo
May 9, 2012

Learn how producers slimmed down the Velocity conference site, cutting the site's load time by 3.5 seconds and dropping 49% of the page weight.

Four short links: 9 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 9, 2012

We Need Version Control for Real Stuff (Chris Anderson) -- This is pointing us toward the next step, a GitHub for stuff. If open source hardware is going to take off like open source software, we need this. (via Evil Mad Scientist) Graduates and Post-Graduates on Food Stamps (Chronicle of Higher Education) -- two points for me here: the...

jQuery took on a common problem and then grew through support

By Mac Slocum
May 8, 2012

Rather than accept the deep flaws of cross-browser functionality, John Resig did something about them. In this video interview from Velocity 2011, Resig discusses his initial goals for jQuery, the complexity of mobile, and why JavaScript has become a critical development tool.

Think of it like a political campaign: Baratunde Thurston's book marketing

Think of it like a political campaign: Baratunde Thurston's book marketing
By Sarah Milstein
May 8, 2012

Make it easy for people to help you — that's a simple but oft-overlooked concept that author Baratunde Thurston says is essential to book marketing. He shares additional marketing tips and tools in this interview.

Four short links: 8 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 8, 2012

Gmail Vault -- app to backup and restore the contents of your gmail account. (via Hacker News) Leaving Apps for HTML5 (Technology Review) -- We sold 353 subscriptions through the iPad. We never discovered how to avoid the necessity of designing both landscape and portrait versions of the magazine for the app. We wasted $124,000 on outsourced software development....

A brief history of data journalism

A brief history of data journalism
By Liliana Bounegru
May 7, 2012

In this excerpt from "The Data Journalism Handbook," Liliana Bounegru connects the dots between the earliest forms of data journalism, the rise of computer-assisted reporting, and today's data-driven media efforts.

Four short links: 7 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 7, 2012

Liquid Feedback -- MIT-licensed voting software from the Pirate Party. See this Spiegel Online piece about how it is used for more details. (via Tim O'Reilly) Putting Gestures Into Objects (Ars Technica) -- Disney and CMU have a system called Touché, where objects can tell whether they're being clasped, swiped, pinched, etc. and by how many fingers. (via BoingBoing)...

The state of health IT according to the American Hospital Association

By Andy Oram
May 6, 2012

The letter conveys a rather sorrowful message about the state of health IT in the United States. One request--to put brakes on the requirement for hospitals to let patients see their own information electronically--has received particularly strong coverage and vigorous responses.

Principles of patient access in Directed Exchange

By Fred Trotter
May 6, 2012

In this digital world, health data that's 36-hours old can only be analyzed as a post-mortem. Health data that's 30-days old is already rotting.

Developer Week in Review: Are APIs intellectual property?

Developer Week in Review: Are APIs intellectual property?
By James Turner
May 4, 2012

We look at the legal status of APIs and how the Oracle versus Google suit may be affecting it, along with the relative popularity of languages and the world's worst C programs.

Publishing News: Nook gets Microsoft, and soon NFC

Publishing News: Nook gets Microsoft, and soon NFC
By Jenn Webb
May 4, 2012

B&N's Nook gets Microsoft's bankroll and will soon incorporate NFC, Amazon loses its shelf space at Target, and a publishing platform architect makes a strong argument for the end of ebooks.

Top Stories: April 30-May 4, 2012

Top Stories: April 30-May 4, 2012
By Mac Slocum
May 4, 2012

This week on O'Reilly: We learned how the U.K. government is facing pressure from all sides as it evaluates open standards, Maximiliano Firtman evaluated two years' worth of mobile web developments, and the utility of functional languages was put in the spotlight.

DRM-Free Day, forever.

DRM-Free Day, forever.
By Mike Hendrickson
May 4, 2012

Mike Hendrickson: "Adding DRM to content to deter theft ... are you kidding me? Seriously, think about that. It will take a good programmer about an hour to get past most DRM, or a manual shop somewhere in the world will cut and scan the physical book and away it goes."

Visualization of the Week: The origins of English

Visualization of the Week: The origins of English
By Audrey Watters
May 4, 2012

In this week's visualization, Mike Kinde visualizes the etymology of the English words in various articles and books, including "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

B&N and Microsoft: The potential beyond digital

By Joe Wikert
May 4, 2012

Joe Wikert: Microsoft should use its investment in B&N's digital business to create an end-to-end consumer experience that rivals Apple's.

Four short links: 4 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 4, 2012

Common Statistical Fallacies (Flowing Data) -- once you know to look for them, you see them everywhere. Or is that confirmation bias? Project Hijack -- Hijacking power and bandwidth from the mobile phone's audio interface. Creating a cubic-inch peripheral sensor ecosystem for the mobile phone. Peak Plastic -- Deb Chachra points out that if we’re running out of oil,...

Join us in celebrating International Day Against DRM

Join us in celebrating International Day Against DRM
By Joe Wikert
May 4, 2012

A DRM-free world is one where retailers will find it much harder to create a monopolistic position that locks you into their device or format.

Strata Week: Google offers big data analytics

Strata Week: Google offers big data analytics
By Audrey Watters
May 3, 2012

In this week's data news, Google's BigQuery opens up to everyone, the Data Journalism Handbook is released, and the open data movement is called to the mat.

Commerce Weekly: Mobile payments and the consumer experience

Commerce Weekly: Mobile payments and the consumer experience
By Jenn Webb
May 3, 2012

A real-world account of mobile payments, two new apps point to social as the next big thing for mobile commerce, and NFC finds a new role in the Nook. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)

Jason Grigsby and Lyza Danger Gardner on mobile web design

Jason Grigsby and Lyza Danger Gardner on mobile web design
By Mike Hendrickson
May 3, 2012

In this Velocity podcast, the co-authors of "Head First Mobile Web" discuss mobile website optimization, mobile design considerations, and common mobile development mistakes.

Four short links: 3 May 2012

By Nat Torkington
May 3, 2012

The History of Key Design (Slate) -- fascinating and educational. I loved the detector lock, which shows you how many times it has been used. Would be lovely to see on my Google account. (via Dave Pell) Why Telcos Don't Grok Open Standards (Simon Phipps) -- Their history is of participants in a market where a legally-constituted cartel of...

Editorial Radar: Functional languages

Editorial Radar: Functional languages
By Laurie Petrycki
May 3, 2012

O'Reilly editors Mike Loukides and Mike Hendrickson discuss the advantages of functional programming languages and how functional language techniques can be deployed with almost any language.

Recombinant Research: Breaking open rewards and incentives

By Andy Oram
May 2, 2012

To move from a hothouse environment of experimentation to the mainstream of one of the world's most lucrative and tradition-bound industries, Sage Bionetworks must aim for its nucleus: rewards and incentives. Comparisons to open source software and a summary of tasks for Sage Congress.

Velocity Profile: Sergey Chernyshev

By Mac Slocum
May 2, 2012

A profile of web operations and performance expert Sergey Chernyshev, director of web systems and applications at truTV and organizer of the New York Web Performance Meetup Group.


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