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Four short links: 10 November 2009

By Nat Torkington
November 10, 2009

A children’s toy inspires a cheap, easy production method for high-tech diagnostic chips -- microfluidic chips (with tiny liquid-filled channels) can cost $100k and more. Michelle Khine used the Shrinky Dinks childrens' toy to make her own. "I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels...

The Emerging Twitter List Arms Race

By Mark Drapeau
October 30, 2009

I use Twitter a lot, but I was not among the very first to see the new Lists feature. I can now, though. And what I find much more interesting than actually using the feature myself is the fact that I woke up this morning to find that I was on dozens of other people's lists. (In fact, while I...

Four short links: 16 October 2009

By Nat Torkington
October 16, 2009

Wiimote Audio Geotagging -- match audio with the map movement and annotations made with an IR pen and a Wiimote. Very cool! (and from New Zealand) San Francisco: Open For Data -- Two months after it launched, the project is already reaping rewards from San Francisco's huge community of programmers. Applications using the data include Routesy, which offers directions...

Four short links: 14 October 2009

By Nat Torkington
October 14, 2009

10Gui Video -- demo of a new take on multitouch, a tablet and new GUI conventions. (via titine on Twitter) Behind the Scenes at WhatDoTheyKnow -- numbers and stories from the MySociety project, which provides a public place for Official Information Act requests and responses. The fact information is subject to copyright and restrictions on re-use does not exempt...

Four short links: 12 October 2009

By Nat Torkington
October 12, 2009

Snowball -- a small string processing language designed for creating stemming algorithms for use in Information Retrieval. (via straup on delicious) Insider Trades -- a Yahoo! Hack Day app that turned out to be worth continuing. Scans SEC systems every 30 seconds and alerts you if the stock you track has been traded by an insider. (via straup on...

Four short links: 1 July 2009

By Nat Torkington
July 1, 2009

The Onyas -- New Zealand web design awards launch, from the people behind Webstock and Full Code Press. The name comes from "good on ya", the highest praise that traditionally taciturn New Zealanders are allowed by law to give. The Year of Business Metrics: Don't make your users run away! -- wrapup of the Velocity conference. AOL: Users who...

Four short links: 18 June 2009

By Nat Torkington
June 18, 2009

Harvard Study Finds Weaker Copyright Protection Has Benefited Society (Michael Geist) -- Given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that "weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society." This is consistent with the authors' view that weaker copyright is "uambiguously desirable if it does not lessen the incentives of artists and entertainment companies...

Four short links: 14 May 2009

By Nat Torkington
May 13, 2009

Open Library Book Reader -- the page-turning book reader software that the Internet Archive uses is open source. One of the reasons library scanning programs are ineffective is that they try to build new viewing software for each scan-a-bundle-of-books project they get funding for. Should Libraries Have eBooks? -- blog post from an electronic publisher made nervous by the...

Simplify business research with Google Ajax Search API

By Andrew Odewahn
April 13, 2009

Business research usually starts with a list -- brands, competitors, people, products, whatever. This post describes a quick Python script that uses the Google Search API to automate the routine parts of the task, giving you more time to analyze and understand the results.

Self check-out fu

By Erica Sadun
March 13, 2009

Do you find yourself using those self check-out machines more these days? Do you find yourself struggling with already filled bags and no place to put more purchases? Here's a quick secret to better check-out.

Four short links: 4 Mar 2009

By Nat Torkington
March 4, 2009

Wall Street on the Tundra -- Michael Lewis's long but fascinating glimpse into Iceland's rise and fall as hubris-filled banker to the world. One of the many lessons is not to believe the post-hoc explanations for success: "Icelanders—or at any rate Icelandic men—had their own explanations for why, when they leapt into global finance, they broke world records: the...

Video now available - iPhone Forensics 101: Bypassing the iPhone Passcode

By Kathryn Barrett
September 18, 2008

Last week, Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the just-released iPhone Forensics, delivered a much-talked about presentation on bypassing the iPhone 3G passcode, in which he revealed some little known "security" issues pertaining to that device. Most notable was the fact that the iPhone captures and stores screenshots of any place you visit on the web (using your iPhone, of course). The recording is now ready for viewing. Read on.

10, 9, 8 . . . iTunes Blastoff!

By David Battino
August 27, 2008

I just set up my best-sounding podcast playback system ever, but there was one problem: I missed the first ten seconds during the time it took me to hit Play and then scamper down the stairs to the kitchen. AppleScript and speech synths to the rescue....

Hackerteen Book Trailer

By O'Reilly Media
August 14, 2008

Hackerteen is an educational project that trains teenagers to work with computer security. With an innovative and fun methodology, young people learn how to protect companies - not to break into them - while reducing time spent on computer...

Korg Kaossilator 4-Bar Loop Hack

By David Battino
August 12, 2008

My favorite electronic instrument this year is the Korg Kaossilator, a pocket-size synth with built-in loop recorder. I bought one after spending some quality time with it during a magazine review. But what really loosened my credit card was a secret hack I discovered during fact-check.

The Last HOPE

By Jim Stogdill
July 21, 2008

The Last HOPE conference in NYC was a great mix of hardware hacking, open source, phone phreaking, lock picking, sleeping on the floor, and good old fashioned paranoia mongering.

QuickTime Soundtrack Hacks

By David Battino
July 13, 2008

With close to a thousand forest fires fouling the air, it was time for some indoor creativity. Making a digicam spy movie revealed some cool QuickTime tricks and ridiculous workarounds.

When Distraction is Good

By Linda Stone
July 10, 2008

Distraction is getting a bad name. This past month, I've been heads down on a few projects and noticing something I'd not been very conscious of before now. When I get "stuck" or when I reach a natural break point on a piece of work, the menu of potential distractions includes everything from email and telephone calls to getting...

It’s at the Scene of the Crime, but it’s not the Criminal

By Linda Stone
June 30, 2008

People are saying technology is making us stupid. Technology is shattering our attention. Technology is ruining our children. Technology is making us busier than ever. Taking that train of thought a step further: technology can fix the problem. I believe we can make smarter email and smarter phones - and we should. It just won’t fix the problem. We can...

It’s at the Scene of the Crime, but it’s not the Criminal

By Linda Stone
June 30, 2008

RIP: Returned Every Email

By Linda Stone
June 28, 2008

I fell in love with email in 1983. I was a computer-savvy educator and children’s librarian teaching teachers about the new technologies ???available to them. Email came into my life, offering immediate gratification: no stamp, no trip to the post office, no phone tag, no long messages. Questions were answered quickly. Personal exchanges often felt as intimate as a written...

RIP: Returned Every Email

By Linda Stone
June 28, 2008

I fell in love with email in 1983. I was a computer-savvy educator and children’s librarian teaching teachers about the new technologies  available to them. Email came into my life, offering immediate gratification: no stamp, no trip to the post office, no phone tag, no long messages. Questions were answered quickly. Personal exchanges often felt as intimate as a written...

Philipp Lenssen Talks about Google Apps & Hacks

By Sara Peyton
June 23, 2008

When Google lifted traditional office applications into its "cloud" of fast network connections, powerful servers, and seemingly limitless storage, it changed the way many of us create, organize, and share information. And, as Press Democrat reporter Nathan Halverson noted in a recent story, these free new computer applications help keep costs down.

Phone in the Toilet?

By Linda Stone
June 18, 2008

My friend Sara sent me an email: "Linda, Sorry that I'm not able to call you back. My phone fell into the toilet." We live in a world where phones can fall into toilets because our phones are following us everywhere. Untethered. Free. Free to fall into the toilet. Last week, a high school sophomore told me that she brings...

Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?

By Linda Stone
June 12, 2008

One afternoon, earlier this year, as I was scanning a long list that I was adding to endlessly, I realized, I'll never get it all done. That's probably just fine. But this endless list and this feeling of being completely scheduled's not working right now. I met some friends for dinner and put the question out: Do you have a...

On Hacking

By Daniel H. Steinberg
May 15, 2008

What is the new iPhone Hacks really hacking?

Disaster Technology for Myanmar/Burma aid workers

By Jesse Robbins
May 8, 2008

There is an ongoing crisis in Myanmar (Burma) in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis. The ruling military junta is finally allowing humanitarian organizations into the region after denying access for almost a week. The situation is grim, and you can help by donating to organizations like: Doctors without Borders, Direct Relief, and UNICEF. There has been some incredible discussion on...

Negativity on the Mac

By David Battino
May 5, 2008

Whoa. I typed Command-Option-Control-8 and my Mac's screen inverted. The inverted image didn't persist in the screenshot I took, so I had to invert it manually to produce this image, but this could be a timesaver. What wacky key commands have you discovered?...

GSM Cracking: Coming Soon to a Computer Near You via a Web Service

By Jim Stogdill
April 18, 2008

A new web service, based on specialized hardware, will make cracking the GSM A5/1 protocol fast and cheap.

Getting the iPhone Open Source Tool Chain Up and Running

By Tim O'Reilly
April 2, 2008

Tomorrow at 10 am pacific time, oreilly.com is hosting a free webcast with Jonathan A. Zdziarski, one of the original hackers of the iPhone and author of iPhone Open Application Development. From the announcement: Jonathan will demonstrate how you can use the iPhone open source tool chain to design third-party software that will run on on both today's iPhones, and...

Paging systems and Conference Bridges for startups & small teams

By Jesse Robbins
March 10, 2008

Early registration for the Velocity Web Performance & Operations Conference has opened. To help spread the word, I've written this "simplest thing that will work" hack to a common Operations need: Paging systems and Conference Bridges. Step 1: Establish a...

Why I Love Hackers

By Tim O'Reilly
March 7, 2008

TechWeb TV posted a short video from my opening keynote at ETech. Nominally this year's version of my O'Reilly Radar talk, which focuses on emerging trends that we're watching, the talk was wrapped in a larger theme, namely, why I...

There’s Always a Workaround

By David Battino
March 6, 2008

I got an interesting question from a student recently. She'd read my article about making surround-sound DVDs at home and wondered about one step, which apparently required the high-end BIAS Peak audio editor. I gave her this recipe, which should work in many programs.

Kathy Sierra: Creating Passionate Users at TOC

By Tim O'Reilly
February 16, 2008

We'd hoped to get Kathy Sierra at our Tools of Change for Publishing conference, but had to settle for a video. I interviewed Kathy a couple of months ago about her approach to creating passionate users via the "I...

Build a $21 Portable Vocal Booth

By David Battino
February 7, 2008

One of the hallmarks of amateur podcasts and screencasts is extraneous sound in the voiceover. Here are two DIY solutions for making quality recordings on the go and on the cheap.

Continuous context off the Shelf

By Edd Dumbill
January 7, 2008

Tom Insam has posted news of Shelf, a Mac program that queries your currently running applications in order to provide you with supplementary information about the people related to the data you're currently interacting with. A revival of the GNOME...

A Passion for Reading

By Dale Dougherty
December 10, 2007

Several items about books: Stephen Levy writes in his Newsweek cover story on the Kindle and Jeff Bezos: "When making mental lists of the most whiz-bangy technological creations in our lives, [...] we may overlook an object that is superbly...

iPhone Accelerometer Hack

By Nat Torkington
August 31, 2007

Check out this video. Cool! (thanks, Waxy for the pointer) This guy had to drop into assembly language to figure out how to read the accelerometer in his iPhone. These people are SMART. If I were Steve Jobs (real, not...

Mastering Information Through the Ages

By Tim O'Reilly
August 17, 2007

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of the Long Now Foundation's Seminars on Long Term Thinking. Tonight's seminar looks like a good one. Stewart Brand sent out the following writeup: In a classic case of reperceiving the...

Wikipedia is only as anonymous as your IP

By Artur Bergman
August 14, 2007

Virgil Griffith, a good friend and fellow hacker, reminds us today that anonymity on the internet does not really exist. With his newly released search tool Wikiscanner, you can search an index of 35 million Wikipedia edits by IP, allowing...

Surprises on the Bookshelves of CEOs

By Tim O'Reilly
August 12, 2007

There was a lovely article in the New York Times a few weeks ago, entitled Surprises on the Bookshelves of CEOs that I've been trying to find time to write about since it appeared. I was particularly taken with the...

iPhoneDevCamp

By Artur Bergman
July 11, 2007

What was evident at this past weekend's iPhoneDevCamp, was the sheer energy displayed by the close to 400 attendees. Organised by Raven Zachary -- one of the authors of O'Reilly's iPhone hacks -- and Chris Messina, it was hosted in...

reCaptcha - Stop Spam. Read Books.

By Nikolaj Nyholm
May 29, 2007

Carnegie Mellon University professor Luis von Ahn's latest creation reCaptcha is yet another great example of bionic software on steroids. You'll remember Luis von Ahn as the creator of ESP Game (licensed to Google as Image Labeler) and derivative works...

Reducing the Power Consumption of Your Gadgets

By Brady Forrest
May 19, 2007

Things plugged into wall sockets continue to draw power even if they are off. Chargers plugged in continue to draw power even if the associated device has been charged or unplugged. Until recently, I had not realized this; I...

Just Give the One Finger Salute and Keep Going

By Tim O'Reilly
May 19, 2007

One of the privileges of what we do at O'Reilly is the chance to meet incredible people and share their stories with others. Last night, at a "maker day" that we held as part of the setup for this weekend's...

Synergy: Share Your Keyboard and Mouse Across Multiple Platforms

By Brady Forrest
May 1, 2007

With the news that even Microsoft is supporting cross-platform development more people are going to have multiple systems at their desks. That's where Synergy comes in. It's a small piece of open-source software that allows you to share one...

Better Gmail

By Tim O'Reilly
April 21, 2007

Lifehacker's Better Gmail extension shows how open source is winning the browser wars.

Financial Hacking -- Giving Creative Accounting a Good Name

By Andrew Savikas
April 20, 2007

The subject of the next edition of Release 2.0, available next week, is the collision between Wall Street markets and Web 2.0 markets. The intersection between technology and finance is a busy one, and there might just be some hacker spirit hiding behind those suits.

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