Month: December 2013

Buttcoin qualities?

i have made a lot of fun of bitcoin recently, because it attracts the worst speculators and confused “down with the man” types. if you peel away all that, there are interesting properties in the protocol that i hope will see the light of day, like Contracts . if we are lucky we can get rid of most banksters and also most lawyer types. that’s real progress 🙂

Tab Closed; Didn’t Read

interstitials: even more desperate and even less effective than the pimples of the web, social media buttons.

If you’re going to insist on obscuring your content with some stupid social shit, a promo for your shitty app or a full-page newsletter signup form, then I’m not going to read your content. Or click on your ads. Or help you generate revenue in any way.

Snake oil firewalls

“firewalls” have been obsolete for years. instead of protecting a perimeter and then assuming (incorrectly) that your corp network is safe, only let devices on your network that can cryptographically prove they belong there. it requires that you have your inventory shit together, of course.

Wedding scams

the wedding-industrial complex thrives on a string of mistakes nearly everyone makes. it starts with paying a fortune for a material that isn’t actually rare (diamonds) and continues through overpaying for every little bit that is somehow wedding related.

Because this event is (ideally) once in a lifetime, that also means that vendors can appeal to consumers’ sentimentality, urging them not to cheap out on the “most important” day of their lives. Because of similar concerns about guilt-tripping salespeople, the Federal Trade Commission requires funeral homes to provide its bereaved customers with an itemized price list.

20 years of DOOM

lengthy history and instructions if you want to play it again in celebration.

Reform Government Surveillance

The undersigned companies believe that it is time for the world’s governments to address the practices and laws regulating government surveillance of individuals and access to their information.

everyone who matters in the tech industry, but of course no telcos.

Flappers

Flapper dance, 2nd ave platform

Isleworth Mona Lisa

There has long been various lines of speculation about Mona Lisa, including the existence of an earlier version of the painting. Did Leonardo da Vinci preface the legendary Mona Lisa with another version?