This ominous photo I took tonight of the Disney castle lit by red fireworks is my new header for, possibly, forever because shit is just ominous these days okay?

Frozen Ever After. Of course our first attempt to rope drop at Disney World ends with Frozen Ever After having a delayed opening of at least an hour…

Frozen Ever After. Of course our first attempt to rope drop at Disney World ends with Frozen Ever After having a delayed opening of at least an hour…

Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Orlando International Airport (MCO).

🧱 I don’t think the The Verge’s paywall will last, given that it’s very porous, most Verge readers likely block ads anyway, and the comments section is already… lively. They should offer an easy way to support them without degrading the free experience, but I can’t blame them for trying something.

🧱 I don’t think the The Verge’s paywall will last, given that it’s very porous, most Verge readers likely block ads anyway, and the comments section is already… lively... They should offer an easy way to support them without degrading the free experience, but I can’t blame them for trying something.

🔔 There are so many bearded dudes in Philly that I think I know from college. It can be very disconcerting.

Seeing my Micro.blog profile in a Mastodon app, where my username is @joe@joeross.me, really makes me want to use it as my primary fediverse account. I just find the transfer process daunting, and I recall Mb may not be a full implementation of an ActivityPub account, though maybe that has changed.

🦃 Now that the kids are mostly sentient, Thanksgiving means fielding questions from them about why we’re vegetarians and most people aren’t. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I’m not sure they’ll understand I was radicalized by a YouTube rabbithole decades ago, given they’re both younger than 5…

Threads can brag about hundreds of millions of users and more daily signups than all of Bluesky, but its recent feature sprint shows competition is having the desired effect. Bluesky’s best move would be to ship true, easy federation ASAP. Easier said than done, I’m sure, but the sooner the better.

I recently posted a photo of my cat on Bluesky, as any serious person does on a growing social network. While carefully preparing the post (again, I am serious person) I asked four different LLMs for alt text to include with the photo. They all did okay, but as you can see Claude went pretty hard…

▶️ Once in a while, I remember that the overwhelming majority of human beings prefer everything Coldplay did after Parachutes over that absolute gem of a record, and I realize that I should’ve known when that thought first occurred to me that I was in one of the darker timelines.

I told myself I wouldn’t participate the discourse, but everyone who voted for Trump had enough information to know this was a likelihood and they did it anyway. Each and every one of them shares responsibility for those will suffer or die as a direct result of RFK Jr. running HHS if he’s confirmed.

I was sad to read that Radio Free Fedi is shutting down early next year. It got me thinking about how easy it is to spin up awesome stuff on the Fediverse. On the one hand, that’s awesome! But on the other, it means that stuff often outgrows the metaphorical bandwidth of its creators pretty fast.

Chris Geidner writes at Law Dork that progressives should be litigating “narrow challenges brought on conservative grounds — using the reasoning of the right, […] fighting with the tools that can work.” This is the way. Forcing liberal arguments through conservative courts won’t …

Oh the privilege of naivety, or the naivety of privilege, or something

Great to see Andy Kim win the former Menendez seat in the Senate for New Jersey.

Adam Kotsko, grousing: The beginning of my frustration came early last week, when the entire site was aghast at a Financial Times column that said Bluesky was an echo chamber. I’m a fan of Bluesky, but I chuckled at the idea of all of its users being upset about it being called an echo …

I don’t pay much attention to polls, so I had no idea Nate Silver had gone so far down his own rabbit hole. It’s so bad that he thinks polling based on, wait for it, the data, takes “an incredible amount of guts.”

Practical AI tip: When someone sends me a PDF calendar (😡), I ask Claude to process the info into ICS format. For my kids' daycare snack calendar, I say: Please convert data from each day to one all-day event, like: Snacks: AM: Cheerios / PM: Crackers And I get the excellent result pictured here.

With Omnivore being acquired by Eleven Labs and shutting down, I recommend Readwise Reader. You can still self-host Omnivore, but I think Readwise is worth its ~$100/year price, though all-in Apple users might prefer GoodLinks for a simpler but still well-designed alternative at a much lower cost.

And just like that, someone I have idolized since I was a young child shows themselves willing to deliver our republic to death by authoritarianism.

Here’s a real form someone I know who makes more than minimum wage was recently asked by their employer to sign: I understand that for calculation of overtime, my contractual hour rate with Employer is set at minimum wage, which is the wage that New Jersey Department of Labor sets, or the Federal …

“Michael Keaton Enters the SNL Ring” youtu.be/CJGNX31DI… It’s one of the better films of the last several years. 10/10, no notes.

Sam Cole, writing at 404 Media about Matt Mullenweg’s ongoing, unforced founder mode flameout: “We were unaware that Matt redirected sign-up emails until current Automattic employees contacted our support team,” a spokesperson for Blind told me, adding that they’d “never seen a CEO or …

Abhorrent CEO or not, a lot of really incredible people at SpaceX achieved a really incredible thing with the Starship launch/Super Heavy catch, and it was awesome to show my kids and see the excitement in their eyes. youtu.be/b28zbsnk-…

Amazon killed API access for one of my favorite apps, price tracker DropScout. Its developer, Daniel Kramer, writes on Mastodon: Amazon has pulled my API access and the app is non-functional as a result. I’m looking for find a solution but the future doesn’t look good. Apparently it’s against …

The 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow is, to my mind, the film to watch during the transition from early autumn to the Halloween season. It captures the dreary, de-saturated feeling you get, on the east coast of the U.S., anyway, when you realize there won’t be another day without a chill in the air …

😑 Sometimes, when I've really had it with my kids, I just look them right in the eyes and tell them, with the most stern and serious expression I can muster, "There will be no fourth chances!"

Matt Mullenweg is a litigator’s worst nightmare — please stop talking in public about the subject matter of the litigation — but presumably Wordpress' lawyer Neal Katyal knows what he’s doing and doesn’t expect the PR blitz to cause problems.

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I find it strange that my Google TV with Chromecast started outputting green static and weird noises on every input of my LG CX the day before the all new Google TV streamer is set to go on sale…

⌚ Dear watchOS 11, I didn't stand when you suggested I should, so why did you tell me I did a great job getting closer to my stand goal? Confusedly, Joe

Watching these “network state” clowns fail will be fun, but that shouldn’t overshadow the predatory nature of their worldview.

Sometimes I’m writing a Very Serious Blog Post™️ and then I have an intrusive ‘90s thought. For example, I love and hate the fact that, probably for the rest of my life, every time someone says “I don’t wanna wait” I have no choice or free will at all and I just sing 🎤 for our lives to be OH-ver 🎤

Matt Webb wrote about his open source in-page chat tool, cursor party: “If you’ve visited my actual website, rather than reading by email or whatever, such as reading this very post, you may notice somebody else’s cursor pass by as you’re reading.” It’s a wonderful, playful, …

Today there was a cybertruck parked at the daycare where parents park to drop off their kids. I’m wondering if I should put my tie on after drop-off because, like, how self-important do ties seem these days, right? But then there’s a literal human person driving a cybertruck to drop off their kids.

Finished reading: The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚 By the end you know all the players, some have already been lost, others have played out their parts, and still more have shown the true good in their hearts, and the depths of evil the Ring may inspire them to should they come to …

Bluesky’s Trust & Safety decisions may not please everyone, but they’re clearly thinking them through in good faith. While nothing is perfect, a primarily public data store subject to moderation by obfuscation (requiring API work to get at certain moderated data) strikes a thoughtful …

I’m no employment lawyer, but an (allegedly) inconsistently applied policy of ominous non-compete reminder meetings when your best creatives post stuff to their personal accounts sounds…problematic. It’s also an efficient way to inspire them to leave, and that’s exactly what Becca …

The Princess Bride, 1987 - ★★★★★ (contains spoilers): This review may contain spoilers. This is the first time watching it with the kids. They were enthralled from the initial sword fight on, though we did skip the fire swamp, the “Booooo!” lady, some torture, and much of the burning-giant-in-a-trenchcoat scene. To me, it’s still true that the idea …

Jelly Roll was a compelling interviewee on the New York Times Interview, and while I haven’t listened to his music yet, I intend to. But I’m posting to warn anyone who turned the interview off after Jelly Roll inveighed against voting: he walked that back in the final minutes of the podcast episode, …

Fun milestone: my son is exactly calling-every-man-with-a-white-beard-Gandalf years old. 🧙‍♂️

This 1956 promotional video is a time capsule of New Jersey when my parents were kids. This Technicolor color film was produced in 1956 for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, and based on a 1953 John T. Cunningham book This is New Jersey. It’s surprisingly light on corporate propaganda. …

Can anyone make an argument that the VP should be anyone but Buttigieg? And I mean an argument that would make sense to someone who doesn’t listen to the Politico Playbook Daily Briefing every morning. He has: ✅ name recognition, ✅ policy chops, ✅ resume, ✅ sparring experience, and ✅ a thick skin.

Today, after a typical barrage of dad jokes during a break from playing with my kids, my niece told me I am saved in her phone as “Joe Ross Cringe Uncle.” She even showed me the contact card to prove it. She and my wife both thought I would, and should, take it as an insult. I did not. 🤪

Linked Links: Google Docs Can Import and Export Markdown by Michael Tsai Maybe I’ll use Google Docs more often now that it can copy/paste and import/export Markdown. I still remember using it for hours at a time throughout law school, but most firms maintain their vise grip on Microsoft Word. …

I never found Letterman funny, and he comes off as mean and a little bigoted in this clip with the late, great Richard Simmons. But Simmons has a ton more charisma than Letterman, outshining him in a 4-minute clip produced by Letterman’s own team.

Everyone who has ever traveled by airplane has at least one infuriating story, including me. But when I missed a scheduled flight on American Airlines last week, the customer service person put me on the next flight with none of the fees, up-charges or judgment that I was expecting, and it was nice.

Oral Argument for Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive – CourtListener.com This oral argument before the 2nd Circuit about the legality of Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending program is a great listen, regardless of what side you support. Find all the litigation filings here. …

Sure, Elon, I’ll go right ahead and disable my privacy related extensions…

Laurens Hof, writing in Episode 73 of his Last Week in Fediverse newsletter: What makes the situation with rumours of Mastodon leaking private messages so interesting to me is that the original posts that contained the rumours got significantly more engagement than the corrections. So it seems to …

Louisiana classrooms now required by law to display the Ten Commandments | CNN Politics I haven’t looked into yet, but my first thought is that this middle finger to the Constitution has the stench of Leonard Leo and his ilk all over it.

🦎 What are some good dinosaur apps and games to learn and play with your kids on iOS? I’m happy to pay for good apps, I just want to avoid scams and low-effort nonsense.

🔗 Rich Idiot Tweets Nick Heer has a great post about the vapid coverage of vapid Elon Musk, but this bit from the end of Heer’s post struck me as the perfect Twitter bio for Musk: words from the fingers of a dipshit

Now that Spotify’s family plan costs $20/month I don’t have much incentive not to switch to YouTube Music, which comes with the YouTube Premium I’m already paying for. I’m also giving the Tidal 30-day trial a shot, but that would be $22/month for a family plan.

⌨️ A quick MS Word tip: Press control + shift + F9 to remove all hyperlinks in a selection of text. You may need to include the Fn or equivalent key if you're a keyboard nerd using several layers. This is handy for work because while I'm writing briefs I like to keep the citations hyperlinked for …

Oliver & Company, 1988: Watched on Saturday June 1, 2024.

Alito's intellectual honesty: 

I’m in a weird headspace about the Supreme Court’s right wing wearing their partiality on their sleeves. I’m supposed to be mad about it, like lots of liberals. But I think it’s a kind of honesty and, in its hubris, exposes the vulnerabilities of the right’s more longterm jurisprudential …

TenBlueLinks.org shows you how to make Google’s old school, AI-free search filter, called, and this is true, Google Web, the default. I’m not a fan of Chrome on iOS, or anywhere really, so I added the &udm=14 suffix to the Google action I use in Drafts and shared it to the Drafts directory.

🪶 This is only my opinion, but it is one I strongly hold: Tom Bombadil is equal parts omnipotence and ADHD.

Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire, 2024: Watched on Tuesday May 14, 2024.

My Neighbor Totoro, 1988 - ★★★★★ (contains spoilers): This review may contain spoilers. We watched this with the kids for Mother’s Day and they loved it. We were worried some of the characters would look scary to their Disney sensibilities, and at first they probably did, but the kids acclimated quickly and fell in love with Totoro. I can’t wait to …

🔗 Apple Will Revamp Siri to Catch Up to Its Chatbot Competitors Tripp Mickle, Brian X. Chen and Cade Metz report at The New York Times that: The decision came after the executives Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT. The product’s use …

🔗 Does the Statute of Limitations Ever Apply in Legal Malpractice? Hey look, my employer has a blog about the kind of work I do, and I wrote a thing for it.

I wore transitions (™️?) lenses for a year and half in my late thirties and no one close to me loved me enough to punch me in the face and force me to replace them. I’m not saying I don’t take responsibility, or that I’m not loved at all, just maybe not enough.

😠 Google’s connected speakers and hubs are actually useful (unlike Alexa and Siri…), but it’s really hard when you’re super angry about something and have to mumble “Hey Google …” through gritted teeth. Just let us change the wake phrase. (Yes I know some devices/command combinations don’t require a …

🔗 Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book | Books | The Guardian I’m not quoting from the review or her memoir because Noem is deplorable, and because, somehow, it’s worse than the headline suggests. When people tell you who they are, believe them.

💙 About to watch the long Bluey episode with the family… will update afterward…

😠 If your iPhone on iOS 17 becomes unresponsive, be warned: You may lose that day’s photos if you decide to force a reboot before getting them off the phone. This happened to me today. I lost three photos of my son being cuter than any other son in the world.

🔗 Some legal malpractice cases are bogus, and many are defensible. But some are, well, not, which is apparently how State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland in California viewed the misconduct proceedings against John Eastman, the now-disbarred architect of the 2020 fake electors nonsense. (PDF)

🔗 Manton Reece - An update on the pricing update Micro.blog is such a great value. Like omg.lol, Micro.blog is a positive community built by people who didn’t see exactly what they wanted on the web, so they decided to make it.

Bilby, 2018 - ★★★★: This short is, indeed, extremely cute. But it's also impressively executed in terms of the writing and the animation. Parenting pro-tip: Shorts like this one are good to keep handy for when you need to extinguish a tantrum without starting a longer watching session.

👑 That feeling when you've been reading The Hobbit to your kids and your four-year-old daughter insists, and I mean INSISTS, that the friend she made recently at dance class, whose name she had trouble remembering until just now, is named Thorin

🔗 QuickLink Opener – FlohGro I do something similar (even in name), with quicklinks.lol, but Floh Gro’s solution using an action in Drafts for iOS is faster, and private.

🔗 Manton Reece - Recommendations and blogrolls on Micro.blog I’ve long meant to get a blogroll up on this site, and it’s another testament to the fact that I’ve chosen the right community that it was recently integrated into Micro.blog, including auto-updating, public OPML and JSON …

Bilbo is, ever was, and ever shall be, my people. “Back now to the Mountain!” cried Thorin. “We have little time to lose.” “And little food to use!” cried Bilbo, always practical on such points. – The Hobbit, Chapter 15, The Gathering of the Clouds, by J.R.R. Tolkien

🔗 U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction – Six Colors I haven’t read the complaint yet, but this was… not what I expected Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his people focused on…

🔗 Scholarfy | Google Scholar bookmarklet by Johan Ugander This is a useful bookmarklet to move a standard Google search to Google Scholar. I use it with modified version I made with ChatGPT to search an exact phrase, for use in searching for legal opinions. Here’s “my” code: …

🔗 32-Bit Cafe The best part about the 32-Bit Cafe is that we’re trying to move the internet forward productively in the ways we can make an impact, participating in the creation of web services, websites, and weird, wacky web projects. We want to bring back the idea of personal websites to …

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 2013: Watched on Tuesday March 12, 2024.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 2012: Watched on Friday March 8, 2024.

⚖️ It is an uncharacteristic misstep, in terms of both litigation strategy and public relations, for Apple to poke the EU bear by terminating Epic’s developer account. Whether Apple is right about Epic's intentions is irrelevant. This move looks petty and, worse, calculated to avoid exactly the kind …

😔 Yahoo is accelerating its enshittification of Engadget, in a move that really surprises absolutely no one because, well, it's Yahoo: "Engadget, which is operated by Yahoo, will lay off 10 employees, according to people with knowledge of the situation who say staff were “blindsided” by the …

Chris Geidner at Law Dork has the best explanation of why the 5th Circuit’s jurisprudence has become so, to use a legal term of art, whacky: At the end of the day, there are essentially three groups of active judges on the Fifth Circuit: There are “mad vibes” judges, legally conservative judges, …

The top seven free apps in the news category of the iOS App Store are a mix of proudly user-hostile mismanagement, fear mongering, hyperlocal hate, and Nazi monetization.

🔗 Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice Bill Toulas, writing at Bleeping Computer: Targeting open-source software developers tends to backfire for companies, as others fork or clone the code repositories to prevent the projects from disappearing. At this time, the Haier home …

☄️ I’m watching this Yaccarino interview very long after it occurred, but time has not dulled the stings of how uninformed and naive she was about Twitter and Musk. It’s hard to believe a seasoned executive fell so far so fast, but there’s no denying the descent when you’re standing in the crater… …

Stop turning awesome apps into internet noise machines: The news aggregating app Artifact is shutting down. Jarrod Blundy wrote at his blog HeyDingus: I do wonder if it would have had a brighter future without the ability to add comments. I never engaged with that social aspect of the service, and I expect it contributed massively to its complexity and …

Finished reading: Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White 📚 — ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you’re young. It sure is. What a hell of an amazing book to relegate to the unjustly dismissed …

📱 Someone please tell me which non-leather bifold wallet case to get for an #iPhone 14 Pro, preferably in pink. Extra points for MagSafe compatibility but it's not required.

🤖 Don’t bother giving your three-year-old a comprehensive 10-minute explanation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early career up to The Terminator, featuring one of the absolute BEST accent performances of your LIFE, because, honestly, they aren’t going to appreciate it at all.

😕 Thanks to Casey Newton mentioning it on the #HardFork podcast and my having no judgment regarding the apps I try, I downloaded an app called bonk. Join the whatever this is and find me at https://bonkbonkbonk.app/friend/joeross …

iPhone as geek guardrails : Here’s a reply I posted to someone I follow on Mastodon who, on being issued an iPhone by their employer for work calls, was wondering why anyone chooses it over other options when, for example, it’s hard to sideload something as simple as a custom ringtone: Look I need guardrails and I’ve known …

🤨 Is it true that despite paying for the special upgrade I can't set the #ChatGPT iOS app to default to 4 instead of 3.5?i

Princeton Public Library.

Dear Lawyers Still Manually Numbering Paragraphs: Stop it. Here’s a tutorial: Place your cursor where you intend to begin the numbered section of your pleading. Click the numbered list button in your word processor. Repent, and feel your soul become lighter. Yours, scoldingly, Joe

🎮 Bluey: The Videogame, for real life?! Yup. https://youtu.be/S-PYqMxXKKk

⌚ Audio recordings are an overlooked way of keeping memories with your kids. Mine are both under 4 and, while pointing a phone camera at them often changes their behavior, a surreptitious audio recording is easy to do. I've got some great stuff that I'm almost certain an attempt at photos or video …

⚖️ Okay maybe I'm just a hopelessly biased defense lawyer but can anyone read this and tell me with a straight face that the plaintiff didn't set this up...

⁉️ I’m curious: has anyone else recently seen excessive outgoing #DNS requests on their network from #Wyze cameras? This was a known issue a while ago but I thought they had fixed it. I've noticed unusual spikes in the past 60 days or so, and when I blocked Wyze and its related domains using …

🎸 I’ve played an acoustic guitar for and with my two kids since my oldest was born a few years ago, but today I plugged an old electric of mine into an amp for the first time in maybe ten years and the kids loved it, and it reminded me that there’s music-making at the core of me.

🤢 It's not a great headshot. I look so... unfamiliar with the "Smile!" command. And thanks to a moment of poor judgment, and Gravatar, it'll be all over the internet until I decide to change it again. Which will likely be soon... (Yes, I know it's not attached. That was intentional...)

⚠️ So I’m going to do a real blog post about this when I find the time, but today I discovered that my router’s admin panel is accessible via a combination of selecting the right IP and appending a string of numbers to the name of the HTML page that contains the admin panel. The string is the same …

🐎 Julia Glassman, writing at The Mary Sue (with major #spoilers for the newest batch of episodes): What makes this show so great is that it isn’t afraid to employ writing that’s savvy enough for adults to enjoy. Bluey navigates real conflicts, while her parents—the delightfully flawed Bandit and …

Sherlock Holmes giving serious Nardwuar vibes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle📚: My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know. This particular quote, for nerds who know, is from adventure number seven, The Adventure of the Blue …

😠 I’m looking at the Be Our Guest dinner as my wife and I finalize our plans for #Disney World and I need someone to tell me why the menu at one of their top restaurant experiences is so vegetarian-hostile. Pan-roasted zucchini? Really? Disappointing.

⚖️ From a report at Law Dork by its proprietor, Chris Geidner: Starr issued an “administrative stay” on Thursday that will last for 30 days while he considers the airline’s request for a stay of the order pending its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Judge Starr is having …

Introducing Quicklinks.lol: The other day, er, morning, er, very early morning, I posted about a little project I did instead of sleeping called Quicklinks. It’s essentially just a list links I visit whenever I take a break or have some downtime. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. I published it for my …

😑 So if one had, hypothetically, selected all of the files in the .txt/.markdown notes folder in their iCloud Files all, and mistaken the “duplicate” button for a “copy” button, is there an app or solution to de-dupe the folder from iOS?

The Web Worth Paying For: I was listening to Celeste Headlee interview Anil Dash on the latest episode of the Slate podcast What Next: TBD, and Dash said something about the kind of web communities we should build, and encourage, to combat the rise of white supremacy among wealthy and influential tech leaders and the …

Grounds For Sculpture.

Rat’s Restaurant.

So, 40 commits later, you can star my insomnia on GitHub. I should have been cleaning, or sleeping. Instead, I made a webpage. Then I made a second webpage, identical to the first, except links open in the same tab, for all the weirdos out there who like that sort of thing.

💻 The MacBook Air I'm posting this from is older than I'll admit in polite company, so I've been eyeing the new 15-inch Air, and today Amazon is selling the base configuration - in all colorways - at a $200 discount.

👍 Apropos of my earlier post about considering migration to a different Mastodon server: Notes from a Mastodon migration - Erin Kissane's small internet website

🚆 Right now I do ActivityPubs primarily from mastodon.social. But I’m researching migration and reading about other folks’ experiences. I love omg.lol as a whole and social.lol is where I probably belong, but it’s daunting to move. If you decided to migrate here from another server when social.lol …

💬 So the Gummi Bears show from 1985-1991 was both something I think I saw in its entirety during its original run (I was born in 1983), and something I completely forgot had ever existed.

Avon-by-the-Sea Beach.

Author and actor Miranda Keeling posted this on Mastodon, where she frequently posts interesting fragments of conversation she overhears in everyday life: Woman in a supermarket: Fake it til you can’t be bothered anymore, and then just be yourself. This has been one of my core experiences of …

I saw The Toaster Museum linked to over at Hacker News and immediately thought of John Siracusa (@siracusa). Here’s some great context for why I immediately thought of him, by his friend and Accidental Tech Podcast (@atp.fm) co-host Casey Liss (@caseyliss).

Associated Humane Societies.

I have some more Bluesky invite codes. But I’m 40 and married, so I don’t just hand a code to the first internet user that smiles at me. Bluesky servers can use the invite tree in moderation decisions, so I do at least some vetting of folks before I send them a code. No hate/harassment/anti-vax etc.

Top Gun: Maverick, 2022 - ★★★★ (contains spoilers): This review may contain spoilers. Sure, it’s a couple hours of Tom Cruise being paid millions of dollars to do stunts literally everyone else in the world would have to pay millions of dollars to do. But nails the fan service, the tech, and the physics. And it’s fun. Also, it includes an appearance …

Threatening to take away your customers’ fake merit badges if they don’t pay more isn’t a business. It’s barely a grift. It’s how a lonely bully enforces the closest thing to social relationships he can possibly attain. But at least we can call the post-mortem when this all explodes “the X-Files.”

Obviously this is incredible, full stop. But if you’re trained in the craft and the composers, this must be one of the most delightful things you’ve seen in a long, long time. And those animations! youtu.be/WRfsibwR5… The kicker? The performer, Joseph Castanyer Alonso, is the cellist of the …

🍿 Prey, 2022 - ★★★★ (contains spoilers): This review may contain spoilers. A Predator movie is only as good as its protagonist. The dialogue can mostly suck, as it does here. The CG effects can look like trash, as they too often do here. The plot can be an early colonial-American choose-your-own-adventure story, as it (mostly) is here. But …

One bit of Casey Newton’s latest Platformer piece, on how Threads can survive the calm after the storm, must have many social media pros searching their feelings. I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of social media managers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

I need Mrs. Meyers to answer for the fact that her “Compassion Flower” handsoap scent has me routinely smelling like I think Axe body spray is a legitimate thing for a 40-year-old person to smell like.

Kaya’s Kitchen.

Avon-by-the-Sea Beach.

I was going to treat reddit like Facebook, visiting every 1 or 2 months to see what was going on. But reddit leadership are so hostile to the most engaged users that I think it’s time to delete my account, which sucks. Reddit removes years of chat and message archives from users' accounts | …

💬 💬 Okay, I'm trying again to see if I can set it up so my updates on status.lol are imported to my Micro.blog and syndicated out from there.

Elon Musk is the answer to the question: What if we gave MRAs, incels and wannabe MAGA Big Deals™ billions of dollars and Peter Thiel’s cell phone number?

List of Indie Dev Sales Events Matt Corey put together a list of developers holding sales in an indie software version of Amazon’s Prime Day: Below, you’ll find a list of over 100 (🤯) Indie apps that are offering discounts for Indie App Sales, July 11-12! Each of these apps is developed by an …

Mark Frauenfelder, writing at Boing Boing: A recent study of sleep loss and depression found that one night of total sleep deprivation generally worsens mood and emotional regulation in healthy individuals, but induces a temporary lift in spirits for some individuals with depression. . . . The …

Firefox address bar modifiers - the tilde.institute wiki: The address bar has become our entry point to the internet these days. Firefox in its default configuration does some sort of smart guess on what you type there. If it resembles a URL then the browser makes that request. If not, it sends the …

Breakfast at Monmouth Junction Kitchen

I’m trying out a new cross-posting method, this time using the #RSS feed for a new “status” category in Micro.blog to cross-post to other services, like Mastodon and Bluesky. If it works, I can leave cross-posting deactivated by default on regular posts. (take 2…)

I guess we’re supposed to shit on Threads. Skepticism is valid. But they already collect data from Instagram users. And you can always deactivate or delete your account: help.instagram.com/139886812… I’m giving it a chance, but the forced algo. timeline is probably a dealbreaker for me.

My daughter shushed me while we watched Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” today and I’ve never been more proud of anything than I was when she told me, quietly and politely, but firmly and resolutely, to “just be quiet for a minute and listen to the man talk about space.” Edit to add: She’s only 3 years …

Neil Gaiman liked a post of mine on Bluesky. It was actually a re-post of one of his own posts, and he’s famously interactive with folks on social media, so I’m not exactly special, but it’s fun to see! ::: growling at my negative internal monologue monster :::

This was supposed to post to my Microblog via OwnYourSwarm but I don’t know how to set up my theme etc. to make it look like a checkin and I’d appreciate any help #MicroBlog / #IndieWeb / #micropub geeks can offer. (I fished for help with this about a month ago but there were no bites.)

The early nerd gets the… something. I’m tired.

🎧 “The One” by Taking Back Sunday (2023) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: It’s good. I’m happy it’s good. It came from something sad: “This song came from a riff that bassist Shaun Cooper wrote the day he lost his grandmother while she was in a nursing home at the start of the COVID pandemic.” But it’s something more than sad. This line especially gets me: Still, the …

📷 Found my old Fringe hoodie while putting some stuff away. It’s pretty beat up, but a great reminder that it was one hell of a good show.

I do not want spoilers but I would appreciate anyone seeing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny giving me a 👍🏻 or 👎🏻. I’m going to see it in the theater either way, but Crystal Skull was… fine. I’m just hoping the last Indiana Jones film with Harrison Ford is much better.

The Supreme Court has struck down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness in Biden v. Nebraska (PDF). I haven’t read through the entire opinion yet, but it appears the majority relied on the entirely fictional and opportunistically deployed major questions doctrine. More at SCOTUSBlog.

Narwhal dev declining to answer whether he made a deal with Reddit is him confirming he made a deal, as is Reddit’s line that they don’t disclose discussions. Some will pay $4 to $7 a month for their favorite Reddit app, but most won’t, or can’t. Can’t fault narwhal for surviving, but it feels icky.

SkyBridge is a server that connects Mastodon to Bluesky, enabling the use of some Mastodon-only apps with your Bluesky account. Today I noticed that, at least in Ivory for iOS, you can access Bluesky feeds via the Mastodon lists screen. (I still have some Bluesky invites if anyone’s …

There are so many wonderful #iOS apps for Mastodon1, but Ivory is still my favorite. Just need it to add quote posts so I can point my #ADHD Eye of Sauron at a category of nerd stuff other than Mastodon apps. Mastodon’s official iOS app has better two-tap moderation options than most …

Do you realize how much of Live Aid Freddie Mercury spent playing air guitar? Just one of the true gods of rock, air guitaring for what must have been half their 21-minute set, one of the best rock sets of all time, in front of 72,000 people. You love to see it. youtu.be/PLIAp5nr0…

😁 Hey thanks @jmj@social.lol for the tip on getting my status.lol crossposting to Mastodon working again! Everyone on social.lol should check out Joanna’s app status.log: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/status-log/id6444921793

📚 Finished: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Yesterday I finished reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. ️Maybe not as ruthlessly original as, well, the original, but better than a Vogon poem. Let the naysayers say their nays. Sure, it’s no Hitchhikers, but nothing was before, and nothing will be again. Unless …

Now I have three Bluesky invites. Let me know if you’re interested!

🔵 Now I have three Bluesky invites. Let me know if you're interested!

CEO Steve Huffman’s bumbling, slow-motion destruction of reddit would be a huge loss to collective knowledge on the web. Without the ability to append “reddit” to most queries, Google Search is mostly worthless unless you’re looking for sponsored content or SEO-abusing nonsense results.

My 3-year-old just asked me if Mark Hoppus is me on this video of Blink 182 playing I Miss You at Coachella 2023.

I took this photo tonight while leaving work at 18th and Market Streets in Philly. It doesn’t really show how thick the air was, and it’s only slightly better at home in Princeton. Be safe everyone.

Jeri Ryan, the actor who plays Seven of Nine on various Stars Trek, favorited a post of mine on Mastodon today. That’s it. That’s the whole blog post.

“Lawyers’ vile emails exposed” Sometimes I write a long, angry blog post about a thing, fully intending to post it all for the world to see, but then I save it to my journaling app, and just post a link to what prompted the angry draft while I decide if I should make my angry thoughts public, …

It’s a whole vibe.

Oldest Search - Search for the oldest result on internet This is one of those things I just love about the internet, a fun, simple thing, done well. The oldest result for my name is a 1982 NY Times obituary on Joe E. Ross, another New Jersey native, of Car 54 fame.

I verified myself on nostr which required logging into cpanel, creating a json file, editing my .htaccess, and using a CORS tester. It was exhausting. THEN I found out if I don’t give some guy on the internet like 1 USD worth of bitcoin from my lightning wallet, whatever the hell that is, …

Markdown images are an anti-pattern | daverupert.com Dave Rupert doesn’t see a place in Markdown for images, and I agree. Just use an img tag. But his good point and my agreement with it aren’t really the reason I’m sharing a link to his post. I’m sharing it because he writes …

Craig Hockenberry, announces ‘Blank’ for Apple tvOS I’m happy to announce the release of a new tvOS app called Blank. It turns your screen black and keeps it that way until you press any button on a remote. Seriously, that’s all it does. Simple and useful.

Mac Gmail client Mimestream reaches 1.0 Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors: If you’re a Gmail user, Mimestream will be a revelation. Since it was built from the ground up to understand Google’s approach to email, it doesn’t suffer from the weird workarounds required to map an IMAP protocol metaphor …

🌞 I have two Bluesky invites if anyone is interested. However, I’m only considering requests from people who will swear never to call posts on Bluesky… what lots of people on Bluesky are calling them. It’s not okay.

I have two Bluesky invites if anyone is interested. However, I’m only considering requests from people who will swear never to call posts on Bluesky… what lots of people on Bluesky are calling them. It’s not okay.

Moon, 2009 - ★★★★★: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5 stars) This is the last one for today, I promise. Another rewatch, Sam Rockwell’s performance puts this movie on a level with The Martian.  I know they’re very different movies, but, for my money, Moon does at just as much with fewer/older VFX and a much lower budget. How much …

Annihilation, 2018 - ★★★★: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 out of 5 stars) I can confirm in watching this movie again that it is ambitious, original and has a fully committed cast. If you like sci-fi and somehow haven’t seen Annihilation yet, do yourself a favor and watch it.

The Menu, 2022 - ★★★: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars out of 5) I don’t regret watching this and I would certainly recommend it to certain people, but I’m not sure I’ll ever need to watch it again.

I’ve been playing around with using OwnYourSwarm and the idea of posting only certain checkins publicly on my Micro.blog. If anyone has any experience with it, especially with ironing out weirdness/rookie mistakes, let me know!

D&R Canal.

Checked in at D & R Canal @ Kingston

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, 2023 - ★: ⭐️ (1 star out of 5 Wouldn’t watch again, wouldn’t recommend The story was incoherent except as a forced setup of Kang and of passing of the Ant-Man-tle to Lang’s daughter.

Camp Taylor. Checked in at Camp Taylor. A campfire in the daylight. (@ Camp Taylor Campground, NJ, USA)

Justice Gorsuch, during #SCOTUS oral arguments in Counterman v. Colorado, displaying a kind of intellectual dishonesty that must have had Alito beaming proudly in the direction of his more junior colleague (Originally shared at Mastodon)

Castle in the Sky, 1986: Watched on Sunday May 14, 2023.

Checked in at Camp Taylor. Another night, another shot of the sky through the trees (@ Camp Taylor Campground, NJ, USA)

Checked in at Camp Taylor. Camping with some family to celebrate my upcoming ██th birthday.

I love the big overlap in the user communities at omg.lol and Micro.blog. There’s something about both platforms that draws a certain kind of geek and I think it’s great.

The sky through the trees (@ Camp Taylor Campground, NJ, USA)

Neil Gaiman announced season 2 of Good Omens on Bluesky today. I enjoyed season 1 which, though it had its faults, was a really pleasant display of the chemistry between its leads, David Tenant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale.

Currently reading: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams 📚 I’m reading this one with the kids at bedtime. I definitely do a bit of light word replacement here and there, mostly where death or sex are mentioned. But it’s fun, especially with the 3-year-old, who can understand …

Please stop inviting heads of state to Bluesky ⟶ The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto reports on Bluesky’s refusal, for now, to allow national leaders on the platform. (This was originally auto-posted via RSS from Pinboard but I had to edit it because the actual link didn’t come through. I’m experimenting …

🗨️ Re-installing the twitter app… just for a bit so I can complain to Dropbox about their gross downgrading flow dark patterns…

Mandibles, night-blooming jasmine, and in-utero memories. These are the things a great Nic Cage interview is made of.

If You Build It: I’ve been poking around Bluesky and it seems like they’ve really opened up the gates over there. I’m seeing far more familiar names and avatars. And everyone seems cool, as long as you can avoid the crypto/web3 nonsense. (This isn’t about Jack, or any of weird takes he’s been dropping …

As I said on Bluesky itself: This is… not a good idea at all…

🎧 "It’s a Pleasure to Meet You" by Motion City Soundtrack: You are not alone We’ve all had our battles with darkness and shadows I’m here to let you know It’s a pleasure to meet you Today is all we have So try for a moment to break from the torment And sing this to yourself It’s a pleasure to meet you (find it where you listen)

I’m trying out cross-posting from Micro.blog to Bluesky. Come & say hi if you’re over there. There are more people there all the time, but there aren’t many of my people (read: users of Micro.blog & omg.lol) there yet. (I’m also cross-posting to all the others services I’ve added because why …

🟦 If you’re on Bluesky, come say hi. I’ve found some cool people, but it’s a … different vibe than my other communities, for sure. https://bsky.app/profile/joeross.me (Shout-out to @maique@social.lol for the invite! I don’t have any yet, but I’ll pay it forward when I do.)

For and Against Bluesky: Point against Bluesky: Already it’s recommending I follow crypto bros, as if no one who works on this app has ever read my bio, which states, in pertinent part: I’m giving this place a chance. You all better keep the crypto sh*t out of my face, and my feed. Point for Bluesky: I made my handle my …

💻 Of course I'm putzing around on omg.lol

📱 Having fun rebuilding my Drafts app groups and actions from the ground up.

📻 Listening to the National Security Law Podcast https://www.nationalsecuritylawpodcast.com/episode-233-this-episode-was-not-written-by-chatgpt/

😁 Every time I visit omg.lol or social.lol I find a new fun thing to try. This time it’s status.lol and the neat app status.log by @jmj!

App recommendation: Workflowy: Workflowy is easily one of my favorite #productivity apps. I’ve been using it for years for work and personal stuff and it fits my brain. It’s great for work as a place to keep, for example, a list of causes of action, together with their elements and defenses. It’s also where I keep the cases I …

Elliot: The Littlest Reindeer, 2018: Turned this off in the first ten minutes

Riders of Justice, 2020 - ★★★★: It both is and is not the movie you think it is, and both in the best way.

FUMC Ideas: Sunshine Pieces Daniel Isn’t Real Near Dark Don’t Look Now Next Door Enter the Void High Tension Gaia The Greasy Strangler …plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness, 1986 - ★★: Awful… awfully wonderful

CODA, 2021 - ★★★: Awful family places burden of their livelihood on daughter for her entire life and finally decides to let her be her own kid as she leaves for college. It was good but it was kind of missing that one show stopping, jaw dropping song that the third act of any movie in this vein kind of demands.

Black Widow, 2021 - ★★★: It’s worth a watch for the chemistry between the sisters - you don’t see a lot of effective portrayals of sisterhood in action movies - and David Harbour is a lot of fun. Edit: the pig scene was totally unnecessary and gross.

The Suicide Squad, 2021 - ★★★★: A lot of people love this movie for the same reasons a lot of people hate this movie. It simultaneously shamelessly indulges in the same clichés and tropes that it’s constantly subverting. A lot of people just want it to pick whether it’s going to shamelessly indulge or it’s going to subvert but I …

Don't Look Now, 1973 - ★★★★½: The non sequitur implementation of the ending cost half a star but the film is visually stunning and narratively bold. I can’t say what movies clearly took inspiration from it without giving it away, but you’ll probably know right away after you watch it.

Starry Eyes, 2014 - ★★★: Watched on Tuesday July 20, 2021.

The Peanut Butter Solution, 1985 - ★★★: You will not know where it’s going until it gets there.

FUMC History: The films watched by the FUMC, in order. Martyrs The Peanut Butter Solution Starry Eyes Cigarette Burns Hereditary

Cigarette Burns, 2005 - ★★★: Watched for the FUMC.

House, 1977 - ★★★: Well you should all watch it once. Watching it alone was disorientating and left me wishing I had someone to share the experience with but it was a hell of ride. Go in blind and don’t ask of it any more than it is.

A Quiet Place Part II, 2020 - ★★★★★: I try to be stingy with 5 stars but this movie deserves it. The writing, direction, acting and SOUND DESIGN are as good as the first and in some areas even better. The main flaw that bugged me was SPOILER ALERT: The day one flashback was really only there to remind us who JK was on the first one …

C'est la Vie, 2016 - ★★★★: I watched a few of his shorts tonight but this was my favorite.

Beau, 2011 - ★★★: There’s so much more to be told here.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, 2011 - ★★★: Yes it’s disturbing but there’s nothing supernatural about it.

Martyrs, 2008 - ★★★★: Watched on Wednesday July 21, 2021.

Come and See, 1985 - ★★★★: Brutal and unrelenting, once is enough, but it’s also necessary.

Near Dark, 1987 - ★★★★: It’s worth a watch despite the lame performance of the male lead. Henricksen and Paxton are wonderful, and Bigelow’s makes the thing a visually classic and novel experience at the same time.

The Amusement Park, 1975 - ★★: These are all things I have seen happening to Oder folks. It’s a sad sad movie whose true horror is the inevitability that we may all face one or more of these deep indignities if we are lucky enough to grow old.

Sunshine, 2007 - ★★: The star power is impressive, with Michelle Yeoh and Chris Evans and Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne. The story is Event Horizon light and not one of Boyle’s best by a long short but it’s a beautifully shot film.

Gunpowder Milkshake, 2021 - ★★★: Watched on Thursday July 15, 2021.

Furious 7, 2015: Watched on Friday June 4, 2021.

Fast & Furious 6, 2013: Watched on Thursday June 3, 2021.

Fast Five, 2011: Watched on Wednesday June 2, 2021.

Fast & Furious, 2009: Watched on Tuesday June 1, 2021.

2 Fast 2 Furious, 2003: Watched on Saturday May 29, 2021.

The Fast and the Furious, 2001: Watched on Friday May 28, 2021.

Synchronic, 2019 - ★★★: As usual, this directing duo puts an interesting new spin on a very old kind of story. It’s a worthy addition to the time travel category.

Sound of Metal, 2019: A stunning movie. I don’t know how well it portrays being deaf, but it moved me with its portrayal of being someone who can hear who suddenly starts to lose that hearing.  SPOILER AHEAD: The scene in the bed where he realizes she has moved on and is so much better for it and he tells her it’s okay …

Parasite, 2019 - ★★★★: I can’t remember when I watched this but it was a while ago. It was incredibly strange and disturbing and worth watching if those things don’t scare you off.

The Lighthouse, 2019 - ★★★★: Buy the ticket, take the ride, smell the farts, be disturbed and left with a lot of questions and a day or so of your inner monologue speaking like a drunken Shakespearean character

Earwig and the Witch, 2020 - ★: Abrupt ending, animation not great, decent first draft of a story and movie at best

Promising Young Woman, 2020 - ★★★★: Everyone woman should watch it once. Every man should watch it two or three times. I dinged it a star because there’s a part that’s hard to watch because I wanted something different to happen but make no mistake: this movie deserves your time and your attention and your full comprehension.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 - ★★★★: It simultaneously puts every cynical fight you ever may have had about Mr. Rogers to bed an also manages to humanize him by showing that he was not above pain. The journalist is a stand-in for every kid that grew up in Mr. Rogers and still became kind of cynical and jaded. Hanks is arresting as …

Hope Gap, 2019 - ★★: Depressing but it has heart. Ending sucked.

Save Yourselves!, 2020 - ★★★: It’s worth watching but the end was huh?

Togo, 2019 - ★★★★: This was surprisingly true to the facts I could find. It’s hard to maintain a couple hours of mostly one man yelling “GOOD DOG” at running dogs, but Dafoe does it with aplomb. I liked it a lot, especially as an adventure movie with some scary bits that’s also meant for kids.

Wild Mountain Thyme, 2020 - ★★★: I guess, based on what the critics say, I’m not supposed to admit I liked this movie, but fuck it. I’ve spent a hundredish minutes on far, far worse films that didn’t delight me one millionth as much as this one did.

Ad Astra, 2019 - ★★★: Brad Pitt was very good in a role I don’t think anyone would expect him to excel in. Beyond that it’s not a great movie and bafflingly underused Ruth Negga and Natasha Lyonne.

Wonder Woman 1984, 2020 - ★: Oof. That did not go well.

Hubie Halloween, 2020 - ★★½: It was exactly what I thought it would be. Don’t review this thing like it’s suppose to change cinema forever. Watch it like your favorite musician is doing another tour after a long weird solo career and they’re just playing the hits you loved in high school. It’s harmless fun and should be easy to …

Midnight Special, 2016 - ★★★: Great bones but a criminal underuse of Kirsten Dunst, overuse of Adam Driver, who is great but whose plot is muddled and doesn’t really justify his kind of gravitas.

One Cut of the Dead, 2017 - ★★★★: Despite how it looks at first, it’s not a horror movie but it’s absolutely worth a watch, especially if you like indie movies. I won’t ruin it by saying more.

The Peanut Butter Falcon, 2019 - ★★★★: Great performances from the main dudes and the main lady, but the end was too abrupt

Project Power, 2020 - ★★★: The actor that plays Robin is really good. Her hoodie being Robin colors is an nice touch. It’s worth watching once.

Host, 2020 - ★★★½: Perfectly paced and does the horror via video call thing very well.

Jurassic Park, 1993 - ★★★★★: Still a great watch all these years later.

3rd Circuit in Philadelphia case: 1st Amendment protects recording police in public: Some notable passages from today’s 3rd Circuit opinion in Fields v. City of Philadelphia, holding that there is a First Amendment right to record police officers in public, written by Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro: the District Court focused on whether Plaintiffs had an expressive intent, such …

Court Junkie podcast episode on Eric Frein trial: Court Junkie podcast episode on Eric Frein trial I was a law clerk when the murder of Corporal Bryon Dickson and near-murder of Trooper Alex Douglass sparked a weeks-long manhunt that resulted in the capture, trial and conviction of Eric Matthew Frein. I won’t talk about anything I did with …

A disturbing sex trend called 'stealthing' is on the rise: A disturbing sex trend called ‘stealthing’ is on the rise ‘Stealthing’ is the non-consensual removal a condom during sex. Alexandra Brodsky’s article in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law [PDF] is powerful, nuanced and well-presented. And I, too, can be powerful, …

New Orleans: an unethical District Attorney and an overworked Public Defender: Prosecuted by her legal counterpart: ‘It destroyed my life in so many ways’ This DA should resign, now: At least six defense attorneys and investigators say they faced threats of criminal charges by the Orleans parish district attorney for doing their jobs, the Guardian has found. Since …

A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place: A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a lot of things. But so far, none of those things include “good at being Attorney General.” Would you hire a builder who, when he finds out you …

Sources: Nintendo to launch SNES mini this year: Sources: Nintendo to launch SNES mini this year Tom Phillips writes at Eurogamer: The reality of a SNES mini is certainly exciting - while the NES was unique for being Nintendo's first home console, the SNES arguably boasts the better software line-up, and a catalogue of classics far more advanced …

Alex Jones' rock and hard place: Authentic lunatic or performance artist and fit parent?: In Travis County custody case, jury will search for real Alex Jones Jonathan Tilove reports this story for American-Statesman: Beginning Monday, a jury will be selected at the Travis County Courthouse that in the next two weeks will be asked to sort out whether there is a difference between the …

Unenforceable ban on atheists holding public office still on the books in 8 states: Unenforceable ban on atheists holding public office still on the books in 8 states This is an old story but after reading an article about a study [PDF] suggesting there are many atheists who don’t want to admit they’re atheists, I remembered reading about how a country which prides …

Mentally incompetent Utah man dies in hospital after jail episode left him paralyzed: Mentally incompetent Utah man dies in hospital after jail episode left him paralyzed Is this the kind of country where we let mental illness go untreated to the point where someone in jail for fighting with a couple of cops is effectively allowed to commit suicide, while on suicide watch? Jail video …

United Airlines Tumbles After Social-Media Storm Goes Global: United Airlines Tumbles After Social-Media Storm Goes Global Justin Bachman and Linly Lin reporting at Bloomberg Markets: United Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz apologized on Monday for “having to re-accommodate these customers.” The airline is conducting a review and seeks to resolve the …

The magnificent stupidity of the "nuclear option": The magnificent stupidity of the “nuclear option” It’s a trainwreck. Republicans undoubtedly stole the nomination from Merrick Garland, which makes calls by the GOP for Democrats to stop being obstructionist rich in hypocrisy. But then again, there’s plenty of hypocrisy in Democratic …

Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy: Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy Hamza Shaban, writing for BuzzFeed: The Senate voted Thursday to make it easier for internet service providers to share sensitive information about their customers, a first step in overturning landmark privacy rules that consumer advocates and …

Heinz running Don Draper’s ‘Pass the Heinz’ ads: Heinz running Don Draper’s ‘Pass the Heinz’ ads Tim Nudd at Adweek: In a meta union of advertising’s real and fictional worlds, Heinz just greenlighted the ads—and will run them almost exactly as Draper intended, beginning today, in print and out-of-home executions in New York City. This is awesome, …

Trans characters in the first big video games of 2017: Trans characters in the first big video games of 2017 Laura Dale, writing at Polygon: The past month of AAA video game releases might be the most interesting I have ever experienced as a trans woman, meaning someone who was designated male at birth but is now living as female. While far from perfect …

Modern Law #5: 

Subscribe to my newsletter Modern Law at getrevue.co/profile/modernlaw

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Can anyone sustain a newsletter about the law without talking politics? Tune into the resurrection of Modern Law to find out. I don’t plan on talking about Trump, at least not directly.

I don’t want this thing to be an outlet …

DOJ internal watchdog to investigate FBI's Clinton inquiry: Justice Dept. internal watchdog to investigate FBI’s Clinton inquiry The inquiry by the Justice Department's inspector general, likely to keep open the wounds of the bitter 2016 presidential race, will focus on whether "policies or procedures were not followed" by the FBI and Justice …

Prenda copyright trolls arrested: Prenda Law “copyright trolls” Steele and Hansmeier arrested Justice.

On bookstores: I’m in a bookstore, Joseph Fox in Philadelphia, and there are people here in the cramped sometimes hallway-narrow store with me. Many of them. People I mean. Some smell like rain. That’s how close they are. It’s raining outside and they’re coming into the store and I can smell the rain on them. You …

NBC stupidly shutting down Breaking News app, service: NBC stupidly shutting down Breaking News app, service The decision, as it often does in the media business, came down to revenue. "Unfortunately, despite its consumer appeal, Breaking News has not been able to generate enough revenue to sustain itself," Ascheim said in the letter supplied by NBC …

Wells Fargo claims customers agreed to arbitration... for accounts they never asked for: Wells Fargo Killing Sham Account Suits by Using Arbitration [Jennifer] Zeleny, a lawyer who lives outside Salt Lake City and opened a Wells Fargo account when she started a new law practice, said it would be impossible for her to agree to arbitrate her dispute over an account that she had never …

Poultry Fraud: ‘Dark Meat’ by Gabriel Thompson Failing to record injuries is one strategy to create the illusion of a safe workplace. Another is to fail to refer workers to doctors for proper tests and diagnoses. Each time an injury causes an employee to miss a day of work or to receive medical …

FCC abides by GOP request, deletes everything from meeting agenda: FCC abides by GOP request, deletes everything from meeting agenda Wheeler's attempt to impose new set-top box rules that help consumers avoid paying cable box rental fees may also be doomed. Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge sent a letter to Trump today urging him to side with consumers …

Dropbox employee’s password reuse led to theft of 60M+ user credentials: Dropbox employee’s password reuse led to theft of 60M+ user credentials Kate Conger, reporting at TechCrunch: Dropbox disclosed in 2012 that an employee’s password was acquired and used to access a document with email addresses, but did not disclose that passwords were also acquired in the theft. …

Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above: Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above Pritchett had no idea that as he spoke, a small Cessna airplane equipped with a sophisticated array of cameras was circling Baltimore at roughly the same altitude as the massing clouds. The plane’s wide-angle cameras captured an area of …

I fact-checked that old anti-Muslim mass email, and you'll totally believe what happened next: 

A beloved relative recently included me on an email forward that I simply could not ignore. I’m not the first person to write a rebuttal to this email. It has been making the rounds since at least 2009, as the screenshot below illustrates.

[caption id=“attachment_2525” …

NJ law would require pet stores sell only rescue animals: NJ law would require pet stores sell only rescue animals John C. Ensslin reports for The Record: New pet stores in New Jersey would be allowed to sell only cats and dogs obtained from shelters, pounds and animal rescue organization under a bill the state Senate passed Thursday. The bill still has …

A Slack bot to alert about missing children: A Slack bot to alert about missing children [caption id=“attachment_2481” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”]Slack screenshot of MissingKidsBot[/caption] From the product page of MissingKidsBot, built by David Markovich and Daniel Doubrovkine: According to the …

Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign: Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign Jim Finkle reports for Reuters: Hackers infected Macs through a tainted copy of a popular program known as Transmission, which is used to transfer data through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing network, Palo Alto said on a blog …

The perils of marriage equality: The perils of marriage equality Professor Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers Law School writes at Concurring Opinions about Professor Katherine Franke’s recent book ‘Wedlocked: the Perils of Marriage Equality’: We do not want to reinforce familial hierarchies by forcing people into …

Re: Dumb conspiracy theories on Scalia's death: Enough with the conspiracy theories about Justice Scalia’s death I read this earlier today: "As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia," William O. Ritchie wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, according to reports. After seeking to cast doubt …

Google begins rolling out free internet to public housing in Fiber cities: Google begins rolling out free internet to public housing in Fiber cities This is a big deal. I worked at the Philadelphia Housing Authority for years and talked to a lot of kids and adults about their desire to get online. Philly isn’t yet on Google’s Fiber expansion roadmap, but this …

Retiring founder wants $1M for his SCOTUS audio archive: Retiring founder wants $1M for his SCOTUS audio archive Oyez is a robust archive of audio recordings and other information spanning much of the history of the Supreme Court of the United States. Its founder Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Jerry Goldman is looking for a buyer as he nears …

No Rey, No Way: LucasFilm to toy vendors: No Rey Michael Boehm at Sweatpants and Coffee: The insider, who was at those meetings, described how initial versions of many of the products presented to Lucasfilm featured Rey prominently. At first, discussions were positive, but as the meetings wore on, one or more …

U.S. DOT paving way for self-driving cars (and a Klingons aside): 

U.S. DOT paving way for self-driving cars

Chris Ziegler reports at The Verge:

DOT and NHTSA will develop the new tools necessary for this new era of vehicle safety and mobility, and will seek new authorities when they are necessary to ensure that fully autonomous vehicles, including those …

Ziggy Played Guitar: 

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Look up here, I’m in heaven I’ve got scars that can’t be seen I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen Everybody knows me now

– David Bowie, Lazarus

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David Bowie died surrounded by family at his New York home Sunday, January 10, 2016 eighteen months after being diagnosed with cancer. He …

More than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida: More than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida This bit sent shivers down my spine: After Detroit processed a backlog of 11,000 rape kits, police identified more than 100 serial rape suspects. Why shivers? Because it instantly prompts me to wonder how many women were raped who wouldn’t have …

Cosby charged with sexual assault: Bill Cosby charged with sexual assault in Pennsylvania The TV legend is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand when she visited his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. A probable cause affidavit filed by investigators this week alleges that …

Is sending porn illegal in Pennsylvania?: Is sending porn illegal in Pennsylvania? Dave Davies writes on his WHYY blog, Off Mic: It's right there in the state crimes code; it's a third-class misdemeanor to "sell, lend, distribute, transmit, exhibit, or give away or show any obscene materials to any person 18 years of age or older..." …

Katie Floyd's 3 Tips For Family Tech Support: Katie Floyd’s 3 Tips For Family Tech Support Great advice for every geek dreading the holiday “Can you help me with my computer?” conversations.

Laser-armed fighter jets by 2020: Laser-armed fighter jets by 2020 Thom Patterson writes for CNN: Here's how Air Force special ops might use them: The commander of USAF special ops, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, said last September that by 2020 he wants them on C-130J Ghostrider gunships for landing zone protection. The laser weapons …

Sorry HR, your job descriptions suck: Machine Intelligence In The Real World [...] Textio is a text editor that recommends improvements to job descriptions as you type. With it, I can go from a 40th percentile job description to a 90th percentile one in just a few minutes, all thanks to a beautifully presented machine learning …

"A slower-track school where they do well": “A slower-track school where they do well” I’m just going to leave this Justice Scalia quote right here: There are those who contend that it does not benefit African­ Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a …

Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Family Petition To Bury Trans Woman As Their “Son": Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Family Petition To Bury Trans Woman As Their “Son" Peleg, who was 31, had long been concerned about a battle with her ultra-orthodox family after her death. Their beliefs forbid cremation, and she worried they would attempt to have a religious burial under her …

Adele's '25' on Pandora: Adele’s ‘25’ on Pandora Pandora confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that every track from Adele'e new album is available through its radio service. That's not going to be a particularly great way of listening to 25 — because Pandora is a radio service, it means you can't choose what …

Restraining orders in the age of drones: Today Joshua Goldman of CNET reports that the FAA recommends requiring drone pilots to register instead of registering every single drone: On November 21, the FAA task force made its registration recommendations, and instead of keeping track of each and every drone out there, it suggested …

Vizio TVs spy on you, here's how to disable it: Vizio TVs spy on you, here’s how to disable it Vizio’s technology works by analyzing snippets of the shows you’re watching, whether on traditional television or streaming Internet services such as Netflix. Vizio determines the date, time, channel of programs — as well as whether you watched …

The how and why of sneaky ultrasonic ad tracking: Dan Goodin reports over at Ars Technica on the development of technology which can use inaudible frequencies to tie together multiple unconnected devices. He explains: The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. …

Is the Russian kamikaze sub misinformation or an inadvertent warning to the West?: Is the Russian kamikaze sub misinformation or an inadvertent warning to the West? Apparently, The screen capture depicts a project called "Ocean Multipurpose System 'Status-6.'" The weapon would apparently be delivered by a nuclear-powered underwater drone, carried externally by a nuclear …

Russian Ships Too Close to Data Cables for U.S. Comfort: Russian Ships Too Close to Data Cables for U.S. Comfort The first of two this-is-really-concerning posts you’ll find here today: The role of the cables is more important than ever before. They carry global business worth more than $10 trillion a day, including from financial institutions that …

Apple has learned nothing from Microsoft's Surface: Apple has learned nothing from Microsoft’s Surface - The Verge iPad sales are indeed down, but it does not follow from that fact that iPad use is down. This Time article did the yeoman’s work of aggregating some data about iPad sales. The bottom line is that in the five years since the …

When is time to take antitrust action against Comcast?: When is time to take antitrust action against Comcast? It’s hard to read about U.S. comeptition law without wondering when Comcast is going to face consequences for its clear abuse of its market power.

China hack attacks on US continue despite commercial spying pact: China hack attacks on US continue despite commercial spying pact If this surprises you, I’ve got a real-life, fully functional totally Back to the Future hoverboard to sell you…

Hackers Can Silently Control Siri From 16 Feet Away: Hackers Can Silently Control Siri From 16 Feet Away Well this is concerning: A pair of researchers at ANSSI, a French government agency devoted to information security, have shown that they can use radio waves to silently trigger voice commands on any Android phone or iPhone that has Google Now or …

Axel Springer bans adblock users from Bild online: Axel Springer bans adblock users from Bild online According to the report by Reuters at The Guardian: More than 30% of Germans online use such software, many more than the 5% of internet users globally in 2014, according to Dublin-based analytics and advisory firm PageFair, which develops “ad …

CFPB proposes ban of class action prohibitions in arbitration clauses: CFPB proposes ban of class action prohibitions in arbitration clauses The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a press release today: In the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress required the CFPB to study the use of arbitration clauses in consumer financial …

'Happy Birthday' copyright held invalid: ‘Happy Birthday’ copyright held invalid Until now, Warner has asked for royalties from anyone who wanted to sing or play "Happy Birthday to You" --- with the lyrics --- as part of a profit-making enterprise. Royalties were most often collected from stage productions, television shows, …

The Government Is Selling Thousands of Homes to Hedge Funds Without Their Owners' Knowledge: 

The Government Is Selling Thousands of Homes to Hedge Funds Without Their Owners' Knowledge

Jared Bennett reports at The Atlantic:

It was a great deal for Oaktree. The fund bought the pool of mortgages for about two-thirds of the $105.7 million HUD estimated the homes were worth. [Julius] Uwansc, …

Thoughts on ad blockers: 

Most of this article is an extensive discussion of my hunt for the best ad blocker on iOS. It isn’t exhaustive and, given the pace at which the App Store moves, probably won’t remain current for long. That’s why I want to open things with my own thoughts on ad blocking, because I …

Video gamer hunts down, stabs man who killed his online 'Counter-Strike' character: Video gamer hunts down, stabs man who killed his online ‘Counter-Strike’ character Michael Sheridan reports at NYDailyNews.com: Julien Barreaux reportedly spent six months looking for the person who killed his online character in a virtual knife fight, and eventually found the foe …

My annual sportsball post: Tom Brady’s Four-Game N.F.L. Suspension Erased by Judge: Tom Brady’s Four-Game N.F.L. Suspension Erased by Judge Tom Brady is now set to play in the Patriots' opener. I don’t care, but I know my parents, my siblings and most of my friends might. Here’s what the presiding judge said: "The court finds that Brady had no notice that he could …

Missouri Teenagers Protest a Transgender Student’s Use of the Girls’ Bathroom: Missouri Teenagers Protest a Transgender Student’s Use of the Girls’ Bathroom I can’t blame the students for protesting. Kids can be cruel, and kind of dumb. I certainly was. But parents and attorneys like Derrick Good display a shameful vacuity in couching their bigotry in terms like …

Alison Parker, Adam Ward of WDBJ remembered by friends: Alison Parker, Adam Ward of WDBJ remembered by friends It’s inappropriate to use these tragic murders as fodder for the never-ending Second Amendment debate, and people on both sides of the isle are already guilty of that. If the killer’s intent was to terrorize, are those people who are …

Lewis James Fogle Free, 34 Years After His Wrongful Conviction: Lewis James Fogle Free, 34 Years After His Wrongful Conviction The case against Mr. Fogle itself was never a strong one – it was based entirely upon the testimony of so-called jailhouse informants, including a man himself suspected of the crime. It was only years after the 15-year-old victim’s body …

What's better for free speech on reddit, saving a single thread or getting the whole site unbanned in Russia?: What’s better for free speech on reddit, saving a single thread or getting the whole site unbanned in Russia? If the choice is between all of reddit remaining banned in most of Russia and IP-blocking access to one thread about mushrooms, I’d block access to the thread. I think …

Facial Recognition Software Moves From Overseas Wars to Local Police: Facial Recognition Software Moves From Overseas Wars to Local Police This is troubling: Lt. Scott Wahl, a spokesman for the 1,900-member San Diego Police Department, said the department does not require police officers to file a report when they use the facial recognition technology but do not make …

The ethics of modern web ad-blocking: The ethics of modern web ad-blocking Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper and, more recently, Overcast: This won’t be a clean, easy transition. Blocking pop-ups was much more incisive: it was easy for legitimate publishers to avoid one narrowly-useful Javascript function to open new windows. But …

Can the FTC ban digital goods?: Can the FTC ban digital goods? Brent Kendall, writing at The Wall Street Journal: The current case is about patents, but the ITC also can take action against goods that infringe copyrights, an issue important to Hollywood and other rights holders. They are eyeing the ITC as a new venue for …

Federal Court's data breach decision shows new tilt toward victims, class-action lawsuits: Federal Court’s data breach decision shows new tilt toward victims, class-action lawsuits John Fontana writes at ZDNet: In an interesting twist, the Court said the fact Neiman Marcus offered free credit monitoring services was evidence that there was harm to these victims. The ruling turned …

"Happy birthday" lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn: “Happy birthday” lawsuit takes a(n unexpectedly interesting) turn Did you know copyright lawyers have waged a legal battle over ‘Happy Birthday’ for a long time? They have, and, somehow, it recently got interesting. If this proposition is accepted by the judge, …

China-Tied Hackers That Hit U.S. Said to Breach United Airlines: China-Tied Hackers That Hit U.S. Said to Breach United Airlines This is starting to look like a concerted effort to gather a specific data set for some sort of coordinated use: The previously unreported United breach raises the possibility that the hackers now have data on the movements of millions …

Drone regulation, firefighting and basic decency: Drone regulation, firefighting and basic decency Michael Martinez, Paul Vercammen and Ben Brumfield report at CNN: Five such "unmanned aircraft systems" prevented California firefighters from dispatching helicopters with water buckets for up to 20 minutes over a wildfire that roared Friday onto a …

Democracy.io - Contact your Members of Congress: Democracy.io - Contact your Members of Congress Great stuff from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Failure to effectively reach members of Congress has disastrous consequences. Studies show that politicians fundamentally misconceive their constituents’ views, making it harder for them to …

Google's alleged gender-based pay disparity: Ex-Googler says she exposed company-wide pay inequality with crowdsourced spreadsheet Kristen V. Brown wrote for Fusion about Googler Erica Joy’s recent salary spreadsheet. Google had no response to her request for comment, which is the worst kind of response to something like this. Apple …

Antitrust official inappropriately lauds Amazon's "disruptive business model": Antitrust official inappropriately lauds Amazon’s “disruptive business model” DOJ antitrust head William J. Baer, speaking at a London antitrust conference: By conspiring with Apple, which was seeking a fail-safe way to enter the market, five major publishers and Apple reached an …

Obama Plans Broader Use of Clemency to Free Nonviolent Drug Offenders: Obama Plans Broader Use of Clemency to Free Nonviolent Drug Offenders Peter Baker of The New York Times: In his second term, Mr. Obama embarked on an effort to use clemency and has raised his total commutations to 43, a number he may double this month. The initiative was begun last year by James M. …

iOS 9 Public Beta coming today?: iOS 9 Public Beta coming today? I rarely cross-post from my geekery-focused Tumblr, but I’m so excited about this I had to share it here, where I have literally thousands more followers. I’ll be writing a proper post about the public beta after I’ve used it for a few days. There are some interesting …

The Verge made a FAA drone exemption search engine: The Verge made a FAA drone exemption search engine Ben Popper reports at The Verge: We have partnered with the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College to collect data on every commercial exemption the FAA grants. It's a fascinating snapshot of a fast-growing industry still in its infancy. …

Tor Project seeks Executive Director: Tor Project seeks Executive Director The Tor Project, makers of anonymizing browsing tools, is looking for a new Executive Director: The position provides the high-profile opportunity to assume the voice and face of Tor to the world, and particularly to the global community of Internet …

When a Company Is Put Up for Sale, in Many Cases, Your Personal Data Is, Too: When a Company Is Put Up for Sale, in Many Cases, Your Personal Data Is, Too I have written about this before, but it’s worth reminding you. These days many companies offer an official privacy policy and an easier-to-read but not so official abridged version. Sometimes the two do not agree: …

Amazon AWS: Good enough for the CIA: Amazon AWS: Good enough for the CIA Leena Rao has a fascinating background story at Fortune on Amazon Web Services, built around a profile of its leader, Senior Vice President Andy Jassy. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but this bit was particularly interesting: Net­flix’s adoption also …

Philly diner's SCOTUS-inspired brunch menu following same-sex marriage ruling: Philly diner’s SCOTUS-inspired brunch menu following same-sex marriage ruling Oh Philadelphia, how I miss you sometimes. Danya Henninger writes at Billy Penn: Over the weekend, Sam’s Morning Glory Diner ran a pair of specials that sold out faster than any dish in the South Philly restaurant’s …

Modern Law for the Week Ending June 26, 2015: 

This week I devote the entire newsletter to the Supreme Court decision declaring bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. I try to provide a variety of viewpoints despite the fact that I agree with the general assertion that the Constitution does not permit bans on the marriage of two consenting …

Monster sues their way out of Apple's licensed accessories program: Apple Revokes Monster’s Authority to Make Licensed Accessories Daisuke Wakabayashi writes at The Wall Street Journal: Mr. Tognotti said he told Apple that the move would significantly disrupt Monster’s business and that the two companies had worked well for years, with Monster paying Apple more …

Petraeus' preferential punishment: Petraeus' preferential punishment Mitch Weiss of the Associated Press reports: A federal judge in Charlotte unsealed the documents Monday, two months after the retired four-star general was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000 for unauthorized removal and retention of classified …

NASA, Verizon developing tech to track drones via cell towers: NASA, Verizon developing tech to track drones via cell towers Mark Harris reports at The Guardian: That $500,000 project is now underway at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Nasa is planning the first tests of an air traffic control system for drones there this summer, …

Microsoft has acquired Wunderlist: Microsoft has acquired Wunderlist Amir Mizroch of The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft bought Wunderlist’s parent company 6Wunderkinder for between $100 and $200 million. Microsoft is on a roll, having recently acquired Sunrise calendar and purchased email app Acompli and rebranded …

Crisis shelter workers want Google Maps to hide the locations of their shelters: Crisis shelter workers want Google Maps to hide the locations of their shelters Selena Larson reports at The Daily Dot: Crisis shelters provide a safe haven for victims and their families; they are a refuge away from abusers. By publicly listing shelter locations online, Google is endangering …

Microsoft won't rule out complying with potential UK encryption limits: Microsoft’s won’t rule out complying with potential UK encryption limits Danny Yadron at The Wall Street Journal quoted Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith: “It’s a big market, and it’s a country we believe has a fundamental rule of law in place,” Smith said at an event in Palo Alto, …

Appeals court keeps immigration policy on hold: Appeals court keeps immigration policy on hold Lyle Denniston writes at SCOTUSBlog: Under the policy, some 4.3 million individuals who entered the country illegally and remained without permission would be given a status of “lawful presence” in this country — well short of citizenship, and with no …

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: Subscribe to my weekly newsletter I don’t write here as often as I’d like to, and while I’ve tried to alter my habits to incorporate more frequent posting it just hasn’t happened, at least not yet. But a weekly newsletter may be the sweet spot as far as time management and …

The Amazon Noncompete Clause: The Amazon Noncompete Clause Here it is, in all its overbroad glory: During employment and for 18 months after the Separation Date, Employee will not, directly or indirectly, whether on Employee’s own behalf or on behalf of any other entity (for example, as an employee, agent, partner, or …

Apple under federal anti-competition scrutiny, again: Apple under federal anti-competition scrutiny, again Micah Singleton writes for The Verge: Sources also indicated that Apple offered to pay YouTube’s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the label stopped allowing its songs on YouTube. Apple is seemingly trying to clear a path before its …

Popcorn Time, Netflix, HBO and the future of digital media: 

This story about a U.K. court ordering Popcorn Time blocked has been knocking around in my brain for a couple of days now. When stuff knocks around in my head for days, chances are it will end up in written form, right here. So here we go.

“Super-cuts” from same-sex marriage arguments: “Super-cuts” from same-sex marriage arguments SCOTUSBlog contributor Tejinder Singh posted 36 minutes of audio highlights from yesterday’s oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges. The case is one of several on the Court’s docket this term focused on two specific constitutional questions: …

Re-engaging driver with questions after saying he’s free to leave is a second stop: Re-engaging driver with questions after saying he’s free to leave is a second stop This is worth knowing if you’re a Pennsylvania resident or you find yourself frequently driving through the state. However, do yourself a favor and don’t throw it in the face of an officer whose behavior …

NJ lawyers need a social media policy for employees: NJ lawyers need a social media policy for employees Jennifer Marino Thibodaux of Gibbons writes: The subject attorneys were retained to defend a town and its police sergeant in a personal injury action. One attorney directed his paralegal to conduct Internet research about the plaintiff. The …

Another blow to deceptively marketed "unlimited" data plans: Another blow to deceptively marketed “unlimited” data plans Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica: The FCC's new rules ban throttling except in cases of "reasonable network management." AT&T could argue that the throttling is necessary to keep its network running smoothly, but FCC Chairman …

Tim Cook: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous: Tim Cook: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous Tim Cook, in an op-ed at the Washington Post: Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or …

Employee Manuals Need Spring Cleaning Thanks to the NLRB: Employee Manuals Need Spring Cleaning Thanks to the NLRB Jason Shinn, writing at Michigan Employment Law Advisor: But this is where employers really need to be concerned: The distinction between what is permissible and what is not is somewhat anemic to begin with, and if your company’s policies are …

Tesla will enable automated freeway driving this summer: Tesla will enable automated freeway driving this summer Chris Taylor reporting at Mashable: So to recap: Tesla cars will start self-driving this summer, on freeways at least. (It seems likely that once we've gotten used to that notion, autopilot for the full ride will be unlocked.) Google could …

The Night His Girlfriend Dissociated and Forgot Who He Was: The Night His Girlfriend Dissociated and Forgot Who He Was An anonymous author writes at Vice.com: 'This is perfectly normal,' I thought, as she scrolled through her phone looking for George's name. 'I'm just a guy, standing here, getting my girlfriend's ex to vouch for my existence.' Her first …

Petraeus reaches plea deal with Justice Department: Petraeus reaches plea deal with Justice Department Kevin Johnson and Tom Vanden Brook, reporting for USA Today: The explosive details in the agreement show that Petraeus lied to investigators, divulged a massive amount of sensitive data to Paula Broadwell and worried about how she handled them in …

Goodbye Leonard Nimoy: Goodbye Leonard Nimoy Krishnadev Calamur, reporting at NPR: Actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock, the logical half-Vulcan, half-human in the original Star Trek series and several movies, has died at his home in Los Angeles, his granddaughter, Madeleine, told NPR. Nimoy was 83. …

Snapchat selfie gets teen arrested on murder charge: Snapchat selfie gets teen arrested on murder chargeJill Daly, reporting at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: On Thursday, a woman told police her son had a copy of a Snapchat photo sent from the accused. Jeannette Sgt. Donald Johnston saw the photo, depicting the wounded victim in the chair as found by …

Gay marriage begins in Alabama: Gay marriage begins in AlabamaJustices Thomas and Scalia were none too pleased that their colleagues refused to continue a stay on same-sex marriages in Alabama pending the Court’s resolution of the issue later this year: Yet rather than treat like applicants alike, the Court looks the other way as …

How the DMCA criminalized DIY farm equipment repair: How the DMCA criminalized DIY farm equipment repairKyle Wiens, writing at Wired: Manufacturers have every legal right to put a password or an encryption over the tECU. Owners, on the other hand, don’t have the legal right to break the digital lock over their own equipment. The Digital Millennium …

Innocent until convinced otherwise: Innocent until convinced otherwiseSusan Perry, reporting at MinnPost.com on a study led by psychologist Julia Shaw of the University of Bedminstershire and published in the journal Psychological Science: The results were stunning (so stunning that the researchers stopped the study after …

The Guardian explains ‘three-parent’ babies: The Guardian explains ‘three-parent’ babiesIan Sample has a clear, concise explainer over at The Guardian about the procedure, passed by British MPs today, that would allow replacement of faulty maternal DNA with third-party female mitochondria. One of the primary legal issues raised by the vote is …

The science of smarter teams: The science of smarter teamsThis is a fascinating article about what characteristics distinguish smarter teams from less effective teams. I’m a big fan of thinking about the bigger picture of emerging research like this. Think about how it applies, and how to apply it to improve, newsrooms, law firm …

Aol dials up the stupid with 150 editorial layoffs: Aol dials up the stupid with 150 editorial layoffsBrianna Royce, Editor in Chief of Massively, the MMORPG arm of popular gaming blog Joystiq, which is also going away, talking about Aol Corporate’s most recent stupidity: I would like to be able to tell you truthfully that this is an equitable and …

EFF Wins Battle Over Secret Legal Opinions on Government Spying: EFF Wins Battle Over Secret Legal Opinions on Government SpyingThe EFF said in a press release yesterday: The U.S. Department of Justice today filed a motion to dismiss its appeal of a ruling over legal opinions about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial provision of law relied on by …

Federal judge strikes down gay-marriage ban in Alabama: Federal judge strikes down gay-marriage ban in AlabamaI’ll just leave this right here…

South Dakota same-sex marriage ban falls: South Dakota same-sex marriage ban fallsI’ve probably used this line before, but I can’t help myself… Another one bites the dust.

A Reminder To Ditch The Disclaimer This Tax Season: A Reminder To Ditch The Disclaimer This Tax SeasonKelly Phillips Erb, writing at Forbes: According to the final Regs, “the rules in the final regulations are intended to eliminate the need for unnecessary disclaimers.” In other words, the IRS gave a nod to how crazy things had become, noting, …

Join the bone marrow registry: Join the bone marrow registryDrew Olanoff (@drew) is facing cancer for the second time. He is fighting it in public again, this time to bring greater awareness to the bone marrow registry. Go sign up for a free registration kit. I did. It only took me ten minutes. I did it on my iPhone. Skip your …

Google Calendars as a timekeeping tool: Google Calendars as a timekeeping toolKeri Mahoney of Law Technology Today writes about using Google Calendar to track and bill for attorney time, but this is a clever technique for anyone who needs to track time. Alternatively, Toggl is great for basic time tracking and Harvest is even better if …

Message scanning lawsuit against Facebook won't go away: Message scanning lawsuit against Facebook won’t go awayJohn Timmer reports at Ars Technica: The court responded to this request by pursuing an extraordinarily rare course of action: it read Facebook’s entire terms of service. And, in this case, their vague language—typically used to provide …

What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2015?: What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2015? Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain: Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the …

Some policy thoughts on corporate "revenge hacking": Michael Riley and Jordan Robertson, reporting a fascinating story at Bloomberg: In the U.S., companies are prohibited by the 30-year-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act from gaining unauthorized access to computers or overloading them with digital demands, even to stop an ongoing attack. The act …

Treatment of Transgender Employment Discrimination Claims Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Treatment of Transgender Employment Discrimination Claims Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 It’s about damn time. According to a DOJ press release: Attorney General Holder announced today that the Department of Justice will take the position in litigation that the protection of Title …

Employees sue Sony over email leaks: Employees sue Sony over email leaksSaba Hamedy and Meg James, at the LA Times: Hackers began releasing sensitive data after the studio’s security breach became public on Nov. 24. The group, calling itself Guardians of Peace, has released data including thousands of pages of emails from studio …

A court of beginnings: Photo of Pike County Courthouse by the author Several excellent writing professors have told me throughout my life that you start by starting. Introductions, caveats and excuses delay your goal and bore or confuse the reader. Don’t tell people what you’re going to do. Do it. But they also advised me …

The ethics of reporting on the Sony hack: The ethics of reporting on the Sony hackEmily Yoshida (@emilyyoshida), entertainment editor at The Verge, one of my favorite tech news sites, on the publication’s ongoing and deep contemplation of the ethics of reporting on unethically leaked information: The contents of the leak are already …

Google recognizes non-binary, fluid nature of gender identity in new settings: This is another post that began as a mere link post and became, by the time I was done writing it, an article in its own right. When I’m doing more than brief commentary, an article of my own feels more appropriate. There’s more room for opinion in a full article, and I like few things more than …

HBO without cable confirmed for April 2015: HBO without cable confirmed for April 2015Finally, although HBO’s decision to use MLB Advanced Media instead of HBO’s own streaming tech prompted CTO and former Xbox executive Otto Berkes to resign.

Tim Cook will lend his name to Alabama LGBTQ bill: Tim Cook will lend his name to Alabama LGBTQ billApple initially expressed corporate reluctance, but Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell later told Pamela Todd, Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker, that CEO Tim Cook “would be delighted” to have a bill named after him which would protect LGBTQ Alabama …

Searching Google Scholar: Searching Google ScholarI’m trying to post fewer links, which means I’ve been posting less frequently in general. I’m working on some articles, but until they’re ready to publish I’ll still share the occasional link. This one is a great article from the American Bar Association’s Law Technology …

Serial podcast presents novel collision of law and technology: Serial podcast presents novel collision of law and technologyThe incredible true crime podcast Serial presents a novel collision between technology and the law. This time, it’s not that technology plays or should play a particular part in the case itself, but that a podcast has shed light on a cold …

Americans’ Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program: Americans’ Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy ProgramDevlin Barrett reports at The Wall Street Journal: The program cuts out phone companies as an intermediary in searching for suspects. Rather than asking a company for cell-tower information to help locate a suspect, which law enforcement has …

Warrantless seizure of child pornography evidence fatal to prosecution's case: Warrantless seizure of child pornography evidence fatal to prosecution’s caseThe Michigan Court of Appeals issued an opinion on November 6, 2014 affirming a lower court’s decision excluding evidence recovered from Maximilian Paul Gingrich’s (“Defendant”) laptop computer in a child pornography …

SCOTUS Servo tracks and announces changes to Supreme Court opinions: SCOTUS Servo tracks and announces changes to Supreme Court opinionsGitHub is where most software developers maintain their projects. It provides version control, issue tracking and much more to its users. I even have a few repositories of my own. SCOTUS Servo is developed by V. David Zvenyach, a …

Anita Sarkeesian asserts her right not to be in danger of being shot: Anita Sarkeesian asserts her right not to be in danger of being shotTim Vitale, spokesman for Utah State University, on Anita Sarkeesian’s cancellation of a planned lecture in the wake of emailed threats: She was worried about Utah law preventing police from keeping people with legal, conceal-carry …

HBO without cable coming in 2015: HBO without cable coming in 2015Peter Kafka reports at Recode: [HBO CEO Richard] Plepler said the company will go “beyond the wall” and launch a “stand alone, over the top” version of HBO in the US next year, and would work with “current partners,” and may work with others as well. But he wouldn’t …

Update to iOS 8 even without enough free space: I’ve heard from many people who insist their iPhone or iPad “can’t handle” or “doesn’t fit” iOS 8. I read an article about a slow-down in updates to iOS 8. John Gruber of Daring Fireball first posited that some well-documented software bugs were making people reluctant to update. But his follow-up …

A sense that it wasn’t design: A sense that it wasn’t designRobert Sullivan has such a good interview with Jony Ive over at Vogue: In other words, the secret weapon of the most sought-after personal-electronics company in the world is a very nice guy from Northeast London who has a soft spot for woodworking and the sense that …

Philly will consider adding LGBTQ protections to hate crimes ordinance: Philly will consider adding LGBTQ protections to hate crimes ordinanceRandy Lobasso, writing at Philly Weekly‘s PhillyNow blog: Last week, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced a proposal along with Councilman Jim Kenney to add disability, sexual orientation and gender identity to the …

Subprime auto lenders use technology to compel payment: Subprime auto lenders use technology to compel paymentMichael Corkery And Jessica Silver-Greenberg, reporting at the New York Times DealBook blog: Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s …

FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devices: FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devicesEncryption of data on mobile devices is a big selling point in our post-Snowden world. But FBI Director James Comes isn’t happy about it: What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place …

Anonymous Instagram users role-play with stolen baby photos: Anonymous Instagram users role-play with stolen baby photosBlake Miller of Fast Company has this chilling article: Jenny had become a victim of a growing—and to many, alarming—new community that exists primarily on Instagram: baby role-players. Instagram users like Nikki steal images of babies and …

Apple can't bypass your iOS passcode: Apple can’t bypass your iOS passcodeApple says in the latest revision of its page on government information requests: On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed …

Check for lint before trying to replace your iPhone's charging port: My iPhone 5 recently stopped charging, unless I propped the phone upside down against an inclined surface like a lamp stand or a keyboard. I’m not in a position to buy one of those fancy new iPhones, so I shopped around in the internet’s DIY isle. I found a well-reviewed set of iPhone surgery tools …

OutBeat, America's First Queer Jazz Festival: OutBeat, America’s First Queer Jazz FestivalI don’t usually write about events here, but since I wrote the article to which I link above, I thought it appropriate to share. I had several great conversations with Chris Bartlett, Executive Director of the William Way Community Center in …

Millenials won't use subpar enterprise software: Millenials won’t use subpar enterprise softwarePaul Boag writes at Smashing Magazine: Frustration will only increase as millennials enter the workforce. These people are digital natives, and they expect a certain standard of software. They expect software to adapt to them, not the other way …

The systemic failure of modern hiring practices: The systemic failure of modern hiring practicesLaurie Voss, in a piece about technical hiring that is easily applied to the legal field and hiring more generally, on asking applicants questions to which they almost certainly don’t know the answer: The weakest candidates will try to waffle or make …

Privacy advocates, tech companies nudge Congress to protect ‘abandoned’ e-mails: Privacy advocates, tech companies nudge Congress to protect ‘abandoned’ e-mailsThe Email Privacy Act would prevent the government from using mere administrative subpoenas to access email older than 180 days. The distinction, included in the Stored Communications Act , was based on the need for users …

7th Circuit strikes down gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana: 7th Circuit strikes down gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana The legal momentum favors universal application of the fundamental right of two consenting adults to marry, but that doesn’t make each ruling any less exciting.

Listen: The Lawfare Podcast discusses zombies in the context of international law and national security: Listen: The Lawfare Podcast discusses zombies in the context of international law and national securityIf you’ve ever wondered how international law, laws of war and national security policy might be applied to a zombie apocalypse scenario, listen to episode 89 of The Lawfare Podcast. The law and …

How law firms can innovate by providing third-party services to other law firms: The Economist wrote in 2011 about the end of the legal industry’s lofty heights, saying of one large but ill-fated American firm: Howrey’s boss, Robert Ruyak, blamed two new trends for his firm’s demise. Howrey had begun acceding to clients’ demands for flat, deferred or contingent fees, causing …

Larry Lessig fighting for campaign finance reform with Mayday PAC: Larry Lessig fighting for campaign finance reform with Mayday PACLawrence Lessig’s Mayday PAC is using the very system it decries to attempt to bring that system down. In other words, Lessig et al are hijacking the virus (the influence of big donors on American politics via election contributions) …

Facebook is not free: Facebook is not freeIf you use Facebook, this article is a must-read. It’s now common knowledge Facebook is always watching and analyzing how you use the service. But the breadth and depth of the company’s participation in the data brokering economy is staggering. The worst part? You literally …

Why we don't speak up at work: Why we don’t speak up at workThis piece by Claire Lew at Signal v. Noise doesn’t exactly fit into my general topics of law, technology and design, but it’s so important I that feel obligated to share it. I mention in my article about the role of metrics in editorial strategy that I’ve been …

For the NSA, we are the haystack: For the NSA, we are the haystackBarton Gellman, Julie Tate and Ashkan Soltani, reporting at the Washington Post: Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended …

Facebook COO Sandberg apologizes for emotional contagion experiment: Facebook COO Sandberg apologizes for emotional contagion experimentR. Jai Krishna, reporting on the reaction of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to the outcry over the company’s experiment on the emotions of nearly 700,000 unwitting users: We take privacy and security at Facebook …

Listen: This Week in Law: Listen: This Week in LawWhen it comes to my own website, editorial calendars always give way to real life. I’m back with the latest in a series that would be more accurately called the “Podcast of the Month.” I really need to step it up with these, as I still have about 70 of them to which I listen …

Perverting the Metric: The Role of Metrics in Editorial Strategy: HuffPo and BuzzFeed co-founder Jonah Peretti recently said in a long and fascinating interview by Felix Salmon published at Matter: I love metrics and I love thinking about optimization, but I think that the optimal state is being slightly suboptimal because as soon as you try to actually optimize, …

Houston, We Have A Public Domain Problem: Houston, We Have A Public Domain ProblemParker Higgins of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, lamenting the recent removal of a public domain NASA clip he posted on the audio sharing site SoundCloud: The real goofy bit is that before I started at EFF, I worked at SoundCloud. I actually uploaded …

Facebook experimented on its users' emotions: Facebook experimented on its users' emotionsAviva Rutkin, reporting in New Scientist: A team of researchers, led by Adam Kramer at Facebook in Menlo Park, California, was curious to see if this phenomenon [of contagious emotion] would occur online. To find out, they manipulated which posts showed …

Budgets and egos: Budgets and egosMark Headd, Philly’s first Chief Data Officer, who quit in spring of 2013, talking to Juliana Reyes of Technically Philly about why he resigned the post: “A self-certifying website is a 20th century answer to the problem of tax deadbeats,” he wrote in an email. “An open data API is …

Avoid Facebook's all-seeing eye: Avoid Facebook’s all-seeing eyeViolet Blue, reporting at ZDNet: Facebook also announced Thursday it will begin tracking its users’ browsing and activities on websites and apps outside Facebook, starting within a few weeks Her article is full of great advice for people who want to minimize …

Journalism and tomatoes: Journalism and tomatoesFrom a May 2013 editorial in the Columbia Journalism Review: Perhaps journalism can learn from the mistakes of the food industry, which bred a perfectly red, flawless-looking tomato, giving the edge to looks over taste, since that’s what consumers were buying. Redesigns …

AT&T, acquiring DirectTV, "vows" to stick to FCC's Open Internet rules for 3 years: AT&T, acquiring DirectTV, “vows” to stick to FCC’s Open Internet rules for 3 yearsNathan Mattise, reporting at Ars Technica: The two companies will demonstrate “continued commitment for three years after closing to the FCC’s Open Internet protections established in 2010, …

Mark Zuckerberg on survival of the most passionate: Mark Zuckerberg on survival of the most passionate I actually think a lot of the reason why great stuff gets built is because it’s kind of irrational at the time, so it kind of selects for the people that care most about doing it. A great point. That young man is going places.

Gino Barrica on self-hating lawyers: Gino Barrica on self-hating lawyersGino Barrica, responding to yet another article1 cautioning against the pursuit of a law degree: See, I’m not a self-hating lawyer. I’m not one of those who hang my head in shame when people ask what I do and I’m not someone who tells people to run for the hills …

The true Julian Assange: The true Julian AssangeAndrew O’Hagan reads his essay Ghosting, about the failed ghostwriting project during which he got to know WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange as few do. The full text is also available at the link.

Condoleezza Rice backs out of Rutgers commencement: Condoleezza Rice backs out of Rutgers commencementThe Associated Press reports: The school’s board of governors had voted to pay $35,000 to the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush and national security adviser for her appearance at the May 18 ceremony. Any question involving …

Internet Privacy and What Happens When You Try to Opt Out: Internet Privacy and What Happens When You Try to Opt OutJanet Vertesi tried to hide her pregnancy from the internet: The myth that users will “vote with their feet” is simply wrong if opting out comes at such a high price. With social, financial and even potentially legal repercussions involved, …

Moves, contradicting previous statement, may share user data with Facebook under new privacy policy: When Facebook acquired fitness tracking app Moves, the two said user data would not be commingled. But Moves’ new privacy policy reverses course. First, when fitness tracking app Moves was acquired by Facebook in April, it said: For those of you that use the Moves app – the Moves experience will …

Philadelphia School District releases budget data: Philadelphia School District releases budget dataPublic entities don’t often have the budget needed to attract top talent from the private sector. But exposing data to public manipulation and scrutiny, aside from fulfilling a duty of transparency too often ignored, allows anyone interested in …

Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne's blog: Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne’s blogJoel Gascoigne is a co-founder and the CEO of Buffer, the most powerful tool for sharing and scheduling stuff across multiple social networks. It’s a great service and one I use almost daily. But more importantly, Joel’s thoughtful blog is a great way to read …

Gabriel García Márquez on life as literature: Gabriel García Márquez on life as literatureThe recently deceased García Márquez, in an interview published in the winter 1981 issue of The Paris Review: My mother asked me to accompany her to Aracataca, where I was born, and to sell the house where I spent my first years. When I got there it was …

Om Malik on digital advertising: Om Malik on digital advertising Is a page being auto-refreshed on an open tab in your browser really useful “attention?” I don’t think so. I saw this first-hand in a previous job. Here is a pro tip: You can be sure much of your traffic is open-and-forget (and therefore useless to advertisers) if …

Plagiarism in Legal Briefs: Plagiarism in Legal BriefsGerard Magliocca, writing at Concurring Opinions: If I cited [someone else’s] brief in an attempt to fairly attribute the source when I made the same point, then I’d look like an uncreative doofus. If I did not cite the brief, though, then that would (or could) be …

You don't have to tweet for Twitter to consider you an active user: You don’t have to tweet for Twitter to consider you an active userYoree Koh reporting at The Wall Street Journal: Twitter said it has 241 million monthly active users the last three months of 2013. Twitter defines a monthly active user as an account that logs in at least once a month. By …

Government agency NTIS charges for docs you can get online for free, loses money doing it: Government agency NTIS charges for docs you can get online for free, loses money doing itGood thing a bipartisan bill aims to end that embarrassing situation. The things the National Technology Information Service does which don’t involve charging hundreds of dollars for free stuff and bleeding …

The DATA Act and legislative definitions: The DATA Act and legislative definitionsAndrea Peterson reports1 at The Washington Post the Senate has passed a bill, the DATA Act, which would require federal financial data be published in a common format. It sounds like a great idea and something those nerdy data journalists are going to love. …

Down the aggregation rabbit hole: This began as a link post pointing to Joel Achenbach’s Washington Post blog entry Journalism is aggregation. But, like more and more link posts lately, it got away from me and merged into its own article. Achenbach decides journalism is aggregation, and that’s okay. Or maybe he decides it’s not …

Margaret Sullivan takes her NYT colleagues to task like it's her job, because it is: Margaret Sullivan takes her NYT colleagues to task like it’s her job, because it isMargaret Sullivan is Public Editor at the New York Times. She is tasked with taking the Times to task when it falls short, overreaches or otherwise misses the mark. And sometimes it does miss the mark, like when …

Heartbleed: When no encryption is better than bad encryption: Heartbleed: When no encryption is better than bad encryptionAlex Hern reports for The Guardian this disturbing fact about the recently disclosed OpenSSL bug, now two years old and pervasive: servers vulnerable to Heartbleed are less secure than they would be if they simply had no encryption at all. …

“Notable toupee”: “Notable toupee”I wanted to share this because it’s a funny phrase, and I think it’s important to keep an eye out for humor, intentional or otherwise, in civil litigation filings. Film studio Paramount Pictures, in its motion to dismiss a defamation suit by a plaintiff alleging the film The Wolf of …

NPEs planning patent litigation may be safer as private companies: Note: I’m not your lawyer, you’re not my client, and nothing in this article is, or should be construed as, legal advice. Companies that don’t sell anything and exist only to enforce patent rights, sometimes purchased from the original patent holder solely for the value of enforcement, are known as …

Aggregation is plagiarism: Aggregation is plagiarismAggregation is plagiarism: I couldn’t help but aggregate (though not plagiarize) this link Jim Dalrymple aggregated to a post by a Mr. Joe Wilcox about how aggregation is, well, plagiarism. It’s true, now that you’ve read this you don’t need to read the original to know what …

Facebook buys virtual reality company Oculus: Facebook buys virtual reality company OculusFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting virtual reality will follow mobile as the next major communication paradigm. While I’m not sure that’s true with VR tech alone, the massive user base and data stores of Facebook, used wisely despite a minefield of …

Listen: 99% Invisible: Listen: 99% InvisibleThis week’s featured podcast is 99% Invisible is “a tiny radio show about design,” by Roman Mars. If you think often about design, you’ll love every episode of this one. If you don’t think often about design, 99% Invisible will make you think often about design. Mars doesn’t …

Reading List: Law reviews, loans, novels and Crimea: Here’s what I’ve been reading lately. The Crimea story is easily the most important one in terms of knowing some stuff about what’s going on in the world, but it’s all worth a look. The fellow who put together that Crimea reading list (at the bottom of the list below) is Om Malik, founder of GigaOm …

Listen: CMD + Space: I want to tell you about one great podcast every week. This shouldn’t be a problem for at least a and a half or so because I am currently subscribed to about 80 podcasts. The first Podcast of the Week is CMD + Space. An interview show by Myke Hurley, CMD + Space typically features a wide-ranging …

Popcorn Time streams movie torrents, but maybe it’s more than that: The image above is the first screen you see when you open Popcorn Time. The app, available on Mac, Windows and Linux, streams movies from the peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent. The technology is similar to what old school music swapping service Napster used from about 1999 to 2001, …

An update on 'Reading List': A daily post of links I read that day feels too spammy now that I’ve done it a few times. I’ll make it a weekly thing where I highlight the best of what I read that week.

Reading list: Hari Kondabolu, Tim Cook, and magazine covers: My favorites among today’s reads are the Hari Kondabolu piece, which is actually a video of few minutes of his hilarious standup, and the Tim Cook article, which I posted about earlier. Going Paperless: Automating Repetitive Stuff about Meetings Hari Kondabolu Explains How Weezer Broke His Heart …

Tim Cook and the same question: Tim Cook and the same question When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. “Why is that?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t understand. Why are you not making it clear?” He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row. Once upon a time …

Introducing 'Reading List': I’m a huge fan of apps and services like Instapaper and Pocket, which allow you to save web pages, articles and even videos for later. Whether I’m in line at a coffee shop or sitting in a waiting room, I often turn to tools like Twitter and Feedly to see what’s worth reading on any given day. The …

Disgraced Scientist Granted U.S. Patent for Work Found to be Fraudulent: Disgraced Scientist Granted U.S. Patent for Work Found to be FraudulentIt’s hard to believe this patent should ever have been approved by a patent examiner acting in good faith, especially considering the criminal convictions standing in stark contradiction of the purported “inventor’s” affidavit of …

Get off your ass: Get off your assIt makes for funny headlines, like this one I came up with three years ago, but the science just keeps coming: sitting too much damages human health. The troubling part is much of the onus for a solution is on businesses employing us all, who may not have much incentive to contribute …

DHS wants to track license plates: DHS wants to track license platesICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen, on the license plate tracking system recently proposed by the Department of Homeland Security: It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise, and the data would be collected and stored by the …

CrossFit sends trademark takedown demand: CrossFit sends trademark takedown demand The lesson here: the Digital Millennium COPYRIGHT Act contains no enforcement mechanism for TRADEMARK rights.

What is Intellectual Property Law?: What is Intellectual Property Law?It’s not surprising that more scholarship self-identifying as IP-focused is about patents. After all, they drive much of commerce and innovation (and arguably the problems with the two) in the industrial and technology sectors. It’s worth noting though that, unlike …

Sens. Cruz and Lee Introduce State Marriage Defense Act: Sens. Cruz and Lee Introduce State Marriage Defense ActAt this point the anti-Constitutionalists are trolling themselves. A choice bit from this piece of garbage: The bill will ensure the federal government gives the same deference to the 33 states that define marriage as the union between one man …

Facebook Opens Up LGBTQ-Friendly Gender Identity And Pronoun Options: Facebook Opens Up LGBTQ-Friendly Gender Identity And Pronoun OptionsFollowing up on my recent tirade, this made me happy. Facebook has massive amounts of influence, and is influenced by massive amounts of people, and changes like this are a positive step forward in how technology reconciles with …

Kansas anti-gay segregation bill is an abomination.: Kansas anti-gay segregation bill is an abomination.Mr. Stern’s headline sums it up very well. If you don’t believe it can really be that bad, read the PDF. It is that bad. Ignorance is one thing, but open hostility like this cannot stand and anyone who supports this bill commits the intellectual …

$12M CEO vs. $1M baby: $12M CEO vs. $1M babyThe wife of an AOL employee, commenting on the company’s chief executive using her child’s premature birth as an example of why the company was cutting benefits: I take issue with how he reduced my daughter to a “distressed baby” who cost the company too much money. How he …

What is the maximum constitutional duration of a traffic stop?: What is the maximum constitutional duration of a traffic stop?The answer is, perhaps unsuprisingly, not clear. But while too few people know you don’t have to allow a vehicle search, the power differential during a traffic stop probably overrides abstract constitutional notions. As the article says, …

Workflow Tech, Part 2: Catalog: Introduction I focused in the first of this three-post series on how I capture information for use at home, work, for study, and in creative pursuits. This article is part two in that series, where I’ll spend about 500 words talking about how I name, organize, and save files across several platforms …

Mac turns 30: Mac turns 30Steve Jobs, in 1985: We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone. The remarkable thing is that, at least for people my age, ~30, as old as the Mac itself, the computer is far more remarkable than …

Who cares if I think this link leads to a silly blog post at Forbes.com?: Who cares if I think this link leads to a silly blog post at Forbes.com?No one. Least of all I. I just wrote too many words about why I think the post I link to above isn’t worth the bandwidth it’s transmitted over, but I was being tired and petty and shitting on the good-natured opinion of someone …

500 Words A Day: 500 Words A DayMG Siegler, general partner at Google Ventures, TechCrunch columnist, and tech writer: This year, my plan is to write roughly 500 words a day in the form of a short post here on this site. Good idea. Me too (although I’m a little late to punch so far).

The part that goes alone: This post stems from my recent conversations with a few people I know and care about who are having a very hard time of things these days. Each of us have our own mountains to climb, our own monsters under the bed. Mostly, it’s a different battle for all of us. But there’s a common thread. I notice …

Developing the Law of Cyber Warfare: Developing the Law of Cyber WarfareGood article by lawyer, legal journalist and fellow Temple Law alum Amaris Elliott-Engel. The law, or lack of it, as it relates to cyber warfare is near the top of my list of legal interests.

Facebook scans messages for ad targeting: Facebook scans messages for ad targetingI know this is an unpopular stance, but if you operate on any assumption other than that this happens all the time on myriad services you use, you’re a crazy unrealistic person lacking in the minimum amount of cynicism (read: realism) required to use the …

Apple and "market realities": Apple and “market realities”Apple, it turns out, is not happy about the legal consequences of its ebook price-fixing scheme. I would be unhappy as well if the attorney assigned by a federal judge to make sure I reformed my anti-competitive practices was sending me $1,100-per-hour bills. …

Teehan+Lax on redesigning Prismatic: Teehan+Lax on redesigning PrismaticIt’s a great post by great designers about the work and value that goes into and comes out of great design. It also happens to explain very clearly the concept behind my own website here at Constant & Endless. Geoff Teehan of Teehan+Lax writes: In the end, a …

Judges are, and aren't, competent to rule on intelligence issues: Judges are, and aren’t, competent to rule on intelligence issuesLots to parse on this one, although it looks like a new chapter in the “Surveillance Wars” Edward Snowden started with his leaks. Two choice quotes really stood out to me in this article, though, especially because they are in …

CrunchBase and People+ settle: CrunchBase and People+ settleA TechCrunch reporter had this to say about his employer’s sister product: Put another way: The CrunchBase team ended up looking like it didn’t really understand how Creative Commons worked, or at least that’s what the vast majority of online commentary suggested. …

Personhood for chimps? Not any time soon.: Personhood for chimps? Not any time soon.It’s a noble cause, but a flawed strategy. Victory is unlikely, but even if achieved it will be quickly squelched by legislation redefining personhood as belonging only to human beings. That’s one of the problems universal marriage proponents have had: some …

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwideBarton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani, reporting at The Washington Post: The NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones “incidentally,” a legal …

Jay Rosen on the "View from Somewhere": Jay Rosen on the “View from Somewhere”The quarter-billion-dollar news company Pierre Omidyar is founding will be fascinating: a digital-first journalism outfit with old media money behind it. It’s an odd flip of the Jeff Bezos/Washington Post play, which involved a digital-first …

Stephen Wolfram is building a ghost for the machine: Stephen Wolfram is building a ghost for the machineStephen Wolfram, putting modesty aside as he often and justifiably does, to discuss his most ambitious project to date: The level of automation is incredibly higher than people could ever have before – it’s incredibly powerful. Anything that …

Is Google Play Newsstand a viable alternative to standalone Android apps?: Is Google Play Newsstand a viable alternative to standalone Android apps?No.

Winamp is dead: Winamp is deadVery sad news. I’ve used Winamp for its entire life, all 15 years.

10 misconceptions about copyright and fair use: 10 misconceptions about copyright and fair useEveryone on the Internet should have to read these.

Judge calls Google book-scanning fair use: Judge calls Google book-scanning fair useGreat news for fair use doctrine, and a big win for word geeks. Judge Denny Chin said much in his ruling granting Google’s motion for summary judgment, but this part stuck out to me: Google Books permits humanities scholars to analyze massive amounts of data …

Is the job worthy of you?: Is the job worthy of you?The link is aimed at software developers but it’s applicable to anyone looking for a new job. I am at my current employer as much because it answered my questions satisfactorily as because I answered its questions satisfactorily.

A Friend Under Fire: Ed. note: This article was originally published in 2007 at Phillyist, the now-closed website about arts and culture in Philadelphia at which I was an associate editor. I’m republishing it here, lightly revised, for Veteran’s Day. It’s never easy to watch friends depart for dangerous lands, but …

A new kind of freelance journalism: A new kind of freelance journalismThis is essentially journalism à la carte: Peter Jukes offered to continue live-tweeting the News of the World phone-hacking trial if the crowd would fund it. Interest was strong enough to do just that, and his Indiegogo funders ordered up some trial coverage, …

AOL lawyers don't understand Creative Commons. At all.: AOL lawyers don’t understand Creative Commons. At all.David Kravets writes at Wired about AOL’s demand that an app called People+ stop using a complete replica of AOL’s tech company database. AOL’s CrunchBase is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution: We provide CrunchBase’s content …

Pivot while there's still time: Pivot while there’s still timeBobby Ghoshal, co-founder of the now-defunct social news app Flud: A year after pivoting to the enterprise we were out of business […] because we ran out of money and investors didn’t have enough data to make a decision to jump on board. I buy this reasoning. I …

Steam has more subscribers than Xbox Live: Steam has more subscribers than Xbox LiveThe Steam gaming network is now the number 2 community for gamers in the world. Sony’s PlayStation Network is on top with 110 million users, followed by Steam with 65 million. Microsoft’s Xbox Live network takes the third spot with 48 million subscribers. The …

Google's party barge: Google’s party bargeMystery one day, party barge the next.

NSA responds to “erroneous” data collection reports (full text): The National Security Agency, in a mass email to press Oct. 31, presumably responding to a recent Washington Post report on the agency’s direct data monitoring of company’s like Google and Yahoo, goes all third-person self-referential on us: What NSA does is collect the communications of targets of …

FBI asks DOJ to investigate source of Calderon leak to Al Jazeera: FBI asks DOJ to investigate source of Calderon leak to Al JazeeraIt could be that I’m new to the journalism industry and only recently interested in its developments. But it seems to me as if journalism and law are converging like never before, and on an international stage. While Al Jazeera America …

States cite lack of federal progress in pursuit of privacy reform: States cite lack of federal progress in pursuit of privacy reformSpecial interest groups oppose federal privacy reform to prevent onerous new regulations. But this effort must, at some point, become counterproductive. A multitude of state-specific privacy frameworks that, by (federal) law, can’t …

Details and summary tags in HTML5: HTML5 includes two tags, details and summary, that can be used to generate expanding menus you once needed JavaScript or jQuery for. A code snippet opening and closing with the “details” tag can include a summary that, when clicked, expands to reveal additional HTML. As of this writing, I’ve …

Google "zealously" private about mystery barge: Google “zealously” private about mystery bargeI thought this was interesting but not really worth mentioning here, until the Coast Guard visited, apparently, as USA Today reports, under a presumably Google-imposed gag order. I’m an avid Google user, incredibly open on the internet, and …

Jim Roberts joins Mashable as executive editor, chief content officer: Jim Roberts joins Mashable as executive editor, chief content officerJim Roberts on his new role at Mashable: To some it might seem a bit of a departure. You might imagine a headline like: “Longtime New York Times and Reuters veteran forsakes legacy media for digital upstart.” Interesting. Roberts …

On being a female lawyer: On being a female lawyerWorth a read whether you’re a male or a female. Hat-tip to Sheryl Axelrod, immediate past president of the Temple Law Alumni Association and a preeminent Philadelphia-area lawyer, for sharing this on LinkedIn. (Yes, I visit LinkedIn, even when not looking for jobs.)

Whose Fault Is a Driverless-Car Crash?: Whose Fault Is a Driverless-Car Crash?Some possibilities not contemplated in this brief Time piece: software developer for driving computer component designer/manufacturer of driving computer technician who performed final calibration of driving computer technician who installed driving computer …

Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reform: Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reformLinda Ellis, copyright troll: If protecting my rights in your eyes makes me a “troll,” then I’ll wear the badge proudly and keep fulfilling my role. Current law does allow hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for sharing drivel like the …

Why You Need Several Versions of Your Resume: Why You Need Several Versions of Your ResumeAbsolutely necessary. Just like cover letters, every resume you send should be tailored to the recipient, highlighting the experience you have that’s most relevant to that company and integrating some basic research on the employer. If you’re sending the …

Liberals, Tea Partiers unite to protest NSA in DC: Liberals, Tea Partiers unite to protest NSA in DC The march attracted protesters from both ends of the political spectrum as liberal privacy advocates walked alongside members of the conservative Tea Party movement in opposition to what they say is unlawful government spying on Americans. What a …

Corporations Have Personhood. Why Not Dogs?: Corporations Have Personhood. Why Not Dogs?What a good survey of animal law, where it came from, where it is and where it’s going. A pleasant surprise, as I usually write off Huffington Post pretty fast. The only people that argue against the treatment of dogs, and other animals, as more than …

The Hidden War Against Gay Teens: The Hidden War Against Gay TeensAlex Morris wrote a great piece at Rolling Stone about what can only be called the social abuse being perpetrated at Christian schools. You should know before you read the quote below that “they” refers to the leadership of one of the Christian schools discussed in …

One Google, two different privacy rulings: One Google, two different privacy rulingsStanford researcher Jonathan Mayer, in an email to the Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Dwoskin and Rolfe Winkler: Courts are doing pretzel twists to slot modern electronic privacy issues into antiquated statutory schemes. Congress badly needs to update the …

Sheryl Sandberg: The real story: Sheryl Sandberg: The real storyCNN’s Miguel Helft, in a great profile of Sandberg at the Money blog: How Sandberg, amid all her Facebook activities, managed to write Lean In, orchestrate flashy book tours on three continents, launch a foundation, and become a ubiquitous spokesperson for the …

Living man declared dead, too late to overturn ruling: Living man declared dead, too late to overturn ruling Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis, who declared Donald Eugene Miller Jr. dead in 1994, eight years after he vanished from his rental home in Arcadia, told Miller in court Monday the law only allows death rulings to be overturned …

EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers: EFF’s Legal Guide for BloggersThis is useful. If you have delayed starting your own blog because you’re nervous about the legal issues, give this a read and reconsider.

Some oaths are apparently more oathy than others: Some oaths are apparently more oathy than othersThis is a great article, but this bit is particularly rich. Tyler Bass of Vice’s Motherboard reports the now well-known Petraeus affair with an elegant juxtaposition of facts: “Oaths do matter,” David H. Petraeus, then C.I.A. director, said at the …

Reuters nixes Next: Failed redesigns and the challenge of expanding a digital audience: Reuters nixes Next: Failed redesigns and the challenge of expanding a digital audienceThat’s a shame. This image alone illustrates the design strides made by the Next team (the cancelled redesign is on the right). The Reuters iOS app is better than that of Associated Press, for what it’s worth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Berlusconi would not have been tried if gay: Russian President Vladimir Putin says Berlusconi would not have been tried if gayThis guy is in charge of a country. Crazy.

NYT managing editor: Guardian story on Israel and N.S.A. Is Not 'Surprising' Enough to Cover: NYT managing editor: Guardian story on Israel and N.S.A. Is Not ‘Surprising’ Enough to CoverNew York Times news editor Dean Baquet suffered a serious lapse in editorial judgment. I mean, he can’t be serious, can he?

Daniel Victor of the New York Times shows us how to be a reporter even on Twitter: Daniel Victor of the New York Times shows us how to be a reporter even on TwitterThis is a great story precisely because Victor wasn’t writing a blog post about how to properly commit journalism on Twitter, he was properly committing journalism on Twitter.

John Gruber on the convergence of smartphones and tablets: John Gruber on the convergence of smartphones and tablets John Gruber: Better, I think, not to treat smartphones and tablets as separate categories, but merely as different sizes of the same thing. I think he is absolutely right, but even a year ago I would have argued like a lunatic against that …

Michael Poulshock’s Hammurabi Project aims to make law and regulations accessible to the masses: Michael Poulshock’s Hammurabi Project aims to make law and regulations accessible to the masses Terry Carter, writing at the ABA Journal: Poulshock, 38, is writing source code for each law, which can then be entered into computers and applied to fact patterns. (The project is open source, online at …

On Law, Policy, and (Not) Bombing Syria: On Law, Policy, and (Not) Bombing SyriaIan Hurd, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, writing at preeminent international law blog Opinio Juris: It is well known that the [U.N.] Charter forbids the use of force except as self-defense or as sanctioned by the UN …

My first post at Medium: My first post at MediumIt’s something I put here in January, but I thought I’d point it out in case you hadn’t seen it, or you prefer Medium, or you have yet to see Medium in action.

Apps for storing your photos in the cloud: Apps for storing your photos in the cloudAt the end of the day, expertise or a lack of it will define your requirements in this space. Less savvy folks love Google+ Photos because the auto-upload is effectively unlimited for them with the appropriate size setting.

Media Analysis: Measles Outbreak Traced to Anti-Vaccine Church: dbreunig: An astounding story that should be part of the national conversation regarding vaccines. Seems straight forward. However, USA Today doesn’t mention the church’s stance on vaccines until the 13th paragraph. Gawker, on the other hand, essentially reblogs the USA Today piece but moves the …

Kevin Spacey knows what viewers want: Kevin Spacey knows what viewers wantActor Kevin Spacey, speaking at the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival: Clearly the success of the Netflix model – releasing the entire season of House Of Cards at once – has proved one thing: the audience wants control. They …

How reality caught up with paranoid delusions: How reality caught up with paranoid delusions it was not in the least like losing one’s reason… I was rationalising all the time, it was simply one’s reason working hard on the wrong premises. — novelist Evelyn Waugh, speaking retrospectively of his own psychotic episode This is a fascinating …

Welcome to Google Island: Welcome to Google IslandIf you follow one link from my blog this week, make it the one above. It’s well-written and disturbingly possible-seeming.

Facebook Testing VIP App With Some Celebs: Facebook Testing VIP App With Some CelebsIn case you thought I was becoming a Facebook fanboy, let me just say that this celeb crap is something Zuck will be adding to his list of regrets within the year. Granted, that’s probably a very short list, but this VIP thing is a distraction an a gimmick …

101 million of Facebook's 128 million daily U.S. users are on mobile devices: 101 million of Facebook’s 128 million daily U.S. users are on mobile devicesMy headline says it all. If you still had any doubt about the importance of mobile to anyone doing anything on the Internet, this stat should disabuse you of that uncertainty. Amazing.

How Brown Moses exposed Syrian arms trafficking from his front room: How Brown Moses exposed Syrian arms trafficking from his front roomEliot Higgins’ work is a prime example of how the Internet and user generated content are changing journalism on a molecular level. What a fascinating read.

US government recognizes League of Legends players as pro athletes: US government recognizes League of Legends players as pro athletesThis is fascinating, especially with immigration such a hot topic recently.

Honda Launches National Campaign to Save Drive-In Theaters: Honda Launches National Campaign to Save Drive-In TheatersGreat idea but, more to the point, brilliant marketing.

Legislative failure to define essential terms: Legislative failure to define essential terms The definition of terms essential to the application of a law is the most basic requirement for competent lawmaking. Sometimes one or more terms are appropriately defined in an open way, to provide flexibility in the application of a law. This is not one …

Fast Company's Austin Carr profiles Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley: Fast Company’s Austin Carr profiles Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley This profile of Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley by Austin Carr at Fast Company does a great job of humanizing the app and its maker. That’s probably because the man behind the location-sharing and, more recently, …

U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate AmericansJohn Shiffman and Kristina Cooke, reporting for Reuters Washington bureau: The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to “recreate” the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, …

A Day In The Life Of An iPhone Factory Worker: A Day In The Life Of An iPhone Factory WorkerThis is something everyone should read. Apple isn’t the only company benefiting from working conditions like this, and that makes it worse, not better. The dominant press narrative is that Apple is profiting from the misery of toiling foreign workers. The …

How the death of Google Reader is saving RSS: How the death of Google Reader is saving RSSBen Popper, at The Verge1: Some Reader partisans may have given up on RSS after the shutdown, but the majority seem to have migrated to other platforms. In the weeks following the announcement, Feedly saw 3 million Google Reader refugees sign up and …

Facebook Said to Plan to Sell TV-Style Ads for $2.5M Each: Facebook Said to Plan to Sell TV-Style Ads for $2.5M EachHuge

Twitter user arrested for threatening to rape and murder female activist: Twitter user arrested for threatening to rape and murder female activistI wrote recently about my disappointment with Twitter’s response to a woman deluged with rape threats. Today, David Edwards of t The Raw Story reports that a man has been arrested in England for threats made against Caroline …

Baton Rouge sheriff trying to enforce unconstitutional anti-sodomy laws: Baton Rouge sheriff trying to enforce unconstitutional anti-sodomy lawsIt’s been ten years since Lawrence v Texas saw anti-sodomy laws declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but I suppose stupidity is eternal. At least the District Attorney is ending the absurdity by refraining from …

Twitter UK chief responds to abuse concerns after campaigner is deluged with rape threats: Twitter UK chief responds to abuse concerns after campaigner is deluged with rape threatsThis is a disturbing story, but more broadly it represents a big step backward for a company otherwise known for standing up for its users. Jon Russell, writing at The Next Web: Wang said, via Twitter, that the …

NLRB: Overbroad social media policies may violate NLRA: NLRB: Overbroad social media policies may violate NLRASue Reisinger, writing at Corporate Counsel: In a warning to employers, the National Labor Relations Board has “unliked” certain social media policies that restrict an employee’s right to speak critically of the employer online, unless the …

Christmas in jail: Christmas in jailJohn Futty, reporting for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio: Judge Michael J. Holbrook placed Young on probation yesterday for five years and ordered that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation. This made me smile. Now, crime is bad, and Christmas …

Stop taking multivitamins. Seriously.: Stop taking multivitamins. Seriously.I’ll be the first to admit I took multivitamins on and off for years, always assuming vitamins could only be good for you. But the overwhelming majority of scientific studies on the subject not only debunks the myth that they help, but strongly suggests that they …

Norwegian rape victim Marte Deborah Dalelv "pardoned" by UAE: Norwegian rape victim Marte Deborah Dalelv “pardoned” by UAEI wrote yesterday about Ms. Dalelv’s 16-month sentence for sex outside marriage, among other absurd charges to levy against a victim of rape, in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I’m happy to report that, according …

Dubai: Where rape is only a crime if you're the victim: Dubai: Where rape is only a crime if you’re the victimUpdate: she has been “pardoned.” A Norwegian woman was raped, reported it to police, and was charged and convicted of extramarital sex, drinking alcohol, and perjury. She was sentenced to 16 months in jail. For being raped. And that’s three …

MIT wants pre-release review of Secret Service file on Aaron Swartz: MIT wants pre-release review of Secret Service file on Aaron SwartzKevin Poulsen, at Wired's Threat Level blog: MIT argues that those people might face threats and harassment if their names become public. But it’s worth noting that names of third parties are already redacted from documents produced …

Tim Stevens is no longer editor-in-chief at Engadget: Tim Stevens is no longer editor-in-chief at EngadgetTwo years is a good run, and the site looks and reads far better than it did before his reign, but Tim Stevens’ exit from his role as editor-in-chief at Aol property Engadget is bad sign for the site and it’s owner. It’s never a good sign, in …

Errant law blogger repents, promises return to snarky, somewhat-informed weblog: Dearest readers, I know, I know: it’s been a while. I moved, started a new job, got married, and am preparing for the bar exam. “Busy” is an insufficient descriptor. In case the new look hasn’t given it away, though, you can expect regular publishing to restart very soon. Thanks for still reading. …

Tumblr, Yahoo, and Ads That Don't Suck: Here’s a semi-article, in that it’s more like a rant, but certainly not a link post. If you’ve seen similar stuff in your dashboard, feel free to let me know. Dear Marissa and David, Joe here. I’ve used all of Tumblr’s competitors extensively and I settled on Tumblr because it’s mindfully-designed, …

German railroad mulling anti-graffiti drones: German railroad mulling anti-graffiti dronesWith US authorities pushing for easier backdoors into electronic communications systems, a network of anti-graffiti drones looks like a good front for general state-wide surveillance. The German privacy ethic runs deep, but it may provide an interesting …

10 great free monospaced fonts for programming: 10 great free monospaced fonts for programmingI can understand why programmers may want to consider using a decent font, but it’s worth noting that writers, particularly those who prefer plain text, should also pay attention to the fonts they’re using. I like to write with a monospace font for two …

Should I merge Geekeries with this blog?

Evernote's desktop apps get integrated reminders and a task list, no love for mobile yet: Evernote’s desktop apps get integrated reminders and a task list, no love for mobile yetEvernote’s reminders are great news, and something I’ve been waiting for since at least February, but here’s all that matters to me: We have big plans to expand the functionality, and to bring it to more …

Strongbox and Aaron Swartz: Open source, anonymous tips: Strongbox and Aaron Swartz: Open source, anonymous tipsThere is plenty of Google news today coming out of their annual I/O conference, but this looks far more important and big-picture, if it actually gets used.

Minnesota governor signs same-sex marriage bill into law: Minnesota governor signs same-sex marriage bill into lawNumber twelve and counting; this looks to be a big year for marriage equality in the United States.

The pressing need for hospital pricing regulation: The pressing need for hospital pricing regulationThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published data on what hospitals charge for the most common procedures. There is much to look at, and other have done good reporting on it, notably Sarah Kliff and Dan Keating at the Washington Post …

DARPA and deep learning: DARPA and deep learningThis article by Daniela Hernandez at Wired is well-done and fascinating. However, this bit most caught my eye: Half of the $100 million in federal funding allotted to this program will come from Darpa — more than the amount coming from the National Institutes of Health — and …

Delaware becomes eleventh state to approve same-sex marriage: Delaware becomes eleventh state to approve same-sex marriageAnd the steady march continues, as Delaware joins their ten predecessors in granting gay couples the basic American right to marry.

Obama May Back F.B.I. Plan to Wiretap Web Users: Obama May Back F.B.I. Plan to Wiretap Web UsersCharlie Savage of The New York Times: the new proposal focuses on strengthening wiretap orders issued by judges. Currently, such orders instruct recipients to provide technical assistance to law enforcement agencies, leaving wiggle room for companies …

Air Force sexual assault prevention officer charged with sexual battery: Air Force sexual assault prevention officer charged with sexual batteryDisgusting. Anything less than dishonorable discharge and jail time will be an insult to victims and to this country.

Now you can 3D-print a gun.: Now you can 3D-print a gun.Andy Greenberg at Forbes: Once the file is online, anyone will be able to download and print the gun in the privacy of their garage, legally or not, with no serial number, background check, or other regulatory hurdles. “You can print a lethal device,” Wilson told me last …

Netflix launch reduces BitTorrent use: Netflix launch reduces BitTorrent useJoe Hanlon of TechRadar: Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos says that there is a correlation between the Netflix launching in a country and BitTorrent traffic slowing down in the same region. If you stream it, they will pay.

Rhode Island legalizes same-sex marriage: Rhode Island legalizes same-sex marriageThe inexorable march of time sees a tenth state grant gay and lesbian people the statutory right to marry. Those states who have yet to get on board would do well to hurry: you’re quickly running out of time to look like you were ahead of the curve in the …

The Perfect Empty Vessel: The Perfect Empty VesselThis is a good piece on how hard Facebook tries to keep the social juices flowing. Alexis Madrigal, commenting on Facebook’s designer-hiring spree: As all these designers vanish into the bowels of the company, so, too, does their work. Facebook wants to create design that …

Path is still spamming your contacts: Path is still spamming your contactsIf you’re a Path user, consider, er, reconsidering. This is apparently the best they can do in response. CNET’s Jennifer Van Grove was told that the #1 request from users is to find friends on Path, hence the aggressive “new-user flow.” Why does “find my friends …

NBA player Jason Collins comes out as gay: NBA player Jason Collins comes out as gayI don’t usually cover sports here, but Collins’ coming out is a very important moment in a broader and permanent change in what it means to be and to accept LGBTQ folks. It’s a well-expressed and bold piece, and I applaud him.

The next generation of Instapaper: The next generation of InstapaperMarco Arment has turned control of his read-it-later service, Instapaper, over to incubator-turned-company-in-its-own-right Betaworks: I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s …

Not a Bad Quarter: Not a Bad QuarterMarco Arment, he of Instapaper, and of excellent commentary: If you sell a 99-cent app to just 1% of the people who bought new iOS devices in the 2012 holiday quarter alone, you’ll clear about $519,750. Not a bad quarter. Not bad indeed.

Why carriers should be more worried than Google about Facebook Home: Why carriers should be more worried than Google about Facebook HomeEllis Hamburger, writing at The Verge: Mir­ror­ing its roll­out of free VoIP call­ing for iOS, Face­book has updat­ed its Mes­sen­ger app for Android to allow free call­ing for users in the US. I think this is Facebook’s true …

Dr. Kermit Gosnell: Philadelphia's "Abortion" Monster: Dr. Kermit Gosnell: Philadelphia’s “Abortion” MonsterThe Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf quoting the grand jury report (PDF) on Philadelphia “abortion” monster Kermit Gosnell: The Department of State, through its Board of Medicine, licenses and oversees individual physicians… Almost …

What Bad Customer Service Costs Your Business: What Bad Customer Service Costs Your BusinessBuffer, the service that will schedule your social network posts to go live throughout the day, also happens to have a wonderful blog. They focus on productivity and customer service. Buffer’s customer service is excellent: I emailed them asking why I …

How to add tasks to Any.do or Wunderlist via SMS: This post is exactly what it says on the tin: I’ll share two recipes from if this then that (IFTTT), the service that connects otherwise unconnected pieces of the internet together in epic productivity bliss. Did I oversell that? IFTTT is truly amazing. One of its most useful functionalities is the …

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime: Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the CrimeRichard A. Oppel Jr. reports at the New York Times: But a dozen or so state legislatures have had a different reaction: They proposed or enacted bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms, or apply for a job at one without …

Philadelphia councilman introduces bill aimed at improving health insurance prospects for life partners and transgendered people: Philadelphia councilman introduces bill aimed at improving health insurance prospects for life partners and transgendered peopleThis is an encouraging development. The bill introduced by Councilmen James Kenney and W. Wilson Goode would establish a: 6 percent tax credit for businesses that did not …

California law school grads suing schools; neither party has a good point: California law school grads suing schools; neither party has a good pointAttorney Michael C. Sullivan, representing California schools in a spate of fraud suits brought by students over shady job-placement numbers: "What I find most ironic is that those individuals advertised themselves to law …

Apple removes app curation app from App Store: Apple removes app curation app from App Store"Yes, you can live here," Apple seems to say to developers, "but if you ever break one of our vague rules, or if we ever decide for any reason or even for no reason at all that you must go, you will be evicted. No appeal, no questions asked, no …

Select YouTube partners exempt from fair use policy: Select YouTube partners exempt from fair use policyYouTube’s well within their rights to refuse to leave a video up, or to re-post it after fair use has been reasonably well-defended. But it’s another reminder that when stuff is free for consumers, the interests of the producers providing the …

Google fighting National Security Letter: Google fighting National Security LetterThe letters, issued by federal authorities investigating national security concerns, prohibit recipients from disclosing that they have received them, let alone what they’re asking for. The Judge in Google’s case1 struck down the law’s gag order provision as …

Twitter Arrives on Wall Street, Via Bloomberg: Twitter Arrives on Wall Street, Via BloombergInteresting news, but someone call the design police: there’s a crime being committed at every Bloomberg terminal on Wall Street. It’s 2013 and it looks like financial professionals are daily being punished with truly awful interface design. Don’t believe …

Facebook announces Home, an Android launcher: Facebook announces Home, an Android launcherI was right. Oh, and in case you were worried, there will eventually be ads in Facebook Home.

The trolls are now trolling themselves: The trolls are now trolling themselvesThis great post by Seattle attorney John Whitaker sums up the state of affairs in the absurd debacle that is Prenda Law’s trainwreck porn-infringement trolling.

Why I Chose Temple Law: I originally posted this to one of my old blogs, The Rotten Word, in April 2009. I wanted to publish it here as well because I plan to write a follow-up soon, having graduated in January of this year. Many thanks to Philadelphia litigator Max Kennerly for his advice and kind words about this post …

Want to learn to code? Start here.: Want to learn to code? Start here.Zack Shapiro offers some great advice for those interested in learning to code as a means to build something. I’m one of those people he mentions who are using Code Academy but I make it a part of my weekly routine and it’s helping. I wrote a post almost a year ago …

HBO exec laments piracy of low-quality editions of 'Game of Thrones': HBO exec laments piracy of low-quality editions of ‘Game of Thrones’HBO programming president Michael Lombardo, speaking to Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd: The production values of this show are so incredible. So I’m hoping that in the purloined different generation of cuts that …

2nd Circuit: Aereo streaming of individual over-the-air TV feeds via internet doesn't violate copyright law: 2nd Circuit: Aereo streaming of individual over-the-air TV feeds via internet doesn’t violate copyright lawThe Second Circuit has held in WNET v Aereo (PDF) that sending a unique stream of over-the-air TV signal to customers via the internet isn’t a copyright violation. Aereo assign each of …

China is very serious about cyberespionage: China is very serious about cyberespionageGoogle apologists like myself often answer concerns that the search-and-advertising giant can scan your email with something like “yes, but they’re doing it with robots and scrubbing it clean of all identifying information.” China, however, is not so …

Facebook To Reveal “Home On Android”: Facebook To Reveal “Home On Android”I predict Facebook will announce a custom Android launcher — a “home” screen. Update April 4, 2013: I was right.

Amazon acquiring Goodreads: Amazon acquiring GoodreadsMakes sense.

Abortion's inevitable return to the Supreme Court: Abortion’s inevitable return to the Supreme CourtAbove the Law’s Elie Mystal is right: thanks to medical technology and laws that ignore their own consequences, abortion is going to return the Supreme Court. I hope it’s sooner than later.

Make Feedly look more like Reader: Make Feedly look more like ReaderIf you like Feedly but prefer Reader’s white space and width, grab this handy script. Chrome users like me should install Tampermonkey first.

OUYA and Emulation: OUYA and EmulationDarrell Etherington, reporting at TechCrunch: OUYA forum admin and owner Ed Krassenstein said in a post on his site that EMUya, a NES emulator, has been submitted to OUYA for review and should definitely be available at launch, and a couple of SNES emulation options are confirmed, …

Yahoo: The Marissa Mayer Turnaround: Yahoo: The Marissa Mayer TurnaroundJean-Louis Gassée consistently provides insight and, perhaps even more importantly in today’s tech-writing landscape, truly elegant prose. This is a great write-up, but I recommend you make Monday Note one of your weekly reads. He and Frédéric Filloux are often …

Easily fake a tweet from anyone's account: Easily fake a tweet from anyone’s accountI wonder whether Twitter can eliminate the potential for this stuff, because Shawn King of The Loop is right: it definitely raises concerns for journalists, not to mention anyone whose account lends credence to the crazy things you might say with this …

HBO CEO wants to bundle HBO GO with your internet subscription: HBO CEO wants to bundle HBO GO with your internet subscriptionThis is progress, although MG Siegler is right to doubt whether cable companies, many of whom are also internet service providers, would even consider such a deal. At least HBO recognizes that the math won’t hold up against a la carte …

Dropbox isn't a feature, it's an infrastructure: Dropbox isn’t a feature, it’s an infrastructureCollin Fletcher of The Tech Block makes the solid case that the acquisition of iOS email app Mailbox by Dropbox signals the latter company’s push to build a “windowed ecosystem” on top of its core file syncing service. It’s worth reading the …

Titles are Toxic: Titles are ToxicMichael Lopp on the anachronism and true uselessness of titles: When a company is small, everyone does a little bit of everything, so titles make no sense. My first title at Netscape was “Bitsifter”. Sure, there were some titles, but they were titles of convenience so external …

Google Keep isn't an Evernote killer: Evernote will be just fine, despite Google’s recent announcement of a new note-taking app called Google Keep, currently available for the web and Android. Keep allows for text, audio, and images to be added to a single notebook and synced between the web and Android devices. You can even add stuff …

Google and Experimentation: Google and ExperimentationThis is a great article, especially if you don’t know much about the history of Android. However, Adrianne Jeffries of The Verge ends her article with a silly quote from Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. Perhaps analysts have a legitimate role to play in the consumer …

Actually, it's not our data at all: Actually, it’s not our data at allIt may illustrate your shopping habits and your life events, but the data about what you do online and with customer loyalty cards effectively belongs to the companies that sell it. And it makes them a lot of money. Don’t forget that.

'Babble' to consolidate Google's chat tools under one brand: ‘Babble’ to consolidate Google’s chat tools under one brandGeek.com's Russell Holly: Google’s recent decision to block non-native XMPP requests is the first step towards building their own closed communications platform. In order to use Google’s chat service, especially the new …

Nope, Flickr's hashtags aren't news either: Nope, Flickr’s hashtags aren’t news eitherWSJ was wrong to pretend potential Facebook hashtags are news, and everyone reporting about a similar move by Flickr is just as wrong. What makes this even less news is that Flickr has so far only started calling their longtime tags feature …

Prenda Law's dismissing some cases following ID theft claim: Prenda Law’s dismissing some cases following ID theft claimThis stuff just gets better and better. It feels like Lady Justice Herself is suddenly trolling the trolls.

Google+ lead asks for advice from Google Reader fans: Google+ lead asks for advice from Google Reader fansGoogle+ architect Yontan Zunger meant well, but Google+ will never be sufficient as a reader. Brands maintain a curated presence there for audience outreach and building purposes, not to provide readers with a convenient way to determine what …

Porn troll Prenda Law angers judge with shady behavior: Porn troll Prenda Law angers judge with shady behaviorEarlier this week I mentioned that the EFF was going to represent a couple of anti-trolling websites in a case brought by porno copyright troll Prenda Law. The Ars Technica article by Megan Geuss is well-written and really conveys the absurdity …

Questions?: Now that Constant & Endless is up to a staggering 26 Tumblr followers, I’ve enabled the ability for signed-in Tumblr users to ask questions on this site. Just click the “?” in the links menu at the top of the page, or visit this link.

Transitioning from Google Reader to feedly: Transitioning from Google Reader to feedlyFrom the Feedly blog: We have been working on a project called Normandy which is a feedly clone of the Google Reader API – running on Google App Engine. When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are …

Dear Wall Street Journal: Why is Facebook's hashtag implementation news?: Dear Wall Street Journal: Why is Facebook’s hashtag implementation news?I love that this is “news” at the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps the only news-worthy aspect of this story is that it’s one of those rare instances where Facebook is the one keeping up with the Joneses, instead of the other …

Whitson Gordon finally figured out Evernote: Whitson Gordon finally figured out EvernoteI’m not being snarky: he writes at Lifehacker about how he never “got” Evernote, until recently. It’s a great article and I can say I’ve made at least some use of every technique Gordon discusses. The most important? Use Evernote all the time, for …

Powering Down Google Reader: Powering Down Google ReaderI don’t even know what to say about this. Reader is an integral part of my workflow and I need to figure something else out. If you have any alternatives to suggest, please let me know.

The Evening Edition Podcast: The Evening Edition PodcastEvening Edition is a wonderful way to catch up on news that doesn’t include a Kardashian or an Apple rumor. Now, they offer a five-minute daily podcast featuring the stories of the day. I tried reading Evening Edition via their email newsletter, RSS, and the website …

EFF will represent targets of copyright troll Prenda Law: EFF will represent targets of copyright troll Prenda LawCopyright trolls sue lots of people to extract settlements from those who can’t afford to litigate in the face of potentially massive statutory damages. Their claims are often facially lacking in merit and instead leverage intimidation and …

Harvard snooped on faculty email: Harvard snooped on faculty emailIf you’re composing an email you don’t want someone to see, consider picking up the phone instead. Your assumptions about the privacy of email are inaccurate.

How to Export Your Last.fm Listening History on a Mac: My goal was simple: I wanted to export all of the tracks I’ve listened and stored in my Last.fm account. I don’t have any real experience working with APIs, but thanks to Jeroen Baert’s post, which I found via this StackExchange thread, I found a handy Python script that even a newb can run. The …

ECPA amendment would require warrant even for email older than 6 months: ECPA amendment would require warrant even for email older than 6 monthsReps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) are pushing an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that would require a warrant for authorities to obtain any email, instead of …

How to Roll Your Own Multireddit: This is probably so awesome to me because only recently have I dusted off my Reddit account and started using the internet’s greatest link-sharing site in earnest. Reddit is divided into “subreddits.” These are topic-based, like /r/Gaming and /r/Tumblr. It allows the growth of communities based on …

Twitter kills TweetDeck, announces it on Posterous, which they're also killing: Twitter kills TweetDeck, announces it on Posterous, which they’re also killingI admit, squeezing the entire post into the title is lazy, but at least it’s informative. I’ll link to Twitter’s death notice for Posterous and call it a post.

Google's answer to AirPlay comes to YouTube for iOS, sends video to consoles and TVs: Google’s answer to AirPlay comes to YouTube for iOS, sends video to consoles and TVsI’ve been doing this from my Galaxy Nexus for a while now. I paired my phone to my Xbox 360 so I can pull videos up on my phone’s YouTube app (which is much easier to use than the Xbox app) and then send to my …

Yahoo nixing work-from-home arrangements: Yahoo nixing work-from-home arrangementsI was hoping Marisa Mayer would bring Yahoo1 into the twenty-first century. This is one piece of evidence that tips the scales very far in the opposite direction, and will probably cost Yahoo a few good employees. No, I don’t put the “!” at the end of Yahoo. …

Twitter kills my favorite Twitter app for Android: Twitter kills my favorite Twitter app for AndroidIn August, Twitter turned its back on the sort of independent developers who built their community for them. Now, my favorite Twitter app for Android, Falcon Pro, has hit Twitter’s artificial user limit. They have other apps, (like an incredible …

Facebook is buying your loyalty card history: Facebook is buying your loyalty card historyCotton Delo of Ad Age: The targeting would hypothetically enable Coca-Cola to target to teenagers who’ve bought soda in the last month, or Pampers to show ads to North Carolina residents who’ve recently bought baby products, since Facebook’s own array of …

Evernote CEO hints at future task management integration: Evernote CEO hints at future task management integrationPhil Libin, CEO of Evernote, talking to Lifehacker: What’s your favorite to-do list manager? You know, I don’t actually have one. I use Evernote, which isn’t particularly great for to-dos yet. Yet. Despite having tried every task management …

Zombie Law Schools: Zombie Law SchoolsGerard Magliocca of Concurring Opinions introduces a fresh take on the legal education topic.

CBS "Streisanding" itself among courts with CNET debacle: CBS “Streisanding” itself among courts with CNET debacleCBS’s strong-arming of CNET on this front has the exact opposite of the intended effect: now that it is clear how much control CBS has and is willing to exert over CNET content, any reasonable court must consider the possibility …

Streaming music: good for fans, bad for musicians: Streaming music: good for fans, bad for musiciansThe numbers are pretty stark, and while it doesn’t hurt to be available on streaming services, if for nothing else than the opportunity to be found by new listeners, unknown artists are better off leveraging social media and sites like Bandcamp to …

Apple store trade dress: Apple store trade dressI wonder if there are any retail stores out there that have looked like Apple stores since before Apple stores, and before this trademark was granted earlier this month. I don’t mean knock-off stores, though. I’m thinking make-up shops, art galleries, and other entities that …

Antigua responds to US gambling ban with government-backed infringement plan: Antigua responds to US gambling ban with government-backed infringement planThe Carribean nation Antigua and Barbuda and the World Trade Organization say a US ban on online gambling is costing jobs and “billions of dollars.” The WTO has approved a plan to allow infringement of US-based copyright …

128 GB iPad perfect for pros?: 128 GB iPad perfect for pros?I still personally have no interest in a 128 GB iPad, but as John Gruber points out, some professionals prefer the tablet form factor generally, and the iPad specifically, but run out of space for the multimedia they use every day.

Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner: Confessions of a Liberal Gun OwnerNovelist Justin Cronin presents a very well-written and reasonable take on why knee-jerk reactions on either side of the gun debate are misinformed and unrealistic: […] in the weeks since Newtown, I’ve watched my Facebook feed, which is dominated by my coastal …

At Google, Constitution trumps statute: At Google, Constitution trumps statuteDavid Kravets quotes a Googler: “Google requires an ECPA search warrant for contents of Gmail and other services based on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure,” Chris Gaither, a Google spokesman, said. The …

Veganism as religious belief: Veganism as religious beliefI must admit that I never thought about it in that light, but I’d love to read the plaintiff’s essay.

The 128 GB iPad is official...: The 128 GB iPad is official……but I’m not interested. Peter Cohen of The Loop shared this earlier today, but I wonder why he didn’t offer any of his own thoughts on it. Here’s why I’m not interested: Part of the iPad’s appeal to me is that it isn’t another crufty “filing cabinet.” I rather …

NLRB refines position on employee social media and workplace criticism: NLRB refines position on employee social media and workplace criticismMy personal policy is to refrain from discussing work on social media. In all my years of Twitter-ing and Facebook-ing, I’ve posted only a very few work-related updates, invariably focused on interpersonal minutiae like elevator …

'Escape from Tomorrow', filmed in Disney World without permission, debuts at Sundance: ‘Escape from Tomorrow’, filmed in Disney World without permission, debuts at SundanceSteven Zeitchik of the LA Times: To make the movie, [Randy] Moore wouldn’t print out script pages or shot sequences for the 25 days he was filming on Disney turf, instead keeping all the info on …

Non-interfering citizens should be able to videotape on-duty police: Non-interfering citizens should be able to videotape on-duty policeIf someone is videotaping a police incident, but not interfering therewith, there is no lawful justification for police interference. I’m not always in agreement with the ACLU, but this harassment must end. A nation where state …

Panetta Ties Delay of Aid in Mali to Legal Questions: Panetta Ties Delay of Aid in Mali to Legal QuestionsAs I learned in that international law class I took last semester (for which, in case you were wondering, I earned a very respectable grade), there are Administration lawyers working feverishly behind every such move to ensure that we’re complying …

Shawn Blanc explores Simplenote alternatives: Shawn Blanc explores Simplenote alternativesThe Simplenote/nvALT sync issues recently scared me away from Simplenote sync. I use Byword on the Mac and iPad, and Epistle on Android to sync notes with my Dropbox account. PlainText is also very good for this. I haven’t had any problems since going …

Facebook "Graph Search" mines your network in response to plain-language queries: Facebook “Graph Search” mines your network in response to plain-language queries I predict it will be panned because it’s not “sexy” enough for the expectations Facebook raised, but that it will also be widely-used. It looks to me like one of those things people don’t know they want …

Designer Eats Engineer: Designer Eats EngineerLaurie Voss: It’s getting easier for designers to become engineers. That’s a good thing, but it should be even easier. Design should be the hard part. This is a great post, and something I think about often. I can read and write a lot of HTML and CSS, and can read some …

The Verge picks the best reads of 2012: The Verge picks the best reads of 2012This is a great list, and includes only a few that missed, which probably means I read too much about tech. But what I particularly like about it is that most of the stories would appeal in one way or another to even to “normals”who don’t obsessively follow the …

More House of Representatives data available in XML: More House of Representatives data available in XMLO’Reilly's Alex Howard reports that both House floor summaries and bulk downloads of all House legislation are now available in XML. It doesn't mean everything Congress does is available yet, but it’s a great progression. I really hope some …

Larry Lessig on the suicide of Aaron Swartz: Larry Lessig on the suicide of Aaron SwartzIt’s a tragedy, as suicide always is, but Mr. Lessig asks important questions about one of the undoubtedly myriad experiences that led Mr. Swartz to his final act. The internet can express our condolences, but only Aaron’s family and friends can truly …

TechCrunch's John Biggs on how to cover the Consumer Electronics Show: TechCrunch’s John Biggs on how to cover the Consumer Electronics ShowJohn Biggs, in a great post at TechCrunch about how they approached their CES 2013 coverage: But when you take a step back and look at CES from an innovation standpoint, and with the expectation that the big money here makes …

Lions Gate abusing DMCA and ignoring fair use doctrine: Lions Gate abusing DMCA and ignoring fair use doctrineYou’ve got to click through and read this Techdirt article by Jonathan McIntosh of Rebellious Pixels. Also consider reading my article "The Pinterest (Er, Tumblr) Problem, Fair Use, and a Suggestion for Change". I argue that fair use, which is an …

UPenn criminologist Richard Berk's recidivism-prediction algorithm: UPenn criminologist Richard Berk’s recidivism-prediction algorithmWired's Kim Zetter: To create the software, researchers assembled a dataset of more than 60,000 crimes, including homicides, then wrote an algorithm to find the people behind the crimes who were more likely to commit murder …

Law and the Multiverse analyzes 'The Hobbit' Contract: Law and the Multiverse analyzes ‘The Hobbit’ ContractI love several things about this: This is only the first in an ongoing series, with three other parts as of the moment I published this post. You can buy the contract from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit on Amazon. James …

US suspects Iran behind DDoS attacks on banks: US suspects Iran behind DDoS attacks on banksThese look a lot like “feeler” operations, meant to gauge the reaction attackers can expect from victim institutions and nations. The United States (read: Congress) must act immediately to ensure that we’re ready when attackers stop slowing down or …

Lawyers on Quora: Lawyers on QuoraFormer Facebook CTO and Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo, talking to Om Malik at GigaOM: The real reward is in the response to your answer and the fact that millions can read it. You already see more people giving and sharing knowledge for free. Lawyers and other professionals are …

Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in Philadelphia: Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in PhiladelphiaThe Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig R. McCoy reports on a recent special commission report on the problem and some suggested solutions. In a city where street wisdom warns that “snitches get stitches,” this is an encouraging development.

Site Design as Context: An Amateur's Perspective: Introduction I hesitated to change themes because, well, it’s one of those things people do instead of writing. But while my customized version of Quite Big theme had treated me very well, I hate using Tumblr’s default mobile theme on phones, or seeing my desktop-optimized layout on a tablet. I also …

Student loses suit over school ID requirement: Student loses suit over school ID requirementWired's David Kravets reports that: The girl’s father, Steven, wrote the school district explaining why removing the chip wasn’t good enough, that the daughter should be free from displaying the card altogether. “‘We must obey the word of God,” the …

California Scout group recommends openly gay member for Eagle: California Scout group recommends openly gay member for EagleThe Scouts’ central authority is unlikely to honor the recommendation because of their culture of fear and hate toward LGBTQ people. And the law may be on Boy Scouts of America’s side, at least for now, but history is not. Future …

App to App Handshakes: App to App HandshakesFred Wilson: This morning I was at the gym listening to the Django Unchained Soundtrack on my phone in the SoundCloud android app. I decided I wanted to make Trinity my song of the day on Tumblr. I hit the share icon, up came a list of apps, I selected Tumblr, and I was taken …

Seldo's Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experience: Seldo’s Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experienceseldo: So a little over a month ago I finally got my green card. So for the first time in 7 years of living in the US and periodically leaving it to visit my family, I wasn’t terrified that my visa documents wouldn’t be in order and I’d …

Subscribe to The Brief if you like concise daily updates on the tech news that matters: Subscribe to The Brief if you like concise daily updates on the tech news that mattersThe ads weren’t working, so The Brief is now accepting $3/month or $30/year memberships. The incredibly useful site by Richard Dunlop-Walters will remain free to all, but it’s continued existence is now predicated …

Keycard: A neat little Mac app that secures your computer by detecting the proximity of your mobile device - The Next Web: Keycard: A neat little Mac app that secures your computer by detecting the proximity of your mobile device - The Next WebMatt Brian writing at The Next Web: In our tests, I had mixed results. Initially, my iPhone continued to remain in range, meaning that if I was to walk around the office or …

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spying on Belize: Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spying on BelizeNate Anderson, at Ars Technica: You will not be shocked to learn, dear reader, that McAfee’s massive spy operation didn’t just reveal some petty corruption or embarrassing secrets but rather the existence of a Hezbollah trafficking network that funneled …

Airrand mashes up tasks, Foursquare, and SMS: Airrand mashes up tasks, Foursquare, and SMSThis is a brilliant and elegant use of Foursquare. It’s just a web app, at least for now, so it doesn’t really fit my use case. But it looks impressive and I’m going to give it a try.

CIA Comments on Zero Dark Thirty: CIA Comments on Zero Dark ThirtyDeborah Pearlstein of the law blog Opinio Juris shared the statement of Michael Morell, the Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on the film Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for and capture of Osama Bin Laden. Its interesting that he would feel …

At least one Ars Technica reader agrees: Rdio > Spotify: At least one Ars Technica reader agrees: Rdio > SpotifyArs Technica reader jamieskella, contributing to Chris Foresman’s reader recommendation round-up for all those newly-gifted iPads out there: How and why is Spotify still being recommended when Rdio (free) boasts 18 million songs and is …

Learning by Shipping: Learning by ShippingFormer Windows executive Steven Sinofsky, explaining the name of his new blog: The title comes from something impressed upon me early in my career, which is that learning as an engineer comes from the process of starting, then finishing, and iterating on products–getting …

An interview with Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood: An interview with Mailbox founder Gentry UnderwoodAbdel Ibrahim, interviewing Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood at The Tech Block: Any plans for an Android app? Definitely. Startups focus or die, so we picked one device (iPhone) and one platform (Gmail) to start, but we’ve designed our …

Government can still warrantlessly read older emails: Government can still warrantlessly read older emailsThis is unfortunate. There are processes in place that are designed to ensure the preservation of various constitutional rights. The warrant process is one of the most important, and for many people email is far more ubiquitous than other forms of …

Netflix via Amazon: Netflix via AmazonThis is interesting: Netflix delivers its streaming option via one of Amazon’s cloud storage and content distribution networks. I try to avoid summarizing other peoples’ work, but the other interesting bit here is that Amazon’s in-house streaming video service saw no interruption. …

Rdio now sends you a notification when artists in your collection release new music: Rdio now sends you a notification when artists in your collection release new musicPeople who prefer Spotify to Rdio either don’t know Rdio exists (Rdio’s problem) or are totally crazy (their problem). What makes Rdio the better service: New release notifications for the music you love UI and UX …

Nilay Patel on what we agree to when we use cloud services: Nilay Patel on what we agree to when we use cloud servicesNilay Patel at The Verge reads some Terms of Service and drops some knowledge bombs. It’s definitely a must-read if you’re a Google, Dropbox, iCloud, or Skydrive user. So, if you’re on the internet at all, basically.

Tor: An Anonymous, And Controversial, Way to Web-Surf: Tor: An Anonymous, And Controversial, Way to Web-SurfTor gets a headline at WSJ.com.

Federal Trade Commission to data brokers: Show us your data: Federal Trade Commission to data brokers: Show us your dataJessica Guynn of the LA Times: The FTC wants to know what the brokers do with the information. It also wants to know if the data brokers let consumers review and correct their personal information or opt out from having their personal …

Google Music gains scan and match feature in the US: Google Music gains scan and match feature in the USNice.

Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News splitting into separate paywall sites: Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News splitting into separate paywall sitesGawker’s Hamilton Nolan’s theory of the paywall suggests a local paper of high caliber can survive erecting a paywall. Maybe he is right, but can two local papers survive? It will be good to see the Inquirer and the Daily News …

96.36 billion cyberattacks against the US Navy each year: 96.36 billion cyberattacks against the US Navy each yearThe Next Web's Emil Protalinski, quoting HP's head of enterprise services Mikle Nefkens: “This means the attacks average out at about 1,833 per minute or 30 every second.” Those figures are simply astonishing. Extrapolating the other way, it …

Washington Post reports "a person familiar with the plans" says Washington Post considering paywall: Washington Post reports “a person familiar with the plans” says Washington Post considering paywallOh. So. Meta.

For Netflix and the S.E.C., a Facebook Share Should Be Public Enough: For Netflix and the S.E.C., a Facebook Share Should Be Public EnoughIt’s true, but not really because lots of people can follow Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Facebook, but because many reporters actually do. This was not going to go unreported.

Drones in our backyards: Drones in our backyardsThe Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jennifer Lynch explains how EFF got data on active drones over US soil. I’m not prone to slippery slope arguments, but with the volume of cyberattacks directed at the US each year, it’s not ridiculous to suggest that our drones may be …

Tim Cook tells Brian Williams TV is "an area of intense interest": Tim Cook tells Brian Williams TV is “an area of intense interest”Ronnie Polidoro, writing at NBC: “When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than …

Sign Language Researchers Broaden Science Lexicon: Sign Language Researchers Broaden Science LexiconThis is wonderful stuff: with a shortage of STEM talent these days, it’s imperative to involve all those who are interested, and this project serves to reduce the barrier to entry for deaf students. (Via Evening Edition)

The World Conference on International Communications: The World Conference on International CommunicationsThis is important, and Richard Dunlop-Walters’s The Brief has a great, ongoing summary of the issue and the news coming out of the World Conference on International Communications. It may seem dry at first, but this stuff could have far-reaching …

John's Tumblr: We can do better than lecture videos: John’s Tumblr: We can do better than lecture videos lilly: What I meant to say about this article about online education: MOOCs are a breakthrough in distribution of educational content, but not really a breakthrough in the way that we learn. What this article points out is that there are more …

News Corp. Shutters The Daily iPad App - Peter Kafka: News Corp. Shutters The Daily iPad App - Peter KafkaI know they’re not the same thing, but it’s interesting to watch News Corp. fail with The Daily while Marco Arment’s The Magazine is gaining altitude, despite production by a relative publishing newb and one other staffer. One thing is clear: …

Facebook Makes A Huge Data Grab By Aggressively Promoting Photo Sync: Facebook Makes A Huge Data Grab By Aggressively Promoting Photo SyncJosh Constine at TechCrunch: There no big launch event yesterday because Facebook didn’t need one. In fact, it probably didn’t want one, considering it didn’t even notify bloggers like me as it usually does. This isn’t going to …

$85 million round by Evernote: $85 million round by EvernoteIt’s one of my favorite services, and the first I decided to pay for on a monthly basis. I think Libin, despite his transparent business style and easy-going manner, is genius of the caliber of any CEO at a company ten times Evernote’s size. He built something awesome, …

NYPD subpoenas call logs of stolen cell phones: NYPD subpoenas call logs of stolen cell phonesJoseph Goldstein, writing for the Times: Mr. Sussmann suggested that the Police Department could limit its subpoenas to phone calls beginning on the hour, not the day, of the theft, and ending as soon as the victim has transferred the number to a new …

"Gay conversion" snake-oil salesmen taken to court: “Gay conversion” snake-oil salesmen taken to courtErik Eckholm, reporting for the New York Times: Referred to Jonah by a rabbi when he was 18, Mr. Levin began attending weekend retreats at $650 each. For a year and a half, he had weekly private sessions with Mr. Downing as well as …

Apple Maps lead fired: Apple Maps lead firedRichard Williamson is his name, and shipping a less-than-perfect mapping application on the iPhone 5 was his game, until, as Bloomberg's Adam Satariano reports, Senior Vice President Eddy Cue fired him. As an aside, I really like that Bloomberg lists both the reporter’s and the …

Philly.com posts NSFW photo, ‘production glitch’ blamed: Philly.com posts NSFW photo, ‘production glitch’ blamedSomeone’s gonna get fired…

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Infrastructure Security: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Infrastructure SecurityThis is an interesting move, basically setting up the lemonade stand while all you have is water: it’s on your parents to give you the rest of the ingredients if they want you to do the work. Congress would do well …

USPTO Director announces January 2013 resignation: USPTO Director announces January 2013 resignationDavid Kappos thinks software patents are just fine, but I’m interested in what his as-yet unknown successor will have to say on the matter.

Grover Norquist on proposed update to Electronic Communications Privacy Act: Grover Norquist on proposed update to Electronic Communications Privacy ActTwenty-plus years is a long time, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is overdue for an update. A summary of the state of things: Unfortunately these digital documents lack long-held privacy safeguards. Email saved …

UPDATED: Google Acquires Wi-Fi Provider ICOA for $400 Million: UPDATED: Google Acquires Wi-Fi Provider ICOA for $400 MillionUpdated: This is not true. Angela Moscaritolo of PCMag.com reports: In a statement, Google said it made the acquisition to “further diversify its already impressive portfolio of companies.” The Web giant did not elaborate about its …

The Release Windows Archaism: The Release Windows ArchaismFrédéric Filloux at Monday Note: As for the TV shows such as Homeland and others hits, there is not justification whatsoever to preserve this calendar archaism. They should be made universally available from the day when they are aired on TV, period. Or customers will …

USPTO director defends software patents: USPTO director defends software patentsDirector of the United States Patent and Trademark Office David Kappos, quoted by Timothy B. Lee at Ars Technica: In a system like ours in which innovation is happening faster than people can keep up, it cannot be said that the patent system is broken. Of …

How to Opt out of PayPal's "Agreement to Arbitrate": How to Opt out of PayPal’s “Agreement to Arbitrate”It’s worth considering if you’re a PayPal user.

FBI examining HP/Autonomy accounting debacle: FBI examining HP/Autonomy accounting debacleHP’s got ninety-nine problems, but a recently-acquired pattern recognition company with possibly-dishonest accounting practices ain’t… …oh, nevermind.

US accused of launching cyberattack against French government: US accused of launching cyberattack against French government A spokesperson from the US Embassy in Paris, responding to an article at The Verge about the accusations: We categorically deny these allegations from unnamed sources, published in L’Express, that the United States government has …

H.P. Takes Huge Charge on 'Accounting Improprieties' at Autonomy: H.P. Takes Huge Charge on ‘Accounting Improprieties’ at AutonomyMichael J. de la Merced and Quentin Hardy, for the Times’ DealBook: The charge essentially wiped out its profit. The headline should say “outright misrepresentations,” not “accounting improprieties,” because the former is …

Thoughts on the new Engadget design: INTRODUCTION Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about design. I’m a user, and design work on websites made for frequent article consumption should be tailored to user experience. I may come off as arrogant, ignorant, or petty. That’s not my intention. I’m being honest about my thoughts. Engadget has …

MG Siegler finally gets a Surface, despite Microsoft's best efforts: MG Siegler finally gets a Surface, despite Microsoft’s best efforts In hindsight, I now see why Microsoft did not want me to review the Surface. That was probably the right call from a PR perspective. It’s simply not a good product. Mr. Siegler found the Surface very wanting, but this bit …

Professor David Post on the Republican Study Committee's prematurely-released-then-removed copyright critique: Professor David Post on the Republican Study Committee’s prematurely-released-then-removed copyright critiqueDavid Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: The Report proposes a series of rather radical — in the Jeffersonian sense — reforms, from dramatically shortening the copyright term (a …

Wranglers say 'Hobbit' animals died on unsafe farm: Wranglers say ‘Hobbit’ animals died on unsafe farmDisturbing.

$22.5M FTC fine against Google for Safari tracking: $22.5M FTC fine against Google for Safari trackingMichael Liedtke, writing for Associated Press: In the Safari case, Consumer Watchdog argued that the fine amounts to loose change for a company like Google, which generates about $22.5 million in revenue every four hours. It’s a very good deal for …

Xbox 720 leak: Blu-ray, Kinect 2.0, new controller: Xbox 720 leak: Blu-ray, Kinect 2.0, new controller I don’t typically post rumors or leaks, but this stuff is exciting to me, so here it is, for whatever it’s worth to you.

Streaming music to listeners, but not money to artists: Streaming music to listeners, but not money to artistsGalaxie 500 drummer Damon Krukowski1, writing at Pitchfork: Since we own our own recordings, by my calculation it would take songwriting royalties for roughly 312,000 plays on Pandora to earn us the profit of one— one— LP sale. (On Spotify, one …

Philly is lost-phone central: Philly is lost-phone centralThis includes theft and just plain misplacement. I’m more of a dropper myself. Just ask my twice-cracked Galaxy Nexus. I’m not proud, but disclosure will help shame me into being more careful.

Sprint buys spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular for $480m in cash: Sprint buys spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular for $480m in cashEach subscriber Sprint buys from US Cellular in this deal will cost them $820.51.

EFF's pre-emptive prior art defense of 3D printing: EFF’s pre-emptive prior art defense of 3D printingIt’s a great idea, and I hope it yields some useful results.

Twitter and Two-Factor Authentication: Twitter and Two-Factor AuthenticationTwo-factor authentication is a pain in the ass. Just ask my Google account or my Dropbox account. But it’s a no-brainer. Savvy users will flock to it, seeing the value in the headache. Less-than-savvy users don’t need to be forced into it, but Twitter is as good …

Judge blocks California’s new ban on anonymity for sex offender: Judge blocks California’s new ban on anonymity for sex offenderThis one is worth watching. With regard to blogs and forums, particularly, there’s a strong analogy with letter-writing and other modes of communication with the “outside” that are typically allowed. The plaintiffs, two registered …

The Oxford Guide to Treaties: An Opinio Juris Symposium: The Oxford Guide to Treaties: An Opinio Juris SymposiumIf international law interests you at all, particularly the role treaties play, you should click the link above this sentence. Professor Duncan Hollis edited The Oxford Guide to Treaties and is an expert on the topic. I’m currently in his …

Conservatives lambast Romney, vow to take over Republican Party: Conservatives lambast Romney, vow to take over Republican PartyThe Hill’s Erik Wasson, quoting Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots: She described Romney as a “weak, moderate candidate hand-picked by the country club elite Republican establishment […] They didn’t see a clear distinction so …

"Parallel Thinking in Product Design Will Only Increase": “Parallel Thinking in Product Design Will Only Increase”Rain Noe at core77: When you have an uncomplicated design that’s boiled down to its pure essentials, you approach a kind of universal perfection, and that universality is the tricky part in a world filled with designers. This is a …

Marriage rights tide turns decisively against US bigots: Marriage rights tide turns decisively against US bigotsI hope this is the beginning of an acceleration in the death of “traditional” marriage in the United States of America. Fear, ignorance, and religion are all equally insufficient and shameful excuses to deny universal marriage rights for one …

IMAlive provides online counseling—but at what cost?: IMAlive provides online counseling—but at what cost?Aja Romano of The Daily Dot: IMAlive sounds perfect for introverts and those who are more comfortable writing than speaking. And anyone can volunteer to be a counselor, as long as they pass the background check. But there’s a hitch. Potential …

Pandora suing ASCAP for lower licensing fees: Pandora suing ASCAP for lower licensing feesDon Jeffrey of Bloomberg: Pandora also claims that it’s entitled to lower rates because some large music publishers have announced they are withdrawing new media rights from Ascap and negotiating licensing fees directly with Web radio services. The …

When 32GB is really 16GB...: When 32GB is really 16GB…Microsoft is taking heat for claiming more user-available disk space on its new ARM-based Windows 8-powered Surface tablet than is really there. But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Most companies are lying in their commercials, product pages, and press …

A Map Of America’s 284 Drone Strikes Against Pakistan: A Map Of America’s 284 Drone Strikes Against PakistanCliff Kuang of Co.Design: Whatever your stance on drone killings, the fact remains that there’s been very little national dialogue on the topic. Indeed, some would say that’s a direct result of the main problem with the policy: Its complete lack …

Nearly all of Omni Magazine at the Internet Archive: Nearly all of Omni Magazine at the Internet ArchiveAdi Robertson shared this at The Verge and it made me very happy. I loved this magazine.

Over 50% of Android phones still run Gingerbread: Over 50% of Android phones still run GingerbreadThe greatest argument against Android is that the “Android” I am talking about when I describe the experience on my Galaxy Nexus is still very foreign to a majority of Android users.

Google integrating AMBER alerts: Google integrating AMBER alertsRichard Dunlop-Walters’ The Brief is a must-read for those interested in news about how technology affects our lives every day. Mr. Dunlop-Walters said of Google’s AMBER Alert integration: whenever you perform a Google search related to an area where a child has been …

Professor David Post: Copyright is meant to benefit the public: Professor David Post: Copyright is meant to benefit the publicProfessor Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy about the brief he helped write in the Aereo case: copyright law does not exist for the benefit of authors; it uses the benefit granted to authors because that is a means to increase the …

Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion: Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney’s global lines of business …

Marco Arment goes to a Microsoft store: Marco Arment goes to a Microsoft storeThe link above and what it describes are far more damning than any of Microsoft’s shitty advertising and messaging.

Samsung shipped a stunning 57M smartphones in Q3 — twice as many as Apple: Samsung shipped a stunning 57M smartphones in Q3 — twice as many as AppleHow many Samsung devices are on the latest version of their respective operating systems? Many consumers don’t know or care that they’re buying an outdated version of Android, but that ignorance will not last forever. Samsung …

More interactive Tweets, in more than 2000 ways: More interactive Tweets, in more than 2000 waysWhat ever happened to seeing a link and clicking on it? I don’t want garish, heavy embedded crap all over Twitter. But alas, it’s not my company or design to screw up, so I’ll stop whining (but not sulking).

Supreme Court Will Address Antitrust State Action Exemption: Supreme Court Will Address Antitrust State Action ExemptionSteve Semeraro at the Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog: Government actors are charged with a duty to act in the public interest and thus can generally be trusted to restrain trade only when the public will benefit. Private actors, by …

Invention as Art: Invention as ArtThis is a great article on patent drawings and models, as selected for Co.Design by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan.

iPad mini - Every inch an iPad.: iPad mini - Every inch an iPad.Everyone is shitting their pants over this thing, but I’m more excited by the new MacBook Pro.

FTC Publishes Facial Recognition Guidelines: FTC Publishes Facial Recognition GuidelinesCarl Franzen, of TPM Idea Lab: There are two cases where the FTC believes that companies need to get a consumer’s “affirmative express consent,” that is, an “opt-in,” before using information captured via facial recognition: When identifying anonymous …

Amazon outage takes out Reddit, Foursquare, Heroku: Amazon outage takes out Reddit, Foursquare, HerokuLee Hutchinson, writing at Ars Technica: These kinds of outages are a jarring reminder of the true nature of “the cloud”—it’s still just servers in data centers. Amazon’s market power in ebooks leads to some questionable behavior, as well as some …

Introducing the New Entertainment Experience from Xbox: Introducing the New Entertainment Experience from XboxYusuf Mehdi, Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division: […] we will rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment from more than 67 million consoles to literally hundreds of millions of devices worldwide. …

Amazon's "phantom" 20% VAT for UK ebook sales: Amazon’s “phantom” 20% VAT for UK ebook salesIan Griffiths and Dan Milmo of The Guardian, quoting ” a contract seen by the Guardian,” presumably between Amazon and one of its UK publishing “partners”: If the base price exceeds the base price … provided to a similar service then … …

Sloppy SSL implementation begets Android app vulnerabilities: Sloppy SSL implementation begets Android app vulnerabilitiesDan Goodin at Ars Technica explains how researchers found that 8% of apps in a 13,500-app sample were susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. Hopefully developers will revisit their SSL implementations or, better yet, Google will update …

Online release of Boy Scouts’ ‘perversion files’ breaks decades of secrecy: Online release of Boy Scouts’ ‘perversion files’ breaks decades of secrecyDespicable.

Nebraska court strikes down restrictions on internet use for sex offenders on free speech grounds: Nebraska court strikes down restrictions on internet use for sex offenders on free speech groundsProfessor David Post of Temple Law served as an expert for the plaintiffs — yes, sex offenders — in this case. His focus, as he points out in his Volokh Conspiracy post, was on the overbroad nature of …

Brazilian newspapers leave Google News en masse: Brazilian newspapers leave Google News en masseCarlos Fernando Lindenberg Neto, president of Brazil’s National Association of Newspapers, on his association’s withdraw from Google News: Google News’ presence in the Brazilian market is small. We believe (the loss of traffic) is an acceptable price …

Alto: Aol's attempt to redesign email: Alto: Aol’s attempt to redesign emailAustin Carr, writing at Fast Company's Co.Design blog: It’s actually proved to be a more modern and nimble alternative to many of its mainstream counterparts, and boasts many novel features that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, even with its beautiful …

Verizon Activated 3.1 Million iPhones In Q3 2012, But Only 651K Were iPhone 5s: Verizon Activated 3.1 Million iPhones In Q3 2012, But Only 651K Were iPhone 5sMG Siegler, commenting on the TechCrunch post by Chris Velazco, linked above: In other words, the iPhone 5 was on sale for just nine days before the quarter ended. And it was supply-constrained the whole time. Mr. …

2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: DOMA violates Equal Protection: 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: DOMA violates Equal ProtectionLarry Neumeister, for AP: The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2-to-1 ruling only weeks after hearing arguments on a lower court judge’s findings that the 1996 [“Defense of Marriage Act”] was unconstitutional. This is …

New $249 Samsung Chromebook: New $249 Samsung ChromebookThis is certainly interesting. And at half the price of an entry-level Microsoft Surface, it even comes with a keyboard!

Wireless attack could fatally turn pacemakers against patients: Wireless attack could fatally turn pacemakers against patientsPatrick Gray, writing at The Register: Jack also warned of a worst-case scenario in which a worm could infect multiple devices, spreading from patient to patient, re-flashing the devices with malicious code as it foes. This code could be …

White House review: no active spying by Huawei: White House review: no active spying by HuaweiJoseph Menn, quoting an anonymous source for Reuters: We knew certain parts of government really wanted” evidence of active spying, said one of the people, who requested anonymity. “We would have found it if it were there. I don’t know enough about …

The Plain Text Problem: The Plain Text ProblemMichael Schechter, writing at his blog A Better Mess: They want to take their backlog of DOC, DOCX and RTF files and convert them into either Markdown files or plain text files with Markdown formatting. At the moment, there’s no solution that’s viable for average computer …

SoftBank buys 70% stake in Sprint: SoftBank buys 70% stake in Sprint Michael J. De La Merced and Neil Gough, in The New York Times: In a statement on Monday, SoftBank, a big Japanese telecommunications company, said it would pay $8 billion to buy newly issued Sprint stock worth about $5.25 a share. It will then pay $12.1 billion to …

Richard Branson on Design: Richard Branson on Design And if you’re building a spaceship company like Virgin Galactic, you might as well build the sexiest beast ever built—the sexiest spaceship, the sexiest mother ship, the sexiest space port. Getting every little bit of the design right is so important. Love this guy.

Deli sues feds for refusing to trademark its 'Philadelphia's Cheesesteak': Deli sues feds for refusing to trademark its ‘Philadelphia’s Cheesesteak’Michael Hinkelman, writing at the Philadelphia Daily News: Campo’s claims in its civil complaint that its sandwich is “so superlative” and “gloriously gluttonous” that only it could be called “Philadelphia’s …

iDermal: The Magnetic Implant iPod Holder: iDermal: The Magnetic Implant iPod HolderWelp, absolutely no potential for unfortunate consequences there.

Microsoft To Make Same Privacy Change Google Was Attacked For; No One Seems To Care: Microsoft To Make Same Privacy Change Google Was Attacked For; No One Seems To CareThis is a good piece by Danny Sullivan of Marketing Land about the lack of coverage Microsoft’s privacy policy consolidation got this week compared to what Google got on a similar move earlier this year. Mr. …

Councilman Kenney Bashes Immigration Laws: Councilman Kenney Bashes Immigration LawsPhiladelphia Councilman James Kenney made the following comment at the Restaurant Industry Summit, quoted by Randy Lobasso at Philadelphia Weekly's PhillyNow blog: After 9/11, everyone became a ‘terrorist’—including that Mexican guy on a bike going from his …

Tumblr Puts More Focus On Photos With Photoset, Its New Standalone iOS App: Tumblr Puts More Focus On Photos With Photoset, Its New Standalone iOS AppDrew Olanoff, at TechCrunch: By not forcing you to log into your Tumblr account, the company could attract a brand new set of users who just want to pull photos together without the hassle of creating a page, tagging things …

Lawmakers blast advertisers for ignoring 'Do Not Track' on Microsoft's Explorer: Lawmakers blast advertisers for ignoring ‘Do Not Track’ on Microsoft’s ExplorerThe Digital Advertising Alliance, announcing they’ll ignore “do not track” browser headers: A ‘default on’ do-not-track mechanism offers consumers and businesses inconsistencies and confusion instead of …

US Is Bleeding High-Skilled Immigrants: US Is Bleeding High-Skilled ImmigrantsGregory Ferenstein, writing at TechCrunch about Vivek Wadhwa’s latest research: Nearly a quarter (24.3 percent) of engineering and technology companies had at least one foreign-born founder; in Silicon Valley, it’s nearly half (43.9 percent). Nationwide, …

Twitter List Copy: Twitter List CopyI just completely overhauled my Twitter lists, a few days after impulsively unfollowing everyone who didn’t follow me back. I deleted many lists and added many users to the ones I kept. I used Twitter List Copy to import all the users on other people’s lists into pre-existing lists …

Another Note to RSS Subscribers: Those who subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/byjoeross only have a few more days to subscribe to the new feed. Please make the change so you can keep reading my priceless insights. Do it for your friends. Do it for yourself. The New Feed!

Why We'll Never Stop Talking About Steve Jobs: Why We’ll Never Stop Talking About Steve JobsMat Honan, writing at Wired: Jobs, like the titans of industry before him, realized that when we think about how the world works, we are actually thinking about the way people have made it to work. And that means that if you don’t like the way the …

HP CEO Meg Whitman calls it like it is: bad: HP CEO Meg Whitman calls it like it is: badMeg Whitman, as quoted by Sean Gallagher at Ars Technica: We aren’t as effective internally as we should be because of poor systems. We are not as competitive as we need to be in how we go to market because of our IT systems. We haven’t been using a …

Talk by Steven Jobs - IDCA 1983: Talk by Steven Jobs - IDCA 1983This Steve Jobs talk from 1983 (I was less than a month old…) is a series of astoundingly accurate predictions about the future of computing. The audio was sourced from a cassette tape, cleaned up a bit, and posted to Soundcloud by Marcel Brown. Read his post about it …

The Honest Design Age: The Honest Design AgeAllan Grinshtein of LayerVault, design software, designed for designers: It would be crazy to call these designers lazy — there’s an awesome amount of work and detailed involved in recreating beautiful “rich corinthian leather.” Still, it is laziness to not continue to refine. …

Apple Is Heavily Promoting Alternative Map Apps In The App Store: Apple Is Heavily Promoting Alternative Map Apps In The App StoreRelated

Kindle Library Bulk Delete: Kindle Library Bulk DeleteI want to thank Mr. Nathaniel Robertson for pointing people in need of cleaning up their Kindle archive to this bookmarklet that allows you to bulk-delete entire pages of Kindle Library content. Many thanks to the person behind Japanese blog Net Buffalo for solving this …

The Problem With Early Reviews: The Problem With Early ReviewsJohn Biggs, writing at TechCrunch: In the end, the real reviews are the ones that percolate up out of the forums and blogosphere. That’s absolutely true in my experience. Reviews by 20-/30-/40-somethings blogging from their basement or posting on their favorite forum …

Google Now Lets You Download All Your YouTube Videos In One Archive: Google Now Lets You Download All Your YouTube Videos In One ArchiveWhether you like them or not, Google still leads the way on data portability.

USPTO Third Party Prior Art Submissions System - Now Live!: USPTO Third Party Prior Art Submissions System - Now Live!This looks, on its face, like a good thing. I wonder (sincerely, not sarcastically) how patent attorneys feel about it.

Twitter replies and Instapaper integration: I wanted to post something brief to let you know I made a few small but (I think) useful additions to this site. First, I’ve added a button to the bottom of all posts letting Twitter users reply or ask questions directly from the post. Thanks to the purveyor of kaos.am for unknowingly alerting me to …

Amazon heads off app fragmentation on Kindle Fire, Android: Amazon heads off app fragmentation on Kindle Fire, AndroidKevin C. Tofel, writing at GigaOM: This could mean vastly better tablet apps for the higher resolution Kindle Fires similar to the improved iPad apps that iOS developers made instead of scaled-up iPhone software. I think he’s right: …

MySpace renovations: MySpace renovationsDear MySpace: I am happy to see you lean away from Facebook and toward the new Digg and Rdio, with a clean design that prizes whitespace as much as content. Give me something functional and pretty, without the spammy taste of Facebook or the learning curve of Google+. Do this for …

What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology: What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own PsychologyAndreesen Horowitz co-founder and career CEO/investor Ben Horowitz offers some great advice in this 2011 post at his personal blog. The best part about it is that, while it’s aimed at aspiring CEOs and entrepreneurs, it really applies …

Planet of the Tweets: Planet of the TweetsTwitter’s extensive research identified four ways news outlets can better engage their audiences. Funny how all four look like things Twitter’s early and most “engaged” users have been doing since the service’s inception. The same users Twitter is frequently screwing with …

Gamers confront copyright law: Gamers confront copyright lawProfessor Greg Lastowka of Rutgers-Camden Law School, in a press release earlier this week about his current research: User-generated content can make a game very valuable, but developers have a legal obligation to look out for copyright infringement. I’m interested to …

Welcome to VentureBeat’s reporting-driven Friday: Welcome to VentureBeat’s reporting-driven FridayGood on ‘em for trying this out.

Temple Law Profs Feed: I used Yahoo Pipes to make a feed that unites all posts by Temple profs writing at their various law blogs. The feed still needs some work, specifically to ensure that the author name, and preferably the name of the blog at which they’re writing, is published in every entry. But overall I’m very …

Justice Ginsburg Smile: Justice Ginsburg SmileJustice Ginsburg isn’t allowed to say whether or not she would find equal protection arguments against the “Defense of Marriage” Act1 persuasive. But she’s allowed to smile. I, on the other hand, am allowed to tell you that DOMA is reprehensible and shameful, and every …

NYT quote approval policy is (only) a good start: The new quote approval policy at The New York Times, as quoted by Times opinion writer Margaret Sullivan: So starting now, we want to draw a clear line on this. Citing Times policy, reporters should say no if a source demands, as a condition of an interview, that quotes be submitted afterward to …

Longread: Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty: Longread: Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penaltyI usually like to include a quote from the longreads I share, but this story cannot be reduced to a single blockquote. Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, you should read this 2009 article by David Grann at The New Yorker. …

Verizon Galaxy Nexus gets Jelly Bean...: Verizon Galaxy Nexus gets Jelly Bean……finally.

Twitter changes force removal of related IFTTT triggers: IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets, in an email to users today: [ … ] on September 27th we will be removing all Twitter Triggers, disabling your ability to push tweets to places like email, Evernote and Facebook. All Personal and Shared Recipes using a Twitter Trigger will also be removed. IFTTT is …

Twitter continues to value advertiser utility above user experience: Twitter continues to value advertiser utility above user experienceRomain Dillet at TechCrunch explains it like this: Now when you land on a company profile page, you will see a big brand name with a small @username below, a gigantic header photo, a small logo next to every tweet, photos of new …

David Hoffman on quotation approval: David Hoffman on quotation approvalTwo days ago, I mentioned a piece by David Carr on quotation approval. This morning, I found that Professor David Hoffman, whose corporate law class I took at Temple Law, had posted his own thoughts at Concurring Opinions. Specifically, this part stuck out to me: …

Virgin Mobile USA's inadequate response to a good-faith vulnerability disclosure: Virgin Mobile USA’s inadequate response to a good-faith vulnerability disclosureDeveloper Kevin Burke describes in damning detail how easy it is to brute force Virgin Mobile USA account PINs, as well as the company’s incompetent and opaque handling of the situation.

The New Feedly Mobile: The New Feedly MobileAnti-disclosure: This post raves about the new Feedly. They didn’t pay me, I don’t know them, and all I get out of writing the below is the satisfaction of pointing fellow Android users to one of the best-designed apps in the Play Store. I love both Pulse and Flipboard and I …

Mitigating My Mitigating: Mitigating My MitigatingThis post by Michael Schechter at his site A Better Mess hit home for me because I recently migrated this site permanently to Tumblr from a self-hosted Wordpress installation as part of a larger effort to consolidate the things I do in life and on the web. I’m also looking …

David Carr on quotation approval: David Carr on quotation approval Keep in mind that when public figures get in trouble for something they said, it is usually not because they misspoke, but because they accidentally told the truth. News junkies probably know this already, but it’s worth letting the Times's David Carr remind us that …

Apathy and ecstasy for the iPhone 5: Mat Honan, writing at Wired’s Gadget Lab blog: It is an amazing triumph of technology that gets better and better, year after year, and yet somehow is every bit as exciting as a 25 mph drive through a sensible neighborhood at a reasonable time of day. I am still waiting for Verizon to push Jelly …

Twitter forced to turn over protester's deleted tweets: Twitter forced to turn over protester’s deleted tweetsMike Isaac, writing at All Things D: In the end, the New York DA and the judge used a legal maneuver to put pressure on Twitter, threatening to hold the company in contempt of court and levy steep fines if it didn’t hand over the data. …

A Note to RSS Subscribers: If you are subscribed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/byjoeross you need to subscribe to http://joeross.me/rss instead. The /byjoeross feed will go away forever in about a month. Click here to subscribe to the new feed. It would mean a lot to me if you did that. Really. I would smile. Widely.

Apple's Comfortable Middle: Hamish McKenzie, writing at PandoDaily : With two product launches in a row that show Apple is merely keeping pace with innovation rather than leading it, the world’s most valuable company will start to seem mortal. I disagree. For the record, I’m usually on board with Mr. McKenzie’s analyses, and …

Gruber on "Amazon's Play": Gruber on “Amazon’s Play”John Gruber writes one of the most respected and prolific tech blogs on the web, Daring Fireball. Some people deride him as a blindly-worshipful Apple fanboy who delights in pointing out the failed attempts of other companies to copy Apple’s products and …

"The Math": “The Math”Once again, MG Siegler nails it on HBO’s missed opportunity for direct-subscription innovation. Most companies are so desperate to maintain anything close to an upward slant in revenue year-over-year that they never even know opportunities like this one exist. The worst part of …

Say Hello to Samsung's Fanboy Factory - The Mobilers Program: Say Hello to Samsung’s Fanboy Factory - The Mobilers ProgramIndian mobile tech blogger Clinton Jeff of Unleash the Phones, talking to The Next Web's Brad McCarty: We got a call from Samsung India saying ‘You can either be a part of this and wear the uniform, or you’ll have to get your own …

Kindle Fire HD 8.9: how the new Kindle tablet compares with the competition: Kindle Fire HD 8.9: how the new Kindle tablet compares with the competitionAmazon increased the power and range of its Kindle offerings and achieved impressively-low pricing across the board. Again. I’m 100% certain someone I know will get one of the newly-announced devices, maybe even before the …

HootSuite Buys Seesmic: HootSuite Buys SeesmicRobins Wauters interviewed Seesmic founder Loïc Le Meur at The Next Web today on his company’s sale to rival HootSuite. I have always thought Seesmic was the best multi-profile app for Twitter and Facebook on mobile, and I always preferred their web interface to Hootsuite’s. …

Brevity: BrevityMG Siegler posted yesterday about his desire to write with more concision. His point is a good one: writing concisely suggests, when you think about it, a far better grasp of a topic than does the need to write 1,000 words about it. It’s a lesson I learned from a couple of professors in law …

Being Real Builds Trust: Being Real Builds TrustSteph Hay, writing at A List Apart: Your mom may not be your target user, but she is a real person who’ll call you on your bullshit. This is great advice.

Peeling Back the Hidden Pages of History With Hyperspectral Photography: Peeling Back the Hidden Pages of History With Hyperspectral PhotographyJohn R. Quain, writing at American Photo: When the hyperspectral eye was turned on an early draft of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, researchers could see that Jefferson had originally written …

I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA: I am Barack Obama, President of the United States – AMAHis most vulnerable answer (in my opinion) was with regard to a question about his most difficult decision so far as President: The decision to surge our forces in afghanistan. Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you …

Twitter files appeal in major social media case: Twitter files appeal in major social media caseJeff John Roberts provides an update on Twitter’s latest legal battle over at GigaOM. I think it’s fascinating that Twitter is living two lives: They’re vigorously defending the rights of their users to maintain control over what happens to their tweets …

NoWait protects restaurants from the wrath of restless customers: NoWait protects restaurants from the wrath of restless customersRebecca Grant, writing at VentureBeat: Restaurants can use this iPad app to keep track of available tables and alert customers with a text message when their table is ready. This sounds like technology with the potential to go far …

Neil Armstrong, First Man on Moon, Dies at 82: Neil Armstrong, First Man on Moon, Dies at 82Neil Armstrong on Chuck Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier, quoted by his own biographer: All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight, I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one …

Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ Hits Evolution Deniers: Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ Hits Evolution DeniersBill Nye, as quoted in an article by Kevin Dolak at ABC News: And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but …

Securing the legacy of the world's greatest geek: Securing the legacy of the world’s greatest geekNew Scientist's Jacob Aron interviewed Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal fame, whose latest endeavor is the financing and creation of a museum dedicate to Nikola Tesla’s work. A random piece of trivia that caught my eye: He actually built an …

Cloud startup aims to make “dumb” cell phones smart: Cloud startup aims to make “dumb” cell phones smartSean Gallagher reports at Ars Technica on biNu, a company developing an asynchronous, server-side smartphone emulator in Java. The system’s low-bandwidth, high-security nature makes it a perfect fit for countries where the next iPhone is out of …

Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future: Microsoft’s Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV futureSamit Sarkar, reporting at The Verge: The interactive element of the hub is a live polling system. It will gather impressions from Xbox Live users as they watch live broadcasts of the three scheduled presidential …

[Longread] Scamworld: 'Get rich quick' schemes mutate into an online monster: [Longread] Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monsterThis article by Joseph L. Flatley at The Verge is a feat of modern reporting and storytelling. Do yourself a favor and watch the associated documentary, too. I like to give everything a “link” / “longread” …

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work DayKevin Purdy, formerly of Lifehacker fame, shares the morning strategies of several people in this Fast Company article. I have never liked the empty proclamations of Tony Robbins and his ilk, but the rest of the article is interesting.

Tent - the decentralized social web: Tent - the decentralized social webTent is decentralized, not federated or centralized. Any Tent server can connect to any other Tent server. All features are available to any server as first-class citizens. Anyone can host their own Tent server. Tent servers can also be run as Tor hidden services …

Longread: Brand as Context in Interaction Design: Longread: Brand as Context in Interaction DesignBen Fullerton of Method, writing in UX Magazine on the interplay between user experience design and brand messaging: For designers, the development of a compelling brand helps to round out the design, creating a before and after. It builds a …

What are some things I'd be shocked to learn about the outside world?: What are some things I’d be shocked to learn about the outside world?Susan Wu, on Quora: All products inherit the values of their creators and have a sort of corresponding ‘morality.’ When you create an algorithm, it’s optimizing for something — it might be that you think “saving time” is a …

Why Every Community Should Have Its Own Geek Awards: I recently had the pleasure of attending the Second Annual Philly Geek Awards. It was an amazing experience, but far better recaps than anything I can do are already available (like here and here, so I’ll keep this to around 500 words. Warning: May contain italics and optimism. There were over two …

You are listening to Philadelphia: You are listening to PhiladelphiaListen to a mashup of ambient noise recordings from your city (via Soundcloud) and local police scanners. Thanks to Geekadelphia for posting about this.

A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago: A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years AgoMark Potts, writing about his major part in what might be properly called the genesis of the first digital publishing strategy: As someone said when they saw PostCard a few years later, “It looks like the Web.” Except that, in those early days of …

Changes coming in Version 1.1 of the Twitter API: Changes coming in Version 1.1 of the Twitter APITwitter’s Michael Sippey posted an update at their Developers Blog yesterday announcing that the company will: essentially be crippling many of the third-party apps that got the company where it is today; and severely bloating and degrading the user …

How to Save the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News: How to Save the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily NewsJoel Mathis, writing at Philadelphia Magazine‘s blog The Philly Post, may have a point. But going online-only would require a serious modernization of the Philly.com brand and site design. I don’t see the ownership having the vision to …

Philly Geek Awards: Philly Geek AwardsThis happens on Friday, August 17, 2012. I. can’t. wait.

HP’s webOS group spun out into new company: GRAM: HP’s webOS group spun out into new company: GRAMDerek Kessler of webOS Nation wrote this up yesterday. His post included an internal email to employees of the new company, “GRAM.” It was very evasive, vague, and noncomittal for a internal email, but this part bothered me: Be the culture. Spread our …

Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11: Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11If you’ve ever wanted your Mac to be louder (as I often did before buying this app), Boom is worth the money. Here’s a direct link to the App Store.

Longread: Prosecutorial Indiscretion | Secrets Of An Independent Counsel: Longread: Prosecutorial Indiscretion | Secrets Of An Independent CounselDavid Gran, in 1998 in The New Republic, reprinted online by PBS: Whereas most prosecutors must discriminate between cases–to decide, say, whether to spend their time and money pursuing people who drive over the speed limit or …

Obama to NASA: I want to know about Martians right away: Obama to NASA: I want to know about Martians right awayPresident Obama, speaking to NASA’s Curiosity team (as quoted by CNET‘s Chris Matyszczyk): If, in fact, you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away. I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate, but I suspect that that would …

Interactive Martian Panorama from Curiosity Rover: Interactive Martian Panorama from Curiosity RoverIf you read Boing Boing, you’ve already seen this. But I had to share it just in case. A fellow named Andrew Bodrov used Curiosity’s recent 360-panoramic photo collection to construct this interactive image, a la Google Street View.

Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit Opinion: Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit OpinionMr. Eugene Volokh congratulates my former copyright law professor David Post of Temple Law on having a blog post of his cited in a 9th Circuit opinion (PDF).

Fareed Zakaria Apologizes for ‘Lapse’; Faces Time and CNN Suspensions: Fareed Zakaria Apologizes for ‘Lapse’; Faces Time and CNN SuspensionsI would be honored to work for Time, CNN, The Atlantic, or The New Yorker. While I may require some on-the-job journalism training, I will absolutely do my own work 100% percent of the time.

FTC OKs Facebook’s privacy settlement: FTC OKs Facebook’s privacy settlementTony Romm, writing at Politico: The order means Facebook must now obtain consent before sharing a user’s information with advertisers or others in a way that differs from their current privacy settings, and it bars Facebook from again misrepresenting its privacy …

Apple sold 5.7 million tablets in the U.S. last quarter, court documents show. Samsung sold 37,000: Apple sold 5.7 million tablets in the U.S. last quarter, court documents show. Samsung sold 37,000Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s article at Fortune is one of many today about the revelations coming out of the Apple v. Samsung trial. But his headline is the main reason I had to share this link. It must feel …

Portland Press Herald plagiarized a photo they didn’t even need: This is a story within a story. The outer story is about Reverend Robert Carlson, who killed himself recently amid a sexual abuse investigation. This post isn’t about that story. It’s about the inner story, about a reporter using a copyrighted photo without attribution, and claiming fair use when …

Pulse Comes To The Web: Pulse Comes To The WebFrederic Lardinois, writing at TechCrunch: The web app, says Pulse, is “designed for discovery” and while it’s still a very visual experience, Pulse did away with the row layout it uses in its mobile apps. Instead, your list of sources is now on the left and stories appear in …

Philadelphia newspapers CEO’s message to employees: Philadelphia newspapers CEO’s message to employeesJim Romenesko, quoting the letter from Bob Hall, CEO at Interstate General Media, which owns Philly’s major papers: We must produce products that reflect the needs of our readers, viewers, advertisers and future prospective customers. This is …

U.S. will not challenge computer fraud case to high court: U.S. will not challenge computer fraud case to high courtThe Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prohibits, among other things, accessing a computer without authorization or in excess of authorization. Employers have been known to use it against employees where the latter has used a company database to …

Managing Email Realistically: Managing Email RealisticallyI’m not sure all of Matt Gemmell’s advice would work for me, but it’s well worth reading. It’s especially handy for people who don’t care for formalistic productivity methods like GTD.

Flame and Stuxnet Cousin Targets Lebanese Bank Customers, Carries Mysterious Payload: Flame and Stuxnet Cousin Targets Lebanese Bank Customers, Carries Mysterious PayloadKim Zetter, writing at Wired: The researchers don’t know if the attackers used the bank component in Gauss simply to spy on account transactions, or to steal money from targets. But given that the malware was almost …

Housekeeping, too, is Constant & Endless: I’m changing a few things as I settle into my new theme and workflow here at Constant & Endless. In no particular order, those things are: I have changed the title of the RSS feed for this site from “By Joe Ross” to “Constant & Endless.” I’m appending “↗” to all link posts to make clear …

Only crazy people don't use Facebook?: Only crazy people don’t use Facebook?Zoe Fox, writing at Mashable: Employers may suspect that an applicant’s absence from the social network means the account is so full of offensive material that it had to be deleted. But what if I deleted my Facebook account because my friends’ accounts …

Landing 2,000 Pounds of Patriotism on Mars: From the NASA press release: The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven Minutes of Triumph,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld. “My immense joy in the success of this mission is matched only by overwhelming pride I feel for the women and men of the mission’s …

Apple's Secrets Revealed at Trial: Apple’s Secrets Revealed at TrialIan Sherr, writing for the Wall Street Journal: In cross-examination, Mr. Forstall said Eddy Cue, now head of Apple’s Internet services efforts, had used a 7-inch Samsung tablet for a time, and sent an email to Chief Executive Tim Cook that he believed “there …

Does Cybercrime Really Cost $1 Trillion?: Does Cybercrime Really Cost $1 Trillion?A spokeswoman for Senator Joe Lieberman, speaking to Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan of Mother Jones: Senator Lieberman and his staff believe that McAfee, Symantec, and General Alexander are reputable sources of information about cybersecurity. The …

Don't believe the 'Apple invests in Twitter' hype: Don’t believe the ‘Apple invests in Twitter’ hype In fact, an Apple investment in Twitter is painted as something Twitter can take or leave, but a partnership Apple desperately needs. Tim Carmody makes a great point in this piece.

Analysis over revision: Kara Swisher's mysterious edits to Marissa Mayer's Yahoo! memo (Updated): Updated 12:00 p.m: Kara Swisher reached out to me on Twitter after I published this post (her tweets and my replies here, here, here, here, and here). She said she only made minor edits to things like commas and contractions, and that she thought people would assume that she didn’t rewrite the …

Geek preferences matter: Geek preferences matter We installed Firefox on every non-geek’s computer we could find. And while we were there, we set everyone’s search engine to Google instead of Yahoo or MSN, and we made fun of their AOL email addresses until they switched to Gmail. Our preferences matter. I took this quote …

Apple TV: The Soon-To-Be #1 Gaming Console?: Apple TV: The Soon-To-Be #1 Gaming Console?MG Siegler points out that, despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s quiet mention of Apple TV, the little box Steve Jobs once called Apple’s hobby has sold more units than the best-selling Xbox 360 gaming console. Not bad for a hobby.

No Comment: I have turned off comments here at Constant & Endless. I have had only one comment since I started writing here, from Mr. Scott Carpenter. He left a good link, and I certainly don’t want to alienate him or anyone else who wants to tell me something in response to what I’ve written. But I trust …

Evening Edition beautifully presents the important news you missed: Co-creator Jim Ray of Mule Design describes Evening Edition like this: It’s a summary of the day’s news, written by an actual journalist, with links to the best reporting in the world, published once a day. Last night, in between reading the news using various Android apps, I spotted a link to …

In Brief: How Reed Hastings Almost Undid Netflix: Greg Sandoval, writing at CNET: For most of the former Netflix employees who moved to Qwikster, their old jobs had been filled. They no longer had a place at the company. I once asked “What is going on at Netflix?” I wasn’t alone, either. Reed Hastings definitely failed all of his customers in the …

Self-Promotion Alert: Read My (Very Short!) Fiction: This site is supposed to be me talking about the law and technology, but I have some shameless self promotion to do, so I’m deviating from the usual subject matter this week. <shameless_self_promotion> I recently started a new Tumblr called, creatively, Fiction by Joe Ross. I’m posting flash …

Flipboard, Condé Nast, and the Mobile Advertising Problem (Updated): Howard Mittman, VP and publisher at Condé Nast property Wired Magazine, told Ad Age's Nat Ives: I’m interested in ways to bring advertisers in front of our community. When Flipboard becomes that, I would love to reengage and reinvigorate our product. Until then, we have to wait and see and not …

Pirates of Westeros: the untapped half-billion dollar market for Game of Thrones: 

Ernesto at TorrentFreak:

It’s clear that HBO (and others) prefer exclusiveness over piracy, which is a dangerous game. They might make decent money in the long run by selling subscriptions. However, this limited availability also breeds pirates, and one has to wonder how easy it is to convert …

The danger of covertly-altered ebooks: "Philip," writing at his blog Ocracoke Island Journal about the ebook edition of War and Peace he bought on his Nook (emphasis below is mine): As I was reading, I came across this sentence: “It was as if a light had been Nookd in a carved and painted lantern….” … For the sentence above I discovered …

So.cl: Microsoft's social network, or search experiment, or kind ofboth, sort of: CNET’s Steven Musil: Users log in to the network with their Facebook or Windows Live accounts. There are two reasons I can’t help but be cynical about So.cl, Microsoft’s latest social search experiment. I have no “official” user experience training, but both of my reasons might be considered UX …

Twitter Digest and the persistence of opt-out: Othman Laraki, Director of Growth and International at Twitter, on the official Twitter Blog: Like other Twitter email notifications, you can manage your preferences for this new digest in your Notification Settings. That is true, but Twitter has opted all users into their new weekly email digest. …

Google's live 'Hangouts On Air' rolling out to everyone everywhere, and why it matters: I originally posted this to The Verge's Web & Social forum. Read the original forum post here. Google recently announced that, over the next several weeks, they’re rolling out the ability to livestream and record Hangouts to everyone. Shameless copy/paste of features: Broadcast publicly. By …

This is my new blog.: This is a post I ran recently at my Posterous blog, announcing my move over here. I thought I’d put it here for reference while I finish drafting a proper post about how my personal take on blogging has evolved over the years. Dear people who read this website, Here is a list of things I want to …

Remember: 39% of North Carolinians are not fearful and ignorant: The North Carolina amendment alters the constitution to say that “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized” in the state. —CNN I don’t often take a preachy tone, and this story has little to do with how the law and technology …

The Pinterest (Er, Tumblr) Problem, Fair Use, and a Suggestion for Change: I wrote the article below for Temple Law’s student newspaper, Prima Facie. While my views on the topic of copyright liability in the modern Internet’s “sharing economy” continue to evolve, I haven’t made any edits to the version that ran in Prima’s April issue. This is a long post, but I would …

No Pressure: Analyst Brian Marshall, to SFGate’s Jun Yang: As the markets get more saturated, the pressure will be much stronger to add more screen sizes. "Today, the answer is no," he said. "Down the road, the answer is yes," he said. No way. The only source of pressure on Apple to do anything is the …

Hulu will eventually require a cable subscription: Our source noted that Hulu has no interest in being a first mover here and that a requirement for authentication is likely still a few years out. Hulu, however, does want to be a good partner and may have to give in to its partners’ pressure soon or later. via techcrunch.com This is a damn shame. …

Already paying for extra Docs/Gmail space? You’re payment plan isgrandfathered into Google Drive.: Google storage plans have changed, but you can stay on your current plan as long as you: Keep your account active Keep payment information in Google Wallet accurate and up-to-date Don’t cancel or upgrade your current plan via support.google.com This is good news. I can keep paying $5 per year …

Marco Arment: Be Skeptical of Twitter's Innovator's Patent Agreement: Twitter’s “Innovator’s Patent Agreement” – Marco.org » I recently wrote about Twitter’s promise to use patents only for defensive purposes—the “Innovator’s Patent Agreement” (“IPA,” not to be confused with this). The link above leads to a post by Marco Arment, warning us to read the agreement …

"Demand Your Data": "Tim Berners-Lee: demand your data from Google and Facebook" by Ian Katz at guardian.co.uk Whatever social site, wherever you put your data, you should make sure that you can get it back and get it back in a standard form. And in fact if I were you I would do that regularly, just like you back up …

Twitter won't use employee patents offensively: "Introducing the Innovator’s Patent Agreement" by Adam Messinger, VP of Engineering at the Official Twitter Blog It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation …

Secondary market for class notes: copyrighted free speech or lazy cheater's dream?: "Do Students Have Copyright to Their Own Notes?" This is a decent article by Tina Barseghian of KQED’s Mindshift blog, but unfortunately it isn’t cynical enough for me. It talks about school policies banning the sharing or selling of class notes. It sets up the dichotomy of a professor’s right to be …

Arrington and Siegler out at PandoDaily, don't bother trying to comment about it: As of Monday, April 9 the shareholders of PandoMedia voted to remove Michael Arrington as a director. Given the change in relationship we feel it’s inappropriate for CrunchFund’s partners Michael Arrington and MG Siegler to continue contributing to PandoDaily. via pandodaily.com Why? Arrington has …