Links
- 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 Daily, who wrote the post to which I link above, bought that prop contract from Amazon and used it in the creation of the article series.
UPenn criminologist Richard Berk's recidivism-prediction algorithm
UPenn criminologist Richard Berk’s recidivism-prediction algorithm
Wired'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 when paroled or put on probation. Berk claims the software could identify eight future murderers out of 100.
It’s a fascinating concept, but read the article to find out why it may have some critics.
Law and the Multiverse analyzes 'The Hobbit' Contract
Law and the Multiverse analyzes ‘The Hobbit’ Contract
I love several things about this:
Wonderfully fun stuff!
US suspects Iran behind DDoS attacks on banks
US suspects Iran behind DDoS attacks on banks
These 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 blocking bank websites and start trying to steal customer data en masse.
Lawyers on Quora
Former 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 using Quora to build their reputation and build their bonafides.
I haven’t seen many lawyers on Quora yet, but I’ll start looking for them to see exactly what D’Angelo means . I wonder if some use cases implicate ethics rules.
Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in Philadelphia
Witness intimidation reform on the horizon in Philadelphia
The 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.
Student loses suit over school ID requirement
Student loses suit over school ID requirement
Wired'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 father said, according to court documents. “By asking my daughter and our family to participate and fall in line like the rest of them is asking us to disobey our Lord and Savior.”
Unfortunately, in the modern American climate of violence, it’s hard to support someone who refuses to wear an ID, especially with the the tracking removed by the school. You can download the 25-page ruling as a PDF document here.
California Scout group recommends openly gay member for Eagle
California Scout group recommends openly gay member for Eagle
The 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 generations will look back on private organizations who discriminated based on sexual orientation, however lawfully, with disgust.
App to App Handshakes
Fred 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 to the Tumblr app but as a link share. I wanted an audio share.
This happens whenever I try to share something to Tumblr and it drives me crazy. Hopefully Mr. Wilson’s emails to SoundCloud and Tumblr will prompt resolution between their apps, and spur conversation about fixing this kind of thing overall.
Seldo's Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experience
Seldo’s Tumblr: Another awesome US immigration experience
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 get denied entry and deported.
Predictably, this was the first time…
Read this example of the stress of immigration, even when it is is very legal and everything is supposedly in order.
Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spying on Belize
Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spying on Belize
Nate 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 11 Lebanese men a month into America. And, of course, these were probably terrorists; one man had plans to make deadly ricin from plants being grown in a Nicaraguan training camp.
I would have linked directly to McAfee’s post in my headline, but as of this post’s publication the page throws an error that reads “Error 320 - Reverse BrowserSpy Java redirect - Session Username_: Session interrupt: invalid table.” Is he really logging our keys? Is he?
Crazy, crazy stuff.
Airrand mashes up tasks, Foursquare, and SMS
Airrand mashes up tasks, Foursquare, and SMS
This 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 Thirty
Deborah 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 compelled to comment at all, especially in a press release.
At least one Ars Technica reader agrees: Rdio > Spotify
At least one Ars Technica reader agrees: Rdio > Spotify
Ars 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 available in so many regions globally? The supremely intuitive app experience leaves Spotify in the dust, the social features add to the already first-rate discovery options, while the method of cataloguing your favourite music is far superior.
Yup, it still pains me that so many people got hooked on Spotify via Facebook and never learned of Rdio’s obvious superiority.
Learning by Shipping
Former 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 products to market and putting the broad feedback loop to work.
Funny, that’s why I picked this website’s name. Great minds… Although I would have called it “Learn by Shipping.” That -ing after “learn” is bugging me.
Still bugging me.
An interview with Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood
An interview with Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood
Abdel 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 infrastructure from the beginning to support scaling to other devices and platforms as quickly and easily as possible once we feel Mailbox is “working” on the first set.
Good news, because it’s beautifully-designed and functionality looks to be top of mind from the screenshots I’ve seen.
Government can still warrantlessly read older emails
Government can still warrantlessly read older emails
This 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 correspondence and property that do require a warrant for seizure in most situations.
Netflix via Amazon
This 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.
If I was a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I’d throw around phrases like “net neutrality concerns” right about now. Is Amazon prioritizing their own content over the content of competitors whose content they’re contracted to deliver?