For the sake of this discussion, let us assume a few things. First, let us assume that when judgements in capital cases are handed down, they are judicially pure. We know this is often not the case, that judgements can be the result of political machinations, bribery mismatches, racial inclinations and numerous other motivations. But let us assume for these few minutes that they are indeed...
From Aaron Wall at SEObook: Consensus bias is set to an absurdly high level to block out competition, slow innovation, and make the search ecosystem easier to police. This acts as a tax on newer and lesser-known players and a subsidy toward larger players. Eventually that subsidy would be a problem to Google if the algorithm was the only thing that matters, however if the entire result set...
So much gold here, as reported by VentureBeat and Re/code.
Sony’s new SmartEyeglass developer edition glasses seem like an April Fools video accidentally released a few weeks early.
My favourite comment is from Kenneth Li, editor in chief at Re/code:
It’s like wearing a kick-me sign. … And nothing says “future†like a HOCKEY PUCK.
An interesting social experiment where a women decided she’d agree with compliments men gave her. The results are pretty interesting – summary:  she mostly got criticised, called vain, and even abused. The issue is probably not a gender one (eg if the roles had been reversed and men had agreed when getting complimented, they’d likely have gotten similar pushback) but it does...
I’m pretty sure the words ‘exciting’ and ‘banking’ don’t belong together.
Via BBC News: Google’s Project Zero seeks to find bugs in popular software and then give the manufacturers responsible 90 days to fix the problem. This bug, which affects Windows 8.1, was revealed by Google to Microsoft on 13 October 2014. On 11 January, Google publicised the flaw. Microsoft said it had requested that Google wait until it released a patch on 13 January. Read Chris...
Oh the lols, as reported by the New York Times on a comment by UK Prime Minister David Cameron: Mr. Cameron, who has started to campaign ahead of a national election in Britain in May, said his government, if elected, would ban encrypted online communication tools that could potentially be used by terrorists if the country’s intelligence agencies were not given increased access. and “Are we...
Just spout bullshit: Be a multi-disciplinary, insatiably curious person who knows how to use the tools to model ideas and create prototypes. Possessed of an open mind and few fixed ideas about how things should be done, you nonetheless have a strong conscience and can operate outside of your comfort zone to achieve win-win outcomes. You are known for your integrity and resilience. (via: The...
While the usual caveats about a post with the opinions of one person (a teenager), that aims to provide insight into a group (US teenagers) apply of course, it’s still really interesting. These points jumped out at me: Facebook: In short, many have nailed this on the head. It’s dead to us. then this: Messaging on Facebook is also extremely popular among our age group, mainly because...
An illuminating article about Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Fire Phone fiasco. Well worth a read. Will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next 5 years. If Amazon do get a future version of the phone right (and all indications are that they are continuing to invest heavily in R&D for it), then this period will be looked back on as being valuable learning, and a tribute to...