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Twitter: The poster child of technology inefficiency

You should read this post from Eugene Wei (no really, go read it) and consider it in terms of inefficiency. Think back to when Twitter first started. By the time you and I were getting involved, it’s likely the need for the SMS limited character limitation was long gone. Only the earliest of early adopters would have actually been around when it was in fact needed. But the character...

HubSpot Shenanigans

I’m in New York at the moment, for a HubSpot Asia Pacific meetup, before heading to Boston on Monday to attend Inbound 2015. It’s going to fun. But I can’t help wondering how many distractions there are going to be at the conference. Take for example the latest news on the Mike Volpe saga, now looking to be a federal investigation (yes, always good to FBI into the headline). The...

Finally using an ad blocker

I’ve resisted using an ad blocker for years, since: I don’t mind ads Especially if they are personalised (as most ads are now). And I’m happy for ads to track me all over the web if it means I get a better ‘ad experience’ I realise many sites rely on ads as their business model If it weren’t for them showing ads I wouldn’t get access to many of the...

On Taking a Life

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...

How Google reinforces, then manages to overcome consensus bias

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...

Sony SmartEyeglass

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.

Taking a compliment

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...

Google Project Zero = Zero fucks given

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...

Terrorpolitical football

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...

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