spinnerin

The New Aesthetic: The Programmable Island of Google Being

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:49:35 -0400

The New Aesthetic: The Programmable Island of Google Being:

“if this indeed sounds to you like a “scary encroachment of technology,” Wasik’s word of assurance offers little consolation. The fact that the gadgets are unseen, activities are automated, and cloud intelligence saturates our environment means that the encroachment will be…

shawnlevy: Pride not prejudice #rctid

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:05:55 -0400

shawnlevy:

Pride not prejudice #rctid

Status Flight and the Gendering of Google Glass » Cyborgology

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:59:05 -0400

Status Flight and the Gendering of Google Glass » Cyborgology

The Iraq Protests Never Happened | booktwo.org

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:32:04 -0400

The Iraq Protests Never Happened | booktwo.org:

Last week was the tenth anniversary of the largest of the public protests preceding the Iraq War: February 15th 2003, when over a million people marched through London, and millions more turned out around the world.

On the date of that anniversary, I and two friends walked the route of the protest, from Gower Street, down Shaftesbury Avenue and Piccadilly, to Hyde Park. We carried a replica placard from the original event.

Forget the Everest brawl: the real story is how Sherpas are taking control | World news | The Observer

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:48:12 -0400

Forget the Everest brawl: the real story is how Sherpas are taking control | World news | The Observer

Internet detox promotes the myth of web toxicity | Laurie Penny | Comment is free | The Guardian

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:34:38 -0400

Internet detox promotes the myth of web toxicity | Laurie Penny | Comment is free | The Guardian

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet | The Verge

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:19:36 -0400

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet | The Verge

threewordphrase: Depression Parkour

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:04:31 -0400

threewordphrase:

Depression Parkour

You Can't Just Hack Your Way to Social Change - Jake Porway - Harvard Business Review

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:41:48 -0400

You Can't Just Hack Your Way to Social Change - Jake Porway - Harvard Business Review

WARNING SIGNS OF A DANGEROUS CULT ... as applied to Audrey's open source community side projects

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:09:26 -0400

WARNING SIGNS OF A DANGEROUS CULT ... as applied to Audrey's open source community side projects:

A hilarious thing Igal wrote.

Notes EM: My FT oped: Google Revolution Isn't Worth Our Privacy

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:47:15 -0400

Notes EM: My FT oped: Google Revolution Isn't Worth Our Privacy:

evgenymorozov:

Let’s give credit where it is due: Google is not hiding its revolutionary ambitions. As its co-founder Larry Page put it in 2004, eventually its search function “will be included in people’s brains” so that “when you think about something and don’t really know much about it, you will…

Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins from Leaning in? | Dissent Magazine

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:06:17 -0400

Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins from Leaning in? | Dissent Magazine:

Lean In is capitalist, not feminist.

The Meme Hustler | Evgeny Morozov | The Baffler

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:39:58 -0400

The Meme Hustler | Evgeny Morozov | The Baffler:

Tim O’Reilly and “open source”.

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:30:38 -0400

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”

- In the war on the poor, Pope Francis is on the wrong side | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

"I do not support the idea that only likable women are allowed to draw firm boundaries. Especially..."

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:28:20 -0400

“I do not support the idea that only likable women are allowed to draw firm boundaries. Especially when I know as well as any woman and better than most that nothing makes a woman more “unlikable” than drawing firm boundaries. I am on to your Can’t-Win game, apologists. And I will not play.”

- Shakesville: Adria Richards Does Belong at Tech Conferences

Statement of support for Adria Richards | Geek Feminism Blog

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:35:55 -0400

Statement of support for Adria Richards | Geek Feminism Blog:

The Geek Feminism bloggers would like to state our support for and solidarity with Adria Richards, who spoke up against inappropriate behaviour at the PyCon 2013 conference, and the organizers of PyCon 2013, who responded by promptly enforcing their policy with a warning. The harassment and abuse campaign directed at Adria Richards disgusts, horrifies and scares us. We are very sorry this is happening to Adria and her supporters and are dismayed by SendGrid’s decision to end Adria’s employment there. We condemn the racism directed at Adria, which has been amply demonstrating that women of color are particularly unwelcome and vulnerable in the technical community. We continue to hope and to work for for a technical and wider geek community where women, especially women of color and other oppressed women, can voice their concerns about being unwelcome without being widely abused and threatened and thereby silenced.

"And then there’s the way we talk about the problem, which makes it hard to see that the culture of..."

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:26:37 -0400

“And then there’s the way we talk about the problem, which makes it hard to see that the culture of overwork hurts everyone, not just those who can’t hack it. “One of the things that feminism had at core was that it saw these as societal issues that needed to be addressed at a large scale, not at the individual level,” Ken Matos, a researcher at the Work and Families Institute said. “The narrative changed. It became the story of the unique individual who overcomes barriers in spite of all odds. That wasn’t the story that was supposed to be told.””

- Stay-at-Home Mom Debate: It’s About Work Hours | New Republic

Working time and the mommy wars: guess what, kids, “opting out” is more complicated.
(via differentclasswar)

"And then there’s this empty pretense that these innovations make the world better. This is a..."

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:41:16 -0400

“And then there’s this empty pretense that these innovations make the world better. This is a dangerous word, like, ‘If we’re not making the world better, then why are we doing this at all?’. Now, I don’t want to claim that this attitude is hypocritical, because when you say a thing like that at South By – ‘Oh, we’re here to make the world better’ – you haven’t even reached the level of hypocrisy. You’re stuck at the level of childish naivety.”

- Bruce Sterling (via bashford)

new-aesthetic: “We were trying to adapt something that worked...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:15:14 -0400

new-aesthetic:

“We were trying to adapt something that worked in the West to India,” Rahul says, describing his efforts with Onze Technologies. But transplanting mapping software to Indian cities is not a simple feat. “It doesn’t quite work out,” he says.

For one, the landscape is entirely different. Very few urban pockets are laid out in a grid. They’re filled with winding, narrow roads prone to sudden turns and stops. Addresses are often out of order or sight. Streets pop up, change names and add new commercial inhabitants all the time.

Another obstacle is cultural. “People are not used to maps,” Rahul explains. Giving directions in India is an idiomatic art, well-rehearsed and rarely done following formal strictures. He goes on: “I can guarantee you nobody will say, ‘head south.’” Rather than cardinal directions, people will navigate the lost using a series of routes and familiar landmarks.

For a newcomer, the directions (“straight, straight, left”) can be fruitless. And, I soon discovered, they can be just as ineffective for people who share a mother tongue.

Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Make GPS Work for India - Mark Bergen - The Atlantic Cities)

"So why can’t companies find workers? A 2012 survey by Manpower asked firms why they have difficulty..."

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:36:22 -0500

“So why can’t companies find workers? A 2012 survey by Manpower asked firms why they have difficulty hiring and 54 percent said candidates were “looking for more pay than is offered.” As Atlantic writer Barbara Kiviat put it, in response to such surveys, “When firms post job openings at a certain wage and no one comes forward, we call this a skills mismatch. In a different universe, we might call it a pay mismatch.””

- Murphy’s Law: The World According to Tim Sullivan | Urban Milwaukee

Your weekly reminder that the “skills gap” is still bullshit.
(via differentclasswar)