Jorge Valens
June 2013
17 posts
Don’t forget, Python Fundamentals starts tomorrow at noon—no previous experience necessary!
Love this place.
Miami’s Silicon Beach (via The Miami Herald) →
miamiherald.com
“Miami will always be a magnet for tourists, for sun and fun. It’s also a place filled with hardworking dreamers from all over the world — from Israel to Bogota, from Montreal to Rio. South Florida is at a tipping point. With vision and focus we can build Silicon Beach at warp speed.”
“I welcome this debate and I think it’s healthy for our Democracy. I think it’s a sign of maturity because probably five years ago, six years ago, we might not have been having this debate. I think it’s interesting that there are some folks on the left, but also some folks on the right who are now worried about it who weren’t very worried about it when it was a Republican president.”
—
President Obama addresses the NSA uproar. (via mediaite)
Of course, despite yesterday’s warming rhetoric, the NSA’s widespread data collection was a highly and tightly kept state secret, which rather undermines the idea that this is a debate the White House welcomes.
(via shortformblog)
Breaking News: Washington Post: US mining data from 9 Internet firms in broad secret program →
breakingnews.tumblr.com
WashingtonPost: The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping into the central servers of nine leading US Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.
The…
This is worse than the Verizon phone log situation. This NSL/PRISM issue will lead to a misunderstanding of what the problem is.
The act of us, users, giving information to private companies in exchange for a service (Gmail, Facebook) isn’t the issue. It never was an issue as far as I’m concerned. The issue is the government’s power when it comes to accessing that information. More importantly how government obtains and wields that power.
“As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process. Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day — replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.”
—
Richard Gringras, Senior Director of News & Social Products at Google, talking to Wired about why they decided to kill off Google Reader.
In my own case, this is absolutely accurate. I used to sit in front of Google Reader all day, every day. Then Twitter came along and I just stopped doing that. Most of the news I consume now gets pushed to me from Techmeme or a few other sources via Twitter on my various iOS devices.
I also get a ton of value out of things like Flipboard (which I do read “leisurely” in the morning) and services like Pocket and Instapaper.
In a way, this reminds me of the cable television situation. I have moved from a bundled approach where I get everything from every source dumped in my lap to a à la carte approach, where I choose what I want.
The next evolution of this will be the Google Now approach Gringras hits upon. But I think that will be pretty complicated to get right.
(via parislemon)
“We believe the ITC’s Final Determination has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations. Our decades of research and development in mobile technologies will continue, and we will continue to offer innovative products to consumers in the United States.”
—
A statement from Samsung • Hailing the ruling, by a judge with the International Trade Commission, that several older model Apple products (AT&T models of the iPhone 3 and 4, as well as 3G versions of the iPad 1 and 2) infringe on a patent held by Samsung. The practical ramifications of this is that a limited bar has been placed on the sale of those models within the United States. For Apple, the next likely step is an appeal, but their options have dwindled – the final ruling from the ITC would require a Federal Circuit appeal, or a reprieve from the White House itself. source (via shortformblog)
This patent system is a giant mess.
“Several storm chasers, including a crew from The Weather Channel, experienced vehicle damage while narrowly escaping serious injury or death. Most likely, the vehicle deaths were preventable. Their occurrence should squash the idea that trying to flee a tornado in a car is a good idea. And storm chasers—who pursued the tornadic storms much too closely—set a poor example and need to re-examine their priorities.”
—The Washington Post’s Jason Samenow • Arguing that last night’s storms in Oklahoma set a precedent which could change the nature of storm-chasing for good. Samenow, a blogger for the Post’s Capitol Weather Gang, argues that recklessness was a major factor for storm-chasers in the region. “If anything, the events of Friday evening demonstrate storm chasers need to back off,” he continued. “For too long, too many chasers—both professional and amateur—have been crossing the line.” The key word there is “professional”—a Weather Channel crew barely escaped serious injury after their vehicle was thrown by a tornado last night. (via shortformblog)
May 2013
10 posts
“Rock and roll is dead, the web is dead, Facebook is dead, Hip Hop is dead.
At one time or another, everything seems to be considered dead and buried. The latest tripe is that the Social Media Editor, as a practice, is dead. This is ridiculous.” —Anthony De Rosa, Soup - Kill off the social media editor at your own peril. (via brooklynmutt)
At one time or another, everything seems to be considered dead and buried. The latest tripe is that the Social Media Editor, as a practice, is dead. This is ridiculous.” —Anthony De Rosa, Soup - Kill off the social media editor at your own peril. (via brooklynmutt)
“A record 40 percent of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family,” the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday as it released data that certainly won’t surprise many Americans but will underscore some dramatic shifts over recent decades.”
—Moms Are Now Primary Breadwinners In 40 Percent Of Homes : The Two-Way (via npr)
My mom has been the primary breadwinner for a household of four since I was born. Well, lets be honest: I count twice.
Congressional shield-law debate risks consigning student journalists to second-class legal status « Student Press Law Center →
splc.org
The reporter’s privilege (or “reporter shield”) enables a journalist to refuse to give testimony or surrender unpublished information in connection with a police investigation or legal proceeding. Despite decades of near-misses, Congress has failed to enact a privilege statute, and the U.S. Supreme Court has equivocated over whether a privilege is implicit in the First Amendment, leaving journalists exposed to pressure tactics by federal law enforcement and prosecutors.
The pivotal question is, who will the law recognize as a “journalist” entitled to claim the privilege?
March 2013
1 post
January 2013
10 posts
“The FTC was right to call foul here. It wasn’t just that Google was using its monopoly power to make money. It was more serious: it was threatening the very incentive to be the next Yelp or Tripadvisor. If tech startups know that they’ll be both cloned and their goodwill purloined, why be a startup at all? And who would bother to buy out a startup if you simply take everything it has? There is some line between invitation and extortion, and Google crossed it.”
—Tim Wu on Why Does Everyone Think Google Beat The FTC? | The New Republic (via thisistheverge)
Play
December 2012
14 posts
Florida's Long Lines On Election Day Discouraged 49,000 People From Voting →
huffingtonpost.com
But a new study shows that tens of thousands of people were actually discouraged from voting because of the long lines.
According to an analysis by Theodore Allen, an associate professor of industrial engineering at Ohio State University, as many as 49,000 individuals in Central Florida did not vote because of the problems at the polls.
About 19,000 of those people would have backed former GOP nominee Mitt Romney, while the rest would have gone for President Barack Obama, according to Allen.
Game of Thrones most pirated TV show →
guardian.co.uk
Game of Thrones was the most-pirated TV show of the year, with a single episode being illegally downloaded by more people than typically watch the hit programme in the US.
HBO’s Game of Thrones, which in the UK is aired on Sky Atlantic, knocked off last year’s “winner”, serial killer show Dexter to be named the most-pirated TV show of 2012.
The annual report, by news site TorrentFreak, found that one episode of Game of Thrones was downloaded 4.28m times.
The estimated US TV audience for an episode of the fantasy swords and sorcery show is 4.2 million, according to the survey.
Take notice, HBO. Winter has come for your business model.
“
A dentist acted legally when he fired an assistant that he found attractive simply because he and his wife viewed the woman as a threat to their marriage, the all-male Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The court ruled 7-0 that bosses can fire employees they see as an “irresistible attraction,” even if the employees have not engaged in flirtatious behavior or otherwise done anything wrong.
” —Not The Onion: This is the legal reality of fireable hotness in America today. (via motherjones)