Four short links: 2 October 2009

Social Media Parasites, Open Government Data, Prime Numbers, Amazon Image Abuse

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 1

1. I'm Tired of Your Analogue Attitude -- hilarious animated clip about social media gurus, made using xtranormal. (via trib on twitter)
2. Three Laws of Open Government Data -- 1. If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist; 2. If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage; 3. If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower. (also see slide deck)
3. Structure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers -- paper about some of the fun mathematics around prime numbers. (via Hacker News)
4. Abusing Amazon Images -- decoding and doing fun things with the Amazon images API. The cool thing (if you want to generate unlikely Amazon images) is that you're not limited to one use of any of these commands. You can have multiple discounts, multiple shadows, multiple bullets, generating images that Amazon would never have on its site. However, every additional command you add generates another 10% to the image dimensions, adding white space around the image. And that 10% compounds; add a lot of bullets, and you'll find that you have a small image in a large blank space. (You can use the CR command to cut away the excess, however.) Note also that the commands are interpreted in order, which can have an impact on what overlaps what.

Four short links: 11 September 2009

Healthcare Fellow, Javascript Math, Web PDF Viewer, Tweeting Kegerator

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 0

1. Healthspottr Fellow -- outstanding entrepreneurs will be awarded prizes of up to $250,000 to accelerate their innovative endeavours. Think MacArthur Genius Grant for healthcare. (via Gov 2.0 Summit)
2. jsMath -- Javascript for embedding Math in web pages. (via Hacker News)
3. Google's Undocumented Embeddable PDF Viewer -- Google Docs offers an undocumented feature that lets you embed PDF files and PowerPoint presentations in a web page. The files don't have to be uploaded to Google Docs, but they need to be available online. (via Waxy)
4. Tweeting Kegerator -- network connected keg that tells you when it's about to run out.

Four short links: 1 September 2009

Social Investigative Journalism, Mozilla Service, Gov Data, Video Fun

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 0

1. Help Me Investigate -- find other people who want to investigate the same things you do ("on which streets in my town are the most parking tickets issued?", "why is there a giant unused TV screen in the downtown of this city?", "how much does this city council spend on PR?"), work together to resolve it, and leave a record of the answer for others. It's a different angle on MySociety's What Do They Know.
2. Mozilla Service Week -- We believe the Internet should make life better. Join us the week of September 14-21, 2009, as we take action to make a difference in our communities, our world, our Web. (via MySociety)
3. Open Government Data: Starting to Judge Results -- mall, tangible, steps that turn published government data into cost savings, measurable service improvements, or other concrete goods will "punch above their weight" : not only are they valuable in their own right, but they help favorably disposed civic servants make the case internally for more transparency and disclosure. Beyond aiming for perfection and thinking about the long run, the volunteer community would benefit from seeking low hanging fruit that will prove the concept of open government data and justify further investment.
4. Three Frames -- small fun. I love that there are still small fun things to do. (via pleaseenjoy on Twitter)

Four short links: 31 August 2009

Digital Textbooks Rock, Diagrammed Sentences, Urban Games, Quirky Food

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 0

1. CK-12 Textbooks Accepted by State of California -- kudos to open textbook non-profit CK-12 for having many of their textbooks okayed for use in classrooms. Their books did better than those from commercial publishers! (via Slashdot)
2. Diagrammr -- web app to diagram simple sentences. (via brian on delicious)
3. Noticings -- Noticings is a game of noticing things in cities. Snap a photo of something interesting you happen upon, upload it to Flickr, tag it with 'noticings' and geotag it with where it was taken. (via migurski on delicious)
4. White Castle Microwavable Frozen Hamburgers -- Cal Henderson and Joshua Schachter can be bribed with these after midnight. (via direct observation)

Four short links: 14 August 2009

EPub FTW, SQL Horror, Computer Vision Explained, and A Massive Dump of Twitter Stats

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 1

1. Page2Pub -- harvest wiki content and turn it into EPub and PDF. See also Sony dropping its proprietary format and moving to EPub. Open standards rock. (via oreillylabs on Twitter)
2. SQL Pie Chart -- an ASCII pie chart, drawn by SQL code. Horrifying and yet inspiring. Compare to PostgreSQL code to produce ASCII Mandelbrot set. (via jdub on Twitter and Simon Willison)
3. How SudokuGrab Works -- the computer vision techniques behind an iPhone app that solves Sudoku puzzles that you take a photo of. Well explained! These CV techniques are an essential part of the sensor web. (via blackbeltjones on Delicious)
4. Twitter by the Numbers -- massive dump of charts and stats on Twitter. I love that there's a section devoted to social media marketers, the Internet's head lice. (via Kevin Marks on Twitter)

Four short links: 5 Mar 2009

by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 1

Google Books, conference books, a museum API, and some number silliness that makes me happy.

1. Jon Orwant on Google Book Search at TOC -- Jon drops info on conversion rates, future plans, mobile, etc. See this post for a roundup of blog-world commentary on the talk.
2. Brooklyn Museum Collection API -- I've linked to this amazing museum work before. Now they have an API. Search collections, fetch items, embed in your sites. (via the announcement)
3. Not So Empty Book -- a magazine, built from conference content, four editions of of which were published during the brief course of the LIFT conference this year. Brilliant!
4. March 5 is the Square Root of Christmas (Ned Batchedler) -- maths geekery like this is why I found it difficult to date when I was younger. (I solved the problem by marrying someone who, when I read this post to her, said "oh COOL!")

Ignite Boston 5

by Mike Hendrickson | @mikehatora | comments: 9

The fifth Ignite Boston will be Thursday, February 12, from 5pm to 9pm at The Hooley House in the Faneuil Hall area of Boston. There is no cover charge or any sort of fee. The event is free as in 'Free Beer'.

Since there is limited space at the Hooley House, you must RSVP here to secure a chance to attend. By RSVPing you will also have the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of your choosing. You must be present to win. There will likely be other items like tee-shirts and other promo items for those who alert us ahead that they plan to attend.

From 5-5:45 pm, mingle and talk tech with your fellow FOOs, alpha geeks, and techies from the greater Boston area. After the mingling and social stuff, on to the select keynotes. Then, onto the lightening talks.

We will be posting the talks as soon as we have a list of all speakers. If you would like to speak, please go here and enter a talk. We hope to see you at the Hooley House Thursday evening February 12.

Ignite Boston 4 -- Videos Uploaded

by Mike Hendrickson | @mikehatora | comments: 0

Ignite Boston 4 was an interesting and insightful event. We have many things to take away as we plan our next event for January. One of the themes, which was re-crystalized in my mind, was to do work on things that matter - things of substance and World importance! Following that line of thinking, Voting is one of those things that we cannot take for granted and then complain when a new administration gets into office and enacts policies that affect us all. Join us all on trying to 'get the vote out' by talking to folks about our historical vote coming soon. Regardless of your affiliation, vote and get people to vote.

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Ignite Boston 4 - Tonight!

by Mike Hendrickson | @mikehatora | comments: 7

The fourth Ignite Boston is this Thursday, September 11, from 6 to 10pm at The Hooley House in the Faneuil Hall area of Boston. Don't miss out on hearing a special keynote by Tim O'Reilly. There is no cover charge or any sort of fee. The event is free as in 'Free Beer'. In fact, Microsoft is sponsoring the night and there will be a free beer for those of you who check in when you get there.

RSVP If you plan to attend, email IgniteBoston at oreilly dot com for the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of your choosing. You must be present to win. There will be other giveaway items like tee-shirts and O'Reilly books that will be distributed during the event.

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Ignite Boston 4

by Mike Hendrickson | @mikehatora | comments: 0

The fourth Ignite Boston will be on Thursday, September 11, from 6 to 10pm at the Hooley House, one block from Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA. THIS IS A LARGER VENUE. So the acoustics will be better than our last event and there will be room to sit, stand and mingle.

From 6-6:45 pm, mingle and talk tech with your fellow FOOs, alpha geeks, and techies from the greater Boston area. After the mingling and social stuff, we'll have a couple of special keynote presentations to kick off our Ignite talks. Then, onto guest speakers who'll catch you up on the cool, new, innovative stuff going on in technology today. Don’t blink or you’ll miss their lightning-fast, five-minute presentations. During intermissions, get a cold beer and chat with speakers, sponsors, and O’Reilly’s own editors. Join us Thursday, September 11th, for a fun, energetic evening of talking, learning, collaborating and drinking!

RSVP If you plan to attend, email IgniteBoston at oreilly dot com for the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of your choosing. You must be present to win. There will likely be other items like tee-shirts and other promo items for those who alert us ahead that they plan to attend. Presentation Guidelines

Ignite is a user-generated event. If you’re interested in speaking, then submit a proposal for consideration.

Presentations must:

* Be no longer than 5 minutes

* Be on an innovative topic (no sales pitches, please!)

* Be viewable on a PC [a MacBook Pro with Powerpoint and Keynote, and PDF] with standard AV equipment

* Did we mention, no Sales Pitches.

For anyone that's never been to Ignite, you may find it useful to see a talk or two. Here's a link to examples from the Boston Ignite 3 talks.