François Marier shares his notes on a collection of essays called Open Advice titled “Advice to newcomers and veterans of the Free and Open Source software communities.” There is also LWN book review for the book.
Links
Why choose the lesser evil?
There was a really funny column in the Washington Post right after Bush’s reelection in 2004 titled “An Off-Color Rift” … but the topic seems oddly familiar:
Besides, running away is never the answer, unless you are a teenage boy who has just blown up a mailbox. As Americans, we need to stay here in America and work things out, because regardless of what color or hue of state we live in, we are all, deep down inside our undershorts, Americans. And as Americans, we must ask ourselves: Are we really so different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Do we truly believe that all red-state residents are ignorant, racist, fascist, knuckle-dragging, NASCAR-obsessed, cousin-marrying, roadkill-eating, tobacco juice-dribbling, gun-fondling, religious-fanatic rednecks; or that all blue-state residents are godless, unpatriotic, pierced-nosed, Volvo-driving, France-loving, left-wing communist, latte-sucking, tofu-chomping, holistic-wacko, neurotic, vegan, weenie perverts?
So this bears one question: why even bother choosing the lesser evil? 😉
“The Wikipedia Redefined”
There are folks who have worked their magic and tried to imagine how a redesigned and (visually) cleaned up Wikipedia would look like … I must say I like it very much. 😀
Learning at the Expense of Sleep is Bad
It seems learning at the expense of sleep is actually bad … I had a feeling this might be the case 😉
Die kleine Hagia Sophia
Ich wusste gar nicht, dass es eine kleine (Test-) Hagia Sophia gibt … anscheinend als “Generalprobe” für den Bau der Großen.
Amplifiying Subtle Changes in Videos
I was pointed to an awesome piece of research titled “Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World.”
They have developed algorithms that allow them to amplify subtle changes in videos (color, movement) … and select desired frequencies at that. They have an awesome demonstration video:
General Motors streetcar conspiracy
Some car, truck and tire manufacturers as well as oil companies together bought up and dismantled competition from streetcars and electric trains for urban mass transportation in favor of road-rubber-bus-based systems.
Kids React to K-pop
One of the funniest episodes: Kids React to K-pop. 😀
“Flüchtiges, anstrengungsloses Denken führt zu einer politisch konservativen Einstellung”
Muhahaha … anscheinend korreliert mangelnde Zeit, über etwas nachzudenken mit “konservativen Ansichten”.
Die Verbindung steht 😉 … am Ende wird sich auch keiner mehr daran erinnern, dass
- es die Studie im Kontext des politischen Meinungsspektrums der USA zu werten ist und
- dass der Umkehrschluss unzulässig ist.
Aber wer denkt schon so weit … 😛
8 steps to success
Arstechnica has a nice piece on how to do science fraud and minimizing the risk of being caught. 😛