Neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer kicked off Go Daddy, Google, Cloudflare, Twitter, and more. Essential phone will be here next week. Pixel 2 passes the FCC, will feature squeezable sides. Allo on the web is still too limited. YouTube will show how many people are watching right now. Mark Zuckerberg's political ambitions. Ordering pizza on Facebook. Trump's DOJ wants 1.3 million IP addresses of people protesting Trump. Ikea smart bulbs work with HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Home.
- Stacey's thing: A New Way to Dinner
- Mike's tool: meetingbird
- Leo's pick: MoviePass
Reads, Listens, Watches
Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Playlist of watched movies, television shows, online videos, and other visual-based events
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Playlist of watched movies, television shows, online videos, and other visual-based events
🎧 This Week in Google 417 Fire and Furry | TWiT.TV
Google engineer writes men's rights diatribe. Google fires him. Discussion ensues. Also: Deepmind vs. Starcraft, get a new phone every 30 days, Amazon's secret brands, Instagram depression, and the 8th best tech writer in the US.
- Stacey's thing: Mighty
- Jeff's number: 3 day podcast festival in NYC
👓 Vladimir Voevodsky, Fields Medalist, Dies at 51 | IAS
The Institute for Advanced Study is deeply saddened by the passing of Vladimir Voevodsky, Professor in the School of Mathematics. Voevodsky, a truly extraordinary and original mathematician, made many contributions to the field of mathematics, earning him numerous honors and awards, including the Fields Medal. Celebrated for tackling the most difficult problems in abstract algebraic geometry, Voevodsky focused on the homotopy theory of schemes, algebraic K-theory, and interrelations between algebraic geometry, and algebraic topology. He made one of the most outstanding advances in algebraic geometry in the past few decades by developing new cohomology theories for algebraic varieties. Among the consequences of his work are the solutions of the Milnor and Bloch-Kato Conjectures. More recently he became interested in type-theoretic formalizations of mathematics and automated proof verification. He was working on new foundations of mathematics based on homotopy-theoretic semantics of Martin-Löf type theories. His new "Univalence Axiom" has had a dramatic impact in both mathematics and computer science.
Sad to hear of Dr. Voevodsky’s passing just as I was starting into my studies of algebraic geometry…
👓 A Micro.blog #FollowFriday, Part I Among the Stones
For those of us wanting to leave Twitter and other silos behind and focus more on microblogging on our own domains, discovering new people to follow can be a little tricky. Manton Reece has a Discover tab on Micro.blog to find people, but the service is still in its infancy. Colin Devroe suggested a #FollowFriday movement. I’ll start off with two bloggers I’m enjoying. Feel free to use webmentions for your own lists! Please correct me if anyone else has started this, I haven’t had great connectivity for the last few weeks.
Jimmy has added me to his list of recommendations. Perhaps I missed the webmention/notification for it while I was moving, but I saw it organically anyway–since I follow him myself. His list has several people that I also follow pretty closely, so I’m honored to be included.
It also reminds me that I ought to get to work on keeping a following list of my own or add a follow post type to my site eventually. Perhaps something to think about over WordCamp LA and IndieWebCamp NYC this weekend?
📺 These 3D animations could help you finally understand molecular science | PBS NewsHour
Art and science have in some ways always overlapped, with early scientists using illustrations to depict what they saw under the microscope. Janet Iwasa of the University of Utah is trying to re-establish this link to make thorny scientific data and models approachable to the common eye. Iwasa offers her brief but spectacular take on how 3D animation can make molecular science more accessible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9NDXk7Gs8Y
Visualizations can be tremendously valuable. This story reminds me of an Intersession course that Mary Spiro did at Johns Hopkins to help researchers communicate what their research is about as well as some of the work she did with the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.
📺 The Vietnam War: Déjà Vu (1858-1961) Episode 1
After a long and brutal war, Vietnamese revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh end nearly a century of French colonial occupation. With the Cold War intensifying, Vietnam is divided in two at Geneva. Communists in the north aim to reunify the country, while America supports Ngo Dinh Diem's untested regime in the south.
The opening history is intriguing and really only seems to scratch the surface in this episode. I could have taken a more in-depth opening, though they’ve got a lot of ground to cover in just 10 episodes. Sadly, it’s the beginning and subtle causes for the war that are culturally the least understood, so this becomes a more useful place to lay them out for viewers.
I can only watch it and think about the futility of the whole thing.
I’m a bit curious how others found the flash forward portions of the late 60’s. It felt like the directors were trying to keep an American audience involved in the ongoing story, though, if continued throughout the series, these could provide interesting personal counterpoint to the overall arc of the story.
📺 PBS NewsHour full episode Sept. 28, 2017
Thursday on the NewsHour, the wreckage of Hurricane Maria poses a logistical nightmare for those in need in Puerto Rico. Also: The technology Russia used in the 2016 election under scrutiny, Yemen's war-induced humanitarian crisis worsens, the influence of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the woman who sparked debate about discrimination in Silicon Valley and a journalist's experience with miscarriage.
The Ellen Pao interview was quite interesting and germane to much of what has been a huge story over the past 6 or so months. It reminds me a lot of Valerie Alexander’s work, which I’ve highlighted before.
The miscarriage story was just heartbreaking. I really love this series of “brief but spectacular” stories they tag onto the end of episodes though. It really adds some interest and humanity to what can often otherwise be bleak stints of news coverage. Even when they’re not uplifting–like this one–they’re always unique and interesting.
👓 Ikea has bought TaskRabbit | Recode
Swedish home goods giant Ikea Group has bought TaskRabbit, according to sources close to the situation. The price of the deal could not be determined, but the contract labor marketplace company has raised about $50 million since it was founded nine years ago. Sources added that TaskRabbit will become an independent subsidiary within Ikea and that CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot and its staff would remain.
👓 How to Set a Default Fallback Image for WordPress Post Thumbnails | WP Beginner
Do you want to set a default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails? Featured images also known as post thumbnails are very useful in engaging users and making your articles more noticeable on social media. In this article, we will show you how to set a default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails.
I probably ought to be doing something like this, particularly for some of the social stream posts which re-use the featured image in other places on the site.
🎧 This Week in Google: #416 Mr. Nutter Butter Has a Message for You | TWiT.TV
US Digital Service - making government better. Alphabet Q2 earnings up, stocks down. Chrome's ad blocker is available to devs. Not everybody likes Google's plan to track offline sales. Is privacy a fad? Facebook hits 2 billion users. Bitcoin splits, and miners revolt. ACLU supports John Oliver. Millennials confused by discovery of broadcast TV. Jeff's Number: $600/head SV restaurant with gold-flecked steaks Matt Cutt's Thing: Hack the Pentagon! Kevin Marks' Stuff: IndieWeb.org, Liberty Foundation, extra thumb prosthetic
Awesome to see/hear Matt Cutts return to the show.
🎧 This Week in Google: #415 Sinkhole Ahead! | TWiT.TV
No more "OK Google" search on Chromebooks? Facebook profit spikes 71%, laws of Australia trump laws of mathematics? Waze is now on Android Auto, and more.
Interesting that all the growth in mobile ads has recently gone to Facebook and Google. I’m surprised that no one else is eating up even a small piece of the pie.
I also loved the story about the Australian prime minister, in a post-fact world, indicating that the laws of mathematics don’t take precedence over those of Australia.
🎧 This Week in Google: #414 Never a Freshman | TWiT.TV
Musical Podcasts. Google Glass for Enterprise. New Google Feed. Better Google Analytics. Facebook News Subscription. Amazon Meal Kits, Spark, Treasure Truck, and Outfit Compare. Samsung Bixby arrives in the US. Net Neutrality Day results.
Musical podcasts sound like an interesting proposition, but are likely better as a larger production stream. I’m curious what the budget was for the piece and how they’re monetizing it?
I’ve been wondering about Bixby on my Samsung 8, but somehow I’ve never really bothered to use it. It doesn’t seem as interesting or as easy to use as my Amazon Alexa. Perhaps it’s time to dig into it a bit? I have been enjoying some minor Alexa use on my phone recently. I’m curious how they compare now.
👓 Three Decades Later, We’re Getting a Coming To America Sequel | Vulture
Jonathan Levine will direct and Kenya Barris will write a sequel to ‘Coming to America’, which is being developed with cooperation from Eddie Murphy.
👓 3 Ways To Read Sen. Bob Corker’s Retirement | FiveThirtyEight
It’s not unusual for a 65-year-old to announce his retirement, but a lot of people were caught by surprise when Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee did so on Tuesday. In a statement, the senator, who has found himself increasingly at odds with President Trump, said he he hadn’t planned to serve more than two terms in office. But is there more at work in the departure of this influential senator than simple adherence to a self-imposed term limit? What does it portend for the Republican Party establishment, Trump and the future of the party? There are a few ways to think about it.
👓 Ergodic | John D. Cook
Roughly speaking, an ergodic system is one that mixes well. You get the same result whether you average its values over time or over space. This morning I ran across the etymology of the word ergodic.
I’d read this before, but had a nice reminder about it this morning.