- Open Science Requires Open Source (Nature editorial) — Our view is that we have reached the point that, with some exceptions, anything less than release of actual source code is an indefensible approach for any scientific results that depend on computation, because not releasing such code raises needless, and needlessly confusing, roadblocks to reproducibility.
- What’s Still Wrong With ACTA — the fist-sized jewel in the crown of hypocrisy is USTR has repeated assured Congress that it is not bound by ACTA, and that no changes in US law will be made to comply with ACTA, even in those areas where ACTA conflicts with US law, such as our many limitations on damages from infringement for copyright and trademarks. The US government does intend for ACTA to be binding on developing countries, as part of a “do as we say not as we do” foreign policy.
- WeViews — open source library for laying out UIViews for iOS. (via Hacker News)
- SparkLab — With your help, we’ll find and outfit a delivery truck with cutting-edge maker tools and software (like laser cutters, 3D printers, and hand tools) and drive from school to school bringing teachers and students the resources and equipment they need to create engaging, educational activities. A KickStarter project made of solid Maker awesome. (via Dan Meyer)
ENTRIES TAGGED "Make"
Top stories: February 27-March 2, 2012
The evolution of privacy, a call for Maker-friendly cities, publishing's shifting business models.
This week on O'Reilly: Mike Loukides examined the clumsy state of human connections in our tech products, Dale Dougherty made the case for Maker-friendly cities, and we looked at key shifts in publishing's business models.
Creating Maker-friendly cities
Cities should encourage homebrew innovation and inspiration.
Governments, particularly local governments, need to do more to understand and adapt to what might be called DIY citizenship.
Four short links: 27 February 2012
Science Needs Open Source, ACTA Wrongitude, iOS Layout, and Mobile Make Lab for Schools
Makers and hackers: The Where Conference is looking for you
Visualizations, RFID installs and a Mini Maker Faire will be featured at Where 2012.
The 2012 Where Conference is looking for makers, hackers, developers and do-it-yourselfers who are working in the geolocation and mapping spaces.
The maker movement's potential for education, jobs and innovation is growing
"MAKE" founder Dale Dougherty was named a "Champion of Change" by the White House.
Dale Dougherty, one of the co-founders of O'Reilly Media, was honored by the White House as a "Champion of Change" for his work on "MAKE" Magazine, MakerFaire and the broader DIY movement.
Sensors, data, UI and the future of publishing
Tweets and related information from Tim O'Reilly's Silverchair Strategies 2011 presentation.
In a recent keynote address, Tim O'Reilly looked at how sensors, data and interfaces will shape information delivery.
Four short links: 25 October 2011
Smart Thermostat, Lamer News, Expensive Meaning, and Hardware Kits
- Nest Learning Thermostat — learns how long it takes your house to adjust temperature, so can tell you not just “it’s 55 now” but “it’ll be 65 in 16 minutes”. Looks gorgeous as well as being a good example of embedded intelligence. Data really does make everything better.
- lamernews (Github) — an implementation of a Reddit / Hacker News style news web site written using Ruby, Sinatra, Redis and jQuery.
- Information is Cheap, Meaning is Expensive — interview with George Dyson. That quote is a wonderful summary of why data is important. But George also says: The danger is not that machines are advancing. The danger is that we are losing our intelligence if we rely on computers instead of our own minds. On a fundamental level, we have to ask ourselves: Do we need human intelligence? And what happens if we fail to exercise it? (via Mathew Ingram)
- Cubelets, Littlebits, and Others (Russell Davies) — he’s been playing with some sweet hardware kits. It’s not new and surprising behaviour in a toy and it’s not unbuildable with Lego or Mecanno. But there’s something different and good about being able to do it so quickly, roughly and spontaneously – throwing bits together and getting behaviour out. Not following instructions or typing laboriously. That ease makes it magical and educational – you start to understand the functions of things as a builder not a thinker. (Slightly, you know, slightly – at a lego level, not at a 5-year engineering degree level, but it’s a start.)
Jason Huggins' Angry Birds-playing Selenium robot
How a game-playing robot could help shape the future of mobile testing.
If you try to talk to Jason Huggins about Selenium, he'll probably do to you what he did to us. He'll bring his Arduino-based Angry Birds-playing testing robot to your interview and then he'll relate his invention to the larger problems of mobile application testing and cloud-based testing infrastructure.
Four short links: 14 October 2011
Relativity in Short Words, Set Math, Design Inspiration, and Internet of Things
- Theory of Relativity in Words of Four Letters or Less — this does just what it says, and well too. I like it, as you may too. At the end, you may even know more than you do now.
- Effective Set Reconciliation Without Prior Context (PDF) — paper on using Bloom filters to do set union (deduplication) efficiently. Useful in distributed key-value stores and other big data tools.
- Mental Notes — each card has an insight from psychology research that’s useful with web design. Shuffle the deck, peel off a card, get ideas for improving your site. (via Tom Stafford)
- The Internet of Things To Come (Mike Kuniavsky) — Mike lays out the trends and technologies that will lead to an explosion in Internet of Things products. E.g., This abstraction of knowledge into silicon means that rather than starting from basic principles of electronics, designers can focus on what they’re trying to create, rather than which capacitor to use or how to tell the signal from the noise. He makes it clear that, right now, we have the rich petrie dish in which great networked objects can be cultured.
Looking for the future? Watch the "crackpots"
Tim O'Reilly and Charlie Rose discuss the drivers of new technology: enthusiasts.
The future of technology will be shaped by the passion of enthusiasts — this was a central point in a recent discussion between Tim O’Reilly and Charlie Rose.
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