Well, it’s perfect that I ended up writing up this section in the Halloween season. Someone’s sneaking around Cosette’s garden at night, freaking her out. But wait: That shadow was just a chimney! Well, maybe…if chimneys can run away when they’re spotted…
Links
The Things You Must Not Tell Anyone At Work (Or should you?)
For some medical conditions, telling the people around you is actually a safety concern. I’ve got severe food allergies. I can’t join coworkers for Thai food. If an event is catered, I need it to include something I can eat, and I need to be able to trust that my coworkers aren’t mixing up the food I can’t eat with the food I can. If I go into anaphylactic shock, it would be helpful if someone knew what to do while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. I certainly don’t make it the subject of every conversation, but when food is involved, it comes up…and frankly, it *has* to.
Warning! The Things You Must Not Tell Anyone At Work
There are some things we shouldn’t tell anyone at work. Sharing the ‘wrong’ things with co-workers can quickly backfire and leave us exposed, vulnerable or side-lined.
Riiiight “I don’t think we should keep trying the same thing over and over again, & think only a minority think that”
Riiiight “I don’t think we should keep trying the same thing over and over again, & think only a minority think that” https://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-republicans-government-shutdown-20130930-story.html
I’ve read eight of them, six for school and one as part of a book club. Three guesses as to which one I read entirely on my own initiative.
10 Books People Pretend They’ve Read
I’ve read eight of them, six for school and one as part of a book club. Three guesses as to which one I read entirely on my own initiative.
From the “off by one” department: Hackers deface NASA sites demanding that they stop…
“Stop spy on us!” 14 NASA sites hacked
From the “off by one” department: Hackers deface NASA sites demanding that they stop spying. Though as the article suggests, NASA’s websites are probably easier to break into than the NSA’s.
If you aren’t already following Zen Pencils, perhaps this will convince you.
Bill Watterson: A Cartoonist’s Advice
If you aren’t already following Zen Pencils, perhaps this will convince you.
Moving Seasonal Businesses to the Cloud
It’s sort of an ad for the particular provider, but it makes a good point: If your computing needs fluctuate significantly (by season, by time of day, by event, etc.), it’s better to have a system that will adjust to changing demand instead of wasting resources (and money) by always running at maximum capacity.On a small scale, that might be adding/subtracting memory from a VPS. On a larger scale, it might be creating extra servers as they’re needed and letting them vanish when they aren’t.
Moving Seasonal Businesses to the Cloud
This article presents a case study on how seasonal businesses can leverage and gain advantage by using cloud technology.
Why Steve Ballmer Failed
Ouch
Steve Ballmer, the C.E.O. of Microsoft, announced this morning that he will retire within the next twelve months. In response, the company’s stock surged. That is not what you want to happen when you leave a large publicly traded company. Full article at New Yorker
I remember learning about the OSI seven-layer network model in college…
How TCP/IP eclipsed the Open Systems Interconnection standards to become the global protocol for computer networking
I remember learning about the OSI seven-layer network model in college, but OSI it was already more or less irrelevant as anything but a way of conceptualizing networking. The main thing that sticks in my head is an analogy to the Taco Bell seven-layer burrito, with each ingredient mapping to one of the layers.
Interesting research on one possible cause of food allergies.
Faulty genetic pathway is a potent player in many types of allergies, say researchers
A report on the study’s findings, published July 24, 2013 in Science Translational Medicine, shows that aberrant signaling by a protein called transforming growth factor-beta, or TGF-beta, may be responsible for disrupting the way immune cells respond to common foods and environmental allergens, leading to a wide range of allergic disorders.
Interesting research on one possible cause of food allergies.
ShareThis: Mobile vs Desktop: A Cross Device User Study
Interesting analysis. For one thing, people share a *lot* more on mobile devices than on desktops or laptops. For another, Apple users on any device share a lot more than PC, Android or Blackberry users. But the really interesting thing is where you find different services on different classes of devices. iPhones are dominated by Facebook. iPads, however, are dominated by Pinterest.
ShareThis: Mobile vs Desktop: A Cross Device User Study
Put sharing to work with innovative sharing tools. Turn sharing behavior into value with share buttons, plugins and analytics for publishers, and media solutions for advertisers.
What Is That Box?
Nice one: changing the Creepy Guy narrative
“Let’s establish a simple usability principle: avoid taunting the customers.”
“Let’s establish a simple usability principle: avoid taunting the customers.”
Users might overlook things that change too fast—and even when they do notice, changeable screen elements are harder to understand in a limited timeframe.
Interesting discussion on why people just click on things
Interesting discussion on why people just click on things, and the impact of being tired & stressed on online safety.
Fascinating: Twitter plots the location of geotagged tweets, leaving out all other map data.
Twitter creates stunning images of New York City, Tokyo and Istanbul using only geotagged Tweets
Fascinating: Twitter plots the location of geotagged tweets, leaving out all other map data. Cities and roads are instantly recognizable.
Funny: Linux vs. Windows, as reviewed by the author of DM of the Rings
Funny: Linux vs. Windows, as reviewed by the author of DM of the Rings
Comic Con International attendance through the years.
Comic Con International attendance through the years.
San Diego Comic-Con update: infographic and more badges
XKCD makes an interesting point about birds and dinosaurs.
XKCD makes an interesting point about birds and dinosaurs.
Leveraging Social Media to Help During Emergencies – IEEE
I’d previously thought from the individual perspective, Twitter/Facebook would be a good way to multiply your tiny “I’m OK”/”Building fell on me” SMS message through the clogged cell network. Looking at it from the other side is an interesting approach.