70456971
submission
reifman writes:
In ‘The Imitation Game’: Can This Big Fat Cliche Win Best Picture?, reviewer Monica Guzman blasts the film for distorting history and missing the opportunity to inspire today's tech savvy, highly surveilled generation to follow in Turing's path: Instead of an inventor, it shows a stereotype. Instead of inspiring us to follow in the footsteps of a person who shaped technology, the film inspires us only to get out of the way of the next genius who can. The Imitation Game changed aspects of the real Alan Turing’s personality to conform more closely to our idea of the solitary nerd. It falls in line with the tired idea that only outcasts could love computers...As for explaining the science behind Turing’s code-breaking machine, the movie doesn’t bother. if invention doesn’t deserve top billing in this story, where the technology at its heart is not only historically significant but hugely resonant in our lives today, then I don’t know where it would. The message of the movie is that the uncommon man can do amazing things, but the message we need is that the common man, woman, anybody can and should tinker with the technology that manages our whole world. — Guzman's essay is extraordinary — a must read for the /. set.
70442733
submission
reifman writes:
Last June, my post “Yes, You Can Spend $750 in International Data Roaming in One Minute on AT&T” was slashdotted and this led to T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeting 'how crappy @ATT is' and welcoming me to the fold. Unfortunately, now it’s TMobile that’s having trouble tracking data; it seems to be related to the rollout of their new DataStash promotion. Just like AT&T, they’re blaming the customer. Here are the ten lies T-Mobile told me about my data usage today.
69332363
submission
reifman writes:
Reminiscent of the Million Dollar Home Page, that overnight Australian-based website phenomenon, ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com featured everywhere this past week is already for sale at domain auction site Flippa: "In just four days the site received over 2.5 million visits! ... The new owner will have to decide whether or not they want to ship the envelopes themselves or outsource to a 3rd party." Could this be the fastest Internet sensation to hit ReplyAll?
69301409
submission
reifman writes:
Fizzmint CEO Tarah Wheeler Van Vlack says she "never had a problem with Mitt Romney’s use of the phrase 'binders full of women' ... Instead of congratulating him for his realization and his attempt to (awkwardly) rectify the situation, we crucified him for not already having a network of accomplished women." The scarcity of women in tech is a central issue in Seattle where Amazon's growth is literally reshaping the city but the company refuses to release its technology workforce diversity numbers and its been criticized for interviewing practices that put female candidates on a "horrifying steeplechase [by] careless and non-people-oriented technologists." Says Van Vlack, "It’s stupid on every level not to acknowledge the obstacles women face when they try to join a tech company." She suggests three concrete steps for technology leaders to attract more women into the fold: 1) Push your technical recruiters to hit 20% thresholds for female candidates 2) Challenge and question your personal assumptions about the leadership skills of women in technology and 3) Transparently and openly take a stand to improve your company's diversity figures.
67010229
submission
reifman writes:
Upstart social networking startup Ello burst on the scene in September with promises of a utopian, post-Facebook platform that respected user's privacy. I was surprised to see so many public figures and media entities jump on board — mainly because of what Ello isn't. It isn't an open source, decentralized social networking technology. It's just another privately held, VC-funded silo. Remember Diaspora? In 2010, it raised $200,641 on Kickstarter to take on Facebook with "an open source personal web server to share all your stuff online." Two years later, they essentially gave up, leaving their code to the open source community to carry forward. In part one of "Revisiting Open Source Social Networking Alternatives," I revisit/review six open source social networking alternatives in search of a path forward beyond Facebook. Here's what I found...
66819953
submission
reifman writes:
Amazon's hiring so quickly in Seattle that it's on pace to employ 45,000 people or seven percent of the city. But, 75% of these hires are male. While Seattle women earned 86 cents per dollar earned by men in 2012, today, they make only 78 cents per dollar. In "Amageddon: Seattle's Increasingly Obvious Future", I review these and other surprising facts about Amazon's growing impact on the city: we're the fastest growing — now larger than Boston, we have the fastest rising rents, the fourth worst traffic, we're only twelfth in public transit, we're the fifth whitest and getting whiter, we're experiencing record levels of property crime and the amount of office space under construction has nearly doubled to 3.2 million square feet in the past year.
65888569
submission
reifman writes:
The Internet's been abuzz the past 48 hours about reports the FBI distributed malware via a fake Seattle Times news website. What the agency actually did is more of an example of smart, precise law enforcement tactics; the outrage online is more an indictment of Twitter's tendency towards uninformed, knee-jerk reaction. In this age of unwarranted, unconstitutional blanket data collection by the NSA, the FBI's tactics from 2007 seem refreshing for their precision.
64223987
submission
reifman writes:
A thousand unionized healthcare workers protested outside Microsoft's Seattle offices over its Nevada tax dodge on Friday. Microsoft shareholders have pocketed more than $5.34 billion in tax savings as Washington State social services and schools have taken huge cuts. In a hearing Wednesday, the Supreme Court suggested it may hold the Legislature in contempt and order it to repeal all tax breaks to restore proper funding to K-12 schools and universities.
64026013
submission
reifman writes:
I thought it might be a good time to revisit alternatives to now defunct Google Reader. Here, I walk through the installation of four newsreader apps: Selfoss, TinyRSS, GoRead and Fever. Of the four, two are free open source PHP-based readers (Selfoss and Tiny RSS), the third is an open source Python reader (GoRead) which runs easiest on Google App Engine and my favorite, Fever, whose PHP code costs $30 but can be easily self-hosted (no affiliation with the developer). All of them import OPML files — which is handy for migrating from another reader application. TinyRSS and GoRead offer an Android app client and there are third-party apps available for Fever.
63916815
submission
reifman writes:
So, you’ve been attacked by trolls? Here’s what to expect: Your phone will vibrate incessantly with Twitter mentions. You’ll receive angry, obscenity filled emails and anonymous comments on your blog. Bloggers will take you out of context (a columnist at The Guardian compared me to a mass murderer—seriously). And maybe, you’ll receive an inappropriate package at your home as I did. Taming Internet rage may seem impossible, but there are good reasons to respond to critics and constructive ways to do so.
63851353
submission
reifman writes:
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is alleged to have 'attracted basketball talent to [his son's] wealthy school ... with ... a new basketball-focused nonprofit, cash for a coach, an unusual admissions process and weak enforcement of academic standards. One star player stayed at a $6 million mansion...' The report came after Ballmer purchased the NBA's Clippers and shortly before his withdrawal from Microsoft's Board of Directors. 'The school has an admirably diverse student body – nearly half (49 percent) are students of color – and has made outstanding efforts to connect with minorities and local students who are not from privileged backgrounds.' The school is also the alma mater and the meeting place of Microsoft's founder's Bill Gates & Paul Allen.
63805471
submission
reifman writes:
In June, the Washington State Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to appear on September 3rd to explain why it hasn't found the revenue to fully fund the education reforms required by its McCleary ruling, as much as $7.83 billion through 2019. One reason the state has such a huge shortfall is major tax breaks to corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft. In particular, Microsoft’s savings from lobbying and dodging the state royalty tax between 1997 and 2014 is $5.34 billion. Factoring in interest and the Department of Revenue’s typical 25 percent penalty on unpaid corporate taxes, that number jumps to $8.16 billion. In other words, the entire education shortfall which Microsoft's leaders regularly decry, would not likely exist if not for their tax practices, passing education dollars to its out of state and international shareholders.
62445129
submission
reifman writes:
While the new Gmail API is a great step forward and offers a variety of new features, it provides no support for other mail providers to adopt it as a standard. For now, IMAP lives on as the lowest common denominator for building your own email applications across providers. Turns out that you can still accomplish a lot with just IMAP (video) , such as whitelisting, quiet hours, one step unsubscribe, digests which summarize filing destinations and unanswered emails as well as reporting on who sends you the most email every day. SimplifyEmail is meant to be an email playground for programmers.
61742651
submission
reifman writes:
In case you missed it, the Supreme Court granted rights of religious freedom to for profit corporations yesterday in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. While the word corporation doesn't appear in the Constitution, SCOTUS has now granted corporations commerce and contracts clause protections, personhood, due process, protection from double jeopardy and unreasonable search and seizure and free speech rights. Almost all of these rights originate from the twisting of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection clause which was meant to provide rights for freed slaves.
61240739
submission
reifman writes:
Seattle contracted $47,500 to improve the Google search results for the city’s highest paid administrator, Jorge Corrasco. Corrasco, already paid $245,000 annually for leading Seattle City Light, is under consideration for a nutty $120,000 raise. While the city has cut the contract short, here’s a pdf of the cached Huffington Post article, and other related posts. Seattle also has two deputy mayors each paid $170,000.
