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Submission + - What We Can Learn From My Brain Tumor (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: About a week after Slashdot posted my article Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds, I was diagnosed with a likely benign, operable brain tumor. I'm pretty determined not to become your cliched excuse for remaining unfit — you know, the guy who lives on a calorie restricted diet for nine months, loses 36 pounds and then dies of a brain tumor. Here's a bit of what I've learned over the past few weeks and what I think my brain tumor has to teach you.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How Do You Find Evidence-Based SEO Expertise?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's a given that Google's search algorithm is an obtuse box with only small windows to see inside. But, finding solid SEO recommendations seems equally obtuse. The consultants that I've spoken too are rarely able to back up recommendations with data driven research. Where do Slashdot readers go for prioritized, evidence-based SEO guidelines?

Submission + - Peepless in Seattle, Fleeing My Breaking City (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Straight or gay, male or female, if Amazon offers you a job in Seattle, think twice. For me, aging, demographics, online dating and the Seattle Freeze have gotten the best of me after 20 years here. But Seattle is breaking under the weight of Amazon's growth, which has acquired enough real estate to double or triple its headcount. There are 51 cranes on the skyline and more on the way, but transportation investments are lagging — one tunneling machine's been stalled for a year. Dubbed "gridlockapocalypse", traffic is a complete mess. Rents are skyrocketing and the wealth gap's expanding. Tech's white male gentrification is driving a culture clash and a rash of hate crimes in the traditionally gay Capitol Hill neighborhood. There's even a boom in prostitution and sex trafficking. And, it could be a bubble.

Submission + - Digital Goldrush Is Breaking and Remaking Seattle and Its Culture (crosscut.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Fueled by Amazon's unrestrained growth, fifty-one cranes frame the Seattle skyline with more on the way. Construction-fueled gentrification is driving up rents across the city and spurring a rash of hate crimes and 'culture clash' in traditionally gay and tolerant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Historian Knute Berger says its not unlike the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush complete with a booming sex industry, to which 'There’s no evidence that this is due to Amazon men.' But the city is 'awash in men.'

Submission + - Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: The CDC reports that 69% of adult Americans are overweight or obese. Techies like us are at increased risk because of our sedentary lifestyles. Perhaps you even scoffed at Neilsen's recent finding that some Americans spend only 11 hours daily of screen time. Over the last nine months, I've lost 30 pounds and learned a lot about hacking weight loss and I did it without fad diets, step trackers, running or going paleo.

Submission + - Why Clinton's Private Email Server Has Legs (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: While the most obvious reason Hillary Clinton would run her own email would be to gain control over archiving and public disclosure requests such as FOIAs and subpoenas, another possibility is that she wished to avoid snooping by right wing conservative activists within the NSA, such as a right wing Edward Snowden type. Since there was nothing very secret about her use of the domain name clintonemail.com, why not just use a discrete gmail account as others have done? It's very possible Clinton's team knew of NSA's ability to snoop gmail. If true, it would mean that Clinton wanted to opt out of the domestic spying for which the Obama administration has continued to subject all of us to. The Clinton team thought they had the technical capacity to easily secure her server better than the U. S. government, which apparently they clearly didn't. Political leaders like Clinton remain weak at grappling with the challenges and intricacy of technology – and it weakens their leadership and hurts all of us.

Submission + - The Imitation Game Fails Test of Inspiring the Next Turings (thedailybeast.com)

Submitted by reifman
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.

Submission + - Un-truthful Carrier: Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
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.

Submission + - Viral Sensation ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com Domain Already For Sale (flippa.com)

Submitted by reifman
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?

Submission + - Seattle CEO Wants to Hire "Binders Full of Women" Into Tech (geekwire.com)

Submitted by reifman
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.

Submission + - Revisiting Open Source Social Networking Alternatives (tutsplus.com)

Submitted by reifman
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...

Submission + - As Amazon Grows in Seattle, Pay Equity for Women Declines (geekwire.com)

Submitted by reifman
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.

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