My delicious.com bookmarks for January 11th through January 13th

January 13th, 2010

Priori Acute – What if M.C. Escher had been a typographer?
What "Nothing to Hide" is Hiding – Why "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is a bad argument in favour of increased surveillance.

My delicious.com bookmarks for May 6th through May 8th

May 8th, 2009

Apple drawing 3.0 line in the sand for iPhone developers – This can only mean that the release is getting pretty close. And, significantly, that the APIs are stabilising — I had to rewrite almost everything I did with the first beta when the latest version of the developer kit came out.
DNA Database Doublecross – "Yet again this government shows its deep contempt for international courts, and demonstrates its profoundly cynical belief that the innocent simply haven't been proved guilty yet."
Jacqui Smith enlists high street help for ID cards scheme – Doesn't using high street shops to make ID cards make it substantially less secure? Wasn't the whole point that ID cards were an unbreakable scheme? This just gets worse and worse.

March 30th, 2009

A thought experiment – "This presents a problem for customers who are still running the 2.2.1 firmware: they can’t get your fix until they upgrade to the 3.0 firmware."
U.S. support for Detroit would buy 50 million Tata Nanos – "What else might we do with $100 billion in this industry? Assuming that we could get a wholesale price of $2000 per car, that’s enough to buy 50 million four-passenger 54 mpg Tata Nanos. The fuel savings from driving Nanos to the 7-11 instead of monster SUVs would save taxpayers $100 billion every year."
Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK's public databases, says report – "The report, Database State by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, says that more than half of Whitehall's 46 databases and systems have significant problems with privacy or effectiveness, and could fall foul of a legal challenge." And people wonder why I'm against ID cards and internet snooping laws.

March 20th, 2009

Coming to an ID Card Near You: Your DNA – "Can there be any doubt that the UK government will, at some point, try to add DNA to the other biometrics on the card?" Scary stuff.
How to spot a hidden religious agenda – Apparently this article was pulled from the New Scientist website shortly after it was published which is a bid odd as there's nothing scientifically objectionable.
Tea really does taste better from your favourite cup – "Your daily brew tastes better from your favourite mug."

February 28th, 2009

Ryanair's New Emergency Instructions Could Be Real One Day – Funny. Though we probably shouldn't give them ideas.
Liberal Democrats – Freedom Bill 2009 – I didn't hear about this first time around, but it sounds like a good idea. As one of the commenters noted, even if it doesn't go anywhere it might make the Government justify why these laws are needed when there are perfectly good, less draconian one already in place.
Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss – "People who do things badly … are usually supremely confident of their abilities — more confident, in fact, than people who do things well." I can't actually remember how I stumbled across this link any more, but it makes fascinating reading. Does kind of make you a little paranoid, though.
10 Geeky Tricks for Getting Out of Bed in the Morning – I should probably read this more closely when I'm properly awake. I'm getting worse and worse at getting up in the morning…

February 9th, 2009

The League of Moveable Type – Most free or open source fonts I've seen have been pretty poor but these guys seem to have the right idea.
Government plans travel database – "When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?"
Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age: A New Model for the Workplace – Fascinating ten minute video on what Pixar look for in candidates, summarised as Depth, Breadth, Communication and Collaboration. Given those criteria I'm guessing they're very selective!