- Anatomy of a feature – Great post describing how hard it really is to add a supposedly easy feature.
- The Matrix, but with money: the world of high-speed trading – Good introductory piece about algo trading and the technology used to implement it.
Tag: Links
- Senior City-zens: The World’s 10 Oldest Still-Inhabited Cities – “I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from.” Maybe Eddie Izzard should have gone with “I was born in the middle east, where the really old history comes from.”
- Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule – If you can’t actually avoid meetings, then at least try to schedule them so you can maximise your productivity. Rings true…
- There’s a pretty significant problem in the new… – I’m starting to expect Graham Chapman to burst in at any second and announce that this is getting far too silly. Apparently any iPhone app that allows “unfiltered internet access,” everything from web browsers to Twitter clients to, presumably, delicious.com clients, now requires a 17+ rating.
- The giant Apollo 11 post – The best of the web on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
- Year two – Nice analysis of where the App Store need to change in order to keep both customers and developers happy.
- Let’s all take a deep breath and get some perspective – “[Google are] starting to look like the new Scott McNealy. Remember him? Ran a company called Sun, which had a great little business going until McNealy became obsessed with Gates and started doing things like paying millions of dollars to buy StarOffice so he could get into that booming free software business.”
- Evolution Test – I just don’t get it. Is evolution really that hard? How can you misunderstand it so badly that you can come up with this list of questions and think it proves… well, anything? (Part of me hates to single out this site as there are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar ones.)
- Crash Could Free Up Wall Street’s Grip on Bright Young Minds – “But the big paychecks came with what economists call opportunity costs. Instead of spending their days searching for exotic trades, some of these Wall Street wizards could’ve been creating drugs, imagining software, or solving energy problems.”
- The Norway Lesson: The Benefits of Good Financial Behavior – “Norway made it a point to budget, to save, and to protect against unnecessary risk. Then, it went on to buy when everyone else was selling.” Any other country would have spent all earnings from oil on tax cuts (that’s what happened with North Sea Gas in the UK), but Norway did the smart thing.
- Battle between ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro to be BBC4 comedy drama – This looks like it could be fun. I especially like some of the comments after the article. The Spectrum vs. Commode 64 [sic] debate still rages to this day…
- Materials: The HTC Hero’s Teflon Coating Makes the iPhone Feel Like Junk – iPhone 3G – One thing that’s holding me back from getting a 3GS is the plastic back. I much prefer the aluminium from the first gen model.
- The blue and the green – “Your eyes are not cameras faithfully taking pictures of absolute truth of all that surrounds you. They have filters, and your brain has to interpret the jangled mess it gets fed.” A very neat optical illusion.
- Apple iPhone Developers Mostly Don’t Make Much Money – “Martin surveyed 100 development teams, received 85 usable responses, and found that 52% of the developers had earned less than $15,000 for their efforts and 33% earned less than $250.” Missed this one when it was first published. Bizarre to think that I’m doing better than a third of other iPhone developers!
- Trust, hostility, and the human side of Apple – “When the relationship’s power is so lopsided, the only sensible reason to stay in it is trust. If we can reasonably trust Apple to use its power reasonably and fairly, we can sustain the imbalance.”
- Don’t call what happened in Iran last week an election – Christopher Hitchens’ take on the recent events in Iran.
- Life after Humph – “The show is such a fixture, such a massive part of the radio landscape, I think British radio would be the poorer without it so they made a great decision.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Welcome back I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue
- Iran election: state moves to end ‘Facebook revolution’ – At best this is very suspicious. And changes are we’re not talking about a best case scenario here. Let’s hope that those in power see sense.
- I stole your images, put them back or I will call a lawyer? – When people steal my images I’m never sure whether I should be flattered or offended. If I ever get an email like this I’ll know which way to think…
- 2.8 Release Jazzes Themes and Widgets – I just upgraded ZX81 to the latest version of WordPress. Let me know if you see anything that’s not working properly!
- Chinese troops out in force for 20th anniversary of ‘nothing happening’ – “Many people who were in the area in 1989 were expected to observe the anniversary by staying at home and doing nothing special, much as they did 20 years ago.”
- Behind the Scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen – “Few images are more recognizable or more evocative. Known simply as ’tank man,’ it is one of the most famous photographs in recent history.”
- Confessions of an Introverted Traveller – “We introverts have a different style of travel, and I’m tired of hiding it.”
- Towel Day – Celebrating the life and work of Douglas Adams – Do you have your towel with you today?
- Jews: No Jesus, No Reason, Just Whining; They’re Motivated by Anger and Boohoo Victimhood – “Now… if I actually believed that, I’d be called every name in the book. And rightfully so. Those are ignorant, bigoted, hateful remarks. They’re also wildly stereotypical and extremely inaccurate. When Charlotte Allen says the exact same things about atheists, however, she gets published in the Los Angeles Times.”
- New Zealand Launches Hookup Airways – Not sure whether this is a good idea or a bit creepy. An intercontinental flight is a long time to spend cooped up with a bad date!
- Scientists put psychic’s paranormal claims to the test – If you can prove a paranormal claim under controlled conditions you can win $1mm. The prize has gone unclaimed since the 1960’s.
- A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages – “Bjarne Stroustrup bolts everything he’s ever heard of onto C to create C++. The resulting language is so complex that programs must be sent to the future to be compiled by the Skynet artificial intelligence.” Despite the title I’d say it’s mostly correct, and funny if you’re geeky enough to understand the references!