Links June 2013

Cory Doctorow published a letter from a 14yo who had just read his novel “Homeland” [1]. I haven’t had anything insightful to say about Aaron Swartz, so I think that this link will do [2].

Seth Godin gave an interesting TED talk about leading tribes [3]. I think everyone who is active in the FOSS community should watch this talk.

Ron Garrett wrote an interesting post about the risk of being hit by a “dinosaur killer” [4]. We really need to do something about this and the cost of defending against asteroids is almost nothing compared to “defence” spending.

Afra Raymond gave an interesting TED talk about corruption [5]. He focussed on his country Trinidad and Tobago but the lessons apply everywhere.

Wikihouse is an interesting project that is based around sharing designs for houses that can be implemented using CNC milling machines [6]. It seems to be at the early stages but it has a lot of potential to change the building industry.

Here is a TED blog post summarising Dan Pallotta’s TED talk about fundraising for nonprofits [7]. His key point is that moral objections to advertising for charities significantly reduce their ability to raise funds and impacts the charitable mission. I don’t entirely agree with his talk which is very positive towards spending on promotion but I think that he makes some good points which people should consider.

Here is a TED blog post summarising Peter Singer’s TED talk about effective altruism [8]. His focus seems to be on ways of cheaply making a significant difference which doesn’t seem to agree with Dan Pallotta’s ideas.

Patton Oswalt wrote an insightful article about the culture of stand-up comedians which starts with joke stealing and heckling and ends with the issue of rape jokes [9].

Karen Eng wrote an interesting TED blog post about Anthony Vipin’s invention of HAPTIC shoes for blind people [10]. The vibration of the shoes tells the person which way to walk and a computer sees obstacles that need to be avoided.

David Blaine gave an interesting TED talk about how he prepared for a stunt of holding his breath for 17 minutes [11].

• [1] http://craphound.com/?p=4521
• [2] https://torforge.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/cory-doctorow-on-aaron-swartz/
• [3] http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
• [4] http://blog.rongarret.info/2013/02/its-question-of-when-not-if.html
• [5] http://www.ted.com/talks/afra_raymond_three_myths_about_corruption.html
• [6] http://www.wikihouse.cc/
• [7] http://tinyurl.com/d3jnmqt
• [8] http://blog.ted.com/2013/03/01/effective-altruism-peter-singer-at-ted2013/
• [9] http://tinyurl.com/krxvrnx
• [10] http://tinyurl.com/nlrq5k6
• [11] http://www.ted.com/talks/david_blaine_how_i_held_my_breath_for_17_min.html

Syndicated 2013-06-30 13:55:15 from etbe - Russell Coker