onfocus

Werner Herzog on the Internet. "Have the monks stopped meditating? They all seem to be tweeting." [via kottke]

How parenting around the world is different from parenting in the US. [via kottke]

We set up a gopher server at MetaFilter. Because, that's why!

14 features of Eternal Fascism. This is an article from 1995 but it feels very timely. (RIP Umberto Eco. Thanks for giving us frameworks for thinking like this.)

Another excellent presentation by Maciej. This one is about competing visions of the Web. I'm on team CONNECT KNOWLEDGE, PEOPLE, AND CATS.

"Counting from the earthquake of 1700, we are now three hundred and fifteen years into a two-hundred-and-forty-three-year cycle." Happy Monday!

A good reminder that the Web is made of people. (This has a nice mention of the early days of MetaFilter meetups.)

Dang, we ended up with a top-down Internet anyway. "Today, Google and a handful of other major Internet corporations like Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon fulfill much the same role that Otlet envisioned for the Mundaneum—channeling the world’s intellectual output." [via RF]

This is Andy Baio's annual round-up of online movie piracy. This year: HD video makes leaked screeners irrelevant. "Already, with a month to go before the ceremony, 89% of this year’s nominated films have already leaked in high quality online, more than last year."

I had no idea that Oregon tried to keep minorities out in its early years. It's a depressing article but it's important to understand our history.

A wonderful story about networks, nostalgia, grief, computing history, and emulation.

This article tells some stories about MetaFilter at its best. "People connect to each other here, is what I’m saying. They get to know each other and they treat each other well."

by Hiroshi Yoshida.

Looking at Instagram and social media though Berger's Ways of Seeing.

Trying to mitigate all of the known SSL exploits is a challenge. This document is a good summary of current best practices.

Remember your friend from the Cold War, existential terror? It's back in Eric Schlosser's new book. This is a great talk he gave about it. "The consciousness of our nuclear arsenal vanished, but the danger has never left us."