onfocus

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."

I was quoted in this article about the history and state of Web comments.

Popular Science is turning off user-submitted comments. "A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics."

Google Reader's massive database is full of Web history that no longer exists anywhere else. The Archive Team is trying to pull as much out as they can, but they need lists of feeds. I just shared my list of subscriptions. If you have an OPML file sitting around gathering dust, consider donating.

Wired is celebrating 20 years and put together this chart of people who worked at Blogger and their connections. I'm happy to say I still work on a blog.

Jason Shellen talks about the origin of Google Reader.

Photography from the National Geographic archives.

Photography from the New York Times archives.

This is a nice take on the idea that Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy. "Science fiction didn’t see the mobile phone coming. It certainly didn’t see the glowing glass windows many of us carry now, where we make amazing things happen by pointing at it with our fingers like goddamn wizards." [via merlin] See Also: The future is already here, it just isn't evenly distributed.