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Good reads
It’s been a loooong time since I posted some good reading. 5 Things I Learned as the Internet’s Most Hated Person | Cracked.com "I watched every avenue of social media suddenly blow up with messages of abject hatred from thousands of strangers. For the first five days, I couldn't sleep. Every time I would start to doze off, I'd be shocked awake from half-asleep nightmares about everyone I love buying into the mob's bullshit and abandoning me. The ceaseless barrage of random people sending you disgusting shit is initially impossible to drown out — it was constant, loud, and it became my life." They Are Not Trolls. They Are Men.…
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Buying Russian Train Tickets: A Tale of Language and Gaming
Goal Get from Moscow to Saint Petersburg on a particular day, starting at a particular time, and on a particular train. Trouble I don’t read Russian! Nor do I have a grasp on the phonetics of the alphabet, although I can now successfully remember/guess the sounds of some letters and thus near-cognates (e.g., “ДOKУMEHTA” is probably something about a document, although Google Translate throws up its hands). Things in My Favor I’m using Google Chrome, which seamlessly lets me toggle back and forth between the original Russian and translated English. I have a precise train number, car number, and set of seat options to book. (Hoo, boy, if this had…
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Links! Dat Social Justice
I’ve been (relatively) all over the twitter space lately on the social justice tip. I’ve started following some new and amazing folks in the last couple months, including Ashe Dryden, Julie Pagano, and Justine Arreche, who are probably the first folks I’ve followed who are specifically interested in social justice within the tech community/industry. Mutual following of these folks led to some fun discussions with a former colleague on considerations like, “How often can I call my colleagues out on *ist behavior and still get invites out to lunch? Once in three occurrences?” After all, no one likes a feminazi. The first two links come from Pagano’s “101 off limits”…
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Weekly linkage
Just a few: Passive voice is killing your design documents – " I would argue that if the goal is to communicate clearly, actually stating and explaining the uncertainties is going to be much more helpful to readers." The Size Of Our World – Bad graphical quality, but cool comparison. 6174 (number) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Who comes up with stuff like this? Who sits around adding and subtracting numbers to find patterns? Ta Prohm temple at Angkor, Cambodia – Absolutely gorgeous. 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live – I don't normally read the Onion (maybe I should!), but this…
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Quasi-daily linkage
Net Worth – So true. Buttersafe – The Five Stages – This is a particularly well-done Buttersafe comic. The Gen Y Guide to Personal Finance | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice – A wonderfully concise guide to getting started saving for retirement. There are certain folks (you know who you are) who I want to beat over the head for their resistance to saving for retirement. I'm slow to start because of my loans, but I'm getting there anyway, and I'm aware of how important it is. Congress at the Cash Register: How Financial Reform Could Affect Your Shopping | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News &…