equil

This sentiment was quite popular around 2009-2011 with real-name policies, the "nymwars", and what have you. The idea that the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory [1] explained the noxious state of online discourse had taken root, and people believed, often in good faith, that peeling back the layers of anonymity from larger communities would combat bad behavior. Both Google+ and Battle.net infamously implemented real name policies during this period to very little discernible effect, and eventually reverted their policies. To this day human group interaction remains challenging to control, with or without authoritarian means.

I understand that the intended goal of this policy is likely orthogonal to the argument presented, but it's a surprisingly weak argument in face of all the previous attempts showing the contrary. You can effectively point to South Korea, where they relented on this [2], after the intended effect was shown to be practically insignificant, while simultaneously putting users at increased risk.

[1] https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

[2] http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011...

And here's a somewhat longer overview https://k.im/docs/whitepaper.pdf

While I don't like the recent executive order from Trump, this situation seems unrelated to it, instead revolving around the earlier H.R.158 [0] bill that passed at the tail end of 2015 (the article does mention this in passing), which disqualifies any non-citizen from entering the US under the visa waiver program if they have traveled to one of the seven countries since march 1st, 2011 (amongst other things). Trump's recent EO explicitly makes exceptions for diplomatic passports, and I worry that conflating these documents will only undermine the rhetorical grounds for repealing them.

I just want to underscore the law at fault instead of fueling partisanship.

[0] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/158

I'd like to see a comprehensive history of adblocking. from webfree to adblock [0] to wherever we are today, because it seems like we're stuck in a cycle. Time and time again i see the web and it's users going through the same motions [1] [2]. It's the same arguments and the same experiments being tried, whose success and failure are as predictable as ever [3]. Today is just another day under the falling sky.

[0] http://adblock.mozdev.org/

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/article/browser-makers-warned-against-a...

[2] http://web.archive.org/web/20071011004456/http://whyfirefoxi...

[3] http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/03/why-ad-blocking-is-d...

I hope this entices developers to reconsider the use of private use area (PUA) [0] based icon fonts for key navigational elements. I see them used time and again, and a slow connection or spotty CDN can render these sites unusable. [1]

If you absolutely have to use icon fonts, at least use ligatures instead of a PUA. That lets you fallback to a whole word if the specific font isn't present, or if the user relies on assistive technology like a screen reader.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Use_Areas

[1] http://i.imgur.com/GR9Jk2b.png

It's always great to see people improve their workflows in creative ways. At the same time, I find it strange how insensible browser defaults are for productivity (why do ctrl+F & ctrl+G do the same thing?). Developers tend to zoom around in their text editor at breakneck speeds, but slow to a comparative crawl in the browsers themselves. If I press F12 in Chrome or Firefox, I have no idea where focus even goes.

My primary annoyance is how ctrl+L (and alt+D) is the standard "focus urlbar" keyboard shortcut. It's definitely one of the most useful actions, but the shortcut requires a large motion or two hands. I rebound it to ctrl+Q for a while, but reverted as I just kept closing browser windows on other people's computers.

Ultimately, I recommend any person who uses a program often to explore ways of using it more effectively, not just for speed, but also to prevent RSI.

Neat. Came across this ad from AT&T about connectivity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kfIFDX9kE4

ever since that hanfree story [0], Kickstarter has been a bit more explicit about creator obligations [1]. Creators are now told to "make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers" should the project fail or rewards not make it to backers. The terms of use also has an explicit warning about possible legal action at the bottom.

[0] http://www.businessinsider.com/how-one-stupid-mistake-and-35...

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use#backer-creator

Quite the opposite, actually. http://i.imgur.com/bKBcIyX.jpg [1]

[1] https://design.google.com/articles/evolving-the-google-ident...

sure thing. https://archive.is/g4PKD

"[...] but since the color spectrum fits on a single line [...]"

There's a lot I want to respond to that statement with (purple!), but I'll just mention that photons have more than a single frequency parameter [1]. Contrary to popular belief, this is relevant for human color perception, as the cone photoreceptor cells are sensitive enough to polarization that it can be perceived under certain circumstances [2] (not to mention the impact it has on light intensity in for example gemstones through fresnel effects.

I'll just leave this here: http://makeartbutton.com/dmp/lusion.png

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokes_parameters

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger%27s_brush

there's always wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Visa_requirements

mirror that bypasses the paywall https://archive.is/WKcLi

The service breaks if you input itself (clonezone.link) or the creator's site (4real.io). Seems reasonable to assume that it ignores javascript, which excludes a fair amount of modern webpages.

humorously, checking the site itself seems to trip it up: http://www.cookie-checker.com/check-cookies.php?url=cookie-c...

from the changelog[1]:

• Removed “Make MMO” button from Edit menu. ;)

[1] http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/unity-5.0

something wrong with flex box?

I've always wondered at what distance it would be impossible for current technology to detect life on earth.

the minor hue difference between the logotype and the header bothers me immensely https://i.imgur.com/U0DxLKt.png