Micah J Waldstein

Too many articles on the Silk Road bust, but it is fascinating…

• General:
  • This world is my weapon: PAR plays Planetary Annihilation – An interesting looking kickstarter I passed on – glad to see it is shaping up well.
  • How to: Make DIY Barrel Aged Cocktails At Home (No Barrel Required…) – Aging your own spirits at home. This is solidly one of those “someday I’ll do this” items.
  • Don’t hug it out: Hugs are awkward, falsely intimate power plays that must be stopped. – “More often, it is a soulless imposition…”
  • Review: Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 may need more time in the oven – I have a note 8.0 that I use for all my note taking – can’t quite tell if the new generation is a step forward or back in that regard.
  • The ‘Not on Steam’ sale hopes to make money, and raise awareness of indies not on Valve’s service – Steam is really interesting in how much it dominates the PC gaming space, particularly as it started out fairly reviled. Ease of use and cost won gamers over, but it left games not on steam struggling. Interesting tactic here to raise attention and drive sales.
  • Dell Announces Venue 7 And Venue 8 Intel-Based Android Tablets, Coming October 18th For $149.99 and $179.99 – Interesting to see these are intel based devices at an incredibly low price point. Excited to see benchmarks come out.
  • Edward Snowden’s E-Mail Provider Defied FBI Demands to Turn Over Crypto Keys, Documents Show, Lavabit got order for Snowden’s login info, then gov’t demanded site’s SSL key – Lavabit records being unsealed. A reminder that unless you physically manage your email server that you have no guarantee of privacy (and even then…)
  • Government Shutdown 2013: Conservatives Lose Control of Narrative – I really do try to avoid too much politics, but the shutdown and the snippets of news I’ve heard around it have confused me. I really don’t fully understand the motivations and this article I think highlights the challenges partisan media is having trying to defend it.
• Silk Road Shutdown:
  • Feds shut down Silk Road, arrest alleged admin Dread Pirate Roberts – Perfect news timing to juxtapose with the NSA intrusions – anonymity is hard, if not impossible online no matter how hard you try. People are hypothesizing the effort to shut it down was why there was the spike in tor traffic a few months ago. 
  • The Terrifying Fallout Of The Silk Road Shutdown – Just because it was online and user friend, the Silk Road still involved the seedy side of drugs
  • FBI: Silk Road mastermind couldn’t even keep himself anonymous online – Someone who’s freedom depended on maintaining anonymity couldn’t do it. Stark reminder that you only have to slip once and the veil is pierced.
  • Amid Silk Road uncertainty, Bitcoin value drops over 20% in 3 hours – Seems like either silkroad was a prime use for bitcoins or people think it was. Interesting to see what the feds do with the bitcoins they confiscated…If nothing, the supply just dropped fairly significantly. 

After a week where I had some trouble finding the time to do daily posts, I’ve automated part of the process so hopefully next week these will be more regular. This part 1 of what I read this week is mainly the gaming and computing news I’ve read. Articles are roughly in order of interest for easy skimming. Expect part 2 later today with more general articles.

• General:
  • First Look: Javascript Microcontrollers for web Developers – I think that javascript is the perfect first language to learn these days. Simple and usable full stack – including now into embedded systems!
  • Is the Peak-End Rule responsible for overlong movies? – I recently read “Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow” which speaks a lot to how our memory focuses on specific parts of experiences. This is right in alignment.
  • Intel rejection of Ubuntu’s Mir patch forces Canonical to go own way | Ars Technica – Open source development has a lot of politics that gets more intense when there are large sponsoring companies with potentially incompatible goals.
  • New Product Friday: Shield Your Eyes – News – SparkFun Electronics – Expect these every week – I use sparkfun’s new product posts to keep me in touch with a lot of the developments in the hobbyist electronics world.
  • Intel aims another barrel at ARM with synthesizable, ultra-low-power Quark | Ars Technica – Intel had tried to license the Atom core before, allowing it to be fabbed at TSMC. Big change here is that the tech is better and that Intel is allowing custom silicon using Atom to be made in Intel fabs
  • What to expect from Apple’s September 10 event (and how much we expect it) | Ars Technica – I was curious how wide some rumors I’d been hearing were being discussed. They were not mentioned in this article.
  • Meizu Says Existing Samsung Exynos Chips Can Be Upgraded To HMP ‘True 8-Core’ Via Software, New Hardware Not Needed After All – Intel dipped its toes in aftermarket sw up-gradable processors a few years ago – very interesting to see this in phones. Could see a model where you buy a phone that lets you extend its life by upgrading performance.
• Gaming:
  • The Concept That Helps to Explain Why ‘Tetris’ Is So Addictive – Interesting connection here with the article on why movies are getting longer. The Zeigarnik effect is another example of how our remembering self focuses selectively.
  • Antichamber and the journey of life – Antichamber is a great innovative game. The story behind its creation is a really interesting look into where it came from.
  • Play games, make videos, get paid: how to be a YouTube star | Features | Edge Online – YouTube celebrities fascinate me. It is an interesting world to be exposed to and this is a good description of how they got there, at least in the gaming arena. YouTube is a big business and it isn’t open for kids in their bedrooms to get rich/famous on their own anymore. (via)
  • How professional gamers say ‘f*** you’ in front of thousands of fans – There is all sorts of BM (bad manner) pro player do when they feel they’ve won and want to rub it in their opponent’s face. Interesting to learn about for those not already in the know.
  • Strategy games have entered a new golden age thanks to eSports, Let’s Play videos, boring AAA games – Interesting how after years the role youtube and eSpports has played in the return of the strategy genre in gaming.
  • Steam introduces sharing plan for game libraries, with support for up to 10 “shared” systems – Steam is always pointed to whenever people talk about how offering stuff cheaply quiets concerns about the right to resell digital assets. Curious that they’re now opening up a sharing option.
  • OUYA wanted to give indie devs $1 million, ended up in a PR disaster, Let’s talk about the Free The Games Fund OUYA – The Ouya team is completely tone deaf in their PR. There were hints of this during the kickstarter, sad to see it continue. I want them to succeed, but fortunately I’m getting my money’s worth without. Really this is the type of drama I should be trying to avoid reading about.
  • The Fallout From Fallout 3 – I played 90+ hours of Fallout 3. Keep feeling that playing New Vegas isn’t a priority, but keep hearing that it is the modern one to play…
  • CCP’s Dust 514 experiment is a disappointment for Eve Online fans, but there’s hope – I tried playing Dust 514 because I thought it might have been a casual way to be involved with Eve Online without losing all my free time to it. I think that Valkyrie will be a more likely entry point.
  • The PA Report – Why Gearbox bought Homeworld, and how they’re putting it back into the hands of those who created it – I played the heck out of Homeworld 1 – expect to fully play the heck out of it again once re-released. Really interested to see how it fairs on tablets.
  • DuckTales Remastered: I am tired of your shit, and it’s time to talk about it – This is an interesting counter-narrative to a lot of fawning reviews this game received.
  • Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs review: pearls before swine, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a most unsettling tale for both gentlemen and lady slaughterers – The evolution of horror games is really exciting – Machine for Pigs seems like it will herald the next round of creepiness. I don’t plan on playing myself, but expect to watch @day9tv playthrough what sounds like a fascinating game
  • Bad news, PC gamers: The console version of Diablo 3 is much better than the release you bought – I paid some attention to diablo 3 when it came out on PC – interesting how players’ feedback has contributed to a better release on consoles.
  • Occulus Rift:
    • Virtual Perfection: Why 8K resolution per eye isn’t enough for perfect VR | Ars Technica – The Occulus Rift guys are really passionate and it comes through in their interviews. I like being exposed to the challenges they’re facing in pursuing seamless VR. Also good to see a dig at the ‘retina display’ marketing, but in a different direction than others.
    • A machine for fear: Ben spent hours playing Oculus Rift horror games and hated it – Another article on how terrifying even horror experiments are in VR
    • Video proof that the Oculus Rift may actually make horror games too scary – I’m turning into a sucker for Occulus Rift news… I expect to get one and experiment with horror games, but first terror and I’ll never look back.

Life got in the way of updating, so here’s a slightly longer list of readings from the past several days. In no particular order…

• In the Reign of the Gay Magical Elves – I’m a big fan of Bret Easton Ellis’ work though he does have a reputation for being a bit cantankerous. This is a long form article that provides a less pithy criticism of the role of homosexuality in modern popular culture in a structure that encourages discussion.
• Nomiku Project update XV: Mass Production! – I backed this project for an easy to use, convenient sous vide device and am extremely excited about them making it to production. It has been really interesting watching their updates along the way of what goes into mass production.
• Ben and Andrew discuss gaming’s canon: Games you need to play to understand the history of the art – I like gaming, but am very conscious to limit the amount of time I spend on it, so I get really interested in articles like these that try to point to the important games worth playing.
• Axciom Opens (Some) Consumer Data; What Should You Do? and Marketers may think they know all about me, but they don’t – I deal with Axciom data at work and it is an interesting move. Hopefully there will be some follow-up discussing their strategy in taking this approach – initial feedback seems to be that their data really isn’t very good.
• What Happens to Little Startups After Everyone Forgets? – Read this hoping for more than ‘still going’ or ‘dead’ with some analysis. Still interesting for a visceral reminder of the startup failure rate.
• Some Clarification, Indie Developer Pulls Out Of PAX, Citing Penny Arcade Controversies, and Why I’m Never Going Back to Penny Arcade Expo – I really didn’t want to get sucked into this story, but it is just all so frustrating…
• PayPal freezes $45,000 of Mailpile’s crowdfunded dollars (Updated) and How can I stop Paypal from freezing my crowdfunding campaign? – Crowdfunding has some interesting quirks and the first big lawsuit feels like it is coming and the companies involved are trying to figure out how to protect themselves.
• The NSA Security Story – I couldn’t help myself and got dragged into reading everything that appeared in my reader. Should have stayed away while the world digests it.
  • Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security
  • Why We Published the Decryption Story
  • The US government has betrayed the internet. We need to take it back
  • NSA attains the Holy Grail of spying, decodes vast swaths of Internet traffic
  • NSA’s pipe dream: Weakening crypto will only help the “good guys”
  • Let us count the ways: How the feds (legally, technically) get our data
  • The NSA’s Cryptographic Capabilities
  • The NSA’s work to make crypto worse and better
  • Conspiracy Theories and the NSA
• What We Use, 2013 Edition: The Apps, Tools, Devices, And Other Stuff Liam Can’t Do Without – The android world is big and I crave curation. I was hoping for some more insight, but basically this didn’t reveal anything for me.
• Two chances to get sneak peek at new Gorge bike path – I’ve biked this loop before and plan on doing so again. Look forward to not having to ride on the shoulder of 84. Thought it was already open though…
• Where Nokia went wrong (via Penny Arcade Report) – I was really hoping, given the source of the article, that there would be more of a gaming spin, but really it is a rehash of the “dominant player misses the boat” story.
• A really, really tiny microcontroller board – Someday I’ll be able to pick up some of my electronics projects and tiny/low power devices interest me.
• Jack the DVD ripping robot – I have visions of a similar project for my slide scanner.

Recipe of the day: Green Onion Manicotti

More Than 800,000 Scientific Papers In One Beautiful Infographic

Here’s what I’ve been reading today:

Gaming:

• Outlast has a map of your brain, and it knows how to make you scream – It is a game I’ll never play, but I’m fascinated by modern horror games + look forward to watching some “lets play” videos of people getting terrified playing it… 
• Oculus Rift at retail: The road to a $300 price point, secret features, and the threshold of success – This iteration of modern VR is spawning some interesting experimentation, e.g. vr movie theaters – looking forward to it being productized. I’ll  probably get one just to play Eve Valkyrie.
• $10.5 million for charity: The Humble Origin Bundle made me despise some of the most vocal gamers – The gaming community can be particularly juvenile. Nice to see journalists calling it out. 

Other:

• Cow Tipping: Fake or Really Fake? – A good link to keep handy next time the topic comes up. Nothing I wasn’t already aware of, so could probably have skipped reading it. 
• Corporate Personhood: Why It’s Awesome – The law around “Corporate Personhood” is very interesting and nuanced and not easily reduced. 
• Straight  Up – A brief history of how Johnnie Walker grew to be such a global brand. Interesting aspect is the ceremonial role it has taken on and positioning in the the developing world. Feel like I want to apply some value judgement here, but it is hard to unpack the complex web at work.

Recipe of the day: Polenta Tart with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Here’s the deal – I scour through a ton of reading material each day and to start tracking my reading, I figured it would be a good idea to capture the articles I actually read. Additionally, figured it would be an good throw-back to the days when everyone used del.icio.us to share everything they spent more then 5 minutes reading. That social aspect has mostly been replaced with twitter and facebook, but there is so much weight from commentary and the pressures of the curated timeline results in much more targeted sharing.

So here goes! Today happens to all be fairly general, but I expect some categorization in the future.

• General Articles:
  • Amazon releases new Kindle, Amazon creates a system for cheap ebooks if you own a physical copy – I read far too much of this type of ‘news’… I have been considering a new Kindle which I’m vaguely using to justify spending time on these.  Interestingly, MatchBook is only for new purchases which may be enough of a benefit to drive new purchases instead of used… 
  • Can We Lift The Stupid Ban On Importing Cars Under 25 Years Old?  – In thinking about possibly buying a car, I’ve become fascinated by the odd laws and regulations that surround car sales, imports, etc. This is the case where there exists an opportunity for arbitrage, but is illegal to protect the sellers. 
  • Android’s next version is named KitKat and Google, Nestle, And Android 4.4 KitKat: Here’s How It All Went Down – It is an interesting co-branding exercise – probably not really worth spending a lot of time reading about, but this is the risk of reading the news frequently.
  • As a datum speaketh – Brief history of visualizations from the Economist. Part of my love of old charts is the “someone manually drew that…” factor. 
  • Here’s why Microsoft is buying Nokia’s phone business – A bit disappointing really, was hoping for something more interesting than “vertical integration”. The presentation that Microsoft put together to justify the purchase themselves is probably a better use of time…  
  • Ten one-of-a-kind cameras from the 21st century – Such click bait that I fell for. It is cool that there has been some experimentation in the digital camera space, but really none of this made me go “ah-ha!”, perhaps validating the typical layout.
  • From Mr Average … to superman  + Reddit discussion – Bottom line: steroids can be horrible, but it also appears that the author’s approach was effectively the worst, un-researched technique. 

One more thing…