Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:
- The Marmalade Identity: Behind the scenes (Super Slow Motion Effects That Look CGI) – YouTube. "This video looks behind the scenes at German special effects house The Marmalade. Where others rely on CGI, these guys use all kinds of slow-motion, machine-controlled hackery. Amazing visuals and a unique glimpse at how some of today’s most amazing video clips are generated." (Alistair for Hugh).
- The Dark Side of Facebook – Emma Barnett. "I read Mitch’s sobering post on the most depressing thing on the Internet right now. It brought this piece on the dark side of Facebook to mind. Know why Facebook is relatively smut-free? Turns out there are armies of people flagging your questionable content. Yes, this is an ethical and legal morass. ‘It must be the worst salary paid by Facebook,’ he told The Daily Telegraph this week. ‘And the job itself was very upsetting – no one likes to see a human cut into pieces every day.’ For me, this is the most depressing thing behind the Internet right now." (Alistair for Mitch).
- Exoplanets – xkcd. "Space, the final frontier… Lovely illustration by Randall Munroe (xkcd) of our own solar system’s planets, along with all other known planets (most relatively recently discovered) orbiting other stars (i.e. stars that ain’t our sun). Apparently, ‘we know nothing about what’s on any of them.’" (Hugh for Alistair).
- The Slow Web – Jack Cheng. "I seem to be banging on these days about too much digital, and in fact I have started prying myself away from my computer for 45 minutes of rock climbing around noon most days of the week – which has helped my sanity enormously. Anyway, here are some ideas about slowing down the flood of digital from the Web." (Hugh for Mitch).
- Free Speech for Computers? – The New York Times. "In this deep and thoughtful piece, Tim Wu (author of The Master Switch) asks: ‘Is there a compelling argument that computerized decisions should be considered speech? As a matter of legal logic, there is some similarity among Google, Ann Landers, Socrates and other providers of answers. But if you look more closely, the comparison falters. Socrates was a man who died for his views; computer programs are utilitarian instruments meant to serve us. Protecting a computer’s speech is only indirectly related to the purposes of the First Amendment, which is intended to protect actual humans against the evil of state censorship. The First Amendment has wandered far from its purposes when it is recruited to protect commercial automatons from regulatory scrutiny.’ Computers speaking? It’s an argument worth reading about and it’s an argument worth thinking about as more and more artificial intelligence is developed while recommendations engines continue to mature." (Mitch for Alistair).
- What Makes Jeff Bezos Tick? A $42 Million Clock, for Starters – The Wall Street Journal. "By some strange twist of fate, I found myself sitting next to Jeff Bezos at one of the TED speaking sessions this past year. I’m a massive fan of his and all things Amazon. Remember that old Saturday Night Live skit, when the late/great Chris Farley finds himself next to a celebrity and starts stammering and saying ridiculous things (‘remember when you invented the Kindle?… yeah… that awesome’)? Well, that was me. My fascination comes from a deep need to better understand how he ideates and innovates. This article gives you a glimpse into the thinking of Bezos… a man who is about much more than making books digital… or selling the physical ones." (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.