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, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week 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:
- Microelectronics And The Personal Computer – Alan C. Kay – Scientific American. “This was written in 1977. It’s way ahead of its time: ‘Rates of progress in microelectronics suggest that in about a decade many people will possess a notebook-size computer with the capacity of a large computer of today. What might such a system do for them?’ While we didn’t have good notebooks in 1987, this thinking was prescient. It just took forty years to get here. Most amazingly, he argues for the importance of nonsense and anthropomorphism in making computers useful: ‘It may seem almost sinful to discuss the simulation of nonsense. But only if we want to believe that what we know is correct and complete. History has not been kind to those who subscribe to this view. It is just this realm of ‘apparent nonsense’ that must be kept open for the developing minds of the future. Although the personal computer can be guided in any direction we choose. the real sin would be to make it act like a machine!'” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Spotify Is Perfecting the Art of the Playlist – Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “I hate myself for saying it, but Spotify‘s weekly discovery is amazing. Clearly there’s something right going on. With streaming music finally refilling the coffers of the music industry somewhat, and more scrutiny into onerous middlemen putting a greater percentage into artists’ pockets, there’s reason to hope. But only great curation can pull an artist from the dustbin of obscurity. Spotify uses math to do this; Apple uses human curation. And based on what’s on in my place, Spotify wins. Here’s why.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- This Week GQ Published A Sexist Climbing Piece, And Outdoor Research Stepped In With The Perfect Response – The Dyrt. “As the father of two young girls, who happen to have started taking rock climbing classes two weeks ago, I was both offended by GQ‘s article, and thrilled that Outdoor Research‘s blog took them to task in such a positive way.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Revealed: How one Amazon Kindle scam made millions of dollars – ZDNet. “I don’t find this surprising, shocking, or particularly terrible. In general I think if you buy a ‘low quality’ book, then you didn’t do your due diligence. Still, it is a scam, a complex one, and it’s pretty interesting to see how it was engineered.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Earthquakes Will Be as Predictable as Hurricanes Thanks to AI – SingularityHUB. “Another really interesting application of technology. The thing with this one… that really freaks me out… is when these smart algorithms also pump out the fact-based data that says ‘hey, you’re living in a pretty dangerous piece of land.’ Then… then, what do we do?” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” – MIT Technology Review. “This is pretty amazing. Apparently, famed author, Isaac Asimov, wrote this piece on creativity in 1959. It had never been published. Until now.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.