cahwyguy | Mar. 22nd, 2013

userpic=compusaur Today’s lunchtime reading and link clearing brings together a bunch of stories all related to technology in one way or the other:

It’s Complicated, Man. Have you ever really thought about what happens when you visit a website such as Google. This fellow did, and he summarized it quite nicely. In short, almost anything you do on a computer is insanely complicated, from pressing a key and having it appear on your screen, to having a website with all the fancy bells and whistles. It’s amazing that anything works at all… and even more amazing that we have any confidence in security mechanisms.
Google Reader Update. An update on the search to find a replacement for Google Reader. For the last week or so, I’ve been trying out Netvibes. Mostly I was happy, but there were a number of things I didn’t like: (1) it was slow to update feeds; (2) marking articles as read didn’t always stick; (3) the buttons to mark articles as read and to open an article in a new window were tiny and hard to click. Problem (2) was particularly annoying — I would have to click “Mark All As Read” multiple times to get it to mark everything as read. So having heard good things about Newsblur, I upgraded my free account to a premium account last night. I have more confidence in the paid service not disappearing; further, this (supposedly) would make it so I could read all my subscribed feeds (as opposed to just 12), and get up to 10x more frequent feed updating. However, so far, I’m not fully impressed. Here, the problems are as follows: (1) Feed updating is still slow (very slow, in fact); (2) their “Mark All as Read” doesn’t always update the screen to indicate everything was marked; (3) there doesn’t seem a good way to force it to refresh and update the “All Articles” view; and (4) the Newsblur site keeps bouncing up and down. Some of these problems may be addressed in their upcoming redesign. I have yet to find a reader that matches what Google provided in terms of frequency of feed update (Reader seemed to update all feeds every couple of minutes) and ease of use. I’ll keep experimenting with both Netvibes and Newsblur, with the goal of seeing how much of this is just growing pains.
Go Bears. Cal not only whooped UNLV’s ass, they also whipped T-Mobile. Specifically, some UC Berkeley grad students found and fixed a vulnerability in T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi calling. I think this is great, and it shows the strength of Cal’s Cybersecurity program. Disclaimer: My daughter attends UC Berkeley, studying not cybersecurity but history.
Impacts of Technology. The Producers Perspective has an interesting insight on the recent Veronica Mars Kickstarter. This kickstarter has raised almost $3.8 million. The problem: none of these Kickstarter participants are profit participants. They get their DVDs or shirts and go home. The real creatives get to keep any profit. Is this a reasonable or fair model to fund something? This isn’t just a problem for movies: for almost any business idea funded by Kickstarter, the folks providing the seed funding get bubkis overall if their risk pays off.
Doing the Time Warp. Lastly, tangentially related to technology, I must post this really cool article and picture about the Big Bang Theory principles dressed up in their Rocky Horror finest to perform the Time Warp at a benefit for Brian Glazier.

Music: The Smile Sessions (The Beach Boys): “Heroes and Villains [Stereo Mix]“

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userpic=tea This collection of lunchtime news chum articles all have to do with food and drink, so hopefully you can sink your teeth into them:

Coffee. A new coffee has come on the market: Death Wish Coffee. According to the LA Times, a 16-ounce shot of Death Wish hits you with roughly 660 milligrams of caffeine (vs 320 mg for a normal cup of Joe). It is also more expensive, on the order of $20/lb. As for me, you won’t see me drinking it; I often say that coffee only belongs in ice cream or covered in dark chocolate.
Tea. You see, I’m a tea drinking. In fact, every morning I make almost 2 litres of tea, and drink it over the day. In the pot I put 3-4 tsps of loose tea. So naturally I was worried when I saw this headline: Warning: Excessive Tea Drinking Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. The risk is skeletal fluorosis, and it occurred to a woman who was drinking 1-2 gallons of black tea daily. Of course, this was no ordinary tea. According to the article, “She told doctors that she drank a pitcher of tea every day for the last 17 years. This wasn’t your typical tea — she brewed hers with 100 to 150 tea bags per pitcher.” Wow. That’s strong tea.
Schmaltz. Passover starts Monday evening. Traditionally, Passover cooking often uses schmaltz, which is really just rendered chicken fat. Most cultures have something like this: ghee, lard, and so forth. In our health-conscious society, these fats have often been eschewed (gee, I love that word) for “healthier” fats such as olive oil. However, according to NPR, lard and schmaltz are making a comeback.

P.S.: Alas, there will be no Kosher L’Pesach Coke in California this year .