Recent Articles

Kate Martin:

The Tacoma Police Department apparently has bought — and quietly used for six years — controversial surveillance equipment that can sweep up records of every cellphone call, text message and data transfer up to a half a mile away.

Makes sense, John is a sketchy looking guy. ((Seriously though: in my own backyard? Damn.))

Glenn Greenwald on the very real dangers of seemingly innocuous censorship of the Foley beheading video:

Given the savagery of the Foley video, it’s easy in isolation to cheer for its banning on Twitter. But that’s always how censorship functions: it invariably starts with the suppression of viewpoints which are so widely hated that the emotional response they produce drowns out any consideration of the principle being endorsed.

Be sure to read the entire post as Greenwald makes the case for why services like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are now more like public utilities than private entities. A fate they certainly don't want thrust upon them.

This is where TextBundle comes in. TextBundle brings convenience back – by bundling the Markdown text and all referenced images into a single file.

Cool work and I can't wait to see where this heads. Here's hoping for fast developer support as this could be killer for iOS too.

Álvaro Serrano:

When you look at the whole process, the amount of tools and gear that are needed may seem daunting. And yet, it is entirely possible to build a lightweight, versatile photographic kit for the urban professional.

What a great and detailed look by Serrano at how and what he carries everyday. It’s eerily similar to how I work daily too — we both use GORUCK Field Pockets to carry a camera in a ‘normal’ bag for instance. He owns more lenses than I think one needs, but he doesn’t carry them all daily — which is probably more important.

Mathew Ingram talking about Facebook’s lack of Ferguson coverage:

In the end, we all have to choose the news sources that we trust and the ones that work for us in whatever way we decide is important. And if we choose Facebook, that means we will likely miss certain things as a result of the filtering algorithm — things we may not even realize we are missing — unless the network changes the way it handles breaking news events like Ferguson.

Ingram does a good job explaining the why, but I think he severely downplays the significance. Facebook is too massive for this type of thing to be OK — as Facebook is effectively censoring the news. I am fine with an algorithm based approach, but somewhere there should be a human who is looking at current events and can say: “Wait, this is important.” And thus the news is let through to all users.

I highly doubt that Ferguson would be covered by the likes of CNN if it weren’t for Twitter. Had Facebook been our only source, it would have passed most of us by, and that is a problem.

David Carr:

There is a visceral quality to Twitter that can bring stories to a boiling point. Ron Mott, an NBC correspondent and a social media skeptic, watched Twitter turn up the heat on Wednesday and tweeted, “As powerful as our press have been through years of our democracy, social media raises temp on public officials like never before.”

When I came back on to Twitter I mentioned three reasons why, but I left off one important reason: when news breaks, Twitter is the best place to learn about it. Whether it’s an accident on a local highway, or something as tragic as Ferguson, Twitter is where the latest information resides.

Maureen Dowd:

“It’s hypocritical,” [James] Risen said. “A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin. They don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”

This is one of the last things I would have pegged Obama as being, but thus far his administration has been aggressive at pursuing “leaks” — which would be fine, but he doesn’t seem overly concerned at respecting journalism.

Josh Ginter writing about Vesper:

If I find myself without a pen and memo book and I have a thought or journal idea, I quickly jot it down in Vesper. Once I get back to my written journal, I can write the contents of the note in my book and expand on them if necessary.

As I talked about with Patrick Rhone on my podcast, I will simply never understand this mindset of analog first tools. To me it is backwards: notes should be flowing back into apps like Vesper, not the other way around.

But all of that is beside the point of this link.

Because the point of this link is two-fold:

1. Ginter has written an excellent review, and the accompanying photography is outstanding. If he keeps up this level of work I’m out of a gig.
2. He makes some really good points about Vesper in general, which is worth reading if Vesper makes you scratch your head.

Ginter clearly loves the app, and it’s an odd app to love because on ‘paper’ there are so many better options (Simplenote to name one).

But as I said in my review of the app: “You either are compelled to use things you love because of practicality or because of the way they make you feel.”

Vesper sits next to Simplenote on my iPhone and I use Vesper for everything — unless I absolutely know I need that info back on my Mac. Simplenote is really only used to receive things from my Mac, because most of the time I just don’t need notes on all my devices, as I mostly just need them on a device I have with me.