Quite an enjoyable first day at NewClientCo. Didn't have time to post this lot until now though.
Happy invoicing!
- How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet - Rather hyperbolic headline, but you might want to back up your Tumblr blog sooner rather than later: "When a new startup comes into an established company, the first wall it typically hits is CorpDev, or corporate development: the group within a business that manages change... because payment schedules are based on achieving those CorpDev terms, it means both companies have a vested (pun intended) interest in putting those milestones ahead of new features. They are a sledgehammer applied with great force to the feet of nimble development. Worse, they often completely ignore what made the smaller target valuable in the first place."
- Acid on the Jubilee: A Major Challenge, not a Soundbite - "Yesterday saw a plethora of headlines hit both the London papers and the web about the Jubilee Line, as it was revealed that closures would be required in order to allow work to address problems of acid damage to the tunnel wall segments along a 90m section of the line... As is the case with most things, however, the truth is more complex than it seems." Interesting explanation of how the construction of a tube line can cause apparently benign geological formations to turn acidic, and the challenges engineers face in dealing with the consequences.
- ‘Experimental Psychosis’ and LSD Research in Communist Czechoslovakia - And while we're on the subject of acid... "Whilst ultimately the experimenters were doubtful as to whether the parallels between psychosis and drug-induced hallucinations went beyond mere analogy, they argued that inducing ‘model psychosis’ had a very important didactic function for mental health professionals, as it provided a new way for staff to directly experience symptoms of mental illness that they had hitherto only been able to observe in their patients." This was an avenue also explored in psychedelic research in other countries, particularly the USA.
- The most beautiful inventor in the world - Reflections on Hedy Lamarr's role in the invention of spread spectrum frequency hopping. "After receiving the patent, Hedy asked to join the National Inventors’ Council: She wanted to quit the movies and become a full time technologist. They patted her on the head and patronizingly told her to keep her day job as a movie star — they felt she could best serve the war effort by selling war bonds (she once raised $7 million in one night)."
- Redditors Pitch In to Help Restore an 87-Year-Old Grandfather’s WWII Photo - "Redditor Steven Withey‘s grandfather Derek is an 87-year-old WWII veteran who served in the Royal Navy, and a little while back he showed his grandson a badly damaged Navy photo (of a photo) of himself as a 20-year-old. He had showed him the photo in the hopes that his technologically savvy grandson could maybe touch it up a bit, but given the massive creases and tears he didn’t have much hope. It turns out he needn’t have worried, because in this particular case, Reddit came to the rescue." Proof that there are some nice people on the other end of the Internet
- Bicycle-Powered Cardboard Rhino - why, so it is!
- Many Shades Of Play: Records Made From More Than Just Vinyl - Glass and wood are among the materials people are using to make records. To be honest, they sound dreadful.
- Project Kryoflux – Part 6: Dealing with Difficult Disks and Drives - More disks, and an excellent range of tips on how to recover whatever data can still be found on old floppies: "Another thing which can help is to rest your finger on the top head. This acts as if there was a stiffer spring, increasing the clamping pressure on the disk which may allow the head to get just a little bit closer to the magnetic media in areas with contamination. A light touch is all that’s needed. If you push too hard, you will increase the friction between the head and the media, increasing the chances of head damage and gouging of oxide from the disk."
- Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD - "In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?" Cultural differences can result in drastically different approaches to medical issues. It sounds to me like the French are winning at this one.
- UTA Flight 772 - A remarkable gallery of photos of the wreckage of this plane, lost to terrorism in the Sahara, and the monument constructed eighteen years later by families of the victims. You can see it in the middle of the desert on Google Maps; zoom out to get an impression of just how remote it is.
Happy invoicing!
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