Category Archives: good code

If you’ve not become a reader of factcheck.org, you should. They work too hard, in my biased view, to present flaws on both sides. But that’s a virtuous sin in such an organization. It’s review of the VP debates is great. Continue reading →

Send to five (Republicans not included). Continue reading →

From the CC blog:

The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World is a newly released book on “how to create communities of thousands […] and channel their energy to effect political, social and cultural transformation.” Written by tech-advocate and political theorist Ralph Benko, The Websters’ Dictionary aims to educate on the web’s potential to motivate groups and enact change on broader issues, all while keeping in mind the complexities inherent in organizing movements online.

While the book is aimed at those with mid-level web experience, The Websters’ Dictionary has salient points that should resonate across technical prowess and familiarity. The Websters’ Dictionary is available for free PDF download – after taking the “Websters’ Oath” – and is being released under a CC BY-NC license, meaning that it can be reused in any number of ways, as long as future works credit Ralph Benko and are noncommercial in intent. Hardcover and paperbacks versions of the book should be available in October.

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As reported on the LA Times blog, During the primaries, a bunch of us (both Democrats and Republicans) called on the parties to demand that the networks adopt “open” or “free debate” principles, to assure that the debates would be available to everyone to use or reuse as they choose.
We’re back. In the extended entry below is another letter, signed by another bipartisan mix, calling on McCain and Obama to commit to “open debate principles.” You can get a PDF of the letter here. Continue reading →

The ever-fantastic Sunlight Foundation has a launched a Public Markup of the Financial Industry Bailout Bill. Check it out here. Continue reading →

Susan Crawford’s fantastic idea — One Web Day — happened today. I participated in New York. My five minutes is in the extended entry. PDF is here. Continue reading →

So here’s an embarrassing confession: I’m a member of the Clear program. If you fly a lot, you will have seen a growing number of airports with this beautiful blue cube at a security check point. If you’re not paying attention, you might not understand what they are. These are premium security check points, meaning you pay Clear a fee, hand over some biometric data, and they give you a Clear card. Then you get to use the Clear card to pass through this special security line. (Weirdly, you still need to produce a photo ID, but never mind).
Why would anyone ever do this?
I find the worst part of travel is the uncertainty caused by variable events — the need to bury 60 minutes to be sure that you can get through security when 80% of the time it would only take 20 minutes. For people like Joi Ito (and to a lesser extent, me, meaning people who travel way too much), that adds a huge amount of wasted time to the travel schedule.
The great advantage to Clear is that you are 95% certain that security will take no more than 10 minutes. Usually it is much much less. Meaning you can shave tons of time off of time at the airport, meaning you can add lots of time to time at home (for me, with my kids).
For some of you, the advantage may well be worth the cost. And if it is (and here’s the real reason I’m advertising this here), you could lower the cost to me if you use this referral code — [removed — see comments] — when you sign up here. That code, in other words, gets me a month free.
Scandalous, I know, me pushing this privacy-reducing technology, though beyond the biometric data, I’m not sure what additional data I’m actually providing to the world beyond what is already there, and I’m not a deep skeptic of biometrics. But there’s no requirement you use it (you’re free, of course, to go through the standard line if you want to), and there’s lots of promises about how the data won’t be used (though of course, in a world of immunity granted to corporations cooperating with the government, no one should trust those promises). But here’s how I calculate it for me: I flew about 50 times last year. If this reliably saves me 30 minutes each flight, that’s 25 hours saved. At minimum wage, that just about pays for the privilege. And at the value I place on time with my kids, it pays for itself many many times over.
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Whistle-Safe.org is a site designed to lower to cost of whistleblowers coming forward, by offering to protect their anonymity. In this climate of a scandal a day, useful progress. Continue reading →

British humorist Stephen Fry has produced a video to mark the 25th Anniversary of RMS’s launch of the GNU operating system. Watch and celebrate here.
This is an extraordinary milestone to mark. I’ll keep a list of celebratory videos here (email me with any links). Congratulations to Richard on the success of this movement launched as an idea 25 years ago (September 27 is the date), and more importantly, thank you to Richard for this movement launched as an idea 25 years ago. Continue reading →

Free Press (and others) alleged that Comcast was blocking the BitTorrent application. We’ve known for sometime the result in this case (because of the weird practice of the FCC to release the results of an order without necessarily releasing the order). But at the crack of dawn (California time) today, the Commission released its 34 page order.
It is fantastically well done. So much so that I felt compelled (in that weird lawyer like way) to blather my own 5 pages of thanks in a letter to the Commission that will be mailed today. Continue reading →