Friday’s Recommended Reads

(sorry I missed yesterday … too many flights and the red-eye and meetings killed me)

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

How PBS Is Reviving Carmen Sandiego: Attention gumshoes: The mystery of PBS’s Carmen Sandiego revival is solved. The network is reviving the character with a new online social game. Yep, no new shows, no old show, but a new game. Fans can help PBS solve “The Case of the Pilfered Paintbrushes” every Thursday. – by Chris Harnick – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/pbs-carmen-sandiego_n_4276403.html

A Wonderfully Simplified Map of San Francisco’s Bicycle Infrastructure: Drivers who stop to ask Mat Kladney for directions are in for a frustrating day. Because Kladney bicycles all over San Francisco, the route he instinctively gives weaves through town like a madman’s marathon – great for cyclists, unnatural and awful for motorists. – by John Metcalfe – http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/11/wonderfully-simplified-map-san-franciscos-bicycle-infrastructure/7554/#.UoQaZ0cm2P0.twitter

Is the Internet of Things Creating Data Hoarders?: By now, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) is something you’ve heard before. In fact, a recent Morgan Stanley report predicts that the number of devices connected to the IoT will reach 75 billion by the year 2020. – by Greg White – http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/11/is-the-internet-of-things-creating-data-hoarders/

New Glass Input Methods: Eye-Tracking, Web Control, Touch-Sensitive Clothing, and Bananas: YouTube video accompanying the post (click image to view) How we interact with a device largely determines the context that it can be used in (e.g., while driving, during a meeting) and potentially who can use it (e.g., users with disabilities). Glass supports touch gestures (e.g. – http://blog.brandynwhite.com/new-glass-input-methods_eye-tracking_touch-sensitive-clothing

What’s Wrong with Tech Writing?: Confession: I am a tech writer. So this week we learned Android was dominating the smartphone market to an extent it never has before. IDC’s figures were quoted everywhere, accompanied with many a catchy headline or turn of phrase. It’s terrible news for Apple. It’s great news for Google. – by Kit Eaton – https://medium.com/editors-picks/6809cb0ea604

The Inside Story of How the iPad Got Its Iconic Design: While Jony Ive’s group was secretly working on the iPad, Steve Jobs was telling the public and press that Apple had no intention of releasing a tablet. “Tablets appeal to rich guys with plenty of other PCs and de- vices already,” he said publicly. But Jobs was dissembling. – by Leander Kahney – http://gizmodo.com/the-inside-story-of-how-the-ipad-got-its-iconic-deisgn-1463463557

Do We Live in the Matrix?: In the 1999 sci-fi film classic The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, is stunned to see people defying the laws of physics, running up walls and vanishing suddenly. – by Zeeya Merali – http://discovermagazine.com/2013/dec/09-do-we-live-in-the-matrix#.UoU3_GR4ayg

Instagram Is Spoiling Your Dinner: It turns out that those self-appointed ‘foodies’ clogging up your Instagram feed with photos of their latest gastronomic feat are more than just annoying – they’re literally ruining your appetite. – Tags: food, food culture, foodie, instagram, internet culture, brigham young university, university of minnesota, why do we post photos of food, ,featured,foodie culture,instagram,internet culture,psychology,social media – http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/11/instagram-is-spoiling-your-dinner/

AmazonFresh Is Jeff Bezos’ Last Mile Quest For Total Retail Domination: Amazon upended retail, but CEO Jeff Bezos — who just bought The Washington Post for $250 million — insists it’s still “Day One.” What comes next? A relentless pursuit of cheaper goods and faster shipping. The competition is already gasping for breath. – by Pari Dukovic – http://www.fastcompany.com/3014817/amazon-jeff-bezos

Apple Store Point Of Sale Systems Go Down Again Today, Outage Continues: Some Apple Stores have had their point-of-sale systems go down repeatedly today, TechCrunch has learned. There was an extensive outage early Thursday morning and there has been an ongoing outage this evening in some stores. – by Matthew Panzarino – http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/14/apple-store-point-of-sale-systems-go-down-again-today-outage-continues/

The Best Of Fritz Kahn, The Grandfather Of Data Visualization: We’re in the golden age of infographics. Everything from the death toll in Breaking Bad to the sinking of the Titanic to trends in men’s jewelry has been rendered in fancy little charts, graphs, and maps. – http://www.fastcodesign.com/3021584/infographic-of-the-day/the-best-of-fritz-kahn-the-grandfather-of-data-visualization

Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here’s How They Did It: The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks. – by Nicholas Weaver – http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-internet-backbone-has-been-turned-into-a-weapon/

Pew Social Media Study: 30% Of The U.S. Gets News Via Facebook; Reddit Has The Most News-Hungry Regular Users: The Pew Research Center is today releasing comparative numbers looking at how U.S. adults use social networking sites to read news (a follow-on from earlier research focusing on two specific sites, Facebook and Twitter). This is significant for a couple of reasons. – by Ingrid Lunden – http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/14/pew-social-media-study-30-of-the-u-s-gets-news-via-facebook-reddit-has-the-most-news-hungry-regular-users/

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