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Links

  1. Sold Out by Stefan Collini (London Review of Books)

    On how the UK’s universities have changed over recent decades, becoming bigger, more beholden to private interests, more expensive for students… the LRB’s best current affairs articles are all so depressing.

  2. Counter-Counter-Revolution by David Runciman (London Review of Books)

    On whether 1979 was the most significant year of the 20th century. Either way, an interesting look at a handful of people and occasions that had a profound effect. Suggests we don’t know yet who our current era’s most impactful people will be.

  3. Forms of Delirium by Peter Pomerantsev (London Review of Books)

    Russia’s an odd place. Nationalist, Christian biker gangs etc.

  4. Adactio: Journal—In dependence

    Jeremy Keith collects a bunch of thoughts and quotes on the importance of hosting your own stuff, not posting to silos owned by companies that disappear with it all. (via Paul’s Mison)

  5. Frank Chimero × Blog × Homesteading 2014

    “In light of the noisy, fragmented internet, I want a unified place for myself—the internet version of a quiet, cluttered cottage in the country.” Exactly how I’ve seen my site, which is in need of renovation. Maybe 2014. (via Stellar)

  6. How Netflix Reinvented HR - Harvard Business Review

    Interesting HR stuff that Netflix does differently: no set amounts of holiday, no rigid expenses policies (only “do what’s best for Netflix”), no bonuses, no vesting periods, etc. ie, being adult and sensible. (via Stellar)

  7. IBM’s 5 predictions for the future - CNN.com

    This is pretty depressing. Five ideas that all involve using computers to measure everything to “improve” our lives. It’s a ruthlessly automated future, with no room for humanity, thoughtfulness, common sense, caring, vision, or true spontaneous innovation. (via @thomasfuchs)

  8. Scaling startups

    Chad Dickerson of Etsy, from 2010, on important things about a company’s engineering culture when growing it quickly. To read again in the new year.

  9. Matthew Levi - Comparing Cities: How does quality of life in London compare to that in New York City?

    Long, reasonable, comparison of living in the two cities.

  10. Planespotting

    James Bridle, spotting and tracking the private coaches and planes that are deporting immigrants in our name. Good, difficult stuff.

  11. Jenn $chiffer — Medium

    Really enjoying these posts. While Medium gives a weird fake authority to self-important blog posts from dotcom fools, it also gives a weird fake authority to these. Brilliant.

  12. External Microphones for iPhone 5, 4S, iPad and iPod Touch Audio input | Life is a Prayer.com

    A good roundup of this stuff, although from 2011. I’d like to find a similar thing a bit more recent. Still, always nice to see something quite thorough.

  13. San Francisco Scapegoated for Silicon Valley’s Civic Blind Spot

    Very good point from Peter Merholz: The poor planning (ie, car-centric, sprawling) of Silicon Valley is one reason for the current problems in (more appealingly planned, dense) San Francisco. A good example of the need for regional rather than town planning, I’d guess.

  14. How to buy a suit

    Links to previous posts on Permanent Style about the different aspects.

  15. How we use Trello & Google Docs to make UserVoice better every day

    Really, really useful write-up of how UserVoice use Trello to go from product roadmaps, user-reported bugs, etc into a manageable set of tasks. Seeing how a company does the whole start-to-finish process is great. (via @marrije)

  16. How I Built Emojitracker — Medium

    Brilliant write-up of the difficulties in developing what at first glance looks like a very simple site. Also, makes me pleased Twelescreen is simpler and less popular. (via Waxy)

  17. Richard J. Evans reviews ‘The People’s Car’ by Bernhard Rieger · LRB 12 September 2013

    Lots of interesting nuggets in this history of the Volkswagen Beetle. (Subscribers only)

  18. Laravel

    I learned from Quora that CodeIgniter is pretty dead and Laravel is a well-regarded, more modern, PHP framework.

  19. WHAT THE FLUCK!

    I know many people roll their eyes at Adam Curtis, but no one writes these wide-ranging stories like he does, illustrated with video. (Even if I can’t watch the video because it’s Flash.)

  20. The Historical Present - The Thread that Runs So True

    Leslie Harpold, who died seven years ago, on the web. “The web is made of people holding hands for safety muddling through the mazes of life, love, work, success, failure, and everything in between.”

  21. Rap Stats | Rap Genius

    I love hearing songs that mention Internet things when they’re still pretty new. A graph showing usage of social media brand names over time. (via Kottke)

  22. Anatomy of a failed rendition

    James, better than ever, digging into the network to track the plane, hired by the Home Office, that failed to deport a hunger striker, too weak to see or stand, from the UK. “…climbing and banking to avoid thunderheads and moral accountability.”

  23. Online Scrum Tool / Agile Scrum Software

    Thought I’d saved this already, then couldn’t find it. Nice-looking tool for scrum managing stuff, which can use GitHub Issues. Looks like it does more than Huboard.

  24. ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Internet

    A simple, comprehensive site of weight training exercises and lots more. So nice after all the sites full of “7 Days To Killer Abs!” articles. Started in 1999. Vintage. Old School. The best things.

  25. The Pedway: Elevating London

    I had some problems with this (eg, the commentators all have the same opinion, the shots of today’s walkways make them look more derelict and deserted than they are) but it’s still well worth a watch.

  26. Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both

    Nice down-to-earth book (free PDF with registration) about differences between Scrum and Kanban. (If you have other recommendations for this kind of stuff, do let me know.)

  27. Kanban kick-start example

    A nice, brief, two-page summary of an example Kanban board.

  28. Lean Software Engineering - Scrum-ban

    A nice, not too-prescriptive, description of how to gradually move from Scrum to Kanban.

  29. The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game (PDF)

    Seems like a (the?) good summary of Scrum. Nicely explicit about things.

  30. How Jon Snow dissing the PlayStation 4 explains why no one cares you can’t afford a house

    Oh, yes, all of this. I’m baffled how things like TV and radio news seem to be written by and for white men over 50. God, that sounds naive now I’ve written it down. Duh. But still. (via @matlock)