wetwebwork.com

• How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet
  “Do you remember Flickr’s tag line? It reads “almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.” It was an epic humble brag, a momentously tongue in cheek understatement.
  
  “Because until three years ago, of course Flickr was the best photo sharing service in the world. Nothing else could touch it. If you cared about digital photography, or wanted to share photos with friends, you were on Flickr.”
• an example of the usefulness of bittorrent for entirely legal purposes – WWdN: In Exile
  “Anyway, my point with this post is to illustrate that the bittorrent protocol is useful for more than just infringement, so when you hear industry lobbying groups making a lot of noise about piracy, you’ll remember that they aren’t giving you all the facts.”
• The Brixton Pound – Money that sticks to Brixton – B£
  How did I not hear about the Brixton Pound till now?
  
  “The Brixton Pound (B£) is money that sticks to Brixton. It’s designed to support Brixton businesses and encourage local trade and production. It’s a complementary currency, working alongside (not replacing) pounds sterling, for use by independent local shops and traders.”

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• Dropbox Ran Afoul of Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines: So What? :: The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It

  “Last week, a number of developers reported that Apple was rejecting iOS applications that used Dropbox, a popular cloud file storage and backup system. An initial thread on the Dropbox developers’ forum has led to a outpouring of tech news full of hyperbolic claims. However, none of this reporting has covered the real problem – Apple is now more concerned about protecting its business model than serving its users or its developers.

  …

  The Dropbox rejections are another reminder that iOS developers are entirely dependent on Apple’s whims to reach users inside its walled garden. App rejections can lead to weeks of fixes and months of lost sales. Furthermore, Apple’s review system is non-transparent, the policies violated aren’t public and enforcement is subject to change. Developers can question reviewer rulings, but all of this takes place out of the public eye– hence Dropbox having no idea that apps using its SDK were being rejected till Peuc posted on the forum.”

• How Can You Tell If Uploading Your Cover Song To YouTube Is Infringing? You Can’t | Techdirt
  It’s likely that a rather large number of the cover song videos uploaded each day are infringing — potentially opening up the uploaders to huge statutory fines for violating copyright law. This is a clear sign of where the law is broken. The law clearly wasn’t mean for these kinds of situations, and it’s easily fixable. Baio makes the point that here’s an easy reform to copyright law that would decriminalize a very common behavior:
  The real question: Why is it illegal in the first place?Cover songs on YouTube are, almost universally, non-commercial in nature. They’re created by fans, mostly amateur musicians, with no negative impact on the market value of the original work. (If anything, it increases demand by acting as a free promotional vehicle for the track.)

  The best solution is the hardest one: To reform copyright law to legalize the distribution of free, non-commercial cover songs.

• jawj/pigeonsim · GitHub

  “The simulator lets users fly around London in Google Earth by mimicking the motions of a pigeon in front of a Kinect depth camera. The system recognise a number of flying gestures: banking left or right to turn, flapping your arms to gain height and leaning forward to dive. Users can also perform a “beam me up Scotty” gesture by placing one hand on their chest, returning them to the starting point at UCL.”

  c/o nerdrepublic

• This clip may help you appreciate Beethoven’s 5th Symphony just a little more. [VIDEO]

  Visualization of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is superb.

  c/o al lowe

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