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This free online encyclopedia has achieved what Wikipedia can only dream of

With the right people and a little effort, we could have the internet we always wanted.

Click to view the original at qz.com

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Hasnain says:

This is mind blowing and an amazing read on technology, ads, and privacy that everyone should read.

"Advertisers end up right back where they started,still not knowing which half of their advertising budget is being wasted. Except in the process they've destroyed our privacy."

Posted on 2015-09-23T15:54:00+0000

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A Decade at Google

I recently celebrated my 10th anniversary at Google and decided to take the opportunity to share some of my reflections on the past decade. Prior to joining Google, I was on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, where I founded the databas…

Click to view the original at wp.sigmod.org

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All the 'Happy Birthday' song copyright claims are invalid, federal judge rules

None of the companies that have collected royalties on the "Happy Birthday" song for the past 80 years held a valid copyright claim to one of the most popular songs in history, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday.

Click to view the original at www.latimes.com

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Across the USA by Train for Just $213

Turns out, you don’t need a car to see America. Traveling coast-to-coast across the United States by train is one of the world’s greatest travel experiences. Amazingly, it’s also one of the world’s greatest travel bargains...

Click to view the original at dereklow.co

Hasnain says:

This is another set of plagiarized photos (same guy who did the Singapore Airline stuff) but the article is interesting nonetheless. I didn't know it was just $213 to go coast to coast like this.

Posted on 2015-09-22T16:30:31+0000

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Facebook Doesn’t Make as Much Money as It Could—On Purpose

Facebook and its chief economist have devised a system for buying ads that prevents advertisers from cheating–at least in theory.

Click to view the original at www.wired.com

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The Bourne Aesthetic – blarg?

“The difference between something that can go wrong and something that can’t possibly go wrong is that when something that can’t possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”

Click to view the original at exple.tive.org

Hasnain says:

"Who is our generation's James Bond? Jason Bourne. He can’t trust his employer, who demanded ultimate loyalty and gave nothing in return. In fact, his employer is outsourcing his work to a bunch of foreign contractors who presumably work for less and ask fewer questions. He’s given up his defined benefit pension (Bourne had a military one) for an individual retirement account (safe deposit box with gold/leeching off the gf in a country with a depressed currency). In fact his employer is going to use him up until he’s useless. He can’t trust anyone, other than a few friends he’s made on the way while backpacking around. Medical care? Well that’s DIY with stolen stuff, or he gets his friends to hook him up. What kinds of cars does he have? Well no more company car for sure, he’s on his own on that, probably some kind of import job. What about work tools? Bourne is on is own there too. Sure, work initially issued him a weapon, but after that he’s got to scrounge up whatever discount stuff he can find, even when it’s an antique. He has to do more with less. And finally, Bourne survives as a result of his high priced, specialized education. He can do things few people can do – fight multiple opponents, hotwire a car, tell which guy in a restaurant can handle himself, hotwire cars, speak multiple languages and duck a surveillance tail. Oh, and like the modern, (sub)urban professional, Bourne had to mortgage his entire future to get that education. They took everything he had, and promised that if he gave himself up to the System, in return the System would take care of him.

It turned out to be a lie.

We’re all Jason Bourne now."

Posted on 2015-09-21T16:23:59+0000