From helping shut-ins to sisterly advice, mail-order magazines did more than just sell things | Smithsonian https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/helping-shut-ins-sisterly-advice-mail-order-magazines-did-more-just-sell-things-180967857/

Intel claims 90 percent of affected CPUs have live patches just as rumors of new attacks arrive | Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com/intel-claims-90-percent-of-affected-cpus-have-live-patc-1822192075

The techlash against Amazon, Facebook and Google — and what they can do: A memo to big tech | The Economist https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21735026-which-antitrust-remedies-welcome-which-fight-techlash-against-amazon-facebook-and

Simple made easy | a talk by Rich Hickey, creator of Clojure https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

Are we there yet? | a talk by Rick Hickey, creator of Clojure https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hickey

How I fell in love with Clojure | Christopher Small http://www.metasoarous.com/how-i-fell-in-love-with-clojure/

Top 5 trends in front-end development for 2018 | Applikey https://applikeysolutions.com/blog/top-5-trends-in-front-end-development-for-2018

Snap lays off two dozen employees | Cheddar https://cheddar.com/videos/exclusive-snap-lays-off-two-dozen-employees

I am looking at Wes Bos' JavaScript 30: Build 30 things with vanilla JS in 30 days with 30 tutorials https://javascript30.com/

Implementing an open salary policy at a 17-year-old company (that company being Fog Creek Software) https://medium.com/make-better-software/talking-transparency-at-fog-creek-c8b72d58f6c

The fall of Travis Kalanick was a lot weirder and darker than you thought | Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-18/the-fall-of-travis-kalanick-was-a-lot-weirder-and-darker-than-you-thought

Elixir - Erlang didn't change, the world did https://tomjoro.github.io/2017-01-31-world-changed/

How much would an iPhone cost if Apple were forced to make it in America? (You guessed too low!) https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/17/how-much-would-an-iphone-cost-if-apple-were-forced-to-make-it-in-america/#7749b3cf2d2a

Why Russia is building its own Internet | IEEE Spectrum https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/could-russia-really-build-its-own-alternate-internet

New California declares independence from California in statehood bid | USA Today https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/16/new-california-declares-independence-california-bid-become-51st-state/1036681001/

The hidden costs of serverless | A Cloud Guru https://read.acloud.guru/the-hidden-costs-of-serverless-6ced7844780b

Learn X in Y Minutes: Scenic programming language tours (for the minute, I'm obsessed with this site) https://learnxinyminutes.com

Transmit AM radio on computers without radio transmitting hardware | system-bus-radio https://github.com/fulldecent/system-bus-radio

Hey, makers of video content on Twitter, your video doesn't show until the video ad -- which has nothing to do with your content -- is over. tl;dr: Your entire post looks like an ad for some product, and you're getting paid /home/public//cgi-bin/ode.cgi.

How a 22-year-old discovered the worst chip flaws in history | Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/how-a-22-year-old-discovered-the-worst-chip-flaws-in-history

Lipi is a GUI that lets regular people use the Hugo static blog creator http://sohanchy.com/Lipi/

Your weird job titles are making you miss the best candidates | Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com/40514090/your-weird-job-titles-are-making-you-miss-the-best-candidates

Is this the beginning of the end of the Bitcoin bubble? | The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/bitcoin-bubble-pop/550601/

Containers vs. operating systems | Dave Cheney https://dave.cheney.net/2018/01/16/containers-versus-operating-systems

Should internet firms pay for the data users currently give away? | The Economist https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21734390-and-new-paper-proposes-should-data-providers-unionise-should-internet

How I Start - Let's Build a Ruby Gem Together! | Yuki & Moto Press http://yukimotopress.github.io/start

Everyone is getting hilariously rich and you're not (hint: it's about SF tech bros and Bitcoin) | The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/bitcoin-millionaires.html

Is the answer to phone addiction a worse phone? | The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-phone.html

If you have any interest in Clojure, Lisp or functional programming, you should read this list (early and often).

Thanks to Azel4231 for the list on Github. More at https://feierabendprojekte.wordpress.com

Also from Azel4231: An introduction to Clojure (2015, slides in PDF format)

IBM mainframe tube module part II: Powering up and using a 1950s key debouncer http://www.righto.com/2018/01/ibm-mainframe-tube-module-part-ii.html

Digital minimalism for the working hacker | Z.D. Smith http://blog.zdsmith.com/posts/digital-minimalism-for-the-working-hacker.html

Inside one of America's last pencil factories | The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/magazine/inside-one-of-americas-last-pencil-factories.html

4 lessons for software developers from 1970s mainframe programming | HPE https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/4-lessons-for-modern-software-developers-from-1970s-mainframe-programming-1709.html

ClojureScript syntax in 15 minutes | shaunlebron https://github.com/shaunlebron/ClojureScript-Syntax-in-15-minutes

Murdoch’s News Corp. warns Facebook to avoid ‘political’ changes | Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/murdoch-s-news-corp-warns-facebook-to-avoid-political-changes

The state of Atom’s performance | blog.atom.io http://blog.atom.io/2018/01/10/the-state-of-atoms-performance.html

2017 JavaScript rising stars (you have to do a little clicking once you get there) https://risingstars.js.org/2017/en/

Ruby still isn't dead | Engine Yard https://www.engineyard.com/blog/ruby-still-isnt-dead

Firefox bullshit removal via about:config | haasn https://gist.github.com/haasn/69e19fc2fe0e25f3cff5

Modern JavaScript explained for dinosaurs | Medium https://medium.com/the-node-js-collection/modern-javascript-explained-for-dinosaurs-f695e9747b70

Unix's curl utility coming to Windows | daniel.haxx.se https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/01/13/microsoft-curls-too/

There's a simplicity to the Ode blogging system that is lacking in almost everything else out there. I say this as I test a static blogging system that is bringing in about 100 dependencies right now. https://ode.io/home/

Brave and DuckDuckGo Partner to Improve Privacy on the Web | Brave.com https://brave.com/brave-and-duckduckgo-partner-to-improve-privacy-on-the-web/

Samsung is the latest OEM to unlock FM chips in new phones | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/samsung-will-start-unlocking-fm-radio-chips-in-new-phones/

We’d love to link you to this website but it’s impossible | The Outline https://theoutline.com/post/2855/we-d-love-to-link-you-to-this-website-but-it-s-impossible

Don't rely on \r \n in your regexes. I have based a couple on the files having Windows-style endings, and I'm now realizing that text editors can change all endings automatically when you open up a document. Endings of \r\n can become \n if the editor is set that way.

Why the office needs a typewriter revolution | Low-Tech Magazine http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/11/why-the-office-needs-a-typewriter-revolution.html

Improving ourselves to death | The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/improving-ourselves-to-death

Dropbox Files Confidentially for U.S. IPO - Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/dropbox-is-said-to-file-confidentially-for-initial-offering

I tried Debian 9.3 with GNOME (and non-free firmware). Smooth sailing with usual exception of tweaks for my HD (1920x1080) screen. Apps fare worse than the desktop. After scaling things up, fonts don't look so good. Once Ubuntu "fixes" their 17.10 ISO, I need to try it.

With ingestible pill, you can track fart development in real time on your phone | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/with-ingestible-pill-you-can-track-fart-development-in-real-time-on-your-phone/

Microsoft halts AMD Meltdown and Spectre patches after reports of unbootable PCs - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/9/16867068/microsoft-meltdown-spectre-security-updates-amd-pcs-issues

‘It can’t be true’: Inside the computer processor industry’s meltdown | Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-08/-it-can-t-be-true-inside-the-semiconductor-industry-s-meltdown

FBI chief calls encryption a ‘major public safety issue’ | The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-chief-calls-encryption-a-major-public-safety-issue/2018/01/09/29a04166-f555-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html

I just tried Debian Stable Live with nonfree firmware, and everything worked. I had to make some adjustments because most Linux/Unix GUIs (I was using Xfce) don't expect an HD (1920x1080) screen out of the box. I'm shocked at how well it went.

A very thoughtful post by James Bennett on the importance, value and necessity of a CS degree for a career in programming http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2018/jan/08/degrees/

Intel handling of CPU bugs disclosure 'incredibly bad,' says OpenBSD's Theo de Raadt | iTWire https://www.itwire.com/security/81338-handling-of-cpu-bug-disclosure-incredibly-bad-openbsd-s-de-raadt.html

It's well past time that I get out of shared hosting and onto a "real" server, meaning some kind of VPS (DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr). Shared hosting is a byproduct of the LAMP-stack era, which is not the world we're in now.

I'm trying other Windows editors, but Vim is still winning. While I currently find it hard to write code in Vim, for these short posts the Vim "modal" editing style is perfect. Ability to edit and write w/o mouse and arrow keys is a huge bonus.

I tweet a lot, but I don't have nearly enough followers to make it worth my while. When is it "worth it"? 5K, 10K, 100K? This is one of many reasons I want my social-media messages to have a permanent life on my own web site.