[FRIAM] Fwd: Go Read: Open-Source Google Reader Clone - Matt Jibson's Blog

2013-06-28 Thread Owen Densmore
So google reader is going away Monday.  When announced a while back,
several blogs posted alternatives, mainly Feedly but several others, one
even a review each week.  If you do use reader, go immediately to the
export function and save your feeds file!

B
ut here's an interesting new twist: someone decided to build an
all-javascript solution:

  
http://mattjibson.com/blog/2013/06/26/go-read-open-source-google-reader-clone/


This is quite a tribute to JS's maturity!  The article discusses use of
Angular and the pain that data formats pose, and apparently it is deployed
on google's app-engine.  Ironic!  I had assumed AE had died.  But great
that a clever programmer just stuffed reader back onto google's cloud!

   -- Owen

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Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: Go Read: Open-Source Google Reader Clone - Matt Jibson's Blog

2013-06-28 Thread Robert Holmes
Feedly is doing an excellent job of fulfilling all my Reader-related
needs. Strongly recommended.


On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Owen Densmore o...@backspaces.net wrote:

 So google reader is going away Monday.  When announced a while back,
 several blogs posted alternatives, mainly Feedly but several others, one
 even a review each week.  If you do use reader, go immediately to the
 export function and save your feeds file!

 B
 ut here's an interesting new twist: someone decided to build an
 all-javascript solution:



 http://mattjibson.com/blog/2013/06/26/go-read-open-source-google-reader-clone/

 This is quite a tribute to JS's maturity!  The article discusses use of
 Angular and the pain that data formats pose, and apparently it is deployed
 on google's app-engine.  Ironic!  I had assumed AE had died.  But great
 that a clever programmer just stuffed reader back onto google's cloud!

-- Owen

 
 FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
 Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
 to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com


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[FRIAM] data gathering

2013-06-28 Thread glen e. p. ropella

I like the idea of informal data gathering:

   http://www.randomiseme.org/

RCTs are used by scientists to find out what works best. Here, you can
create a trial on anything you wish, and participate in trials set up by
other people.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over
and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the
propaganda. -- George W. Bush



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Re: [FRIAM] data gathering

2013-06-28 Thread Steve Smith

Glen wrote:

I like the idea of informal data gathering:

http://www.randomiseme.org/

RCTs are used by scientists to find out what works best. Here, you can
create a trial on anything you wish, and participate in trials set up by
other people.

I like the *idea* as well, however reviewing the active and completed 
trials leaves me rather underwhelmed.


I tried to go through the tutorial and see if I could ascertain (or even 
intuit) how well their methodology should work.It didn't seem very 
promising.  In particular, it doesn't look like they offer laymen 
enough guidance in what makes for a good sample set or enforcing it?  
The style of questions asked also seem likely to suffer various 
selection biases?


For example, among their completed trials the first two  (1-how to 
remember things; 2-does complementing th ebarista improve my chances of 
free coffee) were declared completed yet the first one consisted of a 
sample set of 8 and the second a sample set of 11 ?The first one 
apparently onlyr *required 1 participant?* while the second required 100 
(but as declared complete with 11?).


I guess I was only mildly surprised (in a disappointing way) at the 
inanity of the questions to date.   As I remember the early days of 
Kickstarter, most of the projects were pretty inane but as some really 
good examples came on, more followed.   I find the Whitehouse.gov 
petitions nearly equally inane, so there is good company here.  Maybe it 
is just internet culture?  Perhaps it is too early to evaluate this?


These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to 
make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer 
is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of 
like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.



h?
 - Steve


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Re: [FRIAM] data gathering

2013-06-28 Thread glen e. p. ropella
Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 11:56 AM:
 These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to
 make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer
 is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of
 like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.

Yeah, I agree with you.  I particularly enjoyed trial 156:

http://randomiseme.org/trials/156

As you know, people in Britain are often anaemic. Sometimes this is due
to poor diet, but most often it's due to vampires.

We need people who live in the vampire infested counties of British
isles (consult Wikipedia for your local prevalence) to consume garlic on
a daily basis, or not.

I had a similar feeling about Quora when it started.  A friend of mine
gave me an account before it went public and I tried interacting, asking
and answering questions to my best ability.  I was put off by the snarky
answers and inane questions.  So I killed my account.  But now it seems
to be somewhat interesting, though far less successful than
stackoverflow, I suppose.

In the end, we have the age-old aphorism: You get what you put in or
you reap what you sow.  I expect that if randomiseme.org were _used_
by people who know and care about the difference between good data and
bad, then it would become useful.  Not surprisingly, this is why I still
use Google+, but avoid Facebook like the plague.  And, just like the
transition from the internet to the WWW, I expect I'll soon have to
abandon G+ as well.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
Talking about non-linear mathematics is like talking about non-elephant
zoology. -- Stanislaw Ulam



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Re: [FRIAM] data gathering

2013-06-28 Thread Steve Smith

Glen -

I took an early interest in social networking and in the potential power 
of crowd sourcing but got burned out looking for the needle in the 
haystack or the gem in the coal-bin as it were.   I am highly motivated 
to believe it can work but the dearth of good examples seems to continue.


Wikipedia and Google Search are the closest things to success stories I 
know of, but I may not be thinking hard enough.  Search, of course,  
mostly doesn't depend on smart usage, though I am surprised sometimes 
when the rank ordering of results reflects some aspect of pop culture 
that I am clueless about (which is many)... Wikipedia is so much more 
intentional and despite the crowd-source for content, I think the 
somewhat hierarchical control of style and nature provided by the 
network of paid and volunteer staff keeps it (somewhat) coherent beyond 
what a true anarchy might.


My wife and daughters are big on Pinterest but I've never taken the 
plunge... I get some good forwards from them in their respective 
domains.   It seems as if the mail-list or group paradigm is still 
generally the best referral service for me. Despite my snarkiness now 
and again on FRIAM I think I do get more signal/noise than many other 
places.


I think one of the things I'm contemplating on this general topic is 
what does it take to transcend the mundane in these environments?   
There must be precedent in analog systems for noise cancellation, etc.?


On your implied recommendation, I've just joined Quora and was pleased 
to find right away a colleague who I highly respect (someone I would 
follow on nearly any forum) there already. We'll see how it all works out.


- Steve

Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 11:56 AM:

These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to
make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer
is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of
like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.

Yeah, I agree with you.  I particularly enjoyed trial 156:

http://randomiseme.org/trials/156

As you know, people in Britain are often anaemic. Sometimes this is due
to poor diet, but most often it's due to vampires.

We need people who live in the vampire infested counties of British
isles (consult Wikipedia for your local prevalence) to consume garlic on
a daily basis, or not.

I had a similar feeling about Quora when it started.  A friend of mine
gave me an account before it went public and I tried interacting, asking
and answering questions to my best ability.  I was put off by the snarky
answers and inane questions.  So I killed my account.  But now it seems
to be somewhat interesting, though far less successful than
stackoverflow, I suppose.

In the end, we have the age-old aphorism: You get what you put in or
you reap what you sow.  I expect that if randomiseme.org were _used_
by people who know and care about the difference between good data and
bad, then it would become useful.  Not surprisingly, this is why I still
use Google+, but avoid Facebook like the plague.  And, just like the
transition from the internet to the WWW, I expect I'll soon have to
abandon G+ as well.





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[FRIAM] Quora mining

2013-06-28 Thread Steve Smith

Glen-

Along with finding an esteemed colleague worth following right away, I 
found this wonderful nugget buried away deep in the archives:


Answers that used to be on this list but which have been deleted:

 * 11 votes: Glen Ropella http://www.quora.com/Glen-Ropella's answer
   to What is the difference between a tool and a douchebag?
   http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-tool-and-a-douchebag
   --- A douchebag is a specific tool for a specific use.  Tools are
   more generally useful.

It was a wonderfully Glen Ropella-styled answer!

Neither of these terms (as used here) are part of my regular vernacular, 
yet somehow you managed to tease out the essence of both terms in this 
context quite well!


- Steve


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Re: [FRIAM] Quora mining

2013-06-28 Thread glen
Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 12:53 PM:
  * 11 votes: Glen Ropella http://www.quora.com/Glen-Ropella's answer
to What is the difference between a tool and a douchebag?
   
 http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-tool-and-a-douchebag
 
--- A douchebag is a specific tool for a specific use.  Tools are
more generally useful.
 
 It was a wonderfully Glen Ropella-styled answer!
 
 Neither of these terms (as used here) are part of my regular vernacular,
 yet somehow you managed to tease out the essence of both terms in this
 context quite well!

Heh, that reminds me of this piece of pop culture I stumbled into this
morning (and by searching for it on Google, my usage and clickage puts
it that much closer to the top):

Blurred Lines Is Cocky, Yes. But Rapey? No.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/06/27/robin_thicke_s_blurred_lines_is_cocky_yes_but_rapey_and_misogynistic_no.html

If you want more proof that the repetitive I know you want it chorus
isn't creepy, let's do a closer reading of the other lyrics. The end of
the chorus goes: The way you grab me/ must wanna get nasty/ go ahead,
get at me. The last part, go ahead, get at me very clearly kills any
rapey vibe. In fact, he's putting the ball in her court by telling her
to make the move and not the other way around. He's saying, You're
clearly turned on by me. Go for it. (Again: Douche? Sure. Rapist?
Probably not.)

I'll never get that time back. [sigh]

-- 
⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella
I'm living easy where the sun doesn't shine



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