Link Dump

The building blocks of the internet, links! Now in convenient Shot and Chaser format:

  • Shot: How Google Rediscovered the 19th Century – Interesting article about how Google Books increases the visibility of public domain stuff. Of course, since we’re talking about public domain, we’re talking about 19th century stuff, because come on, copyright needs to last 150 years now.

    …the role of the digital archive in the rediscovery of the 19th century.

    Any reader who has done a project that is historical in nature, regardless of discipline, will recognize the truth of that observation. Thanks to Google, 21st-century scholars are becoming far more accustomed to reading 19th-century books, simply because, being out of copyright, they are online.

    It’s an interesting point. As content owners continue to restrict consumers’ rights, consumers are bypassing them and looking at the public domain because digital services like Google Books make them available. It’s an interesting look at the push and pull of technology.

  • Chaser: Google Reader Died Because No One Would Run It – I’m not bitter about the sunsetting of reader, I swears.
  • Shot: The Sweet Spot: Tech Jargon? Ping Us. – Wherein New York Times journalists admit that they use jargon to make it seem like they know what they’re talking about, when they really don’t. (Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but maybe not.)
  • Chaser: Nothing to See Here: Demoting the Uncertainty Principle – Wherein New York Times journalists (correctly) diagnose the misuse of technical jargon, specifically Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (most people who use that term are really looking to use the phrase “Observation Bias”, but that’s not sexy enough I guess. Plus, it’s not named after a scientist.)

Heh.