Newsballs

Follow As A Metric

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:43:44 +0000

One of my favorite things about working for Circa is seeing the follower counts for stories. Page views and uniques are a good way to measure how interesting a headline is. Time on article is a good way to measure how interesting the piece was.

But Circa gives users the option to follow a story for further updates. Being able to see what stories people are following is very powerful. It says, “That’s cool. Tell me more.” It changes your mindset from looking for quick gratification to looking for stories with “legs.”

nb. The most followed stories on Circa? Space, tech and national events.

Django Unchained - 88% critic rating

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:28:25 +0000

Django Unchained - 88% critic rating:

Worth seeing.

How M.I.T. Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:26:47 +0000

How M.I.T. Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture:

What the university officials did not know at the time was that the intruder was Aaron Swartz, one of the shining lights of the technology world and a leading advocate for open access to information, with a fellowship down the road at Harvard.

Student expelled from Canadian university after finding security flaw

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:24:05 +0000

Student expelled from Canadian university after finding security flaw:

A student has been expelled from Montreal’s Dawson College after he discovered a flaw in the computer system used by most Quebec CEGEPs (General and Vocational Colleges), one which compromised the security of over 250,000 students’ personal information.

This is what you call, “polishing a turd.”

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:00:05 +0000

This is what you call, “polishing a turd.”

The Times survey their subscribers

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:33:30 +0000

It makes me feel that they can’t believe their digital product range would ever attract people who hadn’t previously purchased the paper.

In favor of inline discussions

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:14:28 +0000

I’m game for trying anything new, I mean, I even tried Google Wave. But the more I’ve used threaded discussions of any variety, the less I like them. I find precious few redeeming qualities, while threading tends to break crucial parts of discussion like reading and replying in deep, fundamental, unfixable ways. I have yet to discover a threaded discussion design that doesn’t eventually make me hate it, and myself.

"We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a..."

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:00:31 +0000

“We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book”

- Apple

"We think Circa has developed the right technology and persona to capture a large audience looking..."

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:35:19 +0000

“We think Circa has developed the right technology and persona to capture a large audience looking for their mobile devices as their main source of news.”

- Circa Raises $750K From Group Including Lerer Ventures To Revolutionize Mobile News Delivery

Thanks Nate.

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:22:08 +0000

USA Today has decided not to renew a polling contract with Gallup that dates back to 1992. We cannot say at this point why USA Today dropped Gallup, but one cannot help but wonder whether Gallup’s poor track record has something to do with it.

Te'o: Know your journalism

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:57:16 +0000

I have nothing to add to the furor over this whole “Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend Is A Hoax” thing, except this: we journalists have a lot to worry about and we have tools with which we can fight to preserve our credibility.

newyorker: Cartoon by Tom Toro. For more from this week’s...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:17:20 +0000

newyorker:

Cartoon by Tom Toro. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/TWHp5J

Park Slope Cowboys.

The Trend Against Skeuomorphic Textures and Effects in User Interface Design

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:12:00 +0000

There is a shift going on, fashion-wise. A turn against faux textures, perhaps epitomized by the rich Corinthian leather of Apple’s Calendar apps for iOS, OS X, and iCloud. Such objections are not entirely new; some of us bristled at Brushed Metal as soon as it (or he, if you will) appeared over a decade ago. But what’s going on today is more than just a rejection of over-the-top skeuomorphic textures; it is instead a very strong push in the opposite direction. The Brushed Metal era criticism was “This is too far”; the trend today is “Let’s go in the opposite direction”.

Private Posts on Facebook Revealed

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:01:20 +0000

Facebook users who have a Google Chrome extension for Storify, a tool that strings together social media material and is favored by bloggers and journalists, are learning that a status update posted on Facebook and meant to be seen by members of a closed Facebook group mysteriously appears on Storify, visible to the public.

New Big Mac ad. This is real.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:05:49 +0000

New Big Mac ad.

This is real.

shortformblog: It’s funny what happens when you use the phrase...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:00:53 +0000

shortformblog:

It’s funny what happens when you use the phrase “magazines that publish essays” in an effort to criticize Google’s poor search results for your publication: You suddenly show up on the first page. (Eighth result, to be specific.)

Why we remember young adulthood better than any other age.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:58:50 +0000

Why we remember young adulthood better than any other age.

"In a city like New York, where everything is superlative, who exactly is middle-class? What kind of..."

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:52:13 +0000

“In a city like New York, where everything is superlative, who exactly is middle-class? What kind of salary are we talking about? Where does a middle-class person live? And could the relentless rise in real estate prices push the middle class to extinction?”

- What Is Middle-Class in Manhattan?

"The word gamify is kind of weird but nice. It means to take something that isn’t a game and..."

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:49:52 +0000

“The word gamify is kind of weird but nice.
It means to take something that isn’t a game and give it game-like features.
Twitter is gamified because it shows you how many followers people have.
It seems the NYT could benefit from a little of that.
How might it work?”

- Gamify the NY Times

Why The Moon Landings Couldn’t Have Been Faked

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:23:49 +0000

Why The Moon Landings Couldn’t Have Been Faked