Category: Friday Links

It’s Friday, you did it! To bootstrap your weekend we’ve got some kickass links from the last week.

Mean People Fail

Did you know that mean people are unsuccessful startup founders because being mean makes them stupid. We certainly didn’t. Check out why and other reasons being mean will lead to failure. Read the essay >

You sure you’re not a robot?

Google is making life easier by revising reCAPTCHA. Instead of those pesky distorted texts that you had to type to enter a website, there’s now a “i’m not a robot” box option for you to click. Sadly, you might still need to read and type distorted texts after clicking the box, but you could also come across a new feature where you match pictures of animals. Check it out >

Here’s Crayon for your Web Page

All the web pages in the world, and we mean all, can be found at Crayon. Housing a massive collection of web pages (hence crayon), inspiration and ideas are bound to happen, culminating to an impressive web page for you. Check it out >

quaggaJS: Barcode Scanner

Written entirely in Javascript, QuaggaJS is a barcode scanner that supports real time localization and decoding of various barcodes. All you need to fire it up is a browser that supports the getUserMedia API. Check it out >

Given that it’s the day after Thanksgiving, most of the team is still dusting off a turkey hangover and because of that we’re a bit short on links.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and we'll be back next week!

It’s Friday and we have links! Grab some coffee (or a beer) because some of these are going to be a time sink.

Projects Come Alive With VideoBlocks

Enliven your creative projects with millions of unlimited downloadable content at the touch of a mouse on VideoBlocks.com. Check it out >

Download videos from Youtube (and more sites)

A small command-line program, youtube-dl lets users download videos from Youtube and other sites. The only requirement though is Python interpreter. Grab it now >

A Behind The Scenes Look Into AWS

At the re:Invent conference in Las Vegas this year, James Hamilton, vice president and distinguished engineer for Amazon Web Services (AWS), gave conference attendees a broad but insightful glimpse at the size and scope of AWS cloud. For example, Hamilton goes into detail on the ins and outs of the network AWS built from scratch. For more on the story, keep reading >

The Truth Behind W3C, the Web, and HTML5

In October of this year, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) officially recommended HTML5. For citizens of the Internet who aren’t familiar with the matter and want to know more about it, this article goes back in time, providing an in-depth history on how the Web, the W3C, and HTML5 came to exist. Keep reading >

Strategy Change For Firefox’s Search Partnerships

Last week, Firefox announced that it will be changing its strategy for Firefox search partnerships. In the announcement, it will no longer have a single global default search provider which was formerly held by Google. Instead, Firefox has chosen to promote choice and innovation on the Internet by partnering with local search providers, becoming the default search experience rather than Google, in every country. Keep reading >

In case you missed some, we’ve got a run down of some of the crazy stuff from last week! The Europeans landed on a comet, Microsoft is open sourcing .NET, and there’s a new variety of Firefox just for developers. Oh and we found an awesome list of UI kits!

One Land For Robots, One Giant Leap For Mankind

For the first time in history a lander, called Philae, successfully landed on the surface of P67, a 2.5-mile-wide comet, on Wednesday (November 12) at approximately 11:00 A.M. EST. For more details on this historic landing keep reading >

.NET Core Is Now Open Sourced on GitHub

.NET has announced that .NET Core stack will be open sourced on GitHub, which includes the runtime and framework libraries. To learn the reasoning behind this decision and what it will entail keep reading >

.Introducing the New Firefox Developer Edition

Firefox recently turned 10 this week and as a birthday present to the world, Mozilla has launched the Firefox Developer Edition. A new version of Firefox, the developer edition is of course designed for developers and places all the browser’s developer tools in front instead of previously being available only as add-ons. To check out the tools available in this edition keep reading >

Welcome to the weekend! We’ve rounded up some interesting reading to carry you through the till Monday. Fire up your iPad, grab some cider, and snuggle up with a blanket:

Why are CVS and Rite Aid blocking Apple Pay?

As members of MCX, a group of retailers hoping to create an alternate payment solution, CVS and Rite Aid are blocking Apple Pay in hopes of slowing its adoption. Unfortunately for the MCX consortium, numerous disagreements about the system’s foundational premises has made it almost impossible for it to launch after 4 years of development. Keep reading >

Apple Pay, partnerships and software as disruption

Apple in recent years have changed the way industries appear and operate. It has done so in three ways. The first is it builds tightly integrated products. The second is a major drive to partner with companies who can fill in the gaps that it lacks. Third, while a partnership with apple may look great, apple has a tendency to move an entire industry into software. And so the question left is: what’s next for Apple and Apple Pay? Keep reading >

“Contact Me” surprisingly drives sales

Contrary to what you think, contacting a sales representative actually brings in more revenue than free trials can. Here is why and how you can capitalize on this. Keep reading >

A Few Non-Obvious Things I Learned as a New VC

For you future VC’s out there, there are 7 essential insider tips you need to know to take on the VC world by storm. Key takeaway? You should consider each investment as a marriage without the easy divorce option. Keep reading >

FCC proposes net neutrality compromise. Everyone hates it.

In its effort to make both sides happy in the fierce battle over net neutrality, the FCC is considering a plan that would separate broadband into two services, one as retail and another for back-end. Unfortunately for them, instead of the plan satisfying both sides as it should, it has only fueled more outrage. Keep reading >