Daily Twitter Links for Tuesday 30 October 2012

Here are today's must-reads:

1. A Brief History of the Teleprompter: 

As President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney enter the home stretch of their campaigns, they've now been touring the country and delivering the same stump speech three times per day for the past ten months straight. Both of the candidates read their words while looking out at the crowds, instead of down at a piece of paper, conveying the idea that they’ve memorized their speeches and are connecting with their audiences. And while conservatives take great pleasure in mocking President Obama’s reliance on a machine to help him deliver his speeches, the truth is that both candidates—along with politicians for more than a generation—read off of thin, nearly invisible plates of glass angled at a 45-degree slant at either side of their podiums. Perhaps more than any other technological advance—more than the touch-screen voting booth, the automated campaign phone call or even the slick TV attack ad—the teleprompter continues to define our political age.

The device started out in 1948 as a roll of butcher paper rigged up inside half of a suitcase. 

2. Truth, Lies, and 'Doxxing': The Real Moral of the Gawker/Reddit Story: 

There are many different reasons to unmask people, out them, or make them much more visible than they previously were. Sometimes, the goal is to celebrate someone’s goodness. At other times, people are made visible to use them as an example … or to set an example. People are outed to reveal hypocrisy and their practices are made visible to shame them.

In identifying Butsch and shining a spotlight on his insidious practices, Chen’s article condemns Butsch’s choice of using the mask of pseudonymity to hide behind actions that have societal consequences. Public shaming is one way in which social norms are regulated. Another is censorship, as evidenced by the Reddit community’s response to Gawker.

Yet, how do we as a society weigh the moral costs of shining a spotlight on someone, however “bad” their actions are? What happens when, as a result of social media, vigilantism takes on a new form? How do we guarantee justice and punishment that fits the crime when we can use visibility as a tool for massive public shaming? Is it always a good idea to regulate what different arbiters consider bad behavior through increasing someone’s notoriety – or censoring their links?

3. The Best Times to Buy Clothing: 

ShopItToMe.com, a San Francisco company that analyzes more than 750,000 sales items a year from more than 200 online retailers. By running averages, the company found the following patterns:

• Mondays: Shoppers can save nearly 50% on men’s and women’s dress pants, and about 55% on sunglasses.
• Tuesdays: Expect to save more than 40% on men’s apparel.
• Wednesdays: Shoppers save about 40% on shoes and children’s clothes.
• Thursdays: Save 36% on handbags.
• Fridays: Pay 42% less for jewelry, belts and scarves.
• Saturdays: Lingerie (37% off) and jackets/outerwear (51% off).
• Sundays: Swimsuits (52% off).

These are some of the other things I've been tweeting about today:

• justice roberts overrules sandy: "Supreme Court Won't Allow Hurricane Sandy to Interfere With Big Copyright Showdown" http://pjblack.me/RlHew5
• "2GB guilty of privacy breach" http://pjblack.me/Q3KXnc #lwb480 #kkb175
• "The best storms in cinematic history" http://pjblack.me/RlCXJb
• "An Apple Exit Over Maps: Mobile Software Head Forstall Refused to Sign Apology; Retail Chief Is Also Ousted" http://pjblack.me/Q3EKaD
• "Google, Ikea, Apple: The World's 10 Simplest Brands" http://pjblack.me/S9g3pq
• "Truth, Lies, and 'Doxxing': The Real Moral of the Gawker/Reddit Story" from danah boyd http://pjblack.me/SpR5p6
• "You Know What’s Cool? A Billion Snapchats: App Sees Over 20 Million Photos Shared Per Day, Releases On Android" http://pjblack.me/SayCKo
• pretty cool: "Livescribe outs Sky WiFi Smartpen for $170, lets you record written notes and audio straight to Evernote" http://pjblack.me/Saytqr
• "Cautiously Optimistic: The early days of Twitter and App.net." http://pjblack.me/SpQUtJ
• what day of the week should you be clothes online?: "The Best Times to Buy Clothing" http://pjblack.me/SsebKE
• "The Role of Sincerity in the US Elections" http://pjblack.me/SseaGL
• "Meet Philips Hue: The smart LED light bulb exclusively hitting Apple Stores on October 30" http://pjblack.me/Sseaqh
• "All Three Branches Agree: Big Brother Is the New Normal" http://pjblack.me/SpQe7C
• "Paul McCartney: Yoko Ono did not cause Beatles split" http://pjblack.me/SpVl82
• from @mashable: "The Teacher's Guide to Facebook" http://pjblack.me/SpPKP8
• "Being Online Has Become So Common That Some People No Longer Identify It As Being Online" http://pjblack.me/SpzY6F
• "Nate Silver: One-term celebrity?" asks @politico http://pjblack.me/RjNHHS
• "Badabing! For iOS Helps You Find All Of Your Facebook Friends’ Bikini Pics" http://pjblack.me/Q1srvw
• "Darth Vader and Son, A Star Wars Childrens Book by Jeffrey Brown" http://pjblack.me/WTIKwp
• "Are You More Travelled Than James Bond?" http://pjblack.me/WTIJZi
• "Could Hurricane Sandy Delay the Election? What happens if millions don’t have power on Election Day?" http://pjblack.me/SaLFLP
• "The First Silent Political Ad" http://pjblack.me/Sm8AGT
• "Apple has pushed back Maps turn-by-turn navigation launch to November for Australia" http://pjblack.me/SaGzPT
• "Four-Year Prison Sentence for Silvio Berlusconi" http://pjblack.me/SpTLTy
• "Netflix Spikes On Rumors Of Possible Microsoft Bid" http://pjblack.me/SaCj2R
• congratulations to @spencerhowson and his team - @612brisbane is still #1 at breakfast plus #2 radio station overall http://pjblack.me/SpJtmv
• "Anderson Cooper's Talk Show to End After Second Season" http://pjblack.me/SpzI7K
• "Twitter Gives Away Promoted Crisis Tweets to Red Cross, FEMA" http://pjblack.me/RjNoNi
• "A dozen USB chargers in the lab: Apple is very good, but not quite the best" http://pjblack.me/VUUdMV
• oops: "Burglar uses iPhone as flashlight, accidentally records the crime" http://pjblack.me/WTIJbK
• "Surmounting the Insurmountable: Wikipedia Is Nearing Completion, in a Sense" http://pjblack.me/RcFzJl
• this is fascinating: "A Brief History of the Teleprompter" http://pjblack.me/WTIHRj
• this looks fun: "Cinefy Lets You Add CGI Special Effects To Your Awful, Shaky iPhone Video" http://pjblack.me/PYKBhp
• i like the way this guy thinks: "I Banned All Internal E-Mails at My Company for a Week" http://pjblack.me/RhowG1
• apple tv is still a hobby, but a beloved one: "I’m Apple TV! And Someday … I’m Gonna Be a Real Business!" http://pjblack.me/RcEUrg
• "What Tumblr can tell us about the future of media" asks @mathewi http://pjblack.me/RcEKQK
• links to the stories i discussed on @612brisbane this morning http://pjblack.me/Rhh11E

Follow me on Twitter @peterjblack.

And you can get my latest links anytime on my Rebelmouse social media front page.