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Read this XKCD cartoon, then change your weak passwords, then read the linked article.

Spotify prefers to break down payouts in terms of monthly activity. In July, a “niche indie album” garnered $3,300, whereas a “global hit album” awarded the unnamed artist $425,000. Based on the company’s projections, these numbers will increase exponentially as the subscriber base grows.

I have to admit, this is pretty good. I’ve been vocal about subscription services and making sure artists get paid, so these numbers are interesting. One question I do have—for Spotify or the artists—why is there such a difference between these numbers and the reported “$10 for a million plays” type of stories that were making the rounds.

I wasn’t going to watch the video, but I’m glad I did. All of the teddy bears are donated to local charities.

Mobile Miniatures, as the Spektral Quartet has dubbed its ear-tickling project, is part of its mission to provide living composers with new platforms for their music to be performed and heard.

Love it.

Very interesting article. Abdel Ibrahim has been updating it with recent fluctuations.

Bloomberg:

Icelandic police shot dead a man who refused to stop firing at them with a shotgun in the capital of Reykjavik earlier today — and then they apologized. It was the first time that anyone in the country was killed by police gunfire.

“The police regret this incident and wishes to extend its condolences to the man’s family,” said national police chief Haraldur Johannessen.

Details of the event have yet to emerge, but this much is clear: Iceland is a weird place.

Sad that you have to describe such a peaceful country as “weird”.

All profits from this issue of Five out of Ten are in aid of SpecialEffect, a charity that works to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

A great cause and an interesting magazine from Alan Williamson.

Not only that, according to the original report, the customer noticed that it was a demo unit after inspecting the sticker on the bottom, but instead of simply returning it to Target, she decided to call a local news agency. You know, for justice.

Sweet Fuck, people are stupid.

PDF Expert 5 is a must-have app for anyone who reads, annotates or edits PDF documents on the iPad. It allows you to markup documents with highlights and handwriting, insert text and stamps, sign and even merge PDFs. Moreover, PDF Expert is the best choice for filling out PDF forms right on your iPad.

Looks like a great app.

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Brent Simmons:

I don’t know how I could tell Amazon’s harmless, happy-day drones from Google’s real-time people-watchers — or those of the police or the NSA. It’s best to shoot them all down.

I laughed out loud when I read that. Seriously, how are they going to stop people from shooting them down. It’s got to be a problem, right?

Poynter:

When Planet Money embarked on a massive reporting project tracking the making of a simple T-shirt — from the cotton fields of Mississippi to Bangladeshi garment factories to shipping containers crossing oceans — an interactive, documentary-style presentation seemed like the obvious end result.

The NPR story is interesting in its “interactive documentary” style but this “story behind the story” is just as interesting.

BTW, the NPR story looks great on an iPad.

While its interactivity may be limited, you’ve got to admire the guy for the effort it must have taken to create this resume.

Rock on little girl.

Om Malik:

Almost exactly six years ago, I survived a serious heart attack thanks to the team at UCSF Medical Center – specifically the cardiology division.

These past six years have added up to what could be the best years of my life – for now. And I will forever be grateful to the UCSF cardiology team. They saved me from near disaster and gave me a chance to rewrite my life story.

Obviously, a very good cause.

Have you ever looked at an object and seen a face in it? You’ll love this Twitter account and the pictures in it.

As many of you know, my wife has been involved in volunteering for a local dog rescue for a couple of years. Monique and a number of her friends, who also have many years experience rescuing dogs, decided to start their own dog rescue called Home To Stay. […]

The 2014 Beard Calendar is available to pre-order for $10. The guys behind the calendar asked me to be involved as “BatBeard,” an offer I gladly accepted. Meet Mr. May.

Dates and cities have been announced.

Topsy specializes in data from Twitter, offering tools to analyze tweets and other information to help track consumer sentiment. Its tools can decipher how often a specific term is tweeted, find an influential person on a specific subject, or measure the exposure of an event or campaign.

Interesting.

Rian van der Merwe did a great job with this. One of the most important things to me is honesty.

Shane Cole:

One of the first concerns facing businesses — and many consumers — when choosing a new mobile platform is how it will enable them to get work done. To answer the question, AppleInsider went hands-on to compare the top three iOS contenders: Apple’s iWork, Microsoft’s Office 365, and Google Docs.

Microsoft badly missed an opportunity here.

Strange stuff.

Coincidence aside, this is sad. He seemed like a great guy.

Apple logos at retail stores turned red today as the company showed its support for World AIDS Day.

Valleywag:

The most absolutely awful thing about the story of Nick Starr is not that he exists, but that there are surely more people like him: the Seattle IT drone threw a Facebook fit when he was asked to take off his face-camera at a cafe. “I would love an explanation, apology, clarification…or her termination.”

Here’s your explanation – you’re a douchebag.

Macleans:

Nothing has gutted the indies, emotionally as well as financially, as the practice known as “showrooming.” Prospective buyers come into bookshops, wander the stacks, peruse the artful displays and even — unkindest cut of all — seek the advice of staff. Then they leave and order the books they want online.

Sadly, this is all too common in many retail environments. I see it a lot on the Motorcycle Retail space – going to the local bike shop, trying on gear, then buying that same gear online. Then, to make matters worse, those are the first people to whine when their local shop shuts down and they have no place to get their bike serviced.

Forbes:

Miranker’s passion for Holmes continued when he joined Apple in 1996 to help launch the iMac, eventually becoming the chief technology officer until he retired in 2004. His collection is also rich in letters and other documents relating to early Sherlock Holmes fandom.

I’ve always been a big Sherlock Holmes fan and it would be great to have the resources to invest in creating the kind of collection Miranker has.

Business Insider:

Both IBM and Adobe are reporting that Apple’s iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads, is destroying Google’s Android in mobile shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Repeat after me: “Market share means nothing if it doesn’t generate revenue”.