Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Month: January 2015

  • Google strong-arms indie musicians into accepting brutal, crowdfunding-killing deal for streaming service

    [A strong but honest headline about Googe’s new bullshit:][link]

    >* Participation in the new service requires that your entire catalog be available for streaming, at high resolution.
    >
    >* Participation requires that you not release your music elsewhere earlier, e.g., no early releases for fans or backers.
    >
    >* You no longer get a choice of whether to do nothing, block a video, or run ads. Ads are mandatory.
    >
    >* Five year contract.
    >
    >* If you don’t participate in the new service, then the option to obtain Content-ID ad revenue from the free version of Youtube no longer exists.
    >
    >* If you had previously been getting Content-ID ad revenue and choose not to participate in the new service, your channel will be deleted and all videos using your music will be blocked.

    These are all non-negotiable and mandatory, btw.

    [link]: http://boingboing.net/2015/01/26/google-strong-arms-indie-music.html “Google strong-arms indie musicians into accepting brutal, crowdfunding-killing deal for streaming service – Boing Boing”

  • Why AeroFS offers parental leave

    [10 weeks paid maternity and paternity leave at 100% salary, up to 8 more at 50%. It’s not perfect but it’s a start.][link]

    One of the reasons they mention for enacting this policy is to attract more senior-level candidates. I hope more tech companies follow their lead. Good on them.

    [link]: https://www.aerofs.com/blog/parental-leave-at-aerofs/ “Why we offer parental leave | AeroFS”

  • Trail Type

    [A user-generated collection of typography from national parks and other ‘wild’ spaces.][link] Beautiful stuff.

    [link]: http://www.trailtype.com/ “Trail Type”

  • Twitter Sort

    [Cheeky as hell:][link]

    >Twitter Sort is a sorting algorithm that takes advantage of the Twitter API. You pass the script the numbers you would like sorted and it will tweet a request asking for somebody to sort them. When someone replies with a sorted version of the numbers, it will print them to the console and return.

    [link]: https://github.com/ExPHAT/twitter-sort “ExPHAT/twitter-sort”