The Mindful Way to Ultimate Productivity

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-mindful-way-to-ultimate-productivity-4fe8b01a416e#.2nwikkwqs
How mindfulness habits relate to productivity. 

How we got our 2-year-old repo trending on GitHub in just 48 hours

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/how-we-got-a-2-year-old-repo-trending-on-github-in-just-48-hours-12151039d78b#.6irpp3b1d
Case study on how to gain community traction for a GitHub project. 

Ikea’s hackable ‘open platform' furniture will go on sale early next year

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/30/14437294/ikea-open-source-customizable-furniture-delaktig
Deliberately hackable products coming from IKEA. 

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class
Some insights into the American Middle Class.

The Different Ways The Universe Might End Are Fascinating And Horrifying

http://digg.com/2016/universe-end-how-will
How the Universe may end. Bang? Wimper? Something stranger?

What’s New In jQuery 3 || 17 Added Features & How To Use Them

http://www.rankred.com/whats-new-in-jquery-3-added-features-how-to-use-them/
JQuery isn't dead. Here's some new features in the latest. 

2017 Technology of the Year Awards

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3160526/application-development/infoworlds-2017-technology-of-the-year-award-winners.html#slide1
InfoWorld's Technology of the Year awards. Mostly good picks. 

CopyHackers: copywriting for startups and marketers

https://copyhackers.com/
Copywriting resources, courses and pros.

5 AWS Tips and Tricks to Solidify your EC2 and RDS RI Planning in 2017

https://www.botmetric.com/blog/5-aws-tips-tricks-solidify-ec2-rds-ri-planning-2017/
Solid tips on managing AWS costs of Reserved EC2 Instances. I need a tune-up as well.

Why Copy Matters (Like, A Lot)

https://medium.com/mailchimp-for-agencies/why-copy-matters-like-a-lot-c36a9499a459#.60fspdpa7
Why copy still matters, especially as regards email marketing. CopyHackers via MailChimp

The Rise of the Data Engineer

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/the-rise-of-the-data-engineer-91be18f1e603#.v4uy6ywm1
Description of a new job function: the data engineer

Will Blockchain(s) Eat the Marketplace Stack?

https://medium.com/point-nine-news/will-blockchain-s-eat-the-marketplace-stack-cf5952889aa0#.y5tcp5ag7
A bit fuzzy on the layers of the stack, but still has some good insights on how blockchains are enablers. 

Nobody wants to use software

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/nobody-wants-to-use-software-a75643bee654#.ecxbx4ock
Nobody wants to use software. They just want to get the job done: a desired result. 

35 Things No One Told You About Becoming “Successful”

https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy/35-things-no-one-ever-told-you-about-becoming-successful-387f91d36611#.pd7is996d
35 lessons about being successful.

I ranked every Intro to Data Science course on the internet, based on thousands of data points

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/i-ranked-all-the-best-data-science-intro-courses-based-on-thousands-of-data-points-db5dc7e3eb8e#.7qjvld6mr
Brilliant! using data science to pick the best data science training program.

How to build the next Trello and sell it for $425 million or more

https://medium.com/disruptivehq/how-to-build-the-next-trello-and-sell-it-for-425-million-or-more-589045c9bd64#.9be30yjjk
Analysis of Trello's market position and why it commanded a premium when sold. 

Hackers Tear Apart Trend Micro, Find 200 Vulnerabilities In Just 6 Months

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/01/25/trend-micro-security-exposed-200-flaws-hacked/#2aac23cc55d6
Trend Micro's security software may actually make a system less secure. Loads of holes: 

Google’s Infrastructure Security Design Overview

https://iot-for-all.com/googles-infrastructure-security-design-overview-108ffe425b7#.4c6ygyqr9
Article about the internal security structures in place at Google. 

Do online courses increase access to education?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/online-courses-increase-access-education/
Interesting analysis of the OMCS students at GaTech

83 Top Laravel Articles in 2016: What You Clicked in Newsletters

http://laraveldaily.com/popular-laravel-articles-2016-clicked-newsletters/
Top Laravel articles of 2016 on one popular site. 

sphido A rocket fast, lightweight, flat file CMS for PHP

https://www.sphido.org/index
another flat-file CMS. 

Mailtrap is a fake SMTP server for development teams to test, view and share emails

https://mailtrap.io/
Mailtrap: a dead-end SMTP server to capture test emails ensuring that customers won't get them. 

Why the U.S. Government Really Wants Some People To Take Vacations

http://nowiknow.com/why-the-u-s-government-really-wants-some-people-to-take-vacations/
Why making people take vacations is a security concern. Thanks Mr. Abagnale. 

Tensors and Dynamic neural networks in Python with strong GPU acceleration.

http://pytorch.org/
Interesting BigData project from Facebook. Python package that heavily used GPUs for tensor work.

12 New Year's resolutions for your data

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3156964/storage/12-new-years-resolutions-for-your-data.html
Suggestions for looking at data: make it accessible, visible, understandable these ways: 

Maker Madness: The Best IoT Boards of 2016

https://blog.hackster.io/maker-madness-the-best-iot-boards-of-2016-cfc2382daf64#.arrnsn995
Compendium of the best IoT boards available, broken down by use-case: 

The Cautionary Tale of "No More Woof," a Crowdfunded Gadget to Read Your Dog's Thoughts

http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/cautionary-tale-of-no-more-woof-a-crowdfunded-gadget-to-read-your-dogs-thoughts
Crowdfunded gadget to read your dog's mind fails to deliver, but not for the reasons you think:

Solaris 12 disappears from Oracle's roadmap

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/18/solaris_12_disappears_from_oracles_roadmap/
RIP Solaris... Looks like Solaris 12 is dropped from Sun's timeline. 

Tips for better typography

https://thedesignteam.io/the-type-snob-f221969a884b#.yhvf0ji2y
The Type Snob shares six tips for better typography. 

Georgia Tech Lands Seven Yellow Jackets on 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30

www.news.gatech.edu/2017/01/13/georgia-tech-lands-seven-yellow-jackets-2017-forbes-30-under-30
Forbes "30 under 30" list has 7 GaTech Grads.

Medium, and The Reason You Can’t Stand the News Anymore.

https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/medium-and-the-reason-you-cant-stand-the-news-anymore-c98068fec3f8#.7yw34vrva
Interesting take on the news media and their relationship to business of ads. 

Moving beyond localStorage

https://journal.standardnotes.org/moving-beyond-localstorage-991e3695be15#.bt7mrorxf
The browser LocalStorage experiment was a success, so now there's WebCrypto and IndexedDB

Netflix is ‘Killing’ DVD Sales, Research Finds

https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-is-killing-dvd-sales-research-finds-170117/
Does Netflix hurt DVD sales? New study says to a degree, yes: 

Blockchain Tech ‘Could Save’ Banks £9.7bn Billion A Year Read more at http://www.silicon.co.uk/e-enterprise/blockchain-tech-save-banks-203284#uH801xJ6X3zMWscy.99

http://www.silicon.co.uk/e-enterprise/blockchain-tech-save-banks-203284
Blockchain (DLT) could save banks billions. Does that mean there will be FinTech block miners? 

What the Future Looks Like: Top Trends in 2016 Startup Investing

https://medium.com/startup-grind/what-the-future-looks-like-top-trends-in-2016-startup-investing-7411c28e6174#.tsot1c3y1
Top trends in VC investing. Most I'd agree with. Vertical SaaS and DLT (blockchain) are in there: 

Mathematical Model Reveals the Patterns of How Innovations Arise

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603366/mathematical-model-reveals-the-patterns-of-how-innovations-arise/
Variation on an ancient mathematical model shows how innovation arises. Hint: learn something new. 

5 CMS Mistakes That Ruin Your Website

http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/management-tips/5-cms-mistakes-ruin-website/
Some simple guidelines on selecting the right CMS for your organization. It's not about technology.

4 things that you (probably) did not know you could do in Git

http://www.banterly.net/2017/01/15/4-things-that-you-probably-did-not-know-you-could-do-in-git/
Some of the lesser-known things you can do with Git: 

to 100,000 Visitors/Mo (In About One Year)

http://yesoptimist.com/content-marketing-seo-case-study-the-trifecta-strategy/
Interesting case study on how to build traffic via content. 

The 6 unwritten rules of open source development

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3156776/open-source-tools/the-6-unwritten-rules-of-open-source-development.html
How to be a positive member of an opensource community.

Hacked Website Report – 2016/Q3

https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/01/hacked-website-report-2016q3.html
Report detailing the number and type of hacked websites: WordPress, Joomla and Magento lead the charge: 

Top 10 Startup Principles

https://medium.com/@growyouridea/top-10-startup-principles-2ad795a73abd#.le8646hbq
They've been stated before, but a concise list of 10 startup principles. 

Let’s Talk About Self-Driving Cars

https://medium.com/swlh/lets-talk-about-self-driving-cars-387cd5adb834#.yl7au7c8y
Good piece on the stages of car automation toward self-driving, the path and timeline forward.

Make your Joomla articles SEO-proof with Webtexttool

https://joomlaseo.com/blog/make-your-joomla-articles-seo-proof-with-webtexttool
Interesting-looking Joomla SEO extension that work with your editor. 

Publishers confront email newsletter design challenges

http://digiday.com/publishers/publishers-embrace-newsletters-wrestle-design-headaches/
Some insights into the current resurgent interest in email newsletters.

Algorithms design a concert hall and it looks like science fiction

https://imgur.com/gallery/qWx6i
Great new auditorium. I'll need to read up on the acoustics algorithms. 

Benchmarking Laravel, Symfony, & Zend

https://medium.com/@taylorotwell/benchmarking-laravel-symfony-zend-2c01c2b270f8#.mmubl7jrx
He thinks benchmarks are silly, but does one anyway: Lavavel/Symfony/Zend speed benchmark.

How Nextdoor made a 10x improvement in release times with Docker and Amazon ECS

https://engblog.nextdoor.com/how-nextdoor-made-a-10x-improvement-in-release-times-with-docker-and-amazon-ecs-35aab52b726f#.4abjh0h98
Case study on speeding up build and deploy times using AWS and docker. 

THE WORDPRESS OF BOTS An open-source ecosystem for developers to create, manage and extend bots

https://botpress.io/
An opensource/dual-license Node.js project that enables creation of bots. We'll see

The 12 Best Video Conferencing Apps for Teams

https://zapier.com/blog/best-video-conferencing-apps/
Reviews of video conference apps selected by use case. 

The Preposterous Success Story of America’s Pillow King

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-01-11/the-preposterous-success-story-of-america-s-pillow-king
The story of the MyPillow guy. Truly amazing and crazy:

Martha Matilda Harper, the Greatest Businesswoman You’ve Never Heard Of

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/martha-matilda-harper-the-greatest-businesswoman-youve-never-heard-of
Ray Kroc didn't invent franchising, Matilda Harper did, 60 years before: 

The 10 best Amasty articles of 2016

https://blog.amasty.com/the-10-best-amasty-articles-of-2016/
Top ecommerce (esp Magento) articles of the past year.

10 more podcasts that new coders should listen to in 2017

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/10-more-podcasts-that-new-coders-should-listen-to-in-2017-3c7db301dfb#.12c2bekio
Some good podcasts for new and even experienced coders. 

What I’ve learned from 18 weeks of vlogging my coding journey

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/what-ive-learned-from-18-weeks-of-vlogging-my-coding-journey-4005a1e71b7d#.4dqw9k5uq
lessons learned by a new video blogger 

Understanding Flexbox: Everything you need to know

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/understanding-flexbox-everything-you-need-to-know-b4013d4dc9af#.2gj82mxna
Most comprehensive single article about Flexbox I've seen yet. 

Worldwide Human Sex Ratio for Total Population

http://chartsbin.com/view/2337
male/female ratio by country. Reason for China and Russia to get together. 

Child’s play The authoritative statement of scientific method derives from a surprising place — early 20th-century child psychology

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-scientific-method-came-from-watching-children-play
Are children scientists? Are scientists children? Child psychology and the scientific method.

Lessons Learned: Why Newton Swears by Plain-Text Emails

https://explore.reallygoodemails.com/stop-missing-user-feedback-use-plain-text-emails-to-boost-response-rates-6fccb4ad2157#.fgzvxvkh6
Slightly misleading article about plain-text emails. How are they including links in them? 

11 Examples of Facebook Ads That Actually Work (And Why)

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33319/10-examples-of-facebook-ads-that-actually-work-and-why.aspx
One of the best articles I've seen on Facebook ads with nuts-and-bolts of how to make them work. 

UC Tech Jobs go to India

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/los-angeles-times/20170108/281908772827206
Yet another blatant abuse of the H1-B visa program, this time by the stat of California! #h1bmustdie

The Simple Truth Behind Reading 200 Books a Year

https://betterhumans.coach.me/the-simple-truth-behind-reading-200-books-a-year-1767cb03af20#.cfplwpm64
Warren Buffet says read 200 books a year. Here's how that beaks down and a testimonial.

React’s Five Fingers of Death. Master these five concepts, then master React.

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/the-5-things-you-need-to-know-to-understand-react-a1dbd5d114a3#.7q71cfjrb
I'm not a big fan of React, but here's some pegs to hang your thinking about it on:

18 web design trends for 2017

https://webflow.com/blog/18-web-design-trends-for-2017
Web design trends for the new year. Though I'm not sure "fake news" qualifies. 

6 Tools To Turbocharge Your Content Marketing in 2017

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287309
Top social media automation tools around. Some I've used, some I don't. 

What I learned from analyzing the top 252 Medium stories of 2016

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/what-i-learned-from-analyzing-the-top-253-medium-stories-of-2016-9f5f1d0a2d1c#.7by473knh
Brief analysis of the top Medium posts of the year. 

Bitcoin Will Never Be a Currency—It’s Something Way Weirder

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/bitcoin-will-never-currency-something-way-weirder
Bitcoin leads to new business models and ways of thinking. 

The Best Linux Distros for 2017

https://www.linux.com/news/learn/sysadmin/best-linux-distributions-2017
The rising stars of Linux distros for the new year. 

Welcome to Uberville

http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12735666/uber-altamonte-springs-fl-public-transportation-taxi-system
Interesting case studies of Uber partnering with public mass transit. 

DevOps explained

https://www.niceideas.ch/roller2/badtrash/entry/devops-explained
One of the best explanations of DevOps I've seen recently.

Firebug lives on in Firefox DevTools

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/12/firebug-lives-on-in-firefox-devtools/
One of my favorite web tools, Firebug is no more, but will be resurrected in DevTools

The road not taken How we found (and lost) the dream of Personal Rapid Transit

http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/24/11094524/prt-transit-history-self-driving-cars-alden-starrcar-tomorrowland-1960s
History of autonomous personal mass transit. One system from 1978 is still running.

Significant Software Development Developments of 2016

https://marxsoftware.blogspot.fr/2016/12/big-news-2016.html
Reasonable assessment of the state of software as of the end of 2016

My Most Impactful Analytics Technologies in 2016

http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2017/01/my-most-impactful-analytics-technologies-in-2016.html
Beyond Google Tag Manager, to other new Analytics tools:

googleAnalyticsR: A new R package for the Analytics Reporting API V4

https://analytics.googleblog.com/2016/12/googleanalyticsr-new-r-package-for.html
Looks like with GA's v4 API with R and shiny you can build your own Google Analytics

Top 10 PHP Security Tips for Linux Admins

http://www.developer.com/open/top-10-php-security-tips-for-linux-admins.html
PHP security tips for Linux SysAdmins

How to Use Google UTMs to Analyze Your Social Traffic

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-google-utms-to-analyze-your-social-traffic/
Using UTMs to analyze traffic in Google Analytics

Ontraport Build a better business Publish. Market. Sell. Organize.

https://ontraport.com/
marketing automation that can do email, sms and postcards

Scaling Laravel Using AWS Elastic Beanstalk Part 2: Setting up VPC, RDS and ElastiCache

https://deliciousbrains.com/scaling-laravel-using-aws-elastic-beanstalk-part-2-setting-up-vpc-rds-elasticache/
Solid advice on scaling Laravel on AWS

Setting up Xdebug with Laravel Valet

https://murze.be/2017/01/xdebug-with-laravel-valet/
setting up xdebug on a local laravel install is not too difficult

There's a Massive Restaurant Industry Bubble, and It's About to Burst

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/american-restaurant-industry-bubble-burst
That trendy restaurant you just went to may not be there much longer.

Japanese white-collar workers are already being replaced by artificial intelligence

http://qz.com/875491/japanese-white-collar-workers-are-already-being-replaced-by-artificial-intelligence/
Japanese insurance company is replacing 34 claims workers with Watson. 2-year payback.