onfocus

"If you’re into experimentation, manual focus lenses, or just enjoy 'vintage' gear, at around $50 it is a bargain..." Nice review of an old 50mm Soviet lens. eBay, activate!

Why "Love it or leave it!" isn't a valid response to criticism of social networks.

Interesting look at "password padding" to create memorable AND secure passwords. [via Ask MeFi]

"We’re not going to have a jobless recovery. We’re going to have a jobless future." Painful post to read but it makes sense. Now what?

"When people say there are no easy solutions to our problems, I don’t think they are thinking hard or creatively enough. If our problem is that we don’t have enough technically trained Americans, why are we not focused like lasers on educating people?"

"The kind of naming policy that Facebook and Google Plus have is actually a radical departure from the way identity and speech interact in the real world."

"A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby." A hobby? Oh, that's ok then. ... WHAT?

"The people who most heavily rely on pseudonyms in online spaces are those who are most marginalized by systems of power. 'Real names' policies aren't empowering; they’re an authoritarian assertion of power over vulnerable people."

A necessary evil.

Handy tables of unicode characters and their HTML entities broken into categories.

Nice looking jQuery/Prototype plugin that makes long select boxes more user friendly.

Derek Sivers reminds us that the Web is made out of people.

"URL Parameters helps you control which URLs on your site should be crawled by Googlebot, depending on the parameters that appear in these URLs."

Hell yes, ethics. "When people are saying ruinously cruel things about each other, and you're the person who made it possible, it's 100% your fault. If you aren't willing to be a grown-up about that, then that's okay, but you're not ready to have a web business. Businesses that run cruise ships have to buy life preservers. Companies that sell alcohol have to keep it away from kids. And people who make communities on the web have to moderate them."

Deconstructing the new Gmail/G+ interface for design ideas.

ok, it's 2011. No site is perfect, but it probably is time to shame sites that store plain text passwords. Especially those sites from big companies with the means to change things.

Dear media, please give Andy Rutledge complete control over the design of your sites. Thanks.

"...only large companies and publishers can bear these [legal] costs. My fear is that It’s only a matter of time before developers find the risks and expenses prohibitive and retreat to the safety of a larger organization." [via waxy]

This is a special site for MetaFilter's 12th anniversary where members share their favorite memories. Matt found the domain of the first site linked from MetaFilter and bought it for this.

Area Man runs group weblog! "Thirty-five miles from Portland is the home of one of Oregon’s hottest tech properties. It’s a long way from the 'Silicon Forest' of local startups." Nice profile of Matt and his awesome Lifestyle Business that I'm happy to be part of.

This site comes in handy when you suddenly realize you're having a dream within a dream.