{"id":43253,"date":"2014-12-31T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/2014\/12\/31\/2014-year-end-link-clearance\/"},"modified":"2014-12-31T07:00:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T07:00:01","slug":"2014-year-end-link-clearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20141231-01\/?p=43253","title":{"rendered":"2014 year-end link clearance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Another round of the semi-annual link clearance. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>    Do you hear any Christmas music right now? Good.    Christmas songs can be played    only 1\/12 of the year, and    <a href=\"http:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/christmas-music-season-data\/\">    people who write algorithms    for computer-generated playlists    need to identify Christmas songs<\/a>    so that they don&#8217;t select them during the other 11\/12 of the year.    Also, so that when Christmas standards suddenly become popular,    they don&#8217;t decide that Bing Crosby is an up-and-coming artist.    (The article also talks about the arms race among    stations which switch to playing only Christmas songs    during the holiday season.) <\/li>\n<li>     Your Bank of America debit or credit card     gets you     <a href=\"http:\/\/museums.bankofamerica.com\/\">     free admission to a variety of museums     around the country on the first weekend     of the month<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/arts\/culturebox\/2014\/12\/letterman_top_ten_a_statistical_analysis_of_30_years_of_top_ten_lists_from.html\">     A statistical analysis of 30 years of David Letterman&#8217;s Top Ten Lists<\/a>.     What takes this beyond your basic &#8220;I generated a lot of graphs&#8221;     article is the involvement of     Joe Toplyn, one of Letterman&#8217;s writers, to help explain the results. <\/li>\n<li>     The TSA&#8217;s controversial     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsa.gov\/traveler-information\/advanced-imaging-technology-ait\">     millimeter-wave Advanced Imaging Technology<\/a>     scanners (aka &#8220;nudie scanners&#8221;)     were taken out of service last year,     but what happened to them?     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20140520\/08421227293\/expensive-tsa-nudie-scanners-find-new-home-prisons.shtml\">     They went to prisons<\/a>.     If they had been available for sale to the general public,     I&#8217;m pretty sure all of them would have been bought by     fraternities.     For security purposes, I assure you.     (Actually, the occasional unit appears to be     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/sch\/i.html?_nkw=rapiscan+backscatter\">     put up for sale on eBay<\/a>.     Earlier this year, one went up for     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loweringthebar.net\/2014\/12\/assorted-stupidity-68.html\">     $8000 from a government-surplus reseller<\/a>.     Today, there is a     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/111519265986\">     $3,995 or best offer<\/a>.) <\/li>\n<li>The SpaceX project&#8217;s Falcon 9     landed successfully,     but the video captured from the lander was     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7m8H8OlJ3o8\">badly corrupted<\/a>.     The folks at the NASA Space Flight Forums     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/2014\/06\/recovering-falcon-9-ocean-landing-video-done\/\">     accepted the challenge to recover as much as possible<\/a>     and the results are amazing.     Don&#8217;t watch the     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CjZ33C9JZTM\">     reconstructed video<\/a> until you&#8217;ve seen     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7m8H8OlJ3o8\">the original<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>     The air traffic control service     <a href=\"http:\/\/nats.aero\/\">NATS<\/a>     runs the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area,     a large chunk of the north Atlantic west of Great Britain.     They produced this     <a href=\"http:\/\/nats.aero\/blog\/2014\/06\/north-atlantic-skies-gateway-europe\/\">     mesmerizing video<\/a>     of air traffic over the north Atlantic in a single day.     They have also produced     <a href=\"http:\/\/nats.aero\/blog\/2014\/03\/europe-24-air-traffic-data-visualisation\/\">     24 hours over Europe<\/a>     and     <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/90787669\">     24 hours over the Middle East<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>     The mellifluous tones of Stephen Fry     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lords.org\/lawsanimations\">     elucidate the laws of cricket<\/a>.     The problem I have with a lot of this introductory material     is that they tend to get all bogged down in details that     are not relevant to an appreciation of the game.     For example,     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dangermouse.net\/cricket\/equipment.html\">     the precise composition of the bat and ball are not important<\/a>.     You can assume for the most part     that the bats and balls conform     to applicable regulations.     Here&#8217;s something never before asked in the history of cricket:     &#8220;I didn&#8217;t understand what just happened.     Can you tell me the number of pieces of leather which comprise     the ball covering?&#8221;     (Someday, I will try to write &#8220;The rules of &lang;sport&rang;     for the casual viewer.&#8221;) <\/li>\n<li>     <a href=\"http:\/\/aneurismic.tumblr.com\/post\/87185178513\/seattle2\">     Judgmental map of Seattle<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>     AHL (hockey) referee David Banfield     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZEBoOr12BrI\">     wears a GoPro helmet cam on the job<\/a>.     I&#8217;m impressed by how much effort is expended     trying to defuse situations before they turn into fights.     Or at least before they turn into bigger fights     than they already are.     &#8220;Good job boys, good job.&#8221;     It&#8217;s like he&#8217;s managing a group of toddlers.     (NHL referee Wes McCauley     <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/blogs\/nhl-puck-daddy\/nhl-official-wes-mccauley-mic-d-yankee-stadium-214512005--nhl.html\">     did the same thing a month later<\/a>, but the result of the editing     was less insightful.) <\/li>\n<li>     The first     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ethicsinsports.ch\/\">     World Summit on Ethics in Sport<\/a>     was hosted by FIFA.     (Motto: &#8220;We will not give up until we are more corrupt than the IOC!&#8221;)     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fifa.com\/aboutfifa\/organisation\/homefifa\/news\/newsid=2423590\/index.html\">     I am not making this up<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>     The IOC responds by     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/the_slatest\/2014\/10\/02\/ioc_demands_oslo_drops_bid_after_over_the_top_list_of_requirements.html\">     making absurd demands from the City of Oslo     for hosting the Winter Games<\/a>.     I like how they backpedal and say,     &#8220;Oh no, those weren&#8217;t demands.     They were merely suggestions!&#8221;     Let&#8217;s look at one of those suggestions:     &#8220;All IOC members shall receive a new mobile phone with     Norwegian service.     The phone must be Samsung brand.&#8221;     That sure is an oddly-phrased suggestion. <\/li>\n<li>FIFA strikes back:     <a href=\"http:\/\/deadspin.com\/fifa-investigator-blasts-report-based-on-his-own-invest-1658279291\">     FIFA Investigator Blasts Report Based On His Own Investigation<\/a>.     Or, the headline as FIFA would have written it:     &#8220;FIFA cleared of all wrongdoing in FIFA-sponsored investigation     of FIFA, says FIFA.&#8221;     <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/fifa-ethics-investigator-garcia-resigns-161558043--sow.html\">     Garcia later resigned in protest<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>The IAAF says, &#8220;Hey don&#8217;t forget us! We&#8217;re corrupt too!&#8221;     <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2014\/nov\/25\/iaaf-doha-incentive-fair-world-athletics-2019\">     IAAF insists Dohas &pound;23.5m last-minute incentive was totally fair<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another round of the semi-annual link clearance. Do you hear any Christmas music right now? Good. Christmas songs can be played only 1\/12 of the year, and people who write algorithms for computer-generated playlists need to identify Christmas songs so that they don&#8217;t select them during the other 11\/12 of the year. Also, so that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-43253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-other"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>Another round of the semi-annual link clearance. Do you hear any Christmas music right now? Good. Christmas songs can be played only 1\/12 of the year, and people who write algorithms for computer-generated playlists need to identify Christmas songs so that they don&#8217;t select them during the other 11\/12 of the year. Also, so that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}