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Ask Slashdot: Which Expert Bloggers Do You Read?

An anonymous reader writes: The crush of news sites today is almost overwhelming. For true bits of news — bare facts and alerts that something has happened — it doesn't really matter which site you read it on. Some tiny, no-name website can tell me $company1 bought $company2 just as well as Reuters, CNN, or the NY Times. When it comes to opinion pieces and analysis, though, it's a different story. One of the generalist tech bloggers at the NY Times probably isn't going to have many worthwhile posts comparing database sorting algorithms or explaining the Cassini spacecraft's orbital path or providing soldering techniques for fixing a busted monitor. An example most of us are familiar with: Bruce Schneier generally provides good advice on security and encryption. So: what expert bloggers do you keep tabs on? I'm not looking for any particular posting frequency. This type of person I'm thinking of is probably not a journalist, and may not post very often at all — posting frequency matters far less than the signal-to-noise ratio. My goal is to build a big list of smart people who write interesting things — mainly for topics you'd expect to see on Slashdot, but I'm open to other subjects, as well.

20 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Was Slashdot by 31415926535897 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It used to be Slashdot. Not sure what this site is anymore, and I'm still looking for a reasonable replacement. I guess a collection of experts would be a decent way to go.

    1. Re:Was Slashdot by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fark has become Reddit lite. They went full SJW, removed boobies from the front page, redesigned it, etc.

      With all of the coders on here you'd think someone would figure out a way to update INN to include moderation of some sort. Put a nice web front end on it and make it all open over API/RFC and let other people make your clients.

  2. Bennett Haselton by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's got a lot to say, and a captive community to say it to.

  3. Brian Krebs by Dast · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Krebs On Security. Nuff said.

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    This sig is false.

  4. The only man I need. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Bruce Schneier. They say pre-computes S-box tables dynamically from the key... over breakfast.

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    Good people go to bed earlier.
  5. Expert Blogs by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 5, Interesting
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    The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
  6. xkcd by luvirini · · Score: 4, Interesting

    oh, wait.. it is not a blog.. but who cares, the information is more valid than many "expert blogs"

    1. Re:xkcd by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://theoatmeal.com/ also has more insightful writing than most of the drivel posted on "blogs".

  7. Crush? by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The crush of news sites today is almost overwhelming."

    Call it off-topic, but if you are overwhelmed by the "crush of news sites", then you're probably doing something wrong. Virtually all of the news in the US can be summed up as "MSM". A couple of liberal families own most of the "news" organizations. An ultra-conservative Aussie owns the best-known alternative. There are more main-stream sites available, but most people don't want to hear about them.

    In my news feeds, I have two Russian, two Chinese, one Indian, one Kurd, one Arab, one Israeli, 4 British, one Australian, and a mishmash of US MSM. I scan over the MSM, choosing to click on one now and then. Being a conservative at heart, I click Fox more often than I click Hearst or Turner links, but TBH, I don't like Fox much. For the real news, I scroll on down to the "foreign" sources.

    Also in my feeds, I have things like Scientific American, Project Censored and - oh, what's this? SLASHDOT?!?! How did that get in there?

    Think outside the box that Main Stream Media tries to put you in.

    On a related note - http://dontbubble.us/

    Maybe I should have advised you to think outside the bubble, instead?

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    1. Re:Crush? by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I dunno if AC will check back or not - but in no particular order:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/
      http://www.reuters.com/
      http://rt.com/
      http://www.cbc.ca/
      http://www.news.com.au/
      http://www.dailytelegraph.com....
      http://news.sky.com/
      http://kurdishdailynews.org/
      http://rt.com/
      http://www.jpost.com/
      http://www.aljazeera.com/
      http://www.china.org.cn/
      http://www.scientificamerican....
      http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
      http://english.pravda.ru/
      http://www.projectcensored.org...
      http://www.arabtimesonline.com...

      I think I've covered the best - be aware, some national sites are heavy into propaganda. Pravda very much so, RT somewhat less so.

      Depending on your own interests - you might type in some country in a Google search, and add "times" or "post" or "news". From time to time, I do something like that - the earthquake in Tibet for instance. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=pale... That search offered up a number of sites, but I didn't add any of them to my feeds. Note that many of the hits are very politicized, but you can still find Tibetan news sources among them.

      Have fun!

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  8. Signal to noise ratio by grimmjeeper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is that the people who you really want to get insight from are not the types who waste a lot of time blogging. At least not on a regular basis. As a result, the signal to noise ratio is so low there's no point in really following any of them.

  9. Smorgasbord by RandCraw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the Pipeline (chemistry and pharma)
    MathBabe (math and data mining)
    Schneier on Security (crypto and computer security)
    My Biased Coin (statistics)
    Steve on Image Processing (image proc w/ Matlab)
    Paul Graham (computing and Y Combinator)
    Lessig Blog (intellectual property and cyber law)
    The Volokh Conspiracy (politics)

    MultiBlogs:
    Talking Points Memo (political)
    Google Research Blog
    KDD Nuggets (datamining)
    R-Bloggers (R and datamining)

  10. Re:Daring Fireball by ArhcAngel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Didn't he die in the second Die Hard movie?

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  11. Re:For politics/economics... by JackieBrown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A good track record of what?

  12. War nerd, simple justice, popehat by otherwhere · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The War Nerd on well, war, Scott Greenfield on (mostly criminal) law, and Ken White on law and privacy.

    1. Re:War nerd, simple justice, popehat by Noah+Haders · · Score: 4, Informative

      I came here to post popehat. My legal blog recommendations:
      * Popehat insightful/snarky legal commentary from someone who used to be a federal prosecutor and is now in private practice.
      * Lowering the Bar: hilarious legal humor. Recent topics: Hulk Hogan, Donald Trump, drone law, argle-bargle.
      *Papers, Please: Lots of TSA and similar topics. Their MO is to file expansive FOIA requests to intelligence and law enforcement agencies, then write stridently about how they were rejected.
      * Jetsetting Terrorist: trials and tribulations of somebody erroneously on the do not fly list. (not updated often)
      * Taking Sense Away: blog written by TSA employee (no longer updated, but fun to read the archives).
      * SCOTUSblog: blow-by-blow news of goings-on at the supreme court. super nerdy.
      * Supreme Court Haiku: summaries of supreme court decisions, in haiku form.
      * Volokh Conspiracy: insightful pieces on constitutional law and similar topics. primarily conservative, primarily written by law profs.

      wow, with all these things in my feedly, it's amazing I get any work done!

  13. Re:Politics: SCGNews by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh, I'm not worried about WWIII, it just has a pretty good explanation of how much our foreign military intervention is driven by backing the USD with growth in oil/energy since the dollar went off the gold standard.

    Never listen to any commentator on that topic if they seem unaware that most US oil consumption is supplied by the US and Canada.

    (Incidentally, Milton Friedman correctly pointed out that the US went off the dollar standard in 1934. The system from then until the Nixon shock was 'gold standard' in name only).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  14. For Windows insights by operagost · · Score: 3, Informative
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    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  15. Re:Politics: SCGNews by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, if you use Canadian oil you'll go from 1 mile per gallon down to 0.425143706 kilometre per liter. Nobody wants that!

  16. Re:Politics: SCGNews by nofx911 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/...

    For those who do not want to go to the article, where does US oil come from:
        - USA: 38.8%
        - Canada: 15.1%
        - Saudi Arabia: 8.1%
        - Mexico: 7.5%
        - Latin America (other than Mexico/Venezuela): 6.2%
        - Venezuela: 5.9%
        - Nigeria: 5.2%
        - Africa (other than Nigeria): 5.1%
        - Persian Gulf (other than Saudi Arabia): 4.8%
        - Other than above: 3.3%