Nerd Alert Issue 36: A steady diet of waffles

nerdalertfinal

It's important to maintain "a steady diet of waffles." - @NYTMinusContext

HOT LINKS

What we're reading this week

  Adam: This post on WeChat is a fascinating read on what might be the future of mobile commerce. WeChat is a popular messaging app in China, but it’s grown into much more than that - an entire ecosystem with millions of interconnected apps within apps.

  Ben: Here’s a really well-written explanation of the difference between imperative and declarative programming languages.

  Dani: I’m getting ready to go back to school (graduate school this time), so statistics is on my mind. This article uses data viz to debunk some of the most common misconceptions about p-values.

  David: All news organizations and reporters need to ask this regularly: Do we have a clear engagement strategy for the status quo of the attention economy to deliver news products? Or are we just posting links on social media?

  Kaeti: Is your platform perpetuating unconscious (or conscious) bias? Latoya Peterson writes persuasively about why we need to engineer the racism out of apps.

  Ryan: Check out this curated list of lists containing links to some the best literature, libraries, videos, etc., on a variety of topics related to programming.

  Bert: You just stay there on the couch. I got the lawn.

This week's guest contributor:Dom DiFurio, Digital Engagement Intern at The Dallas Morning News.

The sexplosion of Vanity Fair’s Tinder story this week displays the importance in creating for the new audience. Most people would unfortunately agree that, in this era, Internet users tend to trade an interest in foreign affairs for mobile apps that get you laid (40 unique lays a year, if that’s what you’re into). That being said, somebody should create a Tinder but for finding news content millennials left at frat parties.


Each week we ask someone from outside our team to contribute a link, tool or idea. Are you our next guest star? We think you might be. Send us a note at nerds@inn.org.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

pymviewer

 

The folks over at Texas Tribune's News Apps team built Pymviewer, an essential tool for anyone using NPR's popular pym.js to power responsive <iframe> embeds.

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gather ye rosebuds

LISTEN: The caution tape is there because this may bamboozle you.

COOK: Crunch. Repeat.

WATCH: A layer-lapse blends multiple time-lapses each moving at their own rate and starting from different times of day.

GIF: Be fearless. Try something uncomfortable and new!

 

ezgif.com-optimize