DoNotPay, Raspberry Pi Alternatives, Coronavirus Visualizations, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020

DoNotPay, Raspberry Pi Alternatives, Coronavirus Visualizations, More: Tuesday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

VentureBeat: DoNotPay now lets you share online subscriptions without divulging your password. “DoNotPay, the digital lawyer that shot to prominence for its bot that helps drivers appeal parking tickets, has launched a new product aimed at consumers. With the DoNotPay Subscription Sharing Chrome extension, anyone can share access to their online accounts — like Spotify, Netflix, Disney+ — without divulging their password.”

USEFUL STUFF

ReviewGeek: The 7 Best Raspberry Pi Alternatives for Bigger (and Smaller!) Projects. “Raspberry Pi computers are inexpensive, powerful, and supported by a vast community of fans. But if your project requires hardware options that don’t exist on the Pi, then it’s time to shop for a new SBC (single board computer). Here are some of our favorites.”

DataWrapper Blog: 17 responsible live visualizations about the coronavirus, for you to use . “To cover the coronavirus is a challenge. Journalists should inform the public, but also don’t want to create a panic with harmful consequences. We’re trying to help. Here are more 20 charts, maps and tables that show the latest numbers about the coronavirus.”

Lifehacker Australia: Tell Google Maps Your Dietary Preferences To Get More Customised Search Results . “We all have food preferences of some kind. Maybe you’re a vegetarian or allergic to shellfish, or perhaps you just really don’t like pizza. When you’re using Google Maps to find food recommendations; however, by default, it will show you all the options out there, not just the ones you’re likely to want to eat. That is, unless you tell Google Maps what those preferences are.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

E&T: Google faces challenge of ‘brittle’ and opaque AI, says internet pioneer. “Internet pioneer and Google vice-president Vint Cerf has appeared before a House of Lords committee, defending the approach Google takes towards search ranking and content moderation.”

CNET: The coronavirus impact: Here’s how COVID-19 has affected the tech industry. “The novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the global technology industry. Many companies have shut factories and banned business-related travel, and major industry events like Facebook’s F8, the Geneva Motor Show, Google I/O and Mobile World Congress continue to be called off because of the outbreak.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: Spying concerns raised over Iran’s official COVID-19 detection app . “Google has removed today an Android app from the official Play Store that was developed by the Iranian government to test and keep track of COVID-19 (coronavirus) infections. Before being removed from the Play Store, controversy surrounded the app, and several users accused the Iranian government of using the COVID-19 scare to trick citizens into installing the app and then collecting phone numbers and real-time geo-location data.”

Mashable: Want medical records on your smartphone? Federal rules just made it easier.. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has its hands full with this whole containing a disease outbreak thing. Which meant that the release of its new rules to modernize access to medical records — controversial, much anticipated, and delayed for over a year — dropped Monday not with a bang, but a plop.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Neowin: Neural networks are now being used to track exotic particles at CERN. “Research within the domain of physics has profited from the rise of artificial neural networks and deep learning. In the past, we’ve seen them being applied to study dark matter and massive galaxies. Continuing this pattern, we now have artificial neural networks being used in the study of exotic particles.”

Phys .org: ‘Data feminism’ examines problems of bias and power that beset modern information. “Suppose you would like to know mortality rates for women during childbirth, by country, around the world. Where would you look? One option is the WomanStats Project, the website of an academic research effort investigating the links between the security and activities of nation-states, and the security of the women who live in them.” Good evening, Internet…

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March 11, 2020 at 05:52AM
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Holi Festival, Open Education Week, Project Stringer, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020

Holi Festival, Open Education Week, Project Stringer, More: Tuesday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Google launches secret Easter Egg for Indian Hindu Holi Festival. “Holi, the ‘festival of colors’, is a hugely popular event in India that signifies the triumph of good over evil and heralds the arrival of spring. It’s when Hindus throw colorful paint at each other. Today marks the start of the Holi Festival, and to celebrate it, Google has launched a new Easter Egg in its search. Accessing it is pretty easy too. Best of all, it is very fun.”

Cogdogblog: Amazing/True Stories of Openness Makes Comeback for Open Education Week. “Monday I saw the #OEWeek tagged tweets and had some wondering about what I might contribute for Open Education Week. So I dusted off and cleaned up an oldie- my collection of Amazing Stories of Serendipity.”

Google Blog: Project Stringer provides video coverage for U.S. elections. “Whether on TVs, phones, or social media feeds, many Americans are getting their news through videos. And with a national election dominating the U.S. news, many local publishers are struggling to meet the demand for engaging, on-the-ground political videos. Enter Project Stringer.”

USEFUL STUFF

The first time I tried this it timed out, but the second time it worked. You may have to try it a few times. From The Verge: This handwashing lyrics generator is here to save you from singing Happy Birthday. “By this point, everyone (hopefully) knows that you should be washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, or as long as it takes for you to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases — including the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. But now that we’re several months into the novel coronavirus outbreak, ‘Happy Birthday’ is starting to get a little old (creative hacks aside). So here’s Wash Your Lyrics, a new tool that automatically pairs the lyrics to a song of your choice with instructions on how to wash your hands properly.”

Make Tech Easier: How to Add a Watermark to an Image without Photoshop. “If you’re not familiar with it, don’t know how to use it or find it too complicated for your needs, follow along to find out how you can add a watermark to an image without Photoshop.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Dallas Innovates: A New App From Two Former SMU Football Players Connects Search With Social. “Vuzag is a new location-based search engine that displays a live snapshot of a user’s local community. The platform helps people get information on local events currently happening. And, it was founded Robert Seals and Daniel Gresham, two former SMU football players.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNET: Facebook sued by Australian privacy watchdog over Cambridge Analytica scandal. “An Australian privacy watchdog is suing Facebook after the social network allegedly passed on data from 311,074 Australian users to an app at the center of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The case, which was filed in Australia’s federal court on Monday, is another sign that Facebook’s privacy woes are far from over. ”

The Age (Australia): Melbourne brothel owner sues Google over bad reviews. “A South Melbourne brothel owner is taking legal action to force Google to reveal who wrote its bad online reviews, some of which direct customers to a nearby competitor. The Boardroom of Melbourne, which bills itself as one of the city’s top brothels, wants the Federal Court to force Google to hand over the IP addresses linked with the negative reviews after the search engine giant refused to reveal the identities behind them and take them down.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Medium, and I apologize for the swearing: How Not to Be an Asshole on the Internet. “A 2017 study seemed to prove what those of us familiar with online debates have feared for years: People we disagree with seem less human to us when we read their views than when we hear them spoken aloud. Results from a separate 2017 study might help explain why. One: Voices convey emotion, both through the content of what a person says and in how they say it. And two: Intimacy can change everything in these contexts. Seeing someone’s face all the time creates a kind of expertise that allows a person to understand another’s mental state just by looking at them. There’s evidence to suggest that it’s also possible to have this transformation on social media, where we are increasingly conducting our lives.”

Daily Camera: CU Boulder Museum of Natural History releases interactive 3D scan of triceratops skull fossil. “The University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History recently released on the internet an interactive 3D scan of its triceratops skull, a fossil nearly the size of a small car.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

March 11, 2020 at 01:05AM
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Kentucky Voting Rights, Canadian Politicians, China Photography, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020

Kentucky Voting Rights, Canadian Politicians, China Photography, More: Tuesday ResearchBuzz, March 10, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Courier Journal: A new website allows 152,000 Kentucky felons to see if their voting rights were restored. “Nearly three months after restoring voting rights to many Kentuckians convicted of felonies who had completed sentences, Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday said the numbers of those restored totaled 152,000. On Wednesday, Beshear said the state has a new website with a searchable database for people to find out if their voting rights were restored.”

The Star (Canada): How well are women represented on your local city council? Search hundreds of cities in our exclusive database to find out. “One hundred years ago, on a winter day in 1920, Constance Hamilton, a suffragist, social activist and talented pianist, took her seat on Toronto city council, making history as the first woman elected to municipal office in Ontario. A century later, and despite a decades-long push to get more women into municipal politics, gender parity remains elusive in city and town councils across Canada.”

New-to-me, from The Bejinger: Time Travel Through Beijing’s Past With This Vast Photographic Archive. “First conceived in 2006, the Historical Photographs of China online archive is the fruit of a large-scale project that collects, researches, digitizes, and publishes historical photographs of China. The images largely come from private collections held outside of mainland China, from families with some historical link to the country, and many photographs having been handed down through the generations. There are thousands and thousands of images in the collection, with some of the earliest going back to the late 19th century, offering a fascinating glimpse into China’s past.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Krebs on Security: U.S. Govt. Makes it Harder to Get .Gov Domains. “The federal agency in charge of issuing .gov domain names is enacting new requirements for validating the identity of people requesting them. The additional measures come less than four months after KrebsOnSecurity published research suggesting it was relatively easy for just about anyone to get their very own .gov domain.”

USEFUL STUFF

GenealogyBank: Genealogy 101: Using Gazetteers for Genealogy. “In this article – part of an ongoing ‘Introduction to Genealogy’ series – Gena Philibert-Ortega describes how helpful gazetteers can be to your family history research, and provides links to find them.”

Wirecutter: How I Use Alexa to Dunk on My Kids. “I will stoop as low as it takes to fool and delight them, and Alexa has all the built-in tools I need. Should you want to fight back and own your kids like a boss, you need to check out Alexa Routines—little customizable commands you can create that tell Alexa to say or do pretty much whatever you want.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wired: A Brief History of Instagram’s Trouble With ‘Weight-Loss Tea’. “Do you want a lithe, toned body that absolutely does not take multiple photo-editing apps to achieve? Do you want to be a person whose hair and makeup look red-carpet-ready immediately after leaving the gym? Do you want to eat only photogenic smoothie bowls and be utterly unfazed by the fact that they are cold yogurt soup? Try this tea! The 30-Day Detox Starter Pack is now only $85—just use my promo code below. Oh, by the way: #ad.”

Arab News: Social media unites Arab women for digital activism across region and beyond. “Online activism has revolutionized Arab women’s struggle for equality in the past few years as they use the web to demand legislative change, confront sexual harassment and gender-based violence, as well as condemn patriarchy and misogyny.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TorrentFreak: Plex Slammed By Huge Copyright Coalition For Not Policing Pirates. “Plex has become the latest neutral technology to get slammed for not doing enough to prevent movie and TV show piracy. According to pro-copyright lobby group CreativeFuture, which represents more than 560 companies and organizations, Plex – like Kodi – is a ‘dangerous digital media player’ that has joined the ranks of ‘internet heavyweights who refuse to take responsibility for the criminal behavior on their platforms.'”

Wired: How a Hacker’s Mom Broke Into a Prison—and the Warden’s Computer. “John Strand breaks into things for a living. As a penetration tester, he gets hired by organizations to attack their defenses, helping reveal weaknesses before actual bad guys find them. Normally, Strand embarks on these missions himself, or deploys one of his experienced colleagues at Black Hills Information Security. But in July 2014, prepping for a pen test of a South Dakota correctional facility, he took a decidedly different tack. He sent his mom.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Scientists figured out how to fool state-of-the-art Deepfake detectors. “A team of researchers from UC San Diego recently came up with a relatively simple method for convincing fake video-detectors that AI-generated fakes are the real deal.”

FierceBiotech: New coronavirus maps offer insights for detection and treatment. “COVID-19, the coronavirus that’s causing the current worldwide outbreak, invades cells by hijacking a protein on their surface called human receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Understanding the full structure of ACE2 could aid efforts to develop new detection and treatment techniques—and now a team of researchers from China is providing a map of the enzyme and the entry point it provides to COVID-19.” Good morning, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

March 10, 2020 at 05:00PM
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Quibi, Google, Face-Touching, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 9, 2020

Quibi, Google, Face-Touching, More: Monday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 9, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

New York Times: Quibi Is Coming. Here Are the Famous People Making Shows for It.. “Quibi, set to launch on April 6, stands for ‘quick bites,’ which refers to the service’s plan to offer short segments (10 minutes or less) designed for small screens (your phone).”

Engadget: Google explains how it’s tackling the coronavirus outbreak. “Google’s efforts to inform people about the coronavirus outbreak extend well beyond a search alert. The company has outlined all the ways it’s addressing COVID-19, including a bid to stamp out misinformation.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Use This Website to Stop Touching Your Damn Face With Your Virus Hands. “For those who are terrified of the Coronavirus, or just want to practice better habits as it relates to any infectious diseases, I recommend keeping ‘Do Not Touch Your Face’ as a pinned browser tab for the time being. Or, better yet, get it working on your kid’s computer so they stop touching their face with their gross, unwashed hands.” Unfortunately this only works if you don’t mind having a webcam pointed at your face all day.

Fast Company: 8 great free web tools you didn’t know you needed. “The wondrous, whimsical World Wide Web is still wonderful after all these years. And there are still plenty of helpful and powerful sites out there to discover. Here are eight that deserve a place on your bookmarks bar.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: As COVID-19 pushes classes online, some students are caught in the broadband gap. “As COVID-19 spreads within the United States and across the globe, public health officials are calling for fewer public gatherings — which is pushing many activities online. The issue is particularly severe for schools, where the risk of spreading the disease is high. But as many US schools try to shift to online lesson plans, they’re running into the limitations of our threadbare broadband networks, which leave many students unable to connect to their new online classrooms.”

Business Insider: Google’s ambitious push into gaming is floundering, and it’s due largely to too few games on its Stadia platform — here’s why developers have held back. “This concern — that Google might just give up on Stadia at some point and kill the service, as it has done with so many other services over the years — was repeatedly brought up, unprompted, by every person we spoke with for this piece.” I like to call that the Google Reader Curse.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Coronavirus fraud: UK victims lose 800,000 pounds in scams. “Victims in the United Kingdom have lost more than 800,000 pounds ($1 million) to coronavirus-linked scams since last month, with criminals tricking fearful people who wanted to buy protective masks, police said on Friday. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) said there had been 21 reports of fraud since Feb. 10, many of which involved scams over masks, with one victim paying 15,000 pounds for masks that never arrived.”

Ars Technica: FCC to require anti-robocall tech after “voluntary” plan didn’t work out. “Phone companies would be required to deploy technology that prevents spoofing of Caller ID under a plan announced today by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Geekologie: Woman Trains Neural Network To Create Self Portraits Of Her. “This is a short video of the generative adversarial neural network self portraits created by Ellie O’Brien using the NVIDIA StyleGAN model retrained with 7000 images of herself.”

Slashgear: NASA wants the public to help track light pollution from VLEO satellites. “NASA wants the public to help it track very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites and the potential light pollution issues they may cause. The space agency launched a public science project that anyone can participate in, stating that it only requires a tripod, smartphone, and the use of a website that reveals when satellites will be overhead.” Good evening, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

March 10, 2020 at 06:04AM
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OmniVision NIR image sensing achieves new quantum efficiency record

OmniVision claims 50% quantum efficiency for its second-generation 940-nm NIR image sensing technology, delivering a 25% improvement over the previous generation.

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Sensors_and_Transducers/Image_Sensors_and_Optical_Detectors/OmniVision_NIR_image_sensing_achieves_new_quantum_efficiency_record.aspx

OmniVision NIR image sensing achieves new quantum efficiency record

OmniVision claims 50% quantum efficiency for its second-generation 940-nm NIR image sensing technology, delivering a 25% improvement over the previous generation.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2U4zRlV

Ruggedized connectors target industrial Ethernet designs

Amphenol ICC’s ruggedized, high-speed connectors are designed to meet next-generation industrial Ethernet requirements.

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Interconnections/Connectors/Ruggedized_connectors_target_industrial_Ethernet_designs.aspx