New researches

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Eastern Railway Timetables, Syracuse University, Telegram Bots, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 15, 2021

Eastern Railway Timetables, Syracuse University, Telegram Bots, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 15, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Times of India: Eastern Railway restores, digitizes heritage timetables. “On India’s 75th Independence Day eve, Eastern Railway has restored and digitized heritage timetables dating from the British era till 1948. The timetables belong to East Indian Railway and Eastern Railway for the years 1869, 1891, 1903, 1906, 1917 and 1948.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Syracuse University: Libraries Creates Department of Digital Stewardship. “Syracuse University Libraries recently created the Department of Digital Stewardship as the next step in the ongoing development of its Digital Library Program. The new department will enhance organizationwide focus on a variety of specialized, digital activities and the necessary infrastructure to ensure persistent access to our unique digital collections.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Create a Telegram Bot for Sending Notifications using Google Apps Script. “Would you like to receive notifications in your Telegram messenger when a new form response is submitted in Google Forms. Or maybe send a notification alert to your entire Telegram group when an important event happens. In this step-by-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a new Telegram bot and send messages to your Telegram channel and groups through this bot with the help of Google Apps Script.”

Hongkiat: 200+ Useful Google Assistant Commands . “Google Assistant was first introduced in Google Allo, and it slowly replaced the old de-facto virtual assistant for Android known as Google Now. However, on the bright side, it introduces a lot more commands, features, and integrations than its predecessor. And it’s widely available as well. Sounds interesting? Alright then, let’s check out its commands you can use to improve productivity in your daily lives.”

Lifehacker: 7 Meditation Apps That Are Cheaper (and Better) Than Headspace and Calm. “If you’ve tried Headspace before and found it didn’t work for you, you should know that there is a whole world of niche meditation apps for you to explore. Try out some of these alternatives to see which one works best for you.” This is a slideshow.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: How Twilio is moving beyond a diversity numbers game toward becoming an anti-racist company. “When George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, it set off a firestorm of protests and shed a bright hot spotlight on the issues of racism in America and elsewhere. As a response, many companies gave messages of support to people of color, yet have failed to make substantive change since that time. One company that is attempting to move beyond lip service and diversity quotas is Twilio, whose CEO Jeff Lawson has made a commitment to work toward being an anti-racist company.”

New York Times: Now Going Viral: Meeting Online Friends in Real Life. “Marissa Meizz, 23, was out to dinner with a friend in the East Village in mid-May when her phone started buzzing. She tried to silence it, but the texts kept coming. They all wanted to know: Had she seen the TikTok video? She clicked the link and a young man appeared onscreen. ‘If your name’s Marissa,’ he said, ‘please listen up.’ He said he had just overheard some of her friends say they were deliberately choosing to hold a birthday party when she was out of town that weekend. “You need to know,” he said. ‘TikTok, help me find Marissa.'”

Washington Post: The story behind Google’s biggest game yet: An Olympics-themed JRPG. “On July 23, in advance of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, visitors to Google.com were greeted by an unusual feature. In place of the standard logo, or a traditional Google Doodle — an illustration timed to a specific date or event — the company published ‘Doodle Champion Island Games,’ a video game. The game, which can be played in as few as 10 minutes or for up to four hours, resembles a sprawling Japanese role-playing game and sports a cute feline protagonist competing in sporting events and tackling side quests. The original plan had never been that big.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

ZDNet: This ‘unique’ phishing attack uses Morse code to hide its approach. “Microsoft has revealed the inner-workings of a phishing attack group’s techniques that uses a ‘jigsaw puzzle’ technique plus unusual features like Morse code dashes and dots to hide its attacks.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Electronic Arts says artificial intelligence will make game characters much more lifelike. “There’s always that moment in every video game when the character does something you didn’t expect and breaks the immersion. Maybe a bad guy you just shot falls to the ground with arms flailing like a rag doll. Or perhaps your character moves too stiffly when getting into or out of a vehicle. Electronic Arts is among the companies hoping to turn to artificial intelligence to help fix that problem.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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August 16, 2021 at 12:11AM
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Apple, Google Nest Hub, Facebook, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, August 15, 2021

Apple, Google Nest Hub, Facebook, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, August 15, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Reuters: After Criticism, Apple to Only Seek Abuse Images Flagged in Multiple Nations. “After a week of criticism over a its planned new system for detecting images of child sex abuse, Apple Inc said on Friday that it will hunt only for pictures that have been flagged by clearinghouses in multiple countries.”

The Verge: Google’s Nest Hubs will warn users about nearby pollution and smoke. “Google is adding air quality data to its Nest Hub smart displays. While the new feature is still only available in ‘select’ US markets, it’ll give some users an idea of how much risk they might face from smoke and pollution in the area.”

TechCrunch: Facebook is bringing end-to-end encryption to Messenger calls and Instagram DMs. “End-to-end encryption (E2EE) — a security feature that prevents third-parties from eavesdropping on calls and chats — has been available for text conversations on Facebook’s flagship messaging service since 2016. Although the company has faced pressure from governments to roll back its end-to-end encryption plans, Facebook is now extending this protection to both voice and video calls on Messenger, which means that ‘nobody else, including Facebook, can see or listen to what’s sent or said.'”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 8 Social Media Content Calendar Tools for Scheduling Posts. “The world of social media is expanding, and hence it becomes difficult for individual users to post on all the platforms regularly at the right time. In order to manage when and what to publish on social media, you need to stay organized. To make the whole process seamless and hassle-free, check out these eight social media calendar tools for scheduling posts.” Including it because Tamal Das managed to include a couple of scheduling tools I didn’t know about.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: Teens Cash in on the NFT Art Boom. “Last fall, Randi Hipper decided to, as she put it recently, ‘go in-depth with the crypto space.’ After hearing about NFTs on Twitter and other social media platforms, Ms. Hipper, then a 17-year-old senior at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, began releasing her own digital artworks — cartoonish and self-referential pieces showing her cruising in a car with a Bitcoin license plate or riding the Coney Island Wonder Wheel.”

The Guardian: From Florence to the machines: the evolution of data journalism – in pictures. “Data-driven journalism has become as ubiquitous as hand-sanitiser during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its roots go back to before germ theory. This resource looks at the history of data journalism, and how changing trends in reporting and technology have fuelled its expansion.”

Slate: What’s Really Wrong With the New Twitter Font. “On Thursday, Twitter updated the design of its app and website. Some users were baffled by a change to the ‘follow’ and ‘unfollow’ buttons that could lead one to mix them up. Others took issue with the new Twitter font, Chirp. While the social network boasted that Chirp is designed to be more accessible and amplify “the fun and irreverence of a Tweet,” many tweets complained that not only is it harder to read, users are complaining of headaches.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Warning: this is very disturbing. I’m not kidding. You may want to skip it. Motherboard: People Buy Custom Baby Monkey Torture Videos on World’s Worst Forum. “People are setting up private group chats and forums to purchase and share custom baby monkey torture videos, an investigation by animal advocacy groups Action for Primates and Lady Freethinker has found.”

Publishers Weekly: Define ‘Reasonable’: Can Maryland’s New E-book Law Help Change the Marketplace?. “In a July statement, the Maryland Library Association (MLA) praised state legislators for recently passing a new law that seeks to ensure library patrons can have access to e-books that are available to consumers in the state. But does the law also give Maryland libraries a little leverage to change the existing terms under which e-books are licensed libraries?”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Museums+Heritage Advisor: New funding opportunities launched as Paul Mellon Centre film series champions properly funded research. “Telling previously unknown or seldom told stories unearthed by recipients of its funding awards, one of six films charting a broad range of topics will be released each week from today. Shot on location at venues including the British Museum and the British School at Rome, the short films – each no longer than six minutes to ensure maximum impact – have been conceived not only to highlight intriguing new research but to make the case for the importance of properly funded scholarship.”

CogDogBlog: What the Olde Links Say About Domains. “Once again, my experience shows that if you publish something on an employer’s web site, or a company’s web site, or even in something that just takes away the work of managing web sites, the chances of it having a life to keep echoing is low. And if you are going to go to the trouble to craft something in writing, why put it in a place where the shelf life is short?”

Gizmodo: Warner Bros. Lets Anyone Be in Its Reminiscence Trailer With a Cool New Deepfake Generator. “As reported by Protocol, to promote its upcoming movie Reminiscence, Warner Bros. partnered with AI face platform D-ID to create a deepfake generator that allows anyone to insert themselves one of the film’s trailers. Using the generator is simple. All you need to do is go to movie’s official website and upload a picture of yourself. The generator will then crank out a short trailer that includes a moving deepfake sequence of your face.” Good morning, Internet…

August 15, 2021 at 05:29PM
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Saturday, August 14, 2021

Our Shared Future, Music Recommendations, Reddit, More: Saturday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021

Our Shared Future, Music Recommendations, Reddit, More: Saturday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

BusinessWire: Smithsonian Launches “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past” With a Virtual Forum (PRESS RELEASE). “The Smithsonian will kick off its new race initiative, ‘Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past,’ with a virtual forum Aug. 26. The initiative will bring together resources from across the Smithsonian to explore how Americans understand, experience and confront racism through several critical lenses like wellness, wealth and the arts. ‘Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past’ will include virtual and live events across the country as well as digital content, storytelling and learning resources for students and educators.”

Louder Sound: This website claims it can find your new favourite band. “Music-recommending website Sage claims that it can find you your new favourite band using artificial intelligence. All you have to do is type in your favourite band and least favourite band, and Sage will come up with a list of recommendations for you, with a match percentage for each one and a link to listen.” Your mileage may vary. When I was trying to enter music I like, Sage found bands like Ball Park Music and Lime Cordiale as well as individuals like Dallas Woods and Baker Boy, but couldn’t find Miiesha or Tierra Whack. What?

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Reddit is now valued at more than $10 billion. “Reddit, the self-declared ‘front page of the internet,’ says it is now valued at more than $10 billion after raising an additional $410 million in funding, with the final round expected to grow to up to $700 million. The company continues to build and sanitize its business, removing racist, misogynist, and otherwise controversial communities, as it prepares to go public at some point in the future.”

USEFUL STUFF

Bustle: Instagram Guides Are Way More Useful Than You Probably Think . “While you’re probably not as familiar with Guides as you are with Stories or IGTV, the feature can be incredibly useful: Even if you’re not an influencer or content creator, Guides can be a creative way to blog about your summer, shop products, or discover new trends. Instagram originally introduced Guides to exclusive creators in May 2020, but opened up the feature to all users in November of last year.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: #BookTok Is Boosting Sales For Brick-And-Mortar Bookstores. “TikTok’s crop of book lovers are boosting sales for Canada’s largest bookseller. In its second-quarter earnings report, Indigo Books and Music Inc. said that #BookTok is having a noticeable positive effect on demand, especially for older titles.”

Ars Technica: Excerpt: How Google bought Android—according to folks in the room. “Androids: The team that built the Android operating system is a new book from longtime Android engineer Chet Haase. Haase has been on the Android team since 2010, and he interviewed dozens of Googlers for this book, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at early Android development. With Haase’s permission, we’re giving readers a look at chapters four and five of the book, ‘The Pitch,’ and ‘The Acquisition.'”

DA NANG Today: Data on traditional festivals to go digital. “The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has given the green light to the implementation of a project on digitalising all types of Vietnamese festivals for the 2021-2025 period. They involve traditional and cultural ones, industry festivals, and those of foreign origin.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Daily Sabah: Turkey expedites efforts for new social media regulation. “The Turkish government has accelerated its efforts for a new social media regulation, in light of online manipulations and disinformation about recent incidents such as forest fires and tensions between locals and Syrian migrants in the capital Ankara’s Altındağ district.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Penn State: Seed grant to explore using AI to model subsurface rock formations. “It is difficult for geoscientists to map sedimentary rocks’ compositional and mechanical properties at high resolution, according to Yashar Mehmani, assistant professor in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering. He recently received a seed grant from the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) to investigate using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a new method to model the Earth’s subsurface.”

University of Maine: Researchers assess whether open educational resources improved biology instruction. “The National Science Foundation awarded a nearly $2 million collaborative research grant for principal investigators from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Cornell University and UMaine to assess the effectiveness of open educational resources in teaching core biology concepts, facilitating student-centered learning and supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. Funding for the five-year project derived from the NSF’s Vision and Change Program.” Good evening, Internet…

August 15, 2021 at 05:32AM
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Oklahoma Child Care Jobs, Reddit, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021

Oklahoma Child Care Jobs, Reddit, Twitter, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

News on 6 (Oklahoma): Local Nonprofit Launches New Statewide Early Childhood Job Board. “A Tulsa nonprofit has launched a new online job board designed to help childcare facilities across the state find qualified workers. The new database allows job seekers to find an opportunity and childcare facilities to find the right candidates…. The database is free for employers to post open positions and for people looking for a job in childcare.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Reddit is quietly rolling out a TikTok-like video feed button on iOS. “From Instagram’s Reels to Snapchat’s Spotlight, most social media platforms are looking toward the TikTok boom for inspiration. Now, even Reddit, a discussion-based forum, is making short-form video more pronounced on its iOS app.”

CNET: Twitter once again pauses verification program to improve application process. “Twitter on Friday said it’s once again hitting pause on its verification program. The company reopened public applications for verification in May after a four-year shut down as it reevaluated its application process. Now, it appears the company has already run into more roadblocks.”

The Verge: Twitter is changing the contrast of buttons again after complaints of eye strain. “Twitter is readjusting the contrast on its buttons following feedback about its design updates from earlier this week. Some people have reported eye strain, headaches, and migraines due to the higher visual contrast in the colors of buttons and links, as well as the new font, Chirp.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

River City News: Three NKY Kroger Stores Part of New Pick-Up Partnership with Google Maps. “According to a news release, when groceries are ordered from Kroger via the grocer’s app, users will have the opportunity to add the order to Google Maps. When it is time to leave, Google Maps will send a notification which will let the user share the arrival time with the store.”

University of Texas at Austin: Archive of Tony Award-Winning Theater Designer Kevin Adams Comes to the Harry Ransom Center. “The archive of award-winning lighting designer Kevin Adams has been established at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, a key research destination for the study of theater and performance history.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Trade Judge Says Google Infringed on Patents Owned by Sonos. “Google infringed on speaker-technology patents held by Sonos and should not be allowed to import products that violate Sonos’s intellectual property, a judge said in a preliminary finding by the United States International Trade Commission.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Carnegie Mellon University: CMU Misinformation Researchers Zero in on Climate Change. “To more effectively combat misinformation, climate change communicators need to focus their messaging on key conspiracy theories that gain the most traction, according to two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. In a recent paper, CMU’s Aman Tyagi and Kathleen M. Carley look at the polarization of climate change beliefs on social media, and offer targeted approaches toward reshaping beliefs.”

Brookings Institution: Nigeria’s Twitter ban is a misplaced priority. “Political activists have the most dominant voice in the conversation while institutional actors and organizations have some of the smallest. While Nigerian citizens and activists continue to use the platform, the Nigerian government has effectively shut itself out from the conversation with only the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, still maintaining a presence on Twitter.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Boing Boing: Fantastically surreal TikTok films about pay telephones. “Solopist makes wonderfully surreal short TikTok films all about pay telephones. The series reminds me of 2600 magazine’s ‘Payphones of the World’ backpage photos, only less real.” Are you a fan of BUTTERED SIDE DOWN or YOU SUCK AT COOKING? Here ya go. Good afternoon, Internet…

August 15, 2021 at 12:28AM
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NYPD Misconduct, Olympics Content, Facebook Dating, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021

NYPD Misconduct, Olympics Content, Facebook Dating, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, August 14, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Gothamist: Brooklyn DA Releases Massive Trove Of Internal Documents On NYPD Misconduct. “The records reveal a wide range of misconduct allegations and findings against NYPD officers ranging from dishonesty to brutality to inappropriate associations with criminals. The release consists of District Attorney’s office letters prepared for defense attorneys and defendants to inform them of past police conduct that could undermine the credibility of officers called to the stand.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Tubefilter: YouTube Viewers Watched 200 Million Hours Of Olympics Content, To The Tune Of 190 Million Daily Views. “According to the video giant, viewers watched 200 million hours of Olympics content this year, to the tune of 190 million daily views on average. (This includes footage from the Tokyo games and previous Olympics, YouTube said). In 2016, during the Rio games, viewers watched 29 million hours of Olympics content, clocking 24 million daily average views.”

The Verge: Facebook Dating is getting audio chats. “Facebook Dating, the company’s dating service, doesn’t appear to be as popular as other dating apps, but the company is introducing some new features to make it more useful for virtual dating, which has boomed during the pandemic.”

Search Engine Journal: LinkedIn Adds Ratings & Reviews to User Profiles. “An update to LinkedIn profiles will allow users to be rated and reviewed on the skills they offer as service providers. Reviews will be will be displayed in a new section on user profiles that have the services listings option enabled.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Vou: Best 12 Outfit Generator Apps And Websites Of 2021. “An outfit generator is an app or website designed to help users with their sartorial game by generating fresh outfits or combining existing clothes with future online purchases to create new styles. An outfit generator can be used for stylistic inspiration and as a wardrobe builder of custom outfits.” I love these things. I stare at them in awe. I’m like a fish looking at a rocketship.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Daily Beast: Trump’s Favorite Dictator Fueling New Pro-Hitler Movement. “The movement’s digital goosestepping is being led by a small handful of Nazis claiming connections to the Egyptian Armed Forces on Telegram, who are also attempting to build a community on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. At the center of the network is a branded, cloud-based storage drive being shared across a series of Telegram channels as well as Facebook pages and profiles, containing 16,922 multilingual pieces of Nazi footage, photos, text, and Holocaust denial videos, all meticulously ordered in 416 folders. Repeated calls to the Egyptian military’s media office went unanswered.”

Washington Post: Marginalized streamers beg Twitch to ‘do better’ in wake of hate raids, poor pay. “During an Aug. 6 broadcast, the Twitch streamer RekItRaven — who is Black and uses they/them pronouns — emotionally described a series of traumatic, real-life experiences that informed who they are today. In response, viewers in chat told Raven that they were ‘loved.’ This made what happened next especially hurtful. About 20 minutes later, Raven’s chat was suddenly flooded by dozens of users spamming the same message, which read in part: ‘This channel now belongs to the KKK.’ It was the second time that had happened in just one week.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Register: Dutch education IT crisis averted as Google agrees to ‘major privacy improvements’. “Google has agreed to ‘major privacy improvements’ following a threat to ban the use of Google Workspace in education by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA). In March, Privacy Company concluded that eight out of 10 high privacy risks in Google’s productivity suite, Workspace, remained. The Dutch educational institutions then asked the Dutch DPA for advice. At the end of May the DPA warned schools and universities to stop using Google Workspace for Education before the start of the new school year.”

Mashable: Scammers target YouTube’s smart TV activation sites with help from Google. “Mashable has uncovered a scam that weaponizes the YouTube activation screen on Smart TVs. And the scam would be impossible for the fraudsters to carry out without a huge assist from Google, YouTube’s parent company.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tech Xplore: AI researchers trust international, scientific organizations most, study finds. “Researchers working in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence trust international and scientific organizations the most to shape the development and use of AI in the public interest. But who do they trust the least? National militaries, Chinese tech companies and Facebook.”

Michigan Daily: Dreaming through the screen. “I’ve always been someone that has appreciated silence and even sought it out. I prefer working at night when the noises around me are at a minimum. But when the silence on campus seemed suffocating, I would turn to cooking videos — something that I expect already to be silent. Even the slight punctuation of sounds are predictable and therefore somewhat grounding. These videos were the good types of quiet: anticipated and calm, not anxious or depressing.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Ubergizmo: Animal Shelter Uses Tinder To Help Their Animals Find New Owners. “The Munich Animal Welfare Association recently decided to use Tinder as a platform to help them bring awareness to the various animals that they foster. They created profiles for their sheltered animals and put them on Tinder, using an advertising agency to help them snap some professional headshots for 15 cats and dogs.” Good morning, Internet…

August 14, 2021 at 05:31PM
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Friday, August 13, 2021

Solar Power Deployment, Facebook, Firefox, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 13, 2021

Solar Power Deployment, Facebook, Firefox, More: Friday Evening ResearchBuzz, August 13, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Tech Xplore: An interactive map for solar panel deployment across the US. “A paper in Solar Energy, published this month… offers a detailed analysis of where (and how much) solar PV needs to be applied to firmly meet at least 50 percent of the energy demands for every state. Readers can use an interactive map to modify the numbers on a state-specific basis, based on the total percentage of load needed to be met by PV power, ground efficiency of PV panels, and various land controls to account for areas covered by open water, forested areas, etc.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

ZDNet: Does anyone really know what time it is? Facebook does. “Our technology can’t work worth a darn if the Network Time Protocol (NTP) isn’t keeping our servers and PCs coordinated with one another. Without it, backups would fail, financial transactions would go awry, and many fundamental network services wouldn’t work. To help with these issues, Facebook started making its internet clocks more accurate in 2020. Now, the social media giant is open-sourcing its technology, Time Appliances Project (TAP), and enabling anyone to turn a commodity server into a reliable NTP time appliance.”

BetaNews: Firefox 91 improves its Total Cookie Protection to block more third-party trackers. “Another month, another major Firefox update. This time, Firefox 91 brings with it two major changes of note: improvements to its Total Cookie Protection feature, and support for logging into Microsoft, work and school accounts through Windows single sign-on.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: 6 Disposable and Throwaway Email Providers You Can Try. “Has your email address become a target for spam and scams? One solution is to create a temporary email address, one that you can use to register, shop, sign up, etc., without worrying about your real, permanent email address getting bombarded with junk. Fortunately, there are plenty of sources for disposable or throwaway email addresses that help you avoid the spam and scams.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BuzzFeed News: The Cofounder Of The Fact-Checking Site Snopes Was Writing Plagiarized Articles Under A Fake Name. “David Mikkelson, the cofounder of the fact-checking website Snopes, has long presented himself as the arbiter of truth online, a bulwark in the fight against rumors and fake news. But he has been lying to the site’s tens of millions of readers: A BuzzFeed News investigation has found that between 2015 and 2019, Mikkelson wrote and published dozens of articles containing material plagiarized from news outlets such as the Guardian and the LA Times.”

Fast Company: Local food delivery companies say Google devastated their business. “Say you live in Asheville, North Carolina (like I do), and you get a hankering for some of the city’s beloved BBQ. You might start with a Google search, which provides plenty of options. Clicking on a specific BBQ joint brings up a box with handy information such as a star rating, the address, business hours, and phone number. These restaurant listings, which appear in search and Maps, also often include an item called ‘Order,’ with links to big-name delivery services such as DoorDash and Grubhub. What you probably won’t see are local services like Delivery Now or Takeout Central—companies that were delivering meals a decade or more before the national giants were a twinkle in a founder’s eye.

ZDNet: Say hello to the early days of web browsers. “Before Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Edge, there were Mosaic, Cello, and Viola.” A slideshow, but a – well, nostalgic for me. Might be ancient history for you.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Google allegedly considered buying Epic Games to silence antitrust complaints . “Back in 2018, Google and Epic Games kicked off a years-old spat over Fortnite on the Play Store. Instead of distributing the game through Google Play, Epic decided that sideloading would be the way to get Fortnite on Android, thereby sidestepping Google’s 30 percent cut of sales. Epic would go on to file an antitrust complaint against Google, and newly unsealed court documents spotted by The Verge reveal an interesting solution that Google was kicking around at the time: the company was considering buying Epic.”

Publishers Weekly: Internet Archive Seeking 10 Years of Publisher Sales Data for Its Fair Use Defense. “In an August 9 filing, IA attorneys told the court it is seeking monthly sales data for all books in print by the four plaintiff publishers (Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley) dating back to 2011. But the publishers, IA lawyers told the court, have balked at the sweeping request reportedly countering that the request is well beyond what the case calls for.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Man of Many: ‘Nestflix’ is a Massive Fake Netflix for Made-Up Movies and Shows. “Jan Quadrant Vincent 16 is finally coming to streaming platforms…sort of. Web designer Lynn Fischer has just launched ‘Nestflix’, a streaming platform for movies that don’t really exist. The new service showcases fictional or ‘nested’ movies and shows that have appeared or been referenced in real-life media, rounding up the clips of flicks you wish were real.” Good evening, Internet…

August 14, 2021 at 05:28AM
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Texas Floods, Medium, TikTok, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 13, 2021

Texas Floods, Medium, TikTok, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, August 13, 2021
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Texas Water Newsroom: TexasFlood.org provides information on emergency preparation for and recovery from flood events . “The redesign or refresh of our TexasFlood.org website is focused on making it easier to use, easier to understand the information. All Texans don’t have the ability to access information in the same way. And so we want to make it as broadly accessible to everybody in Texas as easily as possible…. We provide real-time estimates of what might be happening for a particular storm. And so you can look that up on a map view to see, okay, you know, storm front’s coming—what are the chances of the extensive flooding in a specific area? We also provide mapping information that shows, just in general, what the risks are.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

TechCrunch: Medium revamps its Partner Program, launching new eligibility requirements and referral bonuses . “Amid a year of editorial pivots and employee exits, Medium announced today that it will make significant changes to its Medium Partner Program, which allows writers on the platform to monetize their content.”

KnowTechie: TikTok will now stop sending your kids distracting notifications after 9pm. “TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world, and recently the company has made an effort to make it a safer place for teens and kids. Now, that is expanding even more. Announced this week, the social giant is releasing a handful of features that are intended to keep kids safer on the platform, as well as a new feature that should help minimize their pop-up notifications at night.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: Check These Settings Before You Lose Your iPhone so You Can Find It Later. “It sucks when you end up losing your iPhone. Maybe you forgot it at the cafe, or it was stolen from the train station. Fortunately, it can be easy to track your iPhone (as long as it’s juiced up, and active). And if you already have a passcode enabled, the Find My iPhone feature is enabled automatically. Here’s how to find your lost or stolen iPhone.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

PetaPixel: Glass is a Subscription-Based Photo Sharing App for Photographers. “In the light of Instagram’s recent statement that it is no longer a photo-sharing app, a new photography-focused, subscription-based community app has launched to support the art of photography through a distraction-free experience. Fresh out of its private beta, Glass is live in the App Store, but is currently only available to iOS users.”

CNN: Social media and messaging apps appear to be shutdown in Zambia on election day, Facebook says. “Social media and messaging apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter, appeared to be shutdown in Zambia on Thursday as the country voted in presidential and parliamentary elections, according to a Facebook spokesperson.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Motherboard: Google Bans Location Data Firm Funded by Former Saudi Intelligence Head. “Google has banned SafeGraph, a location data firm whose investors include a former head of Saudi intelligence, Motherboard has learned. The ban means that any apps working with SafeGraph had to remove the offending location gathering code from their apps. SafeGraph markets its data to government entities and a wide range of industries, but it also sells the data on the open market to essentially anyone.”

BBC: Google search led to arrest of cleared campaigner. “Police suspected Robert Hutchinson had breached the Computer Misuse Act by downloading board meeting minutes and other documents he found online. Mr Hutchinson says the Leathermarket Community Benefit Society (CBS) documents were publicly accessible. After an investigation, police found no offences had been committed.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tech Xplore: Teaching AI to see depth in photographs and paintings . “Researchers in SFU’s Computational Photography Lab hope to give computers a visual advantage that we humans take for granted—the ability to see depth in photographs. While humans naturally can determine how close or far objects are from a single point of view, like a photograph or a painting, it’s a challenge for computers—but one they may soon overcome.”

EFF: It’s Time for Google to Resist Geofence Warrants and to Stand Up for Its Affected Users. “Authorities send Google geofence warrants precisely because Google’s devices, operating system, apps, and other products allow it to collect data from millions of users and to catalog these users’ locations, movements, associations, and other private details of their lives. Although Google has sometimes pushed back in court on the breadth of some of these warrants, it has largely acquiesced to law enforcement demands—and the number of geofence warrants law enforcement sends to the company has dramatically increased in recent years. This stands in contrast to documented instances of other companies resisting law enforcement requests for user data on Fourth Amendment grounds.” Good afternoon, Internet…

August 14, 2021 at 12:19AM
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