Pacific Northwest Bees, Google Domains, Ham Radio History, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 7, 2024

Pacific Northwest Bees, Google Domains, Ham Radio History, More: Sunday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 7, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Oregon State University: New online guides will aid in identification of native bees in Pacific Northwest. “Pollinator enthusiasts and scientists have new online tools to identify native bees in the Pacific Northwest. The publicly available ‘keys’ resemble the field guides familiar to fans of fauna and flora but contain the extraordinary detail needed to identify bees, which are much harder to tell apart than plants, birds, mammals and reptiles, according to Jim Rivers of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5Google: Google Domains and Squarespace saw new registrations drop following takeover. “Data spotted by Domain Name Wire and published by ICANN shows that new registrations of .com domains from Google Domains and Squarespace combined dropped by around 25% the month that Google Domains ceased sales, from over 250,000 in August 2023 to just shy of 190,000 in September 2023.”

Amateur Radio Daily: DLARC Continues to add Rich History of Ham Radio Content. “Kay Savetz (K6KJN), posted an update in the most recent issue of Zero Retires highlighting the continued stream of rich content and history being donated to the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications (DLARC).”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Dominican Today: Google’s information on dollar to peso exchange rate is false, says Central Bank. “The Central Bank informed today that the exchange rate for the US dollar is quoted in the exchange market at 58.63 for sale and 58.31 for purchase. Likewise, it specifies that the information on the peso’s value concerning the dollar of RD$33.20, which appears in the Google search engine, is incorrect and whose correction has been requested by the bank to that technological company.” I checked and it looks like this has been fixed.

NPR: Election officials worry about the potential use of AI to spread misinformation. “NPR’s A Martinez talks with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes about the use of artificial intelligence to curb AI-manufactured threats to the integrity of the 2024 vote.”

New Zealand Herald: Taonga archival pictures of Aotearoa history returns to New Zealand ownership. “A taonga archive featuring thousands of images illustrating aspect of Māori life from the early 20th century will be repatriated into public ownership – thanks to a new deal between its foreign owner and the National Library of NZ.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Journal (Ireland): Senior Irish-based X employee files High Court case against Elon Musk. “A SENIOR IRELAND-BASED employee at X, formerly known as Twitter, is taking a High Court case against Elon Musk and the company over allegedly unfair disciplinary action. Aaron Rodericks, X’s co-lead of threat disruption, is initiating proceedings after a dispute last year that centred around Rodericks allegedly liking tweets that were critical of the company.”

Ars Technica: A “ridiculously weak” password causes disaster for Spain’s No. 2 mobile carrier . “Orange España, Spain’s second-biggest mobile operator, suffered a major outage on Wednesday after an unknown party obtained a ‘ridiculously weak’ password and used it to access an account for managing the global routing table that controls which networks deliver the company’s Internet traffic, researchers said.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TechCrunch: Isomorphic inks deals with Eli Lilly and Novartis for drug discovery. “Isomorphic Labs, the London-based, drug discovery-focused spin-out of Google AI R&D division DeepMind, today announced that it’s entered into strategic partnerships with two pharmaceutical giants, Eli Lilly and Novartis, to apply AI to discover new medications to treat diseases.”

Lismore City News (Australia): National Library rewriting the script as history becomes clearer. “Up until now, anyone interested in looking at a handwritten letter in the 15 kilometres of boxes on shelves in Canberra would have to go to the building itself. The box would be taken off the shelf and brought to a desk for the actual bit of paper to be read. And readers wouldn’t be able to search through it without actually reading the thing.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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January 8, 2024 at 01:43AM
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CES, YouTube, Logan Paul, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, January 7, 2024

CES, YouTube, Logan Paul, More: Sunday ResearchBuzz, January 7, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

EVENTS

The Verge: What to expect at CES 2024. “This year’s show kicks off from Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 9th and runs through Friday, January 12th, but you should expect news to start coming out as soon as, really, right now. Companies have been trickling out announcements over the past week, and many will try to preempt the conference with announcements in the days before the show floor opens up.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Roundtable: YouTube’s Significant Drop In Google News Visibility. “It seems that YouTube is not showing up in Google News as often as it use to. Will Flannigan, the SEO Editor at the Wall Street Journal posted a chart from The Trisolute News Dashboard showing the drop in visibility experienced by YouTube in Google News.”

TechCrunch: Logan Paul promises CryptoZoo refunds, as long as you don’t sue him. “Logan Paul is offering refunds for CryptoZoo, the failed and allegedly fraudulent Pokémon-inspired NFT game that he launched in 2021. The catch? You can’t sue him if you get a refund. In an X (formerly Twitter) post on Thursday, Paul announced that he is ‘personally committing’ more than $2.3 million to buy back NFTs purchased through CryptoZoo. Claims can be submitted online until February 8.”

Genealogy’s Star: FamilySearch Year-in-Review 2023. “One interesting observation from this year-end report from FamilySearch.org is the extent to which artificial intelligence or AI is having on the website’s records. The searchable names and records continue rapidly increase, due in part, to the use of AI based handwriting recognition and AI assited Computer Aided Indexing or CAI.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Search Engine Land: TikTok ‘planning to rival Amazon with major U.S. expansion’. “TikTok Shop is a prime opportunity for brands as 83% of users make purchase decisions on the platform. If TikTok is planning a major expansion, marketers will benefit from being able to showcase their products to a larger engaged audience in the States, maximizing ROI.”

Variety: GroupM Teams With NBCU, Disney, Roku, YouTube in Bid to Bolster Streaming Ads. “GroupM, the large media-buying unit of European ad conglomerate WPP. is launching a group that aims to make the process of buying and placing ads in streaming environments easier for marketers. GroupM has formed a partnership with media owners Disney, Roku, NBCUniversal and YouTube, along with ad-tech firms including KERV, BrightLine; and Telly.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BBC: Police investigate virtual sex assault on girl’s avatar. “Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl’s avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said. Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.”

404 Media: Google Contractor Pays Parents $50 to Scan Their Childrens’ Faces. “Google is collecting the eyelid shape and skin tone of children via parent submitted videos, according to a project description online reviewed by 404 Media. Canadian tech conglomerate TELUS, which says it is working on Google’s behalf, is offering parents $50 to film their children wearing various props such as hats or sunglasses as part of the project, the description adds.”

Techdirt: Company Threatens To Sue Cyclist For Trademark Over ‘Near Miss’ YouTube Video. “While I’m sure this sort of thing must somtimes work, it’s also quite common for these would-be censorial folks to be introduced to the Streisand Effect instead, finding that the attempt to suppress negative information instead gains it far more attention than it would have had on its own. Well, allow me to introduce you to a company called Cornices Centre in the UK.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Daniel Stenberg: The I In LLM Stands For Intelligence. “Right now, users seem keen at using the current set of LLMs, throwing some curl code at them and then passing on the output as a security vulnerability report. What makes it a little harder to detect is of course that users copy and paste and include their own language as well. The entire thing is not exactly what the AI said, but the report is nonetheless crap.”

The Conversation: Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement − a media and disinformation expert explains the danger of political violence orchestrated over social media. “What set Jan. 6 apart was the president of the United States using his cellphone to direct an attack on the Capitol, and those who stormed the Capitol being wired and ready for insurrection. My co-authors and I, a media and disinformation scholar, call this networked incitement: influential figures inciting large-scale political violence via social media. Networked incitement involves insurgents communicating across multiple platforms to command and coordinate mobilized social movements in the moment of action.”

WIRED: In Defense of AI Hallucinations. “It’s a big problem when chatbots spew untruths. But we should also celebrate these hallucinations as prompts for human creativity and a barrier to machines taking over.” Good morning, Internet…

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January 7, 2024 at 06:31PM
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Midjourney, Unknown Photography, Factcheck Games, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, January 6, 2024

Midjourney, Unknown Photography, Factcheck Games, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, January 6, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: How much detail is too much? Midjourney v6 attempts to find out. “In December, just before Christmas, Midjourney launched an alpha version of its latest image synthesis model, Midjourney v6. Over winter break, Midjourney fans put the new AI model through its paces, with the results shared on social media. So far, fans have noted much more detail than v5.2 (the current default) and a different approach to prompting.” 1000 points to whoever gave this article “MAYBE SHE’S BORN WITH IT. MAYBE IT’S MIDJOURNEY.”

Flickr Blog: Another Round of Mystery Photos from the Library of Congress. “The mystery photos album consists of many uncaptioned images from the Harris & Ewing studio. The Harris & Ewing studio was located in Washington, D.C and owned and operated by George Washington Harris and Martha Ewing. This particular collection consists of over 40,000 glass negatives and according to the Library of Congress, are noted to be from the period between 1905-1945.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Indian Express: Facts about Fiction: 5 games that can help you think like a fact checker. “Training someone to verify and fact check is easy but what if these things are taught using games? Yes, there are several games that are aimed at teaching people the important fact checking skills. Some games also put the users in the shoes of fake news generators and teach about the sources that one needs to trust.”

Lifehacker: The Best Sites and Apps to Track Your Books, Movies, Music, and Video Games. “Even before technology presented methods to make it easier, I intermittently have kept lists of, say, the movies I watched with my then-girlfriend, now spouse. Like scrolling through photos in my phone, just seeing the name of a film on that list would trigger my memories of where we were when we saw it or the conversations we had afterward. So much of daily life is ephemeral; keeping a record of a given day—even if it’s just something as inconsequential as finally watching Weekend at Bernie’s (a surprisingly weird movie) can give you an anchor to cling to.”

Hongkiat: 50 Best Sites to Download Free SVG Files (2024). “…the question is, where can you find high-quality SVG graphics and icons, especially for free? We’ve done the heavy lifting for you, sifting through hundreds of sites to curate a top-notch list of 50 websites where you can download SVGs at no cost. Whether you’re on the hunt for SVG logos, icons, or any other graphics, there should be something that meets your need.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Gizmodo: Kohler’s Newest Bidet Finally Brings Alexa and Google to Your Butt. “CES is about more than just the gadgets you hold in your hand or sit at the desk to use. It’s about the stuff in your bathroom, too, which is why Kohler is using the annual trade show to debut its latest in connected fixtures. The new items include a new shower sprayer, a ventilation fan that helps with humidity after a long shower, and my favorite, the PureWash Bidet Seat with Google and Alexa built-in.”

Canadian Architect: Architect Toyo Ito donates archive to the CCA. “The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) announced the addition of the early works of Toyo Ito to its archives. Ito is known for transcending the boundaries of architecture while also speaking out about social needs. The CCA Collection includes ideas, provocations, inspirations, and trials and errors that have formed the basis of international research, exhibition and publication program.”

Hackaday: Digital Master Tapes Seek Deck. “As a nerdy kid in the 90s, I spent a fair bit of time watching the computer-themed cartoon Reboot. During the course of making a documentary about the show, [Jacob Weldon] and [Raquel Lin] have uncovered the original digital master tapes of the show. This is certainly exciting news for fans of the show, but there’s a bit of a wrinkle. These digital masters are all on D-1 digital cassette tapes which the studio doesn’t have a player for anymore.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bloomberg: Google Search Technique Used by Police Draws New Legal Challenge. “On Friday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and its Pennsylvania chapter argued in a court filing that the investigative technique used in the case, known as a keyword search warrant, is dangerously broad and threatens to infringe on the privacy rights of innocent people.”

9to5Mac: US expected to hit Apple with major antitrust lawsuit this year . “A major new Apple antitrust development will reportedly land soon. That’s according to the New York Times, reporting today that the United States Department of Justice has reached ‘late stages’ of its monopoly investigation of Apple.”

WSYX: Ohio faces lawsuit from trade group over new social media law. “A trade group representing multiple social media sites is suing to stop a new Ohio law that would force companies to get verifiable parental consent for children under 16. Trade group NetChoice filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of Ohio on Friday seeking to stop the Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act from going into effect on January 15, 2024.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Search Engine Land: 94% of Google SGE links are different from organic search results, study finds. “Google SGE is expected to reduce organic traffic significantly to websites for many keywords because searchers will be able to get the answer directly in Google’s AI-generated answer. The one bright spot? Websites that can’t reach the top 10 of Google’s organic results might be able to appear as links within SGE.” Google’s going to scrape all your content, claim “fair use,” and generate advertising revenue with it while you get nothing, BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS … Good morning, Internet…

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January 6, 2024 at 07:48PM
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Colorado Community Services, National Library of Chile, Firefox, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 5, 2024

Colorado Community Services, National Library of Chile, Firefox, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 5, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Colorado Sun: New online tool helps Coloradans quickly determine which public benefits they might be eligible for . “The tool, which appears to be the first of its kind in Colorado, streamlines the navigation process for human services workers by helping them guide people through screening questions on the MyFriendBen site instead of a time-consuming search through a cumbersome database, Jimenez said.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

From the National Library of Chile and machine-translated from Spanish: Writer’s Archive adds new digitizations to the collections of Braulio Arenas, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Salvador Reyes. “All types of manuscripts and personal documents of Chilean authors are gathered in the Writer’s Archive. The collection of this section of the National Library is made up of more than 25,000 objects, including manuscripts, epistolaries and personal documents. During this year, the Writer’s Archive made progress in the digitization of the valuable collections of Braulio Arenas, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and Salvador Reyes.”

ZDNet: The fall of Firefox: Mozilla’s once-popular web browser slides into irrelevance. “There’s nothing new about Firefox’s decline. In 2022, Firefox dropped to 2.6% from 2021’s 2.7%. In 2015, when I first started using DAP’s numbers, Firefox had an 11% market share. By 2016, Firefox had declined to 8.2%. It had a slight bounce upward by 2018 to 9%.”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: How to Be More Anonymous Online . “At this stage of the internet, being totally anonymous across your entire online life is incredibly hard to achieve. Phones, SIM cards, browsers, Wi-Fi networks, and more use identifiers that can be linked to your activity. But there are steps you can take to obscure your identity for everyday browsing.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Diplomat: How Social Media Will be Weaponized in Bangladesh’s Election. “As Bangladesh prepares for its 2024 elections, a familiar but chilling specter haunts the political landscape: the potential misuse of social media, which has reshaped the landscape since the 2018 parliamentary election.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

PBS News: How citizen investigators are helping the FBI track down Jan. 6 rioters. “The Jan. 6 investigation is the largest FBI operation in history. More than 1200 people have been charged and over 900 convicted. But it has stretched the bureau’s resources and has often had to rely on the work of citizen investigators who came to be known as ‘sedition hunters.’ Judy Woodruff spoke with one of these anonymous sleuths as part of her series, America at a Crossroads.”

Reuters: Google must bargain with YouTube worker union, US labor board rules. “Alphabet Inc’s Google violated U.S. labor law by refusing to bargain with a union representing contract workers for YouTube Music, a federal agency has ruled. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a decision on Wednesday rejected claims by Google, which owns YouTube, that it should not be considered the employer of workers provided by staffing firm Cognizant Technology Solutions.”

Associated Press: Official suggests Polish president check social media security after odd tweet from private account. “Poland’s minister of digital affairs suggested Friday that President Andrzej Duda check the security of access to his social accounts after a bizarre tweet went out that was almost immediately removed. The tweet published Thursday on Duda’s private account said: ‘Tell him to ask his wife what “having balls” means. She knows!'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

New Yorker: What We Lost When Twitter Became X. “The over-all direction of Musk’s changes hasn’t been too surprising, but the magnitude of the shift—the sheer inanity of it—still shocks me. Wiping out billions in brand value by changing the platform’s name; decimating the developer ecosystem; testing out charging new users for the service. These decisions seem indistinguishable from acts of self-sabotage.”

The Independent: Google reveals new ‘robot constitution’ to try and stop robots from accidentally killing humans. “The company has now revealed a set of new advances that it hopes will make it easier to develop robots that are both able to help out with such tasks and to do so without causing any harm. The systems are intended to ‘help robots make decisions faster, and better understand and navigate their environments’, it said – and to do so safely.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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January 6, 2024 at 04:06AM
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National Diet Library Japan, Google Bard, OpenAI, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, January 5, 2024

National Diet Library Japan, Google Bard, OpenAI, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, January 5, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

National Diet Library, Japan: The NDL Launches a new service: Mina Search. “The NDL has launched a new search service called the National Diet Library Materials Search for Persons with Disabilities, or Mina Search for short…. Mina Search is designed specifically to provide those who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic, or otherwise print disabled with a single interface from which to search for reading materials in a variety of accessible formats, including braille, DAISY, text data, large print books, easy-to-read books, e-books, and barrier-free videos.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Google Bard Advanced is coming, but it likely won’t be free. “Google Bard Advanced is coming, and it may represent the company’s first attempt to charge for an AI chatbot. The code on Bard’s website shows the opportunity to get three months free of Bard Advanced — implying that it will come at a cost after that.”

The Verge: OpenAI will open its custom ChatGPT store next week. “GPT Store, where users can sell and share customized AI agents based on OpenAI’s large language models, will officially launch next week, OpenAI said in an email to people signed on as GPT Builders. The email asked users to double-check that their GPT creations meet brand guidelines and reminded people to make their GPTs public.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Mercer University: Science class uses ChatGPT, TikTok to create disease awareness campaigns. “Dr. Sabrina Walthall, professor of science, teaches BIOL 210: Biology of Disease each fall. As part of the course’s service-learning component, students create public awareness campaigns about various diseases. In the past, that involved displaying posters and pamphlets at the Henry County Regional Academic Center or creating infographics to post on the back of bathroom stall doors. Last fall, Dr. Walthall decided to do something different. She had students harness the power of ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, and the social media platform TikTok to share their messages.”

New York Times: Happy Puppies and Silly Geese: Pushing the Limits of A.I. Absurdity. “Though A.I.-generated images can often unsettle with their uncanny realism — think the pope in a Balenciaga puffer jacket — many are finding joy in a new form of low-stakes image tinkering. This fall, ChatGPT released an update that allowed people to enter prompts for more detailed images than before, and it wasn’t long before some began to push the chatbot to its limits.”

PetaPixel: Historical Photo Archive of the Pacific Northwest to be Made Public. “A photographer who was integral to documenting Washington State will have his vast archive preserved and made available to the public thanks to a $25,000 grant. Asahel Curtis was an active photographer in the Pacific Northwest from the 1880s to 1941 and his collection is described as an ‘invaluable resource’ by the Washington State Historical Society (WSHS).”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TorrentFreak: All DMCA Notices Filed Against TorrentFreak in 2023 Were Bogus. “New Year’s resolutions come in all shapes and sizes, with an equal number of excuses to explain what went wrong. From today, January 1st 2024, here at TorrentFreak we’re quietly hoping that anti-piracy companies will at least try to stop targeting us with bogus DMCA notices. At the start of 2023, the main culprits managed less than three weeks while others were still sending them two days ago.”

9to5 Mac: Apps will be reporting your earnings to tax authorities from this week. “Many people are either unaware of the potential tax implications of app-generated income, or deliberately fail to report it. To counter both problems, the 38 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have signed up to a new agreement under which app owners will automatically share your earnings with tax authorities in your country. OECD members include the US, UK, many European countries, and others.”

PhilStar: PNP cracking down on content creators destabilizing government. “After having monitored attempts by various persons to use the Philippine National Police against the government, PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. yesterday ordered a crackdown on content creators spreading disinformation on social media platforms to destabilize the Marcos administration.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Bloomberg: Former LA Mall Goes From Empty Google Space to UCLA Science Park. “The University of California is paying $700 million for a former Los Angeles shopping mall that had been redeveloped as offices for Alphabet Inc.’s Google, with the school system planning to convert the campus to a medical and engineering research park.”

University of Massachusetts Amherst: UMass Amherst Researchers Bring Dream Of Bug-Free Software One Step Closer To Reality. “A team of computer scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced a new method for automatically generating whole proofs that can be used to prevent software bugs and verify that the underlying code is correct. This new method, called Baldur, leverages the artificial intelligence power of Large Language Models (LLMs), and, when combined with the state-of-the-art tool Thor, yields unprecedented efficacy of nearly 66%.”

TechCrunch: Google outlines new methods for training robots with video and large language models. “2024 is going to be a huge year for the cross-section of generative AI/large foundational models and robotics. There’s a lot of excitement swirling around the potential for various applications, ranging from learning to product design. Google’s DeepMind Robotics researchers are one of a number of teams exploring the space’s potential. In a blog post today, the team is highlighting ongoing research designed to give robotics a better understanding of precisely what it is we humans want out of them.” Good morning, Internet…

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January 5, 2024 at 06:29PM
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UK Politics, Kim Kardashian, Audacity, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 4, 2024

UK Politics, Kim Kardashian, Audacity, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, January 4, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

University of Oxford: New Archive of the Conservative Party releases for 2024. “Each January the Archive of the Conservative Party releases files which were previously closed under the 30-year rule. This year, files from 1993 are newly-available to access. Despite the recession of the previous couple of years coming to an end, John Major’s third year as Prime Minister was dominated by internal Party conflict over Europe and low public popularity, manifesting in two significant by-election defeats.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: Kim Kardashian’s once-popular mobile game to close in April. “Pour one out for Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the ground-breaking mobile game that proved building games for women is serious business. As of today, the game is no longer available in app stores and will no longer offer in-app purchases. A post on the game’s official message boards said current players would be able to use the app and its in-game currency until April 8, 2024.”

PC World: Audacity’s cool audio AI tools are now free for you to try. “As AI PCs debut, one question you’ll be asking yourself is: What can I do with them? Audacity has an early answer, with the release of its on-chip audio AI tools for music generation, transcription, and more. Intel used Audacity as a demo partner while describing the Meteor Lake (now rebranded as Core Ultra) architecture in Malaysia, showing off some of the tools that it formally released on Monday.”

USEFUL STUFF

Boing Boing: Ambiphone is a no-nonsense ambient sound generator. “If you want to hear ambient noises—rain, thunder, wind, water, fire, forests, traffic, trains, arcades, planes, you know—check out Ambiphone, the latest single-serving site dedicated to this oddly recurring purpose. You can layer ambiences, and add ‘binaural beats’ with theta waves and brown noise and what-have-you.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

BBC: Elvis Evolution: Presley to be brought to life using AI for new immersive show. “Singer Elvis Presley is set to be brought back to life virtually as part of a new immersive concert experience. Elvis Evolution will use AI and feature holographic projections of the star, created from thousands of his personal photos and home-video footage.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Radio New Zealand: Hackers hit Australian state’s court recording database. “Hackers accessed the court recordings database in Australia’s Victoria state and disrupted the audio-visual in-court technology network, impacting recordings and transcription services, an official said on Tuesday. Recordings of some court hearings between 1 November and 21 December 2023 may have been stolen, Court Services Victoria chief executive Louise Anderson said in a statement.”

The Verge: LastPass will finally enforce a 12-character minimum master password. “BleepingComputer spotted a release from LastPass confirming the change that acknowledges 12 characters was already the default setting, but preexisting users previously had the option to set a shorter password. LastPass removed this option last April, requiring new customers and anyone resetting their master password to hit the 12-character requirement. But if your account had a shorter, less secure password, you’ll be forced to change it soon.”

Reuters: Google, Meta and Tiktok’s debts removed from Russian database – bailiffs. “Fines imposed by Russian courts on Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Telegram appear to have been settled as the companies are no longer registered as debtors in the state bailiffs’ database. But the database, accessed by Reuters on Wednesday, still includes X (formerly Twitter) and Twitch, with fines totalling 51 million roubles ($560,730) and 23 million roubles ($252,879), respectively.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Chalkbeat: Can artificial intelligence help teachers improve? A network of NYC schools wants to find out.. “A network of small public high schools in New York City is exploring whether artificial intelligence can change the way teachers receive feedback about their classroom instruction. Urban Assembly, a network of 21 schools, is working with the American Institutes of Research to develop an AI-powered tool that can help instructional coaches analyze videos of teachers delivering lessons and offer feedback, according to network leaders.”

Georgetown University: Shaping tech for the common good: How Georgetown experts are limiting harms and maximizing benefits. “Leading faculty and researchers across Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy are using powerful computer algorithms and machine learning to improve public policy decision-making. Their work is driving change across diverse sectors, from internet safety and environmental justice to health care and mass migration.” 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 live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at ,SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Mastodon Gizmos, and MegaGladys.

January 5, 2024 at 01:05AM
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Montana Newspapers, Twitch, HyperVerse, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, January 4, 2024

Montana Newspapers, Twitch, HyperVerse, More: Thursday ResearchBuzz, January 4, 2024
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

State of Montana: More Newspaper Pages Available Through MTHS Library & Archives. “Two newspaper digitization projects will improve and expand access to historical Montana newspapers, which is one of the most used collections at the Montana Historical Society (MTHS). This latest project through the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) makes more than 100,000 pages available online for free and includes newspapers from towns on or near reservations in Montana.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Twitch will ban people pretending to be naked. “Twitch is changing its sexual content policies again, this time to prohibit implied nudity on the platform. The platform already prohibits nudity, but Twitch’s new attire policy, which goes into effect today, also doesn’t allow streamers to ‘imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude,’ chief customer trust officer Angela Hession says in a blog post.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Guardian: Chief executive of collapsed crypto fund HyperVerse does not appear to exist. “A chief executive officer whose claimed qualifications appear to have no basis in fact was used to promote the HyperVerse crypto fund, alongside celebrity messages of support, as part of a push to recruit new investors into the scheme.”

Politico: A New Kind of AI Copy Can Fully Replicate Famous People. The Law Is Powerless.. “Both [Martin] Seligman and [Esther] Perel eventually decided to accept the bots rather than challenge their existence. But if they’d wanted to shut down their digital replicas, it’s not clear they would have had a way to do it. Training AI on copyrighted works isn’t actually illegal. If the real Martin had wanted to block access to the fake one — a replica trained on his own thinking, using his own words, to produce all-new answers — it’s not clear he could have done anything about it.”

PC Magazine: Camera Companies Fight AI-Generated Images With ‘Verify’ Watermark Tech. “Camera companies are looking to fight the rise of AI-generated images by embedding digital signatures in the photos. Nikon, for instance, plans to start offering mirrorless cameras with authentication technology built in for photojournalists and other professional photographers. The technology will embed tamper-resistant digital signatures, including the date and time a photo was taken as well as its location and the photographer, Nikkei Asia reports.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SF Gate: ‘Utterly hammered’: Interest in Jeffrey Epstein list crashed Bay Area nonprofit’s site. “The documents, unsealed Wednesday afternoon as part of a December court order, are expected to include hundreds of names — including those of accusers and some public figures. A viral link to the unsealed documents goes to CourtListener.com, an archive of court data run by the Oakland-based nonprofit Free Law Project. But when SFGATE checked the site, it appeared as if the crush of visitors had overwhelmed it.”

CTV News: Police issue investment scam warning after fake Elon Musk videos circulate online. “South Simcoe police issued a cautionary alert after two reported incidents involving fraudulent ads on YouTube and other social media platforms featuring billionaire Elon Musk offering investments starting at $250.”

Reuters: Google faces March 2025 trial in Texas’ antitrust lawsuit. ” A U.S. judge has scheduled a March 2025 trial in a lawsuit lodged by Texas and other states accusing Alphabet’s Google of abusing its market dominance for advertising technology systems.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

ERR: Anti-propaganda site finds subtle Russia-leaning messages in mainstream media. “Anti-disinformation site Propastop has looked at three articles which appeared in serious media publications over the Christmas break and which have embedded within them messages which could aid in perpetuating Russia’s narrative in relation to its invasion of Ukraine. Propastop says the narratives contained the articles in question may reflect an underlying strategy by Russia aimed at shaping international opinions and decisions, particularly on military aid to Ukraine.”

Dartmouth University: Geisel Professor Harnesses AI to Act Like a Patient. “Created by a team led by Thomas Thesen, associate professor of medical education at Geisel School of Medicine and director of the Neuroscience-Informed Learning and Education Lab, the AI Patient Actor app helps second-year medical school students practice interacting with patients and sharpens their diagnostic and interpersonal skills.”

Ars Technica: ChatGPT bombs test on diagnosing kids’ medical cases with 83% error rate. “ChatGPT is still no House, MD. While the chatty AI bot has previously underwhelmed with its attempts to diagnose challenging medical cases—with an accuracy rate of 39 percent in an analysis last year—a study out this week in JAMA Pediatrics suggests the fourth version of the large language model is especially bad with kids. It had an accuracy rate of just 17 percent when diagnosing pediatric medical cases.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Tom’s Hardware: Oldest known version of DOS unearthed – MS-DOS ancestor 86-DOS version 0.1 C is now available on the Internet Archive. “An incredibly early release of 86-DOS has been found, imaged, and shared on the Internet Archive. The disk appears to be an original release of version 0.1 C of 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products (1980) and includes several utilities, along with a game. Moreover, according to the disk label, what we see is just the eleventh disk off the duplication line. This is an important finding, as 86-DOS is a direct ancestor of PC DOS and MS-DOS.” Good morning, Internet…

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January 4, 2024 at 06:31PM
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