Day archives: October 21st, 2020

VPN Security: How VPNs Work and How to Buy the Best One

eSecurity Planet – “With more and more employees working remotely, either from home or on the go, enterprises need a way to secure their communications with the corporate network. One solution is a virtual private network (VPN), which enables employees to securely send data between computers across a shared or public network. VPNs were developed …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, PC Security, Privacy, Search Engines

How does Google’s monopoly hurt you? Try these searches.

Washington Post [paywall – Seattle Times no paywall] “Let’s Google together. Open a Web browser and search for T-shirts. I’ll wait. Is the first thing you see a search result? I’m not talking about the stuff labeled Ads or Maps. On my screen, the actual result is not in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

A Brief Guide to Online Teaching

Ryznar, Margaret, A Brief Guide to Online Teaching (August 22, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3679117 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3679117 “This brief guide to online teaching offers assistance in selecting between the synchronous and asynchronous online format, before proceeding to a brief step-by-step guide on the design elements of both asynchronous and synchronous online courses. The focus remains …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management

Taking Back Our Privacy

The New Yorker – Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of the end-to-end encrypted messaging service Signal, is “trying to bring normality to the Internet. “…Marlinspike is the C.E.O. of Signal, the end-to-end encrypted messaging service, which he launched in 2014; he is also a cryptographer, a hacker, a shipwright, and a licensed mariner…Marlinspike believes that encrypted-communication …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

COVID-19: Government Resources for Real-Time Economic Indicators

CRS Insight via LC – COVID-19: Government Resources for Real-Time Economic Indicators, October 21, 2020: “This CRS Insight presents select real-time economic indicators that attempt to measure the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the U.S. economy. Created by select federal government agencies, these new or unique indicators attempt to measure the …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research

A Reset for Library E-books

Publishers Weekly – In the wake of the pandemic, can publishers and libraries finally hash out their differences? “…But in mid-March, when the reality of the pandemic became apparent, everything changed. As libraries closed their doors and began shifting their print budgets to digital, dozens of publishers began slashing library e-book and digital audio prices and …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Health Care, Libraries, Marketing

How to Find Your Local and External IP Address

Lifehacker – “Your device’s IP address is a critical piece of information that you probably don’t think about very much. You’ll occasionally need it for a network-related setup (if you’re trying to punch a hole in your network to access the contents of your NAS box, run a web server, or connect to your home-grown …

Subjects: Internet, Privacy

Copyright in Code: Supreme Court Hears Landmark Software Case in Google v. Oracle

CRS Legal Sidebar via LC – Copyright in Code: Supreme Court Hears Landmark Software Case in Google v. Oracle, October 21, 2020: “In what observers have hailed as the “copyright case of the century,” an eight-member Supreme Court heard arguments on October 7, 2020 ,in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., a long-running intellectual-property dispute …

Subjects: Congress, Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

How to Take Better Pet Portraits and People Too

Via the New York Times – another pandemic driven, rabbit centric article – Even if you don’t have an expensive camera, you can capture memorable images with your smartphone, the right software and a few tricks. “Much of the internet seems to be made of animal photos, especially pictures of cats. If it all makes you …

Subjects: Internet

USPS IG Report – Operational Changes to Mail Delivery

“This report responds to an August 7, 2020, congressional request regarding concerns that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s modifications to U.S. Postal Service staffing and policies had an adverse effect on Postal Service operations, leading to slower and less reliable mail delivery. This report also responds to a number of recent similar congressional requests. We are …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research