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Proton Blog: “Using Google Photos to store and share your pictures means allowing the company to see, analyze, and process them. Many people concerned about their privacy have taken steps to move away from the Google ecosystem, despite the company’s efforts to hide its surveillance-based business model. Apart from privacy concerns, Google made promises about …
“The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate. That’s a quote from Thomas Jefferson, and it’s super-relevant to our situation today. Our schools aren’t doing enough to create an educated electorate, and most of our journalists are doing a terrible job. This is terrifying, because the 2024 elections could be the …
Jessamyn West, Librarian.net – “Public.work is a search engine for public domain content.” The site claims to have over 100,000 public domain images. This in and of itself is not that special, but the interface is. It’s gorgeous, a fun and engaging discovery layer where every search becomes a URL that can be shared [example] …
New Report: Data Defense: Evaluating People-Search Site Removal Services – “Seven years ago, I typed my own name into a search engine and was horrified to learn that my name, age, home address, and phone number were publicly posted by multiple people-search sites without my knowledge, let alone consent. Shortly after finding my own data …
“U.S. Sen. Bob Casey released his latest “greedflation” report on Wednesday, and this time it takes aim at popular streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and more. This time, Casey is highlighting what he calls “streamflation,” which happens when streaming platforms hike their profits by charging higher prices, despite offering less content and …
I Love Book Stores: “There are 6,001 bookstores in the United States. Well, not really. There are 6,001 non-chain bookstores in the United States. Again, not really accurate. There are, however, 6,001 bookstores on this map of bookstores in the United States. Quite a few caveats apply, but I’m going to run with that number …
The Verge: “OpenAI has released its GPT-4o System Card, a research document that outlines the safety measures and risk evaluations the startup conducted before releasing its latest model. GPT-4o was launched publicly in May of this year. Before its debut, OpenAI used an external group of red teamers, or security experts trying to find weaknesses …
Ars Technica: “If you’ve searched your name online in the last few years, you know what’s out there, and it’s bad. Alternately, you’ve seen the lowest-common-denominator ads begging you to search out people from your past to see what crimes are on their record. People-search sites are a gross loophole in the public records system, …
PCWorld: “Security is essential for any laptop, whether you’re on a college laptop, a gaming laptop, or especially a business laptop. But college laptops face unique challenges. For example, if you’re a student and you’re connecting your own laptop to your school’s network — perhaps in a dorm — then you should really be using …
Data is Plural: “Kangsan Lee et al. have compiled a dataset of “34,200 auction sales records, including images, artists’ attributes, and market information, encompassing 590 living contemporary artists spanning 17 years (1996 to 2012) across 23 countries.” It includes the artist’s name, nationality, and birth year; the artwork’s name, year, medium, and dimensions; the auction …
Via Kottke – Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle – “Immediately after Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’s VP pick, the memes started. Most zeroed in on Walz’s potent Midwestern dad energy; he’s the kind of guy who would help a neighbor fix a car, pick you up from the airport, or bring you some soup …
ZDNET – even if Microsoft says it’s ‘incompatible’ here’s how: “On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will stop delivering security updates to your Windows 10 PC unless you’re willing to pay an exorbitant price to join the Extended Security Updates program. If you try to upgrade to Windows 11 on a PC over a few years …
