Meet the woman who created a Google doc on how to tactical vote Mashable! by Liza Hearon The resistance is alive in Britain, and it’s armed with a spreadsheet. A super detailed, exquisitely crafted Google spreadsheet called “How to Vote to Stop the Tories” started doing the rounds on social media almost immediately after a snap … Read more
Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports by Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech (filistimlyanin/iStock.com)Algorithms are instructions for solving a problem or completing a task. Recipes are algorithms, as are math equations. Computer code is algorithmic. The internet runs on algorithms and all online searching is accomplished through … Read more
Cybersecurity Experts Uncover Dormant Botnet of 350,000 Twitter Accounts MIT Technology Review A massive botnet secretly infiltrated the Twitterverse in 2013 but has lain mysteriously dormant since then, say researchers. Twitter and TV Superfans (Study) All Facebook by David Cohen How do “superfans” of television show behave on Twitter, and what should marketers do … Read more
Finland Starts Handing Out a Basic Income MIT Technology Review A few unemployed Finns are receiving a monthly check with no strings attached—but it’s unlikely to tell us whether universal basic income is a good idea. Eurozone inflation surges to 1.1% in December BBC News | Europe | World Edition Eurozone inflation surges to 1.1%, … Read more
Top 5 Threats to Transparency: 2016 in Review EFF.org Updates by Shahid Buttar As we approach the end of 2016, it’s disturbing to note the wide variety of ways in which government transparency has languished—even under an administration rhetorically committed to it. With the next administration poised to even further extend executive secrecy, it becomes ever … Read more
Unsecured Internet of Things gadgets get hacked within 40 minutes of being connected to the net Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow The Atlantic’s Andrew McGill set up a virtual server on Amazon’s cloud that presented to the internet as a crappy, insecure Internet of Things toaster; 41 minutes later, a hacked IoT device connected to it … Read more
Using Sound and Artificial Intelligence to Detect Human Rights Violations iRevolution by Patrick Meier Video continues to be a powerful way to capture human rights abuses around the world. Videos posted to social media can be used to hold perpetrators of gross violations accountable. But video footage poses a “Big Data” challenge to human rights organizations. Two … Read more
Adblock Plus now selling ads Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza Adblock Plus is to begin reselling the ads it blocks, replacing websites’ original ads with ones under its control—and which it takes a fat cut of the revenue from. Adblock Plus Wants to Make Money by Serving You More Ads MIT Technology Review A service meant to … Read more