morningbuzz

Delaware, LinkedIn, Doom, More: Morning Buzz, February 17th, 2015

Google apparently waited six months to tell WikiLeaks it passed data to the FBI. “Google is facing renewed questions about its handling of subscribers’ private information following the revelation that it waited six months after the lifting of a gagging order to alert WikiLeaks that emails and other data belonging to its employees had been passed to the FBI.”

Interesting: Google Alerts now has a Finance section.

The state of Delaware has launched an updated version of its CHRIS (Cultural and Historical Resource Information System) GIS tool. “Designed to help preserve, maintain and foster awareness of Delaware’s historical resources, CHRIS is an important tool for government agencies and their consultants in project planning, for local governments concerned with protecting historic properties in their jurisdictions, for Delaware’s citizens seeking information on the history and architecture of their communities and for millions of Web users who may be interested in learning about Delaware’s historic places.”

LinkedIn is putting some restrictions on API use. How Twitter of it. “LinkedIn has examined the value of offering an open API to all developers, and found said program not to be in the company’s best interest. The professional network announced today that it would be restricting broad API use to approved partners only, and restricting open API use to a few simple use cases, including these specified by LinkedIn itself…”

The Moz Blog has an extensive article on how hashtags work on various social networks. Useful for SEO and branding and that — but also useful for research.

Want to get your house off Google Street View? It’s easy. And if you’re a zillionare dot-com guy, you can do even niftier stuff. “…here’s the thing: Chez Zuckerberg, there is no blurring. Instead, Google catapults you past the home like it got sucked into a black hole…. Google offered no comment on the space-time anomaly. Facebook didn’t respond to requests for comment.”

Check out this cool smush-up of a “street view” and a time line, brought to you by Cornell. “Noah Snavely, associate professor of computer science, already has collected millions of images from Internet photo-sharing sites and combined views of popular locations taken from many different angles to create 3-D models. Now Snavely and graduate student Kevin Matzen have added the fourth dimension of time with their Scene Chronology system. In models they have developed of Times Square, the Akhibahara shopping district in Tokyo and 5Pointz, a graffiti display area in Queens, an observer can navigate around inside a virtual 3-D space while using a slider control to move forward and backward in time.”

This is interesting: an online library of airport landing pattern videos (PRESS RELEASE). Mostly California at the moment. I saw some Nevada airports as well. Oddly hypnotic.

Mattel and Google are teaming up for VR. “Mattel is teaming up with Google on an upcoming virtual reality-based View-Master that is infused with Google Cardboard VR technology.”

You can now create an AppleID without an iOS device and use some iCloud programs for free. “When users visit beta.icloud.com, they will be presented with a banner at the top of the page prompting them to create an Apple ID. Afterwards, in addition to gaining access to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, the free accounts will also grant 1GB of free cloud storage to users.”

Google is shutting down Google Helpouts. “Google’s Helpouts service has not been without its challenges on the monetization front, either. A couple of months ago, Google had to shut down paid Helpouts in the EU thanks to changing tax laws. Today, the website advises providers from the U.K. and Ireland that they may only offer free Helpouts, and EU customers may only take free Helpouts. That’s likely been a blow to the service’s ability to attract providers and consumers in these markets.” It was only up for something like 18 months.

Here is your Tuesday fun: a game called InstaDoom. Yes, it’s an Instagram/Doom mashup. “If the Instagram filters weren’t enough to impress you, the game also has a Selfie mode and you can take your own selfies as Mr. Doom form within the game.” Good morning, Internet…

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