NEW RESOURCES

Microsoft is stepping up its OneNote game, with a new tool to import Evernote notes to OneNote. It is currently Windows only, but Mac is expected to be available later.

Taiwan is launching a database to show areas at risk of earthquake damage. “An online database will be launched Monday to allow the public to search for areas in parts of Taiwan that are prone to soil liquefaction and are therefore likely to suffer serious damage in a major earthquake. The database covers Taipei City, New Taipei City, Yilan County, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Pintung County.”

Per Sandström has announced a new proof-of-concept tool to easily block Twitter trolls en masse. It is literally one-click; there’s a two minute video that explains it. Also there’s a list of accounts that are being blocked; everything is very transparent. Per and his team are looking for funding and help to expand the tool. please note that due to the nature of the accounts being blocked, the video and the list of blocked accounts contains language that might make your stomach churn, as it did mine.

KnowTechie has a story about an app that sounds simultaneously scary and useful. “In a nutshell, AI Scry allows users to point their iPhone’s camera at anything around them. From here, the app translates the image with automatic text descriptions of the objects it sees.”

USEFUL STUFF

Betanews has a short writeup on a Windows / Mac tool (no Linux, sorry) that provides plenty of information about shortened links. “Httpres is a portable tool which provides the same information — and a little more — on the Windows and Mac desktop. The program works at the HTTP level, showing headers, response code and contents from HTTP requests.”

MakeUseOf offers seven ways to mine Pinterest for more interesting pins.

Want to give ChromeOS a test drive? You can play with it in Virtualbox. “there’s a new downloadable version of ChromeOS out there for would-be enthusiasts: Neverware Cloud Ready. Designed to allow schools to turn old computers into Chromebook-compatible devices, Cloud Ready is also available as a free download for personal use. Neverware also offers an unofficial build for Virtualbox. Here’s where to find it and how to set it up. You’ll be trying out ChromeOS in no time.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Someone at Google “has no clue” Why Google still uses DMOZ in some of its search results. On one hand, tee-hee. On the other hand, this feels like more evidence that the Web search portion of Google is getting neglected…

It’s not going to be a shutout! Lee Se-Dol has finally beaten Google’s AI in the fourth of their five Go matches. “Lee Se-Dol thrashed AlphaGo after a nail-biting match that lasted for nearly five hours…”

Oh dear. A man discovered through Google Play that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant. “Android user ‘Ben’ told BBC Radio 4’s consumer show You & Yours he discovered his ex’s big news in the Google Play store through a section that shows you what your friends are recommending, based on what they may have reviewed or +1’d. ”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Wow: apparently Facebook gets one million user violation reports per day. “That’s according to Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of policy management.
Bickert spoke to the fine (and imperfect) line between free speech and hate speech at SXSW’s first Online Harassment Summit on Saturday. Bickert told CNNMoney she didn’t know offhand what percentage are serious and taken off the site.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Matthew Reidsma has written this incredible – well, it’s formatted as a blog post but it’s really a research paper, I think – called Algorithmic Bias in Library Discovery Systems, that carefully walks you through the concept of how algorithms are used in library discovery tools, then gets down to it with the examples of bias. I am going to have to read this multiple times. There is so much to think about here. Please read this. Good morning, Internet…

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