NEW RESOURCES

Oh, what a terrific story. Cemeteries putting their plots in a database is pretty common, but you don’t hear much about cemeteries linking their listings to holdings at the local historical society. “Huling’s grave at St. Peter’s Church on Second Street is easy to find thanks to the efforts of the Lewes Historical Society. In the summer of 2003, the organization embarked on the titanic task of cataloging every single gravestone in the Lewes and Rehoboth Hundred, from well-preserved gravestones in well-known church cemeteries to lesser-known, sometimes hard-to-find stones in family plots in more rural areas of the Cape Region…. The project is now moving into a new phase, as the historical society is building a new website that will connect the graves to photographs, letters and other artifacts in the society’s collection.”

The state of Iowa has launched a new Web site showing aerial photos of the state going back to the 1930s. “With funding provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) initiated the collection and conversion of 1930s aerial photos of Iowa into a digital form that can be used in a Geographic Information System. The IDNR has partnered with the Iowa State University Geographic Information Systems Support & Research Facility to collect photos from the Iowa Department of Transportation archives and the University of Iowa’s Map Library. When photos are not available, orders for copies are placed with the National Archives. Once collected and cataloged, the photos are scanned to convert them to a digital format. Finally, they are georectified, or aligned, with their proper location.” The whole state has not been completed but the site is still in process.

TechTarget has added a new site focused on the Internet of Things (PRESS RELEASE). “IoTAgenda.com will provide in-depth coverage to help organizations understand the impact of IoT across the entire enterprise. Covering everything from APIs and development to networking, analytics, cloud services and security, this new site will arm enterprise IT decision makers with the right tools and knowledge to make well-informed decisions around IoT purchasing and deployment.”

TWEAKS & UPDATES

The US Geological Survey (USGS) Science Data Catalog (SDC) has gotten an update. “The USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC) recently completed and launched a new and improved interface, making USGS data more accessible and discoverable for users. The USGS SDC is a searchable public data catalog for more than 7,000 USGS data assets and 20 USGS collections.” The new features include a home page and collection-level datasets.

Ubuntu 16.04 (“Xenial Xerius”) has been released in final beta. “Unfortunately, the last few releases have been rather ho-hum — boring and evolutionary…. The upcoming 16.04 release looks to remedy this, finally delivering a meaty upgrade to Ubuntu fans. Two major changes are a much improved Unity with the ability to move the dock (woo-hoo!), and a refreshed software store. Today, Canonical releases the final beta, signaling that the true non-beta final version, due April 21, is right around the corner.”

Yahoo has added some features to its Yahoo Video Guide. ”

Oooo: are we going to get a Chromebook with 16GB of RAM? “While all of this sounds quite fascinating, what’s more intriguing is the question of whether or not this Chromebook Pixel will offer something a little more appetizing than an entire operating system based around a web browser. This is especially worth considering after the myriad rumors suggesting a convergence between Android and Chrome OS.”

USEFUL STUFF

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has put up part four of its excellent series on organizing with Google Calendars.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Because people are innovative, that’s why. Angolans are being given free access to Wikipedia and Facebook — and only Wikipedia and Facebook — and they’re still managing to pirate movies. “Wikimedia and Facebook have given Angolans free access to their websites, but not to the rest of the internet. So, naturally, Angolans have started hiding pirated movies and music in Wikipedia articles and linking to them on closed Facebook groups, creating a totally free and clandestine file sharing network in a country where mobile internet data is extremely expensive.”

Wow, Periscope is a year old. Feels like it’s been around a lot longer than that.

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Holy smokes, and it’s 2016 and everything: a Usenet provider has been raided for piracy. “Usenet (newsgroups) is a server-based sharing system that usually requires a subscription to access. Users download files (binaries) directly from servers run by their Usenet provider and no peer-to-peer sharing takes place. This means that downloads are very secure, almost immune from snooping, and generally very fast.” The provider, Newsoo, is shutting down permanently.

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Artist Dudolf has created a new Facebook puzzle for Easter. Enjoy! Good morning, Internet…

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