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Sports Whistleblowers, Pokemon Go, Raspberry Pi, More: Sunday Buzz, July 17, 2016

NEW RESOURCES

Journalists have launched a Web site specifically for whistleblowers in sports. No, not the referees. “Behind the website is, among others, German journalist Hajo Seppelt, who, in a series of documentaries aired on the German TV network ARD, has played a vital role in documenting a widespread doping culture in Russian athletics and its connections to the top of the international athletics federation, IAAF. These documentaries were largely based on information from the Russian couple Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

I am really trying to keep the Pokemon Go stuff here to a minimum. But considering how much money that game is making and how it’s put AR right out in front of everything, it’s a game changer. It’s going to shift a lot of things. So I feel I must note that you can now filter Yelp for Pokestops. “The ‘PokéStop Nearby’ option prominently appears on the top bar of Yelp’s website, and alongside selectable filters like ‘Wheelchair Accessible’ and ‘Offers Military Discount’ on the mobile app. ”

Can’t get enough Pi! A smaller Raspberry Pi is on the way. “Raspberry Pi is developing a new version of its Compute Module, a single-board computer that plugs into specific on-board memory slots. The new Pi will be more like a mini-computer inside a computer, and it won’t come with a power supply. The Compute Module will have similar circuitry to that of Raspberry Pi 3, a wildly successful computer that can be a PC replacement. But it will be smaller, with the memory, CPU, and storage embedded tightly on a board.” Sounds like a cross between a Pi and a Pi Zero.

Every nail in its coffin is fine with me: Twitch is changing from Flash to HTML5.

Hey! More Twitch: you can now find Twitch streams in your language. “The company has just launched Multi-Language Filters, which you can access on the Live Channels list of every game directory page.”

USEFUL STUFF

If you want the free Windows 10 upgrade, just after the free upgrade deadline, Leo’s got a walkthrough for that. “While the Windows 10 free upgrade offer expires July 29, it turns out there are a couple of approaches that, while they are a little bit of work, can save the free upgrade so you can use it after the deadline has passed. There are the normal number of caveats and possible issues, but if you’re not ready to make the switch just yet, we have a way to save that free update.”

Are you having trouble reading James Joyce’s Ulysses? The Internet is here to help. “It’s O.K. to admit it: You tried to read James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and ended up chucking the thing aside in frustration. You are not alone. According to her letters, Virginia Woolf (“Never did I read such tosh”) had a long stall after 200 pages. Several well-known authors in the Book Review’s By the Book interview feature admit to leaving the novel unfinished. “Ulysses” even notched the No. 3 spot in the Top Five Abandoned Classics poll published by the Goodreads site a few years ago. Yet it nags at you. You don’t like to quit, but need a nudge to wade back into the novel’s overflowing streams of character consciousness, arcane references and shifting structure to follow those people going about life in Dublin on June 16, 1904.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

If you want a hard and somewhat scary lesson on digital impermanence here you go: Google apparently deleted someone’s Blogger blog with no warning, and, according to this article, very little communicated reason. “Along with his blog, Google disabled [Dennis] Cooper’s email address, through which most of his correspondence was conducted, he told me via Facebook message. He got no communication from Google about why it decided to kill his email address and blog.” Mr. Cooper’s blog had been running on Blogger since 2002 – since before Google purchased the blogging platform.

More happy news for Google Glass and industry: Boeing is using Google Glass to build airplanes. “Because planes contain hugely messy and complex webs of wires to connect electrical systems, technicians have to manually build them out, a painstaking process based on PDF assembly guide viewed on a laptop screen. With Glass to replace that computer display, Boeing says it reduced production time for the harnesses by 25 percent and cut error rates in half, according to CIO.”

Speaking of hardware, is Google abandoning plans for its own Oculus Rift headset? “Google recently shut down an internal project to create a high-end standalone virtual reality headset akin to devices from Facebook’s Oculus and HTC, according to sources familiar with the plans. The decision likely stems from Google’s effort to streamline its more ambitious projects, an ongoing slog at the company. In this instance, Google is shifting more resources behind mobile VR — tools for companies to build apps, games and services on smartphones that use the nascent media — rather than expensive hardware.” That was quick.

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

The Google / Oracle Trial just won’t go away. “Oracle isn’t done trying every possible door at the district court level. Last week it simply asked for a new trial in what I can only describe as Oracle’s sour grapes motion. It starts out by claiming that ‘the verdict was against the weight of the evidence’ and thus a new trial is necessary. And then it whines about a whole bunch of other issues, including Google’s plans to use Android on computers, meaning that the ‘harm’ portion of the trial was unfairly limited to just tablets and phones.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Researchers can guess your age based on your Instagram behavior. “On Instagram, for instance, teens interact more with photos than adults do—they comment more frequently, and like more photos—but, unexpectedly, they seem to publish less frequently themselves. (There may be a simple explanation, though: It’s possible teens only appear to publish less frequently than adults because teens are more likely to delete photos they perceive as under-liked, and to return to their own feeds and prune them over time.)” Good morning, Internet…

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