NEW RESOURCES

The government of Japan is putting Japanese companies’ environmental records online. “Japan’s Environment Ministry, working with NTT Data, has developed an online database to allow users to easily browse how friendly listed companies are to the planet. The database will start to offer information on about 200 companies, including Toyota Motor, Panasonic and Sony, perhaps by fall, sources said.”

ECRI Institute has launched a new database of genetic tests (PRESS RELEASE). “The struggle is real: with more than 60,000 genetic tests available, payers and providers have a tough time sorting through which ones are worthwhile. Today, ECRI Institute introduces its revolutionary new service, ECRIgene™, a dynamic, searchable knowledge base of the genetic tests that matter most….ECRIgene gives fast access to test descriptions and purposes, gene(s) comprising each test or panel, and the diseases and conditions targeted by each test.” As you might imagine, this resource is not free.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Spotify has a new section for video games. (Awesome! Video games often have terrific sound tracks.) “Some of the soundtracks available to stream include tunes from the brand-new No Man’s Sky, as well as plenty of Halo games, Mass Effect 2 and 3 (sorry, original game), Max Payne 3, Command & Conquer: Red Alert (you know the song), Gears of War, FTL: Faster Than Light, and the aforementioned Red Dead Redemption.”

Bing has updated its RTBF (Right to be Forgotten) policy. “Going forward … Bing will also use location-based signals (e.g., IP addresses) to delist the relevant URL on all versions of Bing, including Bing.com, for any user accessing Bing from the European country where the request originated. For example, if someone in France successfully requests delisting of a URL on Bing, in addition to delisting that URL from all applicable European versions of Bing, Bing will now also delist that URL for all searches of that person’s name—regardless of what version of Bing is being used—if the search originates from a location within France. ”

USEFUL STUFF

They do drive me nuts: how to change those spammy group notifications on Facebook. “The good news is, you can turn these notifications off. The annoying thing is that they aren’t off by default for things like Facebook Groups already. But if you have five or ten minutes, here’s how to fix your notifications in Facebook’s settings.”

Now this could be useful: Wonder is a text message bot that remembers stuff for you. “Basically, you just text Wonder the information you’ll need to recall at a later date, and it stores that for you in its system. When you’re trying to later remember something, you just text Wonder a question, like ‘Who’s our company’s dental insurance provider?,’ ‘When’s the next company meeting?,’ or whatever other information you’ve previously fed into it by way of text message. The bot will promptly respond with the answer.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

From the Washington Post: The copyright case that should worry all Internet providers. “Will Internet providers have to start cracking down harder on their own customers for suspected copyright infringement? That’s one of the big questions being raised in the wake of an obscure court ruling that finds that Cox Communications is liable for the illegal music and movie downloads of its subscribers.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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