NEW RESOURCES

The Dublin City Council of Dublin, Ireland, has released an online archive of photographs. “From today, you can search documents online by archive, date, location for free. The pictures show events like the Eucharistic Congress and the North Strand Bombing (some of which were taken as proof for insurance).” There are 43,000 pictures in the archive.

NewsMail: Government launches website to help families with homework. Government of Australia, that is. “Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt said the Federal Government’s new website, Learning Potential Resources, was filled with hundreds of ideas, activities, games and videos to help parents of primary school children get involved in their child’s learning.” As an American I was able to access several different items on this site so homeschoolers, you might find this useful. It covers Years 1 through 6 – looking at the learning standards I would guess that Year 1 is roughly equivalent to first grade in America. Teachers or anyone else more knowledgeable about the education system, please chime in the comments.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google’s Tilt Brush is now available for the Oculus Rift. “Tilt Brush defies description even more than most VR experiences, but basically you paint in 3D. But when I say ‘paint,’ I don’t just mean oily brush strokes on canvas — you can also paint with light, or fire, or even music.”

Google is making some tweaks to Google Sheets. Thank goodness. “We’re working hard to ensure that Google Sheets meets your business needs. As part of that effort, today we’re introducing several enterprise-friendly features that you’ve been asking for in Sheets on the web, Android, and iOS.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Is Facebook getting into live sports, too?. “Facebook is in talks to stream one Major League Baseball game a week during the upcoming season, according to a report Tuesday by Reuters.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Chrome users, stay on the alert. From Neowin: Chrome pop-up pretends to be a font pack update to install malware. “Spotted by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi of security firm NeoSmart Technologies, the hack was seen on a compromised WordPress website. It utilizes Javascript to change the text rendering on the page, which will then resemble mis-encoded text with symbols and other random characters when displayed to the user.”

Naked Security: Facebook rapped for dragging its feet on pictures stolen for ‘like-farming’. “It’s a bogus content format has been a problem on Facebook for years without anyone, including at times Facebook, paying much attention. Its purpose it is to attract gullible followers and appreciation which is exploited to promote all sorts of web frauds.”

Livestream in Cardiff courts, go to jail. “A man who filmed and live-streamed a court case in Cardiff has been jailed for 28 days. David Davies, 39, from Llantwit Fardre, Rhondda Cynon Taff, was broadcasting the footage on to Facebook as a person gave evidence at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Health IT Central: Forty-three per cent of UK healthcare professionals use Google to search for treatments. PROFESSIONALS. Not patients. “Forty-three per cent of healthcare professionals in the UK use Google search to look for treatments of their patients, Google’s Business Lead for healthcare clients said at an event in London today. Speaking at Google’s HQ in the capital, Shivalika Singh added that, while this is ‘only’ a search, it is also playing an ‘important’ role when it comes to the decision-making process, emphasising that the search acts as a ‘new stethoscope’ or a new ‘medical consultant’.” A medical consultant with non-transparent algorithms!

Phys.org: Historic cultural records inform scientific perspectives on woodland uses. “Scientists at the University of York and University College Cork have investigated how cultural records dating back 300 years could help improve understanding of the ways in which science interprets the many uses of woodland areas. The researchers hope that the work will give a cultural narrative to environmental data collected over time, but also give new insight into the ways in which woodland management systems can be adapted to increase a sense of ownership amongst communities that live near woodland areas.”

Bloomberg Quint: Consumers Don’t Want Amazon or Google to Help Them Shop. “Stores are spending lots of time and money trying out new, fancy technologies such as touchscreen mirrors in changing rooms and robo-assistants out in the racks to get consumers to buy more. Shoppers couldn’t care less.”

And in our “you should really just relax” department: Two seconds is all it takes to frustrate selfie uploaders. “A new study undertaken by Ericsson and Vodafone Germany has found that a mere two-second delay in uploading a selfie over Facebook is enough to cause stress among smartphone users. Neuroscience was used in the study to understand how network performance affects subscriber emotions, stress levels and operator brand.” Good morning, Internet…

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