Putting this up top in case you’re in a situation where you have to use Windows XP: Microsoft Issues WanaCrypt Patch for Windows 8, XP. “Microsoft Corp. today took the unusual step of issuing security updates to address flaws in older, unsupported versions of Windows — including Windows XP and Windows 8. The move is a bid to slow the spread of the WanaCrypt ransomware strain that infected tens of thousands of Windows computers virtually overnight this week.”

NEW RESOURCES

Columbus (OH) Dispatch: State releases nursing home database in push for tighter regs. “As Gov. John Kasich tries to salvage his plan to pay Ohio nursing homes based on the quality of care they provide Medicaid patients, the state today released details showing that the level of service varies widely among Ohio’s 929 facilities.”

New-to-me: a database of comic book sound effects. “Spotlighting the “Sock! Pow! Zok!” that give comics a voice, celebrating the onomatopoeia. The database contains 1482 sound effects from 184 comics.” I think my favorite one is BLOOMPH, which of course is someone playing a French horn.

The US Geological Survey has released new maps of Mars. “A new set of high-resolution geologic maps reveal complex geologic processes that suggest a dynamic, wet environment once existed on early Mars, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.”

Oooooh. Bing has released its own custom search solution. “Bing has introduced a new, commercial-grade site search tool called Bing Custom Search. The announcement and subsequent rollout occurred during Microsoft’s Build conference on Wednesday. Bing Custom Search allows you to build your own search engine around a specific topic. After selecting a topic, the tool will identify on-topic sites to crawl, apply Bing’s ranking algorithm, and deliver a relevant set of search results.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Search Engine Journal: New Filters Added to Google Image Search. “The next time you conduct a Google image search on mobile you’ll see the inclusion of new filters, which will help you narrow down your search down in a few different ways.”

Engadget: Google revises app review process following phishing attacks. “In the wake of the Google Docs phishing debacle last week, Google has added a few new safeguards to better protect us from these types of attacks. The Gmail app for Android scans for suspect links and Google has tightened up its policies on third party authentication to help keep phishing scams from even getting to you. Today, the company has come out with more guidelines and systems at the developer level that should help prevent even more of these attempts.”

USEFUL STUFF

Hongkiat: Everypixel – Free Stock Image Search Engine for Designers. “Finding quality stock photos can be a real pain in the butt. Most stock photos just look cheesy or barely fit the goal you’re aiming for with the photo. But, Everypixel changes all of that with a powerful new search engine that lets you search by keywords & uploaded photos. You can literally upload a photo from your computer and it’ll automatically search dozens of stock photo sites to find related pics. Talk about convenient!”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Business Insider: UK PM May pledges new powers to punish and tax social media firms. “British Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to create new powers allowing her to punish social media and communications companies that fail to look after users’ data, and to demand cash from firms to pay for policing the internet.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

PC World: Password managers: The good, the bad, and the ugly. “If you’re reading this and not using a password manager, keep reading. You’re in a high-risk category for getting hacked and exploited. Even if you’re already utilizing the best consumer tool for computer security since antivirus, you should also keep reading—because not all password managers are created equal.”

Motherboard: Secure Messaging App Wire Stores Everyone You’ve Ever Contacted in Plain Text. “The secure messaging marketplace is pretty saturated right now. You’ve got apps like Signal, that typically put privacy first, and then giants like WhatsApp, that have added end-to-end encryption to its already established products. Even though many aim to do roughly the same thing—let users communicate securely—there’s still a lot of variety between these apps. In the case of Wire, a messaging app available for iOS, Android, and desktop devices, the company has decided to keep a list of all the users a customer contacted until they delete their account.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Georgia Tech: New Georgia Tech Research May Help Combat Abusive Online Comments. “Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Interactive Computing have come up with a novel computational approach that could provide a more cost- and resource-effective way for internet communities to moderate abusive content. They call it the Bag of Communities (BoC), a technique that leverages large-scale, preexisting data from other internet communities to train an algorithm to identify abusive behavior within a separate target community.” Good morning, Internet…

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