NEW RESOURCES

New-to-Me: The Pennsylvania State Archives have digitized a collection of World War I posters. From the announcement: “The World War I poster collection is available online and consists of 462 illustrated posters. … An additional 386 digital images from our general poster collection have also been created which include items from 1854 to the present.”

An Australian rock music magazine, Roadrunner, has been digitized and put online by University of Wollongong. From the home page: “Roadrunner was a rock magazine published in Adelaide between 1978-83. Its founding editors were Stuart Coupe and Donald Robertson, who worked together on the single-issue Punk zine Street Fever in December 1977. Though primarily focused on Australian and overseas rock music, it also covered areas of the burgeoning counterculture and issues such as punk. The final edition of December 1982 / January 1983 was published in Sydney.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Trends: Need A Word With Your PDF Files? Here’s How To Convert Them To .docx . “There’s a lot to love about PDFs — they’re compatible with almost any system, they don’t take up a lot of space, and they can’t be easily edited or changed. This is great when you’re trying to send out a form or rules for a game, but sometimes you really need to make a few changes without going back to the source document. Thankfully, there are a couple of ways to quickly convert your PDF files into easy-to-update Word documents before saving and redistributing them. Here’s how to get it done.”

Mashable: How to post Google Photos’ awesome animations to Instagram. “I’m constantly amazed by how great the automatically generated animations are, and it sure beats using a separate app like Burstio to convert your burst photos into a video or a GIF. There’s just one little thing: While you can download and share the animated GIFs online to Twitter, Giphy or wherever using a computer, sharing GIFs natively to Instagram is still impossible without first converting the file into a video. Here’s how to do that quickly and easily.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Kickstarter corner: a new crowdfunding effort hopes to create an online archive of content from defunct travelers’ blogs. “TravelArk is a place where users can import their Traveler Profile and all personal travel blog content so that your adventures can continue to live on the web or find a new blogging home. All proceeds from this Kickstarter will go toward Amazon AWS hosting services related to the site. The initial amount is expected to cover the AWS fees related to importing participating members’ data and then run the site for about 3-5 years.” The fundraising goal is $3000, rather modest especially if you consider that’s estimated to run the site for 3-5 years.

TechCrunch: Deep Algo offers simple code visualization for people who don’t know how to code. “The system works by presenting a sort form that helps the user determine precisely what they want out of a piece of code. From there, the system breaks things down into more of a flow chart to help give a better understanding of the actions created by the code. The idea to get employees in other aspects of business involved in the process, to add their unique points of views to the system.”

In case you were wondering if Google Cardboard is dead… no. VRFocus: BT Sport Giving Away Google Cardboard Headsets For UEFA Final. “To tie in to the upcoming final of the UEFA Champions League, sports broadcaster BT Sport are giving away branded Google Cardboard headsets to football fans so they can enjoy the 360-degree Football final. As reported previously, the UEFA Champions League final will be available to view in 360-degrees through a YouTube livestream or the BT Sport virtual reality (VR) app. BT Sport will be filming the match between Real Madric and Juventus with 360-degree cameras and broadcasting live.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

The Verge: New Browser Act would restore restrictions on sharing browsing history. “In April, the Senate voted to roll back the FCC’s internet privacy rules, clearing the way for internet service providers to share browsing histories with third-party advertisers — and provoking a significant backlash along the way. Now, one of the leading forces for the April push has introduced a new bill that could restore some of those restrictions, while adding new ones for web services like Facebook and Google.” Interesting comments – at least at this writing, they have stayed “interesting” without slipping into “good heavens”.

The Register: Phishing scum going legit to beat browser warnings. “Browser-makers’ decision to put big red warning lights in the faces of users when they hit sites too slack to use HTTPS is backfiring a little, as crooks are accelerating their use of encryption.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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