On 21 May I linked to an article about Facebook funding infrastructure in Uganda. The article appears to have been pulled and I got an e-mail saying it was not factual. More details on the RBFirehose post: https://rbfirehose.com/2017/05/20/it-news-africa-facebook-invests-170m-in-uganda/ .

NEW RESOURCES

CNET: Google Earth takes you on a guided tour of Beatles’ history. “From the Cavern Club where they got their start, to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, you can now follow the Beatles’ rise to success around the world on Google Earth. Google’s celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ the 8th album from the legendary rock and roll group. Using Google Earth’s Voyager, you can go on a simulated tour of nine different locations around the world that are significant to Beatles history.”

PRNewswire: Hujiang EdTech Launches Online Museum Project in Copenhagen to Promote Global Cultural Exchange (PRESS RELEASE). “Hujiang EdTech (‘Hujiang’), China’s leading online education company, through its interactive online teaching platform CCtalk, launched the Cultural Exchange – “Aim at the World” Museum Children’s Education Project (‘the project’) at the Frederiksborg Castle Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. This live interactive broadcast is one of Hujiang EdTech’s initiatives to link China and the rest of the world. The company intends to introduce exhibits and other content from world class museums to children worldwide through Virtual Reality (VR) technology.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BuzzFeed: Snap Acquires Ctrl Me Robotics, A Small Drone Maker Based In LA. “Snap has acquired Ctrl Me Robotics, a small drone manufacturer based in Los Angeles that should give the company added muscle in its push into hardware. Snap’s interest in drone manufacturers has been rumored for months, and the company’s acquisition of Ctrl Me suggests it has more than just a passing interest in hardware.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: Automate Tedious Tasks on Trello With This Amazing Bot. “Trello is an uncomplicated and intuitive tool for managing projects and tasks. But what if it could get even easier? Butler for Trello is the answer. This new bot lets you automate Trello tasks. Using triggers and actions, you can automatically create lists, move cards, set due dates, add labels, and much more without lifting a finger.”

Alex Ellis: Live stream to YouTube with your Raspberry Pi and Docker. “In this guide we’ll set up our Raspberry Pi so that we can stream live video to YouTube to either a public, unlisted or private stream. Using a pre-built Docker image means we know exactly what we’re getting and instead of having to go through lots of manual steps we can type in a handful of commands and get started immediately.”

Technology Personalized: I’ve Finally Found the Perfect Alternative to Wunderlist. “About a month back, Microsoft did something tragic – they announced a new to-do app. Now, that might not sound as harsh as I just described it. Every company continues to experiment with apps. I mean, look at Google, they have almost seven just for messaging. But Microsoft, along with that, also said that they would eventually phase out Wunderlist once users settle down with the new one. Now, that also sounds quite fine, we’re getting a brand new and smart app in exchange for a six-year-old service, right? No.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Wire: How the National Archives of India Is Actually Destroying History. “Something is rotten about the state of the National Archives of India. The heritage Lutyens building houses priceless historical documents, “stored in over 40 km of shelf space”, according to Sanjay Garg, deputy director of the archives. These include documents dating back to 1748, a rich collection of private papers, over 7,500 microfilm rolls and records from several countries. Scholars, academics, authors, journalists and students frequent the repository. Outstanding works by renowned authors and researchers have emanated from this goldmine. One would think that the guardians of the National Archives would make it their bounden duty to protect and preserve our nation’s written history. However, the horror story begins here.” Comments on the article are interesting and informative at this writing.

TechCrunch: Google’s AlphaGo AI defeats team of five leading Go players. “Are five human heads better than one computer brain? Not when it comes to playing Go. AlphaGo, the AI created to play the game of Go better than anyone alive, has defeated a team made up of five Go champions in a demonstration match on Friday.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

ZDNet: Crysis ransomware master keys released to the public. “The world has been rocked by WannaCry causing disruption and upheaval across core services and businesses alike over the past week, but there is good news for victims of Crysis with the release of 200 master keys to the public. Posted at the BleepingComputer forum, the keys can be used by victims of the ransomware as well as security firms in the creation of decryption tools.”

Naked Security: Samba exploit – not quite WannaCry for Linux, but patch anyway!. “Because of cross-platform tools like Samba, network security holes due to SMB and Windows file sharing services aren’t unique to the Windows platform. In fact, it turns out that there’s been a remote code execution hole in Samba’s SMB implementation for several years, too.”

Rice University: Paper: National database puts children with medically complex conditions at risk. “A proposed national database that would serve as a centralized source of information on children with medically complex conditions puts those children and their families at risk for discrimination by making their health information public, and therefore accessible to employers and health insurers, according to experts at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Harvard: Analyzing Accessibility of Wikipedia Projects Around the World . “This study, conducted by the Internet Monitor project at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, analyzes the scope of government-sponsored censorship of Wikimedia sites around the world. The study finds that, as of June 2016, China was likely censoring the Chinese language Wikipedia project, and Thailand and Uzbekistan were likely interfering intermittently with specific language projects of Wikipedia as well.” Good morning, Internet…

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