NEW RESOURCES

Spotted via Reddit and new-to-me: a database of Frank Zappa concerts. Click on a show on the left, and you’ll get information (if available) and the band members (if available). From the show data you can also click on band members to see in which concerts they performed, or on song names to see at which concerts they were performed.

HETQ: Documenting the Past: Yeva Sargsyan Creates Online Encyclopedia of Armenian Architecture of 1960s- 1990s. “For seven years, architecture theorist Yeva Sargsyan strove to make a database of Armenian architecture, which would present a detailed classification of buildings, urban elements and small architectural forms, including information about the author, location, construction site and other architectural parameters. Today, [it] is an online encyclopedia, presenting the modern architecture of Armenia. It’s unique in its kind. In the encyclopedia, you can find documentary and analytical information about Armenian architecture of the 1960-1990s.” An English version is available.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Digital NC: Amazing panoramic WWI images from Randolph County Public Library now available!. “Panoramic photos of Company K and the 120th Infantry, provided by Randolph County Public Library, are now online at DigitalNC. These photos, taken from 1914-1919, show Company K, which was comprised of men from Asheboro, and the larger North Carolina Brigade in a variety of locations.” This is a tiny collection – six images! – but I’m including it here because I can’t recall ever seeing panoramic images that old.

Ubergizmo: Facebook Using AI To Help Improve 360-Degree Photos. “Not all photos are taken equally. There are some who are more skilled at composition a shot and editing it, while some don’t really care and just upload whatever they capture, blurry photo or not. However Facebook wants to change that, or at least help users improve their photos when it comes to 360-degree photo uploads.”

USEFUL STUFF

The State Archives of North Carolina blog has published its second and third posts in a three-part series on how to interpret Colonial-era handwriting.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Kathmandu Post: Rare books, artworks and archives lost during KU flood. “Rare books, art works and valuable archives of Nepali artists were lost on Saturday when floods triggered by incessant rainfall entered the Kathmandu University premises in Hattiban, Lalitpur, inundating the entire university complex. A premier fine arts school in the Capital, the Department of Fine Arts, under the School of Arts of KU, housed the works of veteran artists, teachers and students which have all been damaged by the flooding.”

The Guardian: FCC flooded with comments before critical net neutrality vote. “A sweeping plan to roll back Obama-era rules intended to ensure an open internet has drawn a record number of comments before a critical vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). With hours left before the window for public feedback closes on Wednesday, the agency has received nearly nearly 22m comments on ‘Restoring Internet Freedom’, which could dismantle net neutrality rules put in place in 2015.” Unfortunately it’s not clear how many of them were fraudulent.

CNBC: Google still a ‘wonderful’ company, says EU’s top antitrust enforcer after $2.7 billion fine . “Google is still very much a force for good and has many positive attributes, according to the EU’s competition commissioner who slapped the tech giant with a $2.7 billion fine earlier this year.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Naked Security: Online file conversion services – why trust them?. “Let’s imagine that you just received an attachment on your phone, such as an image, a document or a spreadsheet. Imagine you need to edit it, resize it, convert it to a new format, or something similar, but you don’t have a suitable app on your phone, and you don’t have your laptop with you. It’s a file you don’t intend to make public – perhaps it’s a picture of your children, or a copy of your latest tax return, or your sales targets for next quarter – but you nevertheless need to work on urgently (it happens!)… …what now?”

Ars Technica: Google promised not to scan Gmail for targeted ads—but for how long?. “On July 23, Google promised with great fanfare that it would stop scanning consumers’ Gmail messages to serve targeted, contextually aware ads. The announcement—which put Gmail in line with competing services and Google’s paid e-mail for government, business, and education sectors—was published widely, from tech blogs to the mainstream media. ‘Free consumer Gmail users,’ Google said, ‘can remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount as we continue to innovate.’ However, court documents suggest that this could be temporary.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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