NEW RESOURCES

The Calvert Journal: 5 Eastern European creatives trailblazing the world of digital art. “Museums and galleries remain closed, but the stream of online art in our feeds keeps coming. Long before the Covid-19 pandemic reiterated the importance of digital media, the traditional museum had already lost the monopoly of art to the internet. Which is why in December 2019, Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art launched Garage Digital, a virtual platform that aims to bring together artists to explore new forms of visual culture that emerge from the contemporary dialogue between technology and society. Working on disciplines ranging from big data analysis to 3D printing, these five artists have been selected as the first cohort to be featured in Garage’s virtual platform, setting the trend for their new digital museum experience.”

Ontario Historical Society: OHS Launches Ontario History Journal Digital Archive. “The Ontario Historical Society (OHS) is excited to announce that, for the first time, the entire run of over 120 years of the Society’s Ontario History journal is now available online. The OHS has digitized the full text of over 2,000 articles and book reviews, making the archive the largest single collection of stories about Ontario’s history.”

New-to-me, from Polygon: An artist created 3D models of every D&D monster, and you can have them all for free. “For more than five years, one man has been creating 3D models of every single monster in Dungeons & Dragons’ 5th edition, and giving away those digital files for free, so people with 3D printers can make them at home. Miguel Zavala’s art project consists of more than 1,900 digital files, and he has nearly 3,000 paying subscribers supporting his work on Patreon.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: Mozilla pushes Firefox 74.0.1 fixing two zero-day exploits. “Mozilla has pushed Firefox 74.0.1 along with the related security advisory. The new update, which users are advised to apply soon, comes with fixes for two critical zero-day vulnerabilities. The new patches are also available for Firefox 68 users with version 68.6.1. Normally, the update will apply automatically, but you can go to the hamburger menu > Help > About Firefox and apply the patch manually.”

The Verge: Everyone can now access their Instagram DMs on the web. “Instagram’s making it easier for people to send direct messages from their browser. The company announced on Friday that it’s rolling out access to DMs on the web to everyone globally.”

BetaNews: New email service aims to give users full control of their inboxes. “Email is now the primary form of communication for most people, but a side effect of that is it’s also become the primary means of distributing malware and other threats as well as becoming an advertising medium. Edison Software has announced that this summer it’s launching OnMail, which it claims is the first mail service to provide users with full control over what can enter their inboxes.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: How to Create a DIY Chromecast Using Raspberry Pi and Raspicast . “You can set up your Raspberry Pi to act as an inexpensive Chromecast-style streaming device. Although you can’t implement the same protocols as Chromecast, you can get very similar end-results. You’ll learn in this tutorial how to turn your Raspberry Pi into a Chromecast alternative, using the free Raspicast software and the Raspicast for Android mobile app.”

Wired: How to Cover Your Tracks Every Time You Go Online. “VENTURE ONLINE NOWADAYS, and your presence is immediately logged and tracked in all manner of ways. Sometimes this can be helpful—like when you want to see new movies similar to ones you’ve watched in the past—but very often it feels invasive and difficult to control. Here we’re going to show you how to cover some of those tracks, or not to leave any in the first place. This isn’t quite the same as going completely invisible online, or encrypting every single thing you do. But it should help you sweep up most records of your online activity that you’d rather disappear.”

Inverse: A.I. Gahaku Turns Your Selfie Into An Oil Painting Masterwork. “Ready for your close-up? AI Gahaku is an online A.I. tool that’s going viral, promising to produce impressive selfies that make you look like an oil painting. The service promises to take images and apply one of 10 different styles, complete with museum description that makes the work seem ideal for the next gallery exhibition.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Rochester Institute of Technology: RIT/NTID wins coveted prize to create accessible books as part of global reading initiative . “Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf is one of four international innovators selected to create cost-effective packages of high-quality accessible children’s books in languages children use and understand. The initiative, from All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development and the Global Book Alliance’s Begin With Books, enables the prize winners to collectively create thousands of leveled books in seven underserved spoken languages and nine sign languages, serving regions of the world where children have few or no books for preschool or kindergarten.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Whitman Archive receives 2020 NEH Grant. “The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced new grants for humanities projects across the country. The Walt Whitman Archive is among this year’s 224 recipients. The $350,000 grant will support the revitalization of the online archive’s infrastructure, making the site easier to search and utilize.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: U.S. approves Google request to use segment of U.S.-Asia undersea cable. “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday approved Alphabet Inc unit Google’s request to use part of an U.S.-Asia undersea telecommunications cable after the company warned it would face significantly higher prices to carry traffic by other means.” Good morning, Internet…

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