NEW RESOURCES

Limerick Post: LSAD project to reveal the impact of design on life, culture, business and society in Ireland. “Map Irish Design, new research that examines more that 2300 design projects to reveal the impact of design on life, culture, business and society in Ireland over the past decade was recently launched.”

The Text Message (National Archives): Over 650 Newly Digitized Navy Logbooks in the National Archives Catalog. “These firsthand accounts of the Battle of New Orleans during the Civil War are just small snippets from two Navy logbooks, which are part of 653 digitized logbooks from 30 Navy vessels that recently became available in the National Archives Catalog (see list below). These logbooks were digitized in the Innovation Hub at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, by a team of five graduate student interns working on a project titled ‘Seas of Knowledge: Digitization and Retrospective Analysis of the Historical Logbooks of the United States Navy.’ This project will continue through 2021 and will focus on digitizing Navy logbooks for the period 1861-1879, after having made 548 volumes of associated muster rolls available in the NARA catalog last year.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Verge: Glitch launches subscriptions to power up its bite-sized apps. “The coding platform Glitch is formally launching its first paid product today: a subscription that lets you pay to upgrade the bite-sized apps you can run on its platform. Since it launched in 2017, Glitch has let anyone write and remix code and then publish bots, web apps, and other projects that it would host for free. But that free hosting came with strict limitations. Apps had limited RAM and storage, and more importantly, they would be shut down if they went dormant for just a few minutes, meaning you often had to wait through a sluggish start up before using them.”

BetaNews: Plex releases media server app Dash, and Plexamp player for Windows, mobile, macOS and Linux. “If the phrase ‘it really whips the llama’s ass’ means anything to you, you clearly remember the heady days of WinAmp. Now media server and management company Plex has come up with its own take on the classic software. Called — slightly uninspiringly — Plexamp, the player is available for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux. The company has also released a new app for managing Plex media servers: Plex Dash. This is great news for Plex users, but there’s a slight catch in both cases.”

CNET: Facebook launches gaming app to challenge Twitch, YouTube. “Facebook on Monday launched a mobile gaming app aimed at challenging Twitch’s and YouTube’s dominance of the live game-streaming market. The free Facebook Gaming app, available only on Android right now, is designed for people already engaged in the online gaming community but will also include casual games and access to gaming communities, The New York Times reported Sunday.”

USEFUL STUFF

Make Tech Easier: The Best Web Apps to Dictate Your Docs and Notes . “You probably know Google Docs supports dictation in dozens of languages, but what if Google Docs’s ‘live dictation’ feels a bit restrictive, or you don’t like the complicated interface? There are alternatives to Google Docs with practically the exact same levels of accuracy (since they use the same Google Voice API), but a different interface, that could be better-tailored to your needs. Let’s see how you can use some of the best web apps to type with your voice instead of your keyboard.”

Artnet: 7 Practical Tips for Engaging Art Lovers Through Social Media That We Learned From an Internet Cowboy and the Meme King of London. “One lesson that the lockdown era has laid bare is that, when it comes to museums, not all social media presences are created equal. While many of them offer outstanding IRL experiences, cracking the code of what will gain traction online is a different skill altogether.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Inside Indiana Business: Local Radio Show Joins National Library. “A weekly radio show in Indianapolis focused on Indiana history is getting national recognition. Hoosier History Live, which airs on WICR-FM at the University of Indianapolis, has been selected for inclusion in the Digital Public Library of America. The producers of the weekly call-in radio show say they will be editing select past shows for distribution on the library, as well as Indiana Memory, a statewide digital library.”

BBC: TikTok’s darkened skin trend accused of ‘promoting colourism’. “A viral TikTok trend in India has been accused of promoting colourism. It involves users digitally darkening their skin colour and looking sad – before revealing their natural, lighter skin tone at the end and smiling. Colourism is prejudice against people who have a darker skin tone or the preferential treatment of those who are of the same race but lighter-skinned.”

UX Planet: Never lost again: Thoughts on the Google Maps revolution. “Not only did Google Maps dramatically change our view of the world and transform how we find our way in it, but it created a platform that spawned billions of dollars in commerce and life-changing services. Without its easy-to-use mapping system we wouldn’t be able to call a Lyft, order takeout through DoorDash or groceries through Instacart, research reviews on Yelp, or book a hotel through Trivago or a flight through Priceline. While GPS navigation followed a convoluted path to obsolescence—an industry that became as quickly outdated as the maps on its devices—Google Maps brought the entire world to us.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Europol: Hacker Group Selling Databases With Millions Of User Credentials Busted In Poland And Switzerland. “Polish and Swiss law enforcement authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, dismantled InfinityBlack, a hacking group involved in distributing stolen user credentials, creating and distributing malware and hacking tools, and fraud.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Mashable: Museum curators show off their creepiest stuff, and we’re shuddering. “The world can be a freaky place. The world of museum curators, however, is apparently downright terrifying. That much was made clear Friday when whoever had control of the Yorkshire Museum’s Twitter account kicked off a creepy-curator challenge. The UK museum claims to house ‘some of Britain’s finest archaeological treasures,’ but this #CURATORBATTLE called for something else.” Good morning, Internet…

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