NEW RESOURCES

APN News: Goemcho Goenkar Aims To Save Goa, Goan Villages, Culture, Tradition, Food And Everything Goa, Digitally For Posterity. “Research for the initiative Goemcho Goenkar is supported by the Centre for Promoting Indian Economy, CPIE India. It’s an attempt to permanently archive Goa (food, culture, tradition, music, religious gatherings, festivals, old roads, bridges, wells, lakes, clothing, people, villages, everything about our existence) of today and generations gone by, for the future.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Neowin: Telegram adds group voice chats, lays out plans for monetization in 2021. “Telegram is receiving one more update before the end of 2020, once again bringing new features to the platform. Throughout the year, the company has developed a handful of major new features, including support for video calls, video editing tools, support for bigger files, and more; this time, the highlight of the update is voice chats.”

Search Engine Journal: Pinterest Boards Upgraded With 3 New Features. “Pinterest is launching three new features for boards that allow users to make more productive use of their time on the platform. Pinterest boards are seeing a surge in use as of late, as the company reports a 35% year-over-year increase in the number of boards created monthly.”

BuzzFeed News: The 39 Most Defining Memes of 2020 . “This post — the fifth annual in a series! — is a list, not a ranking, so please don’t yell at me if your favorite is #33 or whatever. But if you’re going to yell at me, please let it be to debate the spelling of ‘Mi Pan.'”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: How to Move Files Uploads from Google Forms to a Specific Folder in Google Drive. “When a respondent uploads a file through Google Forms, the file are stored in a fixed folder of your Google Drive. All files are uploaded in the same folder and, thus looking at the file in your Google Drive, it is difficult to determine which respondent has uploaded which set of files. We can however use Google Apps Script with Google Form triggers to instantly organize files in Google Drive as soon as they are uploaded by the form respondent. You can change the destination folder where files are stored or create custom folders based on the form response.”

Thrillist: The Best Ways to Get Your 2020 Instagram Top 9. “Unlike, say, Spotify Wrapped, there isn’t an in-app way for you to collect your best posts of the year. Nonetheless, there are plenty of other apps and websites that are going to pull together those most Instagrammable moments of your life, even if it was that time you knocked your tooth out with the front door. It happens. It was absolutely worth sharing.”

Make Tech Easier: The Beginner’s Guide to Git . “If you’re a Linux user, you’ve likely come across Git at some point, perhaps while trying to download a new program or looking into version control systems like CVS or Subversion. Git is the revision control system created by the Linux kernel’s famous Linus Torvalds, due to a lack of satisfaction with existing solutions. The main emphasis in the design was on speed, or more specifically, efficiency. Git addresses many of the shortcomings of previous systems and does it all in much less time. If you are looking to learn Git, this beginner’s guide will help you get started.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Vulture: Clubhouse Is Dangerously Close to Becoming Our New Internet Wasteland. “Fear of missing out went digital in 2020, and there’s no better illustration of this than nights spent over the past month and a half on Clubhouse, the (currently) invite-only voice-chat app now drawing celebrities, professionals, and onlookers in the know out of seclusion and into virtual meeting grounds. Clubhouse lets users interact in themed chat rooms where speakers run the floor and listeners can raise a hand and get called on by moderators to give input on the issue of the day, like a TED Talk with a question-and-answer session in the middle. It’s in beta for now, but it’s apparent that there’s value in the concept.”

Artnet News: These Are the 22 Art Projects That Social Media Went Bananas Over in 2020. “As the phrase ‘going viral’ took on a new, far more literal definition this year, art that went viral on the internet evolved into a role more important than ever. While we were stuck at home, art shared online served variously as a public-health tool, an amplification of cries for social justice, and a much-needed means of escape. Here are some of the most memorable artworks and at-home art trends that were widely shared in 2020.”

NiemanLab: The future of fact-checking is all about structured data. “The journalism-as-structured-data revolution succeeded in a few places, like PolitiFact and Chris and Laura Amico’s Homicide Watch, but it hasn’t succeeded on a broad scale. Journalists are storytellers accustomed to an old story form, and they’ve had trouble adapting their work to a structured approach. But suddenly the time is right for structured journalism, because our chaotic battle over misinformation is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of fact-checking as data.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Times of India: Tightening Net: Cops ask Google to block 158 instant finance apps. “Police have asked Google to block 158 instant financing applications (apps) on its Play Store as the companies behind these were found harassing and shaming defaulters. In a related development, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials have started gathering information from Telangana police about companies involved in the instant financing apps since the role of Chinese nationals have emerged.”

CNET: Why you’re hounded by pop-ups about cookies, and how they could go away. “California voters approved a privacy law in November that creates an incentive for companies to stop pestering you about cookies. It can be hard to tell from many of the pop-ups, but businesses are asking you to give them permission to install small files on your web browser so they can sell or share data about your browsing habits. The process for making these messages less common is already underway.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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