NEW RESOURCES

Wired: This Site Published Every Face From Parler’s Capitol Riot Videos. “Late last week, a website called Faces of the Riot appeared online, showing nothing but a vast grid of more than 6,000 images of faces, each one tagged only with a string of characters associated with the Parler video in which it appeared. The site’s creator tells WIRED that he used simple open source machine learning and facial recognition software to detect, extract, and deduplicate every face from the 827 videos that were posted to Parler from inside and outside the Capitol building on January 6, the day when radicalized Trump supporters stormed the building in a riot that resulted in five people’s deaths.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Blooloop: Uffizi museum launches Superchef Facebook cooking show. “The Uffizi Museum has launched a Superchef Facebook cooking show. Italian chefs will cook recipes inspired by the Uffizi live on Facebook as the gallery extends its social media engagement.” The videos are in Italian.

BetaNews: Microsoft releases KB4598298 update to fix Windows 10 crashes and restart problems. “We might only be three weeks into 2021, but Microsoft has already issued a number of patches for Windows 10 — and now it’s time for another one. If you have been experiencing unexpected restarts in Windows 10, or crashes when using BitLocker, there’s a new update for you to install.”

USEFUL STUFF

Ghacks: NeeView is an open source image viewer that displays two images simultaneously like pages from a book . “Most image viewer programs allow you to view one image at a time. I’m not talking about thumbnails, but a larger view of the pictures. If you want to browse your photo directories and view two images simultaneously, you should try NeeView.”

Make Tech Easier: Free Tools to Check SD Card Speed and Capacity . “SD and microSD cards are used for storage in a variety of devices. For example, you may move your offline Spotify playlist to an microSD card. Unfortunately, there are many fake SD and microSD cards floating around on the Internet. Even reputable online marketplaces like Amazon aren’t immune to the influx of useless cards being flogged to unsuspecting consumers. That’s why you need a fake SD card test to avoid getting scammed.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Travel + Leisure: This Instagram Account Shows You the Most Insane Home Listings on Zillow. “If you’ve spent any time on the internet during the pandemic, odds are you’ve found yourself scrolling through Zillow listings a time or two. And, if you check Zillow listings daily, don’t worry. You’re not alone. According to The New York Times, Zillow usage is up more than 50 percent year-over-year. But, while looking through the listings, you’ve likely also found yourself saying ‘what the…’ about some of the truly zany homes with million-dollar price tags.”

Neowin: Mozilla sets out its four climate commitments. “Mozilla has set out its climate commitments today as it aims to significantly reduce its emissions and mitigate what it can’t avoid. Things it plans to implement include switching its offices to renewable energy, reviewing its travel policies, exploring cloud optimisation, and developing toolkits “for product integrity and design principles.” It will share more details of its plans as it works them out.”

New York Times: Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump. “Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, was working remotely on a private island in French Polynesia frequented by celebrities escaping the paparazzi when a phone call interrupted him on Jan. 6. On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and safety expert, with an update from the real world.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

BuzzFeed News: A Home Security Tech Hacked Into Cameras To Watch People Undressing And Having Sex, Prosecutors Say. “A home security technician admitted Thursday that he secretly accessed the cameras of more than 200 customers, particularly attractive women, to spy on while they undressed, slept, or had sex, federal prosecutors said. Telesforo Aviles, a 35-year-old former employee for the security company ADT, admitted he secretly accessed the customers’ accounts more than 9,600 times over more than four years, according to a guilty plea submitted in court.”

The Verge: House leader calls for FBI investigation into Parler. “In a letter sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) called for the bureau to ‘conduct a robust examination of the role that the social media site Parler played’ in the January 6th pro-Trump assault on the Capitol. Maloney said that the committee intends to open its own investigation and requested a meeting with FBI officials regarding the status and scope of any future investigation into the social media platform.”

Reuters: EU lawmakers want Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google CEOs at Feb. 1 hearing. “EU lawmakers have invited the chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet to a Feb. 1 hearing in Brussels as they try to crack down on the powers of U.S. tech giants.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CNET: Microsoft patent details tech that could turn dead people into AI chatbots. “An AI chatbot that lets you interact with dead loved ones sounds like something straight out of science fiction. But if technology in a patent granted to Microsoft comes to fruition, interacting with a chatty 3D digital version of the deceased could one day become de rigueur.” Good morning, Internet…

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