TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft reveals workaround for Windows 10 printing problems and blue screen issues. “This Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released cumulative updates for Windows 10 and there were numerous complaints about problems with printing after installing them. Users with various brands of printer found that printing failed as they experienced APC_INDEX_MISMATCH errors and blue screens. A few days ago, Microsoft confirmed that it was aware of the issue and was investigating; now the company has come up with a workaround.”

The Verge: Google Maps will soon let you draw on a map to fix it. “If you’ve ever been frustrated by a road simply not existing on Google Maps, the company’s now making it easier than ever to add it. Google will be updating its map editing experience to allow users to add missing roads and realign, rename or delete incorrect ones.” What could possibly go wrong? I know Google says it will vet all changes, but I thought it did that with the Google My Business listings, and we know how that goes.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

TechCrunch: Memes for sale. “The creator of the Nyan Cat, Chris Torres, has organized an informal collection of meme originators — the creators or original popularizers of meme images — into a two-week-long auction of their works. Under the hashtag #memeconomy the creators of memes like Bad Luck Brian, Coughing Cat, Kitty Cat Dance, Scumbag Steve, Twerky Pepe and some others are finally finding a way to monetize the creation of genuine cultural phenomena that have been used freely for decades.”

Mashable: What to expect when you’re expecting 8 billion internet users. “As I wrote in my previous story in this series, the world may add up to 3 billion more internet users in the next decade or so. The global population is growing fast, and demographers believe it will cross the 8 billion mark around 2023. Internet access is growing faster, and is on course to hit 8 billion users around 2033. Given our recent history, you’d be forgiven for feeling a bit queasy about what could happen when the echo chamber has grown to the size of the entire Earth.”

The American Legion: Paris Post 1’s history digitized. “Paris, the site of the first American Legion organizational caucus in March 1919, has never since been without a Legion presence – Paris Post 1 was founded that year. One of its public functions is the celebration of The American Legion’s birthday (March 15-17, the dates of the caucus). This year, that will take place at 11 a.m. Paris time March 20, at the site of the American Legion Caucus plaque in the 7th Arrondissement.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

News .com .au: ACCC examining whether choice screens for search engines on smartphones should be compulsory. “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is asking for submissions from smartphone users and industry participants to inform a report it will hand to the federal government in September, which will examine the fairness of competition among search engines in handheld devices.”

Route Fifty: New Project Aims to Identify Local Government Assets at Risk of Cyberattack. “State and local governments are poised to get some extra help identifying critical technology systems that could be at risk of cyberattacks, as part of a new federal pilot program. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency will provide $1.2 million to fund the pilot, which will be overseen by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at the University of Texas at San Antonio.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Register: How Facebook uses public videos to train, deploy machine-learning models and harvest those eyeballs . “Facebook this week revealed an internal project to create machine-learning models that can understand visual, audio, and written content from videos publicly uploaded to its social network. One of the models, known as Generalized Data Transformations (GDT), is now used on Instagram. Users viewing short video recordings, or Reels, can quickly find other Reels they might like to watch, thanks to an AI-powered recommender system that picks similar clips that might be interesting.”

CNN: How one employee’s exit shook Google and the AI industry. “[Timnit Gebru’s] ousting, and the fallout from it, reignites concerns about an issue with implications beyond Google: how tech companies attempt to police themselves. With very few laws regulating AI in the United States, companies and academic institutions often make their own rules about what is and isn’t okay when developing increasingly powerful software. Ethical AI teams, such as the one Gebru co-led at Google, can help with that accountability. But the crisis at Google shows the tensions that can arise when academic research is conducted within a company whose future depends on the same technology that’s under examination.” Good evening, Internet…

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