NEW RESOURCES

Exact Editions: The full digital archive of Embroidery Magazine is now available. “Exact Editions has joined up with The Embroiders’ Guild, the UK’s leading education charity promoting embroidery, to digitise the complete archive of its membership publication, Embroidery Magazine which includes the whole archive of Embroideress Magazine. Dating back to 1932, the new archive is available for individual and institutional subscriptions and is seamlessly available across web, iOS and Android devices.”

Mashable: NASA shared some extraordinary new sights and sounds from Jupiter orbit. “Who would’ve guessed that Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s many moons, sounds like a Brian Eno album? A new research dump from the Juno orbiter has given all of us space nerds a blessed holiday treat: Sights and sounds from our solar system’s largest planet and its largest moon. The photos of the swirling gas giant’s ‘surface’ are as gorgeous and painterly as Jupiter watchers have come to expect, but the real treat is that audio track.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Spotify adds ratings to podcasts. “It was two years ago when Spotify entered the podcast scene and has since added 2.2 million podcasts to its platform. With so many shows to pick from, the company will let users give their opinion on a podcast with its new rating system.”

Engadget: Adobe’s Project Shasta is an AI-powered, web-based audio editor. “Users record their audio in clips and Shasta automatically transcribes the recordings. From there, editing is as simple as deleting text from the transcription. There are also AI-based filters that can improve the audio quality or automatically remove filler words like ‘um.’ Project Shasta also supports remote recording, so guest speakers can easily join in for recordings. The software will handle syncing up the clips even if one person has a shoddy internet connection.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Set Up and Use Alexa Routines Triggered by Sounds. “Alexa is always listening for the wake word (which, by default, is ‘Alexa’). However, Amazon’s digital voice assistant can pick up much more than just your voice commands. Thanks to a feature called Sound Detection, currently available as a public preview, your Amazon Echo can listen out for several other sounds, too, then launch a series of commands in response.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

CBC: Search engines try to rival Google by offering fewer ads, more privacy. “The name Google has become so synonymous with online search that it’s become a verb. Want to find out something? Google it. But a new crop of search engines is taking a stab at the online search market, promising to provide an engine with more customizable options, fewer ads and more consideration for users’ privacy.”

Techdirt: Gaming Like It’s 1926: Get Ready For Our Next Public Domain Game Jam!. “It’s that time of the year again! Four years ago, the US finally started adding older works back into the public domain after a decades-long period of time in which those cultural works were kept from the public (under dubious legal theories). It still remains somewhat ridiculous that we’re waiting 95 years for works to enter the public domain, but at least some things are coming into the public domain! For the past four years we’ve been celebrating newly public domain works each year by hosting a public domain game jam — and this year, it’s Gaming Like It’s 1926!”

The Markup: The Shadows of Removed Posts Are Hiding in Plain Sight on Reddit. “Across Reddit, when a moderator removes a post, the post is unlisted from the subreddit’s main feed. But images or links within that post don’t actually disappear. Posts removed by moderators are still readily available to anyone on Reddit in the comment history of the moderator who flagged it—complete with an explanation of the rule it violates—or to anyone who retained a direct URL to the post.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Ransomware persists even as high-profile attacks have slowed. “Even if the United States isn’t currently enduring large-scale, front-page ransomware attacks on par with ones earlier this year that targeted the global meat supply or kept millions of Americans from filling their gas tanks, the problem hasn’t disappeared. In fact, the attack on [Ken] Trzaska’s college was part of a barrage of lower-profile episodes that have upended the businesses, governments, schools and hospitals that were hit.”

Ars Technica: Google Play app with 500,000 downloads sent user contacts to Russian server. “An Android app with more than 500,000 downloads from Google Play has been caught hosting malware that surreptitiously sends users’ contacts to an attacker-controlled server and signs up users to pricey subscriptions, a security firm reported. The app, named Color Message, was still available on Google servers at the time this post was being prepared. Google removed it more than three hours after I asked the company for comment.”

New York Times: Jan. 6 Committee May Add New Expertise for Investigation. “As the panel continues to take testimony, it is looking to do more analysis of social media and possible foreign efforts to sow discord in the U.S. before the Capitol riot.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Sora News: These dozens of AI-generated Pokémon look more official than some actual official ones【Pics】. “Personally, I woud’ve expected AI-generated Pokémon to have a lot more random lines sticking out of them, mismatched colors, and having their heads mixed up with their tails, but these are all pretty legit-looking.” Good morning, Internet…

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