NEW RESOURCES

GCN: NC rolls out criminal justice data portal. “North Carolina’s Criminal Justice Analysis Center (CJAC) announced a new centralized, interactive portal for criminal justice data collected by agencies across the state. The Justice Data Portal aims to provide broad access to criminal justice data and is launching with data from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the FBI’s crime database.”

Southgate Amateur Radio News: Twitter board adopts ‘poison pill’ after Musk’s $43 billion bid to buy company. “Under the new structure, if any person or group acquires beneficial ownership of at least 15% of Twitter’s outstanding common stock without the board’s approval, other shareholders will be allowed to purchase additional shares at a discount. The plan is set to expire on April 14, 2023.”

Ars Technica: Wikipedia community votes to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations [Updated]. “More than 200 long-time Wikipedia editors have requested that the Wikimedia Foundation stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The foundation received crypto donations worth about $130,000 in the most recent fiscal year—less than 0.1 percent of the foundation’s revenue, which topped $150 million last year. Debate on the proposal has raged over the last three months.”

KnowTechie: TikTok now lets anyone make their own AR filters. “TikTok’s newest tool, Effect House, lets you create your own AR effects. It’s the latest tool in the arsenal of budding creators and shows that AR is here to stay.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Daily Beast: Here’s What the Metaverse Apocalypse Will Look Like. “Whether we like it or not, metaverse fever is rising. From flaming Travis Scott towering over players in Fortnite, to suit-clad avatars arguing spreadsheets on Teams, to Facebook swapping its face for Meta—it seems there’s been an onslaught of new virtual playgrounds brought to life every day. But for every new virtual world being born, there’s a digital graveyard of realms that have already died.”

New York Times: Substack’s Growth Spurt Brings Growing Pains. “The publishing platform’s founders want Substack to be an ‘alternate universe on the internet.’ But it faces copycat rivals, an exodus by writers and a need to move beyond newsletters.”

Lifehacker: Squardle Broke My Brain, and Then I Won. “Waffle is like a Rubik’s cube. Letters are provided, and your job is to make crafty swaps. It’s elegant, and so simple it doesn’t require a keyboard. If you’d like to get into square Wordles (which I am now sure will have their own variations on variations), Waffle is a good one to start with. And once you’re hooked, I’d like to drag you further into the depths of confusion and despair. Play Squardle with me.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

University of Wisconsin-Madison: You’re muted — or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen even when mic is off. “Kassem Fawaz’s brother was on a videoconference with the microphone muted when he noticed that the microphone light was still on — indicating, inexplicably, that his microphone was being accessed. Alarmed, he asked Fawaz, an expert in online privacy and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to look into the issue.”

Mashable: How to report plagiarized NFTs as stolen art. “So you’ve been ripped off. Someone took your art and, without your permission, minted it as a non-fungible token. And now that same scammer has listed those NFTs of your plagiarized art for sale, and is raking in the ill-gotten gains. This is a depressingly common occurrence, and thankfully you’re not completely without recourse — though getting your stolen art removed from massive NFT exchanges like OpenSea and Rarible isn’t going to be easy.”

CNN: House lawmakers voice ‘serious concerns’ about facial recognition used by contractor ID.me. “Two top House lawmakers on Thursday began probing ID.me, a company that uses facial recognition technology to verify identities for many state and federal agencies, into the ‘efficacy, privacy and security’ of its services and products. The move, which comes months after the IRS halted a plan to require taxpayers to use ID.me when logging onto their accounts amid a privacy backlash, further ratchets up scrutiny of the service in Washington.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

MedicineNet: Who Are the New ‘Patient Influencers’ on Social Media?. “Patient influencers like [Gem] Hubbard fill social media these days, and a new report says pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers view them as an increasingly popular direct-to-consumer marketing tool. These patient influencers share their stories in online health forums and on social media, using their personal experiences to help inform and educate others.”

The Verge: Google’s Little Signals concepts show what ‘ambient’ notifications could look like. “Google has shown off a ‘design study’ in ambient computing, with a series of objects that can subtly deliver notifications through taps, gentle breezes, and shifting shadows (shout out to Verge alumn Dieter Bohn for tweeting this to our attention). The company calls the experiment Little Signals and says it’s exploring ‘calm computing,’ or ways of keeping you in the loop without having your phone blare a notification chime and light up a screen.” Good morning, Internet…

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