NEW RESOURCES

TechCrunch: TechCrunch launches TheTruthSpy spyware lookup tool. “TechCrunch today launched a spyware lookup tool that allows anyone to check if their Android device was compromised by a fleet of consumer-grade spyware apps, including TheTruthSpy. The aim is to help victims check if their device was compromised and reclaim control of their device.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Snap reportedly gives up on its selfie drone just four months after its debut. “It’s been less than four months since Snap unveiled a selfie drone called Pixy, but it seems the company is already giving up on the device. CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that Snap is halting further work on Pixy amid a reprioritization of resources, according to The Wall Street Journal.”

How-To Geek: Chrome Will Revamp Its Forgotten App Menu, to Match Edge. “Google is now working to overhaul the Apps menu in Chrome, according to information on the Chromium Gerrit spotted by Chrome Story. The browser’s development team plans to add more options, including the ability to change which permissions a web app can access, and quickly opening the settings for a given app (if available).”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: A Crowdsourced Wildfire App Tracks All of California’s Blazes. “Fires, by their very nature, are very difficult to track in real time. They can burn quickly, in every direction, and often rage in deeply wooded rural areas that are largely inaccessible. Official emergency responders, overworked and strapped by a lack of resources, struggle to fight fires and keep the public informed about a blaze’s every move…. That’s where volunteers on social media have come in. People in Facebook groups and on Fire Twitter have built whole communities of vigilant fire watchers who try to share accurate and timely fire info with the public.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Ars Technica: Google Maps accused of leading users to fake abortion clinics. “In 2018, Google was first confronted by media reports investigating why crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)—often religious, non-medical organizations that do not provide abortion services or referrals for abortion services—frequently dominate Google Maps search results for ‘abortion clinics.’ Now, four years later, the tech company seems to be making some moves to potentially change the quality of these sorts of search results.”

The Post-Journal: 10,000 Maniacs Launch Expansive Digital Archive Project. “Jamestown’s 10,000 Maniacs is launching a new effort to create digital archives that will preserve the band’s legacy for years to come. Dennis Drew, the band’s keyboard player, said he was watching a documentary about a comedian with his daughter and pointed out that the National Comedy Center had archives of the comedian’s notes. Drew said his daughter asked him, ‘Where are your archives?'”

BBC: Glasgow Museums to return seven stolen artefacts to India . “Six of the items, including 14th Century carvings and 11th Century stone door jams, were stolen from shrines and temples in the 19th Century. The seventh object, a ceremonial sword or called a tulwar, with its scabbard, was stolen in 1905 from the collection of the Nizam of Hyderabad by his prime minister. He then sold it to the British general Sir Archibald Hunter. All of the artefacts were gifted to Glasgow Museums.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Pro Tip: If You’re Suing YouTube And Asking For More Time Because The CEO Is Sick, Don’t Post A Highly Produced YouTube Video Attacking The Ruling & Lawyers. “There are a bunch of moving parts involved in this case that I really wasn’t planning on covering — but something quite amusing happened and I can’t resist.”

The Register: Google blocks third record-breaking DDoS attack in as many months. “Google says it has blocked the largest ever HTTPS-based distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in June, which peaked at 46 million requests per second. To put things in perspective, this is about 76 percent larger than the previous record DDoS attack that Cloudflare thwarted earlier that same month.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Newswise: Assessing the toxicity of Reddit comments. “User behavior toxicity analysis showed that 16.11% of users publish toxic posts, and 13.28% of users publish toxic comments. 30.68% of users publishing posts, and 81.67% of users publishing comments, exhibit changes in their toxicity across different communities – or subreddits – indicating that users adapt their behavior to the communities’ norms.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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