NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Five spooky filters to try this Halloween. “Think you know Halloween? 🎃 Google Arts & Culture is embracing spooky season with the release of our Spotlight on Halloween — a selection of the creepiest, most disturbing art exhibits created by our partners, ready to instill fear in even the bravest of souls. From terrifying filters to macabre artworks, here are some of the things you’ll be able to play around with.”

Kotaku: Every U.S. PlayStation 2 Game Manual Is Now Scanned In 4K. “Physical game manuals are hard to come by these days, especially as the industry begins to heavily lean into cloud streaming and digital-first infrastructures. But if you remember those good ole times when game boxes came with chunky pamphlets for you to peruse before jumping into your recent purchase, a games preservationist called Kirkland seeks to preserve that nostalgia for posterity by creating high-quality scans of the manuals of yore. In fact, he’s just finished uploading his complete set of U.S. PlayStation 2 manual scans.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Map Room: The Map Room on Mastodon. “Given what’s been going on with Twitter recently, I figure that a Mastodon account for The Map Room might be useful, at least for those who feel the need to jump from Twitter to Mastodon. You can find it here: @maproomblog@mastodon.social.”

The Verge: YouTube will let doctors and nurses apply to be labeled as reliable. “Licensed healthcare professionals on YouTube can now apply to get panels added to their videos that mark them as reliable health information sources, the company said Thursday. They’ll also be able to have videos added to health content shelves, which compile information on specific medical conditions.”

Search Engine Roundtable: New Google Business Profile Web Search Menu Now Rolling Out. “A few months ago, we reported Google was testing an expanded menu to manage your Google Business Profile in Google Web Search. Well, now it seems to be fully rolled out, where Google is giving business owners the ability to quickly edit their business profile directly in web search through these new action buttons (previously it required many more clicks).”

USEFUL STUFF

WIRED: 9 Apps and Sites to Help Build Your Résumé. “IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a new job, your résumé is all-important: It might come down to an interview in the end, but your résumé will get you that interview, and it’s crucial in making sure you stand out (or not) in a crowd of applicants. The good news is that there are plenty of apps, sites, and services out there to help you build your résumé, maximize how well it sells you, and get it in front of people who might employ you—and these are our favorites.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Wall Street Journal: Tech Is Getting Boring. That’s a Good Thing.. “The task at hand now: the sometimes-boring but always-important work of building and expanding businesses that actually make money, by delivering things people and companies want and need.” I have a comment about this but I find myself unable to frame it in acceptable language.

Rest of World: Loan apps ruined their reputations. A shady online market offered to repair them. “The economic condition in Nigeria has caused an increase in the demand for soft loans, which come with high interest rates and short repayment periods, often only a week or two. As collateral, the apps ask for financial details, and access to read private data such as users’ location, media files and photographs, and contacts. When people fail to repay at the given time, the apps respond by sending messages threatening litigation, defamation, and even voodoo attacks.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Lifehacker: Delete These Ad-Trolling Apps From Your Android Right Now. “Yet another assemblage of malicious apps is plaguing Android devices everywhere, which means its time to make sure you haven’t unknowingly downloaded one of them—but this batch is a bit different from the usual crop.”

Schneier on Security: Australia Increases Fines for Massive Data Breaches. “After suffering two large, and embarrassing, data breaches in recent weeks, the Australian government increased the fine for serious data breaches from $2.2 million to a minimum of $50 million. (That’s $50 million AUD, or $32 million USD.)” Good afternoon, Internet…

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