NEW RESOURCES

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce: San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Invests in Downtown with Launch of NEW Data Dashboard and Urban Planning Initiative. “This dashboard is open to the public and highlights key indicators of the city’s downtown economy. It is intended for elected officials, new and existing businesses, and media to explore downtown office activity, areas of investment, and sector-specific demands to inform decisions around the recovery of San Francisco.”

City of Philadelphia, coincidentally: The City of Philadelphia’s New Workforce Diversity Dashboard Provides Ongoing Access to the City’s Workforce Progress. “The City of Philadelphia has launched a Workforce Diversity Dashboard, an interactive tool that provides monthly insight into many aspects of the City’s workforce. The dashboard is a product of extensive collaboration by leaders within the City’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT), and the Office of Human Resources (OHR).”

PR Newswire: Compa Launches Pay Transparency Law Tracking Map (PRESS RELEASE). “The interactive map contains up-to-date legislative information about pay transparency at the state level and at the local level when appropriate. In addition to current state and local laws, the map also includes information on pending state legislation and identifies states without pay transparency laws. The tool categorizes the data into three areas: what employers must do, can do, and cannot do with regards to disclosing salary data.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

9to5 Google: Google Photos tweaks and simplifies backup terminology. “To simplify backups, Google Photos has updated two terms related to the process across the mobile and web apps as well as in support documentation.”

USEFUL STUFF

Gizmodo: How to Understand Twitter’s New Checkmarks and Labels. “It’s fair to say it’s been a busy few months for Twitter, with a lot of changes coming in a short amount of time. Those changes have included a revamp of how checkmarks and account labels are used, and if your head is spinning while scrolling through your Twitter timeline, then we’re here to carefully and calmly explain what each badge and icon means… at least until the next revamp.”

The Verge: Seven free alternatives to the LastPass password manager. “Back in February 2021, the LastPass password manager announced it was changing its free version so that it would only work on one type of device and that people who wanted to use it on both their computer and mobile devices would have to start paying for a subscription. More recently, LastPass members may have a more important reason to consider a change: two breaches in 2022 have resulted in user data being accessed by hackers.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Media Matters: New year, new scam: TikTok’s largest weight loss advertiser is marketing predatory scams to young users. “TikTok’s largest weight loss advertiser, Kilo Group, is dumping money into predatory scams targeting users, particularly women, despite violating the platform’s own content guidelines. These ads promise unrealistic weight loss and extreme body changes, all while trying to trap users into auto-renewing subscriptions — fitting the Better Business Bureau’s profile of a weight loss scam.”

New York Times: The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera. “Last spring, Anthony Tabarez celebrated prom like many of today’s high schoolers: dancing the night away and capturing it through photos and videos. The snapshots show Mr. Tabarez, 18, and his friends grinning, jumping around and waving their arms from a crowded dance floor. But instead of using his smartphone, Mr. Tabarez documented prom night with an Olympus FE-230, a 7.1-megapixel, silver digital camera made in 2007 and previously owned by his mother.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Gay Times: Twitter exodus: Is Mastodon a safer alternative for LGBTQ+ users?. “Could Mastodon rival Twitter as a safer social media platform for the LGBTQ+ community? Millions flocked to the microblogging platform last year following tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter.”

Daily Post (Nigeria): 2023 elections: Group trains 108 fact checkers to curb fake news. “Food Basket Foundation International, FBFI, has said that it has concluded plans to train and deploy no fewer than 108 fact checkers ahead of the 2023 general elections. FBFI noted that the decision was taken to curb the menace of misinformation and disinformation before, during and after the elections.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Tech Xplore: Simulating discrimination in virtual reality. “To assist with perspective-taking, MIT researchers have developed ‘On the Plane’—a virtual reality role-playing game (VR RPG) that simulates discrimination. In this case, the game portrays xenophobia directed against a Malaysian America woman, but the approach can be generalized.”

Tubefilter: There’s an AI VTuber now and it has 70,000 followers on Twitch. “As her name implies, Neuro-sama is essentially a neural network with a VTuber-style face. Her creator, who goes by the anonymous title Vedal, has steered their virtual creation to a substantial following on Twitch. On the vedal987 channel, Neuro-sama streams games like Minecraft, and her gameplay is strong enough that it doesn’t immediately give her away as an artificial intelligence. Her abilities are fascinating enough to draw more than 70,000 followers on Twitch.”

PharmaPhorum: Bayer taps Google’s quantum power for drug discovery. “Bayer has signed an agreement with Google aimed at using high-level processing power to handle quantum chemistry calculations used to predict the chemical and physical properties of drug molecules at the atomic scale.” Good morning, Internet…

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