TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: Your New Go-To Keyboard Shortcut: Introducing the Command Palette. “Can we all agree that keyboard shortcuts have become indispensable to the experience of using a computer? Just think about where the world would be without copy/paste! We may not think about them much, but these combinations of keystrokes have helped millions of people make their daily—even hourly—workflows faster and more efficient.”

Engadget: ChatGPT live web browsing exits beta, DALL-E 3 enters beta. “OpenAI has brought live web browsing out of beta. The company launched the feature earlier this year before pulling it after the plugin kept gleaning data from paywalled content. In addition, the next-generation image generation tool DALL-E 3, which integrates with ChatGPT for easier prompting, is now available in beta for ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: How to Make Pixel Art: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide. “Pixel art is a form of digital art that was born from the need to communicate imagery on the limited storage space of 8 or 16-bit computers and video game consoles…. Are you interested in creating some pixel art of your own? Here’s everything you need to know to get started.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

WIRED: Inside a TikTok Talent Factory for Misfit Stars. “The creator economy is projected to be worth $480 billion by 2027. In many ways, that figure represents an enormous redistribution of wealth: a tide of ad dollars and other revenue ebbing away from established studios and publishers, and flooding toward individual creators and the technology giants that host their work. But the corporations are the only ones on a secure footing in this arrangement. If individual creators want to stay afloat for longer than a brief moment, they still need managers to help them navigate the algorithmic churn.” Or they accept that they will never make any money and the work is important enough and do it for over 25 years.

Mashable: Snapchat and Inspirit team up to build augmented reality STEM lessons. “Snapchat lenses, one of the general public’s most readily accessible augmented reality (AR) offerings, may soon be an extended learning option for teachers and students, as the company announces a new STEM curriculum incorporating the app’s popular AR.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Pittsburgh Jewish Federation deletes Twitter/X account after being hacked by pro-Palestinian activists. ” Pro-Palestinian hackers briefly took over the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation’s feed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Hours later, after retaking control, the federation deleted its account on the platform. The federation said the hack impacted its Facebook account as well.”

Krebs on Security: The Fake Browser Update Scam Gets a Makeover. “One of the oldest malware tricks in the book — hacked websites claiming visitors need to update their Web browser before they can view any content — has roared back to life in the past few months. New research shows the attackers behind one such scheme have developed an ingenious way of keeping their malware from being taken down by security experts or law enforcement: By hosting the malicious files on a decentralized, anonymous cryptocurrency blockchain.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Science: Archaeology society spars over publishing photos of Indigenous burial offerings. “As editor-elect of the journal Southeastern Archaeology, Rob Beck helped choose a cover photo for the penultimate issue of 2020. It showed about 20 ceramic vessels, some painted with colorful patterns. They had been excavated in the early 1900s from the Crystal River Archaeological State Park in Florida, home to some of the region’s oldest ancient Indigenous earthworks. But Beck, an archaeologist at the University of Michigan, came to regret his choice.”

Stateline: AI bots are helping 911 dispatchers with their workload. “In the United States, AI is quietly transforming how non-emergency calls are handled in dispatch centers. An AI-powered system can triage and coordinate the flood of reports, promptly alerting the relevant agencies. For now, AI-powered systems only manage non-emergency calls, which typically come from a non-911 phone number but are answered in the same centers, allowing human dispatchers to focus on emergencies.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

MIT News: A new way to integrate data with physical objects. “StructCode, at least in its original version, relies on objects produced with laser-cutting techniques that can be manufactured within minutes, rather than the hours it might take on a 3D printer. Information can be extracted from these objects, moreover, with the RGB cameras that are commonly found in smartphones; the ability to operate in the infrared range of the spectrum is not required.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I live at Calishat.