NEW RESOURCES

Government of Belgium, and translated from Dutch: Launch of JustBan: search for rogue entrepreneurs via Just-on-web. “Want to check in just a few mouse clicks whether an entrepreneur is reliable? Yes, it is possible. Since October 20, 2023, everyone can consult the Central Register of Administrative Bans (JustBan) via Just-on-web , the digital portal of Justice. This register lists all persons and entrepreneurs who have been banned from being a director by the court and who are therefore not allowed to perform management functions in a company for a certain period.”

University of Michigan, Flint: UM-Flint is leading generative AI literacy with free online course. “After months of research and tri-campus collaboration with Ann Arbor and Dearborn, [Office of Online & Digital Education.] launched the Generative AI Prompt Literacy course. The course is free, delivered online asynchronously, and shares the hows and whys of constructing effective AI prompts to leverage this transformative technology fully.”

NJ Spotlight News: New tool to ‘empower’ residents, local officials on warehouse development. “A new source of data on planned warehouses in New Jersey is designed to give residents information they can use to oppose the projects or urge local officials to protect some parcels from development by updating their master plans. The New Jersey League of Conservation Voters plans to hold a webinar Wednesday to launch the online platform that it says will provide users with descriptions of warehouse projects planned for their towns.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bleeping Computer: Google Chrome now auto-upgrades to secure connections for all users. “Google has taken a significant step towards enhancing Chrome internet security by automatically upgrading insecure HTTP requests to HTTPS requests for 100% of users. This feature is called HTTPS-Upgrades and will secure old links that utilize the http:// by automatically attempting to first connect to the URL over the encrypted https:// protocol.”

USEFUL STUFF

Digital Inspiration: Monitor Your Stock Portfolio with Google Sheets and Receive Daily Email Reports. “I have a Stock tracker spreadsheet built inside Google Sheets that keeps track of my fictional stock portfolio. The stock prices in the Google Sheet are updated automatically using the GOOGLEFINANCE function. I would like to set up a daily trigger that runs every day at, say 4pm, and sends me an email with the screenshot of the spreadsheet. This way I can keep track the performance of my stocks without having to open the spreadsheet every day. Let’s see how this process can be easily automated with the help of Email Google Sheets add-on.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

The Verge: Elon Musk’s ‘everything app’ plan for X, in his own words. “Since Elon Musk bought Twitter a year ago, he has blown it up to create something else entirely. What is now called X is in the process of becoming ‘a single application that encompasses everything,’ he recently told employees. Being the ‘digital town square,’ as he has described Twitter in the past, isn’t enough. For X to succeed in Musk’s eyes, the platform needs to compete with YouTube, LinkedIn, FaceTime, dating apps, and the entire banking industry.”

Valdosta State University: VSU Partners With South Georgia Communities For Historic Preservation Project. “Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections has received a $22,205 grant from the Lyrasis Catalyst Fund to kickstart an effort to make South Georgia history more accessible to everyone.”

New York Times: Martin and Francesca Scorsese, TikTok’s Dynamic Duo. “Step aside, Leonardo DiCaprio. Martin Scorsese seems to have found a new muse: Oscar, his daughter Francesca Scorsese’s aptly named miniature schnauzer. In a playful video posted to her TikTok last week, the director — just days before the release of his latest epic, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ — conducted a very important, very serious audition with Oscar.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Aalto University: Online games use dark designs to collect player data. “While online gaming can improve wellbeing and foster social relations, privacy and awareness issues could potentially offset these benefits and cause real harm to gamers. The new study, by scientists at Aalto University’s Department of Computer Science, reveals potentially questionable data collection practices in online games, along with misconceptions and concerns about privacy among players. The study also offers risk mitigation strategies for players and design recommendations for game developers to improve privacy in online games.”

Reuters: Alphabet, Match settle Google Play antitrust claims before U.S. trial. “Alphabet’s Google has settled claims by dating app developer Match Group that it monopolized Android app distribution with its Play Store, leaving Fortnite maker Epic Games as the sole plaintiff in an antitrust trial against Google set to begin Nov. 6. Match said in a filing in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday that it had resolved its allegations against Google.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Fast Company: ChatGPT and other AI chatbots rely heavily on copyrighted news media, say publishers. “Makers of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have been using copious amounts of copyrighted news material to train their chatbots, according to new accusations from a new trade group. The News/Media Alliance, which represents over 2,200 publishers, showcased its research in a blog post and white paper Tuesday, saying AI companies regularly used the information in news stories without authorization, and violate laws protecting that intellectual property.”

University of Southern California: Spotting Human Activity In Internet Usage Data. “Since 2013, the ANT Lab has had an ongoing project that actively probes the Internet to detect outages worldwide (currently 5 million networks measured every 11 minutes). [John] Heidemann and [Xiao] Song used this existing data to look for and analyze changes in Internet usage worldwide that could indicate something about human behavior. They developed algorithms to clean the data, extract underlying trends, and detect changes in activity.” Good morning, Internet…

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