NEW RESOURCES
University of Southampton: AI reads centuries-old handwriting to reveal Britain’s vast historic shipping trade. “Historians have created a first-of-its-kind online interactive map, using data from hundreds of thousands of pages of centuries-old port records to chart Britain’s growth into a dominant global trading nation. The University of Southampton project used artificial intelligence to transform information from delicate handwritten ‘port books’ into an enormous database of Britain’s merchant shipping past.”
Sounder at Heart: Milestone met: WA Legends presses on. “The fact that Washington State Legends of Soccer is marking its 10th anniversary this month is something to celebrate. Most small businesses fail before their eighth trip around the sun. Adding a pandemic into the equation won’t help.”
TWEAKS AND UPDATES
Associated Press: Ukraine’s strikes on Russian data centers disrupt key services and derail AI research. “While Yandex, Sberbank and VKontakte are coy about the damage, people and businesses across Russia have reported widespread interruptions to cloud services. Banking, e-commerce, geolocation and ride-hailing services, as well as Alisa, Yandex’s virtual assistant, and multimodal AI chatbots all have suffered lasting disruptions. The fallout even spread to Russia’s judicial system, reportedly forcing arbitration courts to cancel or postpone sessions and cutting database access.”
USEFUL STUFF
MakeUseOf: My USB drive carries Wikipedia and a library that doesn’t need Wi-Fi. “I’ve used flash drives for years as glorified pockets for files I’ll probably forget about. Then I loaded Kiwix onto my PC, pointed it at a 16GB stick, and the drive finally got a real job. It now holds a slice of Wikipedia, a Project Gutenberg collection, and room for more reference material that still opens when Windows insists there’s no internet connection. I already knew about plenty of clever ways to repurpose old USB drives, but carrying around an offline reference shelf has become one of my favorites.”
AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Public Technology: Wales plans £400k deal for national online family history service. “The National Library of Wales has revealed plans to invest a six-figure sum in an online service for citizens to investigate their family history. The library – which holds charity status and operates as an arm’s-length body of the Welsh Government – has published a procurement notice alerting potential suppliers that it ‘is seeking to appoint a single service provider to deliver an online family history service’.”
9to5 Google: Some Google Home Speakers downloading massive amounts of data in the background. “In my case, a Google Home Speaker that has not been used in the past day for voice commands or media streaming consumed 17 GB of data in 24 hours. At 3 a.m. PT, it downloaded 9.99 GB. Given the timing, this could be related to failed attempts to download device firmware.”
SECURITY & LEGAL
Search Engine Journal: UpdraftPlus WordPress Plugin Security Breach Enables Backdoor Attacks. “A security breach affecting UpdraftPlus, a WordPress backup plugin installed on over 3 million websites, enabled attackers to install malicious plugins and create unauthorized administrator accounts. The attack exploited compromised UpdraftCentral connection keys, allowing attackers to take control of connected WordPress websites without needing a username or password.”
Courthouse News Service: German court calls Google aerial imagery ‘spying’. “A German court on Tuesday ruled Google is breaking Germany’s strict privacy laws by showing people’s properties on its Google Earth and Google Maps services. The Frankfurt Regional Court equated Google’s satellite and aerial 3D imagery services to ‘spying’ when it displays pictures of property without getting permission.”
The Daily Aus: Smart glasses will be banned in all Victorian schools. “Victoria will ban all students across the state from using smart glasses in schools and camps. The ban, announced by the Labor Government ahead of the state’s November election, will build on its existing statewide ban on mobile phones in schools. The Coalition also supports the ban. The new rules will prohibit smart glasses in public, independent and Catholic schools from the start of the 2027 school year.”
RESEARCH & OPINION
North Carolina State University: Study Highlights Need for Policymakers to Look at Digital Policies as Part of Energy, Climate Planning. “A new study underscores the extent to which digital policies cannot be separated from energy policies. The research evaluates the relationship between information communication technologies and carbon dioxide emissions, and finds that the variables they used as proxies for digitalization were associated with increased emissions.” Good evening, Internet…
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