GoPro cameras allow action-sports enthusiasts to take professional-quality videos. Of the million or so HD Hero2 cameras the company sold in 2011, many were purchased by consumers who don’t have thrill seeking on their minds. Couples are leaving them on tables at weddings instead of disposable cameras. On Oct. 17, Woodman Labs introduced a new model called the HD Hero3 that’s 25 percent lighter and 30 percent smaller than its predecessor. It offers better resolution, clearer audio, and slower slow-mo. The HD Hero3 comes in models priced at $200 to $400, each with built-in Wi-Fi that allows people to control their camera remotely using an iPhone or Android app.
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Saturday, October 27
Governments and internet firms are wrestling with the rules for free speech online
The arrest of a senior executive rarely brings helpful headlines. But when Brazilian authorities briefly detained Google’s country boss on September 26th—for refusing to remove videos from its YouTube subsidiary that appeared to breach electoral laws—they helped the firm repair its image as a defender of free speech.
Two weeks earlier those credentials looked tarnished. Google blocked net users in eight countries from viewing a film trailer that had incensed Muslims. In six states, including India and Saudi Arabia, local courts banned the footage. In Egypt and Libya, where protesters attacked American embassies and killed several people, Google took the video down of its own accord.
The row sparked concern about how internet firms manage public debate and how companies based in countries that cherish free speech should respond to states that want to constrain it. (Freedom House, a campaigning think-tank, reckons that restrictions on the internet are increasing in 20 of the 47 states it surveys.)
Read more here
Two weeks earlier those credentials looked tarnished. Google blocked net users in eight countries from viewing a film trailer that had incensed Muslims. In six states, including India and Saudi Arabia, local courts banned the footage. In Egypt and Libya, where protesters attacked American embassies and killed several people, Google took the video down of its own accord.
The row sparked concern about how internet firms manage public debate and how companies based in countries that cherish free speech should respond to states that want to constrain it. (Freedom House, a campaigning think-tank, reckons that restrictions on the internet are increasing in 20 of the 47 states it surveys.)
Read more here
France: Twitter erupts in anti-Semitism
“The most nauseating displays of anti-Semitism” have flooded French Twitter feeds in recent weeks, said Alain Granat in Jewpop.com.
Twitter took the posts down after a Jewish group threatened to sue, but Twitter is not really the problem, said Philippe Le Claire in L’Union (Reims). The entire Internet is. Because it’s so easy to hide one’s identity, extremists can “develop and maintain websites, blogs, and Facebook pages with writing so hate-filled it’s chilling.”
That’s because the Internet is conditioning us all to adopt the American attitude toward free speech, said Flavien Hamon in Le Monde. Just as watching U.S. cop shows “alters our understanding of French justice,” our use of Internet platforms developed in the U.S. has warped our understanding of freedom of expression. In the U.S., it is perfectly legal “to belong to a neo-Nazi group or wear a T-shirt with a racist slogan.” Here, it is not. French society believes that freedom of expression does not extend to hate speech.
Read more here
Twitter took the posts down after a Jewish group threatened to sue, but Twitter is not really the problem, said Philippe Le Claire in L’Union (Reims). The entire Internet is. Because it’s so easy to hide one’s identity, extremists can “develop and maintain websites, blogs, and Facebook pages with writing so hate-filled it’s chilling.”
That’s because the Internet is conditioning us all to adopt the American attitude toward free speech, said Flavien Hamon in Le Monde. Just as watching U.S. cop shows “alters our understanding of French justice,” our use of Internet platforms developed in the U.S. has warped our understanding of freedom of expression. In the U.S., it is perfectly legal “to belong to a neo-Nazi group or wear a T-shirt with a racist slogan.” Here, it is not. French society believes that freedom of expression does not extend to hate speech.
Read more here
Sunday, October 21
The danger of short web addresses
LINK rot afflicts the connective tissue of the internet. If sites rejig their content carelessly, useful web addresses (technically known as URLs) may bring up only an error message. Shortening services turn long web addresses into handy short ones: That is particularly handy for those constrained by Twitter’s 140-character message limit. But short links are useful anywhere on the internet where concision is valued.
Convenience has its cost. Manufactured short links are particularly prone to link rot. They contain no clue about the ultimate destination. If the providers vanish, so do all the vital signposts they have created and stored.
Of around 1,000 link shorteners launched since 2001, 600-odd had folded by May 2012 according to yi.tl (a new service). Many were used as disguise by spammers and scammers. But bona fide services have failed, too.
Read more here
Convenience has its cost. Manufactured short links are particularly prone to link rot. They contain no clue about the ultimate destination. If the providers vanish, so do all the vital signposts they have created and stored.
Of around 1,000 link shorteners launched since 2001, 600-odd had folded by May 2012 according to yi.tl (a new service). Many were used as disguise by spammers and scammers. But bona fide services have failed, too.
Read more here
Meet the New Boss: Big Data
For more and more companies, the hiring boss is an algorithm. The factors they consider are different than what applicants have come to expect. Jobs that were once filled on the basis of work history and interviews are left to personality tests and data analysis, as employers aim for more than just a hunch that a person will do the job well. Under pressure to cut costs and boost productivity, employers are trying to predict specific outcomes, such as whether a prospective hire will quit too soon, file disability claims or steal.
Personality tests have a long history in hiring. What's new is the scale. Powerful computers and more sophisticated software have made it possible to evaluate more candidates, amass more data and peer more deeply into applicants' personal lives and interests.
The new hiring tools are part of a broader effort to gather and analyze employee data. Globally, spending on so-called talent-management software rose to $3.8 billion in 2011, up 15% from 2010, according to research firm Gartner.
It isn't just big companies that are turning to software for hiring help. Richfield Management LLC, a Flint, Mich., waste-disposal firm that employs 200 garbage collectors, was looking for ways to screen out applicants who were likely to get hurt and abuse workers' compensation.
Read more here
Personality tests have a long history in hiring. What's new is the scale. Powerful computers and more sophisticated software have made it possible to evaluate more candidates, amass more data and peer more deeply into applicants' personal lives and interests.
The new hiring tools are part of a broader effort to gather and analyze employee data. Globally, spending on so-called talent-management software rose to $3.8 billion in 2011, up 15% from 2010, according to research firm Gartner.
It isn't just big companies that are turning to software for hiring help. Richfield Management LLC, a Flint, Mich., waste-disposal firm that employs 200 garbage collectors, was looking for ways to screen out applicants who were likely to get hurt and abuse workers' compensation.
Read more here
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