Digital Life – Page 2

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With the addition of Google Play Store access, Chromebooks are finally real laptops – well, sort of.

chrome-os-53 on chromebook — Source: https://9to5google.com

For $2-300 you can set yourself up with a Chromebook, which gives you access to Google’s suite of Cloud apps. And now, when you upgrade to Chrome Version 53, you get access to the Google Play Store too – which means access to all the Android apps you can install on a computer that offers less storage than the average smartphone.

This isn’t to say that Play Store access stinks completely. What seems to be true, is that you still have to be somewhat of a hacker to get anything approximating full laptop functionality out of a Chromebook, even with Android apps availability. read more

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Hundreds of Asian Americans create Google Doc letter in 1 day to tell their families about the relevance of #BlackLivesMatter

An Open Letter — Source: Letters for Black Lives

Brian Fung of the Washington Post reports on a completely new phenomenon that came to life this week when Christina Xu started a letter online to explain to Asian elders why the #BlackLivesMatter movement has relevance and importance for the Asian community, called for community input and acquired hundreds of collaborators in the space of just a few hours.

In fact, let’s draft letters in our native languages to our parents and our communities. Get it passed around WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, etc. read more

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Principal Moody suspended for letting Paterson rapper Fetty Wap film music video at East Side High

Principal Zatiti Moody — Source: Urban Renaissance Media

A Paterson principal known for his educating excellence and strict discipline enforcement has been suspended from office by the New Jersey State appointed superintendent known for his attempts to keep Paterson students from experiencing quality education. The ostensible reason for the suspension: Principal Zatiti Moody allowed music phenomenon Fetty Wap to film a music video at East Side High School which contains twerking and portrays drug use. Behaviour that – like it or not – happens to be part of the school experience for many urban students. read more

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The (famous & myopic) view of the world from the POV of New Yorkers

New Yorker cover NYC center of the universe, by Saul Steinberg

Yesterday somebody mentioned what life looks like to New Yorkers and I realized … so much time has passed since Saul Steinberg drew the famous New York cover showing what the world looks like for New Yorkers – with Jersey a slender line across the Hudson with Japan and China just blips in the far distance … that my 21 year old son may have not ever seen it. So I looked around, found the cover easily on the internet and sure enough, Ari had never seen it before. It’s a doozy, though, isn’t it? read more

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The Wei endorses the Electronic Frontier Alliance Principles

Join us EFA image — Source: Electronic Frontier Alliance

The Wei endorses the Electronic Frontier Alliance Principles. The Electronic Frontier Alliance is a grassroots network of community and campus organizations across the United States working to educate our neighbors about the importance of digital rights. Participation is open to any group that endorses our simple principles.

Electronic Frontier Alliance Principles

As a member organization of the EFA, we believe that technology should support the intellectual freedom at the heart of a democratic society. In the digital age, that entails advancing: read more

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Facebook hacked – phishing scam prompts you to enter password to seize control of your account

I woke up in the middle of the night and naturally, checked Facebook before turning over in my bed to go back to sleep. Because that’s what everybody does, right?

A notice to re-enter my password popped onto my screen. This happens sometimes, so I re-entered my Facebook password. Must have entered it wrong, I thought, because the notice popped up again. Annoying – this time I know I entered it right.

So I hit the back key and became instantly suspicious. My Facebook connection was working fine. Uh oh. I probably just gave my password to some hackers. What looked like a password prompt was probably phishers looking to secure my account. I knew what was coming next: read more

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Clever, informative and interactive election results by The Guardian

Washington state election results — Source: The Guardian election results 2016

The Guardian has created my favorite election results page, which is both cute and informative. It displays up to date information refreshed often and results show all the important information: a map of districts and a bar graph which displays the percent of districts reporting; total number of districts per county and statewide; number and percentage of votes for both districts and state … and what’s more, the whole shebang is interactive! You can see results for any district by mousing over it on the map. read more

20160306

Veteran dogs program won best commercial award in the Netherlands, for good reason

Traumatized war vet — Source: KNGF commercial for veteran dogs

Guide Dogs TV commercial from the Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation (KNGF Geleidehonden) won the Dutch 2014 Gouden Loeki award for best commercial. The work entitled “We not only help people who cannot see, but also those who have seen too much” shows the assistance a specially trained dog can offer to a military veteran coping with severe war related trauma.

Hat tip to Han Broekman for the great find.

20160203

448 downloadable art books free from Metropolitan Museum

wisdom-embodied (buddha) — Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has 448 art books online that you can download for free from MetPublications. You can also retrieve 400,000 free art images.

Hat tip to Yvette Lucas for sharing this info.

20151225

AMC: when you come to see Star Wars, please leave your Darth Vader mask at home

Star Wars fans in costume — Source: Wikimedia

Ari Wei is amused by AMC’s dress policy for Star Wars fans coming to see the new movie.

Lmao, the costume policy of AMC when you go on their website and click on showtimes for Star Wars:

“AMC does not permit weapons or items that would make other guests feel uncomfortable or detract from the movie-going experience. Guests are welcome to come dressed in costume, but we do not permit masks or face paint. In short, bring your lightsaber, turn it off during the movie, and leave the blaster and Darth Vader mask at home.” read more

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Native Americans give no thanks for Columbus’ legacy of destruction and neither should we

picture from One Cut video — Screen shot from One Word – Episode 25: Christopher Columbus

CUT.com invited Native Americans to free-associate one word with Columbus. They got fabulous responses worked into a short video, which made me feel very thoughtful.

Although American schoolchildren do learn about the destruction Columbus brought to our land and the First Nation people who were already living here, we are also taught to idolize both the destroyer and the destruction Columbus initiated. Which means that from a very young age, our schools are teaching children to idolize cruelty, thievery, genocide and to value the monetization of natural resources. Resources which – when left intact or at least, used sustainably – remain treasures of Mother Earth with the power to nurture and allow us to live surrounded by beauty, in comfort. read more

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In 84 seconds learn why Cable & Telcos are trying to gut Net Neutrality funding and take it away from you

Squeezing internet users — FFTF warns that Big Cable & Telcos want to squeeze more money out of users

Fight for the Future cautions:

Net Neutrality is Under Attack. Don't let Congress break the Internet by dismantling Net Neutrality — share this video to raise the alarm.

Why not also call your elected federal officials and ask them to protect net neutrality on your behalf? Calling is a powerful action to make sure net neutrality doesn’t go away. Call using this convenient tool.

white house net neutrality letter — President Obama endorses net neutrality

The White House defines net neutrality:

More than any other invention of our time, the Internet has unlocked possibilities we could just barely imagine a generation ago. And here’s a big reason we’ve seen such incredible growth and innovation: Most Internet providers have treated Internet traffic equally. That’s a principle known as “net neutrality” — and it says that an entrepreneur’s fledgling company should have the same chance to succeed as established corporations, and that access to a high school student’s blog shouldn’t be unfairly slowed down to make way for advertisers with more money. read more

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“White Shoes” nude photography series highlights slavery’s roots in NY Financial District

NONA-900 on Wall Street — Photo source: Nona Faustine

Photographer Nona Faustine was drawn to shoot a series of self-portraits she calls “White Shoes”, which feature shots of her naked on sites associated with the slave trade in downtown Manhattan, NYC’s Wall Street area.

The Village Voice points out, “New York was the capital of American slavery for more than 200 years.”

Huffington Post author Priscilla Frank writes,

Revisiting the spaces haunted by such atrocious tales, Faustine drapes her body across the implicated grounds like a bold protestor or a spiritual medium. Her bare flesh recalls the stories of so many strangers that went untold, simultaneously raising questions about why bodies matter and, more specifically, which bodies matter. read more

20151026

Android’s battery drain issue won’t be fixed until next major upgrade

red riding hood & the wolf — Art Courtesy: Vintageprintable1 Brothers Grimm, Red Riding Hood and Wolf stamp art

Android’s KitKat operating system ended its data connection once an app completed its transaction but Lollipop (5.x) doesn’t do that. Data access remains enabled long after an app has finished doing whatever it needs to do … and this is why Lollipop users get so much battery drain.

As this issue has been reported over 3000 times to Google, it will be fixed in Marshmallow (6.0). But this means we’re going to wait a while.

My theory is: Google keeps the connection open the better to track us with, my dear. By the time Google rolls out a new OS, I guess the company will have all the data it needs to successfully intrude in just about every aspect of our lives, God help us. read more