Geek Trivia: Nevil Maskelyne Made Headlines As A Hacker Who Infiltrated What?

The Kremlin The Hubble Telescope Queen Elizabeth's Private Phone Wireless Telegraphy

Think You Know the Answer?

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The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the 2010s, from the Fire phone and Google Glass to the undoing of net neutrality in the US (The Verge)

The Verge:
The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the 2010s, from the Fire phone and Google Glass to the undoing of net neutrality in the US  —  A decade of failures  —  The world never changes quite the way you expect.  But at The Verge, we've had a front-row seat while technology …

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Profile of Daniel Kaye, also known as Spdrman, once one of world's most wanted hackers who took down Liberia's internet; he will be out of a London prison soon (Kit Chellel/Bloomberg)

Kit Chellel / Bloomberg:
Profile of Daniel Kaye, also known as Spdrman, once one of world's most wanted hackers who took down Liberia's internet; he will be out of a London prison soon  —  Daniel Kaye, also known as Spdrman, found regular jobs tough but corporate espionage easy.  He's about to get out of prison.

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Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Joint AI Center for the DOD, talks integrating AI into its weapons systems, building predictive maintenance tools, and more (Elias Groll/Wired)

Elias Groll / Wired:
Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Joint AI Center for the DOD, talks integrating AI into its weapons systems, building predictive maintenance tools, and more  —  Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan doesn't want killer robots—but he does want artificial intelligence to occupy a central role in warfighting.

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TheSoul, a Russian web publisher with YouTube channels like 5-Minute Crafts, has the most reach among entertainment groups on YouTube, after Disney, WarnerMedia (Lisa Kaplan/Lawfare)

Lisa Kaplan / Lawfare:
TheSoul, a Russian web publisher with YouTube channels like 5-Minute Crafts, has the most reach among entertainment groups on YouTube, after Disney, WarnerMedia  —  What the heck is TheSoul Publishing?  I'm still honestly not sure.  —  Here's what I do know: Measured in terms of views and subscribers …

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California DMV to start approving permits for self-driving delivery vehicles, with and without backup drivers, from Jan. 17, both for testing and commercial use (Matt Brown/Jalopnik)

Matt Brown / Jalopnik:
California DMV to start approving permits for self-driving delivery vehicles, with and without backup drivers, from Jan. 17, both for testing and commercial use  —  Are you ready to be stuck in traffic behind armies of autonomous delivery robots?  No?  Well good news: if you live in California …

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The Minecraft Commands Cheat Sheet

Whether you’re trying to manage a server or you just want to give yourself a bunch of diamonds, Minecraft commands are a useful tool. You can type them into your chat, or load them into a command block for automated use.

There are plenty of commands to try. You can use the gamemode command to change the game mode to Creative, which lets you fly around anywhere. The give command allows you to give yourself any item you like. There’s a teleport command in case you die a long way away from your spawn point. You can even change your spawn point anytime, without the need for a bed!

It’s important to note that not all Minecraft commands are compatible with every platform. PC users can use “Java Edition” commands, while players on consoles or mobiles will need “Bedrock Edition” commands. Some commands work the same way on both versions, and some may have different syntaxes. The cheat sheet PDF available for download below highlights these differences and also contains example commands.

Without further ado, here’s the cheat sheet for all your Minecraft command needs.

FREE DOWNLOAD: This cheat sheet is available as a downloadable PDF from our distribution partner, TradePub. You will have to complete a short form to access it for the first time only. Download The Minecraft Commands Cheat Sheet.

The Minecraft Commands Cheat Sheet

Keep in mind that Minecraft cheats are not enabled by default. The setting for enabling cheats varies depending on the Minecraft version you’re using.

Command Name	Command Syntax
Server Management
Ban Player	/ban [target] [reason]
Ban IP Address	/ban-ip [target/IP address] [reason]
View Banned Users	/banlist players
	/banlist IPs
Change Default Gamemode	/defaultgamemode (survival/creative/adventure/spectator)
Remove Operator Privileges	/deop [target]
Force a Chunk to Load Constantly	/forceload (add/remove) (chunk coords)
	/forceload remove all
	/forceload query (chunk coords)
Set the Current Gamemode	/gamemode (survival/creative/adventure/spectator) [target]
Set a Gamerule	/gamerule [RuleName] (RuleValues)
List Players on Server	/list
	/list uuids
Kick Player	/kick [target] [reason]
Give Operator Status	/op [player]
Unban Player	/pardon [player]
Unban IP Address	/pardon-ip [address]
Allow LAN Users to Join a Singleplayer World	/publish [port]
Save a Backup of a World	/save hold
	/save query
	/save resume
Save a Server	/save-all (flush)
Disable Automatic Server Saves	/save-off
Enable Automatic Server Saves	/save-on
Change Idle Kick Time	/setidletimeout [minutes]
Set Maximum Player Count	/setmaxplayers [amount]
Set Default Spawn Point	/setworldspawn
	/setworldspawn (x, y, z)
Make Spectator Follow Entity	/spectate [target] [player]
Spread Players Across World	/spreadplayers (center coords) [distance of spread] [maximum range] [team spread: true/false] [targets]
Shut Down Server	/stop
Count an Entity	/testfor [target]
Transfer to Another Server	/transferserver [ip address] [port]
Modify the Server Whitelist	/whitelist (add/remove) [player]
	/whitelist (on/off)
	/whitelist list
	/whitelist reload
Enable/Disable Mob Events	/mobevent [event] (true/false)
Connect to a WebSocket Server	/wsserver OR /connect [ip]
Player Modification and Cheats
Clear Items from Inventory	/clear [target]
	/clear [target] [item]
	/clear [target] [item] [amount]
Add or Remove Advancements	/advancement (grant/remove) [target] everything
Grant or Remove a Status Effect	For Java: /effect give [entity] [effect] (duration) (effect level) (hide particles: true/false)
	For Bedrock: /effect [entity] [effect] (duration) (effect level) (hide particles: true/false)
	For Java: /effect clear [entity] [effect]
	For Bedrock: /effect [entity] clear
Enchant Current Weapon	/enchant [target] [enchantment ID] [level]
Add or Remove Experience Points	(/experience OR /xp) add [target] [amount] (points/levels)
	(/experience OR /xp) set [target] [amount] (points/levels)
	/experience query [target] (points/levels)
Give an Item to Someone	/give [target] [item] [amount]
Kill Entity	/kill
	/kill [target]
Locate Structure	/locate [structure]
Add or Remove Recipes	/recipe (give/take) [player] [recipe name]
Set Player's Spawn Point	/spawnpoint
	/spawnpoint (x, y, z)
	/spawnpoint [optional target] (x, y, z)
Summon an Entity	/summon [entity]
	/summon [entity] (x, y, z)
Teleport an Entity	/teleport OR /tp (coords)
	/tp [target] (coords)
	/tp [target] (coords) (rotation)
	/tp [target] (coords) facing (location)
	/tp [target] (coords) facing [entity]
World Editing and Management
Clone a Region of Blocks	/clone (beginning coord of region) (end coord of region) (destination coords)
Replace Items in Blocks	/replaceitem block (block coords) [slot] [item] (amount)
Change a Block to a Different Block	/setblock (x, y, z) [block]
Edit Blocks in a Region	/fill (beginning region coord) (end region coord) [block type] (destroy/hollow/keep/outline/replace)
Test if a Block is Present	/testforblock (x, y, z) [block name]
Test if Blocks in Two Regions Are Identical	/testforblocks (beginning coord of region) (end coord of region) (comparison coords)
Add or Remove a Ticking Area	/tickingarea add (beginning coord of region) (end coord of region) [name]
	/tickingarea add circle (center coord) (radius) [name]
	/tickingarea remove (name/all)
Adjust or See the World Time	/time (add/set) [amount]
	/time query (daytime/gametime/day)
Display or Edit a Title Screen	/title [player] (title/subtitle/actionbar) [title]
	/title [player] times [fadein time] [stay time] [fadeout time]
	/title [player] clear
	/title [player] reset
Turn Rain On or Off	/toggledownfall
Change the Weather	/weather (clear/rain/thunder) [duration]
Display the World Seed	/seed
Modify the World Border	/worldborder add [distance] [time]
	/worldborder center (coords)
	/worldborder damage (amount/buffer) [variables]
	/worldborder get
	/worldborder set [distance] [time]
	/worldborder warning (distance/time) [variables]
Toggle World Builder Status	/worldbuilder OR /wb
Communication
Display Custom Action in Chat	/me [action]
Send a Private Message	(/msg OR /tell OR /w) [player] [message]
Send a Message to the Server	/say [message]
Send a Message to Your Team	(/teammsg OR /tm) [message]
Send a JSON Message to All Players	/tellraw [player] (message)
Team and Scoreboard Management
Modify Player Teams	/team add [team name] [display name]
	/team empty [team name]
	/team join [team name] [players]
	/team leave [players]
	/team list [team name]
	/team modify [team name] [attribute] [value]
	/team remove [team name]
Modify the Scoreboard	/scoreboard objectives (add/list/modify/remove/setdisplay) [variables]
	/scoreboard players (add/enable/get/list/operation/remove/reset/set) [variables]
Add, Remove, or View Scoreboard Tags	/tag [target] list
	/tag [target] (add/remove) [tag]
Trigger a Scoreboard Objective	/trigger (objective name) [add/set(number)]
Data Management
Customize Boss Health Bars	/bossbar (add/get/list/remove/set) [bossbar id] [additional parameters]
Modify How Data Packs are Loaded and Unloaded	/datapack disable [data pack name]
	/datapack enable [data pack name] (first/last)
	/datapack enable [data pack name] (before/after) [data pack]
	/datapack list (available/enabled)
Enable or Disable Debugging	/debug (start/stop/report)
Get Help for a Command	/help [page] [command]
Play a Sound	/playsound [sound] [category] [player] [source coord] [volume] [pitch] [min volume]
Stop a Sound Playing	/stopsound [target]
Reload Data Packs	/reload
Schedule a Function to Run	/schedule function [function path] [time(d/s/t)]
Run a Function	/function [function path]
Useful Target Modifiers
Target the Nearest Player	@p
Target a Random Player	@r
Target All Players	@a
Target All Entities	@e
Target a Team	[team=TeamName]
Target an Entity Type	[type=EntityTypeName]
Target Players With Specific EXP Levels	[level=LevelNumber]
	[level=FromLevel..ToLevel]
	[level=AboveLevel..]
	[level=..BelowLevel]
Target Players in a Specific Gamemode	[gamemode=GamemodeName]
Targets Entities With a Specific Name	[name=TargetName]
Reverse a Target Modifier	[modifier=!target]

Minecraft With a Twist

Minecraft has many commands under its hood, but they’re not too complex. And whether you’re mass-editing a world or you want to fly around in Creative mode, there’s a command to help you.

Speaking of Minecraft commands, they include a special subset of commands called the Minecraft command block commands. You can use them to grant specific admin-level powers to players who don’t have admin privileges. And you’ll learn all about the command block commands in our Minecraft command blocks guide.

Read the full article: The Minecraft Commands Cheat Sheet

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Sources detail FBI's IDLE program to help companies fight data theft by "obfuscating" or deploying decoy data to hide real data from hackers and insider threats (Sean Gallagher/Ars Technica)

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
Sources detail FBI's IDLE program to help companies fight data theft by “obfuscating” or deploying decoy data to hide real data from hackers and insider threats  —  Newly surfaced doc outlines FBI's IDLE program—which teases thieves with “decoy data.”

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Should you pay $50K for your pitch deck? Yes, why the hell not?

Every once in a while on VC Twitter, a comment or statement seems so outlandish, so completely outrageous, that it must be — certainly has to be — false. Such as it was for Primary Ventures investor Jason Shuman, who commented on the recent prices for pitch deck advice in the Valley today:

Founder friend just told me that SF deck designers have quoted him between $20K to $40K + the right to invest up to $250K…my mind is officially blown

— Jason Shuman (@BoatShuman) December 20, 2019

You can almost hear that plaintive scream, “My mind is officially blown” (Shuman doesn’t scream, mind you). And indeed, in a world where more and more founders are worried about a bubble; assets are more, let’s say, Notionally expensive than ever before; and everything just seems a little bit crazy these days, it seems downright, fucking insane to think that a PowerPoint file and some “thoughts” are worth tens of thousands of dollars, and a goddamn term sheet to boot.

But they are.

Or at the very least, they can be. And I say that as the guy who wrote an article last week entitled, “How to avoid the startup trap of the parasitic consultant.”

How to avoid the startup trap of the parasitic consultant

For sure, not every pitch deck consultant is worth top dollar, any more than not every croissant in New York’s West Village is worth $10. But some are, and certainly an elect chosen set of consultants are worth every penny they demand.

The best consultants are not luxuries to plaster on your WeWork’s walls, but critical tools to invest in your startup. Framing a startup’s thesis, product, team, and market exactly right is a qualitative skill that can’t be learned from reading a book or scanning through a founder friend’s deck or two. Get a single slide wrong, or hell, a single bullet point wrong and the whole thing can blow up in a pitch meeting in thirty seconds or less.

Trust me. As a former VC investor, I have gotten hung up on single sentences before. A founder has put their life’s work into a company, synoptically condensed it to a handful of slides, and I am stuck on eight words. But those eight words make no sense, and once something doesn’t make sense, the whole edifice of excitement and confidence comes crashing down. Eight words — one badly chosen verb and adjective.

A good pitch deck consultant may barely move the needle on a fundraise, while a superstar may not just get you a better term sheet, they may fundamentally transform the entire course of your startup’s trajectory. Those are the stakes.

And of course, it’s not just pitch deck consultants who can do this. The right PR consultants can potentially get you traction that no one else can. The right sales consultants may lock in those critical early design customers that represent the difference between an orderly liquidation and a massive Series A. The right product marketing specialists or pricing experts may be what drives conversions and eliminates churn.

What’s so hard today for founders is that the Valley has indeed matured, and all these consultants and more are available. There are the hucksters and the tricksters, the bon vivants thriving on naive capital, the idiot clowns cloaked in their own compelling pitch decks.

But as the market has expanded for these services, at least some superstars are emerging from the marketplace, people who can offer more value for you in a week or two than the mediocrities can in a year.

Your job as founder is to constantly probe and find those diamonds, and get them working on your idea at any cost — even costs that might at times seem insane.

The thing with tech startups today is that they are built upon strata of superstardom. Superstar talents lead to superstar products, superstar VC capital, and ultimately, superstar exits. Superstar momentum is real. Yes, yes, yes, not every time, and every stage in the pipeline is multiplied by a stochastic chance of failure, for sure. But idiocy has rarely been a path to success.

And so as with all parts of innovation, it’s all about making the right investments in the right people and the right ideas. $50K or even $500K for a consultant won’t do anything if they are the wrong person working on the wrong idea — parasites are parasites after all. But leverage that early seed capital into the right people working on the right problems, and that’s where the magic happens.

And so I can understand some of the outrage over these figures, as well as the lingering presumption behind them that VCs care more about a startup’s deck than the underlying startup itself. Those frustrations are palpable and not insane, but let’s not avoid the tough question: everything has some value attached to it. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that top experts in their fields, who understand their own leverage, would take advantage of their expertise and drive their own prices higher.

Paying tens of thousands of dollars for a pitch deck consultant isn’t a prerequisite for securing a venture capital round. There are founders whose entire skill is securing capital for their companies who have never paid a penny for this skill.

Yet ultimately, all early-stage startups face the same challenge: too many activities, too little time. Something, somewhere is going to have to get outsourced today and the quality of that external work is largely going to be determined by how much you are willing to pay for it. What you choose to spend whatever capital you have will determine the trajectory of your startup. So whether it is pitch decks or another activity, never blink from those top dollars. It may very well be what gets you the top dollar in the end.

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Original Content podcast: ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ makes some questionable choices

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” opened Friday to mediocre reviews, though it’s not clear whether those reviews will put any real damper on audience enthusiasm.

In the meantime, all three of your hosts of the Original Content podcast have seen the movie. And we all agree that “The Rise of Skywalker,” while flawed, is a largely entertaining and satisfying experience.

Things get a little more complicated in our spoiler discussion, where we weigh in on the film’s big reveals. The trilogy’s previous installment, “The Last Jedi,” polarized fans with its bold storytelling choices (bold for Star Wars, at least). But we’re squarely in the pro-“Last Jedi” camp, so we were disappointed to see “The Rise of Skywalker” back away from some of those choices.

Our discussion also unearths a key piece of Star Wars history — the fact that while developing his now-formidable writing talents, our co-host Darrell Etherington wrote an extended piece of fanfiction with the tantalizing title “Reign of the Empress.” If you’d like to help us pressure Darrell into reading the story on a future episode of the podcast, please email or tweet at us!

It’s an Adam Driver-centric episode this week. In addition to discussing Driver’s Star Wars arc, we also review “Marriage Story,” the Netflix film where he and Scarlett Johansson play a divorcing couple. At least one of us thinks “Marriage Story” might be the best movie of the year, while others were a little more reserved in their praise.

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

And if you want to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro
1:15 “The Mandalorian” listener response
8:50 “Marriage Story” review (mild spoilers)
27:42 “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” review
45:52 “The Rise of Skywalker” spoiler discussion

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US Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices citing a cybersecurity threat, will block devices with the app from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (Reuters)

Reuters:
US Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices citing a cybersecurity threat, will block devices with the app from the Navy Marine Corps Intranet  —  (Reuters) - Earlier this week the United States Navy banned the social media app TikTok from government-issued mobile devices …

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This Week in Apps: the year and decade in review, gaming acquisitions and a Facebook OS

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with 194 billion downloads last year and more than $100 billion in consumer spending. People spend 90% of their mobile time in apps and more time using their mobile devices than watching TV. Apps aren’t just a way to waste idle hours — they’re big business, one that often seems to change overnight.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you to keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

Headlines

The top apps of the year… and the decade

App Annie this week released its list of the year’s top apps. And this time around, it also included the top apps of the past 10 years in its analysis. Outside of games, Facebook dominated the decade, the firm reported. It ran the four most-downloaded apps of the decade, including Facebook (#1), Messenger (#2), WhatsApp (#3), and Instagram (#4). Other communication and social media apps were also among the most popular over the past 10 years, claiming seven out of the 10 top spots, including Snapchat (#5), Skype (#6) and Twitter (#10). Social video platforms TikTok and YouTube also placed on the list at #7 and #9, respectively. And yes, it’s pretty notable that TikTok — an app that only launched outside of China in 2017 — is one of the most-downloaded apps of the past decade. Meanwhile, even though dating app Tinder was the most profitable app this year, Netflix was the No. 1 app by all-time consumer spend over the past decade.

2019 app downloads and consumer spending

Related to its round-up of the top apps, App Annie also offered some preliminary data on downloads and consumer spending in 2019. Its current figures don’t include calculations from third-party app stores in China, (like those referenced above), which App Annie tends to provide in its annual State of Mobile report. Instead, App Annie reports we’re on track to see 120 billion apps from Apple’s App Store and Google Play by the end of 2019, a 5% increase from 2018. Consumer spending was also up 15% year-over-year to reach $90 billion, it says. Expect a full analysis to come in Q1 2020.

Facebook still sat at the top of the charts for 2019. The company’s Messenger app was the most downloaded non-game app of 2019, followed by Facebook’s main app, then WhatsApp. Tinder switched places with Netflix for the No. 1 spot on this chart — last year, it was the other way around. (For more details, TechCrunch’s full review is here.)

2019 in Mobile Gaming

According to a year-end report by GamesIndustry.biz, mobile gaming grew 9.7% year-over-year in 2019 to reach a market value of $68.2 billion. The gaming market as a whole was worth $148.8 billion, the report said. Smartphone games were the biggest piece of this figure, at $54.7 billion, compared with $13.4 billion for tablet games. That means smartphone games are still bigger than PC, browser PC games, boxed and downloaded PC games, and console games.

Big moves in cloud gaming

To beef up its new cloud gaming service Stadia, Google this week bought game development firm Typhoon Studios, who were set to release their cross-platform title and first game, Journey to the Savage Planet. Google had said it wants to build out a few different first-party studios to release content on Stadia, which is where this acquisition fits in. Meanwhile, Facebook this week acquired the cloud gaming startup, PlayGiga, which had been working with telcos to create streaming game technology for 5G.

Stadia has a big mobile component, as its controller can play games on compatible mobile devices like Pixel phones. Gaming has been a big part of Facebook’s mobile efforts, as not only a platform where games can be played, but also a place to watch live game streams, similar to Twitch. But the big gaming trend of the past year (which will continue into 2020) is cross-platform gaming — thanks to games like Fortnite, Roblox and PUBG Mobile, as well as devices like Nintendo Switch, gamers expect to continue playing no matter what screen they happen to be using at the time.

Apple Developer app expands support for China

Apple launched a dedicated mobile app for its developer community in November, with the arrival of the Apple Developer app, which was an upgraded and rebranded version of Apple’s existing WWDC app. The app lets developers access resources like technical and design articles, as well as read news, watch developer videos, and enroll in the Apple Developer program. Now that the program is open to China through the app, Apple announced this week.

From the app, developers in China can start and complete their Apple Developer membership and pay with a local payment method on their iPhone or iPad. They can also renew their membership, to keep their account active. Apple has been heavily investing in growing its international developer community by launching developer academies and accelerators in key regions, among other initiatives. Over the past year, Apple grew its developer community in China by 17%, the company earlier said.

So much for nostalgia, Rewound gets yanked from the App Store

We hope you downloaded this fun app when we told you to in last week’s column! Because now it’s gone.

Rewound, briefly, was a clever music player app that turns your iPhone into a 2000’s era iPod, complete with click wheel nav. The developer was able to sneak the app into the App Store by not including the actual iPod UI, which infringes on Apple’s own product design. Instead, the UI pieces were hosted off-site — on Twitter accounts, for example. Users could find them and download them after they installed the app. Technically, that means the App Store app itself wasn’t infringing, but Apple still kicked it out. The developer also charged a fee to access the Apple Music features, which may have been another reason for its removal.

It’s no surprise Apple took this step, but the developer seems confused as to how the app could be approved then pulled later on, even though it hadn’t changed. That’s actually par for the course for Apple’s subjective, editorial decisions over its App Store, however. Now Rewound, which has 170K+ users after only a few days, will focus on a web app and Android version.

Facebook is building its own OS so it can ditch Android

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TikTok’s national security scrutiny tightens as U.S. Navy reportedly bans popular social app

TikTok may be the fastest-growing social network in the history of the internet, but it is also quickly becoming the fastest-growing security threat and thorn in the side of U.S. China hawks.

The latest, according to a notice published by the U.S. Navy this past week and reported on by Reuters and the South China Morning Post, is that TikTok will no longer be allowed to be installed on service members’ devices, or they may face expulsion from the military service’s intranet.

It’s just the latest example of the challenges facing the extremely popular app. Recently, Congress led by Missouri senator Josh Hawley demanded a national security review of TikTok and its Sequoia-backed parent company ByteDance, along with other tech companies that may share data with foreign governments like China. Concerns over the leaking of confidential communications recently led the U.S. government to demand the unwinding of the acquisition of gay social network app Grindr from its Chinese owner Beijing Kunlun.

The intensity of criticism on both sides of the Pacific has made it increasingly challenging to manage tech companies across the divide. As I recently discussed here on TechCrunch, Shutterstock has actively made it harder and harder to find photos deemed controversial by the Chinese government on its stock photography platform, a play to avoid losing a critical source of revenue.

In wake of Shutterstock’s Chinese censorship, American companies need to relearn American values

We saw similar challenges with Google and its Project Dragonfly China-focused search engine as well as with the NBA.

From the NBA to Sequoia to TikTok and more, a week of national security concerns with China

What’s interesting here though is that companies on both sides are struggling with policy on both sides. Chinese companies like ByteDance are increasingly being targeted and stricken out of the U.S. market, while American companies have long struggled to get a foothold in the Middle Kingdom. That might be a more equal playing field than it has been in the past, but it is certainly a less free market than it could be.

While the trade fight between China and the U.S. continues, the damage will continue to fall on companies that fail to draw within the lines set by policymakers in both countries. Whether any tech company can bridge that divide in the future unfortunately remains to be seen.

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Sources: Walmart is considering selling data on shoppers, "supercenters" where, in addition to traditional retail, it can rent out edge computing capacity, more (Sarah Nassauer/Wall Street Journal)

Sarah Nassauer / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Walmart is considering selling data on shoppers, “supercenters” where, in addition to traditional retail, it can rent out edge computing capacity, more  —  Walmart is betting on a future where its giant stores will quickly get groceries to your door …

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5 Tools to Make Wikipedia Better and Discover Interesting Articles

Wikipedia is a great place to find information about any topic you’re interested in. But it can also be a great place to discover interesting topics you didn’t even know about. These tools help you discover new Wikipedia pieces and track what you want to read.

In case you didn’t already know, Wikipedia’s homepage offers a featured article every day, as well as topics in the news. If you aren’t visiting the homepage, you’re missing one of the best places to get new information every day. You should also consider the benefits of creating a Wikipedia account, so that you can track your interests and save pages for later.

1. Wiki Good Article (Twitter): Daily Random Article Worth Reading

Did you know that Wikipedia has a few criteria for what makes a good article? In fact, it made a list of these “good articles” that you can read. But of course, that would be too much in one day, so follow the Wiki Good Article bot on Twitter, which tweets one random link every day.

The six factors of a good article are that it is well written, verifiable with no original research, broad in its coverage, neutral, stable, and illustrated. There are a few disqualifying factors too, but largely, these six are enough to weed out uninteresting pieces.

Importantly, an entry loses its “good article” status if it becomes one of Wikipedia’s featured articles. So this list becomes a good way to find worthwhile articles that you’d otherwise not come across easily.

2. Copernix (Web): World Map With Wikipedia Entries

Copernix is a mixture of Google Maps and Wikipedia. It is a fascinating way to browse the map of the world and learn new things about it. Whether it’s history, geography, or current events, this is the coolest map-based experience since Google Earth.

The map is filled with pins from interesting Wikipedia articles about any area. But it isn’t based on points of interest alone. That means you don’t need a physical structure there for Copernix to place a pin. The pin is about what’s interesting from that area, whether it’s a person, an event, or anything else.

You’ll see pins like Prophet Muhammed in Saudi Arabia, the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in Ethiopia, and so on. These aren’t landmarks in the physical sense, but they are landmark events in our world’s history, making it worth reading about.

At any point, you can browse a precis of all the pins in a pane on the left. Click a pin to expand its entry and read more about it. And there’s always a link to read the full Wikipedia entry. Fair warning, spend a few minutes on Copernix and you’re bound to go down the rabbit hole.

3. Weeklypedia (Web): Weekly List of Major Changes in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a good indicator of important happenings. When any major event takes place in the world, editors hop on to related articles about that event and start updating it. The number of changes in an article thus points to what you need to pay attention to.

These changes are available through Wikipedia’s open-source tools. Weeklypedia tracks the changes and lists the 20 most edited articles in any week, turning them into a newsletter. It’s like a digest of what’s happening around the world, dropped into your inbox. The interesting part is that the changed articles aren’t always news-related.

Along with the 20 most edited articles, Weeklypedia also tracks other activity on Wikipedia. The top five Discussions, where editors talk about hotly debated topics and what to say or not say about them, is a great place to see all sides of an argument unfolding. And the top 10 new articles created in the week is like a little news bulletin.

There is simply no reason not to subscribe to Weeklypedia. Think of it as some leisure reading, as and when you want it.

4. WikiTweaks (Chrome): Better Looking Wikipedia and History Tracking

As amazing as Wikipedia is, its design could be far better. The amount of wasted space on any page doesn’t seem optimized for reading, especially when there are tables, charts, or images.

The Chrome extension WikiTweaks makes a few cosmetic changes to Wikipedia that use space more efficiently, making a better reading experience. It’s an old extension that also adds previews if you hover over any link, but that’s not needed now that Wikipedia has made that an official feature.

WikiTweaks also tracks your Wikipedia history, which is an invaluable tool for those who have a habit of falling down the rabbit hole. Click the extension icon and you’ll see the last Wikipedia pages you visited, instantly reminding you how you landed up on the page you’re reading.

Download: WikiTweaks for Chrome (Free)

5. EpubPress (Chrome, Firefox): Create an Ebook of Multiple Wikipedia Links

Once you’ve got your topics, you should be able to read them anywhere, even offline. Wikipedia offers its own tool to create and download a PDF of multiple links. But currently, the Book Creator tool is undergoing changes and you can’t get these PDFs.

EpubPress is a great alternative to Wikipedia Book Creator, and much simpler to use. Install the extension in your browser, and open browse Wikipedia as you would. At any point, click the extension to see a list of all open tabs. Choose which ones you want to add to the ebook. Give it a name and a description, and download. It takes some time for the tool to finish downloading and compiling all pages, but it’s worth the wait.

The only restriction is that your final file is in ePub format, not in PDF. But that’s not a worry as most readers will support ePub. Alternately, you can always convert the ePub to PDF or any other file format with free online tools.

Download: EpubPress for Chrome | Firefox (Free)

Wikipedia Alternatives and Improvements

Wikipedia is unquestioningly the biggest user-edited encyclopedia in the world, but it isn’t the only resource you should trust. It’s in your best interest to look at alternatives, and also try to improve it as much as possible.

For starters, check out these five Wikipedia alternatives and tools for a better encyclopedia. You should especially try out Qikipedia, which gives Wikipedia previews anywhere on the web when you select some text.

Read the full article: 5 Tools to Make Wikipedia Better and Discover Interesting Articles

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