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Amit Katwala / WIRED UK:
Tens of thousands of high school students were downgraded from teacher estimates by an algorithm that replaced exams in UK, affecting university applications — Even with the late changes, GCSE and A-Level results still highlight the flaws in a biased education system
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
Researchers detail XCSSET, a newly discovered macOS malware that spreads through Xcode projects; it is not yet clear how XCSSET is infecting Xcode projects — XCSSET malware focuses on exploiting Safari and other browsers. — Xcode projects are being exploited to spread a form …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Telegram has launched an alpha version of one-on-one video calls in its Android and iOS apps, says all calls will be end-to-end encrypted — The company plans to add improvements to the alpha feature in coming months — Secure messaging app Telegram has launched an alpha version …
Parmy Olson / Wall Street Journal:
As companies start using AI-software to detect race or ethnicity, often as part of market research, researchers worry it will fuel bias and discrimination — When Revlon Inc. wanted to know what lipstick women of different races and in different countries were wearing, the cosmetics giant didn't need to send out a survey.
Angela Lashbrook / OneZero :
Quick Reactions to Instagram Stories convey little when used, confuse people when they're absent, make some people feel obliged to use them — Research shows that a modicum of extra effort in online conversations goes a long way — When Instagram introduced the option to “heart” …
Chloe Hadavas / Slate:
A look at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, formed by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube in 2017, whose database helps fight misinformation — Last October, a neo-Nazi livestreamed his attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany. The video of the shooting, which killed two people …
Will Oremus / OneZero :
Interview with India's Nikhil Pahwa, the founding editor of MediaNama who pushed against Facebook's Free Basics, on heavy-handed state control of the internet — “It's almost like we have China envy.” — Six years before India shook the global internet by banning TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps …
Jordan Wildon / VICE:
Google removed ~200 links of a German princess' drunken rampage from its search results suggesting the rich and powerful have a superior “right to be forgotten” — The removal of nearly 200 links from Google search in Germany about a princess' drunken rampage in Scotland raises questions …
If you want to keep growing, you should never stop learning. These websites and apps help you learn new skills with the right online courses. You can also tap them to find study partners for that classroom feeling.
Many universities and schools make their coursework available for free online, in what is called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). You can go for paid courses too that offer legitimate degrees once you finish them.
Finding the right course for your time availability and budget, and completing it within the timeframe, is the difficult part. So here are a few ways to make that search easier.
If you’re looking for a list of different online courses about a subject or topic, head to Coursesity. The directory lists over 50,000 online courses from a variety of platforms, across subjects like programming, arts, office productivity, science, etc.
Pick a subject to see all the courses available in it. You can then filter the results by user rating, duration, price, language, certificate availability, and difficulty level. These filters are key to discovering the right course for you. Once you find it, add it to your collection.
Collections are an integral part of discovering courses on Coursesity. The founder, Keyul Shah, has a list of recommended courses in collections on different subjects, but you can also see any user’s collection for inspiration.
Collections like the Free Ivy League Courses help in narrowing choices and discovering authorized content you wouldn’t easily find otherwise.
Merrill Cook is curating online courses like a lot of other websites, but with a different focus. Online Course Report (OCR) recognizes that online learning is more popular with non-traditional students and adult learners. It’s often taken up by someone who has a full-time job, or is looking to add a skill set to their daily responsibilities.
OCR creates course rankings that put an emphasis on flexibility and affordability, which are two of the most important aspects for online learners. Visit the Rankings page to see links to the top 10 or top 50 rankings for different topics. Each article details why the ranks were chosen, hourly rates and eventual salary, graduation rate, and other important criteria to help you make a decision.
The website also has a floating “Find Your Degree” panel that’s always visible, but you can ignore it. It’s an ad that takes you to a different website, so don’t bother using it.
YouTube has a vast library of free video courses to learn a variety of skills and subjects. Prodeus wants to help you earn a virtual degree on YouTube by searching for free online learning courses, and tracking your hours and classes.
You can find classes on YouTube through Prodeus in the dropdown pane when you click the Chrome extension icon. The library will show different courses uploaded to the video sharing site, which you can filter by newest, popular, or recommended for you.
You can sort by category, difficulty, and language. You can also switch between regular classes and full-fledged courses. Each course also shows a rating.
Once you’ve selected a course, Prodeus will track your progress in it. The extension watches how many hours you use YouTube for learning, which it converts into virtual “ProDegrees” based on the number of class hours, the number of classes, and “credits” you earn.
There’s a bit of gamification too, as you unlock stages based on the total number of class hours. In the end, you might just get a Master’s degree by learning on YouTube.
Download: Prodeus for Chrome (Free)
While most online courses feature a series of videos, that’s not every student’s preferred learning style or every expert’s favorite teaching style. Knowable focuses on audio-based online learning courses, so you can listen to them like a podcast when you’re working out, driving, or running chores around the house.
You’ll find a variety of courses, like startup and entrepreneurship advice, self-improvement and personal development, health, business, and more. There are a handful of free courses too, so you can try out what it’s like to learn through listening alone. But most of those by experts or well-known names are paid courses, each with a different price.
As with most online courses, you can preview an index of what the tutor will cover. A lot of the courses offer a free invitation for a friend, so two people can learn for the price of one. Having a study buddy is also a great way to stay motivated with online learning.
Download: Knowable for Android | iOS (Free)
School is more fun when you’ve got a friend to lean on. You can share notes, discuss what you learned, and even compete with each other. Cuddy wants to help you find a buddy for any online course you’re taking.
Click “Find a Buddy” to see listings of people looking for different types of partners. Some have specific course requirements, while others are interested in a general study partner regardless of the subject. You’ll find details like the type, the skill level, a course link, and a general description.
You can add your own listing if who you seek is not already on Cuddy. Be as clear as you can about the course name and type. And focus on the details or description, where you talk about yourself. This is what Cuddy users will look at and try to figure out if they want to be your study buddy. Talk about your learning style, objectives you want to achieve, and what you’re looking for from a buddy. It’ll lead to the best match.
The websites in this article feature a mix of paid and free courses, so you can get full-fledged university degrees or rely on expert advice. But before you do that, you should check out the number of free online courses too, which can offer a great education at no cost.
It can be difficult to research only about these free courses, but there are some options. Start with the best sites to search and find MOOCs, which also include free guides for degree paths.
Read the full article: 5 Tools to Search for Online Learning Courses and Study Partners
Although Facebook has had a ban on hate speech for a while, it has now expanded its definition of the term. Under Facebook’s new Community Standards, Facebook will remove any posts involving blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Facebook’s quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Reports give users insight into what the tech giant is doing behind the scenes. More specifically, it details the measures Facebook is taking to combat inappropriate content on Instagram and Facebook.
The latest Community Standards Enforcement Report shows that Facebook’s hate speech detection rate has jumped from 89 percent to 95 percent. This led to the removal of 22.5 million harmful posts, a significant increase compared to the first quarter’s removal of only 9.6 million posts.
Additionally, Facebook worked to remove 23 hate groups, and also saw an uptick in the number of resolved harassment reports.
Facebook’s improved hate speech detection system is credited with the increase in post removals and content policing. New advancements let Facebook better detect hate speech in English, Spanish, and Burmese.
In a post on About Facebook, Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, remarked that Facebook strives to become a safe platform for everyone:
We’ve made progress combating hate on our apps, but we know we have more to do to ensure everyone feels comfortable using our services.
To ensure an inclusive environment on Facebook, the company also announced updates to its Community Standards on hate speech. The amendment adds more offensive content to the list, including blackface and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Under the new guidelines, users partaking in blackface will have their content removed. The same goes for any users posting content that contains Jewish stereotypes, particularly those alluding to Jewish people controlling the world’s major institutions.
It’s clear that Facebook has made massive improvements in finding and detecting hate speech. With the new updates, Facebook is on track to significantly reduce the amount of harmful content on the site.
As you probably know, Facebook is constantly in the spotlight for its invasive privacy policies. Here are several reasons why Facebook is a security and privacy nightmare.
Read the full article: Facebook Bans More Hate Speech, Including Blackface
There are all sorts of benefits from using a Chromebook. And now, another benefit has arrived, with Google offering the stellar platformer roguelike Dead Cells for free, as discovered by Android Police.
Normally, Dead Cells sells for $8.99 on Google Play, which is a steal in its own right. However, for free, grabbing it is a no-brainer.
Dead Cells is a platformer roguelike that will put your video game abilities to the test.
Here’s the description of the game from Motion Twin, the developers of Dead Cells:
Dead Cells is a rogue-lite, Castlevania-inspired action-platformer, allowing you to explore a sprawling, ever-changing castle… assuming you’re able to fight your way past its keepers.
To beat the game, you’ll have to master 2D “souls-lite combat” with the ever-present threat of permadeath looming. No checkpoints. Kill, die, learn, repeat.
Dead Cells has a score of 89 on Metacritic, which is an incredibly high score for a game from a small team without the AAA budget and pedigree behind it.
If that sounds like something that’ll appeal to you, then you absolutely should take advantage of this offer. You’ll get quite a few hours from the game and a real feeling of satisfaction as you grind your way through it.
To snag a copy, you simply need to head to Google’s Chromebook perks page. Once there, scroll down a bit and you’ll see the Dead Cells section. Click Get Perk, and follow the steps to redeem your copy.
Of course, you must own a Chromebook to do so. Those without one can’t take advantage of this perk.
Google is making this perk available until August 7th, 2021, so you have ample time to jump in and grab the game for your Chromebook. And if you just purchased a Chromebook, check out our handy tips that all new Chromebook users need to know.
Read the full article: Chromebook Users Can Get Roguelike Dead Cells for Free
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Interview with Facebook AI's Mike Schroepfer, Yann LeCun, and Jerome Pesenti discussing their efforts to use computer vision to combat toxic content on Facebook — Advancements in AI have dramatically improved the company's ability to identify written hate speech.
Biz Carson / Protocol:
Interviews with 20+ founders and investors provide an inside look at Y Combinator's virtual W20 Demo Day, which saw some companies lower their target valuations — And the checks that were handed over, too. — It was four weeks before Y Combinator's scheduled March 2020 Demo Day …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Most of Epic's complaints against Apple and Google apply to console makers, which Epic conveniently ignores; most gamers likely play Fortnite on consoles — Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo demand the same platform control—and the same 30% fee. — Yesterday, Epic used Fortnite …
Digiday:
Sources at publications partnering with Apple News+ say Apple did not tell them about changes that force News+ users into its app instead of to publisher sites — Publishers have long fumed that platforms such as Google and Amazon tie their services and products together in ways that are anti-competitive.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Epic's Tim Sweeney says fight with Apple is about “the basic freedoms of all consumers and developers” to install and distribute apps as they choose — Sweeney says the explosive feud with Apple is not solely about money — Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has issued a series …
Andrew G. Simpson / Insurance Journal:
Roper Technologies to buy Vertafore, a software vendor for the property and casualty insurance industry, for $5.35B from Bain Capital and Vista Equity Partners — Florida-based Roper Technologies has agreed to acquire insurance software maker Vertafore in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $5.35 billion.
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
In a new Instagram update, Facebook has started replacing the Instagram DM icon with Messenger's logo, although cross-messaging is still not functional — You might see this pop-up when you open Instagram — Facebook appears to flipping the switch on integrating the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Report: Amazon's robotics VP Brad Porter quits the company; Porter defended Amazon after former VP Tim Bray criticized its decision to fire activist employees — Amazon's longtime robotics leader Brad Porter has left the company, according to a report from Business Insider.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Oracle and Salesforce are facing class action lawsuits, potentially worth €10B+, in the UK and the Netherlands over using cookie data without consumers' consent — The use of third party cookies for ad tracking and targeting by data broker giants Oracle and Salesforce is the focus …
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Trump issues executive order forcing ByteDance to sell or spin off its US TikTok business within 90 days — - President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday that will force China's ByteDance to sell or spin off its U.S. TikTok business within 90 days.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged Friday that the company was ‘embarrassingly late’ rolling out a security layer known as two-factor authentication for its mobile app.
“Sorry, this is embarrassingly late. Two factor authentication via sms or authenticator app is going through final validation right now,” Musk wrote Friday in response to a question from a Twitter follower.
Musk said in April that the additional security layer was “coming soon.” He first mentioned that the company would add two-factor authentication back in May 2019. Tesla owners have stepped up their calls for two-factor authentication as the rest of the tech community has adopted the security feature.
Two-factor authentication — also known as two-step verification — combines something you know, like a password, with something you have, like your phone. This is a way to verify that the real account holder — or car owner — is logging in and not a hacker.
Some websites do this by sending you a code by text message. But hackers can intercept these. A more secure way of doing it is by sending a code through a phone app, often called an authenticator, which security experts prefer.
Beefing up the security on the Tesla mobile app is particularly pressing. The Tesla app is a critical tool for owners, giving them control over numerous functions on their vehicles.
When Bluetooth is enabled, the Tesla app allows drivers to use their phone as a key to Tesla’s newer vehicle models. The app also lets the user remotely lock and unlock the doors, trunk and frunk, turn on the HVAC system, monitor and control charging, locate the vehicle and schedule service — to name a few of the main capabilities.
These days, two-factor authentication is common and widely employed to stop hackers from using stolen passwords to break into users’ accounts. What’s unclear with Tesla is whether the two-factor tool will rely on SMS or a phone app. Musk said the final validation was for SMS “or” authenticator app, a statement that leaves that critical question unanswered.
