Wednesday, December 01, 2021

We’re Making the Facebook Papers Public

 

A system to organise projects

Johnny-Decimal: “A system to organise projects – When we kept everything on paper, organised people had these things called filing cabinets. They stored all of their documents in them in a structured way so that they could find them again. Now those same people store all of their files in arbitrarily named folders on their company’s shared drive and wonder why they can’t find anything. 

Nobody can find anything any more – Thousands of emails. Hundreds of files. File structures created on a whim and six layers deep. Duplicated content, lost content. We thought search would save us from this nightmare, but we were wrong. It’s time to get organised – There are a couple of core concepts, and they’re so simple you’ll wonder why you haven’t thought of them before. It’s worth mentioning at this point that all of this is free, and it’s possible to implement it without any additional tools…”



You may choose which COVID-19 vaccine you receive as a booster shot. “Some people may prefer the vaccine type that they originally received, and others may prefer to get a different booster. CDC’s recommendations now allow for this type of mix and match dosing for booster shots.

  • When to get a booster: At least 6 months after completing your primary COVID-19 vaccination series.
  • Which booster should you get? Any of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States…”
  • See also The Guardian: ‘Zero-Covid is not going to happen’: experts predict a steep rise in US cases this winter. “A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say. However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.”
  • See also MIT Technology Review –What Europe’s new covid surge means—and what it doesn’t – “New restrictions are coming into place across Europe as covid cases rise again. But there are several reasons why a new wave is happening.”



1. Dezeen 2021 architecture awards.  Guess which countries are winning the most?

2. The power of rank information.

3. New Miyazaki movie coming (NYT).

4. Why does R vary so much in pandemics?

5. Are the logistics of these anti-virals really going to work out?

6. How people respond to Hayek these days.


Recyclable vs compostable packaging


Can You Hear Me Now?: What COVID-19 Taught Us About Technology

ABA Journal: “In early 2020, no one could have predicted the impact COVID-19 would have on the world, including the crash course in technology that became necessary to maintain a surviving and thriving appellate practice. This article is a reflection on and response to what COVID-19 forced us to learn about our appellate practice…”


Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 21, 2021: Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Analyzing News Manipulation by State Actors’; Privacy experts say to choose vaccination apps wisely; New Federal Government Cybersecurity Incident and Vulnerability Response Playbooks; and Ransomware is now a giant black hole that is sucking in all other forms of cybercrime.


Why you should stop sending your iPhone photos via text

CNET – “It’s no surprise that your iPhonekeeps track of the places you go. Usually, it’s for a good reason: Location tracking is the reason many of your apps function, from directions in Google Maps to looking for a nearby restaurant on Yelp. That location awareness extends to the images in your Photos app, too. Anytime you snap a photo or record a video with your iPhone, it creates information about the file — including the creation date and your location — and then buries this data, known more specifically as “metadata,” within your media. Although metadata has useful and even essential purposes, it can quickly become a privacyissue — especially when it comes to your location. If someone has access to the photos you saved on their smartphone, they can easily scour the metadata to identify locations and discover where you live or where you work…”


We’re Making the Facebook Papers Public - Gizmodo – Here’s Why and How – “Independent experts from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU are partnering with Gizmodo to responsibly publish this historic leak. In one of Silicon Valley’s largest leaks, a former Facebook product manager slipped financial regulators stacks of documents containing thousands of confidential memos, chat logs, and a veritable library of hidden research. 

The leak was designed to convince the feds that the gravity and scope of Facebook’s design flaws and misdeeds vastly exceed anything its executives ever divulged to their investors. The documents, captured by whistleblower Frances Haugen and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were also handed to members of a Senate Commerce subcommittee chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut who last month called Instagram “a breeding ground for eating disorders and self harm.” 

And it’s from here that Gizmodo and some 300 other mostly Western journalists derived their access. We believe there’s a strong public need in making as many of the documents public as possible, as quickly as possible. To that end, we’ve partnered with a small group of independent monitors, who are joining us to establish guidelines for an accountable review of the documents prior to publication. The mission is to minimize any costs to individuals’ privacy or the furtherance of other harms while ensuring the responsible disclosure of the greatest amount of information in the public interest…”