Amazon just removed encryption from the software powering Kindles, phones, and tablets
Patrick Howell O’Neill, The Daily Dot
All major tech coverage the past few weeks has been on Apple’s fight with the Feds over encryption on devices. Google has backed Apple. Facebook has backed Apple. Even Microsoft has finally backed Apple. Apparently Amazon wnats to think different, removing personal encryption from Fire OS 5. Apparently customers weren’t using it, so they decided to just drop it from the newest version, rather than keep in a useful feature and enabling it by default or putting a tutorial on the device for how easy it is to actually use.
Daily Accounts of a Muggle I.T. Guy working at Hogwarts
Unknown
I wish I had the creativity of some people. There’s a (currently anonymous) Tumblr account entitled “The Setup Wizard” in which a Muggle IT Professional hired by Hogwarts keeps a daily log of what he’s working on. This is a great melding of a popular fiction series and the drudgery of IT. Or maybe it’s real. It’s that engrossing.
Spotify is using 50,000 anonymous hipsters to find your next favorite song
Adam Pasick, Quartz
It’s just like Jaron Lanier predicted! Spotify is touting a new “algorithmic way to discover new music”, which is cool tech, but still boils down to unpaid contributions by users. The Fresh Finds Playlists that are being given prime real estate on Spotify are built around crawling music blogs for new artists, looking at top users who are playing those artists, then finding what other new things those users are playing, becoming a new siren on taste.
In his most recent book, ‘Who Owns the Future’, Jaron Lanier discusses the fact that these super smart algorithms are really based around data gathered by real people. People who are not getting payment or recognition for the work that they are doing for these large companies. If Spotify is really thinking of entering the record label business, this data would prove insanely useful. After all, Netflix found success in building shows around the viewing habits of their users, and there’s no reason to think that Spotify wouldn’t do the same. Eventually a recognition system for the humans that are the real power of big data and deep learning will have to be put in place, or the value of that data will continue to climb to a point that users with the help of third-party analytics firms will demand payment for their finite resources.
Niantic Has Cancelled Their GDC Presentation on Pokémon GO to Focus on the Beta Test and Launch
Jeffrey McDonell, Gamenesia
I bought the Pokemon New 3DS this weekend, fired up Pokemon Blue after several years away from the franchise, and was reminded of the blend of simple gameplay and complex structure and rule systems that made it popular. Like many, I thought that the trailer for Pokemon Go was a bit over the top, but I’m still excited by the first mobile phone Pokemon game that I’m willing to overlook that.
It looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer for more information, as the development team behind the new game have pulled out of the Game Developers Conference set to take place in a few weeks. The reasoning given is to focus the time non-stop on development of the game, which was set to be out in a beta that has also been delayed. Niantic and Nintendo, my phone is ready when you are.
Do you wish your code could be more pictographic? Emojicode to the rescue!
Props to Lisa Melegari for this find. Suggest a story here!
I spent the last 6 months planning my online death
Caroline Sinders, Fusion
Most people don’t yet consider what happens to their digital selves after they die. Now that a sizable percentage of the world population is on Facebook, a platform that has been around for ten years and will necessarily start hosting more and more dead users over time, this consideration is going to have to be made more frequently.
Caroline Sinders researched the ways that many companies do – but mainly don’t – have systems in place for data ownership after the passing of a user. She looked into the many ways that exist informally to handle this gap in coverage, and finally decided to create a digital will, which she created to allow her sister to access all accounts and what she wanted done with them if she died. Digital or not, this is not a bad idea of a document that everyone should create if just to make handling of basic tasks around death (the electric bill was in their name and I never got the notice that it was overdue!) easier to handle, making the passing less of a burden.
Fusion did a whole series on the future of death this week that’s worth checking out.
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