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2021-11-23T05:51:00.009-08:00

PUBG: New State is getting an update with anti-cheating measures

Krafton has confirmed that PUBG: New State will get a new update that is aimed at spotting hackers and strengthening anti-cheating measures in the game. The update is currently rolling out for gamers on Android, with the iOS rollout set to commence soon.

Additionally, users will not be able to play the game without the update being installed on their devices. Krafton announced the same via a blog post. The company has also announced special compensation for players, as a part of this update. After updating the game, players will be awarded with three Chicken Medals as reward. Users who choose not to go through with the update will be redirected to the Google Play store.

Must Read |PUBG Mobile x League of Legends event tipped: Here’s what we know so far

The update is aimed at identifying the cheating methods employed by players and reduce the same. Gamers who are spotted cheating by using unethical methods or hacks, risk the chance of getting banned.

PUBG: New State was launched on November 11 for Android, iOS, and iPadOS devices in over 200 countries including India. In just over a week since its launch, PUBG: New State has hit the one-crore download mark on the Google Play store. The latest PUBG title is set in the future and features updated graphics, a new Troi map, along with new vehicles.

PUBG: New State is said to bring a futuristic take on the classic battle royale experience made popular by its predecessor, PUBG Mobile. The game is set in the year 2051 and brings a new map, new weapons, new strategies, and bigger urban structures like malls and multi-story buildings to the franchise.

The game also introduced new equipment like remote control drones, ballistic shields, neon sights, and a “combat balancing ability” that will add a fresh dynamic to your gameplay.

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Dow Turns Lower After August Surprise; Apple IPhone13 Launch In Focus

2021-10-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Dow Turns Lower After August Surprise; Apple IPhone13 Launch In Focus

U.S. Stocks closed lower Tuesday, as a dip in consumer-price inflation failed to help the market.

With companies from Apple to Macy's to 3M Co. Cautioning on the impact of supply chain disruptions and rising input costs, factory-gate inflation is holding at the highest levels in 13 years.

Consumer prices, however, are starting to moderate, with headline inflation slowing to 5.3% year-on-year and core prices rising at the weakest pace since February. Headline inflation was 5.4% in June and July.

The data should support the Federal Reserve's narrative that inflation pressures will begin to ease over the first few months of 2022.

It also may give Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues another month or two of breathing room to monitor incoming data and the pace of Covid-19 infections before tightening policy.

That said, the world's biggest fund managers appear less concerned about tapering, according to Bank of America's benchmark September survey. They're more focused on slowing growth, muted corporate profits and the potential for negative inflation some time next year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.84%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.57%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.45%.

Video: Investors started buying the dip ahead of market close (CNBC)

Investors started buying the dip ahead of market close

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The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.28%, down 5 basis points on the CPI data.

Oil prices were little changed, after hitting a six-week peak earlier. Oil was boosted by continued disruption from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Brent traded at $73.58 per barrel, while WTI traded at $70.38 per barrel.

Apple shares were active, falling 1%, as it held its latest product event.

The company earlier was hit by an iPhone security embarrassment just hours ahead of the launch event in Cupertino, Calif.

Oracle shares stumbled 3% after the cloud computing and software group posted weaker-than-expected first quarter sales that offset solid profits and a firm near-term outlook.

Cloud services and license revenues, its key growth driver, rose 6% to $7.4 billion, but didn't assuage investor concerns that cloud rivals like Microsoft and Amazon are taking some of Oracle's hoped-for market share.

Boeing shares slid 1%, after the world's biggest plane maker published its annual industry forecast that indicates global demand for commercial aircraft hasn't yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Chevron shares fell 2%, after initially rising as the group said it would triple its capital investment plans over the coming years, while affirming its near-term cash flow forecasts. The oil major is accelerating its transition to lower carbon businesses amid reports of an activist investor challenge.

Away from the U.S., European stocks dipped. The Stoxx 600 index eased 0.34%, dragged down by mining stocks.

In Asia, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index slid 0.94%. Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a fresh 1990 high, closing at 30.670.10. The government unveiled data showing that more than half of the country's 126 million people have been fully vaccinated.

This article was originally published by TheStree

how to remove watermark

2021-03-31T16:01:00.004-07:00

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Best laptop for photo editing: Streamline your post-production workflow

2021-03-21T08:44:00.003-07:00

Best laptop for photo editing: Streamline your post-production workflow

There was a time when serious photographers did all of their post-production on a desktop, but that’s changed. In recent years, laptops have gotten thinner, lighter, and more powerful all at the same time, with “creator” models offering a dynamite combination of performance and portability that lets you do serious photo editing from anywhere in the world. But with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to know what features to prioritize.

The best laptop for photo editing needs to have a high-resolution, color-accurate screen, a powerful CPU, a dedicated graphics card, and a rugged and reliable design. But that’s just the beginning. You’ll want a computer with plenty of ports, an SD card slot, and a large battery, and all of this should be packed into a relatively lightweight design that won’t add needless bulk to your bag. With such a laundry list of requirements, it might seem like finding the best laptop for photo editing is an impossible task, but these laptops do exist, and we’re here to help you find the best option for your specific needs.

Features to consider when shopping for the best laptop for photo editing

No single computer can do everything well, but when you’re looking for the best laptop for photo editing, you can begin by prioritizing the features that matter most to photographers. Power and graphics performance are a given, but do you want a 4K display? Is a lightweight laptop a must for you? What about durability? And do you want a traditional clamshell laptop, or would your workflow benefit from a versatile 2-in-1 design?

These are all things you’ll want to consider when searching for the best laptop for your photo editing workflow.

You’ll need a high-resolution color-accurate screen

Most people can get away with skimping on the quality of their laptop display, but not photographers. If you’re going to buy a photo editing laptop, a high-resolution display with great advertised color accuracy is a must.

In terms of resolution, all modern laptop displays break out into three categories: 4K, QDH (also known as 2K), and Full HD. The smaller your screen, the less you need to worry about resolution, but a 4K laptop is always best when you’re looking for the best laptop for photo editing.

When it comes to color accuracy, you’ll want to pay attention to the advertised color space coverage. Creator laptops will usually list color accuracy as a percentage of three different color spaces: sRGB, DCI-P3, and/or AdobeRGB. The higher the percentage the better, but you’ll want your photo editing laptop to cover at least 99 to 100% of sRGB. The best laptop for photo editing will go above and beyond this, boasting 95% to 100% coverage of the more extensive DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB color spaces.

Best 4K laptop for photo editing: Dell XPS 15

The 4K OLED “InfinityEdge” display you’ll find on Dell’s XPS 15 and its big brother, the XPS 17, checks every box. It’s got tiny bezels, 4K UHD+ 3840 by 2400 resolution, and 100% Adobe RGB coverage for an unmatched photo editing experience. As a bonus, the screen can hit a very bright 500 nits with Dolby Vision support, allowing you to view and edit HDR content on-the-go.

What is the best laptop for photo editing in terms of performance?

The performance core of every computer is its CPU, and if you’re looking for the best photo editing laptop, you want to make sure you don’t cut corners on performance.

Raw CPU performance is measured in clock speed (GHz), the higher the better, and the number of “cores” that it has at its disposal. Most laptops will use either an Intel Core or AMD Ryzen CPU, with Apple’s latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air featuring their own Apple Silicon M. But no matter who makes the processor, you can usually judge overall performance by looking at the maximum clock speed and the number of cores that your processor offers.

The most powerful photo editing laptops will use the latest 6- or 8-core CPUs from Intel, AMD, and Apple. Clock speeds start around 2.3GHz but can “boost” under certain conditions to as much as 5.3GHz. These are usually paired with a great laptop graphics card, like NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX or RTX cards, which helps the CPU on graphics-intensive tasks like heavy-duty photo and video editing.

Best powerhouse laptop for photo editing: Gigabyte AERO 17

The new Gigabyte AERO 17 cuts no corners on performance. It can be maxed out with an 8-core Intel Core i9-10980HK CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 2TB of fast SSD storage, and up to 64GB of RAM. What’s more, it features a gorgeous 4K UHD display with 3mm bezels on three sides and 100% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. In other words: this photo editing laptop can chew through any post-processing task you send its way.

Always on the go? Get a lightweight laptop

All laptops are portable in theory, but there’s a huge difference between a 13-inch ultra-portable and a 17-inch desktop replacement. If you haul your computer with you everywhere you go, you’ll want to consider a lightweight laptop that will save you back-ache without slowing you down when you’re using your favorite photography tools like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.

Most modern laptops range in size from 13 to 17 inches (measured diagonally), and are classified by a variety of buzzwords. If you’re looking to save weight, you should be looking for a lightweight laptop that’s marketed as “ultra-lite” or “ultra-portable,” and you probably want to favor 13- and 14-inch models over the heftier 15-inch and 17-inch options. Fortunately, there are some surprisingly powerful lightweight laptops out there that won’t skip a beat during an intense photo editing session.

Best portable photo editing laptop: M1 MacBook Air

With the release of the Apple Silicon M1, Apple’s in-house processor, and graphics chip, the MacBook Air instantly became the lightweight laptop of choice for photo editing. The computer offers exceptional battery life, a beautiful Retina display, and Apple’s legendary aluminum unibody design, all in a machine that weighs just 2.8 pounds.

Don’t forget about durability

A lot of photographers take their laptops on location to dank, dusty, or dangerous places all over the globe. If that describes you, then finding a rugged photo editing laptop is crucial. This goes beyond the typical definition of a “well-built” laptop.

To be clear, we don’t recommend getting caught in the rain with any laptop, but some brands are tested to comply with “military-grade” standards and can handle everything from humidity and dust, to vibration and drops, to extreme cold and extreme heat. If you’re busy surviving arctic conditions to capture the perfect wildlife photo, the last thing you need is your photo editing laptop sputtering out on you.

Best rugged laptop for photo editing: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme

Lenovo is the king of durability, using MIL-SPEC testing to make sure their ThinkPad laptops can survive in conditions that would destroy most computers. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme offers this military standard of durability in a great photo editing laptop that can be configured with up to an 8-core CPU, NVIDIA GPU, and a high-quality 4K display.

For versatility, nothing beats a 2-in-1 laptop

Most laptops come in the traditional “clamshell” design that we’re all familiar with, but if you want a more versatile photo editing experience, you should definitely consider a 2-in-1.

The 2 in “2-in-1” refers to the ability to use these computers as both a traditional laptop and as a tablet. These photo editing laptops feature touchscreen displays, sometimes with stylus support, that can be removed or folded in various ways so that the keyboard is out of the way. Once in tablet mode, you use them the way you might use an Apple iPad or Microsoft Surface Pro, allowing you to take notes, have a more immersive video experience, or interact directly with your photos.

The benefits for photographers are obvious since photo editing is so tactile. In moments, you can go from typing up a report to editing your photos in Photoshop using a pressure sensitive stylus.

Best 2-in-1 laptop for photo editing: Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel

The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel was designed specifically with photo editing in mind. This highly versatile 2-in-1 can be configured with an 8-core Intel Core i7-10875H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and a 4K display with 100% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. It also comes with a built-in pen that uses Wacom EMR technology, and a screen that can be used in several different drawing and viewing orientations depending on your needs.

Best laptop for photo editing on a budget: What you can get for under $900

It’s hard to find the laptop for photo editing on a budget that still delivers great specs. There’s always a trade-off, usually in terms of CPU performance, screen quality, and/or build quality. The good news is, you can definitely still get a great photo editing laptop without breaking the bank, you just have to know which corners to cut.

If you drop the discrete graphics card, opt for less built-in storage, and choose a Full HD screen, you can save a lot of money without sacrificing too much in the way of performance.

Best budget laptop for photo editing: ASUS Vivobook S15-S533EA

The ASUS Vivobook S15-S533EA, one of several S15 models, hits a price-to-performance sweet spot. With a very capable 4-core Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, the latest Iris X integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a Full HD display that covers 100% of the sRGB color space, the Vivobook S15 cuts all the right corners, making it one of the best budget laptops for photo editing.

FAQ: best laptop for photo editing

Which laptop processor is best for photo editing?

The best laptop processor for photo editing will offer plenty of power without generating too much heat or soaking up too much battery in the process. Intel, AMD, and Apple all make great CPUs that will deliver the performance you need, but AMD and Apple have pulled ahead by creating processors that generate less heat and use less power to crank out the same (or better) performance than most of Intel’s latest chips.

What specs do I need for photo editing?

When it comes to specs for photo editing, at minimum, you should look for a 4-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a screen that can reproduce 100% of the sRGB color space. As budget allows, you can upgrade from there. The best photo editing laptops use 6- or 8-core CPUs, 16 or 32GB of RAM, 1TB or more of fast SSD storage, a discrete graphics card, and a display that covers 100% of the DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB color spaces.

Is Mac or PC better for photo editing?

Neither Mac nor PC is better for photo editing—it’s really just a matter of preference and budget. Apple’s computers are exceptionally well built and come with beautiful Retina displays, but they’re quite pricey. PCs, on the other hand, come in a wide variety of performance, build quality, and price ranges, allowing you to pay only for those features you’re going to use.

If budget isn’t a consideration, the best advice is to choose the operating system you prefer, since all Apple computers use MacOS and most PCs run on Windows 10.

A final word on shopping for the best laptop for photo editing

Buying the best laptop for photo editing is a balancing act. It’s all about finding the right combination of features, performance, and price for your particular workflow. To make sure that you get the most out of your photography tools, you should always look for a laptop with a color-accurate display and a powerful processor, but beyond that, consider your own photo editing workflow and prioritize features like portability, durability, and versatility to suit your needs and your budget.

Nickelodeon creates Avatar Studios to create new Avatar, Legend of Korra content

2021-03-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon creates Avatar Studios to create new Avatar, Legend of Korra content

ViacomCBS has announced a new studio based entirely around Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

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Avatar Studios will create “original content spanning animated series and movies,” according to a press release. Avatar and Korra original creators, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are joining Nickelodeon as co-chief creative officers of Avatar Studios. The first project is an animated theatrical title set to begin production soon. More information will be announced soon, according to the company.

Having exclusive Avatar and Korra content is pretty key for Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS’ new streaming service, Paramount Plus. While the company’s business strategy is to license out a number of its shows and films on a non-exclusive basis, by the time Avatar and The Legend of Korra returned to Netflix, subscribers may have associated the show specifically with the streaming platform. The show became the most-watched title on Netflix around May 22nd, when it returned to Netflix. The series was also previously available on Amazon Prime Video.

Having those licensing agreements is financially beneficial to ViacomCBS right now, according to comments CEO Bob Bakish has made on previous earnings calls. Some of Netflix’s most-watched shows in the US remain ViacomCBS titles, including Criminal Minds, Shameless, NCIS, and Schitt’s Creek. In order to bring people in and get them to subscribe, however, Paramount Plus needs its own exclusives. This is where having a new Avatar series could ultimately be very beneficial.

Paramount Plus is ViacomCBS’s rebranded entry into the streaming space. It will launch on March 4th. After Viacom and CBS merged again in 2019, the unified company set out to find a way to use its entire breadth of programming and franchises to make a true competitor to Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, and Disney’s empire (Disney Plus and Hulu). The new streaming service will have more than 30,000 TV episodes and films from across its various brands, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures, alongside some aspect of live sports and news.

‘Using 21st-Century Technology on a 19th-Century House’ in Fairfax City

2021-01-16T07:26:00.002-08:00

‘Using 21st-Century Technology on a 19th-Century House’ in Fairfax City

At Fairfax City’s Historic Blenheim, technology is meeting history, and Mike Toth is the modern-day archaeologist making it happen. But he’s not using a pick and shovel – his tools are a camera, a variety of lights, and a computer.

Built in 1859, the brick farmhouse contains messages and drawings done by Union soldiers during the Civil War. And by using a technique called multispectral imaging, Toth is literally bringing these images to light so they may be viewed and preserved.

He’s president of Oakton-based R.B. Toth Associates, which uses advanced, digital technology to support cultural-heritage conservation throughout the globe. Yet he discovered something that amazed even him, without going far.

“I normally travel 50,000-100,000 miles/year, around the world,” said Toth. “And here – 5 miles from my home – is probably the most unique, historic site I’ve ever worked in. It’s because of the variety, in that every surface and portion of a surface of a wall is different. And the writing is in charcoal, graphite and sepia-colored waxy crayon.”

His work there is funded by a nearly $20,000 grant Blenheim received from the National Park Service’s National Center for Preservation, Technology and Training. Only 11 projects in nine states were selected for this grant.

Blenheim’s one-year project is building on research Toth began there last year. And ultimately, Blenheim will be a model for the application of digital, noninvasive methods of revealing and preserving historic information on walls already affected by various environmental and manmade events.

ALSO INVOLVED is Historic Blenheim’s site manager, Andrea Loewenwarter, Fairfax City’s historic resources specialist. Since 1998, she’s led the deciphering, research and interpretation of Blenheim’s graffiti.

“The Scott family was the last descendant of the Willcoxon family, which built the house,” said Loewenwarter. “Barbara and Bill Scott lived here from 1962 until their deaths in 1987, and their descendants lived here until 1997.” The City took ownership of the house in 1999.

“The graffiti was always visible in the attic,” said Loewenwarter. “Then in 2002, the City found a 1964 entry in Barbara’s diary. It was about her retracing an image she thought was a drawing of [Confederate commander John] Mosby. It wasn’t, but it made us wonder what else was on the walls.”

So in 2006, the City hired a wallpaper conservator to remove the wallpaper from the first and second floors. Another specialist removed several layers of paint from the walls to get to the graffiti underneath.

“So all these things are challenges for Mike because there are so many different materials on the wall that affect how visible the graffiti is and the results he gets with his light,” said Loewenwarter. “This is huge for us because we’re a small city, so it’s wonderful to have this grant to further our research and understanding of this site.”

So what is multispectral imaging? “The human eye sees a visible, color spectrum – the colors of the rainbow – but we can’t see the ultraviolet and infrared lights,” explained Toth. “So here, we’re breaking up the spectrum into narrow wavelengths of light to capture a photo of each wavelength. Then each wavelength – especially the ultraviolet and infrared ones – gives us information about what the camera’s seeing.”

In essence, Toth uses his specialized camera to take photos with different colors of light – and at different levels of brightness – to reveal what the naked eye can’t see. For example, he said, “Carbon inks respond best to infrared light.” And he controls the lights and camera via his computer.

His system comprises a 100-megapixel, black-and-white camera; two LED light panels – each emitting 16 different wavelengths; a filter wheel for fluorescent shots; plus computer software that integrates all these elements and drives the system.

“We’re also learning how the walls were preserved in the past,” said Loewenwarter. “And we’re ascertaining from the images what conservation methods are best to use in the future. We want to preserve the walls’ integrity and prevent deterioration.”

She then pointed out some of the visible graffiti. “In modern-day England, there are signs saying, ‘Commit no nuisance,’ which means, ‘Don’t cause trouble or be annoying,’” said Loewenwarter. “And here, at the foot of the stairs, there’s a series of cartoons by someone from the 4th New York Cavalry, Co. C, and the words, ‘Commit no nuisance.’”

“That soldier drew cartoons all along that wall,” she continued. “And at the top of the stairs, on the wall to the left, is what we call our Patriotism Series, where he talks about being patriotic.”

AMONG THE ENTRIES there are the words, “Beginning of the war, very patriotic,” with a drawing of a flag-waving man in civilian clothing. Next is written, “1st month, still patriotic,’ and showing an enlisted man standing at attention. Later that month, he wrote, “Hard bread, hard on patriotism,” and drew a soldier sitting on a box, holding a tin cup and eating.

Loewenwarter believes a second-floor bedroom also contains graffiti and is eager to see what Toth’s images there will yield for interpretation. “It’s like historical archaeology,” she said. “We’re looking through layers of paint and wallpaper to make discoveries.”

“I’m really excited about this because it’s a whole new application of our technology,” said Toth. “We’re using 21st-century technology on a 19th-century house. And it’s supporting scholarship, history and preservation, all rolled into one truly unique project. We’ll have huge amounts of data, and each image will tell a story.”

Hidden secrets revealed in microscopic images of ancient artifacts

2021-01-16T07:24:00.006-08:00

Hidden secrets revealed in microscopic images of ancient artifacts

Highly magnified views of archaeological artifacts display their extraordinary hidden beauty and reveal intriguing clues about how they were crafted and used long ago.

For example, a 17th-century Persian textile contains fibers of silk thread that were individually wrapped with thin strips of metal. And the microstructure of a needle from Cyprus retains the touch of the person who shaped it, in traces of dark corrosion that emerged as the needle was rotated and hammered.

These and other zoomed-in archaeological images are showcased in a new exhibit called "Invisible Beauty: The Art of Archaeological Science," which opens at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia on Jan. 16.

Related: Magnificent microphotography: 50 tiny wonders

In another striking image, a bit of basalt glitters in a ceramic roof tile from Gordion, a site in Turkey that was inhabited from at least 2300 B.C., during the Early Bronze Age (the tile dates to the first half of the sixth century B.C.). Basalt, a volcanic rock, looks dull and black to the naked eye. But when viewed in polarized light under a microscope, it shimmers with vivid colors.

Inclusions such as basalt in a roof tile can tell archaeologists if the tile was made locally or imported, and this information can help them piece together historic trade routes and exchange networks, said Marie-Claude Boileau, co-curator of the exhibit and director of the Penn Museum's Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAMM).

The image is stunning not only because of the color-saturated crystals but also for the story it tells, she told Live Science.

"We're also trying to figure out the technology of those who made those tiles — how they mixed the clays and how they added any type of inclusions, including those pieces of basalt," she said. All of the imaging in the exhibit was carried out at CAMM, most of it conducted by undergraduate and graduate students.

Since the invention of the microscope in the 16th century, scientists have used magnification and light to peer at organisms and structures too small to be seen with the naked eye. Today, high-powered modern microscopes offer a glimpse of worlds that researchers centuries ago could only dream of seeing, such as a water flea giving birth, vessels surrounding the brain of a juvenile zebrafish, and even footage of individual living cells in 3D.

Discoveries of ancient mummies, long-lost cities, tools, jewelry, and other items help experts piece together humanity's past, and imaging technologies allow scientists to conduct noninvasive investigations that don't damage delicate materials. With microscopy, X-rays, magnetic radiometry, and infrared and ultraviolet light, scientists can access concealed evidence about ancient societies.

"People are really used to seeing archaeologists in the field doing the excavations; we really wanted to show the scale of analysis that we can do," Boileau said. "Even from the smallest piece of an artifact or specimen, we get a lot of information about the past."

Originally published on Live Science.

This tool lets you confuse Google’s ad network, and a test shows it works

2021-01-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

This tool lets you confuse Google’s ad network, and a test shows it works

We’ve all been there by now: surfing the web and bumping into ads with an uncanny flavor. How did they know I was thinking about joining a gym? Or changing careers? Or that I need a loan? You might wonder if Google can read your mind. Google even boasts that it knows you better than you know yourself.

Google can’t read your mind, of course. But it can read your search history. It tracks a lot of your web browsing, too. Google has an enormous amount of data about its users, and it uses that data to make an unimaginable amount of money from advertising: over $120 billion a year. The company runs a vast profiling machine, fitting people into categories that say who they are, what they’re worth, and how they’re expected to act. Google isn’t just organizing the world’s information; it’s sorting the world’s populations.

Many of the digital devices and platforms people use every day are built to make users transparent to the companies who want to predict, influence, and evaluate user behavior. This surveillance advertising has major social costs. Just for starters: it erodes privacy, perpetuates forms of discrimination, and siphons money away from the public-interest journalism that democracies need to survive. Lawmakers have not acted decisively to mitigate these costs.

Some activists, frustrated by the inability of regulators to effectively constrain Google’s actions, have taken matters into their own hands. Back in 2014, Daniel Howe, Mushon Zer-Aviv, and Helen Nissenbaum released a browser extension called AdNauseam that automatically clicks on web ads to interfere with behavioral tracking and profiling. Nissenbaum heads a research group at Cornell Tech, which I’m a part of.

AdNauseam is a tool of obfuscation. Obfuscation tactics are a sort of guerrilla warfare approach to the lack of privacy protections. Since it’s not possible to hide from Google’s surveillance, these tactics introduce inaccurate or excessive information to confuse and ultimately sabotage it.

This isn’t a new idea. As Nissenbaum wrote with Finn Brunton in a 2019 essay, “We are surrounded by examples of obfuscation that we do not yet think of under that name.” It can be something as simple as adding extra items to a shopping cart at the pharmacy to distract from something that might bring unwanted judgment. The Tor browser, which aggregates users’ web traffic so that no individual stands out, is perhaps one of the most successful examples of systematic obfuscation.

AdNauseam is like conventional ad-blocking software, but with an extra layer. Instead of just removing ads when the user browses a website, it also automatically clicks on them. By making it appear as if the user is interested in everything, AdNauseam makes it hard for observers to construct a profile of that person. It’s like jamming radar by flooding it with false signals. And it’s adjustable. Users can choose to trust privacy-respecting advertisers while jamming others. They can also choose whether to automatically click on all the ads on a given website or only some percentage of them.

We wanted to try to understand what’s going on inside the black box of Google’s incredibly lucrative advertising sales platforms in a way that nobody else outside the company had ever done.

Google, unsurprisingly, does not like AdNauseam. In 2017, it banned the extension from its Chrome Web Store. After Nissenbaum gave a lecture on AdNauseam in 2019 at the University of California, Berkeley, skeptics in the crowd, including Google employees, dismissed her effort. Google’s algorithms would, they said, easily detect and reject the illegitimate clicks—AdNauseam would be no match for Google’s sophisticated defenses.

Nissenbaum took this as a challenge. She began a research effort, which I later joined, to test whether AdNauseam works as designed. We would publish a website and buy ads on the same site on a “cost-per-click” basis—meaning the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on the ad—so we could see whether the clicks generated by AdNauseam were credited to the publisher and billed to the advertiser.

Our testing established that AdNauseam does indeed work, most of the time. But as the experiment developed, it became about more than settling this narrow question. We wanted to try to understand what’s going on inside the black box of Google’s incredibly lucrative advertising sales platforms in a way that nobody else outside the company had ever done.

The first step in the experiment involved setting up a website and an AdSense account. Google AdSense is a sales service for small publishers who don’t have the wherewithal to attract advertisers on their own. For a 32% commission, Google handles the whole process of monetizing a website’s traffic: it sells the ads, counts impressions and clicks, collects and makes payments, and keeps a lookout for fraud. If the skeptics at Nissenbaum’s talk were right, we reasoned, AdSense should smell something fishy with AdNauseam clicks and toss them back overboard.

Next, we created a campaign to advertise on the site using Google Ads, the service that buys inventory for advertisers. Google Ads is to advertisers what AdSense is to publishers. Small advertisers tell Google what sorts of people they’d like to reach and how much they’re willing to pay, and then Google finds those people as they browse a range of sites. In this case, the campaign was set up to run only on our site and to outbid any competing advertisers. We set it up this way because we wanted to be careful not to profit from it or draw unknowing bystanders into our experiment.

Positioned now on both sides of an advertising transaction, we were ready to observe the life cycle of an ad click from end to end. We invited individual volunteers to download AdNauseam and visit our site. Soon we had recorded a few dozen successful AdNauseam clicks—billed to our team’s advertiser account and credited to the publisher account. AdNauseam was working.

But this only proved that Google did not discard the very first click on an ad generated by a brand new AdNauseam user recruited specifically for the experiment. To silence the skeptics, we needed to test whether Google would learn to recognize suspicious clicking over time.

So we ran the experiment with people who had already been using AdNauseam for some time. To anyone watching for very long, these users stick out like a sore thumb, because with AdNauseam’s default settings they appear to be clicking on 100% of the ads they see. Users can adjust the click rate, but even at 10%, they’d be way outside the norm; most people click display ads only a fraction of 1% of the time. This test, then, was designed to check if Google would disregard AdNauseam clicks from a browser with a long-standing record of astronomical click rates. If Google’s machine learning systems are so clever, they should have no trouble with that task.

An image of the AdNauseam “ad vault” collected by the automated Selenium browser.

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: MUSHIN ZER-AVIV

We tested this in two ways.

First, with people: we recruited long-standing AdNauseam users to go to our website. We also invited new AdNauseam users to use the clicking software for a week in the course of their normal web browsing, in order to establish a history, and then to participate in the test.

Second, with software: we conducted an automated test using a software tool called Selenium, which simulates human browsing behavior. Using Selenium, we directed a browser equipped with AdNauseam to automatically surf the web, navigating across sites and pages, pausing, scrolling, and clicking ads along the way. Basically, this let us quickly build up a record of prolific clicking activity while tightly controlling variables that might be relevant to whether or not Google classifies as a click as “authentic.” We set up four of these automated browsers and ran them respectively for one, two, three, and seven days. At the end of each period, we sent the browsers to our experimental site to see whether AdSense accepted their clicks as legitimate. The Selenium browser that ran for seven days, for example, clicked on more than 900 Google ads, and almost 1,200 ads in all. If Google’s systems are indeed sensitive to suspicious clicking behavior, this should have set off alarm bells.

Most of our tests were successful. Google filtered out clicks on our site by the automated browser that ran for three days. But it did not filter out the vast majority of the other clicks, either by ordinary AdNauseam users or even in the higher-volume automated tests, where browsers were clicking upwards of 100 Google ads per day. In short, Google’s advanced defenses were not sensitive to the sort of clicking behavior typical of AdNauseam use.

Google’s advanced defenses were not sensitive to the sort of clicking behavior typical of AdNauseam use.

Soon we had $100 in our AdSense account, enough to trigger Google to mail us a check. We weren’t sure what to do with it. This money wasn’t ill-gotten, by any means. We were just getting back our own money that we had invested in the advertiser account—less the 32% cut banked by Google. We decided not to cash the check. It was enough to know we’d proved that—for now, at least—AdNauseam works. The check was like a certificate of success.

Nevertheless, our experiment can’t answer some other important questions. If you use AdNauseam, how do the clicks it makes affect the profile Google has built on you? Does AdNauseam successfully shield individuals, and the populations they may be sorted into, from being targeted for advertising? (After all, even if you use the extension, Google can still collect masses of data from your email, search history, and other sources.) Even answering our simple original question—whether the software works at all—required substantial effort. Answering those other questions would require insider access across many more nodes in online advertising.

In fact, we can’t even know conclusively why our test worked—why Google did not detect these AdNauseam clicks. Was it a failure of skill or a failure of will?

A failure of skill would mean that Google’s defenses against automated ad-clicking are less sophisticated than the company claims. However, as flattering as it would be to conclude that our small team outmaneuvered one of the most powerful companies in history, that seems farfetched.

A more likely explanation is a failure of will. Google makes money each time an ad is clicked. If advertisers found out they were being billed for phony clicks, that would of course undermine confidence in the online ad business. But advertisers can’t validate those suspicions unless they can look from both ends of the market, as we did. And even if they could, Google’s market dominance makes it hard for them to take their business elsewhere.

In a statement, Google spokeswoman Leslie Pitterson wrote, “We detect and filter the vast majority of this automated fake activity. Drawing conclusions from a small-scale experiment is not representative of Google’s advanced invalid traffic detection methods and the ongoing work of our dedicated technology, policy, and operations teams that work to combat ad fraud every day.” She added, “We invest heavily in detecting invalid traffic—including automated traffic from extensions such as AdNauseum [sic]—to protect users, advertisers, and publishers, as ad fraud hurts everyone in the ecosystem, including Google.”

AdNauseam might adapt to skirt Google’s counteroffensive, but an arms race will obviously favor Google.

If contrary to Pitterson’s claims, the results of our experiment do hold up at scale, it may be bad news for advertisers, but it’s good news for internet users. It means that AdNauseam is one of the few tools ordinary people currently have at their disposal to guard against invasive profiling.

All the same, it is a temporary and imperfect defense. If Google finds a way—or the will—to neutralize AdNauseam, then whatever utility it has might be short-lived. AdNauseam might adapt to skirt Google’s counteroffensive, but an arms race will obviously favor Google.

Governments and regulators have generally failed to either craft or enforce rules preventing commercial surveillance. It’s true that some recent laws, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act, have somewhat limited companies’ abilities to sell or share personal data to third parties. However, these laws don’t constrain Google’s ability to be a first-party observer to lots of internet activity and many advertising transactions. In fact, Google may benefit from these privacy laws, since they limit the ability of rivals and customers to acquire the data it has gained. Google keeps watching, and advertisers get more dependent on what it knows.

AdNauseam doesn’t stop Google from doing this, but it does let individuals protest against these cycles of surveillance and behavioral targeting that have made much of the online world into a privacy nightmare. Obfuscation is an act of resistance that serves to undermine confidence in tracking and targeting and to erode the value of data profiles, in the hope that advertisers and ad tech companies might begin to find it impractical and unprofitable to spy on people. Anyone who wants a less invasive online advertising business can give AdNauseam a try.

Another important benefit of using AdNauseam is that to the extent it succeeds at obfuscation, it helps protect the privacy of everyone, not just the people using it. This is because personal information is not strictly personal; information about me can feed into inferences about people I associate with or people who share something in common with me. If you and I go to the same websites, marketers might use what they know about me to make a judgment about you, perhaps labeling you as valuable, risky, or likely to click on one ad or another. AdNauseam users, by disguising their own preferences, make it harder for Google to profile and evaluate other people in their orbits. And so the profiling and prediction engines of surveillance advertising become less reliable.

But, in some ways, the skeptics are right: a few programmers and researchers can’t go toe-to-toe with technological titans. Obfuscation is no substitute for an organized and energetic movement, backed by the force of law, to counteract the surveillance advertising that governs so much of the internet. Thankfully, some governments are filing antitrust suits against Google and Facebook, launching investigations into companies’ data practices, issuing fines for transgressions, and working on potentially stronger privacy protections. But for now, guerrilla tactics like AdNauseam are the weapons we’ve got.

State of JavaScript: The programming language is anything but boring

2021-01-09T05:04:00.002-08:00

State of JavaScript: The programming language is anything but boring

No matter how developers feel about JavaScript, one thing is for certain: the programming language keeps evolving year after year. JavaScript developers Raphaël Benitte, Sacha Greif, and Michael Rambeau released the State of JavaScript 2017 report to get a complete picture of the programming language.

“A few years back, a JavaScript survey would’ve been a simple matter. Question 1: are you using jQuery? Question 2: any comments? Boom, done!,” the developers wrote. “But as we all know, things have changed. The JavaScript ecosystem is richer than ever, and even the most experienced developer can start to hesitate when considering the multitude of options available at every stage.”

The survey looked at answers from more than 28,000 developers and covered topics ranging from front-end libraries, build tools, mobile, and testing.

When talking about JavaScript, the developers note that JavaScript is not just a single language. There is a range of different flavors developers use. While EcmaScript (ES) 6 is the established standard, developers are also using ES5, TypeScript, Flow, Elm, ClojureScript, and Reason. A majority of developers are also using two or more different libraries. On a scale from 1 to 5, developers are at a 4 (mostly happy) when it comes to how happy they are with the current state of flavors.

On the front end, React remains the dominant framework. However, the survey found interest in Vue is steadily increasing, while Angular is losing steam. Developers are at 3.8 when it comes to their overall happiness with front-end tools.

On the back end, Express is by far the most popular contender with Koa, Meteor, and Hapi slowly making their way behind Express.

For testing, Jest and Enzyme stand out with high satisfaction ratings. Other popular testing tools include Mocha, Jasmine, Tape, and Ava. “Like the rest of the JavaScript world, the testing landscape is a highly competitive one, with rapid release cycles, feature and performance comparisons, and constant one-upmanship between the frameworks,” the developers wrote.

Finally, native apps remain the most reliable solution when it comes to mobile, with almost half of the respondents stating they are satisfied with no library. PhoneGap/Cordova has a high usage score but comes with a low satisfaction rating. The developers expect to React Native will disrupt the current state of things soon.

Other results from the survey found Redux is the most popular state management tool, followed by an interest in GraphQL, Relay Modern, and Apollo; developers prefer SASS/SCSS and plain CSS over CSS-in-JS approaches, and NPM and Webpack are the “king” of build tools.

Still to come are survey results on popular features and opinions about the general state of the language. According to the researchers, there was too much data they have not been able to sort through yet but will release the results in the upcoming weeks. “In any case, just like last year our overall conclusion remains the same: JavaScript keeps improving and evolving at an ever-increasing pace. This is a bit scary, but it’s also exciting: after all, you know that learning JavaScript is never going to get boring!” the developers wrote.

Top programming languages of 2020

2021-01-09T05:00:00.002-08:00

Top programming languages of 2020

WakaTime has released its data on the most-used programming languages, code editors, and operating systems for 2020.

In contrast to indices such as PYPL and TIOBE, WakaTime’s ranking is based on the number of hours developers have spent coding in a programming language.

WakaTime is a service that lets developers measure their programming time. According to Wakatime, over 250,000 programmers use its open-source plugins to get metrics about the time they spend in their code editor.

The data it gathered during 2020 showed that JavaScript is the top language by number of development hours, though it has seen a steep decline since last year.

Similarly, while Mac remained the top platform by developer hours logged, it is in sharp decline.

This echoes anecdotal evidence from IT professionals who have started moving away from MacBook Pros as their hardware of choice for a variety of reasons — including poorer price-to-performance, lower limits in the amount of RAM that can be installed compared to non-Apple laptops, and Apple’s decision to drop Intel CPUs in favor of ARM-based processors.

WakaTime’s data also showed that the VS Code has enjoyed a meteoric rise as the code editor of choice among programmers who use its time tracking service.

It’s worth noting that WakaTime’s statistics are biased towards the demographics of its users and may not represent the developer community at large.

For example, WakaTime’s data may favor programmers who have a need to measure their working hours to generate invoices for clients or fill in timesheets.

Similarly, the PYPL and TIOBE indices are biased according to how they gather data.

According to PYPL, the top three languages in the world as of January 2021 are Python, Java, and JavaScript.

TIOBE, on the other hand, rates C, Java, and Python as the top three languages in the world. JavaScript is ranked seventh — after C++, C#, and Visual Basic.

How rankings are calculated

Wakatime — Measures coding time for programmers that use its open-source plugins.

PYPL — The more a language tutorial is searched, the more popular the language is assumed to be. The raw data comes from Google Trends.

TIOBE — The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers worldwide, courses, and third-party vendors. Popular search engines are also used to calculate the ratings.

Top programming languages of 2020 – Wakatime

Top code editors of 2020 — Wakatime

Top operating systems among programmers for 2020 — Waketime

Now read: Why programming language C is rising in popularity

Basic HTML: Introduction

2021-01-07T07:30:00.002-08:00

Basic HTML: Introduction

Language because they needed something that started with "L" to finish HTML and Hypertext Markup Louie didn't flow correctly. Because it's a language, really -- but the language is plain English.

Beginning to Write

You will actually begin to write HTML starting with Primer #2. That's tomorrow if you follow the seven-day plan this was written for. Here, I want to tell you how you will go about the process.

You will write the HTML document on the word processor, or Notepad, WordPad, or Simple Text. When you are finished creating the HTML document, you'll then open the document in a browser, like Netscape Navigator. The browser will interpret the HTML commands for you and display the Web page.

Now, some people who are already schooled in HTML are going to jump up and down and yell that you should be using an HTML assistant program because it makes it easier. That's true, but it also makes it harder to learn as the program does half the work for you. Take my word for it, use the word processor for a week, then go to the assistant if you still want to use one. You'll be far better off for the effort. I have been writing HTML for six years and I still use Notepad for the bulk of my writing.

Let's get into the programs you will use to write your HTML document. Keep this in mind: HTML documents must be text only. When you save an HTML document, you must save only the text, nothing else.

The reason I am pushing NotePad, WordPad, and Simple Text is that they save in text-only format without your doing any additional work. They just do it. But, if you're like me, then you will want to start writing on a word processor, like WORD, or WordPerfect. Maybe you're just more comfortable on it. If so, read this next part carefully.

The Word Processor

When you write to the word processor you will need to follow a few steps:

1.Write the page as you would any other document.

2. When you go to save the document (Here's the trick), ALWAYS choose SAVE AS.

3.When the SAVE AS box pops up, you will need to save the page in a specific format. Look at the SAVE AS dialogue box when it pops up: Usually at the bottom, you find where you will be able to change the file format.

4. If you have a PC, save your document as ASCII TEXT DOS or just TEXT. Either one will work.

5. If you have a MAC, save your document as TEXT.

6.When I started writing HTML, I saved pages by assigning every Web page its own floppy disc. It just helped me keep it all straight, but if you want to save the right to your hard drive, do it. I only offer the floppy disc premise as a suggestion.

Please remember: It is very important to choose SAVE AS EVERY time you save your document. If you don't, the program won't save as TEXT, but rather in its default format. In layman's terms -- use SAVE AS or screw up your document.

You see when you save your document in WORD, or some other word processor format other than text, you are saving much more than just the letters on the page. You're saving the margin settings, the tab settings, specific fonts, and a whole lot of other settings the page needs to be displayed correctly. You don't want all of that. You just want the text.

NotePad, WordPad, and SimpleText already save in text-only format so if you use one of them as your word processor, you'll get the correct format simply by saving your document.

How To Name Your Document

What you name your document is very important. You must first give your document a name and then add a suffix to it. That's the way everything works in HTML. You give a name and then a suffix.

Follow this format to name your document:

1. Choose a name. Anything. If you have a PC not running Windows 95, you are limited to eight letters, however.

2.Add a suffix. For all HTML documents, you will add either ".htm" or ".html".

(".htm" for PCs running Windows 3.x and ".html" for MAC and Windows 95/98 Machines)

Example:I am looking to name a document I just wrote on a PC running Windows 3.11 for workgroups. I want to name the document "Fred". Thus the document must be named "fred.htm". If it was MAC or Windows 95/98 I would name it "fred.html". Please notice the dot (period) before .htm and .html. And no quotation marks, I just put them in here to set the name apart.

Uhhhhhh... Why Do I Do That?

Glad you asked. It's a thing called "association." It's how computers tell different file types apart. ".html," tells the computer that this file is an HTML document. When we get into graphics, you'll see a different suffix. All files used on the Web will follow the format of "name.suffix." Always.

Okay, why .htm for PCs running Windows 3.x and .html for MAC and Windows 95/98?

Because that's the way the operating systems are made (Windows 3.x, Windows 95/98, and MAC OS are all technically called operating systems). Windows 3.x only allows three letters after the dot. MAC OS and Windows 95/98 allow four, or more. Your browser allows for both suffixes. It acts upon .html and .htm in the same fashion.

Why do you keep harping on the fact that I must save in TEXT only?

You're just full of questions! You see, HTML browsers can only read the text. Look at your keyboard. See the letters and numbers and little signs like % and @ and *? There are 128 in all (read upper- and lowercase letters as two). That's text. That's what the browser reads. It simply doesn't understand anything else.

If you'd like to test this theory, then go ahead and create an HTML document and save it in WORD. Then try and open it in your browser. Nothing will happen. Go ahead and try it. You won't hurt anything.

Remember that if you are using Notepad, Wordpad, or Simple Text, the document will be saved as text with no extra prompting. Just choose to SAVE.

Opening the Document in the Browser

Once you have your HTML document on the floppy disc or your hard drive, you'll need to open it up in the browser. It's easy enough. Since you're using a browser to look at this Primer, follow along.

1.Under the FILE menu at the very top left of this screen, you'll find OPEN, OPEN FILE, OPEN DOCUMENT, or words to that effect.

2.Click on it. Some browsers give you the dialogue box that allows you to find your document right away. Internet Explorer, and later versions of Netscape Navigator, require you to click on a BROWSE button or OPEN FILE button to get the dialogue box. When the dialogue box opens up, switch to the A:\ drive (or the floppy disc for MAC users) and open your document. If you saved the file to your hard drive, get it from there.

3.You might have to then click on the OK button. The browser will do the rest.

One More Thing

You easily have enough to keep you occupied for the first day. Don't worry, the Primers get less wordy after this.

If you are going to start writing HTML, I suggest you make a point of learning to look at other authors' HTML pages. You say you're already doing that, right? Maybe. What I mean is for you to look at the HTML document a person wrote to present the page you are looking at. Don't look at the pretty page, look behind it at the HTML document.

Why Would I Do That?

Because you can... but seriously, folks. Let's say you run into a page that has a really neat layout, or a fancy text pattern, or a strange grouping of pictures. You'd like to know how to do it.

Well, look, I'm not telling you to steal anything, but let's be honest, if you see some landscaping you like, you're going to use the idea. If you see a room layout you like, you will use the idea to help yourself. That's the point of looking at another page's HTML document. I think it's also the best way to learn HTML. In fact, I am self-taught in HTML simply by looking at others' documents. It was a long way around, believe me. You're going to have a much easier time of it with these Primers.

Here's how you look at an HTML document (known as the "source code"):

1.When you find a page you like, click on VIEW at the top of the screen.

2.Choose DOCUMENT SOURCE from the menu. Sometimes it only reads the SOURCE.

3.The HTML document will appear on the screen.

4.Go ahead. Try it with this page. Click on VIEW and then choose the SOURCE.

It's going to look like chicken-scratch right now, but by the end of the week, it'll be readable and you'll be able to find exactly how a certain HTML presentation was performed.

It's A Little Different On AOL

Those of you who use AOL can also see the source. You can do it by placing your pointer on the page, off of an image, and clicking the right mouse button. MAC users should click and hold. A small menu should pop up. One of the items will allow you the ability to view the source.

That's the Primer for today. Print it out if you'd like and get ready to delve in and write your first HTML document. See you tomorrow.

Using HTML to create websites

Hackers hide web skimmer inside a website's CSS files

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

2021-01-07T07:24:00.004-08:00

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a text-based approach to describing how content contained within an HTML file is structured. This markup tells a web browser how to display text, images, and other forms of multimedia on a webpage.

HTML is a formal recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is generally adhered to by all major web browsers, including both desktop and mobile web browsers. HTML5 is the latest version of the specification.

How HTML works

HTML is a text file containing specific syntax, file, and naming conventions that show the computer and the web server that it is in HTML and should be read as such. By applying these HTML conventions to a text file in virtually any text editor, a user can write and design a basic webpage, and then upload it to the internet.

The most basic of HTML conventions is the inclusion of a document type declaration at the beginning of the text file. This always comes first in the document, because it is the piece that affirmatively informs a computer that this is an HTML file. The document header typically looks like this: <!DOCTYPE html>. It should always be written that way, without any content inside it or breaking it up. Any content that comes before this declaration will not be recognized as HTML by a computer.

Doctypes are not just used for HTML, they can apply to the creation of any document that uses SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). SGML is a standard for specifying a specific markup language being used. HTML is one of several markup languages that SGML and doctype declarations apply to.

The other critical requirement for creating an HTML file is saving it with a .html file extension. Whereas the doctype declaration signals HTML to the computer from the inside of the file, the file extension signals HTML to the computer from the outside of the file. By having both, a computer can tell that it's an HTML file whether it's reading the file or not. This becomes especially important when uploading the files to the web because the web server needs to know what to do with the files before it can send them to a client computer for the inner contents to be read.

After writing the doctype and saving it as an HTML file, a user can implement all the other syntactic tools of HTML to customize a web page. Once finished, they will likely have several HTML files corresponding to various pages of the website. It's important that the user uploads these files in the same hierarchy that they saved them in, as each page references the specific file paths of the other pages, enabling links between them. Uploading them in a different order will cause links to break and pages to be lost, because the specified file paths will not match the pages.

Basic elements of HTML

Using HTML, a text file is further marked up with additional text describing how the document should be displayed. To keep the markup separate from the actual content of the HTML file, there is a special, distinguishing HTML syntax that is used. These special components are known as HTML tags. The tags can contain name-value pairs known as attributes, and a piece of content that is enclosed within a tag is referred to as an HTML element.

HTML elements always have opening tags, content in the middle, and closing tags. Attributes can provide additional information about the element and are included in the opening tag. Elements can be described in one of two ways:

Block-level elements start on a new line in the document and take up their own space. Examples of these elements include headings and paragraph tags.

Inline elements do not start on a new line in the document and only take up the necessary space. These elements usually format the contents of block-level elements. Examples of inline elements include hyperlinks and text format tags.

Pros and cons of HTML

Pros of using HTML include:

Is widely adopted with a large number of resources available.

Is natively run on every browser.

Is relatively easy to learn.

Has a clean and consistent source code.

Is open-source and free to use.

Can be integrated with other backend programming languages such as PHP.

A few cons to consider are:

Does not have very dynamic functionality and is mainly used for static web pages.

All components must be created separately even if they use similar elements.

Browser behavior can be unpredictable. For example, older browsers may not be compatible with newer features.

Commonly used HTML tags

HTML tags dictate the overall structure of a page and how the elements within them will be displayed in the browser. Commonly used HTML tags include:

<h1> which describes a top-level heading.

<h2> which describes a second-level heading.

<p> which describes a paragraph.

<table> which describes tabular data.

<ol> which describes an ordered list of information.

<ul> which describes an unordered list of information.

As mentioned, there are opening and closing tags that surround the content they are augmenting. An opening tag looks like this: <p>. A closing tag is the same but contains a backslash in it to indicate that it's the end of the given HTML element. Closing tags look like this: </p>.

How to use and implement HTML

Because HTML is completely text-based, an HTML file can be edited simply by opening it up in a program such as Notepad++, Vi, or Emacs. Any text editor can be used to create or edit an HTML file and, so long as it is named with a .html file extension, any web browser -- such as Chrome or Firefox -- will be capable of displaying the file as a webpage.

For professional software developers, there are a variety of WYSIWYG editors to develop webpages. NetBeans, IntelliJ, Eclipse, and Microsoft's Visual Studio provide WYSIWYG editors as either plugin or as standard components, making it incredibly easy to use and implement HTML.

These WYSIWYG editors also provide HTML troubleshooting facilities, although modern web browsers often contain web developer plugins that will highlight problems with HTML pages, such as a missing closing tag or syntax that does not create well-formed HTML.

Chrome and Firefox both include HTML developer tools that allow for the immediate viewing of a webpage's complete HTML file, along with the ability to edit HTML on the fly and immediately incorporate changes within the internet browser.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript

HTML is used to create webpages but does experience limitations when it comes to fully responsive components. Therefore, HTML should only be used to add text elements and structure them within a page. For more complex features, HTML can be combined with cascading style sheets (CSS) and JavaScript (JS).

An HTML file can link to a cascading style sheet or JS file -- usually at the top of the document with a specified file path -- which will contain information about which colors to use, which fonts to use and other HTML element rendering information. JavaScript also allows developers to include more dynamic functionality, such as pop-ups and photo sliders, in a webpage. Tags called class attributes are used to match HTML elements to their corresponding CSS or JS elements.

For example, if a user wants the color of a certain amount of text to be red, they can write code in the CSS file with an accompanying class attribute that turns text red. Then they can place the associated class attribute on all the pieces of text they want to be red in the HTML sheet. The same basic method applies to JS sheets, with different functions.

Separating information about how a page is structured, the role of HTML, from the information about how a webpage looks when it is rendered in a browser is a software development pattern and best practice known as separation of concerns.

History and development

In the early days of the world wide web, marking up text-based documents using HTML syntax was more than sufficient to facilitate the sharing of academic documents and technical memos. However, as the internet expanded beyond the walls of academia and into the homes of the general population, greater demand was placed on webpages in terms of formatting and interactivity.

HTML 4.01 was released in 1999, at a time when the internet was not yet a household name, and HTML5 was not standardized until 2014. During this time, HTML markup drifted from the job of simply describing the document structure of webpage content into the role of also describing how content should look when a webpage displays it.

As a result, HTML4-based webpages often included information within a tag about what font to use when displaying text, what color should be used for the background, and how content should be aligned. Describing within an HTML tag how an HTML element should be formatted when rendered on a webpage is considered an HTML antipattern. HTML should generally describe how content is structured, not how it will be styled and rendered within a browser. Other markup languages are better suited to this task.

One major difference between HTML4 and HTML5 is that the separation of concerns pattern is more rigorously enforced in HTML5 than it was in HTML4. With HTML5, the bold <b> and italicize <i> tags have been deprecated. For the paragraph tag, the align attribute has been completely removed from the HTML specification.

HTML versions

The following is a list of HTML versions and the years they were created. Several iterations of each version have been released over time. This list aims to focus on significant iterations.

HTML 1.0 -- released in 1992 -- had very limited capability and around 20 elements.

HTML 2.0 -- released in 1995 -- began to incorporate elements relating to math functions.

HTML 3.2 -- released in 1996 -- dropped the math function initiative altogether and fixed overlap between various proprietary extensions.

HTML 4.0 -- released in 1997 -- offered three variations that differed in the number of deprecated elements that were allowed.

HTML 4.01 -- released in 1999 -- largely the same as 4.0.

HTML 5 -- released in 2014 -- came after a long break in updates because the organization that developed it -- W3C -- was focusing on another, a parallel language called XHTML.

HTML 5.1 -- released in 2016 -- aimed to more easily accommodate various types of media embedding with new tags.

HTML 5.2 -- released in 2017 -- aimed to be equally understandable by humans and computers.

HTML 5.3 -- yet to be released -- W3C is collaborating with WHATWG on a new version. The collaboration began in 2019.

Features of HTML5

HTML5 introduces several elements to increase interactivity, multimedia capabilities, and semantic efficiency. Instead of using plugins, multimedia can be placed within the HTML code. These elements include:

Graphics elements:

<canvas>, which creates a blank rectangular space in which web designers can draw using JavaScript.

Semantic elements:

<header>, which creates a header at the top of the page.

<footer>, which creates a footer at the bottom of the page.

<article>, which creates an area for independent content.

<section>, which defines sections and subsections such as chapters, or headers and footers when more than one is necessary.

<nav>, which creates a navigation menu.

Multimedia elements:

<audio>, which describes MP3 files, WAV files, and OGG files in HTML.

<video>, which describes MP4, WebM, and OGG video types.

Attributes that apply to the <form> element, which creates an area for user input on the web page. These include number, date, calendar, and range.

Other main features of HTML5 include:

Elimination of outmoded or redundant attributes.

Offline editing.

The ability to drag and drop between HTML5 documents.

Messaging enhancements.

Detailed parsing

MIME and protocol handler registration.

A common standard for storing data in SQL databases (Web SQL).

Application program interfaces (API) for complex applications.

Accommodations for mobile device app development.

MathML for mathematical and scientific formulas.

While the addition of these features represents an effort to support multimedia embedding, changes to the HTML specification demonstrate the desire of the community for HTML to return to its original purpose of describing the structure of content. Basically, more structural features have been added, while several format-centric features have been deprecated. For the purpose of backward-compatibility, web browsers will continue to support deprecated HTML tags, but eventually, HTML will be mainly structure-based.

HTML syntax standards

In the following HTML example, there are two HTML elements. Both elements use the same paragraph tag, designated with the letter p, and both use the directional attribute dir, although a different attribute value is assigned to the HTML attribute's name-value pairing, namely RTL and ltr.

Notice that when this HTML snippet is rendered in a browser, the HTML tags impact how each HTML element is displayed on the page, but none of the HTML tags or attributes are displayed. HTML simply describes how to render the content. The HTML itself is never displayed to the end-user.

In order for a web browser to display an HTML page without error, it must be provided with well-formed HTML. To be well-formed, each HTML element must be contained within an opening tag -- <p> -- and a closing tag -- </p>. Furthermore, any new tag opened within another tag must be closed before the containing tag is closed. So, for example, <h1><p>well-formed HTML</p></h1> is well-formed HTML, while <h1><p>well-formed HTML</h1></p> is not well-formed HTML.

Another syntax rule is that HTML attributes should be enclosed within single or double-quotes. There is often debate about which format is technically correct, but the World Wide Web Consortium asserts that both approaches are acceptable.

The best advice for choosing between single and double quotes is to keep the usage consistent across all the documents. HTML style-checkers can be used to enforce consistent use across pages. It should be noted that sometimes using a single quote is required, such as in an instance where an attribute value actually contains a double quote character. The reverse is true as well.

It's important to note as well that the language HTML works with is basic English. Non-English characters -- or letters -- such as Chinese, or special symbols -- like letters with accent marks -- may not display correctly on a webpage by default. In order to accommodate special character sets, users need to specify the character encoding with an element that looks like this: <meta charset="utf-8"/>. In this case, utf-8 is the character set. Utf-8 is HTML's default English charset.

Using HTML to create websites

Hackers hide web skimmer inside a website's CSS files

WhatsApp to stop working on these iPhones, Android smartphones from January 1: Details here

2020-12-26T08:47:00.009-08:00

WhatsApp to stop working on these iPhones, Android smartphones from January 1: Details here

New Delhi: Popular messaging platform WhatsApp will withdraw support from certain platforms from January 1.

Mentioning supported operating systems, the WhatsApp page mentions that it provides support for and recommend using the following devices:

Android running OS 4.0.3 and newer

iPhone running iOS 9 and newer

Select phones running KaiOS 2.5.1 newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2

"Once you have one of these devices, install WhatsApp, and register your phone number. WhatsApp can only be activated with one phone number on one device at a time. Furthermore, there's no option to transfer your chat history between platforms. However, we provide the option to export your chat history as an email attachment. Please note, export chat int supported in Germany," WhatsApp says on its support page.

Based on the above, it can be concluded that iPhones are not run iOS 9 will not be used for WhatsApp services from 2021. This includes all earlier iPhone models up to iPhone 4. However, those using iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6S, will have to update their phones with either iOS 9 or later for being able to use WhatsApp. For Android users, phones like HTC Desire, LG Optimus Black, Motorola Droid Razr, Samsung Galaxy S2 are the ones that may not be running Android OS 4.0.3 and newer.

How to find out OS running on your phone

iPhone users go to Settings > General > Information to find out the software version on your iPhone. Android users go to Settings > About Phone to find out the OS version running on their smartphone.

Google Chrome and Edge users warned: millions at-risk from terrifying new extension attack

2020-12-26T08:45:00.005-08:00

Google Chrome and Edge users warned: millions at-risk from terrifying new extension attack

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users put on alert about extension attack (Image: MICROSOFT • GOOGLE • GETTY)

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browser users have been cautioned about at least 28 new malicious extensions discovered on the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Edge Add-ons portal.

According to security experts Avast, these nefarious browser extensions have been downloaded over three million times across the globe and pack a number of dangerous tools at their disposal. Once downloaded into your web browser, these lightweight apps can steal sensitive personal data and send you to phishing websites. And, most worryingly, at the time of publishing, Avast said these Chrome and Edge third-party add-ons were still listed on official marketplaces and available to download.

The security experts have contacted both Microsoft and Google about these malicious extensions, with the tech giants investigating the problematic downloads right now.

But according to Avast, the extensions remain available to download pending the investigation – meaning more people could be tricked.

Avast has been monitoring this threat since last month but said it could have remained active and undetected for years. There are reviews on the Chrome Web Store mentioning link hijacking as far back as December 2018.

READ MORE: Use Google Chrome, Edge, or Firefox? Watch out for this nasty malware

Some of these dangerous extensions, like the one pictured above, are still available to install now (Image: GOOGLE • MICROSOFT) Google Chrome explain how users can view extension data

Jan Rubin, the malware researcher at Avast, said: "The extensions’ backdoors are well-hidden and the extensions only start to exhibit malicious behavior days after installation, which made it hard for any security software to discover".

Rubin also added: "Our hypothesis is that either the extensions were deliberately created with the malware built-in, or the author waited for the extensions to become popular, and then pushed an update containing the malware. It could also be that the author sold the original extensions to someone else after creating them, and then the buyer introduced the malware afterward".

A number of the extensions that Avast highlighted posed as helpful tools that aid people looking to download videos from leading sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Extensions that Avast mentioned include Video Downloader for Facebook, Instagram Story Downloader, Spotify Music Downloader, and Video Downloader for YouTube.

Avast malware researcher Jan Vojtesek said the malware has been difficult to detect as it is capable of hiding itself.

Vojtesek explained: "The virus detects if the user is googling one of its domains or, for instance, if the user is a web developer and, if so, won't perform any malicious activities on their browsers. It avoids infecting people more skilled in web development since they could more easily find out what the extensions are doing in the background."

Advising users on how to stay safe, Avast recommended that anyone who has the extensions should disable or uninstall them for now.

They should also scan for malware and remove any malicious downloads that have ended up on their machine.

Here is a list of problematic extensions that Avast highlighted: Direct Message for Instagram, Direct Message for Instagram™, DM for Instagram, Invisible mode for Instagram Direct Message, Downloader for Instagram, Instagram Download Video & Image, App Phone for Instagram, Stories for Instagram, Universal Video Downloader, Video Downloader for FaceBook™, Vimeo™ Video Downloader, Volume Controller, Zoomer for Instagram and Facebook, VK UnBlock. Works fast., Odnoklassniki UnBlock. Works quickly., Upload photo to Instagram™, Spotify Music Downloader, Stories for Instagram, Upload photo to Instagram™, Pretty Kitty, The Cat Pet, Video Downloader for YouTube, SoundCloud Music Downloader, The New York Times News, Instagram App with Direct Message DM.

Some of these downloads were listed twice. If you want to see all the links for these add-ons then click here to read the full Avast study.

9 things you didn't know you could do on WhatsApp

2020-12-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

9 things you didn't know you could do on WhatsApp

We're huge fans of the WhatsApp messaging service. Offering free, cross-platform text, multimedia, voice messaging, and free voice and video calls, what's not to like? Chances are you've been using it on your phone for a while now, but you may not have spent any time tinkering under the hood to get next-level good at WhatsApp. We've taken some time to really drill down into the app to find its special tips, tricks, tweaks, hacks, and secret features so you can become a WhatsApp expert.

1. Make WhatsApp messages automatically disappear

While we wouldn't suggest activating this functionality for your bae's message history, the ability to have WhatsApp messages automatically disappear after a certain period of time is useful to keep more noisy chats manageable.

It is possible to change a setting that means all future messages in a certain chat will be automatically deleted from your phone after seven days. Do be aware though that this doesn't mean someone hasn't screenshotted or shared any messages in the meantime.

To enable this feature, go into the WhatsApp chat you want to change the settings for, and at the top of your screen click on the person's or the group chat's name. In the menu screen, that next appears, scroll down until you see the "Disappearing messages" option and tap it to toggle it on.

This means the messages will disappear for everyone but do note that you can only activate this option for group chats where you are the admin.

2. Change your WhatsApp chats background

If you're still stuck with the default WhatsApp wallpaper for your chats, then ya basic! It's super simple to change it out for a more interesting choice.

To do it, go into WhatsApp and click on the cog-shaped Settings icon. Select Chats from the next menu screen that appears, then tap on Chat Wallpaper. This will then bring up your further options.

You can choose to use one of WhatsApp's preloaded images from its gallery (it's worth having a browse, there are some pretty sweets pics), change your wallpaper to a solid color, or use an image from your own photos.

If you select one of WhatsApp's images you will be prompted to select whether you want the image to remain still or move slightly by choosing the "perspective" view.

3. Use bold, italic, and crossed out text in WhatsApp chats

You can make your WhatsApp text messages more interesting — and get your points across better — by using bold text, italics, and even crossing text out with a strikethrough.

For bold text, simply add an *asterisk* to either side of the word or phrase. Adding an _underscore_ to either side of the word or phrase creates italic text. To strikethrough text, add a ~tilde~ to either side of the word or phrase.

4. Use the secret WhatsApp typewriter font

Did you know WhatsApp has a secret font you can use to make your messages stand out from the crowd? You can use a special sequence of symbols to activate an old school typewriter-style typeface.

To do it, you simply need to add three slanting apostrophes: ```.

Note that on iOS this is not the standard apostrophe you will see in your main keyboard view. You have to press and hold the apostrophe sign to see the correct symbol to use — you want to select the first one that slants diagonally downwards from left to right.

5. Reply to a specific message within a WhatsApp chat thread

Group chats on WhatsApp can get seriously noisy, and messages can come flying in from all directions when things get a bit busy. If someone messaged something that you want to reply to that would not make sense to post in a chronological way, you can go back to that past message to highlight it and reply directly.

This makes the original message, with your reply beneath, appear at the bottom of your chat screen. To do this, press and hold on the message until a menu pops up from which you can select Reply.

Alternatively, and a quicker method, is simply to swipe on the message you want to reply to from left to right.

6. Pin a WhatsApp chat to the top of your chats screen

This is a really useful hack to keep a chat thread visible at the top of your chat screen. If you want to give any of your chats top billing, simply swipe on the chat from left to right and tap on the drawing pin icon that appears.

This will move that chat to the top of your chat screen so it's always immediately visible. This also adds a pin icon to the chat so you know it's been pinned. To undo this action, simply swipe the chat again to unpin it. You can pin up to three chats at one time.

7. Broadcast a personal WhatsApp message to multiple contacts

It's possible in WhatsApp to send the same message to multiple contacts without them being in a group chat or even seeing who else received the message. Useful if you want to share important news with an announcement, or if you want to wish everyone seasonal greetings. It’s quick and simple to do.

From your chat screen on iOS, tap on Broadcast Lists at the top right of your screen, then New List at the bottom, and then add the recipients you want to get the message. On Android devices, you need to choose New Broadcast from the chats menu.

Any messages you send using this method will be received as individual messages in WhatsApp chat threads.

8. Give yourself more time to read WhatsApp messages before they are marked as read

We all know that those two ticks below WhatsApp messages turn blue when the message has been seen, which puts you under pressure to reply. On iOS, if you want to get a sneak preview of a WhatsApp message before it's marked as read, you can tweak your notification settings to ensure a preview of the message appears on your home screen and stays there until you manually dismiss it.

To set this useful feature up, ensure that you have message previews enabled in your WhatsApp settings menu. Check this by going to Settings, then Notifications, then toggling Show Preview to on.

Next, go to your iPhone settings menu and select Notifications, then scroll down to find WhatsApp. In the next screen, ensure your notifications are enabled, then tap on Banner Style and change it to Persistent.

This now means the previews of any WhatsApp messages you receive will remain on your iPhone's home screen until you dismiss them and the person who has sent the message won't get the blue ticks to say you've read it until you actually go into the app.

9. Customize alert tones for different WhatsApp chat threads

You can customize the sound alert tone you hear when you receive a WhatsApp message from any contact or group. This is very useful because it means you can differentiate between group chats that you might not necessarily need to keep up with in real-time and important direct messages from your loved ones.

To give a WhatsApp group or contact a custom tone, go into the chat and tap on the person's or group's name at the top of the screen. Scroll down to Custom Tone and click through. You can then change the default tone to the one you know you're either safe to ignore or one that you know means you need to grab your phone stat.

What's up on WhatsApp

Hopefully, you'll have found some useful tips, tricks, tweaks, and more within this list. From buying yourself time to reply to messages, to making your messages stand out with a different font, there are some great tricks here for all users of the popular WhatsApp messaging platform.

Blend Your Last Frogs. Google Turns A Blind Eye To Flash.

2020-12-17T03:45:00.004-08:00

Blend Your Last Frogs. Google Turns A Blind Eye To Flash.

Google has announced that it will no longer index Flash files.

Journey with me to a time in a faraway internet; a time before we had monetized social media. A time when the page you shared with your friends was your page and not a page on someone’s network. Way back when Visual Basic was what Python is now and JavaScript was a hack mostly used for cool effects. A hero arose. Macromedia Flash opened the gates to the interactive web, and for a chunk of time, it consumed more than a decent portion of humanity’s attention and artistic output.

Computer art was growing, but was it public? How many grandmothers would see a demo?

New grounds were paved and anyone who wanted to become an animator or a web designer could manage it in a few tutorials. Only a few years before Flash took off, people had started talking about computers as a source for art in mostly theoretical terms. There were demoscenes, university studies, and professional communities, of course, but were they truly public? Suddenly Flash made computer art an everyday thing. How could computers not be used for art? In schools and offices all over the world, people of varying technical skill would get links to games, animation, and clever sites sent by their friends and colleagues.

For 23 years Flash has had this incredible creative legacy. Yet it’s not perfect by any means. It’s a constant headache for our friendly neighborhood super-conglomerates. Apple hates how it drains the battery on their mobile devices, and that it’s a little village outside of their walled garden. Microsoft sees it as another endless security violation. They all saw it as a competitor product eating their proprietary code bases.

Coders and professionals also started to see the light as new technologies coming down the line. While many programmers cut their teeth on ActionScript, JavaScript demos and environments grew more impressive each year as the web standards grew to include everything from video streaming to 3D rendering; largely as a direct result of Flash’s influence.

The Tides Began to Shift

For users outside the realm of computer experts, it was a confusing time. Suddenly a person’s browser was haranguing them to switch to new media players. It was asking them if they were really sure they wanted to experience their usual content. Many users saw Flash through the lens of fun memories with their friends and simply didn’t understand the deciding factors. For anyone who grew up in this time, Flash was a part of life.

It came and it conquered.

So is it fair for Google to blind itself to Flash? Maybe Google forgets the artistic debt we owe to Flash. Maybe all Google sees is that annoying thing they had to replace on Youtube until their mix of HTML5, Javascript, and trackers could take over.

The truth is, as usual, grey. While there are certainly alternate motivations from the many companies competing in this space, it’s always good science to ask if their stances have any merit alone. The truth is that Flash is an ancient bit of technology that’s been surpassed and replaced by superior ones. It’s proprietary. It’s a security vulnerability. Its encapsulated nature is at odds with the integrated web we have now: where there’s not much seam between JavaScript, web assembly, HTML, and the browser’s engine. Its time has long since passed.

What Does it Mean to Have Free Access to Information?

Yet, we do wonder about the rhetoric Google puts forth. Google’s fundamental premise is a list of algorithmically ranked public web resources. The truth tends to lean towards an advertisement delivery network. Is it correct for Google to stop indexing a certain type of file just because that file no longer aligns with its internal view on acceptable technologies? An index of information like Google’s is more than a service, it’s a cultural cornerstone.

Goodbye forever.

Years ago Yahoo shut down Geocities without much warning and without much of a plan. In a blink, one of the largest reflections and snapshots of the public mind at the birth of the information era was lost. Many of our Hackaday articles now point to nothing because of this. Internet archaeologists certainly tried their best to save it, but it was an imperfect rescue.

So the question is, is burning the index to the library of Alexandria just as bad as burning the library itself? Even if that library contains technological stone tablets; will we be left with nothing but cooling memories of an interactive web. A web we’ll never see again? A web that arose at the start of this strange network taking over our collective consciousness. While there is still a server hosting that content for public access, should it not be indexed?

Explained: Reason behind 45-minute global outage for Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services

2020-12-17T00:37:00.006-08:00

Explained: Reason behind 45-minute global outage for Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services

Google services, including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Drive faced a mass outage on Monday (December 14). The outage lasted for around an hour and it affected Google users across the world. During the outage, millions of Google users were unable to access emails or Youtube.

A Google spokesperson said the outage of approximately 45 minutes was due to an internal storage quota issue. The statement said services requiring users to log inexperienced high error rates during this period. All services are now restored, it said, apologizing to everyone affected and promising a thorough follow up review to ensure this problem cannot recur in the future.

Shortly after the outage, Google said that Gmail was facing an issue and the status page showed red for most services for a few minutes. We're aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Gmail. We will provide an update by 12/14/20, 5:42 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change, said an update on the Google Workspace Status dashboard, posted at 5.25PM IST.

By 6.22 PM, Google had updated that problem with Gmail should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users. By then most other Google services also started functioning normally.

It initially said system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.

It is to be noted that Gmail and YouTube together have over 3.5 billion global users and the outage affected all these users, which means that the problem was not small.

Experts maintain that the outage witnessed on Monday was not localized and was among the larger ones experienced in recent times. At its peak, DownDetector.com recorded over 1,12,000 issues on YouTube and almost 40,000 for Gmail.

Live TV

Google needs to address this problem as there has been a massive surge in users across all online services and Google services are very popular among netizens. Experts are raising questions about whether Google's backend infrastructure is strong enough to tackle the spike in load.

Google says 3 days a week in office, rest can be WFH: Report

2020-12-15T07:10:00.005-08:00

Google says 3 days a week in office, rest can be WFH: Report

Alphabet's Google will allow its employees to work from home until September next year, extending the return to the office by a few months, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The company was also testing the idea of a "flexible workweek" once it is safe to return to the office, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told the company's staff in an email on Sunday, according to the report.

As part of the plan, Google's employees would be expected to work at least three days a week in the office while working from home the other days, the newspaper report said.

"We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being," Pichai wrote in the email.

Google was one of the first companies to ask its employees to work from home due to the pandemic. It has previously delayed the timing by when the employees should return to the office from January next year to July.

Across the world, there have been a total of 7,22,48,705 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the latest update. This includes 2,33,87,425 people who are being treated, 4,72,48,930 who have recovered and 16,12,350 who have died.

The highest number of coronavirus cases currently is in US which has registered 1,62,51,975 confirmed COVID-19 cases. 2,99,163 people have died of coronavirus in the country. India and Brazil are next in line with 98,84,100 and 69,01,952 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,43,355 and 1,81,402 deaths, respectively.

Google Contemplating Flexible Workweek, Says Three Days in Office, Rest Can Be Work From Home

2020-12-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

Google Contemplating Flexible Workweek, Says Three Days in Office, Rest Can Be Work From Home

New Delhi: Tech giant Google will allow its employees to work from home until September next year, extending the return to the office by a few months, according to a report in the New York Times report on Monday.

The company has also been testing the idea of a "flexible workweek" once it is safe to return to the office, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told the company's staff in an email on Sunday, the report mentioned.

As part of the plan, Google's employees would be expected to work at least three days a week in the office while working from home the other days, the newspaper report said.

"We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being," Pichai wrote in the email.

There's Another WhatsApp Phishing Hack: Here's How To EASILY Avoid It, Like A Boss

2020-12-14T03:04:00.004-08:00

There's Another WhatsApp Phishing Hack: Here's How To EASILY Avoid It, Like A Boss

A new WhatsApp hack is going around that give hackers access to all of your messages, and do the same to your contacts, but if you know what to look out for, you should be fine.

The new hack uses phishing techniques but wrapped in a more sophisticated package, so it's easier to fly under the radar. It only requires the hacker to have access to an account that has you as a contact to target your account. This means that if one of your friends falls victim to the hack, you could be in danger too. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself.

According to The Independent, when the hackers have access to an account that has you as a contact, they will send you messages that will probably seem quite normal, as if they were coming from the person who owns the account. Sooner or later you will receive a text from WhatsApp with the six-digit authentication code that you need to input whenever you add a new device or make changes to your account. This is what the attackers are looking for.

The compromised account will then ask you to send them that six-digit code, saying they sent it to the wrong number by mistake. If you send them the code then the hackers have been successful and will have access to your account by turning it into a WhatsApp business account.

If they do get access to your account they will now be able to try and do the same thing to everyone on your contacts list. Meaning that the more accounts that fall victim to the hack, the more likely you are to be targeted. It also means they will have access to all of your messages and conversations.

The easy way to protect yourself from this hack is to never give out the six-digit code that is sent to you. This code should only ever be used by you when making changes to your account, and any code that is sent to your number should never be shared, regardless of who is asking. If a friend did somehow manage to send the code to your number, they could easily resend it to their number in seconds, so never believe them if they say otherwise.

You can also protect yourself by enabling two-factor authentication on your WhatsApp account, which will make it even harder for attackers to gain access to your messages. If you stay alert then you should be safe when using WhatsApp, and can enjoy all of the cool new features it has added recently.

Source: The Independent

Glued to the TV, ‘not anxious’, RJD chief Lalu Prasad waits for two verdicts: court, elections

2020-11-30T08:36:00.002-08:00

Glued to the TV, ‘not anxious’, RJD chief Lalu Prasad waits for two verdicts: court, elections

SERVING out his prison term at the Ranchi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he has been staying since May 2018, the man who has been synonymous with Bihar politics for four decades is away from the heat and dust this time. Even son and political heir Tejashwi Yadav is accused by rivals of downplaying the Lalu Prasad influence.

However, the 72-year-old is watching the action closely. “Laluji is watching the news on TV all the time, even while having meals. He doesn’t read newspapers much… He sometimes asks nurses to read out headlines,” says an official of the Birsa Munda Central Jail, Ranchi, where Lalu is supposed to be lodged, who paid a routine visit to him less than a week ago.

The official adds, “When I went to the hospital ward, he was eating lunch and watching Tej Pratap Yadav (his elder son who is fighting from Hasanpur, which will vote on November 3) address a rally. Easy lag rahe the (he looked calm)... His body language was relaxed.”

Also, Read | Little Covid effect as over 54% come out to vote in Bihar Phase I

Lalu has been serving consecutive jail terms since December 2017 since his conviction in cases of fodder scam dating back to his term as CM of undivided Bihar in the 1990s. He has spent most of his term at the RIMS, where he is being treated for multiple ailments.

With the RJD facing a make-or-break election, its founder-president, it seems, is more than hopeful. “Laluji is confident of a grand victory of the Grand Alliance,” Jharkhand RJD youth president Abhay Singh said. “He says sarkar Mera hi aayega… Jitni der jage rehte hain, chunav prachar hi dekhte hain. Thoda bhi vyakul nahin hain, swasth hain (He says it’s our government that will come... All the time he is awake, he is following the election news. He is not at all anxious, he is healthy).”

Click here for full coverage

The jail official says Lalu doesn’t have a cellphone, and that visitors are allowed once a week. A few days ago, some party workers visited him. While Tejashwi, the CM face of the RJD-led alliance, his daughters and wife Rabri Devi came more than two months ago, the officer says, Tej Pratap visited a month ago. “Laluji was waiting for him anxiously, asking people if there was a word from him... His samadhi Jitendra Yadav also came to see him from UP.”

Opinion: NDA has a slight edge in Bihar polls, despite Nitish Kumar’s dwindling popularity

Jitendra Yadav, who met Lalu for a few hours in the third week of September, says Lalu looked healthy “but his sugar was out of range on the day”. “I do not talk politics with him. I meet him as a relative. I see him every few months.” One of Lalu’s daughters is married to Jitendra Yadav’s son.

Tejashwi has been saying at rallies that Lalu will be out of jail on November 9, and it will be Nitish Kumar’s vidaai (farewell) the next day, on November 10, when the election results are declared. Lalu’s counsel Prabhat Kumar says they are confident of this. “Laluji has already served half of his jail sentence — three-and-a-half years — in the Chaibasa treasury and Deoghar treasury cases and was granted bail in those cases on that ground. Now, in the Dumka treasury case (embezzlement of Rs 3.13 crore), he is set to complete 50% of his sentence of 7 years. We will file bail application when the Jharkhand High Court reopens on November 2, after the Durga Puja vacation, and most likely he will be out of jail on November 9.”

Is he looking at arguably the greatest homecoming for a politician? The RJD hopes so.

Bad news for PUBG lovers! PUBG Mobile, Lite version to stop working in India from today

2020-11-30T08:29:00.006-08:00

Bad news for PUBG lovers! PUBG Mobile, Lite version to stop working in India from today

New Delhi: PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite will no longer work for gamers in India starting from Friday, the company has announced.

Tencent Games, which owns the mobile game, said on Facebook that it "deeply regrets this outcome" and thanked PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite fans for their support in India.

The company said on Thursday that "protecting user data has always been a top priority and we have always complied with applicable data protection laws and regulations in India. All users` gameplay information is processed in a transparent manner as disclosed in our privacy policy".

The announcement came on the back of the Indian government`s decision to ban PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite on September 2.

The game was banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

PUBG Corporation recently announced that they are withdrawing their partnership with Tencent and that they will work with the Indian government to look for a quick resolution.

PUBG game, which has more than 600 million downloads and 50 million active players globally, has nearly 33 million users in India.

PUBG Mobile saw a global revenue gain of $1.3 billion (roughly Rs 9,731 crore) in the first half of this year, bringing its lifetime collection to $3 billion (nearly Rs 22,457 crore) with the highest number of downloads in India which ranks at the top with 175 million installs as people stayed home owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns.

Additionally, the Indian gaming company nCore announced indigenous multiplayer action game FAU-G to fill the void of PUBG Mobile. FAU-G is slated to launch next month.

This Week’s Top Stories: The New Google Play, Android TV On Windows PCs, More

2020-11-26T03:30:00.001-08:00

This Week’s Top Stories: The New Google Play, Android TV On Windows PCs, More

In this week’s top stories: Google Pay gets a massive overhaul and a new app, Android TV unofficially arrives in a way that’s perfect for older Windows PCs, Nvidia Shield TV gets an update, and more.

The biggest story this week is that Google Pay has gotten a full revamp, which is actually an entirely separate app, based on the “Tez” version of Google Pay available in India. Teased on Tuesday and released on Wednesday, the new Google Pay is a great deal more like PayPal and other payment apps, offering person-to-person payments and cashback reward offers.

What about NFC payments? The heart and soul of the old Google Pay are still very much available but in a different sense. At the top of the UI there’s a card indicator for your primary card and tapping it allows you to swap cards, view tickets, and access gift cards or loyalty cards. It’s a bit more cumbersome, though, which might irk some users. At least Android 11 makes it easier to access Google Play.

The half of the story of the new Google Pay is that Google has announced that they will be offering “Plex” bank accounts through Citibank and Stanford FCU next year. These Plex accounts will be free to open and feature no monthly fees, and, more importantly for the vanity-minded, feature Google-branded debit cards.

Savings, with the ability to create customizable goals, is the other big tentpole. The app features a header image for your specific task with milestones to break up and make the task more manageable. One option is to “round-up transfers” on all purchases to help meet the goal, while another is “repeating transfer.”

If you’ve got a spare Windows computer lying around that you want to repurpose, an interesting option has popped up, as developers have unofficially created a build of Android TV for x86 (Intel/AMD) computers. There are a few caveats, but the idea is certainly solid and could at the very least make for a fun weekend project over the holidays.

As this is an unofficial port, though, it comes with a couple of known issues. Some users will notice a “Detecting Android TV” message gets stuck on the non-EXT4 partition. Chromecast built-in also doesn’t work without DRM support, and Netflix is broken except on the mobile version. This build also lacks Widevine L1 certification, so services such as Netflix won’t stream in HD.

The Nvidia Shield TV got an update this week, and although there are no major new features, the update includes quite a variety of quality-of-life improvements. In particular, the Shield TV Remote has gotten a boost to its IR blaster opening it to use with more devices and even be controlled by Alexa.

Some notable bug fixes include fixing audio issues when using a USB DAC, resolving a problem where AI upscaling wouldn’t work on some content, and should fix a problem that caused Shield devices not to show up on a Google Chromecast list.

Lastly, Google has taken some time this week to honor the beloved host of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek. In a new easter egg, Google has begun suggesting “Did you mean: who is Alex Trebek” when searching for “Alex Trebek,” an allusion to the rules of Jeopardy.

[…] it’s incredibly wholesome to see Google honor Trebek and his Jeopardy legacy this way. Considering how quickly they were able to make this easter egg available, it’s clear how much of an impact Trebek doubtlessly had on the lives of many Googlers.

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Google Pay’s old apps and website to lose payment features in the US in January

2020-11-26T03:24:00.007-08:00

Google Pay’s old apps and website to lose payment features in the US in January

Google Pay’s old iOS app, Android app, and website are set to lose many of its payment features in the US in January, the company has confirmed to The Verge. According to a Google support document, the old apps will soon no longer be able to send or receive payments or withdraw money. Meanwhile, a notice on the Google Pay website says it’s also losing the ability to send and receive peer-to-peer payments. Google is also introducing a 1.5 percent fee when you transfer money out of Google Pay using a debit card, 9to5Google reports.

The changes follow the service’s massive relaunch last week in the US, which includes a new app and new features like the option of automatically scanning your Gmail inbox and Google Photos account for receipts to import. The new service is set to expand further next year when Google plans to partner with banks to offer full checking and savings accounts within Google Pay.

A notice on the website says it soon won’t support peer-to-peer payments. Screenshot: pay.google.com

The relaunch also brings with it the introduction of a new fee for transferring out money using a debit card. A support page says that transferring money out using a debit card, a process which usually happens instantly, will now incur a fee of 1.5 percent or a minimum of $0.31. Transfers out to a linked bank account are still free but can take between 1 and 3 business days. Google Pay originally had zero fees, 9to5Google reports.

Although its peer-to-peer payment features are disappearing in the US, Google has confirmed that Google Pay’s web interface will stick around. In the future it will be focused on managing payment methods, subscriptions, and account settings, the company says.

Update November 25th, 12:07PM ET: Updated to clarify that the changes are specific to the US.

PUBG Mobile India pre-registrations now open: Here's how to pre-register prior to official launch - India TV News

2020-11-23T04:02:00.000-08:00

PUBG Mobile India pre-registrations now open: Here's how to pre-register prior to official launch - India TV News

Image Source: PUBG MOBILE INDIA

PUBG Mobile coming to India soon

PUBG Mobile is soon making a comeback in India after a brief ban in the country. PUBG Corporation has been going trying every trick in the book to 'unban' PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and is finally launching the Indian version of the game soon. Now, prior to the official launch, the battle royale game pre-registrations are reportedly live. Read on to know how you can go about it.

It is suggested that the pre-registrations for PUBG Mobile in India are now live on the TapTap app, which is a free app to download and play several games. However, PUBG Mobile India hasn't revealed a pre-registration process on the PUBG Mobile India website. Additionally, it hasn't authenticated the TapTap listing. Having said that, if you wish to check out the app and pre-register, here's how you can do so:

Download the TapTap app via an APK link by heading to the TapTap website
Now that you have the app, login or create a new TapTap account to start using it
Now, look for PUBG Mobile India in the search option and click on the game
Once this is done, click on the 'pre-registration' option and you are done

For those who don't know, after officially revealing the launch of PUBG Mobile India, a separate website went live. The website, on Saturday, showed the APK link and the Google Play Store for users to download the game, hinting at an earlier-than-expected launch. However, the links didn't work and even disappeared after a while.

The PUBG Mobile India website currently features just Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links and says 'Coming Soon.' An official trailer was also released just asks people if they are 'Missing the excitement,' 'Missing the pan,' 'Missing the thrill,' or 'Missing the chicken dinner,' and suggested that PUBG Mobile India is coming soon.

PUBG will also set up a new subsidiary in India for which it will hire new people. The Indian version of the battle royale game will be specified at Indian users and their preferences will be kept in mind. For security, PUBG Corporation's parent company Krafton has joined hands with Microsoft Azure to maintain the security and privacy of the users, the reason due to which it got banned in the first place. Additionally, the game will come with restrictions so that users don't overplay or get addicted to it.

However, we still don't have an official launch date. We will keep you posted once we get updated on it. Hence, stay tuned.

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