Analyze YouTube war footage with Google’s Montage app
Where information from warzones used to trickle in, the internet has brought a flood of user-generated media. And though there are some tools available that can quickly parse through that data in real-time, they mostly work only with static documents, as videos are harder to analyze. Today, though, Google is releasing Montage, a curation tool that turns masses of video into conclusive data for humanitarian groups, journalists and news junkies.
Simply put, Montage sorts, maps and tags videos — which is normally a huge undertaking for small teams to accomplish. Google let the humanitarian non-profit The Carter Center use Montage for its Syria Mapping Project, as the Syrian conflict continues to produce an incredible volume of user-generated video.
Recently, the Syria Mapping Project team used Montage to help confirm that a flurry of attacks had been caused by a single Jihadi group that wasn’t party to a brokered truce — ergo, a tenuous ceasefire between Syrian government and rebel forces was still in effect. That’s exactly the kind of analysis that benefits from a speedy tool like Montage.
Montage, which is free to the public as a Google web tool or a Chrome plug-in, was built by Google’s humanitarian-focused tech incubator, called Jigsaw. Google’s goal is for Montage to ingest YouTube’s massive, growing collection of user-uploaded videos and quickly turn it around for use by human rights groups.
Montage’s genesis came from a 2013 Google Ideas summit in NYC when Google staff met with amateur conflict analyst Elliot Higgins, who was already making wartime discoveries almost entirely by analyzing YouTube videos. As Jigsaw product manager Justin Kosslyn told Wired, the meeting “was the beginning of this realization that Syria was the first YouTube conflict in the way that Vietnam was the first TV conflict.”
Images: AP Photo/Andoni Lubaki (lead image); Jigsaw (screenshot).
Source: Wired
Latest ‘Division’ exploit delivers unlimited damage
Just days after The Division community was warned they could be banned from the game for exploiting shoddy code comes one doozy of an exploit for Ubisoft’s hit game. Due to a bug in the “Competent” talent, players can build up a short burst of obscenely high damage in the 1,000,000-plus DPS range.
If you’re currently wandering around the Dark Zone worried about getting blasted by an exploiter armed with a one-shot kill, there is one consolation: The exploit is fairly time consuming. To amass that sort of firepower, a player needs to first equip the talent and then switch back and forth between weapons for a solid five minutes or more. Player “Simplified” shows how it’s done on YouTube:
After last week’s patch put a halt to speedruns that could potentially throw off the game’s balance, there’s hope Ubisoft will make a quick fix here as well. Until then, those ban-happy community managers will likely be on the lookout for players crouching behind cars and rapidly swapping between their weapons for ten minutes.
‘Rocket League’ basketball update lands on April 26th
Rocket League’s quest to include every major sport continues. Psyonix has revealed that its game’s promised basketball mode, Rocket League Hoops, will arrive as part of a free update on April 26th. For the most part, it’s exactly what you’d expect: instead of shooting horizontally to score (as with the existing football/soccer and hockey modes), you have to toss the ball down into a giant hoop. That definitely changes the game mechanics, though, as those fanciful aerial and wall shots are now much more important. The only catch is that it’s a two-on-two mode, so it won’t be quite as wild as you might like.
The add-on only includes one new B-ball-specific arena, but there’s more to the upgrade beyond that. There’s a physics tweak to make the ball behave more like you’d expect, and you can both quick-save replays as well as rename them to help remember classic matches. And yes, there’s some paid content coming as well — you can buy an NBA-themed flag pack if you just have to rep your favorite team in the virtual world.
Source: Rocket League (YouTube)
‘Mr. Robot’ season 2.0 hits USA on July 13
Everyone’s favorite paranoid hacker dreamboat returns to type furiously and maybe destroy capitalism in season two of Mr. Robot, premiering on USA July 13. The show follows Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), a genius hacker who gets roped into an underground society of digital anarchists, “F-Society,” led by a shady fellow named Mr. Robot (Christian Slater).
Expect Elliot and crew to deal with the aftermath of last season’s events alongside new cast members, including Craig Robinson (The Office) and rapper Joey Bada$$. If you missed out on the show last year, now’s the time to catch up, if only to appreciate its very realistic portrayal of hacking.
Source: USA
PlayStation Network is adding two-factor sign-ins
It’s about to get much harder for someone to compromise your PlayStation Network account. Sony has confirmed that it’s working on two-factor authentication for PSN, preventing intruders from getting into your games (or worse, going on a spending spree) simply because they have your password. It’s unclear just what that second identifying factor will be, but the odds are that you’ll get an SMS-based code to type in the first time you sign into a device or website.
As Polygon notes, the timing of the news is uncanny — it comes exactly five years after PSN succumbed to a data breach that exposed 77 million gamers and left the network itself out of commission for weeks. While two-factor authentication wouldn’t have addressed the outage, it would have reassured players worried that their data was ripe for the taking. About the only question is why Sony waited so long. Xbox Live added two-factor sign-ins in 2013, so there was certainly precedent for tighter security in the gaming space.
Source: Polygon
Apple Moves Q2 2016 Earnings Announcement to April 26
Apple today updated its investor relations page to note the earnings announcement for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016 will take place on Tuesday, April 26 instead of Monday, April 25 as was previously announced last month.
It is not clear why Apple has moved the date of the earnings call by a single day, but it will now take place next Tuesday instead of next Monday.
The earnings release will provide a look at sales of the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and SE following Apple’s record first quarter, which saw the company announce 74.8 million iPhone sales and $18.4 billion profit on $75.9 billion in revenue.
Apple has warned that iPhone sales will decline in the March quarter and has provided Q2 2016 guidance of $50 to $53 billion in revenue and gross margin between 39 and 39.5 percent. Should Apple only take in $50 to $53 billion, the company will see its first year-over-year revenue drop in 13 years.
The quarterly earnings statement will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, with a conference call to discuss the report taking place at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings release and conference call on April 26.
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Record Skype calls for free – CNET
For many Windows users, Skype is the go-to Internet phone service. With it you can make free Skype-to-Skype calls around the world. And calls from your PC can go to not just other PCs, but also tablets, smartphones and landlines.
Skype is also a popular tool among podcasters, who use it for chats with co-hosts, interviews with guests and so on.
Needless to say, there are any number of reasons you might want to record your Skype calls. Alas, the Windows client doesn’t offer that capability, but there are some free tools that do.
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DVDVideosoft
I’m going to discuss two of them. First up is DVDVideosoft’s Free Video Call Recorder for Skype, a simple but effective utility that can record video or, if you prefer, just audio. True to its name, it’s free — and not just for personal use, but commercial use as well.
That’s a big plus if you’re one of the aforementioned podcasters. However, I discovered one unfortunate catch: Although I was careful during installation to opt out of the shovel-ware extras Free Video Call Recorder wanted to install, I still ended up with a bit of sneak-ware — a search engine that had weaseled its way into my browser.
It wasn’t an outright virus, and I had no trouble removing it from my PC, but it sure left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand “free” software isn’t always free, but don’t be sneaky about it. I’d much rather have a feature-limited version with an option to upgrade.
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Alexander Nikiforov
Which brings me to MP3 Skype Recorder 4.20, a freeware, adware-free recording utility that — as you’ve probably guessed — saves your Skype audio in MP3 format. It’s actually a little more robust than the DVDVideosoft program, with features like auto-start and -stop.
However, it’s free for personal use only. If you have commercial plans for your recording (like podcasting), the Pro version costs 7 GBP (or about $10 US). To my thinking that’s pretty cheap.
Both programs work more or less the same way: Choose your recording format(s), set the output folder, then click Record when you want to start recording (or let MP3 Skype Recorder start for you when you get on your call). When you’re done, you’ll have an audio or video you can use as needed. Easy-peasy.
If you’ve found another Skype recorder that’s free, by all means name it in the comments!
Coffee ice cubes: Because you need more coffee in your coffee – CNET
Taylor Martin/CNET
As it starts to get warmer, you may want to opt for a chilled coffee in the morning instead of a piping hot drink that doubles as a hand warmer.
If you’re one to brew your coffee at home before heading off to work, there’s an easier way to make iced coffee. Here’s how it’s done.
Freeze your coffee
To get started, grab an unused ice tray and determine how much liquid it holds. To do this, use a teaspoon or tablespoon to completely fill one cube mold and multiply the result by the number of molds in the tray. Alternatively, you can fill up one of the molds and pour the water into a small measuring cup.
I used a tray which makes large ice cubes and needed 27 fluid ounces (800 milliliters) of coffee — about twice that of my standard brew.
Next, brew the coffee. The most ideal brew method for this application is cold brew, as it is often brewed as a concentrate and lacks the bitterness sometimes produced by hot brewing methods. The downside is, making cold brew ice cubes requires about 24 to 30 hours — 12 to 24 hours to brew and several more to freeze.
If you don’t have the time or equipment for cold brew, any other brew method will work. You will just want to brew the coffee stronger than usual by using a higher ratio of coffee grounds to water. I recommend at least 1:14 (57 grams of coffee to 800 milliliters of water).
If you hot brewed the coffee, let it cool for about 10 minutes before filling the ice tray. To allow for volume expansion, don’t fill the molds entirely — leave about an eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) of space from the top of the mold.
Place the tray in the freezer overnight.
How to use the coffee ice cubes
Taylor Martin/CNET
After you’ve done all the work and have a handful of coffee ice cubes, there are several ways to put them to good use.
- Shaking hot coffee and the coffee ice cubes together will flash chill your morning brew without watering it down.
- Pour some milk or cream over the coffee ice cube for coffee-flavored milk with your breakfast.
- Use the coffee ice cubes to make coffee-flavored cocktails. This pairs nicely with whiskey, tequila or cream liqueur, especially if you use a lighter-bodied single origin coffee.
- If you used cold brew concentrate, toss a couple cubes into a travel mug with equal parts water before going hiking. You should already know the volume of the cubes, so multiply that by the number of cubes (three 100 milliliter cubes would require 300 milliliters of water). Larger cubes will take a few hours to fully melt.
- Throw a few cubes in a blender with frozen fruit, greek yogurt, peanut butter and flaxseed for an energy boosting smoothie.
There at tons of things you can do with frozen coffee, as well. For instance, mix it with chocolate, vanilla or blended berries and add a popsicle stick before freezing to make some delicious “coffeesicles.”
7 super-fast Windows 10 tips – CNET
James Martin/CNET
I’m a total speed-demon. I love speedy computers, speedy sports cars, and speedy Windows 10 tips — that is, Windows 10 tips that take less than a minute to implement.
Since Windows 10 launched last July, we’ve covered lots of tips and tweaks you can use to improve your experience in just a couple of minutes. Check ’em out (you might as well — they’re all super-fast).
Windows 10’s ‘secret’ Start menu: Right-click the Start button to access a not-so-secret secret menu. I promise, just knowing this trick will save you a ton of time.
7 super-quick Windows 10 tricks you probably didn’t know about: Check out some lesser-known, easy-to-implement tips, like how to minimize all windows except the currently active one, or how to pin your Recycle Bin to the Start menu for easy access.
10 new keyboard shortcuts in Windows 10: Keyboard shortcuts make everything faster! Here are some brand new ones for Microsoft’s brand new operating system.
New Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts for the Command Prompt: Windows 10 is the first version of Windows to let you use keyboard shortcuts inside the Command Prompt. Command Prompt junkies rejoice!
Always show file extensions in File Explorer: Is that photo a JPG or a PNG? This 10-second tweak will show you all of your file extensions, all the time.
Get rid of ads in your Windows 10 Start menu: Microsoft occasionally shows ‘”suggested apps,” aka advertisements, in your Start menu, among your neatly laid-out pinned tiles. You can banish these ads by changing one setting.
How to change your computer’s name in Windows 10: Computer names are personal, like car names, and they shouldn’t be WIN10-224-AA6. You can change your computer’s name in Windows 10’s settings menu, no problem.
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