23andMe helps identify genetic links to common skin cancer
The team at 23andMe is clearly going out of its way to show that huge amounts of volunteered genetic data can boost medical research. Scientists at both 23andMe and Stanford used data from consenting customers to conduct the largest ever genetic study of basal cell carcinoma, the most typical form of skin cancer, and made numerous discoveries. They found 14 previously unidentified genetic associations with the cancer, some of which might pinpoint when you’re at increased risk. Some gene regions linked to basal cell carcinoma have a larger effect on the young, hinting that environmental factors might play a greater role in getting the cancer as you age. Also, a gene marker’s interactions suggest that your risk goes up when you have black or brown hair, and gene areas that maintain telomeres (chromosome ends) played their own part.
As with earlier studies, this isn’t likely to be a “gotcha” moment that will put researchers on a guaranteed path to treatment. However, there’s a good chance that a smaller, more conventional batch of data might have limited the number of discoveries. If these kinds of customer-based studies become relatively commonplace, they could speed up the cancer investigation process and arrive at a solution sooner than they would have using earlier techniques.
Source: 23andMe, Stanford
Twitter Rolls Out ‘Quality Filter’ to Block Abuse and Automated Content
Twitter has announced a new “Quality Filter” feature that enables users to filter notifications so that they only see “quality tweets” and mentions from people they follow.
The feature initially rolled out as a test and was created partly as a means to combat users’ exposure to abusive trolls, but Twitter says the filter is now available to everyone.
“Last year we began testing a quality filter setting and we’re now rolling out a feature for everyone. When turned on, the filter can improve the quality of Tweets you see by using a variety of signals, such as account origin and behavior,” Twitter said in a blog post.
The filter works using an algorithm to distinguish between good and abusive mentions. Any duplicate tweets or automated content identified by the feature are also filtered out of feeds, so that users don’t see them at all when browsing the social media service.
Two simple settings to give you better control over your Twitter experience. https://t.co/pEJuMUhCYs pic.twitter.com/jmFd0rDoV6
— Twitter Support (@Support) August 18, 2016
Content from accounts users follow and any recent interactions with accounts they don’t, aren’t affected by the filter, according to Twitter.
To turn the Quality Filter on or off in the iOS app, users can tap Notifications in the navigation bar, tap the Settings icon at the top left of the screen, and toggle the associated feature switch. A second option on the screen ensures users only see tweets from people they follow.
Tag: Twitter
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Team Collaboration Platform HipChat Adds Group Video Calling Feature
Team messaging app HipChat has announced a new group video chat feature for premium users of the platform.
The video conferencing option means HipChat Plus account holders can initiate a virtual meeting with another person and add up to 10 others to the call using an invite URL.
Users also have the ability to share their screen during a video chat, so that others can live view open documents or browser pages on their desktop.
Mac users need to update their HipChat installations to see the option, which is represented by a camera icon above the member list in every room. Currently the group video chat is only available in the HipChat desktop app, but the company says it will appear on its mobile version soon.
The announcement will be seen by HipChat owner Atlassian as a victory over rival service Slack, which has promised team video calling as part of its development timeline but has yet to deliver the feature.
HipChat Plus costs $2 a month per user, but the Mac app is a free download, while the iPhone and iPad version of HipChat can be downloaded for free from the App Store.
Tag: HipChat
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All Eddie Bauer stores in the US hit with malware
If you shopped at an Eddie Bauer store in the first half of 2016, you may want to keep a close eye on your personal and banking information. The clothing store chain has reported that — like a growing number of retailers of the last few years — it’s detected and subsequently removed malware from its point-of-sale systems at every one of its 350+ stores in North America.
Unfortunately, if you used a credit or debit card during the first six months of 2016 at Eddie Bauer, there’s a good chance your information may have been compromised. The official announcement from Eddie Bauer comes a good six weeks after KrebsOnSecurity picked up on a possible intrusion.
It’s possible the malware was able to grab both credit and debit card numbers from transactions made at Eddie Bauer stores between January 2nd, 2016 through July 17, 2016, though sales online at EddieBauer.com appear to have been unaffected.
Source: KrebsOnSecurity
Frank Ocean’s new visual album is live on Apple Music
Endless, Frank Ocean’s followup to his acclaimed 2012 debut Channel Orange, is available now exclusively on Apple Music as a 45-minute visual album. We’re still waiting on the traditional album release, but according to the New York Time’s Joe Coscarelli, Apple says to “keep an eye out this weekend for more from Frank.” Ocean gave fans a taste of the album via a stream on his website earlier tonight. We heard on September 1st that his sophomore effort (then known as Boys Don’t Cry) was meant for Apple Music, but rumors of a release that week turned up nothing.
The title Endless is likely a cheeky reference to the interminable wait for the new album. Ocean announced that he was working on new music in early 2013, and in April 2014 he hinted that his next album was almost finished. We didn’t hear much after that, but cryptic posts from the artist kept fans eager. Indeed, the anticipation built to the point where Ocean’s inability to deliver has become an internet meme. In July, he posted yet another mysterious message in the form of an overdue library card, which implied the album would be coming that month. To the surprise of no one, he missed that deadline too.
“ENDLESS”
A film by Frank Ocean.
Now on Apple Music. #ENDLESShttps://t.co/IKMm2PNsUH pic.twitter.com/nlLxXoQ296— Apple Music (@AppleMusic) August 19, 2016
We still don’t know when the Endless will be available on platforms outside of Apple’s. By going the visual album route, Ocean is following a bit in Beyoncé’s footsteps with Lemonade, who premiered her film on HBO and restricted its streaming to Tidal. Losing out on such a big release for Apple Music could be one reason the iPhone maker is rumored to be eyeing a Tidal acquisition.
Source: Apple Music
Satellite imagery can be used to predict regions of poverty
A new study in the journal Science shows how a combination of satellite imagery and machine learning algorithms can be used to predict poverty in regions of the world where data is otherwise unavailable. While it has long been accepted that nighttime lighting is a rough indicator of a region’s wealth, that method of analysis is ineffective when dealing with regions of the world where there is often no power at all. This new method, described by lead author Neal Jean, actually uses nighttime images as well as publicly available daytime imagery and survey data to teach a computer system to estimate just how rich or poor an area is.
Jean and his team created their algorithm in two steps, The Verge explains. First, they ran day and night satellite images of Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, and Rwanda through a neural network, which would find the villages and cities and try to predict where the lights would be at night. If there are houses in a region, for example, the system would predict that area would be lit up at night.
Step two added in economic survey data which, while incomplete for the majority of the region, added much needed context and granularity. The system could already recognize a village, for instance, but the survey data could tell it the household income of that village. When the system identified a similar village nearby – one which had no survey data available – it could start to create an estimate for the household income in that village. According to the paper, the two-step model creates a more accurate picture of wealth in a region than the night lights model anywhere from 81 to 99 percent of the time.
That said, the system still has its limitations. While it may be useful for finding income differences between rural and urban areas, it’s not so good at finding those minute differences within one dense urban center. At the moment, the algorithm only works in the five African countries where it was tested, but because all the data is publicly available it’s just a matter of training the system to look at other parts of the world.
Via: The Verge
Source: Science
NYT’s curated news app will shut down next month
Just about two and a half years after launching its NYT Now mobile experiment at South by Southwest, the New York Times has announced it will be “officially shelving” the app. After August, NYT Now will no longer be be available for download, but many of the features have already been rolled into the main NYTimes app or the paper’s other digital platforms.
When it launched in early 2014, the app was mean to grab “a younger, mobile-savvy audience” (read: millennials) with a curated article list and lower price that was about half the monthly cost of the next cheapest digital-only subscription. According to the Times’ own post mortem article, the app “never quite took off” and the paper actually dropped the subscription fee entirely last year in an attempt to pick up more users.
While NYT Now itself is going away, the app’s editors and developers have pointed out that many of the design elements have informed recent redesigns of the paper’s main mobile offering. Features like the Morning, Evening and Weekend briefings will migrate to the NYTimes app and NYT Now subscribers should see an email soon with an offer to switch to a standard Times digital subscription, otherwise the NYTimes app still only offers 10 free articles a month. The Mini Crossword, however, is still free to play.
Source: New York Times
Frank Ocean Releases Visual Album ‘Endless’ Exclusively on Apple Music
Just about two weeks after it was reported that R&B singer Frank Ocean’s next album, “Boys Don’t Cry,” would be available exclusively on Apple music, the singer has released “Endless,” a visual album exclusive to the service.
An Apple representative told Pitchfork that the 45-minute visual album features new songs from the artist. The rep added that fans should “keep an eye out this weekend for more from Frank.” It’s unclear when Ocean’s “Boys Don’t Cry” is expected to launch.
“Endless” and “Boys Don’t Cry” are just two of the high-profile exclusives Apple Music has secured in the past year. Other content includes Drake’s “Views,” Taylor Swift’s “1989 World Tour LIVE” and Katy Perry’s latest single “Rise.”
“Endless” can be watched on Apple Music now. [Direct Link]
Tag: Apple Music
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Get Chrome’s new tab page powered by Google Now now – CNET
Enlarge Image
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Google updated its Chrome Dev app for Android this week, and it offers an intriguing glimpse into changes that might soon be coming to Chrome’s new tab page.
If you’ve come to rely on Google Now’s personalized alerts and suggestions in the Google app itself, then you may also embrace them in Chrome, particularly if you use the browser more frequently than the search app.
The Chrome Beta app offers some personalization options for the new tab page, but the updated Chrome Dev app expands upon them, most notably adding two options powered by Google Now. Here’s how to enable it.
1. Open the Chrome Dev app and head to chrome://flags
2. Go to Show content snippets on the New Tab Page.
3. From the drop-down menu, choose Enabled via content suggestion server (backed by Google Now). (There is a second, nonpersonalized Google Now option, though I’m sure how useful Google Now suggestions are if not personalized.)
4. Tap the blue Relaunch Now button.
Enlarge Image
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
After Chrome relaunches, open a new tab page and when you scroll down below the search box, you’ll see two sections: Recent bookmarks and Articles for you. I don’t add new bookmarks all that often, so I’ll most likely scroll past that section to get to the suggested articles. Hopefully, this is just the beginning and more content types will be added by the time it reaches the official Chrome app, such as weather, sports scores and calendar alerts.
Sadly, these Google Now new-tab-page options are available only for Android and not Chrome Dev on the desktop.
(Via Android Police)
Facebook’s point-based recruiting system isn’t producing diversity
Two years ago, Facebook proposed a system to make its workforce less universally white or Asian and male. The plan was to incentivize its in-house recruiters to hire diverse candidates, literally giving them more points for Hispanic, black and/or female candidates that would build a score directly applying to their performance reviews and bonuses. Unfortunately, the gains for more female employees are marginal and the racial makeup of the company hasn’t changed, and the method can be deemed a failure.
Facebook fessed up to their inability to substantially diversify their workforce but blamed it on an institutional lack of qualified candidates: There just aren’t enough coming up through the public education system, said the company’s global director of diversity in a blog post. Critics railed against that logic, pointing out that Hispanics and blacks make up 8 percent and 6 percent of computer science graduates, respectively, though they only represent 3 percent and 1 percent of Facebook’s workforce. The pipeline problem isn’t a myth, but it’s more fruitful than the tech scene portrays, as The New York Times put it.
To be clear, lack of diversity is rampant across Silicon Valley’s titans. As former Twitter recruiter Leslie Miley wrote in a blog post last November, the problem often lies in company culture: Candidates are sometimes deemed unqualified for how long it took them to finish college, or not going to the right schools or not finishing application tests quickly enough. That lack of contextual empathy results from tech’s homogeneous culture, and critics worry that diverse hires are seen as add-ons to a qualified pool, especially when recruiters are pressured to produce volumes of candidates in Silicon Valley’s competitive employment atmosphere.
Similarly troublesome were the methods Facebook recruiters used to find diverse hires and secure their bonus points. According to The Wall Street Journal, they looked for details in profiles to tip off their racial or gender status, like pictures, attendance at historically black colleges or membership in ethnic professional groups. But to get credit, candidates needed to identify their minority status during the application process. Further, if they applied to positions in departments that already employed diverse hires — for example, a female candidate seeking a job in communications or human resources where women were already represented — the recruiter didn’t receive bonus credit.
Ultimately, former Facebook recruiters told The Wall Street Journal that while some recruiters did identify more diverse groups of candidates, it wasn’t enough to overcome broader bias within Facebook and other tech companies for candidates who attended prestigious schools. But the Journal did identify some progress in the social giant: its new senior leader hires were more diverse, with 9 percent black and 5 percent Hispanic from July 2015 to July 2016.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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