FUNKY GREEN: 03/16/19

Saturday 16 March 2019

Valve says it’s taking a new approach to user reviews on its gaming marketplace Steam, after attempting and largely failing to solve the problem of so-called review bombing that taints its consumer recommendation system. In a blog post published today, Valve says that it’s “continued to listen to feedback from both players and developers,” and it’s implementing a new approach: hiding the off-topic review scores.

The company says that it defines a review bomb as “one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game.” To identify such campaigns, Valve says that it’s developed a tool to identify periods of time where a review bombing is...

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Tinder says it no longer uses a ‘desirability’ score to rank people

Tinder wants to set the record straight about how its platform ranks and shows people potential matches, so today it published a blog post on the subject — but still kept things fairly vague. The company’s Elo score was a “hot topic” a few years ago, according to the blog post, but the ranking feature has now been depreciated.

The idea behind the Elo score was that Tinder would rank people by attractiveness. Elo scores are used to rank chess players, too, but in the context of Tinder, the more people that swiped right (or Liked) a person’s profile, the higher their assigned score went up. Their card would then be served to other people with a similar score, thereby keeping the most desirable people interacting with one another. On...

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LG’s 2019 OLED TV lineup with AirPlay 2 will hit stores starting in April

LG has unveiled the pricing and release plans for some of its 2019 OLED TV lineup, basically mirroring the company’s playbook from last year. These are some of the very best TVs you can buy, so LG is continuing to price them as such.

The 2019 C9 (65-inch, 55-inch) and E9 (65-inch) series TVs will start shipping in April. The 77-inch model of the C9 and 55-inch E9 will hit stores a bit later in May and June, respectively. And this year’s update to LG’s “wallpaper” TVs — to be available in 65- and 75-inch sizes — will come out in June.

(If you were wondering, no, there’s still not at a firm price or release date for the stunning rollable TV.)

LG’s TV branding can be pretty confusing, but all of these TVs fundamentally share the same...

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Snapchat may launch a gaming platform as early as next month

Snap may be launching a new gaming platform for Snapchat as early as next month at the company’s Snap Partner Summit in Los Angeles on April 4th, according to a report from Cheddar.

Snapchat has dabbled in games before — the company launched “Snappables,” a set of AR lens games last year — but the new platform (said to be codenamed “Project Cognac”) would be a larger foray into the gaming world, and it would allow outside developers to create games that would live inside the Snapchat app.

Snap also reportedly bought out Australian game studio Prettygreat back in January, according to a report from CNET, which could further hint at a new gaming push. Additionally, The Information reported in summer 2018 that Snap was working on a...

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How to turn off autoplay videos on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and more

You’ve probably been caught off guard by videos that play automatically on Facebook, Twitter, and other services; in fact, just across the internet in general. They begin playing as soon as you load a page or (if they’re more deviously implemented) when you start scrolling through a page to catch your attention.

Automatic video play is a feature that, while nice to have when it’s surfacing content that’s related to your interests, can be pretty annoying. Autoplay videos can be harmful, too, exposing you to violent, offensive, or otherwise unwanted content that you shouldn’t have to see by default. Several browsers, like Google Chrome and Firefox, now have built-in measures to curb autoplay videos, but for the most part, turning them off...

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Reddit bans r/watchpeopledie in the wake of the New Zealand mosque massacres

Reddit has banned r/watchpeopledie, an infamous subreddit that hosted videos of people dying gruesomely. The ban comes after the subreddit re-hosted videos of the recent mosque massacres in New Zealand. According to the new landing page, the subreddit was banned for violating Reddit’s content policy about glorifying or encouraging violence.

A Reddit spokesperson provided this statement: “We are very clear in our site terms of service that posting content that incites or glorifies violence will get users and communities banned from Reddit. Subreddits that fail to adhere to those site-wide rules will be banned.”

A source at the company agreed with that assessment, confirming that when communities encourage posting either the shooter’s...

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Why can’t YouTube automatically catch re-uploads of disturbing footage?

After a man used Facebook to live stream his attack on two New Zealand mosques last night, the video quickly spread to YouTube. Moderators fought back, trying to take the horrific footage down, but new uploads of the video kept appearing. It led many observers to wonder: since YouTube has a tool for automatically identifying copyrighted content, why can’t it automatically identify this video and wipe it out?

Exact re-uploads of the video will be banned by YouTube, but videos that contain clips of the footage have to be sent to human moderators for review, The Verge has learned. Part of that is to ensure that news videos that use a portion of the video for their segments aren’t removed in the process.

YouTube’s safety team thinks of it as...

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Who Charges All Those Electric Scooters? Follow A Nocturnal 'Juicer'

Electric scooters are pictured on a sidewalk in Paris in June 2018. Multiple companies offer the small vehicles for rent by the minute in cities around the world, including many in the U.S.

Bird and Lime offer electric scooters for rent in cities across America. The companies pay a few dollars a pop to an army of people who prowl the streets for the scooters and take them home to charge.

(Image credit: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)

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Targeting Online Privacy, Congress Sets A New Tone With Big Tech

After years of light regulation, the tech industry is coming under scrutiny from Congress and regulators due to a series of privacy breaches.

In a rare area of bipartisan agreement and after years of little regulation, lawmakers in both chambers say the tech industry needs to do more to protect its users' personal information.

(Image credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)

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What Keeps Humans Immune

Maybe we should all be eating more dirt?

(Image credit: David Goulding/Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute)

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U.S. Warns Germany: Using Huawei Could Crimp Intelligence-Sharing Between Agencies

The U.S. has warned Germany about possible repercussions of using Huawei in its upcoming 5G mobile network, citing security concerns. Here, a billboard for the Chinese telecom giant is seen in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof railway station.

The U.S. ambassador sent a letter to Germany's economy minister reportedly saying that if Chinese tech companies such as Huawei help build Germany's new 5G telecom infrastructure, things might change.

(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

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Russians, Fearing Internet Isolation, Protest Government Plan

Demonstrators shout during a Free Internet rally in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday. The protesters fear widespread censorship and isolation, following a bill that calls for Russia to be cut off from the global Internet.

The rallies follow a bill to cut Russia off from the global Internet. Demonstrators on Sunday chanted, "Hands off the Internet." About two dozen people were arrested.

(Image credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

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Legislation May Be In The Works On Capitol Hill To Crack Down On Big Tech

The Democratic majority in Congress means lawmakers are taking another look at big tech with the focus on issues like privacy and mergers rather than alleged political biases.

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The Race Is On For Control Of 5G Wireless Communications — And China Is In The Lead

The Chinese telecom giant Huawei is winning the race to build 5G networks worldwide. NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Harvard Law professor Susan Crawford about why that's a national security threat.

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Algorithms: Almost Human?

Your Facebook newsfeed and your self-driving car? Both controlled by algorithms.

(Image credit: Patrick Lux/Getty Images)

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Tesla pulls the wraps off its Model Y crossover SUV - Roadshow

The Model Y is bigger than the Model 3 and smaller than the Model X, but is it S3XY enough to make people want it?

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FCC opens up experimental spectrum licenses for 6G - CNET

5G has barely gotten off the ground, and US regulators are already looking to the next big thing in wireless.

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Every new movie and show on Amazon: April 2019 - CNET

Mid90s and the Blade trilogy are coming to Amazon.

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Robots lined up to help out spectators at 2020 Olympics

Toyota's Human Support Robots and Delivery Assist Robots are the first robot helpers to be confirmed ...

The Organising Committee for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo – that last month confirmed that Games winners would receive medals made using recycled electronic waste – has revealed the first Tokyo 2020 Robot Project helpers, which will assist spectators in wheelchairs to ensure they have "an experience they are unlikely to forget."

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Category: Robotics

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Koda tiny house sheds some weight and floats on water

The Koda Light Float is installed on a pontoon base made by Top Marine

Regular readers may remember the Koda, an attractive concrete tiny house that hit the market in 2017. Designer Kodasema recently followed it up with the Koda Light Float, a model with similar styling that's made from timber instead of concrete, and is installed on a pontoon.

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Category: Tiny Houses

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Bold study claims humans may have arrived in Australia 120,000 years ago

A bold new study suggests that Aboriginal Australians have lived on the southern continent for as ...

Australia's Aboriginal population is said to be the oldest continuing civilization on Earth – but just how old is that? It's currently believed that Aboriginal ancestors made their way to Australia as long as 65,000 years ago, but new evidence uncovered at a dig site in the continent's southeast may push the timeline back much further. If the site does turn out to be human-made, it suggests that people have been living in Australia for as long as 120,000 years.

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Category: Science

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App-controlled, minicar-hauling camping trailer echoes the look of the Mercedes Sprinter towing it

Chinook shows its new Trail Wagon trailer at RVX 2019

The bulk of vehicles on display at the inaugural RVX show that wrapped up on Thursday were the type of huge, stretched Type A motorhomes and fifth-wheel trailers that notoriously dominate American hookup campsites and RV dealerships. But innovative small RVs like the SylvanSport Vast also filled out some of the show floor. Another impressive trailer in the under-23-foot (7-m) range was the Trail Wagon from Chinook. More than just tow-vehicle-matched wheels, this entire trailer matches the Mercedes Sprinter camper van it rides behind. It also features a versatile toy hauler/camping trailer layout controlled via smartphone app and enough space to carry a side-by-side or Smart car.

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Category: Outdoors

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Saturday 16 March 2019

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