Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Internet

DiffChecker

“I recently discovered a pretty amazing website called DiffChecker. It compares files and visually highlights any differences. You can use it to compare texts you paste right into the browser window, or you can upload documents to compare. It accepts Word docs, pdfs, spreadsheets and image files. To find the differences between two versions of a website, first you’ll have to convert them into txt files. Find an old capture in the Wayback Machine, right click to view page source, then save as a txt file. Then do the same for the live version of the site. A website’s html/css code may not include data files of course – those may be pulled from a background database you can’t access. I’m not saying it will work for every website, but it’s worth a try. The developers at DiffChecker are very responsive too, they quickly answer questions.” Via Marie Concannon Head, Government Information & Data Archives University of Missouri.

These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration

The New York Times – unlocked: “As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents…All presidential administrations change the language used in official communications to reflect their own policies. It is within their prerogative, as… Continue Reading

We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.

Columbia Journalism Review: “AI search tools are rapidly gaining in popularity, with nearly one in four Americans now saying they have used AI in place of traditional search engines. These tools derive their value from crawling the internet for up-to-date, relevant information—content that is often produced by news publishers.  Yet a troubling imbalance has emerged:… Continue Reading

The Fediverse Isn’t the Future. It’s the Present We’ve Been Denied

Joan Westenberg: “For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” every creative work—locked behind closed doors,… Continue Reading

New Articles and Columns – LLRX February 2025 Issue

Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs and Research – “Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it’s total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics.” This March 2, 2025 update by Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles Trump’s… Continue Reading

Global AI Regulation Tracker

techie_ray: “An interactive world map that tracks AI law, regulatory and policy developments around the world. Click on a region (or use the search bar) to view its profile. Other features are also available to support your research of AI regulation (including an AI governance library, country comparison tool, live AI newsfeed and export report… Continue Reading

Cool Tools Omnilist

These are all the products we’ve mentioned since 2020 in Recomendo, Cool Tools, our YouTube channel, podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak. Please share suggestions, corrections, and other feedback to [email protected]. Continue Reading

A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying

EFF: “At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, surveillance camera networks, and cell-site simulators (CSS). Rayhunter is a new open source tool… Continue Reading

Visualizing all books of the world in ISBN-Space

phiresky’s blog – “Libraries have been trying to collect humanity’s knowledge almost since the invention of writing. In the digital age, it might actually be possible to create a comprehensive collection of all human writing that meets certain criteria. That’s what shadow libraries do – collect and share as many books as possible. One shadow… Continue Reading