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Monthly Archives: August 2020

Microsoft Word’s New Transcribe Feature Could Convince Me to Give Up Google

Gizmodo, Joanna Nelius – “Microsoft just added an extremely useful feature to Word on the web: transcription! Sure, Google Docs and apps like Otter.ai are free and let you type with your voice, like Word’s Dictation feature. However, Word on the web now allows you to upload entire audio files in addition to live transcription, merging the best of what Google Docs and Otter already offer, plus giving users a little something extra. Like Google Docs, Word’s dictation feature puts whatever you say into your microphone directly on the page. Both programs are mostly accurate, but sometimes they get hung up on processing a lot of words at once and might skip a sentence or two, or get a few words wrong. The same thing happens with Otter, too, especially if there’s a lot of ambient noise. Word’s new transcribe feature is not immune to mistakes, but at first glance it seems to be more accurate than Google Docs, Otter, and even Word Dictate. If you’re recording live via Word’s Transcribe, the tool will upload your audio file to OneDrive for processing, and then spit it back out in the side bar, complete with time stamps and the option to add in speakers’ names. From there, you can import that transcription directly into the Word doc itself with a click of a button. You can also listen back to the audio directly in Word and edit any part of the transcript the software misinterpreted…”

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 29, 2020

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 29, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss, highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Why Steve Bannon faces fraud charges: 4 questions answered

Via LLRX – Why Steve Bannon faces fraud charges: 4 questions answered – Federal prosecutors in New York have arrested former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three other men, and charged them with allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to an online fundraising campaign to build portions of wall along the U.S. border with… Continue Reading

Learn how to find image licensing information on Google Images

Google Blog: “First, we’re making it easier to find licensable images. For results where the publisher or image creator provided licensing information, we will display a “licensable” badge over the image. When you select a badged image to view, we will show a link to the license details of the image, and if provided by… Continue Reading

The Freedom of Information Act – A Legal Overview Updated

CRS report via LC – The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): A Legal Overview, Updated August 24, 2020: “Originally enacted in 1966, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes a three-part system that requires federal agencies to disclose a large swath of government information to the public. First, FOIA directs agencies to publish substantive and… Continue Reading

Mask Up and Shut Up

The Atlantic – COVID-19 transmission would go down if we spoke less, or less loudly, in public spaces. Why aren’t more people saying so?: “…Every route of viral transmission would go down if we talked less, or talked less loudly, in public spaces,” Jose L. Jimenez, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder,… Continue Reading

COVID-19: Brief Update on Initial Federal Response to the Pandemic

COVID-19: Brief Update on Initial Federal Response to the Pandemic. GAO-20-708: Published: Aug 31, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2020. “This report updates our oversight of some aspects of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings include: Spending. Federal obligations totaled $1.5 trillion and expenditures totaled $1.3 trillion, as of June 30. Public health.… Continue Reading

Browsing histories are unique enough to reliably identify users

ZDNet – Mozilla research – Online advertisers don’t need huge lists of the sites we access. Just 50-150 of our favorite sites are enough.”A recently published study conducted by three Mozilla employees has looked at the privacy provided by browsing histories. Their findings show that most users have unique web browsing habits that allow online… Continue Reading

Finding Email Addresses

Via LLRX – Finding Email Addresses – Across most sectors, customer support is no longer provided by human contacts but rather leads customers into endless telephone loops of menus, dealing with chatbots, or receiving emails from “no-reply” addresses. Finding email addresses for actual people is very difficult but Michael Ravnitzky’s article features proven tools and… Continue Reading