Category: Tech Talk

Miscellany of questions and information tidbits on day-to-day interaction with technology

Facebook hears the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep

Posted on By benign0 13 Comments on Facebook hears the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep
Facebook hears the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep

Facebook is currently in a world of trouble after news about how a chunk of data harvested off it was used by an analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate insights allegedly used to help current United States President Donald Trump win the elections in 2016. While many observers wonder whether this attention is due to…

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Politics, Society, Tech Talk

Do people really know who Stephen Hawking was?

Posted on By benign0 8 Comments on Do people really know who Stephen Hawking was?
Do people really know who Stephen Hawking was?

Do we really know who Stephen Hawking was? We know what he looks like and that he contributed much to science. But asking exactly what he contributed will likely leave people scratching their heads. The tributes may pour in and the text string that represents his name may “trend” on social media. There’s even this…

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Science, Tech Talk

Filipino culture may not be compatible with operating and using modern train systems

Posted on By benign0 18 Comments on Filipino culture may not be compatible with operating and using modern train systems
Filipino culture may not be compatible with operating and using modern train systems

News that a train line had, yet again, ground to a halt in the Philippines is no longer news. This is because train network stoppages are now more the rule than the exception for the average Filipino commuter. For the hapless Filipino commuter, every morning heralds a day of abject uncertainty. The question every morning…

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Culture, Development, Tech Talk

Editors of the Wikipedia list of Philippine “fake news” sites are not experts on “fake news”

Posted on By benign0 12 Comments on Editors of the Wikipedia list of Philippine “fake news” sites are not experts on “fake news”
Editors of the Wikipedia list of Philippine “fake news” sites are not experts on “fake news”

A certain Carlos Nazareno (who tweets as @object404) has been revealed to be the person behind a list of Filipino “fake news sites” posted on a controlled page in Wikipedia. The Philippine list rests on the dubious authority of several organisations that are actively campaigning against “fake news”, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines…

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Media, Tech Talk

Does Maria Ressa want Facebook banned in the Philippines?

Posted on By benign0 6 Comments on Does Maria Ressa want Facebook banned in the Philippines?
Does Maria Ressa want Facebook banned in the Philippines?

Embattled Rappler CEO Maria Ressa seems to think it should be. According to Ressa, content allowed by Facebook to be shared on its site “threatens the country’s democracy.” Ressa adds… “We’re seeing our democracy eroding in front of our eyes and Facebook is the platform where it’s happening.” Ressa’s concern lies in planned changes to…

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Media, Tech Talk

@Facebook’s troubles started when it implemented its newsfeed algorithm to decide what we “wanted”

Posted on By benign0 3 Comments on @Facebook’s troubles started when it implemented its newsfeed algorithm to decide what we “wanted”
@Facebook’s troubles started when it implemented its newsfeed algorithm to decide what we “wanted”

Following the screeching fits of people like Rappler CEO Maria Ressa who put the blame on the so-called modern-day “scourge” of “fake news” squarely on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has struck back. Zuck has reportedly axed news media’s access to our prized Facebook newsfeeds and pulled the revenue rug from under the feet of news media…

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Media, Tech Talk

Baffling logic: Maria Ressa blames Facebook for the Philippines’ political dysfunction

Posted on By benign0 8 Comments on Baffling logic: Maria Ressa blames Facebook for the Philippines’ political dysfunction
Baffling logic: Maria Ressa blames Facebook for the Philippines’ political dysfunction

There is something disturbingly familiar about the way Maria Ressa, CEO of “social news network” Rappler, blames social media giant Facebook for her troubles and even that of the Philippines’. In a recent tweet, Ressa cites the news report, Mark Zuckerberg makes ‘fixing’ Facebook a personal goal for 2018 (which she republished on Rappler) and…

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Politics, Society, Tech Talk

“Cleaning up toxic waste” – can Rappler’s Maria Ressa get Facebook to get rid of pro-Duterte accounts?

Posted on By FallenAngel 7 Comments on “Cleaning up toxic waste” – can Rappler’s Maria Ressa get Facebook to get rid of pro-Duterte accounts?
“Cleaning up toxic waste” – can Rappler’s Maria Ressa get Facebook to get rid of pro-Duterte accounts?

A comment on social media asks: who would win? A social media “giant”? Or a bunch of Filipinos tapping away on Facebook? In this case, the former pertains to none other than Rappler CEO Maria Ressa. On the other side, you’ve got a great many Filipino Facebook (FB) users who also happen to be supporters…

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Media, Politics, Tech Talk