Here are some web trends for 2020:
Responsive web design in 2020 should be a given because every serious project that you create should look good and be completely usable on all devices. But there’s no need to over-complicate things.
Web Development in 2020: What Coding Tools You Should Learn article gives an overview of recommendations what you learn to become a web developer in 2020.
You might have seen Web 3.0 on some slides. What is the definition of web 3 we are talking about here?
There seems to be many different to choose from… Some claim that you need to blockchain the cloud IOT otherwise you’ll just get a stack overflow in the mainframe but I don’t agree on that.
Information on the web address bar will be reduced on some web browsers. With the release of Chrome 79, Google completes its goal of erasing www from the browser by no longer allowing Chrome users to automatically show the www trivial subdomain in the address bar.
You still should target to build quality web site and avoid the signs of a low-quality web site. Get good inspiration for your web site design.
Still a clear and logical structure is the first thing that needs to be turned over in mind before the work on the website gears up. The website structure for search robots is its internal links. The more links go to a page, the higher its priority within the website, and the more times the search engine crawls it.
You should upgrade your web site, but you need to do it sensibly and well. Remember that a site upgrade can ruin your search engine visibility if you do it badly. The biggest risk to your site getting free search engine visibility is site redesign. Bad technology selection can ruin the visibility of a new site months before launch. Many new sites built on JavaScript application frameworks do not benefit in any way from the new technologies. Before you go into this bandwagon, you should think critically about whether your site will benefit from the dynamic capabilities of these technologies more than they can damage your search engine visibility. Well built redirects can help you keep the most outbound links after site changes.
If you go to the JavaScript framework route on your web site, keep in mind that there are many to choose, and you need to choose carefully to find one that fits for your needs and is actively developed also in the future.
JavaScript survey: Devs love a bit of React, but Angular and Cordova declining. And you’re not alone… a chunk of pros also feel JS is ‘overly complex’
Keep in mind the recent changes on the video players and Google analytics. And for animated content keep in mind that GIF animations exists still as a potential tool to use.
Keep in mind the the security. There is a skill gap in security for many. I’m not going to say anything that anyone who runs a public-facing web server doesn’t already know: the majority of these automated blind requests are for WordPress directories and files. PHP exploits are a distant second. And there are many other things that are automatically attacked. Test your site with security scanners.
APIs now account for 40% of the attack surface for all web-enabled apps. OWASP has identified 10 areas where enterprises can lower that risk. There are many vulnerability scanning tools available. Check also How to prepare and use Docker for web pentest . Mozilla has a nice on-line tool for web site security scanning.
The slow death of Flash continues. If you still use Flash, say goodbye to it. Google says goodbye to Flash, will stop indexing Flash content in search.
Use HTTPS on your site because without it your site rating will drop on search engines visibility. It is nowadays easy to get HTTPS certificates.
Write good content and avoid publishing fake news on your site. Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy,
Think to who you are aiming to your business web site to. Analyze who is your “true visitor” or “power user”. A true visitor is a visitor to a website who shows a genuine interest in the content of the site. True visitors are the people who should get more of your site and have the potential to increase the sales and impact of your business. The content that your business offers is intended to attract visitors who are interested in it. When they show their interest, they are also very likely to be the target group of the company.
Should you think of your content management system (CMS) choice? Flexibility, efficiency, better content creation: these are just some of the promised benefits of a new CMS. Here is How to convince your developers to change CMS.
Here are some fun for the end:
Did you know that if a spider creates a web at a place?
The place is called a website
Confession: How JavaScript was made.
2,361 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drupal’s journey from dorm-room project to billion-dollar exit
https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/22/drupals-journey-from-dorm-room-project-to-billion-dollar-exit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux distributors frustrated by Google’s new Chromium web browser restrictions
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-distributors-frustrated-by-googles-new-chromium-web-browser-restrictions/
Google changed the rules on the Chromium browser’s APIs and Linux distributors are taking different approaches on what to do with the open-source browser.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Cook May Have Just Ended FacebookLooks like it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.
https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/tim-cook-may-have-just-ended-facebook.html
What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?
In a recent speech at Brussels’ International Data Privacy Day, Apple CEO Tim Cook went on the offensive against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Cook’s speech seems to be a direct response to Facebook’s recent attack on Apple, in which the world’s largest social network took out full-page ads in several newspapers attacking Apple’s new privacy changes.
If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
In August, internal research at Facebook showed that ~70% of the platform’s most active civic Groups were considered too toxic to recommend to users — The giant struggled to balance Mark Zuckerberg’s free-expression mantra against findings that rabid partisanship had overrun a feature central to its future
Facebook Knew Calls for Violence Plagued ‘Groups,’ Now Plans Overhaul
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knew-calls-for-violence-plagued-groups-now-plans-overhaul-11612131374?mod=djemalertNEWS
The giant struggled to balance Mark Zuckerberg’s free-expression mantra against findings that rabid partisanship had overrun a feature central to its future
By
Jan. 31, 2021 5:16 pm ET
Facebook Inc. FB -2.52% in 2019 redesigned its flagship product to center on what it called Groups, forums for like-minded users. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called them the new “heart of the app.”
Now the social-networking giant is clamping down on Groups. The effort began after Facebook’s own research found that American Facebook Groups became a vector for the rabid partisanship and even calls for violence that inflamed the country after the election.
The changes, which Facebook escalated after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, involve overhauling the mechanics of a product that was meant to be central to its future.
Facebook executives were aware for years that tools fueling Groups’ rapid growth presented an obstacle to their effort to build healthy online communities, and the company struggled internally over how to contain them.
The company’s data scientists had warned Facebook executives in August that what they called blatant misinformation and calls to violence were filling the majority of the platform’s top “civic” Groups, according to documents The Wall Street Journal reviewed. Those Groups are generally dedicated to politics and related issues and collectively reach hundreds of millions of users.
Roughly “70% of the top 100 most active US Civic Groups are considered non-recommendable for issues such as hate, misinfo, bullying and harassment,” the presentation concluded. “We need to do something to stop these conversations from happening and growing as quickly as they do,” the researchers wrote, suggesting measures to slow the growth of Groups at least long enough to give Facebook staffers time to address violations.
“Our existing integrity systems,” they wrote, “aren’t addressing these issues.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yle has been making impressive inroads in online streaming with its Areena service, which is known to 92 percent of the Finlands population and used by 78 percent of them
How this company leveraged AI to become the Netflix of Finland
https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2021/01/21/how-this-company-leveraged-ai-to-become-the-netflix-of-finland/?utm_campaign=SP-Fourkind-leverage-ai&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid&hsa_acc=10153817029233523&hsa_cam=6231999797425&hsa_grp=6231999798025&hsa_ad=6231999798625&hsa_src=fb&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ver=3&fbclid=IwAR0CTPhNMhdwtiXfQyqFhcpq-3FWm7JUgome_OlIA_W9FugC_olD7L_iYRY
Twenty years ago, Facebook did not exist. Google had just failed to sell itself to Yahoo for $1 million. Netflix was a fledgling startup struggling to establish a working business model around selling and renting DVDs online. Today, Facebook and Google are among the top ten most valuable companies, and Netflix, now the most popular online streaming service with nearly 200 million users worldwide, is worth over $200 billion. Yahoo sold its assets to Verizon for a fraction of Google’s value, and Blockbuster, the video-renting giant that refused to acquire Netflix in 2000, no longer exists.
The internet’s short but rich history shows that surprises can come from where you can least expect them.
The next big thing might come from Finland, where the public broadcaster Yle has been making impressive inroads in online streaming with its Areena service, which is known to 92 percent of the country’s population and used by 78 percent of them, making it more popular than Netflix. The service is free of charge and funded with tax money. According to an annual brand survey by Taloustutkimus Research, YLE Areena is Finland’s number-one internet brand.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sticks And Stones Will Break My Bones, But Words Will Never Hurt Me.
https://medium.com/@lucky225/sticks-and-stones-will-break-my-bones-but-words-will-never-hurt-me-f9d47c723e67
under the guise that the website was publishing “hate speech.” In reality, though, there is no such thing as hate speech. What people commonly refer to as hate speech is actually just offensive speech. Speech does not by itself incite violence, violence comes from the individual. As Eminem says about music, “Well, can it load a gun up for you and cock it too?”
If there was such thing as hate speech why then are the same people opposed to this “hate speech” direct quoting it verbatim and rebroadcasting video/audio of it to a broader audience who will receive and hear the same content? I’ve been told the reasoning for this is “context matters.” Meanwhile the content of the speech is allowed to be redistributed as news or critique. But it is the content itself that was labeled ‘hate speech,’ and redistributing it as news or critique means a broader audience is exposed to the ‘hate speech.’ That audience would have never read, heard, nor seen the ‘hate speech’ content if it was not replayed in the news or from the very same people criticising it, and it is the content — not the context — that is being criticised by the same people redistributing that content. It is said that the content itself is harmful, and yet here it is reaching broader audiences while at the same time the people redistributing it are asking for that type of content to be banned. I don’t think they realize a ban would include their own critique, as their critique includes the content itself.
Private businesses should not be policing or interpreting content. As this entire polarized debate has shown, everyone interprets what they see from their own personal point of view. This means that the content YOU create will only remain in the cloud at the discretion and whim of whatever employee happens to be reviewing it. Some employees may find your point of view ‘harmful’ by their own interpretation of what you said and *poof* you’re no longer a customer. Imagine if you will if your cellphone service was shut off simply because of a text message you sent a friend taken out of context. What would happen if you could no longer receive or make telephone calls or text messages as a result?
Constitution, or “Free Speech isn’t absolute”
Because Nazis
Some will continue to turn a blind eye to logic, because nazis. America already had this debate before, because communists. The red scare and McCarthyism not only silenced speech, “many thousands of Americans faced congressional committee hearings, FBI investigations, loyalty tests, and sedition laws; negative judgements in those arenas brought consequences ranging from imprisonment to deportation, loss of passport, or, most commonly, long-term unemployment.”
Are we seriously going to have another scare like this over fake wannabe Neo-Nazis? It’s your call America.
I encourage everyone to read the EFF’s position on this here. The calls to ban speech, ‘because nazis’, is entirely contrary to net neutrality censorship principles. In the end, your services aren’t really needed anyways. The internet now has decentralized domain names, Tor, and end-to-end anonymous encryption for communications. If freedom is to be outlawed, only the outlaws will have and enjoy the freedom, and it is already within their reach.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/08/fighting-neo-nazis-future-free-expression
Tomi Engdahl says:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Editor & Publisher gave permission to Internet Archive to digitize its full archives, making them easily searchable, a step that other newspapers should take
Thanks to the Internet Archive, the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever
https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/02/thanks-to-the-internet-archive-the-history-of-american-newspapers-is-more-searchable-than-ever/
A stroll through the archives of Editor & Publisher shows an industry with moments of glory and shame — and evidence that not all of today’s problems are new.
My two intellectual loves are history and journalism — alternately, history and its first draft — and I’m always happy to see the two overlap. That’s the case with word that the Internet Archive has digitized nearly the entire back catalog of Editor & Publisher — for decades the bible of the newspaper industry — and made it searchable to all.
I may be one of the youngest journalists to have experienced E&P in its period of pre-Internet glory, when it was the best (and often only) place to find out about job openings at newspapers. I remember, as a cub reporter at The (Toledo) Blade in 1997, going in with a couple of coworkers for a shared subscription so we could see who was hiring. The Internet knocked E&P off its perch, offering free-or-cheap competition for both job listings and media gossip and giving it the fusty smell of yesterday’s media, though it’s shown some signs of life under new owner Mike Blinder.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The QAnon Timeline: Four Years, 5, 000 Drops and Countless Failed
Prophecies
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2021/01/29/the-qanon-timeline/
QAnon is not a static conspiracy theory. Since it first emerged in
2017, it has continuously evolved, focusing on different key topics
and adopting elements of other conspiracy theories. As Bellingcat has
recently written, this elasticity has been the key to its success.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 50 Most Visited Websites in the World
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-50-most-visited-websites-in-the-world/
Top Three Websites (Monthly visits):
Google: 92.5 billion
YouTube: 34.6 billion
Facebook: 25.5 billion
Together, the top three websites rake in 152 billion visits monthly, outpacing the next 47 websites combined. What’s more, as the pandemic transformed everything from the way we work, learn, communicate, and shop—a majority of these activities migrated online.
In this new visualization, we look at the most visited websites around the world, drawing data from SimilarWeb (as of November 2020).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs Tonight
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/05/fox-news-lou-dobbs-tonight-canceled?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1612579909
Dobbs, who hosted Fox Business Network’s highest-rated show, was a key driver of baseless election fraud claims
Fox Business Network has canceled the show of Lou Dobbs, the ardent Donald Trump supporter with a history of espousing misinformation who promoted baseless conspiracy theories of voting fraud after the election.
Friday evening marked the final airing of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs’ regular weeknight program. The Fox host was a major contributor to the false narrative that the election was stolen and continued espousing those views on his program even after admitting that they lacked actual proof.
Dobbs, 75, has hosted the program since 2011. Trump considered it must-see TV and even reportedly patched the host through during key policy meetings.
News of the cancellation came one day after Dobbs, 75, was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, an election technology company and voting machine maker, which accuses Dobbs and other Fox News anchors of promoting unfounded claims that Smartmatic was involved in a scheme to hand the presidency to Joe Biden.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Epoch Times revenue soared on Trump conspiracies
https://www.axios.com/epoch-times-revenue-trump-conspiracies-f96418d6-b361-4686-8cf1-bf13d33e7460.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook
The publisher of The Epoch Times, a stridently pro-Trump publication with a flair for conspiracy theories and links to Chinese dissidents, nearly quadrupled its revenue during the first three years of the administration.
Why it matters: The nonprofit Epoch Times Association’s 2019 revenue of $15.5 million, up from $3.9 million in 2016, shows how lucrative news coverage catering to the president’s most fervent supporters could be — and will likely remain even after he leaves office.
Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times has ties to members of the Falun Gong, a Chinese religious movement that’s been persecuted by the country’s ruling Communist Party.
The big picture: The Epoch Times has doggedly written stories indulging some of the most popular conspiracy theories floated by President Trump and his most ardent supporters.
The paper devoted whole sections to “Spygate,” the term it used to describe a sweeping conspiracy to undermine Trump through investigations into Russian election meddling.
Congressional Republicans cited Epoch Times coverage in defending against impeachment charges brought against the president in late 2019.
More recently, the paper has floated baseless allegations that the Chinese government manipulated votes in the 2020 election to the benefit of President-elect Joe Biden.
The Epoch Times Association’s 2019 finances point to a reader base that grew rapidly during Trump’s presidency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientism, Not Leftism, Underlies All Big-Tech Censorship
https://www.technocracy.news/scientism-not-leftism-underlies-all-big-tech-censorship/
There is a very dark religion at the base of both Technocracy and Transhumanism. That is Scientism. Once understood, the massive censorship at the hands of Big Tech starts to make perfect sense.
Scientism was first proposed by the French philosopher Henri De Saint-Simon (1760-1825). He wrote,
“A scientist, my dear friends, is a man who foresees; it is because science provides the means to predict that it is useful, and the scientists are superior to all other men.”
Saint-Simon’s idea of science was more of a metaphysical proposition that gave way to what we call today “pseudo-science”. It is mostly speculation dressed up as science. In any case, no scientist or engineer has a crystal ball to “foresee” the future nor are they “superior to all other men.”
Nevertheless, Saint-Simon became one of the acknowledged “founding fathers” of both Technocracy and Transhumanism.
In his day, he proposed that the religious leadership should literally be replaced by a priesthood of scientists and engineers, who would interpret the oracle of science in order to make declarations to society on the human actions necessary to lead mankind out of darkness and into Utopia. Thus, science would be elevated to a state of immutable godhood, worshiped by its followers, who in turn are led by its priests.
Does this sound familiar in today’s world? Well, it should.
You would think that this weird religion of Scientism would have evaporated into history after 200 years, but instead, it has magnified and proliferated.
The priests of global warming “science” see into the future to tell us with certain authority that the seas are going to rise and the world will literally burn up.
Remedies are offered to head off such a terrible fate, such as scrapping Free Market Economics in favor of Sustainable Development as huckstered by the United Nations.
The priests of global pandemic “science” peer into the future and tell us that hundreds of millions of people are certainly going to die. The only way to save yourself is to do exactly what they tell you to do: wear a mask, nay, two or three masks, deny all social contact with family and friends, shut down unessential economic activity, etc. What was originally a 14 day exercise to simply “flatten the curve” has now intentionally morphed into a never-ending cascade of pseudo-scientific instructions and demands.
Trust the Science. Obey the priests. Don’t listen to anyone or anything else.
Scientism specifically and pointedly rejects all other sources of truth that cannot be discovered by its priesthood of scientists and engineers. Thus, philosophy is out. The Bible is out. Religion in general is out. Anything that does not fit their narrative is out.
This is exactly where modern censorship can be truly understood. It’s not an issue of left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal or Democrat vs. Republican. It’s an issue of their self-deluded truth vs. reality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teknojätit mellastavat Suomessa ilman median valvontaa – “Pitäisi keskittyä sinne, missä valta on”, sanoo tietokirjailija
Juha-Pekka Raeste ehdottaa kirjassaan, että mediayhtiöiden pitäisi nimittää erikoistoimittajia seuraamaan suurimpia teknologiayrityksiä.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11787302
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gen-Z (young people under the age of 25) comprise 32% of the world’s population!
The question for the sustainability of your online business is whether or not you cater to their needs and wants.
#ecommerce #UX
Optimising the Ecommerce UX for Gen-Z in 2021
https://thorgate.eu/blog/optimising-ecommerce-ux-gen-z-2021?fbclid=IwAR2TuFuVdqM0_H6yHM3stk6MxbwtSnDMkXHSjn2jh1OYZRGUAl9C-Z0Y5xc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Oremus / OneZero :
What we want from Facebook and other platforms is not less politics but less of a distortionary effect on politics caused by an algorithmic bias toward outrage
In Defense of Politics on Facebook
https://onezero.medium.com/in-defense-of-politics-on-facebook-19a7b974f47d
Social networks would love to show users less political content. Here’s why that’s a problem.
Political posts on Facebook and other social networks are often divisive, misleading, or just plain false. Social platforms including Facebook and YouTube have played a role in radicalizing people and facilitated the organization of radical groups, including hate groups, some of which have committed real-world violence.
There is reason to believe that social networks have not merely played passive host to these developments, which have been implicated in the decline of democratic institutions in the U.S. and abroad, but have actively fueled them with feed-ranking and recommendation algorithms that systemically amplify sensational claims and outrage-bait over nuance and balanced reporting.
So if Facebook and other social networks could find a way to show people less political content, that would be a good thing, right?
Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fake Amazon reviews ‘being sold in bulk’ online
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56069472
Fake reviews for products sold on Amazon’s Marketplace are being sold online “in bulk”, according to Which?
The consumer group found 10 websites selling fake reviews from £5 each and incentivising positive reviews in exchange for payment or free products.
It suggested the firm was facing an “uphill struggle” against a “widespread fake reviews industry”.
An Amazon spokesman said: “We remove fake reviews and take action against anyone involved in abuse.”
The retail giant’s Marketplace allows other retailers to sell their goods via the Amazon website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tuija Siltamäen kolumni: Pyydän, lakataan lässyttämästä sananvapaudesta ja aletaan vaahdota mediakritiikistä
Sananvapauden mallimaassa laatua vahvistetaan poistamalla työntekijät, kirjoittaa Tuija Siltamäki.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11782511
Suomalaisessa journalismissa on jokunen hauska erityispiirre. Yksi niistä on moraalinen omahyväisyys. Sananvapauden mallimaa, sanotaan.
Sananvapauden mallimaassa on viime vuosina irtisanottu hirvittävä määrä journalisteja, lobattu sananvapautta rajoittavaa lakia ja harjoitettu mielikuvituksellisen henkilöstövihamielistä henkilöstöpolitiikkaa.
Myhäilyn lakipiste saavutettiin ehkä jo kesällä 2018, kun Helsingin kaduilla hehkuivat Helsingin Sanomien Welcome to the land of free press -kyltit. Ne palkittiin myöhemmin vuoden journalistisena tekona, mikä oli sinänsä hauskaa, että ne olivat mainoksia(siirryt toiseen palveluun).
Viihdyttävää viestintäteon makua on myös Julkisen sanan neuvoston Vastuullista journalismia -merkissä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/people-are-sharing-the-stupidest-things-theyve-ever-been-told-and-its-depressingly-hilarious/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook restricts users in Australia from sharing or viewing news links
https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/17/facebook-restricts-users-in-australia-from-sharing-or-viewing-news-links-in-response-to-proposed-legislation/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Australian Facebook users will be forced to go elsewhere to read news after the company announced Wednesday that they will be restricting users in the country from sharing or viewing news links on the platform. The drastic move follows the debate on proposed legislation from the Australian government that seeks to push internet platforms — with a particular focus on advertising giants Facebook and Google — to pay news publishers directly for access to share their content.
Pulling back entirely was a nuclear option for Facebook, which had previously floated the possibility.
The company disclosed that just 4% of the content in Australian users’ feeds was news, though the platform did not break out other engagement metrics tied to news consumption.
In their post, Facebook sought to drive a distinction between how news content was shared on Facebook by users while content is algorithmically curated by Google inside their search product. “Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content,”
“On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook knew for years ad reach estimates were based on ‘wrong data’ but blocked fixes over revenue impact, per court filing
https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/18/facebook-knew-for-years-ad-reach-estimates-were-based-on-wrong-data-but-blocked-fixes-over-revenue-impact-per-court-filing/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Tomi Engdahl says:
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
US federal judge rules that Citibank isn’t entitled to be returned $500M it accidentally sent to creditors early via Flexcube software, which had a confusing UI — Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead. — A federal judge has ruled that Citibank …
Citibank just got a $500 million lesson in the importance of UI design
Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/
A federal judge has ruled that Citibank isn’t entitled to the return of $500 million it sent to various creditors last August. Kludgey software and a poorly designed user interface contributed to the massive screwup.
Citibank was acting as an agent for Revlon, which owed hundreds of millions of dollars to various creditors. On August 11, Citibank was supposed to send out interest payments totaling $7.8 million to these creditors.
However, Revlon was in the process of refinancing its debt—paying off a few creditors while rolling the rest of its debt into a new loan. And this, combined with the confusing interface of financial software called Flexcube, led the bank to accidentally pay back the principal on the entire loan—most of which wasn’t due until 2023.
Citibank’s procedures require that three people sign off on a transaction of this size. In this case, that was Raj, a colleague of his in India, and a senior Citibank official in Delaware named Vincent Fratta. All three believed that setting the “principal” field to an internal wash account number would prevent payment of the principal. As he approved the transaction, Fratta wrote: “looks good, please proceed. Principal is going to wash.”
Revlon’s creditors were delighted
When Raj conducted a routine review the next morning, he noticed there was something drastically off about the previous day’s figures. Citibank had actually sent out almost $900 million, not the $7.8 million it was trying to send.
Citibank then scrambled to get the funds back, notifying each creditor that the principal payments had been made by mistake. Some of the creditors sent the money back. But others refused, leaving Citibank out $500 million.
Ordinarily, paying back a loan early wouldn’t be a big deal, since the parties could simply negotiate a new loan on similar terms. But in this case, some of the lenders were not on good terms with Revlon and Citibank.
Earlier in the year, as the pandemic was accelerating, Revlon experienced financial difficulties and sought to borrow more money.
Revlon’s debt is “trading at around 42 cents on the dollar.” But under the terms of the loan, the minority lenders didn’t have a way to force early repayment.
So Citibank’s screwup allowed Revlon’s creditors to claw back cash that it might otherwise have never gotten back.
Citibank sued, arguing that it was entitled to get the money back since the cash was sent out by mistake. Ordinarily, the law would be on Citibank’s side here. Under New York law, someone who sends out an erroneous wire transfer—for example, sending a payment to the wrong account—is entitled to get the money back.
But the law makes an exception when a debtor accidentally wires money to a creditor. In that case, if the creditor doesn’t have prior knowledge the payment was a mistake, it’s free to treat it as a repayment of the loan. Judge Furman ruled that that principle applies here, even though Citibank notified its creditors of the mistake the very next day. The defendants noted that the amounts they received matched the amounts Revlon owed down to the penny, making it reasonable for them to assume it was an early repayment of the loan.
Furman also argued that it was reasonable for the creditors to assume that a bank as sophisticated as Citibank wouldn’t send out such a large amount of money by accident.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verkkosivujen tehtävä on edistää liiketoimintaa. Kaikki muu on kermavaahtoa ja kirsikoita.
https://into-digital.fi/palvelu/verkkosivut/?utm_source=fbmainos&utm_medium=kuva&utm_campaign=Verkkosivut&fbclid=IwAR3k7IgiKiCMIWkZevOixswNBeW-aLltSyGJlRMUbmm0lQSeyO1iG4NeR6Y
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daily Crunch: Facebook cuts off news-sharing in Australia
https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/17/daily-crunch-facebook-cuts-off-news-sharing-in-australia/?tpcc=ECFB2021
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland’s secret weapon in the fight against fake news: its kindergarten children
Finland ranks best in Europe for fighting disinformation, spurred on by attacks from their Russian neighbour
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/finlands-secret-weapon-fight-against-fake-news-kindergarten/
Last week, it was reported that almost half of the UK’s children complained they were being exposed to misinformation every day – more than one in 10 said they see it more than six times a day. This “infodemic”, as the World Health Organisation calls it, is growing, but one country has been hot on its tail.
Finland recently topped a European annual index measuring resistance to misinformation and disinformation – the United Kingdom came in 12th – and the country puts its success down to targeting its children.
In 2014 the government embedded media literacy – which has been practised since the ‘70s – into the curriculum, teaching children from the age of six to read sources critically.
Teachers encourage children to evaluate and fact check websites, ask students to hunt for dubious news and find its source, and demonstrate how easy it is for statistics to be manipulated. It’s taught across all disciplines. In art children might see how images can be digitally altered; in history propaganda campaigns are analysed; and in science vaccine disinformation is put to the test.
But Finland has more reason than most to target disinformation. In 2014, when neighbouring Russia annexed Crimea, it began looking nervously at its noisy neighbour. Jussi Toivanen, chief communication specialist at the Finnish prime minister’s office, says: “After the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, we saw an increased disinformation activity targeted at Finland. For example, attempts to rewrite our history and persecution of journalists and researchers who covered Russia critically.”
Mr Toivanen places the country’s success down to its teachers: “Our education system plays a very crucial role in combating disinformation.”
Minna Harmanen, counsellor for education and a former teacher, says that with increasing use of the internet and social media there’s a need for a more “profound literacy”.
“We don’t know who has made [online] texts, written them, or who is spreading them. The need to critically read has arisen quite a lot in recent years,” she says.
Her feelings on the topic are strong: “Propaganda, misinformation and ‘fake news’ have the potential to polarise public opinion, promote violent extremism and hate speech and ultimately, to undermine democracies and reduce trust in the democratic processes.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook blocked Australian emergency services like fire departments and health organizations, and even charities and Women’s Rugby… “News,” sure, nice try Facebook.
Facebook Accidentally Blocks Its Own Page and much more in Australia Following News Ban
Facebook Accidentally Blocks Its Own Page and much more in Australia Following News Ban
https://www.theaegisalliance.com/2021/02/18/facebook-blocks-own-page/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Damien Cave / New York Times:
As news disappears from Facebook in Australia, while leaving plenty of conspiracy theories, many Australians are outraged but remain divided over what to do — The social network’s decision to block journalism rather than pay for it erased more than expected, leaving many outraged and debating what should happen next.
Facebook’s New Look in Australia: News and Hospitals Out, Aliens Still In
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/business/media/facebook-australia-news.html
The social network’s decision to block journalism rather than pay for it erased more than expected, leaving many outraged and debating what should happen next.
A digitally savvy nation woke up Thursday to a shock on Facebook: The news was gone.
The social media giant had decided to block journalism in Australia rather than pay the companies that produce it under legislation now before Parliament, angering a country of arguers who had grown used to Facebook as a regular forum for politics or culture.
And then Australians discovered it wasn’t just those staples that were missing. Pages for state health departments and emergency services were also wiped clean. The Bureau of Meteorology, providing weather data in the middle of fire season — blank. An opposition candidate running for office in Western Australia, just a few weeks from an election — every message, gone.
Even pages for nonprofits providing information to domestic violence victims fell into the Facebook dragnet, along with those for organizations that work with the poor and vulnerable.
“It’s quite scary when you see it happen,” said Elaine Pearson, the Australia director at Human Rights Watch, which lost its own Facebook posts with in-depth reports on deaths in Australian police custody, on the coup in Myanmar and on many other topics.
More frightening was what remained: pages dedicated to aliens and U.F.O.s; one for a community group called Say No to Vaccines; and plenty of conspiracy theories, some falsely linking 5G to infertility, others spreading lies about Bill Gates and the end of the world.
Australians could hardly believe what they were seeing. For most of the day, millions of them seemed to be wandering around Facebook, dazed as if after a flood, looking to see what had been washed away and what was still around.
Tomi Engdahl says:
But by that point, many Australians were already dividing into opinionated groups — all outraged, but with very different views of what went wrong and what should happen next.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/business/media/facebook-australia-news.html
Group 1: It’s Facebook’s Fault, and It Was Intentional
Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s federal treasurer, who would be charged with overseeing how the law was carried out, was among the first on Thursday to declare that Facebook’s actions revealed the kind of abusive tactics that demanded government intervention.
“What today’s events do confirm for all Australians is the immense market power of these digital giants,” he said.
Many people said they believed that Facebook had wiped away as much as it did to make that very point — to show that tussling with the world’s largest social network would hurt more than just the big players in Australian publishing.
“It’s definitely not an accident,” said Tanya Notley, a senior lecturer in communication at Western Sydney University.
“They were aware it was going to exclude far more than news organizations,” she added. “It’s just utterly shocking as we come to terms with how much is missing.”
Group 2: The Law Is Terrible
What if the problem is not Facebook, but rather the law?
Australia’s legislation aims to compel big tech platforms to negotiate with news publishers with the threat of rapid, final arbitration if they cannot reach a deal. Critics, speaking more loudly than usual on Thursday, contended that the law mistakenly accepted as fact that Google and Facebook had stolen ad dollars from newspapers and other media companies.
That may be the argument made by Rupert Murdoch, who is quite cozy with Australia’s conservative government. And, yes, Facebook is now in a lonely position as Google has already backed down, agreeing to pay tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp and other publishers.
But many economists question those underlying assumptions, as well as the government’s proposed solution. They contend that a lot of the advertising that once filled newspapers has fled not to the giant digital platforms but to real estate apps and other sites, some of which provide better services than old media companies that mismanaged their digital transitions.
There may also be better ways to finance journalism — with higher taxes or fees that could help pay for expanded public broadcasting or other public service reporting.
“High-quality news and analysis is a public good, and that’s why we fund NPR and the ABC,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Publishers brace for a potential Facebook traffic crash after Australia ban
https://www.businessinsider.com/business-insiders-top-advertising-and-media-stories-for-february-19-2021-2?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=sf-bi-main&r=US&IR=T
Facebook’s news ban has crushed traffic for Australian publishers, and news execs elsewhere are bracing for wider global fallout
Lara O’Reilly and Steven Perlberg report that media execs are weighing the potential international fallout of Facebook’s Australia news ban.
Web traffic to Australian news sites began to drop significantly just hours after the ban.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Australian news app beats Facebook in App Store
https://mashable.com/article/australian-news-app-abc-facebook/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mash-com-fb-main-link&utm_content=culture
A homegrown app from Australia Broadcasting Company (ABC) topped iOS download charts in Australia, outpacing Facebook.
That’s important for one big reason: Facebook just banned news from appearing on Australian newsfeeds in response to a law that would require the social giant to pay for news.
If Australians really shift to using sources like the ABC app for news, it could represent a massive, positive shift in media consumption. Facebook has long been plagued by disinformation and bad actors, but a source like ABC actually vets information.
“Features include: reverse-chronological feed; less misinformation than the leading brand; and the ‘stories’ here don’t disappear after 24 hours! ” wrote journalist Casey Newtown on Twitter. “I think it could have a chance.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Browser Developer Tools Tutorial: 10+ Tricks You Must Know
https://torquemag.io/2020/06/browser-developer-tools-tutorial/?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=Torque_Interest_Clicks_2020_TQ+Audience+2&utm_content=Torque_Interest_Clicks_2020_TQ+Audience+2_Browser+Tools&hsa_acc=1377067892512929&hsa_cam=6136427987079&hsa_grp=6145483434679&hsa_ad=6183283659679&hsa_src=fb&hsa_net=facebook&hsa_ver=3&fbclid=IwAR2JbHqtgfsHs4SSi-_kcgU83MF6zzoASBYY8v5pWHSRHmWQQV0qqwRUHRo
If you are not yet familiar with browser developer tools, they are one of the most useful things for anyone tinkering with websites – be it as an owner, enthusiast, ongoing developer, or else.
Developer tools or dev tools can tell you a lot about any website, such as CSS markup and JavaScript errors. In addition, they allow you to test drive front-end changes, check you site’s responsive design, and even optimize its performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Continues Fight Against Misinformation, Plans To Debunk Climate Change Myths
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/18/facebook-continues-fight-against-misinformation-plans-to-debunk-climate-change-myths/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie
Facebook announced Thursday it will add a new section to its expanding climate change information hub to combat the spread of misinformation related to global climate change, further embracing its role as an arbiter of truth, which founder Mark Zuckerberg has long claimed was not the company’s job.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee has said Australia’s plan to make tech giants pay for journalism could render the internet as we know it “unworkable”.
Australian law could make internet ‘unworkable’, says World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/australia-internet-law-tim-berners-lee-b1803988.html?utm_content=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1613688052
Warning comes amid rising tensions between Australian law makers, news publishers and tech giants
Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee has said Australia’s plan to make tech giants pay for journalism could render the internet as we know it “unworkable”.
The inventor of the World Wide Web claimed that proposed laws could disrupt the established order of the internet.
“Specifically, I am concerned that that code risks breaching a fundamental principle of the web by requiring payment for linking between certain content online,” Berners-Lee told a Senate committee scrutinizing a bill that would create the New Media Bargaining Code.
If the code is deployed globally, it could “make the web unworkable around the world”, he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook’s dramatic move looks likely to backfire.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-19/facebook-s-australia-face-off-could-backfire-across-the-globe?cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sorry, millennials. The emoji isn’t cool anymore
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/14/tech/crying-laughing-emoji-gen-z/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_content=2021-02-20T11%3A29%3A04&utm_medium=social
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new-words-in-the-dictionary
Tomi Engdahl says:
Australia facepalms as Facebook blocks bookstores, sport, health services instead of just news
Reg writer on the spot reports that life without news links on The Social Network™ is just fine
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/19/facebook_vs_australia/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Valheenpaljastaja: Kahdeksan asiaa, jotka jokaisen pitäisi ymmärtää misinformaatiosta
https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2021/02/08/valheenpaljastaja-kahdeksan-asiaa-jotka-jokaisen-pitaisi-ymmartaa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google to ‘phase out’ third-party cookies in Chrome, but not for two years
The browser battles are about privacy more than marketshare
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/1/14/21064698/google-third-party-cookies-chrome-two-years-privacy-safari-firefox
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.ziffdavis.com/terms-of-use
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook joutumassa ahtaalle myös Kanadassa – Harkitsee maksuja FB:n uutissisällöille
Ari Karkimo22.2.202119:31SOSIAALINEN MEDIADIGITALOUSHAKUKONEETMEDIA
Facebookia ahdistellaan uudelta taholta, kun Kanada saattaa seurata Australian esimerkkiä ja puuttua uutissisältöjen jakoon. Suomikin saattaa liittyä samaan joukkoon.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/facebook-joutumassa-ahtaalle-myos-kanadassa-harkitsee-maksuja-fbn-uutissisalloille/e99b3df1-0664-4b43-86aa-862804474e81
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the world is adapting to preprints
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-021-00026-5?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bcon-research_square_1&fbclid=IwAR3NzcIydSz966W8MoTnmbgxxgbWlxOPQ0FRrkM2i7dHZ24jvou3VJvCFP8
Preprint servers have become an indispensable part of scholarly publishing. The next step is learning how to embrace them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft throws Google under the bus in European news fight
Google has blasted “link tax” proposals as antithetical to the open Web.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/microsoft-sides-with-european-news-sites-in-their-battle-with-google/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://medium.com/@lucky225/sticks-and-stones-will-break-my-bones-but-words-will-never-hurt-me-f9d47c723e67
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.healthline.com/health/social-media-addiction
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook said the Australian government agreed to make several amendments to its proposed media bargaining code that seeks to make the company pay publishers for news.
Facebook Agrees To Restore News In Australia After Government Makes Amendments To Proposed Law
https://trib.al/5k5tbBT
Facebook has reached an agreement with the Australian government to reinstate news content on its platform in the country, the company announced on Tuesday, ending a week-long standoff which had seen Facebook ban all news content for users in Australia in response to a proposed legislation that would force the company to pay news publishers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://alt-market.us/how-societies-are-imprisoned-the-whole-world-will-one-day-be-like-hollywood/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This browser extension shows what the Internet would look like without Big Tech
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/24/22297686/browser-extension-blocks-sites-using-google-facebook-microsoft-amazon
A web without Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Muutaman satasen säästöstä syntyi tuhansien eurojen tappio
https://tammidigital.fi/2021/02/11/muutaman-satasen-saastosta-syntyi-tuhansien-eurojen-tappio/
Tammi Digitalin perustaja ja hallituksen puheenjohtajana nykyisin toimiva Manu Mesimäki on aikoinaan oppinut kantapään kautta sivuston teknisen ylläpidon merkityksen. Tässä artikkelissa Manu kertoo, kuinka takavuosina koki kauhun hetkiä, kun hakkerit pääsivät yllättämään ja silloisen firman sivusto menetettiin kokonaan.
”Yrityksen perustajana ja toimitusjohtajana olin melko tyypillinen jokapaikanhöylä. Vastasin lähes kaikesta myynnistä markkinointiin ja tuotantoon. Verkkosivujen tekemisen ulkoistin yritykselle, jonka oletin myös hoitavan niiden päivityksen. Kunnes sitten eräänä päivänä selvisi, että sivuston päivitys oli jäänyt retuperälle, eikä sitä oltu itse asiassa tehty vuosiin.
Tuona lauantaiaamuna ihmettelin herätessäni, kun puhelimessa oli viestejä asiakkailta, jotka eivät päässeet nettisivuillemme. Yritin itse mennä sivuille vain huomatakseni saman: etusivulla oli jokin mystinen virhekoodi, eivätkä sivut auenneet. Verkkosivut olivat yrityksen ainoa yhteydenottokanava. Asiakkaat tekivät niiden kautta tukipyynnöt ja sieltä löytyivät myös kaikki tarvittavat tuote- ja yhteystiedot.
Kuka on vastuussa ylläpidosta?
Kun sivut eivät auenneet, asiakkaat eivät tienneet, keneen olla yhteydessä. Samaan aikaan mietin aamupalapöydässä kuumeisesti, kenen puoleen kääntyä. Minulla ei ollut tietoa, millä palvelimella sivut fyysisesti sijaitsevat ja mitä niiden korjaamiseen vaadittaisiin. Sain lopulta yhteyden verkkosivut tehneeseen yritykseen. Kävi ilmi, ettei sivuja ollut päivitetty aikoihin, eikä niistä ollut olemassa varmuuskopiota. Kaikki tiedot, mitä sivuilla oli, menetettiin.
Uusien sivujen rakentaminen aloitettiin siltä istumalta ja niitä tehtiin viikon verran. Kokonaisuudessaan yritys oli seitsemän päivää ilman verkkosivuja. Se tuntui pieneltä ikuisuudelta maailmassa, jossa verkossa oleminen on olemassaolon edellytys.
Vältä pahimmat sudenkuopat
Tarinan opetus kaikessa lyhykäisyydessään on se, että verkkosivusto vaatii jatkuvaa huolenpitoa, joten ylläpidon pitää olla osaavissa käsissä. Teknisestä ylläpidosta vastaavan kumppanin tulee olla luotettava kuin vanhempi, joka haluaa lapselleen vain parasta. Muutaman satasen säästöstä voi koitua ennen pitkää tuhansien eurojen tappio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paljon sisältöä ja lukuisia verkkopalveluita – kuinka VTV selviytyy saavutettavuusvaatimuksista?
https://www.poutapilvi.fi/inspiraatio/paljon-sisaltoa-ja-lukuisia-verkkopalveluita-kuinka-vtv-selviytyy-saavutettavuusvaatimuksista/
Saavutettavuustyötä ohjaavat kriteerit ovat kaikille samat, mutta niitä tulkitaan eri tavoin. Miten julkishallinnon organisaatio luovii tilanteessa, jossa sillä on useita verkkopalveluita ja sisällöntuottajia?
Tomi Engdahl says:
At the Internet Archive, this is how we digitize a book.
We never destroy a book by cutting off its binding.
Instead, we digitize it the hard way–one page at a time.
We use the Scribe, a machine our engineers invented, along with the software that it runs.
Our scanning centers are located in universities and libraries around the world, from Boston Public Library to the University of Toronto.
Eliza is one of our fastest and most accurate scanners. Next she will execute quality control checks and fix any errors. Then she ships the book back to our Physical Archive for long-term preservation.
Now imagine this: scanners like Eliza have done this 2,000,000 times.
That’s what it takes to provide you with a free digital library.
https://blog.archive.org/2021/02/03/internet-archives-modern-book-collection-now-tops-2-million-volumes/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=252387973129402