Month: February 2025

PlayStation Network is down

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PlayStation Network (PSN) is experiencing some major problems as of Friday evening. According to Sony’s PSN status page, account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and the PlayStation Direct website are all dealing with issues. For gaming specifically, Sony says that “you might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features.” A colleague … Read more

Meta goes to war with leakers

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During a Q&A with employees earlier this week, one of Meta’s top executives gave an ominous warning. After lamenting “a tremendous number of leaks” from inside the company, CTO Andrew Bosworth said that, while he didn’t want to “ruin the surprises,” the company was “making progress on catching people.” Since Mark Zuckerberg’s comments at a … Read more

Google Calendar removed events like Pride and BHM because its holiday list wasn’t ‘sustainable’

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Some Google Calendar users are angrily calling the company out after noticing that certain events like Pride month are no longer highlighted by default. Black History Month, Indigenous People Month, Jewish Heritage, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage have also been removed, according to a Google product expert. One user called the move “shameful” and said that the … Read more

Media Slant: The Relationship Between the FNC Channel Position and Local Newspaper Content

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Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2. Data 3. Measuring Media Slant and 3.1. Text pre-processing and featurization 3.2. Classifying transcripts by TV source 3.3. Text similarity between newspapers and TV stations and 3.4. Topic model 4. Econometric Framework 4.1. Instrumental variables specification 4.2. Instrument first stage and validity 5. Results 5.1. Main results … Read more

Researching Media Slant: A Peek At Our OLS Results

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Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2. Data 3. Measuring Media Slant and 3.1. Text pre-processing and featurization 3.2. Classifying transcripts by TV source 3.3. Text similarity between newspapers and TV stations and 3.4. Topic model 4. Econometric Framework 4.1. Instrumental variables specification 4.2. Instrument first stage and validity 5. Results 5.1. Main results … Read more

OpenAI plans to open an office in Germany

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OpenAI is expanding its footprint to Germany. According to a press release issued Friday, the ChatGPT maker plans to open an office in Munich in the coming months. “Germany is renowned for its technical expertise, academic excellence, and industrial innovation,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a statement. “Opening our first office in Germany means we … Read more

Shopify pushes for ‘open trade’ as Trump delays import exemption

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On the same day that President Donald Trump delayed ending a trade exemption targeting certain Chinese imports, e-commerce company Shopify published a blog post making its stance on U.S. trade policy clear. In the post, Shopify endorsed “open trade,” calling for regulators to give online merchants the “freedom to expand without constraints imposed by geopolitical … Read more

Netflix’s Prince documentary has been axed by the late artist’s estate

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Netflix definitely wanted to debut Ezra Edelman’s nine-hour-long documentary chronicling Prince’s life, but that won’t be happening thanks to the late singer’s estate. Though Edelman’s untitled documentary was already completed, Netflix announced on Thursday that it has “come to a mutual agreement” with Prince’s estate to keep the film from being released. As part of … Read more

Reliable Protection of User Data: Hashing and Obfuscation

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Introduction In the digital era, the volume of user data being processed is growing at a geometric rate, and so are the risks associated with leaks or unauthorized access. One effective approach to protecting this data is hashing (for passwords and certain types of confidential information) and obfuscation (or encryption) when transmitting and storing data … Read more