Last month, The Atlantic published an extensive article (linked below) about problems Wikipedia was having with supposedly volunteer editors posting things on Wikipedia for financial…
Author: editor
The OPLIN 4cast is a weekly compilation of recent headlines, topics, and trends that could impact public libraries. You can subscribe to it via RSS feed at www.oplin.org/4cast.
OPLIN 4cast #454: Arduino and the IoT
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It has been a little over two years since we speculated that Arduino boards might become a common component of library Maker Spaces. As we…
About a month ago, Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. announced a “breakthrough in memory technology.” 3D XPoint™ is said to be the largest advance…
OPLIN 4cast #452: Should we block ads?
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Since the 1930s, people have said, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” and this certainly applies to “free” information on the Internet.…
OPLIN 4cast #451: Bracing for 5G
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We are about to hear a lot of hype and hoopla about 5G wireless. If the rollout of 4G is any indication, wireless carriers will…
As we all know, the Internet contains a lot of bleak and nasty stuff, and some of the bleakest and nastiest is child pornography. For…
About eleven months ago, we devoted a 4cast post to Tor, leading off with a Boing Boing article by Alison Macrina about libraries in Massachusetts…
OPLIN 4cast #448: Pro-am cybersecurity
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Last week, while this blog was scaring you with tales of hackers-for-hire, the Google folks were presenting some interesting security practices research [pdf] at the…
Hacking into the computer files of a company or government agency often is not a very lucrative occupation, unless the hacker has some way to…
OPLIN 4cast #446: Blockchain
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You have likely heard of Bitcoins, but may not have heard too much about blockchain, the technology that makes Bitcoins work. Blockchain is very difficult…