🦅 [ perspective ix ]

​​🗝Planning for the worst The New York Times quietly announced a positive new security measure yesterday. Its Lock & Key system will keep an eye on public dumps of stolen usernames and passwords, and if any match your New York Times login, they’ll let you know and make you change your password. In other words, if you’re using the same password across multiple services (not advisable), this makes you that little bit safer. It doesn’t sound like that much of a big deal on its own, but it made me think about how too much online security work is reactive, rather than preventative. Just think about the recent story about fitness tracking company Polar. A flaw in the way they’d set up their service meant anyone could browse through the activity records of all Polar users, simply by adjusting the URL in their browser. That’s the kind of flaw that shouldn’t make it past the earliest stages of development. How did no-one at Polar think about that potential problem? Software developers have lots of different priorities to juggle, but security should underpin them all. It’s in the best interests of users, and also the software publisher’s legal budget. I’m generally an optimist, but when it comes to planning or developing anything involving the public, I always assume the worst outcome. It probably won’t happen, but at least you’ll be prepared if it does. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2uuMGd9 Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

👾Nerds will love building their own game boy Gamebuino META is a tiny handheld gameboy like system that allows you to program games as well as play unique video games. 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​😫The most depressing job on the internet It’s easy to get angry at social media companies when they make the wrong decision about allowing or banning a particular piece of content. But last night’s Channel 4 documentary in the UK made me spare a thought for the poor content moderators at Facebook. They have to look at the absolute worst of the internet all day, every day. Violence, abuse, hatred in all its forms – if they’re going to clean it up, they have to see it all. I hope they have access to psychological support; they must either become emotionally numb or bottle up all sorts of torment for later. They have very little room for their own judgment. Facebook’s rules on what stays and what goes are very strict. Some content that a common sense reading would say should be banned, has to stay up on a technicality. Unless an act of harm is being live-streamed, they can’t report it to the authorities. Imagine having that on your conscience – seeing a vulnerable person suffering and not being able to make sure they get the help they need. Content moderators have one of the toughest jobs on the internet - and probably the most depressing. So next time you report some inappropriate content, spare a thought for the poor human who has to review it. It probably isn’t their fault if they make the wrong decision. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2mnP6Wy Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

📆Happy World Emoji Day! According to Facebook, 🇦🇺 & 🇨🇦 seem to be the most keen on birthday greetings! 🚀@PerspectiveIX Which one is your favourite?

😐Facebook's latest diversity report is as underwhelming as ever Surprise, surprise: Facebook is still overwhelmingly white and male! 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via Mashable: prs.pctvix.co/2NionGp

​​🚀Does Elon Musk need an intervention, or just a break? As you may have seen, yesterday Elon Musk made a baseless allegation against a member of the team of divers that saved those Thai boys and their football coach. The storm of criticism that followed (eventually) led to Musk deleting his tweets. It has gone beyond saying Musk is reckless and unprofessional; now it’s like the man needs an intervention to stop him tweeting. His fans will say I’m being unkind, that he just cares so much about changing the world that he’ll destroy anyone who gets in his way. His fans will ask why that is a bad thing. After all, the rest of us aren’t changing the world like Musk is, right? But being a genius doesn’t give you a pass when you act like an idiot. By recklessly throwing baseless accusations around, Musk establishing a pattern of outbursts that may worry investors in Tesla and SpaceX about his judgment. Given these regrettable Twitter outbursts and other episodes are a relatively new phenomenon, maybe they’re a sign that the stress of simultaneously running a bunch of big-vision, high-stakes companies, with lots of expectations to live up to, is getting to Musk. Maybe he needs to get some support from the people close to him. Maybe he needs to bring in a communications chief who he’ll listen to before making public statements. Maybe we can help by not paying so much attention to him. One thing’s for sure; he should take a break from Twitter. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2NionGp Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​🕰Marketing Short-termism Marketing for the long-term and the short-term is a constant balancing act. Pressure to show immediate results can lead marketers to focus on quick-hit sales conversation tactics, which can look good temporarily in marketing dashboards, but are far less effective in the long-run. 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via Marketoonist: prs.pctvix.co/2L897hz

📰#iXDailyBrief STAT ⚡️ PC sales are growing for the first time in six years. The PC market grew in the second quarter of 2018, with an increase of 2.7-1.4 percent. (Source: Gartner, IDC) INSIGHT 🤖 Robot cognition requires machines that both think and feel: prs.pctvix.co/2Ne5Fzo OTHER NEWS 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦#Pinterest's new group boards are the most social feature on the platform: prs.pctvix.co/2N9ZQDm 💻 Apple’s new MacBook Pros have the latest Intel processors and quieter keyboards: prs.pctvix.co/2NcifiB ❌ Chrome now uses more RAM because of Spectre security fixes: t.me/iXNews/29228 🔦#Twitter is testing Promoted Trend Spotlight ads: prs.pctvix.co/2NeI2af #️⃣#Twitter released a hashtag-triggered emoji for the 2018 MLB all-star game: prs.pctvix.co/2Nfrvmn — Have a great weekend! Ben, @iXNews

🥊Winning the info-war Yesterday, Facebook caused a stir by defending the fact that it hasn’t banned InfoWars from its platform. People were rightfully annoyed by this. Infowars is a site that blatantly lies to its audience for financial and political gain. It said the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, it said Democrats in the US were planning to start a new civil war on Independence Day this year… it’s the very definition of fake news. Facebook is right that some of what Infowars does is opinion and analysis based fundamentally in truth, but given its propensity for conspiracy theories, it’s indisputably a repeated and regular ‘fake news’ offender. Actions speak louder than all the contrite TV and billboard ads in the world. If Facebook is genuine about wanting to fight fake news, it needs to bite the bullet and tell sites like Infowars it doesn’t want their advertising dollars. Read more in today's Big Revolution: prs.pctvix.co/2uwwI1d Martin Bryant, 🚀@PerspectiveIX

​​🗣All Ears: Always-On Listening Devices Could Soon Be Everywhere What the future of our voice-activated-everything world will feel like. (illustrator: Peter Arkle) 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via WSJ: prs.pctvix.co/2ue9hKY

​​⛔️The Marketing Disconnect There is a significant disconnect between what marketers post to #SocialMedia and what consumers want brands to post, according to recent research from Sprout Social. Based on data from a survey conducted in April and May 2018 among 1,253 consumers and 2,060 social media marketers, this report shows that what consumers value the most is discounts/sales posts (72% say so) and posts that showcase new products/services (60%). But marketers say the types of social content they share most are posts that teach something (61% say so) and posts that tell a story (58%). 🚀@PerspectiveIX 📖 via MarketingProfs: prs.pctvix.co/2me0G6C ⬇️ Download the full report: prs.pctvix.co/2m9JEGB

📰#iXDailyBrief STAT ⚡️ Snapchat usage and engagement has gone down 15-40% since the release of Instagram Stories. Top creators used to get around 330,000 views per day on Snapchat in 2015 up until June 2016. Nowadays, they only get around 205,000 to 250,000 views per day. (Source: TechCrunch) INSIGHT 🎾 How Wimbledon is using #AI to enhance the fan experience: prs.pctvix.co/2mdR3EY OTHER NEWS 💻 Google’s #Chrome desktop browser is about to receive a major facelift: prs.pctvix.co/2mahE5D 🌱 This sun-chasing robot looks after the plant on its head: t.me/iXNews/29209 🔥#Google introduces machine learning ad tools and brands are hot for them: 👁#Xbox One is getting Dolby Vision support: t.me/iXNews/29203 💤 Casper opens a storefront for $25 naps: t.me/iXNews/29191 🌃#Facebook testing #AR ads in the News Feed and new tool to help brands create video ads: prs.pctvix.co/2mdjS4a 🔎 Dirt Protocol raises $3M for a decentralized, #blockchain-based approach to information vetting: t.me/iXNews/29189 — "Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston S. Churchill Have great day! Ben, @iXNews