Vanced, an Alternative to YouTube’s Official App, is Shutting Down

“We’re here to mourn the passing of YouTube Vanced,” writes the site Android Police:

If you weren’t too fond of the official YouTube app, there were many alternatives at your disposal. One of them was YouTube Vanced — a modded version of the original app that added features like ad blocking, background playback, and many more without charging users like YouTube’s Premium tier. We even put it on our list of the best indie apps you can get. It further gained popularity by bringing back dislike counts in videos just as Google removed them from their service…

The folks behind the project announced Sunday in the app’s official Telegram channel and on the Vanced Twitter account that it will be discontinued. No clear reason was given as to why it was killed off, so we can only speculate — but it’s likely due to Google’s legal department taking notice of Vanced…

Vanced was never the only alternative YouTube app. Others include open-source NewPipe, which is more lightweight than the official app. But YouTube Vanced had a huge user base, and we’ll miss it. It won’t be updated anymore, but you can still get the last version. Do it quickly, though — the download links will soon be gone.

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Russia Shuts Down Instagram at Midnight. Users Say Farewell

Slashdot reader quonset shares this report from Reuters:

Instagram users in Russia have been notified that the service will cease as of midnight on Sunday after its owner Meta Platforms said last week it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as “Death to the Russian invaders”. An email message from the state communications regulator told users to move their photos and videos from Instagram before it was shut down, and encouraged them to switch to Russia’s own “competitive internet platforms”.

Meta, which also owns Facebook, said Friday that the temporary change in its hate speech policy applied only to Ukraine, in the wake of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. The company said it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians from “expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces”….
The message to Instagram users from the state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, described the decision to allow calls for violence against Russians as a breach of international law. “We need to ensure the psychological health of citizens, especially children and adolescents, to protect them from harassment and insults online,” it said, explaining the decision to close down the platform.

“The tears were flowing Sunday among Russia’s airbrushed Instagram influencers, who begged their followers in farewell posts to join them on alternative social media platforms…” reports the Washington Post:
On the platform, emotions ran high Sunday among Russians who were about to lose thousands of dollars they received to promote various products, as well as access to millions of followers amassed over the years. “I’m writing this post now and crying,” Olga Buzova, a Russian reality television star, wrote, saying she hoped “it’s all not true and we will remain here….”

The ban on Instagram is the latest example of how Russia’s citizens are being isolated from the rest of the world as a result of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24, his government has also pulled the plug on Russia’s opposition-oriented radio and television networks, part of a broader effort to squelch domestic dissent in response to the war. Thousands of Russians have been arrested for attempting to protest the invasion…. But perhaps no move is more isolating than removing Russians from social media platforms that connect them directly to other users around the world. Instagram counted nearly 60 million users in Russia in 2021, according to the market data firm Statista, about 40 percent of the country’s population. The platform is also a huge revenue source for its users, who rake in cash from sponsors by posting promotional content.

“We know that over 80 percent of people in Russia on Instagram follow an account from outside of Russia,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video, according to the Post’s article.

It adds that “It is unclear how many Russians will continue to be able to access Instagram using Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs.”

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The 11,000-Member Discord Channel For People Pretending to Be VR Police Officers

On the VRChat platform, there’s a fake law-enforcement agency called The Loli Police Department, reports Input magazine.

Though it began as a joke, after four years its Discord channel now has 11,000 members, and “The tightly run community allows members to experience a fantasy version of police life and prides itself on being a source of chaotic good in the strange world of virtual reality.”

Members move through the ranks — from cadet on up — based on their activity level, which is tracked via the group’s Discord. Everything is carefully orchestrated to mimic IRL police…. Karet, a 29-year-old game developer and LPD captain from Texas, says that the hard work of volunteers allows users to roleplay police activities in a realistic environment. “We have some of our own worlds — like the hospital for our medical division, where we can pretend someone is getting treatment, or the jail where we put criminals,” says Karet, who designed the LPD station and jail.

One of Karet’s favorite things to do is mess with users at random. “Lots of people in VRChat like to sit in front of mirrors,” he says. “I will go up to the mirror and do a ‘mirror inspection.’ Then I say it’s an illegal mirror and start looking for someone to blame and arrest. They just don’t know how to handle that,” he laughs. There are other ways to get people into trouble, too. “I can pull out a bag of weed and make it look like it came out of someone’s pocket,” Karet says. “They always say it’s not theirs.”

Being a VRChat police officer comes with its share of challenges. Members are aware that their form of roleplay — which frames spot checks and fake drug busts as harmless fun — doesn’t sit well with some members of the community….

Despite the power dynamics at play, LPD members are not moderators of the VR world and ultimately can’t make much in the way of real change. “One of our new officers came to me upset because they stepped in when they saw harassment, but then they got the brunt of the attack from the harasser,” says Karet. “I commended him, but it’s not what we do. We’re just trying to have fun. So usually when we encounter something like that, we just leave the world.” Thankfully, Karet says, the LPD can help their community somewhat. “We encourage LPD officers to help out new users. It’s easy to spot them, so we often go and give them a hand, show them how things work,” he says. The LPD used to run events for this purpose, but they were recently brought to a halt. “The events are on hiatus because it became a bit cult-y. Everyone was trying to recruit people into the LPD.”

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Shoppers React as Grocers Replace Freezer Doors with Screens Playing Ads

Walgreens and other retailers replaced some fridge and freezer doors with iPad-like screens, reports CNN. “And some shoppers absolutely hate it.”
The screens, which were developed by the startup Cooler Screens, use a system of motion sensors and cameras to display what’s inside the doors — as well as product information, prices, deals and, most appealing to brands, paid advertisements. The tech provides stores with an additional revenue stream and a way to modernize the shopping experience. But for customers who just want to peek into the freezer and grab their ice cream, Walgreens risks angering them by solving a problem that shoppers didn’t know existed. The company wants to engage more people with advertising, but the reaction, so far, is annoyance and confusion.

“Why would Walgreens do this?” one befuddled shopper who encountered the screens posted on TikTok. “Who on God’s green earth thought this was a good idea?”

“The digital cooler screens at Walgreens made me watch an ad before it allowed me to know which door held the frozen pizzas,” said someone on Twitter….

Walgreens began testing the screens in 2018 and has since expanded the pilot to a couple thousand locations nationwide. Several other major retailers are launching their own tests with Cooler Screens, including Kroger, CVS, GetGo convenience stores and Chevron gas stations. “I hope that we will one day be able to expand across all parts of the store,” said Cooler Screens co-founder and CEO Arsen Avakian in an interview with CNN Business. Currently the startup has about 10,000 screens in stores, which are viewed by approximately 90 million consumers monthly, according to the company….

Politifact last month debunked a viral Facebook video that claimed “Walgreens refrigerators are scanning shoppers’ hands and foreheads for ‘the mark of the beast.'”

Avakian insists the tech is “identity-blind” and protects consumers’ privacy. The freezers have front-facing sensors used to anonymously track shoppers interacting with the platform, while internally facing cameras track product inventory…

The items on display don’t always match up with what’s inside because products are out of stock…..

“This is the future of retail and shopping,” Avakian said.

CNN notes that major corporations are backing the company Cooler Screens, which “has raised more than $100 million from backers including Microsoft and Verizon.” But long-time Slashdot reader davidwr points out it’s been done before. “Some gas stations have had video ads at the pump for years now. I boycott those stations on principle.”

And Slashdot reader quonset wonders if we’re one step closer to Futurama’s vision of a world where advertisers enter our dreams.

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Why Werner Herzog Thinks Human Space Colonization ‘Will Inevitably Fail’

Last Exit: Space is a new documentary on Discovery+ exploring the possibility of humans colonizing planets beyond Earth, reports Ars Technica.. “Since it is produced and narrated by Werner Herzog and written and directed by his son Rudolph, however, it goes in a different direction than your average space documentary. It’s weird, beautiful, skeptical, and even a bit funny….”

Other times, Werner opts for dryly funny narration of how bleak certain space colonization efforts may turn out. “The reality of life on Mars would be sobering,” he says. “Astronauts would hunker down in radiation-proof bunkers, enjoying drinks of recycled urine….”

For most of the film, Rudolph focuses on two options for where humans might travel, land, and establish space colonies: Mars or an exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system. Along the way, Last Exit: Space follows a pattern. First, it lists a problem that might make a certain space travel proposition impossible. Then it briefly explains the most promising solution to that problem as developed by modern science and engineering. Finally, it brings the interstellar dream crashing back down to Earth with a grim recounting of why the solution won’t work…. “We know the next planet outside of our solar system is at least 5,000 years away,” Werner tells Ars. “It’s very hard to do that, and [whatever is there is] probably uninhabitable. And we know that on Mars, there’s permanent radiation that will force us underground in little bunkers….”

As Last Exit: Space explores the logistics of a possible 5,000-year journey to Alpha Centauri, the film asks wild questions that touch matters of the human spirit, each with a diverse pool of optimistic and pessimistic answers. Is hibernation feasible? Could a non-hibernating skeleton crew function in a sane way? And how would the human act of copulation play out — both mechanically, in terms of being a reduced-gravity exercise, and genetically, in terms of possible in-breeding if a ship can’t hold at least 40,000 colonists to keep the gene pool diverse…? [Werner Herzog adds] “But as you hear it from Lucian Walkowicz, an astronomer in the film, it’s very clear that we take her position: We shouldn’t behave like locusts who are grazing everything empty here, then move on to the next planet. There’s something not right to shift, to move our population to other planets, and it’s a part of all these ethical questions….

[Space colonization] will fail. It is inevitable. You cannot travel to the next [Alpha Centauri exoplanet] that is 200,000 years away. Period. Good luck….”

The filmmakers make it clear that they admire and appreciate efforts to understand space and our universal neighbors. But in describing “space colonization” as “a dirty word,” Rudolph paraphrases Walkowicz’s film-ending pitch: “There is already a cross-generational spaceship operating right now — and we’re already on it. Earth is a luxuriously furnished, wonderfully self-rejuvenating place, so we’d better treat it well….”

Werner admits that he does have some interest in space travel. “I would love to go out on Mars on a mission… if I had a camera with me,” he says.

Rudolph immediately interrupts: “Yes, but I want to stop my dad. Don’t encourage him on this, please. I want him to stay on Earth.”

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This Year’s Flu Vaccine Was Basically Worthless

This winter’s flu vaccine was a particularly bad match for the most common influenza strain in circulation, a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Gizmodo reports: Thankfully, the flu season was much milder than usual for the second year in a row, as ongoing covid-19 precautions likely blunted the spread of flu as well. The estimates come from the CDC’s long-running surveillance program of people with suspected flu-like symptoms who visit various outpatient sites throughout the country. Overall, the odds of catching a case of confirmed flu were only slightly lower for vaccinated people, the researchers found. Against all flu strains detected at these sites, the vaccine was deemed to be 14% effective, as well as 16% effective at preventing cases of flu from A(H3N2) viruses, the predominant strain this winter. Numbers this low are far below the 50% threshold for a vaccine to be considered relatively useful, and they’re not even high enough to reach statistical significance.

In the words of the researchers, who published their results in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the vaccine “did not reduce the risk for outpatient respiratory illness caused by influenza A(H3N2) viruses that have predominated so far this season.” Flu vaccines, even in a good year, are far from perfect. The strains of influenza virus that infect humans are constantly evolving, meaning that scientists have to try to predict what these strains will look like during the next flu season so that they can match them to the strains included in the vaccine (the vaccine will usually include four strains at a time). This guessing game often results in a vaccine that’s around 50% to 60% effective, but sometimes, as is the case this year, the mismatch can get worse. It doesn’t help that this year’s main flu is H3N2, a subtype of flu already known for being harder to predict than others.

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Bill Targeting NDAs Used By Tech Companies Passes In Washington State

Landmark legislation that will drastically curtail tech companies’ ability to stop employees from talking about mistreatment is headed to the governor’s desk in Washington state. GeekWire reports: Last week, Washington legislators approved House Bill 1795 — also called the Silenced No More Act — in major victory for activists who have fought to limit non-disclosures and non-disparagement agreements. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Liz Berry (D-Seattle), makes it illegal for companies to ban employees from discussing “illegal acts of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, and sexual assault.”

“This bill is about empowering workers,” said Berry in a statement last week. “It is about giving workers a voice. Despite the progress we’ve made in recent years, too many workers are still forced to sign NDAs and settlement agreements that silence them. This bill will allow all survivors of inappropriate or illegal workplace misconduct to share their experiences if they choose to do so.” NDAs have long been common practice at many large tech companies, and often state that employees will have to repay severance money or face other financial ramifications if they violate the agreement.

Washington state will be the second state to ban these types of gag orders; California passed its own Silenced No More Act last year. There, the legislation passed despite vocal opposition from trade groups, which argued that employees could end up getting hurt if companies decide to limit severance payments, or to forgo them altogether.

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Ukraine Alleges Russia Is Planning ‘Terrorist’ Incident At Chernobyl

According to the latest updates from CNN, Ukraine’s defense ministry claims Russia is planning to carry out “some sort of terrorist attack at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant” and blame Ukraine. The plant is currently without power and under Russian control. From the report: The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence claimed on its Facebook page Friday that “the available intelligence says Putin has ordered that his troops to prepare a terror attack at Chernobyl for which the Russian invaders will try to blame Ukraine.” The directorate also repeated that the plant “remains completely disconnected from the monitoring systems run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence also alleged Friday that Russian forces had denied a Ukrainian repair team access to Chernobyl. It claimed without offering evidence that “Belarusian specialists” went there posing as nuclear power experts and that Russian saboteurs were arriving to set up a terror attack. The ministry claimed that “without receiving the desired result from the ground military operation and direct talks, Putin is ready to resort to nuclear blackmail of the international community.”

The IAEA said last week that it had not been able to re-establish communication with systems installed to monitor nuclear material and activities at either the Chernobyl or Zaporizhzhia plants following the loss of remote data transmissions from those systems. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Thursday that the situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian forces, was degrading as the IAEA was losing “a significant amount of information” on safeguarding monitoring systems. However, he said he was “quite encouraged […] on one important thing, is that Ukraine and Russian Federation want to work with us, they agree to work with us.” “Both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly claimed without substantiation that the other side is planning to provoke an incident involving nuclear, chemical or biological agents,” notes CNN.

On Wednesday, Russian’s foreign ministry claimed that the U.S. operates a biowarfare lab in Ukraine, “an accusation that has been repeatedly denied by Washington and Kyiv,” reports Reuters.

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Russia Says Its Businesses Can Steal Patents From Anyone In ‘Unfriendly’ Countries

Russia has effectively legalized patent theft from anyone affiliated with countries “unfriendly” to it, declaring that unauthorized use will not be compensated. The Washington Post reports: The decree, issued this week, illustrates the economic war waged around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the West levies sanctions and pulls away from Russia’s huge oil and gas industry. Russian officials have also raised the possibility of lifting restrictions on some trademarks, according to state media, which could allow continued use of brands such as McDonald’s that are withdrawing from Russia in droves. The effect of losing patent protections will vary by company, experts say, depending on whether they have a valuable patent in Russia. The U.S. government has long warned of intellectual property rights violations in the country; last year Russia was among nine nations on a “priority watch list” for alleged failures to protect intellectual property. Now Russian entities could not be sued for damages if they use certain patents without permission.

The patent decree and any further lifting of intellectual property protections could affect Western investment in Russia well beyond any de-escalation of the war in Ukraine, said Josh Gerben, an intellectual property lawyer in Washington. Firms that already saw risks in Russian business would have more reason to worry. “It’s just another example of how [Putin] has forever changed the relationship that Russia will have with the world,” Gerben said. Russia’s decree removes protections for patent holders who are registered in hostile countries, do business in them or hold their nationality.

The Kremlin has not issued any decree lifting protections on trademarks. But Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development said last week that authorities are considering “removing restrictions on the use of intellectual property contained in certain goods whose supply to Russia is restricted,” according to Russian state news outlet Tass, and that potential measures could affect inventions, computer programs and trademarks. The ministry said the measures would “mitigate the impact on the market of supply chain breaks, as well as shortages of goods and services that have arisen due to the new sanctions of western countries,” Tass stated. Gerben said a similar decree on trademarks would pave the way for Russian companies to exploit American brand names that have halted their business in Russia. He gave a hypothetical involving McDonald’s, one of the latest global giants to suspend operations in Russia under public pressure.

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Google’s Messages App Can Now Handle iMessage Reactions

Google is updating the default “Messages” app to include a number of new features, such as the ability to handle iMessage “Tapbacks.” TechCrunch reports: Other coming updates include nudges to remind you to reply to messages you missed, separate tabs for business and personal messages, reminders about birthdays you may want to celebrate, support for sharper videos via a Google Photos integration and an expanded set of emoji mashups, among other things. After the update, reactions from iPhone users will be sent as an emoji on text messages on Android. As on iMessage, the emoji reaction — like love, laughter, confusion or excitement — will appear on the right side of the message. (On Android, it’s the bottom right.) This feature is first rolling out to Android devices set to English, but additional languages will follow. […] Android’s interpretation of which emoji to use varies slightly from iPhone, however. For instance, the “heart” reaction on Android becomes the “face with the heart eyes” emoji. And the iMessage’s exclamation mark reaction becomes the “face with the open mouth” emoji.

Google is also integrating Google Photos into the Message app to improve the video sharing experience. While the modern RCS standard allows people with Android devices to share high-quality videos with each other, those same videos appear blurry when shared with those on iPhone, as iMessage doesn’t support RCS. By sending the link to the video through Google Photos, iPhone users will be able to watch the video in the same high resolution. This feature will later include support for photos, too. This addition aims to push Apple to adopt the industry standard by shaming the company over video quality.

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