29 March 2018

Instagram reenables GIF sharing after GIPHY promises no more racism


A racial slur GIF slipped into GIPHY’s sticker library earlier this month, prompting Instagram and Snapchat to drop their GIPHY integrations. Now Instagram is reactivating after GIPHY confirmed its reviewed its GIF library four times and will preemptively review any new GIFs it adds. Snapchat said it had nothing to share right now about whether it’s going to reactivate GIPHY.

“We’ve been in close contact with GIPHY throughout this process and we’re confident that they have put measures in place to ensure that Instagram users have a good experience” an Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch. GIPHY told TechCrunch in a statement that “To anyone who was affected: we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content . . . We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderations systems and processes and have made specific changes to our process to ensure soemthing like this does not happen again.”

We first reported Instagram was building a GIPHY integration back in January before it launched a week later, with Snapchat adding a similar feature in February. But it wasn’t long before things went wrong. First spotted by a user in the U.K. around March 8th, the GIF included a racial slur. We’ve shared a censored version of the image below, but warning, it still includes graphic content that may be offensive to some users.

When asked, Snapchat told TechCrunch ““We have removed GIPHY from our application until we can be assured that this will never happen again.” Instagram wasn’t aware that the racist GIF was available in its GIPHY integration until informed by TechCrunch, leading to a shut down of the feature within an hour. An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch “This type of content has no place on Instagram.” After 12 hours of silence, GIPHY responded the next morning, telling us “After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers.”

The fiasco highlights the risks of major platforms working with third-party developers to brings outside and crowdsourced content into their apps. Snapchat historically resisted working with established developers, but recently has struck more partnerships particularly around augmented reality lenses and marketing service providers. While it’s an easy way to provide more entertainment and creative expression tools, developer integrations also force companies to rely on the quality and safety of things they don’t fully control. As Instagram and Snapchat race for users around the world, they’ll have to weigh the risks and rewards of letting developers into their gardens.

GIPHY’s full statement is below.

CHANGES TO GIPHY’S STICKER MODERATION
Before we get into the details, we wanted to take a moment and sincerely apologize for the
deeply offensive sticker discovered by a user on March 8, 2018. To anyone who was affected:
we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content.
The content was immediately removed and after investigation a bug was found in our content
moderation filters affecting stickers. This bug was immediately fixed and all stickers were re-
moderated.
We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderation systems and processes
and have made specific changes to our process to ensure something like this does not happen
again.

THE CHANGES
After fixing the bug in our content moderation filters and confirming that the sticker was
successfully detected, we re-moderated our entire sticker library 4x.
We have also added another level of GIPHY moderation before each sticker is approved into
the library. This is now a permanent addition to our moderation process.
We hope this will ensure that GIPHY stickers will always be fun and safe no matter where you
see them.

THE FUTURE AND BEYOND
GIFs and Stickers are supposed to make the Internet a better, more entertaining place.
GIPHY is committed to making sure that’s always the case. As GIPHY continues to grow, we’re
going to continue looking for ways to improve our user experience. Please let us know how we
can help at: support@giphy.com.
Team Giphy.

 


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Facebook starts fact checking photos/videos, blocks millions of fake accounts per day


Facebook has begun letting partners fact check photos and videos beyond news articles, and proactively review stories before Facebook asks them. Facebook is also now preemptively blocking the creation of millions of fake accounts per day. Facebook revealed this news on a conference call with journalists [Update: and later a blog post] about its efforts around election integrity that included Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos who’s reportedly leaving Facebook later this year but claims he’s still committed to the company.

Articles flagged as false by Facebook’s fact checking partners have their reach reduced and display Related Articles showing perspectives from reputable news oulets below

Stamos outlined how Facebook is building ways to address fake identities, fake audiences grown illicitly or pumped up to make content appear more popular, acts of spreading false information, and false narratives that are intentionally deceptive and shape people’s views beyond the facts. “We’re trying to develop a systematic and comprehensive approach to tackle these challenges, and then to map that approach to the needs of each country or election” says Stamos.

Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s product manager for civic engagement also explained that Facebook is now proactively looking for foreign-based Pages producing civic-related content inauthentically. It removes them from the platform if a manual review by the security team finds they violate terms of service.

“This proactive approach has allowed us to move more quickly and has become a really important way for us to prevent divisive or misleading memes from going viral” said Chakrabarti. Facebook first piloted this tool in the Alabama special election, but has now deployed it to protect Italian elections and will use it for the U.S. mid-term elections.

Meanwhile, advances in machine learning have allowed Facebook “to find more suspicious behaviors without assessing the content itself” to block millions of fake account creations per day “before they can do any harm”, says Chakrabarti.

Facebook implemented its first slew of election protections back in December 2016, including working with third-party fact checkers to flag articles as false. But those red flags were shown to entrench some people’s belief in false stories, leading Facebook to shift to showing Related Articles with perspectives from other reputable news outlets. As of yesterday, Facebook’s fact checking partners began reviewing suspicious photos and videos which can also spread false information. This could reduce the spread of false news image memes that live on Facebook and require no extra clicks to view, like doctored photos showing the Parkland school shooting survivor Emma González ripping up the constitution.

Normally, Facebook sends fact checkers stories that are being flagged by users and going viral. But now in countries like Italy and Mexico in anticipation of elections, Facebook has enabled fact checkers to proactively flag things because in some cases they can identify false stories that are spreading before Facebook’s own systems. “To reduce latency in advance of elections, we wanted to ensure we gave fact checkers that ability” says Facebook’s News Feed product manager Tessa Lyons.

A photo of Parkland shooting survivor Emma González ripping up a shooting range target was falsly doctored to show her ripping up the constitution. Photo fact checking could help Facebook prevent the false image from going viral. [Image via CNN]

With the mid-terms coming up quick, Facebook has to both secure its systems against election interference, as well as convince users and regulators that it’s made real progress since the 2016 presidential election where Russian meddlers ran rampant. Otherwise, Facebook risks another endless news cycle about it being a detriment to democracy that could trigger reduced user engagement and government intervention.
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5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Mirrorless Camera

Instagram reenables GIF sharing after GIPHY promises no more racism


A racial slur GIF slipped into GIPHY’s sticker library earlier this month, prompting Instagram and Snapchat to drop their GIPHY integrations. Now Instagram is reactivating after GIPHY confirmed its reviewed its GIF library four times and will preemptively review any new GIFs it adds. Snapchat said it had nothing to share right now about whether it’s going to reactivate GIPHY.

“We’ve been in close contact with GIPHY throughout this process and we’re confident that they have put measures in place to ensure that Instagram users have a good experience” an Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch. GIPHY told TechCrunch in a statement that “To anyone who was affected: we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content . . . We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderations systems and processes and have made specific changes to our process to ensure soemthing like this does not happen again.”

We first reported Instagram was building a GIPHY integration back in January before it launched a week later, with Snapchat adding a similar feature in February. But it wasn’t long before things went wrong. First spotted by a user in the U.K. around March 8th, the GIF included a racial slur. We’ve shared a censored version of the image below, but warning, it still includes graphic content that may be offensive to some users.

When asked, Snapchat told TechCrunch ““We have removed GIPHY from our application until we can be assured that this will never happen again.” Instagram wasn’t aware that the racist GIF was available in its GIPHY integration until informed by TechCrunch, leading to a shut down of the feature within an hour. An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch “This type of content has no place on Instagram.” After 12 hours of silence, GIPHY responded the next morning, telling us “After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers.”

The fiasco highlights the risks of major platforms working with third-party developers to brings outside and crowdsourced content into their apps. While it’s an easy way to provide more entertainment and creative expression tools, it also forces companies to rely on the quality and safety of things they don’t fully control.

GIPHY’s full statement is below.

CHANGES TO GIPHY’S STICKER MODERATION
Before we get into the details, we wanted to take a moment and sincerely apologize for the
deeply offensive sticker discovered by a user on March 8, 2018. To anyone who was affected:
we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content.
The content was immediately removed and after investigation a bug was found in our content
moderation filters affecting stickers. This bug was immediately fixed and all stickers were re-
moderated.
We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderation systems and processes
and have made specific changes to our process to ensure something like this does not happen
again.

THE CHANGES
After fixing the bug in our content moderation filters and confirming that the sticker was
successfully detected, we re-moderated our entire sticker library 4x.
We have also added another level of GIPHY moderation before each sticker is approved into
the library. This is now a permanent addition to our moderation process.
We hope this will ensure that GIPHY stickers will always be fun and safe no matter where you
see them.

THE FUTURE AND BEYOND
GIFs and Stickers are supposed to make the Internet a better, more entertaining place.
GIPHY is committed to making sure that’s always the case. As GIPHY continues to grow, we’re
going to continue looking for ways to improve our user experience. Please let us know how we
can help at: support@giphy.com.
Team Giphy.

 


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Twitter makes it easier to share the right part of a live video with launch of ‘Timestamps’


Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will make it easier to share a key moment from a live video, so those viewing the tweet don’t have to scroll to the part of the broadcast you want to talk about. The feature, called “Timestamps,” is something Twitter says it built in response to existing user behavior on Twitter.

Before, users could only tweet an entire live video. So, if they wanted to highlight a particular segment, they would tweet the video along with the specific time in the video where the part they’re trying to share begins.

Those viewing the tweet would then have to scroll through the video to the correct time, which can be cumbersome on longer broadcasts and challenging on slower connections.

For instance:

The new Timestamps feature makes this whole process simpler. Now, when you tap to share a live video (or a replay of a live video), you’re able to scroll back to the exact time you want the audience to watch. You can then add your own thoughts to the tweet, and post it as usual.

But anyone seeing the tweet will start watching right at the time you specified.

If the video is still live, they’ll then be able to skip to what’s happening now by clicking the “live” button, or they can scroll back and forward in the video as they choose.

The new option ties in well with Twitter’s live streaming efforts, which has seen the company focused on offering live-streamed sporting events, news broadcasts, and other events.

For example, those live-streaming a sports match could re-share the same live video broadcast every time the team scores a goal, with the video already positioned to the right part of the broadcast to capture that action. That could increase the video’s number of viewers, which could then translate to better advertising potential for those live streams.

However, Twitter will not allow advertisers to place their ads against the Timestamped moments at launch, because they don’t want to get into a situation where an advertiser is positioned up against a moment that’s not considered ‘brand-safe.’

Beyond the sports-focused use cases, people could also take advantage of Timestamps to share their favorite song from a live-streamed concert, while reporters could highlight something important said during a press conference.

Twitter notes the Timestamps feature will be available to anyone – not just professional content publishers. It will also work for anyone doing a broadcast from their phone, and will support live videos both on Twitter and Periscope.

On Twitter, you’ll be able to share the live video as a tweet, while on Periscope you’re  able to share to your Periscope followers, in addition to sharing to Twitter or sharing as a link.

Timestamps isn’t the first feature Twitter built by watching how people were using its product. The company has a long history of adapting its product to consumer behavior as it did with the previous launches of @ replies, the hashtag, retweets and, most recently, threads. 

The update that delivers support for Timestamps is rolling out today on Twitter for Android and iOS, Twitter.com and Periscope.

 


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Google Play audiobooks get Smart Resume, bookmarks and Assistant routines support


Google Play Audiobooks is getting a major update today that adds a number of new features to the service that were sorely missing when it launched earlier this year. None of these are groundbreaking, but they’ll help Google reach feature parity with some of its competitors while injecting a bit of its proprietary smarts into the process, too.

Maybe the most useful new feature in today’s release is Smart Resume. Instead of picking up in the middle of a sentence or even word when your audiobook playback gets interrupted (maybe by Google Maps giving you directions or a friendly passerby who is asking for directions while you are clearly listening to an audiobook). Depending on the length of the interruption, this new feature will smartly rewind to the beginning of the word or sentence to help you stay in the flow.

Also new in this update are the ability to set bookmarks so you can easily go back to your favorite part of a book and the ability to speed up the audio — or slow it down so you can really savor your favorite passage in Ulysses. Both of these features were definitely missing in the first release.

If you’re a regular Google Assistant user and are already making use of the recently launched Routines feature, you’ll be happy to hear that you can now choose to continue your audiobooks when you wake up or start your commute.

And if you have family that’s spread around the world, you’ll be happy to hear that support for Google’s Family Library, which allows you to share Google Play purchases like apps, games, movies, e-books and audiobooks, is now rolling out in 13 new countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico, Japan (audiobooks only) and South Africa.

All of these new features are now available on iOS and Android.

 


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Apple releases iOS 11.3 with new Animojis


Apple just released an iOS update for your iPhone and iPad. 11.3 introduces a ton of bug fixes but also a bunch of new features. If you forgot about Animjois, today is your lucky day as Apple is adding four new Animojis — a dragon, a bear, a lion and a skull.

But that’s not all. Apple already shared a preview of iOS 11.3 a couple of months ago. There’s a big ARKit update to ARKit 1.5. It can recognize more objects and surfaces.

And iOS 11.3 is also the battery update we’ve all been waiting for. There’s some new info in the settings about the status of your battery. It tells you the overall capacity and if it’s time to change your battery.

You can also choose to disable Apple’s controversial decision to throttle performance with old batteries. Apple says it’s a beta feature for now.

Apple is also introducing a new feature in the Health app. You can now centralize all your health records in the app. It’s only limited to a handful of clinics for now.

Apple is adding customer support conversations to Messages. You can initiate a conversation with a business to order something, book a table and more. Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo are already on board. Health Records and Business Chats are only available in the U.S. as a beta for now.

You’ll also see a new privacy icon across the operating system. A new website to export all your data is coming in May as well. Apple needs to add those features to comply with GDPR.

Finally, Apple Music is getting a new video clips section, the App Store Updates tab now shows you the size of each update and more tiny little things. And if you care about security, it’s always a good thing to update to the latest version of iOS. Unfortunately, iOS 11.3 still doesn’t include iMessage in iCloud.

Back up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud or your computer using iTunes before updating. You can then head over to the Settings app, then ‘General’, then ‘Software Update’. macOS 10.13.4 and tvOS 11.3 are also available today.


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Apple releases iOS 11.3 with new Animojis


Apple just released an iOS update for your iPhone and iPad. 11.3 introduces a ton of bug fixes but also a bunch of new features. If you forgot about Animjois, today is your lucky day as Apple is adding four new Animojis — a dragon, a bear, a lion and a skull.

But that’s not all. Apple already shared a preview of iOS 11.3 a couple of months ago. There’s a big ARKit update to ARKit 1.5. It can recognize more objects and surfaces.

And iOS 11.3 is also the battery update we’ve all been waiting for. There’s some new info in the settings about the status of your battery. It tells you the overall capacity and if it’s time to change your battery.

You can also choose to disable Apple’s controversial decision to throttle performance with old batteries. Apple says it’s a beta feature for now.

Apple is also introducing a new feature in the Health app. You can now centralize all your health records in the app. It’s only limited to a handful of clinics for now.

Apple is adding customer support conversations to Messages. You can initiate a conversation with a business to order something, book a table and more. Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo are already on board. Health Records and Business Chats are only available in the U.S. as a beta for now.

You’ll also see a new privacy icon across the operating system. A new website to export all your data is coming in May as well. Apple needs to add those features to comply with GDPR.

Finally, Apple Music is getting a new video clips section, the App Store Updates tab now shows you the size of each update and more tiny little things. And if you care about security, it’s always a good thing to update to the latest version of iOS. Unfortunately, iOS 11.3 still doesn’t include iMessage in iCloud.

Back up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud or your computer using iTunes before updating. You can then head over to the Settings app, then ‘General’, then ‘Software Update’. macOS 10.13.4 and tvOS 11.3 are also available today.


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Google Play audiobooks get Smart Resume, bookmarks and Assistant routines support


Google Play Audiobooks is getting a major update today that adds a number of new features to the service that were sorely missing when it launched earlier this year. None of these are groundbreaking, but they’ll help Google reach feature parity with some of its competitors while injecting a bit of its proprietary smarts into the process, too.

Maybe the most useful new feature in today’s release is Smart Resume. Instead of picking up in the middle of a sentence or even word when your audiobook playback gets interrupted (maybe by Google Maps giving you directions or a friendly passerby who is asking for directions while you are clearly listening to an audiobook). Depending on the length of the interruption, this new feature will smartly rewind to the beginning of the word or sentence to help you stay in the flow.

Also new in this update are the ability to set bookmarks so you can easily go back to your favorite part of a book and the ability to speed up the audio — or slow it down so you can really savor your favorite passage in Ulysses. Both of these features were definitely missing in the first release.

If you’re a regular Google Assistant user and are already making use of the recently launched Routines feature, you’ll be happy to hear that you can now choose to continue your audiobooks when you wake up or start your commute.

And if you have family that’s spread around the world, you’ll be happy to hear that support for Google’s Family Library, which allows you to share Google Play purchases like apps, games, movies, e-books and audiobooks, is now rolling out in 13 new countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico, Japan (audiobooks only) and South Africa.

All of these new features are now available on iOS and Android.

 


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How to Play the Internet Archive’s Retro Games on Kodi


Do you want to enjoy the greatest collection of retro video games on your TV without the hassle of buying any new hardware? Then you’re in luck, as Kodi can now access and play retro games thanks to the Internet Archive, which has a massive library of titles available.

In this article, we explain how get started playing retro games on Kodi using Internet Archive ROM Launcher (IARL). And once you’re all set up, you’ll have so many retro games across multiple platforms at your fingertips you won’t know which one to play first.

The Internet Archive’s Retro Gaming Library

Over the years, the Internet Archive has been building up a library of retro video games. As you may know, these games have previously been made available to play in a web browser. However, thanks to a dedicated Kodi add-on, they can all now be accessed via your home theater!

kodi retro gaming

Several collections have been retained by the Internet Archive. These include (but are not limited to):

Each of these libraries (and more) are accessible via your standard web browser. You could head there now, choose a game, and begin playing in seconds. And that’s really the point of this: to install a user interface to the Internet Archive’s retro game library, and enable the games with the relevant emulator.

If you’re concerned about the copyright implications of accessing the library, rest assured this has been taken into account. The Internet Archive has been granted a DMCA exemption to help archive vintage software. This is vital, as without it there could be no archival of certain games and software, even by accredited archives.

Using the Internet Archive ROM Launcher on Kodi

To access these games, you’ll need to install the Internet Archive ROM Launcher, and install an emulation back end. This means you’ll only be able to run these games on systems where you have installation permissions outside of Kodi, and a suitable emulation suite.

A PC-based Kodi box is ideal, and we have even detailed how to install Kodi on Windows, although it should also run on a Raspberry Pi-based Kodi device.

kodi retro gaming

Are you ready to start? To install the Internet Archive ROM Launcher on your Kodi box, go to Settings & File Manager and click Add source. Click & None and enter

http://fusion.tvaddons.co

Name the source fusion, then click OK and return to the home screen. Browse to Add-ons, and click the box icon, then Install from ZIP file. Here, select fusion & kodi-repos & english & repository.zachmorris-1.0.0.zip, and wait for the Add-on installed notification.

kodi retro gaming

You should now be back in the Add-on browser menu, so click Install from repository, then Zach Morris Add-ons & Video Add-ons and select Internet Archive ROM Launcher. Here, select Install, then wait while the installation completes.

kodi retro gaming

Moments later you’ll be able to browse the complete collection of archived ROMs via the main menu Add-ons & Internet Archive ROM Launcher.

However, you won’t be able to play them quite yet…

Install Emulators to Play Retro Games

The best way to get the emulators you’ll need is to install RetroArch. With this installed, you’ll find the most stable emulators for the widest selection of systems.

RetroArch is available for Windows (95 and later), Linux, Mac (PowerPC and Intel), Android (check out Android’s best game emulators), iOS, BlackBerry, PS3, PSP, PS Vita, Xbox, Xbox 360, and even the Nintendo Wii (although you will have to hack your Wii with homebrew first), Wii U, 3DS, GameCube, and Raspberry Pi. In essence, you should be able to find a working version for your platform of choice.

Download: RetroArch

kodi retro gaming

Once downloaded, install the software as you normally would. Then launch it, and navigate to Online Updater & Core Updater then select the right emulator core for the type of games you want to play. For instance, I wanted to play classic MAME titles, so I selected Arcade (MAME 2000).

With RetroArch installed and the suitable emulator cores installed, you’re ready to start gaming. However, some further configuration may be required.

kodi retro gaming

Windows users will need to spend a few moments configuring the IARL add-on. To do this, first alter how Kodi treats Windows’ hidden files and folders. Go to Setting & Media Settings & General, and look for Show hidden files and directories. (You may need to change the view from Basic to Advanced in the bottom-left corner to see this.)

kodi retro gaming

Next, go to back to the home screen, then click Add-ons and open the box icon. Find your way to the IARL add-on, and select Configure. Under External Launchers, select Windows, then browse to the RetroArch App Location, followed by the RetroArch System Folder. These should be, in order:

C:\users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\retroarch.exe

and

C:\users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\system

kodi retro gaming

When these are input, go to Setup Wizard, then select Execute Setup Wizard and wait while the changes are applied. (If you’re using Android, on the other hand, all of these fields are automatically configured.)

Browse, Download, and Launch Retro Games in Kodi

Switch back into Kodi and launch the Internet Archive ROM Launcher to find games to play. As long as the right emulator is installed, you’ll be able to play games. It’s worth taking your time here, and browsing the corresponding list of games.

Before you begin playing, however, return to the upper level of the game index (for instance, Internet Archive Best Of — Arcade) and bring up the context menu.

kodi retro gaming

Here, select Update Ext Launcher Command, and choose the right emulator. Click Yes when prompted to update the command, then wait for the changes to be applied. When done, you’re ready to play. Simply click Launch to start playing your retro favorites!

The game will open in a RetroArch window over the top of Kodi. Keep an eye out for the instructions, which will tell you not just how to play the game, but also some new keyboard shortcuts.

Beware Playability Issues

Note, however, that the playability may vary wildly from device to device. For instance, it may be that your usual Kodi remote is absolutely unsuitable for gaming. Keeping this in mind, it’s worth considering an alternative device, such as a game controller or keyboard.

kodi retro gaming

With regard to the ROMs themselves, the Internet Archive’s game library isn’t going anywhere. So you don’t need to worry about backing the games up as they should always be available. More importantly, the default setting is that the games are downloaded and then discarded when you download a new one.

And no, you can’t save your progress, but this is the same as playing a game in your browser. The only difference being you’re playing retros game in your Kodi media center! So keep it legal, and enjoy.

If this has given you a taste for retro gaming, you could always follow this up by making a retro arcade on your PC.


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Here’s Cambridge Analytica’s plan for voters’ Facebook data


More details have emerged about how Facebook data on millions of US voters was handled after it was obtained in 2014 by UK political consultancy Cambridge Analytica for building psychographic profiles of Americans to target election messages for the Trump campaign.

The dataset — of more than 50M Facebook users — is at the center of a scandal that’s been engulfing the social network giant since newspaper revelations published on March 17 dropped privacy and data protection into the top of the news agenda.

A UK parliamentary committee has published a cache of documents provided to it by an ex CA employee, Chris Wylie, who gave public testimony in front of the committee at an oral hearing earlier this week. During that hearing he said he believes data on “substantially” more than 50M Facebookers was obtained by CA. Facebook has not commented publicly on that claim.

Among the documents the committee has published today (with some redactions) is the data-licensing contract between Global Science Research (GSR) — the company set up by the Cambridge University professor, Aleksandr Kogan, whose personality test app was used by CA as the vehicle for gathering Facebook users’ data — and SCL Elections (an affiliate of CA), dated June 4, 2014.

The document is signed by Kogan and CA’s now suspended CEO, Alexander Nix.

The contract stipulates that all monies transferred to GSR will be used for obtaining and processing the data for the project — “to further develop, add to, refine and supplement GS psychometric scoring algorithms, databases and scores” — and none of the money paid Kogan should be spent on other business purposes, such as salaries or office space “unless otherwise approved by SCL”.

Wylie told the committee on Tuesday that CA chose to work with Kogan as he had agreed to work with them on acquiring and modeling the data first, without fixing commercial terms up front.

The contact also stipulates that Kogan’s company must gain “advanced written approval” from SCL to cover costs not associated with collecting the data — including “IT security”.

Which does rather underline CA’s priorities in this project: Obtain, as fast as possible, lots of personal data on US voters, but don’t worry much about keeping that personal information safe. Security is a backburner consideration in this contract.

CA responded to Wylie’s testimony on Tuesday with a statement rejecting his allegations — including claiming it “does not hold any GSR data or any data derived from GSR data”.

The company has not updated its press page with any new statement in light of the publication of a 2014 contract signed by its former CEO and GSR’s Kogan.

Earlier this week the committee confirmed that Nix has accepted its summons to return to give further evidence — saying the public session will likely to take place on April 17.

Voter modeling across 11 US States

The first section of the contract between the CA affiliate company and GSR briefly describes the purpose of the project as being to conduct “political modeling” of the population in 11 US states.

On the data protection front, the contract includes a clause stating that both parties “warrant and undertake” to comply with all relevant privacy and data handling laws.

“Each of the parties warrants and undertakes that it will not knowingly do anything or permit anything to be done which might lead to a breach of any such legislation, regulations and/or directives by the other party,” it also states.

CA remains under investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog, which obtained a warrant to enter its offices last week — and spent several hours gathering evidence. The company’s activities are being looked at as part of a wider investigation by the ICO into the use of data analytics for political purposes.

Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has previously said she’s leading towards recommending a code of conduct for use of social media for political campaigning — and said she hopes to publish her report by May.

Another clause in the contract between GSR and SCL specifies that Kogan’s company will “seek out informed consent of the seed user engaging with GS Technology” — which would presumably refer to the ~270,000 people who agreed to take the personality quiz in the app deployed via Facebook’s platform.

Upon completion of the project, the contract specifies that Kogan’s company may continue to make use of SCL data for “academic research where no financial gain is made”.

Another clause details an additional research boon that would be triggered if Kogan was able to meet performance targets and deliver SCL with 2.1M matched records in the 11 US states it was targeting — so long as he met its minimum quality standards and at an averaged cost of $0.50 or less per matched record. In that event, he stood to also receive an SCL dataset of around 1M residents of Trinidad and Tobago — also “for use in academic research”.

The second section of the contract explains the project and its specification in detail.

Here it states that the aim of the project is “to infer psychological profiles”, using self-reported personality test data, political party preference and “moral value data”.

The 11 US states targeted by the project are also named as: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and West Virginia.

The project is detailed in the contract as a seven step process — with Kogan’s company, GSR, generating an initial seed sample (though it does not specify how large this is here) using “online panels”; analyzing this seed training data using its own “psychometric inventories” to try to determine personality categories; the next step is Kogan’s personality quiz app being deployed on Facebook to gather the full dataset from respondents and also to scrape a subset of data from their Facebook friends (here it notes: “upon consent of the respondent, the GS Technology scrapes and retains the respondent’s Facebook profile and a quantity of data on that respondent’s Facebook friends”); step 4 involves the psychometric data from the seed sample, plus the Facebook profile data and friend data all being run through proprietary modeling algorithms — which the contract specifies are based on using Facebook likes to predict personality scores, with the stated aim of predicting the “psychological, dispositional and/or attitudinal facets of each Facebook record”; this then generates a series of scores per Facebook profile; step 6 is to match these psychometrically scored profiles with voter record data held by SCL — with the goal of matching (and thus scoring) at least 2M voter records for targeting voters across the 11 states; the final step is for matched records to be returned to SCL, which would then be in a position to craft messages to voters based on their modeled psychometric scores.

The “ultimate aim” of the psychometric profiling product Kogan built off of the training and Facebook data sets is imagined as “a ‘gold standard’ of understanding personality from Facebook profile information, much like charting a course to sail”.

The possibility for errors is noted briefly in the document but it adds: “Sampling in this phase [phase 1 training set] will be repeated until assumptions and distributions are met.”

In a later section, on demographic distribution analysis, the contract mentions the possibility for additional “targeted data collection procedures through multiple platforms” to be used — even including “brief phone scripts with single-trait questions” — in order to correct any skews that might be found once the Facebook data is matched with voter databases in each state, (and assuming any “data gaps” could not be “filled in from targeted online samples”, as it also puts it).

In a section on “background and rational”, the contract states that Kogan’s models have been “validity tested” on users who were not part of the training sample, and further claims: “Trait predictions based on Facebook likes are at near test-rest levels and have been compared to the predictions their romantic partners, family members, and friends make about their traits”.

“In all the previous cases, the computer-generated scores performed the best. Thus, the computer-generated scores can be more accurate than even the knowledge of very close friends and family members,” it adds.

His technology is described as “different from most social research measurement instruments” in that it is not solely based on self-reported data — with the follow-on claim being made that: “Using observed data from Facebook users’ profiles makes GS’ measurements genuinely behavioral.”

That suggestion, at least, seems fairly tenuous — given that a portion of Facebook users are undoubtedly aware that the site is tracking their activity when they use it, which in turn is likely to affect how they use Facebook.

So the idea that Facebook usage is a 100% naked reflection of personality deserves far more critical questioning than Kogan’s description of it in the contract with SCL.

And, indeed, some of the commentary around this news story has queried the value of the entire exposé by suggesting CA’s psychometric targeting wasn’t very effective — ergo, it may not have had a significant impact on the US election.

In contrast to claims being made for his technology in the 2014 contract, Kogan himself claimed in a TV interview earlier this month (after the scandal broke) that his predictive modeling was not very accurate at an individual level — suggesting it would only be useful in aggregate to, for example, “understand the personality of New Yorkers”.

Yesterday Channel 4 News reported that it had been able to obtain some of the data Kogan modeled for CA — supporting Wylie’s testimony that CA had not locked down access to the data.

In its report, the broadcaster spoke to some of the named US voters in Colorado — showing them the scores Kogan’s models had given them. Unsurprisingly, not all their interviewees thought the scores were an accurate reflection of who they were.

However regardless of how effective (or not) Kogan’s methods were, the bald fact that personal information on 50M+ Facebook users was so easily sucked out of the platform is of unquestionable public interest and concern.

The added fact this data set was used for psychological modeling for political message targeting purposes without people’s knowledge or consent just further underlines the controversy. Whether the political microtargeting method worked well or was hit and miss is really by the by.

In the contract, Kogan’s psychological profiling methods are described as “less costly, more detailed, and more quickly collected” than other individual profiling methods, such as “standard political polling or phone samples”.

The contract also flags up how the window of opportunity for his approach was closing — at least on Facebook’s platform. “GS’s method relies on a pre-existing application functioning under Facebook’s old terms of service,” it observes. “New applications are not able to access friend networks and no other psychometric profiling applications exist under the old Facebook terms.”

As I wrote last weekend, Facebook faced a legal challenge to the lax system of app permissions it operated in 2011. And after a data protection audit and re-audit by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, in 2011 and 2012, the regulator recommended it shutter developers’ access to friend networks — which Facebook finally did (for both old and new apps) as of mid 2015.

But in mid 2014 existing developers on its platform could still access the data — as Kogan was able to, handing it off to SCL and its affiliates.

Other documents published by the committee today include a contract between Aggregate IQ — a Canadian data company which Wylie described to the committee as ‘CA Canada’ (aka yet another affiliate of CA/SCL, and SCL Elections).

This contract, which is dated September 15, 2014, is for the: “Design and development of an Engagement Platform System”, also referred to as “the Ripon Platform”, and described as: “A scalable engagement platform that leverages the strength of SCLs modelling data, providing an actionable toolset and dashboard interface for the target campaigns in the 2014 election cycle. This will consist of a bespoke engagement platform (SCL Engage) to help make SCLs behavioural microtargeting data actionable while making campaigns more accountable to donors and supporter”.

Another contract between Aggregate IQ and SCL is dated November 25, 2013, and covers the delivery of a CRM system, a website and “the acquisition of online data” for a political party in Trinidad and Tobago. In this contract a section on “behavioral data acquisition” details their intentions thus:

  • Identify and obtain qualified sources of data that illustrate user behaviour and contribute to the development of psychographic profiling in the region

  • This data may include, but is not limited to:

    • Internet Service Provider (ISP) log files

    • First party data logs

    • Third party data logs

    • Ad network data

    • Social bookmarking

    • Social media sharing (Twitter, FB, MySpace)

    • Natural Language Processing (NLP) of URL text and images

    • Reconciliation of IP and User-Agent to home address, census tract, or dissemination area

In his evidence to the committee on Tuesday Wylie described the AIQ Trinidad project as a “pre-cursor to the Rippon project to see how much data could be pulled and could we profile different attributes in people”.

He also alleged AIQ has used hacker type techniques to obtain data. “AIQ’s role was to go and find data,” he told the committee. “The contracting is pulling ISP data and there’s also emails that I’ve passed on to the committee where AIQ is working with SCL to find ways to pull and then de-anonymize ISP data. So, like, raw browsing data.”

Another document in the bundle published today details a project pitch by SCL to carry out $200,000 worth of microtargeting and political campaign work for the conservative organization ForAmerica.org — for “audience building and supporter mobilization campaigns”.

There is also an internal SCL email chain regarding a political targeting project that also appears to involve the Kogan modeled Facebook data, which is referred to as the “Bolton project” (which seems to refer to work done for the now US national security advisor, John Bolton) — with some back and forth over concerns about delays and problems with data matching in some of the US states and overall data quality.

“Need to present the little information we have on the 6,000 seeders to [sic] we have to give a rough and ready and very preliminary reading on that sample ([name redacted] will have to ensure the appropriate disclaimers are in place to manage their expectations and the likelihood that the results will change once more data is received). We need to keep the client happy,” is one of the suggested next steps in an email written by an unidentified SCL staffer working on the Bolton project.

“The Ambassador’s team made it clear that he would want some kind of response on the last round of foreign policy questions. Though not ideal, we will simply piss off a man who is potentially an even bigger client if we remain silent on this because it has been clear to us this is something he is particularly interested in,” the emailer also writes.

“At this juncture, we unfortunately don’t have the luxury of only providing the perfect data set but must deliver something which shows the validity of what we have been promising we can do,” the emailer adds.

Another document is a confidential memorandum prepared for Rebekah Mercer (the daughter of US billionaire Robert Mercer; Wylie has said Mercer provided the funding to set up CA), former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and the (now suspended) CA CEO Alexander Nix advising them on the legality of a foreign corporation (i.e. CA), and foreign nationals (such as Nix and others), carrying out work on US political campaigns.

This memo also details the legal structure of SCL and CA — the former being described as a “minority owner” of CA. It notes:

With this background we must look first at Cambridge Analytica, LLC (“Cambridge”) and then at the people involved and the contemplated tasks. As I understand it, Cambridge is a Delaware Limited Liability Company that was formed in June of 2014. It is operated through 5 managers, three preferred managers, Ms. Rebekah Mercer, Ms. Jennifer Mercer and Mr. Stephen Bannon, and two common managers, Mr. Alexander Nix and a person to be named. The three preferred managers are all United States citizens, Mr. Nix is not. Cambridge is primarily owned and controlled by US citizens, with SCL Elections Ltd., (“SCL”) a UK limited company being a minority owner. Moreover, certain intellectual property of SCL was licensed to Cambridge, which intellectual property Cambridge could use in its work as a US company in US elections, or other activities.

On the salient legal advice point, the memo concludes that US laws prohibiting foreign nationals managing campaigns — “including making direct or indirect decisions regarding the expenditure of campaign dollars” — will have “a significant impact on how Cambridge hires staff and operates in the short term”.


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The 9 Most Common iCloud Problems and How to Fix Them


If you use Apple devices, such as an iPhone or iPad, and perhaps a Mac, then you’re probably using iCloud services as well. For those unaware, iCloud is Apple’s own cloud storage service, keeping your data safe in the cloud and easily accessible across multiple devices.

With iCloud, you can safely and securely store photos, videos, documents, mail, music, apps, and more, all right in the cloud. Data syncs quickly so everything stays up-to-date on your Apple devices.

For the most part, iCloud works fine, but you might encounter issues on occasion. We’re going to cover the most common iCloud problems and provide the solutions.

1. Cannot Connect to iCloud

iCloud Connection Error

The biggest step with iCloud is usually signing in. But sometimes that may fail, and you get the Cannot Connect to Server error message.

The first solution is to check the status of Apple’s servers, which you can do on the Apple status page. If it’s green, you’re good. A yellow or red light signifies issues or maintenance in progress, so you’ll have to wait it out.

Sometimes you may need to verify your iCloud account with updated terms and conditions to get it up and running again. This is an easy fix:

  1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] (at the top).
  2. If there’s any change in the Terms & Conditions, then it’ll pop up and prompt you to agree or disagree. Simply agree to verify your account.
  3. If you’ve changed your password for security reasons, then you may need to sign in with the new password to verify your account.

Another simple, but straightforward solution is to log out and log back in. This can work for your iCloud account, as well as your Apple ID for iTunes or the App Store.

  1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Sign Out. For iTunes and App Store, go to Settings > [Your Name] > iTunes & App Store.
  2. Select your account.
  3. Scroll to the bottom and click Sign Out for iCloud. For the Store, tap on your account and then Sign Out in the menu prompt.

If all else fails, you may need to use Recovery Mode on your iOS device.

2. iCloud Data Is Not Syncing

Apple ID Settings

While iCloud should sync automatically and changes appear instantly, sometimes that isn’t the case. If that happens, try these fixes in turn:

  1. Restart your device and wait. Sometimes all you need is patience.
  2. Make sure you’re logged in to the right account on all your devices. To check this, just go to Settings > [Your Name] on each iPhone or iPad.
  3. Again, make sure that Apple’s servers are working by checking the status page.

3. App Is Not Saving in iCloud

iCloud Data Sync

Usually apps that use iCloud Drive to store their data do so by default. However, sometimes you must manually toggle them to save to iCloud, either in the app settings or through a permission prompt. It’s easy to check and make sure this is on for the app you want:

  1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud.
  2. Scroll through the list of apps and make sure that the toggle is green for the apps you want to save in iCloud.

4. Stuck on iCloud Signin or Updating iCloud Settings

Update iCloud Settings Stuck

If you’re trying to sign into iCloud on one device and it gets stuck, but Apple’s servers are functional and your credentials work on another device, then try a basic reboot:

  1. Turn off your phone by holding down the power button.
  2. Press the power button again until the Apple logo shows up.
  3. Re-enter your iCloud account information again in Settings.

If this happens when you’re in the Setup Assistant after updating or setting up a new device, and it asks to set up iCloud, then the restart should work too, or a hard restart. When you try it again, you can opt to skip setting up iCloud during the setup and do it later instead.

5. “Authentication Error” When Signing Into iCloud

Reset iCloud Password

Sometimes you think you have the right login credentials, but may have made a mistake somewhere along the way. If you get an “authentication failed” message when trying to sign in, try this:

  1. Go to appleid.apple.com.
  2. Log in with your Apple ID/iCloud credentials.
  3. If you still can’t log in, then try resetting your account password by clicking the Forgot Apple ID or password? link on the page.

6. “Unsupported Apple ID” When Signing Into iCloud

Apple ID Login

Creating your Apple ID is pretty straightforward. However, you may have created an Apple ID under non-standard circumstances, which can cause issues later.

Typically, if an Apple ID works with the iTunes Store, App Store, Game Center, FaceTime, and other Apple services, then it should work with iCloud. But if it doesn’t work with those services, there may be issues with using it for iCloud.

For this, Apple recommends to contact iCloud support to resolve the issue.

7. Reached or Exceeded iCloud Storage Limit

iCloud Delete Files

When you start using iCloud for everything, it can fill up pretty fast. After all, it can have backups of your iPhone and iPad, along with high-quality photos and videos, documents, and other data in iCloud Drive.

Apple gives everyone 5GB of iCloud storage for free. But that’s usually not enough, and a lot of users end up getting a message saying that they’ve reached or exceeded their iCloud storage limit. When this happens, you won’t be able to do daily backups or save more files in iCloud until you fix it. You have two options for this: make some space or buy more storage.

The first option involves checking your iCloud storage and getting rid of unnecessary data. To do this:

  1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud. Tap on Manage Storage.
  2. You’ll see all apps and services storing in iCloud in descending order, sorted by largest amount of data.
  3. Tap on an item to view its contents and size.
  4. To get rid of something, just tap on the Delete Documents & Data (or something similar, depending on item) option.
  5. Wait a few moments while iCloud purges the selected data from your storage. Then you can celebrate, because you’ve regained space.

Purchase iCloud Storage

If you prefer not getting rid of anything, then consider buying more storage. It’s easy to do right from your iOS device:

  1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Storage.
  2. Select Change Storage Plan.
  3. You’ll see your current plan, along with available upgrades below.
  4. Apple’s iCloud plans start at $1 a month for 50GB, and go up to 2TB for $10 a month.
  5. Select the one you want, and then tap Buy. You’ll get charged immediately and the storage is available right away. The monthly payment date reflects your original purchase date.
  6. Apple charges your card charged every month until you cancel. If you had a paid plan before and needed an upgrade, Apple cancels the existing plan and charges the prorated cost for the new one.

8. Can’t Log In or Out of iCloud: “Verification Failed”

iCloud Verification Failed

If you’re trying to log in or out of your iCloud account in your iPhone or iPad’s Settings, but get a “Verification Failed” error message, there are a few ways to fix this:

  1. Do a hard reboot of your phone. See the link in the “Cannot Connect to iCloud” section above for detailed instructions.
  2. Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi. This is a common issue after updating your device’s software.
  3. Oddly enough, your device’s date and time may be incorrect, thus causing verification issues. Fix this by going to Settings > General > Date & Time. Make sure the Set Automatically option is on, and it should fix itself.
  4. Use another device that has the same Apple ID. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Password & Security > Get Verification Code. This generates a six-digit code that you input on the other device (where you get verification error) if you have Two-Factor Authentication on.

9. iPhone Keeps Asking for iCloud Password

iCloud Password Error

This is an old bug, but one that pops back up at times. You’re in the middle of using your iPhone, when a prompt pops up asking you to enter your iCloud credentials. You do that, but then a few moments later, it pops up again, and again… What do you do?

  1. Rebooting your phone is the first step. Do it the traditional way with the power button, or use the hard restart method mentioned earlier.
  2. Sign out and back in to your iCloud account. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Sign Out. When the prompt comes up, tap Delete from Phone. Then sign in again.
  3. Make sure Apple’s servers are working by checking the status page.
  4. If none of these steps work, try resetting your Apple account password at appleid.apple.com. Enter the new password in the prompt when it appears, and it should fix the problem.
  5. The last resort option is to back up and restore your device. Since this process can be time-consuming, make sure none of the other solutions worked for you.

iCloud Is Simple and Invisible… When It Works Right

Many Apple users rely on iCloud for at least something, if not everything. The service is seamless and invisible, but only when it works. When iCloud problems do come up, they make themselves quite apparent, leading to a frustrating experience.

We’ve covered some of the most common issues with iCloud here, but there are plenty of other annoying problems that can arise. However, when in doubt, it’s always good to try restarting your device to fix any strange problems you’re having before troubleshooting with Google.

Now that you know how to troubleshoot iCloud, check out our guide to fixing crashing iPhone apps.

Image Credit: SIphotography/Depositphotos


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What Is the LaTeX Document Format and How to Use It


If you’ve spent any time in academia or the academic publishing world, you’ve probably heard of LaTeX (pronounced “LAY-tech”).

But what, exactly, is LaTeX? What are some of its uses? And how can you learn to use it?

We’ll walk you through the basics to help you get started. Then we’ll show you where to find great LaTeX tutorials and resources and point you toward some free LaTeX software.

What Is LaTeX?

Put simply, LaTeX is a typesetting and document preparation system that “includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation.”

But what does that mean?

LaTeX 2e logo

For most people, it means that you can use LaTeX to create documents with text and formatting that would be difficult in a standard word processor.

Let’s use the quadratic equation as an example. Here’s what I typed in LaTeX:

\begin{equation}

x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}
{2a}

\end{equation}

And here’s how that’s displayed:

LaTeX quadratic equation

Getting that equation to display nicely in Microsoft Word would be a pain. In LaTeX, it just took me a couple lines of text. But LaTeX can do a whole lot more than mathematical equations. It can handle non-Roman alphabets, tables of contents, lists, bibliographies, references, and even formulaic drawing.

Typesetting With LaTeX

If you’re writing with LaTeX, you usually don’t have to worry too much about typesetting. You’ll probably use it more for equations and the like. But by tagging the items in your document (sections, figures, titles, and so on), you give an editor or publisher the ability to apply styles and formats to the entire document at once.

The American Mathematical Society says this:

“LaTeX 2e defines ‘structured’ files in which the various elements (title, authors, headings, etc.) are easily identified. This is crucial for the future, when we may need to migrate tens of thousands of articles into new formats. AMS journals are already posted on line, with full bibliographic data in HTML.”

Formatting and typesetting with LaTeX is a bit like using HTML and CSS. If you correctly tag everything with HTML, all you need to do is make one or two changes in CSS to apply them across your entire HTML document.

Advantages of LaTeX Documents

LaTeX documents obviously have advantages for mathematicians and anyone else who uses equations in their writing. The systems is commonly used for documents in physics, statistics, computer science, engineering, and other fields that need to write down a lot of equations.

But it’s also used by linguists, economists, philosophers, children’s book authors, anthropologists, theologians… and just about anyone else you can think of.

That’s not to say that it’s for everyone, though.

If you want something that you can learn and use right away, LaTeX may not be for you. It’s a markup language, and it will take time to learn more than the basics. You’ll have to do a lot of research on how to solve specific problems.

That said, after you’ve learned it, it’ll save you a lot of time. Automatically generated tables of contents and bibliographies alone will save you hours. And if you design documents, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is in LaTeX than Word or LibreOffice.

LaTeX is based on the TeX document formatting system, which has been around since 1978. Some version of LaTeX will likely stick around for a long time, so it’s a great format to store documents in.

Getting Started With LaTeX

Taking a look at LaTeX basics can be intimidating. It looks like learning a new coding language. But there aren’t as many commands to learn (at least at first).

Let’s take a look at a quick example to start. I’ll use LaTeX Base, a free online LaTeX editor. I recommend using it while you’re learning.

To open the document, I’ll declare a document class:

\documentclass{article}

There are many LateX document classes, but article is a common one.

After that, I’ll add the document title, the author’s name, and a date:

\title{Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus}
\author{Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley}
\date{1 January, 1818}

Now, you’ll notice that none of this information is currently displayed in my document (the preview is on the right side of the screen):

LaTeX preamble information

That’s because this information is considered part of the preamble, which doesn’t appear in the LaTeX document.

Want to make it show up in the document? It’s easy. Just use the following line:

\maketitle

That’s all there is to it:

Inserting a title in a LaTeX document with \maketitle

Note that \maketitle must be between the document’s beginning and ending to work.

Within the body of the document, you can type plain text to insert it:

Inserting plain text into a LaTeX document

And for a bulleted list, use the following syntax:

\begin{itemize}
 \item First item
 \item Second item
 \item Third item
\end{itemize}

Here’s what it looks like in the editor:

Inserting a bulleted list into a LaTeX document

To create a numbered list, use enumerate instead of itemize.

Let’s add a section heading to make sure readers know that this is the introduction:

Adding a section heading to a LaTeX document

With a simple declaration:

\section{Introduction}

I’ve added a numbered section heading. LaTeX will automatically insert sections into a table of contents, if we want one.

As you can see, using LaTeX is straightforward—if you know the markup you need. That’s where tutorials and documentation come in.

Resources for Learning LaTeX

For the most part, learning to use LaTeX is all about finding the right information when you need it. You can start with plain text, then look up what you need for a section or sub-section heading.

Then you can find the information on how to insert a figure. Or a footnote. Or an entire bibliography. The best way to learn it is one step at a time.

To that end, here are some LaTeX resources that will help you out.

LaTeX Tutorials

One of the best introductions to LaTeX for beginners is Learn LaTeX in 30 Minutes by ShareLaTeX, an online LaTeX editor.

It goes over some of the basics that we covered above, as well as intermediate topics like mathematical equations, text formatting, comments, and figure captions.

Andy Roberts has a series of articles on LaTeX that will walk you through everything from the most basic setup all the way through figures and captions. It’s not clear if he regularly updates this, but it appears to be up-to-date at the time of this writing.

Overleaf, another free online LaTeX editor, also has a good LaTeX tutorial that will teach you the basics. They call it an “interactive” tutorial, but it’s really just a sequence of slides. That being said, it’s a comprehensive introduction to a lot of the commands you might want to try with LaTeX.

LaTeX Documentation

Whether you decide to use the above LaTeX tutorials or not, you’re going to need to reference documentation at some point.

LaTeX, an aptly titled book on Wikibooks, is a great place to start. It’s a comprehensive guide to the LaTeX system that includes everything from tables of contents to indices. Errors and warnings, algorithms, theorems, advanced mathematics, and anything else you could possibly want in LaTeX are included.

And because it’s on Wikibooks, it’s super easy to search.

LaTeX book

The official documentation from latex-project.org is another good resource, though it’s not exactly user-friendly. The documentation is split up into different documents meant for different people in the writing, editing, and typesetting processes.

The Not So Short Guide to LaTeX 2e is exactly what it sounds like: a (very long) guide to LaTeX. And while you could use it as a tutorial, as it does cover all of the basics, the massive size of this guide makes it better as a reference.

Finally, the guides section of ShareLaTeX is another good option. The resources there are somewhere between tutorials and references, and are great for when you have questions.

LaTeX Software

LaTeX isn’t a standalone piece of software. It runs on top of an older system called TeX. Many pieces of TeX software support LaTeX.

The official LaTeX project page recommends the following:

There are also a number of LaTeX online editors that you can use without downloading any software:

Start Using LaTeX Today

With the resources, tools, tutorials, and tips above, you can get started with LaTeX right away. It takes a while to get used to it, but once you do, you’ll be creating and formatting documents much more efficiently. You could continue making professional documents in Word, but why would you after you’ve seen what LaTeX can do?


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How to Make a Twitch Overlay Using Photoshop


Twitch has changed the face of gaming in recent years, with top Twitch streamers making big bucks playing their favorite games. For many viewers, Twitch is like a new form of social media, and despite recent changes to the Twitch rules, its popularity is greater than ever.

If you want to make money streaming, you’ll need to build a large viewership on Twitch, and an important part of that is making your stream look professional.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create a simple Twitch overlay using Photoshop. And while this overlay is for Minecraft, it can be modified to work with any other game. And it will also work perfectly for streaming on YouTube Gaming or even Mixer, Microsoft’s alternative to Twitch.

Getting Started

Before we start, let’s look at what we will finish up with today:

twitch overlay

Everything in this tutorial is relatively simple, but if you are new to Photoshop, it may help to first read our Photoshop layers tutorial. If you are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is incredibly powerful.

If you want to make a Twitch overlay without using Photoshop, this project is completely possible in GIMP. Because the tools you will be using will be a little different, I would suggest you read our guide to GIMP first.

With that said, let’s take a look at how to make a Twitch overlay with Photoshop.

Creating the Canvas

To begin creating the overlay, open up Photoshop and create a new image the same size as your screen resolution.

twitch overlay

Now that we have a blank document, we need a guide to build our overlay around. I would suggest taking a screenshot of your chosen game and loading it into Photoshop by clicking File & Place and selecting your image. Stretch the image out to the full size of the canvas. Now we can begin creating our overlay elements.

twitch overlay

Adding a Top Bar

Create a new layer and name it Top Banner. Select the Rectangle Tool from the left side menu. On the same menu, open up the color selector and choose your background color.

twitch overlay

Now click and drag across the top of your new layer to create a top banner. Don’t worry if you overlap the canvas edges, the rectangle should snap into place with the side.

twitch overlay

Now, to give this rectangle a border, right click on the layer and select Blending Options. Select Stroke from the menu that appears, and set the stroke width and color to what works for you. In this case, 10px wide with a dark red color looks good. Click OK, and select your layer. Turn on the move tool by pressing the letter V and move the top banner upwards so that it has enough space to add text later, but doesn’t obscure too much of the game screen.

Finally, select the top banner layer, and bring its opacity down to around 75 percent. This will allow the game to show through slightly and gives the overlay a more dynamic effect.

twitch overlay

You’ve made a great start, and you can use what you have done so far to create the two bottom banners.

The Bottom Banners

Rather than do the same work again for these bottom banners, simply right-click the Top Banner and select Duplicate Layer. Name this new layer Bottom Right and using the Move Tool (V on the keyboard), move it to the bottom right of your screen. Make sure it doesn’t overlap with the in-game toolbar, and use the Ctrl key while dragging to place it with more precision.

twitch overlay

To create the bottom left bar just follow the same method as above, and move it down to the bottom left side of the screen. Our basic overlay is now complete, so we can add a frame for our camera.

Camera Frame

Create a new layer, and call it Frame. Select the Rectangle Tool again, and create a perfect square by holding down the Shift key while dragging the mouse cursor. Don’t worry about the color of the square, we will be getting rid of the fill later.

twitch overlay

To create the frame, right click on the layer, and select Blending Options. Select Stroke but this time select Inner from the Position drop down menu, to make the frame come into the square rather than be put on the outside.

twitch overlay

Once again select a color and width which fits the color scheme you have so far. Now select the layer, and change it’s Fill to 0 percent, leaving just the frame.

twitch overlay

Use the Move Tool to place it above the bottom left banner, and resize it if you need to by holding the Shift key to preserve its aspect ratio.

how to make twitch overlay on photoshop

The overlay is starting to come together, but now it’s time to add some text.

Adding Text

To begin adding text, create a new layer. Use the Text Tool (or press T on your keuyboard) and drag out a new text box. Select the Character menu from the right hand side as shown below:

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If you cannot see this button on your Photoshop layout, you can open the menu by clicking Window > Character. Select your chosen font and color here, and add your text. Use the Move Tool to place your text onto one of your bottom banners. It should snap into place, but the Ctrl key can help you finesse it to exactly where you want it to be.

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Now we have text, but it looks a little bland. So, to make it stand out, right click on the text layer, and again select Blending Options. Give the text a Stroke and also a Drop Shadow to make it stand out a little. The default values are used here, but you can play with the settings to create a much more pronounced “floating text” effect too.

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Create text elements for the other three corners by right-clicking on this layer and selecting Duplicate Layer, and using the Move Tool to move each new layer to their respective corners.

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With our text now in place, we are close to being finished. Let’s just add logos for social media and a header logo for the channel.

Social Media Logos

It is easier to use premade icons which are commercially free to use. A website like Icon Finder can help with this, but be sure that any icons you use are marked Free for commercial use to avoid getting in legal trouble later. Import your logo into Photoshop using the File > Place menu. If you cannot see your logo, make sure it is on top by dragging its layer to the top of the layer menu.

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Now we have a Facebook logo, but it is a little bland. Let’s make it fit in by right-clicking on its layer, and selecting Blending Options, followed by Stroke. Give it an outer stroke the same width as your top banner’s stroke. When selecting the color, you can use the dropper to match the color to your top banner.

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Move the logo up to the top left portion of the screen, and by using the Ctrl key place it carefully so that it fits into the corner.

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For the Twitter logo, follow the same method of using Place to add it to the project. You can save a little time here by selecting the Facebook logo layer, right-clicking and choosing Copy Layer Style, before returning to the new Twitter logo layer and using Paste Layer Style to give it the same stroke width and color. Move this logo to the opposite top corner, and, if needed, move your text so that it fits.

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Now let’s add the center logo.

Channel Logo

If you have a channel logo, it’s good to have it front and center so that everyone can see it immediately when they start watching. If you don’t have a logo as yet, you could replace this with a some custom text featuring your channel name or website.

To begin, drag a ruler out from the left toolbar, it should snap to the center of the screen.

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If you cannot see your ruler or it is not snapping, look under the View menu and check that both Ruler and Snap are selected.

Place your logo into the project. It should be automatically centered on the ruler. Create a new layer, and drag it to the layer below the logo. Use the Rectangle Tool to create a rectangle slightly larger than the logo, giving it a framed effect.

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To make it stand out, give your newly created square an Outer Stroke the same color as the rest of your borders. To make it easier to move the logo and border as one, hold Ctrl to select both layers. Right-click and select Convert to smart object. This stores both our logo and border on the same layer, which can still be edited later if needed.

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Move your logo to the top of the overlay and resize it to fit. And that’s it, we’re all done.

Saving the Overlay

Before saving the overlay as an image, save it as a Photoshop document with a filename like “Minecraft Twitch Template” so you can change it later to use with different games.

To make the background transparent, select the Eye icon on your game screenshot and background layers, leaving only the overlay elements showing.

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Save this file with the .PNG extension, and load it into your streaming software of choice to use it. Here is the finished overlay in my streaming software, with the overlay as the top layer, the camera as the middle layer, and Minecraft as the bottom layer.

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Twitch Overlay Complete: Now Get to Streaming!

Now that you know how to make a Twitch overlay, it’s time to get streaming! Get your channel started by setting up your streaming software and choosing what games to play on Twitch. And if you’re really going for production value, try broadcasting with a green screen. Above all else, have fun!


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