Month: August 2021

Tiong Bahru Social Club review: Won’t you be my algorithmic neighbor?

In this Fantasia Fest film, happiness algorithms dictate terms of community living.

The trailer for Tiong Bahru Social Club

Many of us can relate to, have related to, or will relate to Ah Bee, hero of the near-future, tech-fantasy film, Tiong Bahru Social Club. He lives with his mom in a high rise apartment building in Singapore. And as he approaches his 30th birthday, he lives a comfortable but pretty unglamorous life—an office job during the day, a seat on the couch in front of the TV and next to mom each night. With this big round number birthday gifting his family a new level of anxiety, they decide it's time for a change.

Ah Bee (played by Thomas Pang) suddenly finds himself in a new role as the latest Happiness Agent at the Tiong Bahru Social Club (TBSC), a community living experiment where decisions are driven by an algorithm measuring happiness. TBSC is a developer whose facilities ostensibly serve elderly Singapore residents like Ah Bee's mother, but each resident gets paired with a younger Happiness Agent who becomes responsible for their happiness. Happiness Agents get new roles or perks at TBSC based on both their resident's and the overall community's Happiness Index. And TBSC tries to optimize each agent by constantly monitoring their feelings (agents wear Happiness Rings allowing the company to track how actions impact an agent's happiness) and offering continual training (everything from improving your laugh to mastering three different hug techniques).

At first, Ah Bee seems to be enjoying his new existence just fine despite being paired with Ms. Wee (Jalyn Han), an older woman who adores cats and clearly prefers one of her fingers over all others. But "fine"—happiness scores hovering in between 40-60—doesn't keep management at TBSC off your back. New plans for Ah Bee are clearly coming.

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TorrentFreak News Article Targeted by Dubious ‘DRM Circumvention Complaint

The American Society of Composers has asked Google to remove hundreds of URLs from its search results. The flagged pages are accused of ‘circumventing DRM’ but the anti-piracy outfit casts its net too wide. One of the reported links points to a TorrentFreak news article about a DRM circumvention lawsuit.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

tf wipeAt TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about dubious takedown notices. Today, we find ourselves at the center of another one.

Earlier this week the ‘American Society of Composers’ sent a series of “DRM Circumvention” complaints to Google, acting on behalf of the Video Industry Association of America.

These notices are similar to standard DMCA takedown requests but focus on content that violates the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. And there’s another important distinction. Unlike normal takedown notices, there is no option to appeal a wrongful accusation.

Irreversable DRM Circumvention Takedowns

Whether the site operators agree with the takedowns or not, they are generally irreversible. The DMCA doesn’t prescribe a takedown and counter-notification scheme for these notices and Google previously confirmed that it doesn’t have an official appeal process either.

This puts the targets of these recent notices at a severe disadvantage. That includes TorrentFreak, as one of our news articles was reported as well. Not once, but in four separate takedown requests.

dvdfab notice

The news article in question covers legal developments in the lawsuit against Blu-Ray ripping software DVDFab, which dates back five years ago. However, the American Society of Composers sees something else.

“These links provides the circumventive measures to download the copyrighted video or audio content by bypassing the copyright protection of streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, HBO, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, Dailymotion, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music etc,” their takedown notice reads.

Google Takes No Action

When we started writing this article, it appeared that the article was indeed removed from search results but, on closer inspection, it’s still listed. Whether we missed it the first time around or whether Google stepped in is not clear.

Needless to say, we don’t like to see our articles removed from search engines based on inaccurate claims. Especially when there’s no formal appeal process, but luckily no action is needed from our end.

Several other ‘non-news’ URLs were removed from the search results. These include DVDFab reviews and various sites that show how people can get a free copy or crack for the software.

If these sites disagree with the takedowns, they can try to reach out to the copyright holder and ask them to retract their claim. However, the “Video Industry Association of America” has no presence on the Internet at all.

The same is true for the American Society of Composers. This sounds a lot like the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, better known as ASCAP, but that organization has no connections to the movie industry.

At this point, we’re not even sure if these organizations exist. That’s something affected sites could bring up in counternotice, if only that was an option.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Looking for a new job in tech? It may be your lucky day

Employers are turning on the charm to attract engineers and developers to their firms.

Looking for a new job in tech? It may be your lucky day

Enlarge (credit: Vicki Been | Getty Images)

Two months ago, Jacob Eiting closed the Series B for his startup RevenueCat, which makes a platform for managing in-app subscriptions. The $40 million investment was meant to grow the company and, crucially, to hire more people. The 35-person startup hopes to expand to 50 employees by the end of the year, and 100 by the end of next year. To court them, RevenueCat offers a suite of perks—unlimited vacation, a home office stipend—plus equity and salaries on par with some of the big tech companies, regardless of geography.

Such offers were less common in startups two years ago, before the pandemic. Now a competitive hiring market has driven salaries higher, beefed up benefits, and encouraged companies to offer more flexibility to job candidates. “Part of it is like, ‘How can we stand out against the Googles of the world?’” says Eiting. “We take advantage of the strengths we have. We pay well if you're out of the Bay Area—that’s how we stand out.” (Google, among other big tech companies, has said it may reduce salaries for remote workers.)

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Meeresströmungen kurz vor dem Kollaps?

Das komplexe Zusammenspiel von Meeresströmungen und steigenden Temperaturen hat Auswirkungen auf Klima und Wetter. Hinzu kommen “Todeszonen” im Meer

Das komplexe Zusammenspiel von Meeresströmungen und steigenden Temperaturen hat Auswirkungen auf Klima und Wetter. Hinzu kommen "Todeszonen" im Meer