Good morning. It’s a new week and it’s time to go through today’s tech news.
1. Melbourne Water can predict recycled water quality two days in advance
As reported by itNews, Melbourne Water can now predict its water quality with 75 per cent accuracy two days in advance thanks to a range of new tech. The Victoria-owned water company claims that it can do this by using IoT sensors, machine learning, a unified data platform, and digital twin technology of its treatment facilities. There are supposedly 700 sensors and metres in the treatment facilities that contribute to the water quality prediction.
2. Tech companies are failing to crack down on Russian propaganda
The BBC reports that tech companies like X (formerly Twitter) and Meta are failing to crack down on Russian propaganda. A report from the European Union highlighted that social media companies are failing to prevent the spread of Russian-backed misinformation and disinformation, and that Russian disinformation has increased since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022. “In absolute numbers, pro-Kremlin accounts continue to reach the largest audiences on Meta’s platforms. Meanwhile, the audience size for Kremlin-backed accounts more than tripled on Telegram,” the report read.
3. RIP WordPad
Unfortunately, Microsoft is killing off WordPad, the basic text editor that has shipped with every version of Windows since 1995. As reported by Mashable, Microsoft would rather its customers move on to its two other text editors – Microsoft Word for rich text editing and Windows Notepad for plain text documents – although WordPad did bridge the gap for text document writing for people who didn’t want to pay a Microsoft Office subscription (albeit, WordPad did have incredibly limited features, but still more text editing features than its cousin NotePad). I’ll miss you, WordPad.
4. Jupiter gets smacked by an unknown celestial object
As the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter is not one to play with. That doesn’t stop wandering comets or asteroids from testing the gas giant, occasionally crashing into Jupiter due to its enormous size and immense gravitational pull. An amateur astronomer caught a brief impact on Jupiter this week, appearing as a bright burst of light left behind by a small object. The event was confirmed by other amateur astronomers on Twitter, who all reported seeing the bright flash.
5. Shorts might ruin YouTube, according to some veteran staff
The Verge is reporting that YouTube Shorts, the short-form and phone-screen optimised version of YouTube intended to compete with TikTok, might ruin the social video posting website. Internal figures are fluctuating as creators move away from long-form videos, which could have a knock-on effect on YouTube’s current ad revenue system. The company is still figuring out how to properly monetise the Shorts platform.
BONUS ITEM: Bit of a difference there.
Have a lovely week.