Pavel Varenka The world of IT is dynamic, constantly changing and, above all, quite hectic. After all, in addition to the daily wars between tech giants and politicians, there are regularly news that can take your breath away and somehow outline the trend that humanity could go in the future. But keeping track of all the sources can be hellishly difficult, so we have prepared this column for you, where we will summarize some of the most important news and briefly introduce you to the hottest daily topics circulating on the Internet.
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Amaya Toman Wikipedia shines a light on disinformation ahead of the US election
As it seems, the tech giants have finally learned from the fiasco 4 years ago, when the candidates for the US presidency, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, faced each other. It was then that politicians, especially those from the losing side, began pointing out the spreading disinformation and proved in several ways how much a few fake news can influence public opinion. Subsequently, an initiative was born that really flooded multinational corporations, especially those owning some social media, and made the representatives of technology companies swallow their pride and do something about this burning problem. Over the past few years, a number of special teams have been created that monitor the flow of disinformation and try not only to report and block it, but also to warn users.
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And as expected, it is no different this year as well, when the current US President Donald Trump and the promising Democratic candidate Joe Biden faced each other in the fight for the White House. The polarization of society is greater than ever and it can be counted on the fact that in the case of both parties there will be mutual manipulation and influence aimed at favoring this or that candidate. However, although it might seem that a similar struggle is exclusively the domain of Facebook, Twitter, Google and other media giants, Wikipedia itself has the lion's share of the entire success or failure of the initiative. After all, most of the mentioned companies actively refer to it, and in particular Google lists Wikipedia as the most common primary source when searching. Logically, one can assume that many actors will want to take advantage of this and confuse their opponents accordingly. Fortunately, however, the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization behind this legendary website, has insured this eventuality as well.
Wikipedia has put together a special team of several dozen people who will monitor users editing the content of the page day and night and intervene if necessary. In addition, the main page of the US election will be locked at all times and only users who have an account older than 30 days and more than 500 reliable edits will be able to edit it. This is definitely a step in the right direction and we can only hope that other companies will be inspired. After all, Google and Facebook have officially banned any political ads, and other tech giants are quickly joining the initiative. However, attackers and spreaders of disinformation are resourceful, and we can only wait to see what tactics they will choose this year.
Fortnite is aiming for a new generation of gaming consoles
Who doesn't know the legendary megahit that stirred up the stagnant waters of the game industry and literally made a hole in the world a few years ago. We are talking about the Battle Royale game Fortnite, which attracted more than 350 million players, and although over time it was quickly overshadowed by the competition, which took a large slice of the user base pie, in the end it is still an incredible success of Epic Games, which only so he won't forget. Even the developers know about this, and that's why they try to distribute the game on as many platforms as possible. In addition to smartphones, the Nintendo Switch and basically even a smart microwave, you can now play Fortnite on the new generation of game consoles, namely PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
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After all, it's no wonder the announcement is coming now. The release of the PlayStation 5 is fast approaching, and although the console is hopelessly sold out all over the world and there are queues for pre-orders, the lucky ones will be able to play the legendary Battle Royale the day they bring the console home. Of course, there will also be improved graphics, a number of next-gen elements and, above all, smoother gameplay, which you will be able to enjoy in up to 8K. So if you're one of the few people who will be running for the console on the day of release, or if you'd rather reach for the Xbox Series X, mark your calendars for November 10th, when the game comes out for Xbox, and November 12th, when it also heads to PlayStation 5.
The SpaceX rocket will look into space again after a short pause
The world-famous visionary Elon Musk does not worry too much about failures, and although his estimates and statements are often controversial, in many ways he is ultimately right. It is no different for the last mission under the command of Space Force, which was supposed to take place a month ago, but due to unstable weather and problems with gasoline engines, the flight was eventually canceled at the last minute. Nevertheless, SpaceX did not hesitate, it prepared for unpleasant eventualities and will send the Falcon 9 rocket together with a military GPS satellite into space already this week. After a short investigation, it turned out that it was a fairly ordinary banality, which, in addition to SpaceX, thwarted the plans of NASA as well.
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Specifically, it was a part of the paint that blocked the valve, which led to an earlier ignition. However, this could have resulted in an explosion in the case of an unfortunate combination, so the flight was canceled instead. However, the fault was found, the engines were replaced and the third generation GPS III Space Vehicle satellite will look into space in just 3 days, again from the legendary Cape Canaveral, which is famous for space flights. So if you're starting to miss the exciting few seconds before ignition, mark Friday, November 6 in your calendar, prepare your popcorn and watch the live stream directly from SpaceX headquarters.
Static fire test complete – targeting Thursday, November 5 for Falcon 9 launch of GPS III-4 from SLC-40
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 1, 2020
