Why does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the internet?

How you could get your covid-19 test results faster  

Sponsored by Adobe The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 04.06.20 Good morning! Today: is it just me, or is the internet getting nice again? Plus: why there are such long coronavirus testing results delays in the US, and Google taught a robotic dog to imitate a real dog's movements. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Why does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the internet?   Nostalgia: There’s a feeling of déjà vu about the internet these days: the democracy of it, the gathering of one giant community. It’s the same feeling that nags you as you trade baking tips with strangers or re-create Chatroulette on Google Hangouts. Now that everyone is apart and together in their apartness, it feels as if the barriers between us online are coming down.  How so: Before social media soured us, we used to take the internet’s promise of serendipitous connection more seriously. Now virtually hanging out with randos is cool again, with people joining everything from happy hours to book clubs to late-night flirting. We’re also learning new things: crowdsourcing the best sourdough recipe, mastering new languages, or picking up any number of useless or handy skills. Even Instagram is more fun and less filtered. Read the full story. —Tanya Basu and Karen Hao How you could get your covid-19 test results faster  What’s happening: Testing remains among the most pressing problems with America’s response to the pandemic. On March 31, the country announced that it has collectively tested a million people—weeks behind the schedule repeatedly promised by the Trump administration. However, the lag between sample collection and results has become increasingly unpredictable, with many physicians reporting waits of more than seven days. What’s the cause?: There are currently four main types of labs doing testing: the federally-run Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, public health labs run by states, in-house hospitals, and commercial labs. Most tests are being done at commercial labs. There are three major reasons for the delays: a shortage of supplies, a lack of funding, and poor prioritization of testing samples. Why it matters: Testing people is the key to understanding how widely the novel coronavirus has spread and gauging its severity. Health-care workers need access to quick testing so that they can continue to safely take care of the rest of us. In the near future, we will also need testing to figure out how many among us may be immune and can get out of our houses and restart the economy.    Some cause for hope: More hospitals and other facilities are gaining the ability to process tests on site, which might bring some relief for commercial labs and begin to bring down wait times. Read the full story.  —Tate Ryan-Mosley Google taught this robotic dog to learn new tricks by imitating a real one Google researchers are using imitation learning to teach autonomous robots how to pace, spin, and move in more agile ways. What they did: Using a data set of motion capture data recorded from various sensors attached to a dog, the researchers taught a quadruped robot named Laikago several different movements that are hard to achieve through traditional hand-coded robotic controls. Why it matters: Teaching robots the complex and agile movements necessary to navigate the real world has been a long-standing challenge in the field. Imitation learning of this kind instead allows such machines to easily borrow the agility of animals and even humans. Read how they did it. —Karen Hao We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + This is what a penguin weigh-in looks and sounds like.   + Get creative with your Zoom background.   + Soothe yourself with homemade cake.   + A Dad and his girl singing “You Got a Friend in Me”... disgustingly corny but still, aww. Sponsor Message CIOs, take charge of digital transformation Chief information officers are uniquely positioned to give their organizations a competitive edge. So do it, says Adobe CIO Cynthia Stoddard. Read more on the changing CIO role in this new article. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Antibody testing kits aren’t reliable enough, say UK researchers They may fail to detect up to half of coronavirus cases. (The Guardian)   + The CDC is starting to try out these tests in the US. (Vox)   + This is how they’re meant to work—and why there’s so much riding on them. (TR)  2 Its official: the US government says you should wear a mask when you go out The idea is to stop asymptomatic people from unknowingly spreading coronavirus. (Ars Technica)   + Facebook’s automated systems have hampered DIY mask efforts. (NYT $) 3 People are vandalizing 5G equipment over a coronavirus conspiracy theory Even just reading about this made me feel more stupid. (BBC)   + Scientific experts and ministers warn it is “dangerous nonsense.” (Reuters)   + YouTube says it is going to suppress videos promoting the theory. (The Verge) 4 Coronavirus has turned dates into long-distance relationships 💑 Just imagine how exciting it will be when all these people meet for the first time. (NBC) 5 This pandemic will be bad news for globalization  Relying on one country for the majority of the world’s medical supplies now looks very dangerous. (Wired UK) 6 We need a better phrase than “social distancing”  We can still socialise. We just need to stay apart physically. (Quartz)   + Tips from someone who’s been isolating for 50 years. (NPR) 7 Groups are coordinating “zoombombing” attacks to spread hate speech The videoconferencing app is now a target.  😒 (NYT $)   + Thousands of private Zoom calls have been left viewable on the open web. (WP $)   + Zoom is making changes to deal with its security problems. (TechCrunch) 8 A tiger at Bronx Zoo has tested positive for coronavirus 😢🐅 Anyone know where Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin were during March? (Axios) 9 The telephone wasn’t much use during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic Why? So many of the operators got sick. (Fast Company) 10 A couple is stranded in perpetual honeymoon on an island in the Maldives 🍹 Sounds fun, is in fact a Kafkaesque nightmare. (NYT $) Technologies driving business. How will you adapt your strategy and your workforce when technology changes your business and your market? Join us at EmTech Next to gain real-world insights into the technologies that are changing the status quo. Quote of the day “Every morning I woke up, for a week, sick in bed, somebody I knew had died.” —Vanessa Williams, a 33-year old office administrator who lives in Albany, Georgia, tells the New Yorker how many attendees at her uncle’s funeral in late February contracted coronavirus. Top image credit: MS TECH / SALORENZO HERRERA VIA UNSPLASH Please send baking tips to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Get unlimited access to online stories. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today. *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with your email address . *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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