Dilbert readers – Please visit Dilbert.com to read this feature. Due to changes with our feeds, we are now making this RSS feed a link to Dilbert.com.
Facebook now requires its managers to consider at least one minority candidate for open positions.
Sources tell Bloomberg that Facebook plans to implement the system widely, with the rule having been in place for some departments for a few months. A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed the news, but is refusing additional comment.
Last June, Facebook reported a total global workforce that was 69 percent male and 57 percent white. In its tech sector, Facebook reported an 85 percent male workforce that was 53 percent white.
While Asians also figured prominently in Facebook’s diversity report, Black, Hispanic and those who identified as mixed-race were scarce throughout the company.
➤ Facebook Starts Its ‘Rooney Rule’ to Increase Diversity in Tech [Bloomberg]
We’ve all seen the serviceable but dull or poorly shot photos of stuff for sale on eBay, and even on some higher-end retail sites. That’s because when you want to sell clothing or household items quickly, the priority is getting the listing in front of people’s faces rather than having it look its best.
Design Shop, an iPhone app released today, aims to ease beautifying a merchandise post by offering a large number of professionally produced graphics and templates that you can use to make your photo — and thus your item — more attractive to prospective buyers.
This is not a new concept. There are plenty of apps that let you add overlays and text to your photos — including Overlay Designs’ own Studio Design app. “What makes Design Shop different is its simplicity and quality of design. If a seller has a product shot, all they need to do is remix one of our professional designs with that photo,” said Joe Wilson, Design Shop co-founder.
“We’ve found with our consumer design app that many people struggle to produce professional looking content, even with nice tools. Our aim with Design Shop is to only have designs that are so high-quaility that users feel confident they’re producing an attractive promo image. “
Many would object to the entire concept of using an app to dress up a merchandise photo: it may seem dishonest, overly hyped or unimportant that such a post is designed. But, from my perspective, it’s not trivial.
If a photo of an item is compelling, more buyers are likely to consider it. Moreover, the fact that someone took the time to present their item stylishly may also reflect well on both the seller and the merchandise.
Design Shop opens to a series of templates tailored to categories like Sales & Discounts, Must Haves, Handcrafted, Vintage Goods and others. Each category opens to a series of free designs plus additional ones available for a fee.
After you choose a design you like, you can then shoot a photo of your item or import one from the camera roll. Then adjust the image in the frame by zooming or repositioning it, adjusting the color tint and fixing the exposure. Then save and share the image.
While Design Shop’s goal is to build a large library of high-quality content. Wilson said he’s working on new design collections to expand the library, as well as ways for users to customize every post with their own branding information.
A free version of the app has a watermark, and if you want to remove the watermark forever, it’s costs 99 cents. However, if you want to unlock the designs behind the pay wall, there’s a $2 per month subscription fee.
For folks who have a low volume of items for sale, ditching the watermark and sticking to the free designs seems reasonable. However, if you are selling in volume, you may want to consider the subscription — $24 per year sounds steep to me, but time is money.
➤ Design Shop [iOS]
Read next: Slidely pact with Getty gives users access to professional images for their creative work
Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Katherine Archuleta said encryption would not have helped thwart the recent hack that left four million federal employees at risk.
Speaking to Ars Technica, an OPM contractor says foreign workers had access to the system at a root level. The breach was believed to have originated in China.
One contractor “was in Argentina and his co-worker was physically located in the [People’s Republic of China]. Both had direct access to every row of data in every database: they were root. Another team that worked with these databases had at its head two team members with PRC passports. I know that because I challenged them personally and revoked their privileges. From my perspective, OPM compromised this information more than three years ago.”
Archuleta, having taken her post 18 months ago, said encryption was “not feasible” on the dated network her agency was operating on. She did say her office was currently working to encrypt its data.
➤ Encryption “would not have helped” at OPM, says DHS official [Ars Technica]
Reddit is about to encrypt all traffic on its site. In a short blog post, site administrator rram said Reddit would switch from HTTP to HTTPS on June 29.
First reported by The Hill, rram wrote “we’re ready to enforce that everyone use a secure connection with reddit.”
This comes days after Microsoft said all Bing traffic would be encrypted sometime this Summer. Others, like Yahoo and Wikipedia, have also begun encrypting traffic for users.
Privacy advocates have been pushing for widespread use of HTTPS in the wake of government snooping on data.
➤ Reddit will soon only be available over HTTPS [Reddit]
Read next: Reddit has banned 5 subreddits under its new guidelines to prevent harassment