From slashdot.org:

Five years ago, 23andMe was one of the hottest startups in the world. Millions of people were spitting into its test tubes to learn about their ancestry. Oprah had named its kit one of her favorite things; Lizzo dressed up as one for Halloween; Eddie Murphy name-checked the company on "Saturday Night Live." 23andMe went public in 2021 and its valuation briefly topped $6 billion. Forbes anointed Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe's chief executive and a Silicon Valley celebrity, as the "newest self-made billionaire." Now Wojcicki's self-made billions have vanished.

23andMe's valuation has crashed 98% from its peak and Nasdaq has threatened to delist its sub-$1 stock. Wojcicki reduced staff by a quarter last year through three rounds of layoffs and a subsidiary sale. The company has never made a profit and is burning cash so quickly it could run out by 2025. Silicon Valley's fortunes were built on the lofty ambitions of entrepreneurs swinging for the fences -- even if most of them strike out. Wojcicki, for her part, isn't giving up. She's sticking to her goal to transform 23andMe from a supplier of basic ancestry and health data into a comprehensive healthcare company that develops drugs, offers medical care and sells subscription health reports. She still has to prove the business can sustain itself. She's raised about $1.4 billion for 23andMe, and spent roughly 80% of it.

Known for her quirky charm and informal style -- she typically wears workout gear to the office -- Wojcicki, 50, has been searching for fresh capital. But with 23andMe's stock trading at just 74 cents, the company likely can't raise money by selling more shares. And the company's early-stage drug programs are so expensive, she has sought investor partners for some of them, so far unsuccessfully, and given up stakes in others. She could also plug the hole with her own cash. At the center of 23andMe's DNA-testing business are two fundamental challenges. Customers only need to take the test once, and few test-takers get life-altering health results.

New tool lets virtual and in-person attendees plan for their discoveries

RootsTech by FamilySearch, the premier family discovery event held online and in person in Salt Lake City, Utah, from February 29 to March 2, 2024, is generating excitement as it gears up to deliver its highly anticipated 2024 experiences. RootsTech 2024 promises unparalleled learning opportunities for attendees, blending tradition with innovation. Today RootsTech released its new session scheduler, offering in-person and online attendees a unique opportunity to personalize their RootsTech experience.

For the first time, RootsTech enthusiasts can now review—preconference—hundreds of class offerings through the session scheduler and meticulously create their in-person plans or online watch list for the event. Whether you are planning to attend in person or online, the revolutionary new tool will enhance your overall RootsTech experience, enabling you to tailor your schedule well in advance so you won’t miss out on must-see and must-do things.

One of the distinguishing features of RootsTech is its inclusivity, allowing individuals to choose between attending in person at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, or participating online from the comfort of their homes anywhere in the world.

Online Attendees: A World of RootsTech at Your Fingertips

For those opting for the free online experience, RootsTech 2024 offers hundreds of free, on-demand and live webinar sessions. You can craft your personalized viewing schedule or on-demand watch list by following a few simple steps on the RootsTech home page, providing a seamless and convenient way to engage with the event from virtually anywhere. Register for free now and begin creating your 2024 watchlist.

In-Person Attendees: Navigate RootsTech with the Mobile App

RootsTech 2024 brings an enhanced experience if you will be attending in person in Salt Lake City, Utah. The new RootsTech 2024 mobile app takes you center stage as a versatile tool, offering features such as:

• Current Session Schedules: Stay updated on the latest sessions, times, and locations.
• Customizable Schedule: Tailor your experience to align with your interests, research goals, and availability. Make changes on-the-go.
• Interactive Maps: Easily navigate the Salt Palace Convention Center with detailed maps.
• Networking Opportunities: Connect with fellow attendees, share experiences, and expand your network.
• Real-Time Support: Communicate with RootsTech staff for instant assistance.
• Local Exploration: Enrich your trip to Salt Lake City with useful information on recommended local eateries and accommodations within walking distance.

Starting on February 29, 2024, rootstech.org will launch a new live chat feature that will enable participants online and in person to watch classes and chat with other viewers in real time!

RootsTech 2024 invites you to embark on a journey of discovery, whether in person or online. By customizing your schedule, connecting with like-minded enthusiasts, and unlocking the stories of your family's past, you can expect a memorable adventure at RootsTech 2024.

Register or learn more at RootsTech.org.

What Is RootsTech?

RootsTech is a place to learn, be inspired, and make connections through family history. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by other leading genealogy organizations, we have hundreds of expert classes, tips and tricks videos, and inspiring stories that can help you experience family history like never before. Visit our on-demand learning library, or make plans to join us for our next virtual or in-person conference event.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. We are a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use our records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 125 years. People access our services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 FamilySearch centers in 129 countries, including the main FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following was written by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigartion Services:

The USCIS announced its fee schedule final rule. That rule will go into effect after the initial registration period for the FY 2025 H-1B cap. Therefore, the registration fee during the registration period starting in March 2024, will remain $10. , USCIS recently announced a final rule that will increase the filing fee for Form I-907, to adjust for inflation, effective Feb. 26, 2024. If USCIS receives a Form I-907 postmarked on or after Feb. 26, 2024, with the incorrect filing fee, we will reject the Form I-907 and return the filing fee. For filings sent by commercial courier (such as UPS, FedEx, and DHL), the postmark date is the date reflected on the courier receipt.  The rule is effective February 26, 2024. 

Compliance date: Requests for premium processing postmarked on or after February 26, 2024 must include the new fee.

The increases for the premium processing fees is to reflect the amount of inflation from June 2021 through June 2023 according to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

Note the genealogy forms G-1041, G-1041A and G-1566 do not appear to be affected by the proposed increase in fees.

How would you like to have this problem with your genealogy records?

As Americans prepare to file their 2023 federal tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service is getting ready to take on one of its biggest challenges: Digitizing all of its paper.

Even though the vast majority of people file their federal tax returns electronically, the IRS still receives millions of paper tax returns a year, along with other kinds of forms and correspondence sent via snail mail.

All told, there are more than 1 billion historical paper documents stored at IRS campuses across the country, and there will soon be more paper coming in with the start of the 2024 tax filing season Monday. Last year, the tax agency received more than 26 million individual and business returns filed on paper.

“I call it the mythical land of files,” one IRS official working on the paperless initiative told CNN.

One of the problems is that the IRS has not had the technology to digitize a paper tax return or form. Instead, an IRS employee manually enters each digit from the form into the agency’s system – a process that resulted in transcription errors on about 22% of paper returns in 2021.

The process takes time and resources – all of which could mean taxpayers are waiting longer for their federal tax refund.

“This doesn’t just seem crazy. It is crazy,” wrote Erin M. Collins, the National Taxpayer Advocate, nearly two years ago. She has often referred to paper as the “IRS’s Kryptonite.”

You can read more in an article by Katie Lobosco published in the CNN web site at: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/politics/tax-season-irs-digitizing-paper/index.html. 

And the company failed to notify users that their details were compiled in curated lists and leaked online.

In October 2023, 23andMe admitted that it suffered a data breach that compromised its users' information. The company has been hit with several lawsuits since then, and according to The New York Times, one of them is accusing 23andMe of failing to notify customers that they were specifically targeted for having Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. They also weren't told that their test results with genetic information had been compiled in curated lists that were then shared on the dark web, the plaintiffs said. 23andMe recently released a copy of the letters it sent to affected customers, and they didn't contain any reference to the users' heritage.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco after the company revealed that the hack had gone unnoticed for months. Apparently, the hackers started accessing customers' accounts using login details already leaked on the web in late April 2023 and continued with their activities until September. It wasn't until October that the company finally found out about the hacks. On October 1, hackers leaked the names, home addresses and birth dates of 1 million users with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on black hat hacking forum BreachForums.

You can read more in an article by Mariella Moon published in the Yahoo web site at: http://tinyurl.com/mtd5wdat.

Writer, advocate and teacher Leigh Bienen’s digital projects are lenses for viewing extraordinary periods in our past.

When Northwestern University’s Leigh Bienen launched Homicide in Chicago,1870-1930 in 2004, the website crashed the School of Communication’s servers the first weekend it went live. The site had more than 70,000 visitors in its first few days, following coverage in the Chicago Sun-Times. The interactive site now has logged more than 1.5 million visitors over the past 20 years. 

The project began with the discovery of a rich log of more than 11,000 homicides maintained consistently and without interruption by the Chicago Police Department over the course of 60 years, from 1870 to 1930. From 1998 to 2003, Bienen, now senior lecturer emerita at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, worked to make the archive of materials accessible to the public, and the Chicago Historical Homicide Project was born, culminating in the creation of the website.

Bienen followed this with Florence Kelley in Chicago 1891-1899, a digital archive on the life and times of one of Chicago's great hidden treasures, the first woman factory inspector in the United States and a resident of Hull House.

Since then Bienen has launched several companion websites including 2003 Chicago Murders, Illinois Judges 2015 and Illinois Murder Indictments 2000-2010.

Bienen has long said the purpose of these sites is to spur additional research by making the raw data available.

Bienen now has curated many of her projects on a new website Leigh Buchanan Bienen: Works, which serves as a hub for the Homicide in Chicago database, 50 publications, 27 videos and seven other websites focused on Chicago and Illinois legal history. The Homicide in Chicago and Florence Kelley websites are part of University Library’s permanent collections and reportedly two of the most visited faculty websites at Northwestern.

A writer, advocate and teacher whose areas of expertise include capital punishment, sex crimes and legal reform, Bienen recently spoke with Northwestern Now about how the popularity of websites has changed over time and the motivation behind her new site.

You can read more in an article in the Northwestern University web site at: http://tinyurl.com/yc6c29zz

Lambton County Museums and Archives has updated to a new online collections database.

There will be thousands of digital records of historical artifacts, photographs and archival documents from Lambton Heritage Museum, Oil Museum of Canada and Lambton County Archives. 

Museum, Gallery and Archives Manager Laurie Webb said this new database is more user friendly.

"It's a little more intuitive for people when they're searching and we've also been able to link various objects together through keyword hyperlinks," she said.   

Webb gave the example of music and by searching that keyword residents can see all of the records the museum has in connection to music.

She also said right now there are more than 8,000 records.

"We're continually adding new records into the database," said Webb. "So, every month there will be a new upload of information and people can see new items from the collections."

Lambton County Museums and Archives has been talking about upgrading the database for years.

Webb said updating the database began with a new online collections software.

"Through that process we knew that we had the ability to add on this module that is for online access," she said. "So, we've been working for the last two or three years inputting information into the database."

Webb added having this new database allows the community to understand what the museums do and the kind of things they collect.

She said this is just the start of the collections to be digitized.

"At Lambton Heritage Museum alone, we know we have more than 25,000 objects so there's a lot of work and a lot more to go in there but I think it's a great start for the community," said Webb. 

This launch also coincides with the 175th anniversary of Lambton County's corporation.

The Online Collection Database can be viewed on the Lambton museums website.

You can read more in an article by Lindsay Newman published in the sarnianewstoday.ca web site at: http://tinyurl.com/3u55p4nu.

The following is a press release written by Ontario Ancestors:

Call for Speakers: Ontario Ancestors’ 2024 Centralized Programming

Ontario Ancestors is currently accepting proposals for our Branch and Special Interest Group centralized programming
for 2024. Our live webinars will primarily take place on the second and third Thursdays of the month at 7pm ET using the
Zoom platform.

Topics of Interest

A) We specifically invite proposals on the local genealogy, history, immigration, county-specific research resources,
newspapers, religious & cultural communities, cemeteries... of the following areas of Ontario:

1. Elgin County
2. Haldimand and Norfolk Counties
3. Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Municipality
4. Perth County
5. Sault Ste Marie and District of Algoma

B) We specifically invite proposals on the following genealogy topics:

1. British Home Children
2. Ireland (excluding Irish-Palatine)
3. DNA/Genetic Genealogy

C) We also invite proposals on a wide range of topics, including intermediate/advanced levels. Some areas of interest
from our 2024 Webinar Topic Survey were:

1. Methods and Tools for Research - Where to Research - Archives, Digital Collections, Libraries... Organizing &
Storing Digital & Physical Records, Research Methodology (proof standards, copyright...)
2. Preserving and Communicating Our Family History - Preserving Family Heirlooms & Photographs, Genealogy
Legacy/Will, Contributing to Your Genealogy Community (transcribing, donating...)
3. Researching Ethnic, Religious and Cultural Communities - Protestant Ancestors, Female Ancestors / Women’s
History, Catholic Ancestors, Quaker Ancestors, Indigenous Ancestors

Speakers may submit up to 3 proposals for consideration. All submissions will be reviewed, but only those chosen will be contacted by March 1, 2024. All other submissions will be retained and reviewed throughout the year for potential series, mini-conferences or special topic webinars in the future.

If you have any questions, please contact: Kim Barnsdale at webinar@ogs.on.ca

Submissions: To submit, please follow this link: https://ogs.on.ca/call-for-speakers-centralized-programming/

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: February 15, 2024, at 11:59pm ET.

Compensation: Those chosen speakers will receive an honorarium for their webinar presentation.

About The Ontario Genealogical Society – Ontario Ancestors

The Ontario Genealogical Society, founded in 1961, is the leading society in all aspects of Ontario related family history research, preservation and communication. Our mission is to encourage, bring together and assist those interested in the pursuit of family history and to preserve our Ontario genealogical heritage. The Ontario Genealogical Society is the largest genealogical society in Canada. Visit us at https://ogs.on.ca

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

I believe the post-PC world is upon us. That is, personal computers as we know them are slowly disappearing and will become museum pieces within the next ten years.

The term ” personal computers” includes Windows, Macintosh, Chromebook, and Chromebox computers, including desktop and laptop systems. It does not include tablet computers or Android “smartphones.”

The term “post-PC” refers to the computing world after sales of desktop and laptop computers have slowed to a trickle.

True to the predictions of industry pundits, both consumers and businesses are now replacing desktop and laptop computers with “smart” cell phones, tablet computers, and likely other lightweight computing devices that haven’t even been invented yet. In many cases, the ever-growing, high-speed wireless networks and cloud computing are allowing tiny, lightweight devices to replace traditional desktop systems. 

Having a powerful computer of your own is no longer essential; the power can exist either in your own computer or someplace in the cloud.

In fact, today’s tablet computers possess more computing power and better displays than the typical desktop computer of ten years ago. Today’s iPads and Android tablets all have better displays than most desktop computers had only a few years ago. For example, compare the Retina display screen of today’s iPad with the typical VGA screens used on desktop computers only a few years ago. The Retina display is easier to read, even for those with eyesight problems.

Who can guess what improvements will occur in the next ten years? How about twenty years?

To be sure, desktop and laptop computers are now and probably always will be more powerful than any handheld devices. However, I have to question how much power we need to track our ancestors, to read and write email, or to access our online bank accounts.

We all have more computing power today than we need, whether that power resides on our desktop or remotely in the cloud. Likewise, all of us already have more storage space than we will ever need. In traditional computers, we can now purchase one-terabyte (1,000 gigabyte) disk drives for less than $50 US or we can access essentially infinite storage space securely in the cloud, paying modest prices for only the storage space we actually use.

My belief is that desktop and laptop computers eventually will be destined for the scrap heap, other than some that will be used in corporate offices. Lots of people seem to agree.

The only thing delaying the transition, in my mind, is that no one has yet invented a good replacement for the old-fashioned QWERTY-keyboard. Once a good, portable keyboard is invented, laptop and desktop computers will fade into oblivion.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13306557.

The following is a press release written by the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy:

The Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (CAFG) is pleased to announce its first ever one day seminar. On 27 April 2024 at 9:00am CST, CAFG will present a seminar on forensic genealogy with the following speakers and topics: 

9:00 am – 7 Case Studies and Tools for the Successful Heir-search in Eastern Europe – Alina Kuda

10:00 am – An Introduction to Forensic Genetic Genealogy – Penny Walters

11:00 am – Adoption Research – Michael Brophy

12:00 pm – Finding the Living – Juli Whittaker, FGCSM

1:00-1:30 pm – Lunch

1:30 pm – Opportunities and Developments in IGG Education – Andrew Hochreiter

2:30 pm – Probate Case Study – Juli Whittaker, FGCSM

3:30 pm – 20th Century POW Records in the US, Europe, and World-Wide – Kathy Kirkpatrick

4:30 pm – Military Repatriation – Juli Whittaker, FGCSM

Find detailed course descriptions and sign up on our website at the following link:https://www.forensicgenealogists.org/virtual-forensic-genealogy-seminar . 

The Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (CAFG) is a professional business league dedicated to advancing public awareness and understanding of the Forensic Genealogy profession while promoting and maintaining high standards of professional and ethical conduct. CAFG encourages best practices in client services and promotes the interchange of information among members through electronic forums, meetings and seminars, and trade publications. Memberships are encouraged by applying at the website: https://www.forensicgenealogists.org/join/