● 09.04.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Leftover Links 04/09/2023: Microsoft Layoffs and Twitter Shot in the Foot

Posted in News Roundup at 4:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Leftovers

• However, while I still have enough of both, I start to miss good post ideas. There are several reasons for this. I’ve always told that working on real-world projects is a vast source of ideas. Moving to Developer Advocacy, I’ve widened the list of topics I’m familiar with but cut myself from this source. However, I would prefer to reduce the pace of the weekly post.

• Thousands of people at the Burning Man festival, an annual carefree celebration of art, music and counterculture vibes in a remote patch of Nevada desert, remained stranded there Sunday after torrential rains turned roads and grounds into muck, cutting off access.

• It was an unusual turn of events that tested the resolve of participants, who were told to conserve food and water, at the more than three-decade-old festival that prides itself on grit and self-reliance and normally battles excessive heat and, sometimes, excessive partying.

• We’ve all been there. Someone will say something like, “I remember when we had to put our programs on a floppy disk…” Then someone will interrupt: “Floppy disk? We would have killed for floppy disks. We used paper tape…” After a few rounds, someone is talking about punching cards with a hand stylus or something. Next time someone is telling you about their relay computer, maybe ask them if they are buying their relays already built. They will almost surely say yes, and then you can refer them to [DiodeGoneWild], who shows how he is making his own relays.

• The Pistol Splat was a very weak blaster built for children, designed to shoot toy-grade paintball-like ammunition. [Matt Yuan] recognised the potential of the single-shot design, though, and repurposed it as a powerful Nerf blaster.

Hardware

• See how computer monitors can be good for productivity, the planet, your pocket and your health

• Allwinner should launch new Cortex-A78/A55 and Cortex-A78/A55 processors in 2024 according to the company’s roadmap including the Allwinner A736/A737 for tablets and the T736/T737 designed for automotive and industrial applications. In recent years, we’ve seen Rockchip and Amlogic introduce more powerful processors with the Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor and Amlogic A311D2 octa-core Cortex-A73/A55 or the more recent Amlogic S928X Cortex-A76/A55 for 8K TV boxes. But we’re still seeing some recent boards based on Allwinner Cortex-A7 32-bit processors, although recently we covered the Allwinner A523 octa-core Cortex-A55 processor for tablets. So today, I decided to go on a quest to find out whether Allwinner plans to use 64-bit Arm “big” cores in their future design.

• Professional drone racing is now an elite sport, with all the high-end tech, coverage, and equipment that goes along with it. If you’re just practicing with tiny drones in your home though, you might not be so well equipped. You might want to build something like this tiny FPV drone racing gate from [ProfessorBoots] to help keep track of laptimes while you’re training.

• The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a new proposal to address a potential defect in some of the engines that power Boeing 777 aircraft. The defect is related to a substance called ‘iron inclusion’ that could affect the quality and durability of certain compressor components.

• The Korean giant has mass-produced 16Gb DRAM since May 2023, and claimed its new and denser product “paves way to DRAM modules of up to 1TB capacity” without offering any hint of a roadmap or timeframe for those colosso-modules to debut.

• The analysis from Goldman Sachs indicates that the overall market potential for Intel’s outsourcing orders in 2024 and 2025 is projected to be $18.6 billion and $19.4 billion, respectively. This means a hypothetical situation in which Intel outsources all of its products, which is hardly a possible scenario. According to Goldman Sachs, in a more realistic turn of events, TSMC might land $5.6 billion and $9.7 billion of orders from Intel in 2024 – 2025.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• Older people are less likely to be diagnosed but more likely to experience certain kinds of illnesses, research suggests.

• Pulmonologists across the city have warned that no amount of air pollution is safe and prolonged exposure to it can exacerbate asthma and bronchitis and reduce lung function over time.

• They have advocated the immediate need to mitigate the impact of air pollution on life expectancy by implementing environmental regulations, improving fuel quality, promoting electric vehicles and raising awareness about the health risks associated with air pollution.

• But people might be buoyed by the efforts of researchers like Maureen Hanson, a molecular biologist at Cornell University who has revisited the viral origins of chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME/CFS) in a new paper.

• Historical evidence suggests large numbers of ME/CFS cases are likely to have been triggered by viral infections. The question is which virus is the likely culprit.

• There is no porn that’s okay for children and teens. Not even “feminist” porn. Here’s why:

• A recent Cambridge University study shows that porn’s effects on the brain are neurochemically identical to drug addiction. It’s as much a dangerous substance as illicit drugs.

• When someone consumes an addictive drug, a hit of dopamine, the pleasure hormone, releases into the bloodstream. The brain loves dopamine and wants to repeat the feeling, leading to cravings and eventually addiction. This “gratification hypothesis,” according to a University of Duisburg–Essen study, is why cybersex addiction occurs.

• But some, including Nadine Strossen, the former national president of the ACLU, argue that minors’ access to porn content is a “free speech” issue, noting young people have a constitutional right to information about sexual health.

• They are wrong. Porn is not about sexual health. Nor is it “content.” It’s a substance.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Two autonomous vehicles belonging to Cruise LLC, a unit of General Motors Co., are alleged to have delayed an ambulance in San Francisco on Aug. 14, with the patient later dying in hospital.

• The incident, which Cruise disputes, allegedly involved two Cruise autonomous vehicles that were stopped in two right-hand lanes on a four-lane, one-way street where the victim was found after an apparent collision by another car, according to a San Francisco Fire Department report reported Saturday by the New York Times. It’s alleged that a police vehicle in another lane then had to be moved to allow the ambulance to leave.

• While the statement did not specify the exact percentage of employees affected by the layoffs or provide a final headcount post-layoff, it did disclose that a total of 140 employees were released globally, with 98 of these individuals located in the United States.

• SkyKick’s LinkedIn profile indicates an employee count of approximately 320. However, it remains unclear whether this figure represents the workforce before or after the recent reduction.

• In 2021, the company secured $130 million in a financing round and had approximately 250 employees at that time. This suggests that there has been notable growth and changes in the company’s staffing levels over recent years, culminating in the recent workforce reduction.

• According to its website, the vendor boasts a global network of over 30,000 partners.

• The information provided by an online database from the state of Washington suggests that 181 employees were let go, but this figure has been deemed inaccurate according to the statement from SkyKick.

• Additionally, it has been reported that the vendor conducted layoffs in March of an undisclosed number of employees, as reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Security

• Josh and Kurt talk about wordpress selling web services with a 100 year lifespan. Will WordPress still be around in 100 years? What would 100 years of disaster recovery look like? Most of us will never need to think about 100 years of disaster recovery.

Privacy/Surveillance

• This is not a partisan issue. In Louisiana, for example, a legislator named Laurie Schlegel introduced an age verification bill that, as Politico reported, “sailed through” the State House 96 to 1 and the State Senate 34 to 0. I’ve never met any parents, no matter how conservative or how progressive, how religious or how secular, who wanted their children to be able to view graphic porn. Moreover, even the judge who blocked the Texas law observed, “It is uncontested that pornography is generally inappropriate for children, and the state may regulate a minor’s access to pornography.”

• Thus, our nation’s challenge is more technical than constitutional. The best way to understand the court’s old precedents regarding online age verification to get access to pornography is not that it said “no” but rather that it said “not yet.” But now is the time, the need is clear, and the technology is ready. Congress should try once again to clean up the internet the way cities cleaned up their red-light districts. The law must do what it can to restrict access to pornography for children online.

• Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports on yet another incident in which responsible disclosure by a researcher and follow-up by media failed to get a company to address vulnerabilities that left the personal information of customers exposed: [...]

• As the Associated Press reports, the NYPD plans to use its drone fleet to surveil large crowds this weekend, including those congregating at private backyard events. Per the AP, the news was announced during a press conference regarding safety at the Caribbean J’Ouvert celebration and the West Indian American Day parade, two converging events taking place in Brooklyn over the holiday weekend.

Defence/Aggression

• Five civilians were killed by bombs that “fell on their homes” in Khartoum, a Sudanese medical source told AFP, a day after an air strike in the city’s south killed at least 20 civilians.

• French students won’t get past the door if they show up for school wearing long robes, President Emmanuel Macron made clear Friday, saying authorities would be “intractable” in enforcing a new rule when classes resume next week.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to replace his defense minister — a major administration shake-up coming just over a month after he vowed to crack down on wartime corruption. Zelensky said during his nightly address to the nation Sunday that he was dismissing Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and would appoint Ukraine’s State Property Fund…

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke Sunday, discussing the “functioning” of a Black Sea corridor set up by Kyiv for the safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal. The news comes after Romania’s defence ministry strongly condemned repeated Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube River infrastructure close to its border.

• Ukraine’s main security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), published a statement on Saturday handing criminal charges to Ihor Kolomoisky related to money laundering and fraud in his oil and gas holdings.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on September 3 that he has decided to replace Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov with Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian politician of Crimean Tatar origin, in a surprising move as Kyiv’s forces press on with their counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion.

• The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, had been the subject of increasing speculation in Ukraine. It was the biggest shake-up in Ukraine’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

• The Ukrainian Navy claimed its forces had blasted a Russian landing craft in the Black Sea, killing six soldiers, hours after Kyiv said its air-defense systems had shot down 22 of the 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Moscowa launched on the southern Odesa region near the Romanian border.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said he discussed the transport of Ukrainian grain exports and the security of the Odesa region in a phone call with French leader Emmanuel Macron on September 3.

• Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in an interview published on September 3 that since the Russian invasion, Kyiv has received about $100 billion in military aid from Western backers, including more than $50 billion from the United States.

• A government investigation about a Russian ship contradicts U.S. accusations that South Africa provided arms to fight Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said. But a government report won’t be released, he added.

• The Russian Ministry of Justice designated Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and reputed journalist, as a ‘foreign agent‘ on Friday. This classification was justified on the grounds that Muratov “used foreign platforms to disseminate opinions aimed at forming a negative attitude towards the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation.”

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on September 3 said an inquiry into a U.S. allegation that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa late last year found no evidence the vessel had transported weapons to Russia.

• Armenia’s prime minister has said his country’s policy of solely relying on Russia to guarantee its security was a strategic mistake because Moscow has been unable to deliver and is in the process of winding down its role in the wider region.

• An audit carried out by an international firm has disproved Russian gas giant Gazprom’s claim that the Moldovan government owes it $800 million, Moldovan President Maia Sandu was quoted as saying on September 3.

• A court in Gomel, a southeastern city in Belarus, sentenced journalist Larysa Schchyrakova to 3.5 years in prison and a fine of 3,700 rubles (US$1465) on Thursday.

Environment

• While the resilience of these ecosystems is impressive, it is not without limits. Defining the upper limits to mangrove and marsh resilience under accelerating sea level rise is a topic of great interest and considerable debate.

• Our new research, published in the journal Nature, analyzes the vulnerability and exposure of mangroves, marshes and coral islands to sea level rise. The results underscore the critical importance of keeping global warming within 2 degrees of the pre-industrial baseline.

• Madrid’s mayor on Sunday advised all residents to stay at home as the capital braced itself for torrential rain and storms affecting parts of Spain.

Finance

• First, bit of history of the smart card. One of the reasons that smart cards have made relatively little inroads in the US is their European origin. Nearly all of the development of smart card technology happens in European companies companies like Gemplus (Netherlands) and Axalto (France), today merged into Gemalto, part of French defense conglomerate Thales. Not to be understated either is the German company Giesecke+Devriant. Many early developments happened within the French Bull group as well, which through merger into Honeywell continues to make related products. Identity technology vendor Morpho, later Safran Morphotrust, today Idemia, forms the backbone of the TSA and Border Patrol’s ubiquitous travel surveillance from their headquarters in the suburbs of Paris. They are further accused of providing identification technology to Chinese government agencies for purposes of oppression. Identity is a sticky business.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Well… fuck! Bang on the money there. The web is faster than it was on dial-up. But I can’t say that it’s noticeably better since I got ADSL. Sure, it’s faster to download big files and stream 4K video. But for day-to-day browsing? Between the unoptimised “hero” images, multi-megabytes of JS, and thousands of trackers, it sometimes feels like we’ve taken a step backwards in speed.

• We all know that bloat expands to fill available bandwidth. But perhaps we could rein it in a little? Please?

• Rejoining the EU will necessitate a real-world, hard-edged discussion about where the UK is, and what it needs to trade off in order to accept shared sovereignty. I just don’t see the political maturity in the UK to have that discussion.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• The rumors about an Ebola outbreak started Saturday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. X has a crowdsourced method of fact-checking misinformation on the site known as Community Notes, but none of the tweets I’ve seen so far on Saturday have received notes.

• At least two accounts have shared a fake screenshot from the CDC about the fake Ebola outbreak at Burning Man, with one verified user claiming the CDC sent and deleted the tweet below. However, there’s no evidence that the CDC tweeted out anything about Ebola at Black Rock City.

Censorship/Free Speech

• The supposed free-speech warrior, who has reversed the Twitter bans of racist and antisemitic accounts, is now considering booting the civil rights group from the site.

• The banned book, published in 2004, was previously lauded for its work in “connecting the history of Mongolia from ancient times to the medieval period, making the history of Mongolia more complete,” according to a Baidupedia entry still available on Friday.

• A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death the brother of an exiled dissident, convicting him of disloyalty to the kingdom’s rulers in a case built around anonymous social media accounts where he shared criticism of the government.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Two female Iranian journalists will spend around a month behind bars as part of a three-year partly suspended prison sentence for “conspiracy and “collusion”, local media reported on Sunday.

Civil Rights/Policing

• Florida Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh declared Florida’s most recent congressional map unconstitutional on Saturday because it weakens Black voters’ ability to elect representatives of their choice.

• With their contract expiring Sept. 14, the United Auto Workers and the companies are far apart in talks. A walkout could take a big economic toll.

• Note: the dates of past events are only approximate. The other half of the timeline is wildly speculative and hypothetical.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• This feature is largely bad for the web and the industry generally, like all attestation (see below).

• That said, it’s not as dangerous as the Google proposal, simply because Safari isn’t the dominant browser. Right now, Safari has around 20% market share in browsers (25% on mobile, and 15% on desktop), while Chrome is comfortably above 60% everywhere, with Chromium more generally (Brave, Edge, Opera, Samsung Internet, etc) about 10% above that.

• With Safari providing this, it can be used by some providers, but nobody can block or behave differently with unattested clients. Similarly, Safari can’t usefully use this to tighten the screws on users – while they could refuse to attest old OS versions or browsers, it wouldn’t make a significant impact on users (they might see statistically more CAPTCHAs, but little else).

• Chrome’s usage is a larger concern. With 70+% of web clients using Chromium, this would become a major part of the web very quickly. With both Web Environment Integrity & Private Access Tokens, 90% of web clients would potentially be attested, and the “oh, you’re not attested, let’s treat you suspiciously” pressure could ramp up quickly.

Monopolies

• Under a legislative mandate demanding big tech corporations remunerate media houses for Canadian journalism, the federals intend for Google and Facebook to shell out $172 million and $62 million respectively in annual compensation. This proposal forms a part of the Online News Act, a policy approved during the recent summer, that mandates tech firms to negotiate agreements with media houses whose work they link or repurpose.

• For the first time, the government has outlined draft regulations on Friday, aiming to establish equilibrium between Big Tech and Canadian news media sector, and indicating which businesses will be included. Newly appointed Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge remarked in a post-proposal interview that the Act aims to ensure businesses benefitting most from the Canadian market, are included in the bill.

Patents

• First flagged by the MSPowerUser blog, the backpack patent, which was approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office last week, includes some very strange specs, including that the would-be wearable may be able to detect user speech and make suggestions Siri-style and also, for some reason, have the ability to record and store audio.

Copyrights

• Google remains committed to tackling online piracy. In a recent letter to the US Patent and Trademark Office, the company says that it blocked hundreds of millions of URLs before they appeared in the search engine. These preemptive takedowns are part of a broader strategy that also deals with advertisements for streaming piracy that hasn’t happened yet.

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