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2024-08-31 what_did_telegram_do.en.ass-translated.txt

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+I wanted to surprise you with a little gift today. Okay,
+in this episode, I'm gonna list all my favorite things about you.
+Number one
+ah...
+i guess we'll do tech news.
+Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested last weekend
+on suspicion of failing to moderate criminal activity on the messaging app
+But on Wednesday that suspicion was upgraded to preliminary charges
+as Durov was released on bail and barred from leaving France pending further investigation.
+The move seemed sudden,
+but it makes some sense given that back in March,
+Durov told the Financial Times he doesn't think they should be policing the way people express themselves
+unless they cross red lines.
+Which red lines?
+Unclear.
+Although it seems like one red line he won't cross is being a tad more specific.
+And the specifics matter here,
+especially concerning Telegram's optional use of encryption,
+which was implemented without proper declaration,
+according to a statement from French authorities that we translated into English.
+So hopefully we got that right.
+A declaration that other encryption using platforms
+like WhatsApp and Signal have apparently done properly.
+And now they're worried about Telegram making them look bad by association.
+Debate over encryption has been raging in the EU,
+especially after they just passed all these laws that let them boss tech giants around.
+What? Are we gonna let encrypted platforms get a pass by just putting a sock on the door?
+Don't look in here.
+The EU is also investigating whether Telegram deliberately undercounted its users
+to stay under the 45 million user threshold,
+which would subject the service to stricter regulation.
+So we'll see how that goes.
+All in all, this is a weird story,
+not just because it's complex,
+but also because while the EU has gotten serious about
+holding companies responsible for content hosted on their platforms,
+that usually hasn't involved arresting the ceo
+crossing red lines indeed.
+Anandtech, the website known for publishing in-depth technical reporting for 27 years,
+is shutting down, according to a post from editor-in-chief Ryan Smith.
+In the latest example of written journalism just not making investors happy enough.
+They just see a wall of letters.
+It means nothing to them.
+They need zoom-ins and vine booms.
+Keep them stimulated.
+They're like incredibly wealthy toddlers.
+Anandtech has been a rock of the tech journalism world,
+and one of the only reasons I had a shred of understanding
+of what the hell I've been talking about for the past 10 years.
+Founder Anand Lal Shimpi left work on chips for Apple back in 2014,
+but the site was left in good hands,
+two of which were attached to Dr. Ian Cutress,
+otherwise known as Tech Tech Potato,
+for reasons I'll never understand,
+because Anandtech isn't here anymore to explain it to me.
+Thankfully, the site itself will remain up for presumably as long as publisher future PLC decides it wants to.
+And some Anandtech writers have moved over to their sister site,
+named after a different guy,
+Tom's Hardware.
+It's just not the same.
+Sounds like a place you buy two by fours.
+Apple and Nvidia are both in talks to join forces with Microsoft in launching truckfuls of cash at OpenAI,
+who have apparently burned through a good chunk of their billions of dollars of investment money.
+it's a bit of a strange development,
+given recent speculation that AI hype is
+steadily descending from its peak into the trough of disillusionment,
+but it would make more sense
+if OpenAI is considering removing its cap on investor profits, as reported by the Financial Times.
+But OpenAI insists their for-profit company is still controlled by the non-profit company,
+who will absolutely ignore their for-profit investors
+and refuse to release extremely capable models that threaten to turn the internet into a bubbling soup of AI slop.
+Yes, they released ChatGPT,
+that was one time!
+And actually, OpenAI is kind of backing that up with an agreement,
+also signed by Anthropic,
+to give the US government's Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute,
+as well as the UK's equivalent organization,
+early access to both companies' newest models
+to conduct safety testing before they're released to the public.
+I mean, sounds pretty good,
+and it maybe explains why Sam Altman thought it was okay to disband OpenAI's safety team.
+They're just outsourcing it to the federal government.
+Why do the work?
+They've got time.
+They're watching TV shows at their desk most days anyway.
+They might even be watching shows that are only available in a different country
+Okay, I thought of something.
+You kind of like computers.
+Okay, here's a quick bit.
+AMD has confirmed the existence of the long rumored Ryzen 5 7600X 3D,
+but you're only allowed to be excited about it if you're American.
+Turns out the processor will be exclusive to U.S. retailer Micro Center,
+which currently has 28 locations in some of the 50 United States.
+In a statement, the chief merchandising officer for Micro Center said,
+the chip is a significant step forward in making high-performance, cache-rich processors more accessible,
+despite it being largely inaccessible
+It's been six days since the Port of Seattle was hit by a possible cyber attack,
+and the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, aka SeaTac,
+is still mostly offline,
+with no clear timeline for recovery.
+The airport's internet, baggage routing, and gate updates are all down,
+and staff have resorted to taping paper with flight numbers on them to the blank screens by each gate.
+Luckily, the TSA and air traffic control are on separate systems from the rest of the airport,
+which is great news for fans of getting groped by the government and not dying in a ball of fire.
+Microsoft is rebranding its remote desktop app,
+an eminently Google-able name,
+to Windows App,
+in an astounding act of branding self-sabotage.
+The so-called Windows App was released in preview
+under its stupid new name back in November of last year.
+But yesterday, they confirmed this idiocy by adding a notification to the current app and their website.
+We're just, we're just being harsh.
+Now, you can say the completely true sentence,
+the Windows App is available for Mac OS, iOS, and iPad OS,
+and really confuse your grandma.
+Anyway, I hope you don't run into technical difficulties
+and wind up needing to Bing Windows App help anytime soon.
+Just install the Windows App.
+Which one?
+Who's unvoiced?
+Scientists have developed a chemical process to vaporize plastic
+that could be used to recycle bags and bottles indefinitely.
+You see, plastic is a polymer,
+a substance with very large molecules composed of repeating subunits.
+A polymer is not, and this was news to me,
+a fish person with multiple partners.
+A polymer person.
+By vaporizing certain unfortunate polymers,
+they can be reduced to their building blocks to make new plastics.
+Now, does this solve the whole microplastics inside of us and also the ocean and in our brains issue?
+Probably not, given that we're vaporizing them.
+But Chinese researchers are having success making a robust yet compostable hard plastic out of bamboo.
+and that could help keep the ocean cleaner
+saving many non-monogamous fish people.
+And Midjourney, the company behind AI image generator Midjourney,
+is getting into hardware.
+But they haven't been very forthcoming about what kind of hardware.
+The company did hire engineer Ahmad Abbas back in February,
+who previously helped design the Apple Vision Pro.
+Midjourney is also continuing to develop AI models
+to generate video and 3D environments.
+maybe the hardware will be a headset that generates 3D worlds?
+Or maybe it's an orb.
+Back in January, Midjourney CEO David Holtz replied to a pondering my orb meme on Twitter by saying,
+we will make the orb.
+We will, we will make the orb.
+What does that mean?
+I don't know,
+but stay tuned for orb.
+The best way to stay tuned is to literally stay tuned
+by coming back on Monday for more tech news.
+Just kidding. I made a horrible mistake.
+We're not actually uploading anything on Monday.
+Not a talk link, not a regular tech link.
+It's a holiday. So believe it or not, we're taking a holiday.
+We're taking a day off.
+So come back on Wednesday for more tech news, please.

2024-09-07 youre_gonna_want_these_handhelds-1080p_checked.txt

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+Four score and seven years ago,
+there was no tech news.
+But if there was,
+it definitely wasn't included in any YouTube videos.
+They were making videos about the Spanish civil wars,
+I don't know.
+Being poor.
+AMD has confirmed the existence of its Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor,
+the successor to the Z1 Extreme,
+powering gaming handhelds like Lenovo's Legion Go
+and the Asus ROG Ally X.
+According to Digital Trends,
+in a joint briefing with Microsoft at the IFA 2024 conference,
+AMD said they're targeting a release date
+of early 2025 for the Z2 Extreme,
+which would presumably arrive inside of new handheld devices,
+not floating down from the sky with little parachutes
+after being shot out of an air cannon.
+I don't know who keeps putting that idea in the script.
+It's very stupid.
+No specs for the chip were given,
+but AMD exec Jack Huynh said he wants to play Black Myth Wukong
+for three hours instead of the 45 minutes current handhelds can muster.
+And Jack, he gets what he wants.
+Team Red also said they're working with several partners,
+which could include Valve.
+The Steam Deck did not use a Z1 chip,
+but it did use AMD chips.
+So we may see the Z2 Extreme power the Steam Deck too,
+or, Valve might follow Acer,
+who went with a Ryzen 7 8840HS in their recently announced handheld
+and energy drink from 2010, the Nitro Blaze 7.
+Intel was having a great week following its reveal of Lunar Lake
+as a compelling answer to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series laptop chips.
+But then Intel had to go and mess it up
+by announcing it's outsourcing the production of Lunar Lake's successor, Arrow Lake,
+to external partners.
+It's not a great look,
+as the plan has been to manufacture Arrow Lake on the Intel 20A node for years.
+But don't worry, Intel found a good way to spin this.
+You see, they've had early success on Intel 18A,
+which enables them to shift engineering resources from Intel 20A earlier than expected.
+We're giving up on our own technology
+and outsourcing production to our competitors,
+but that's a good thing.
+We went for coffee with them.
+And they're really, they're not so bad.
+They're good guys.
+The news is inviting speculation
+about whether CEO Pat Gelsinger really is the chosen one,
+prophesied to bring balance to the fabs.
+According to Reuters,
+it's also making Qualcomm consider trying to acquire different pieces of Intel,
+like a Vulture planning which giblets is gonna pick off a half-dead antelope
+dragging itself across the Savannah.
+That's a gruesome image.
+Who put this in here?
+This is a kid's show.
+This is, kids gotta learn.
+Death is a part of life.
+That's tech news, baby.
+The Internet Archive has lost its attempt to appeal the final ruling
+from its March 2023 court battle with the Association of American Publishers,
+in which the archive's operation as a nonprofit digital library was found to be copyright infringement.
+Publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, and Penguin, Random House
+sued the Internet Archive in 2020 over its controlled digital lending system.
+In the recent appeals decision, the judges ask,
+is it fair use to scan copyrighted physical books
+and distribute as many digital copies as you have physical copies for free?
+As if you're some kind of library or something?
+No!
+You buy your books like the Founding Fathers intended.
+I don't know, we're Canadian.
+I don't know the amendments.
+Okay, that was close.
+Except, like other libraries,
+the Internet Archive does buy books,
+which, as author Malcolm Harris points out on Twitter,
+means they're not really taking sales away from individual authors.
+But I admit, we're not legal experts,
+and the only place the Internet Archive has left to take this case is the Supreme Court,
+so we'll see how things play out there.
+Though this does make me agree with Twitter user Gentlemanbug,
+if scanning books doesn't count as fair use,
+where is the publisher lawsuit against OpenAI?
+I mean, last I heard, they had scanned some things.
+Their butt.
+Don't let weirdos scan your butt.
+The Quick Bits are so fast,
+we can't say four score in seven years ago.
+We just say 87 years ago.
+We don't have time to be poetic.
+Ah!
+Version 6.0 of the Bluetooth standard has been released,
+a mere eight years after the last major version.
+Yes, I know 5.4 came out last year,
+but shh, ah, that doesn't...
+Why do you know so much about Bluetooth standards?
+In addition to reducing power consumption and increasing efficiency,
+Bluetooth 6's channel sounding feature will allow centimeter level accuracy
+for device tracking over considerable distances.
+This could allow Google's Find My Device network to catch up to Apple's,
+which currently uses ultra-wideband tech for precision tracking.
+Or Apple could ditch the ultra-wideband chips
+in their devices and make them cheaper for customers.
+And I'm just kidding, that's not gonna happen.
+Phone maker Honor is using AI to fight nearsightedness.
+Nearsightedness, or myopia, a condition from which I sadly suffer,
+occurs when eyes grow longer to better focus on close objects,
+something that has apparently grown more commonplace, in a world full of screens.
+Where are the people?
+Some of Honor's devices, like the Magic V3 foldable phone,
+use advanced display and AI tech to defocus certain colors.
+Apparently, this may help slow the progression of myopia.
+Could this also be solved with less screen time?
+Maybe,
+but Honor also has an AI-powered deep fake video detector.
+And yes,
+maybe that problem would also be solved with less screen time,
+but can I have one positive AI story?
+Please just let me have this.
+U.S. Navy chiefs got in trouble
+for illegally conspiring to install a Starlink satellite dish on their warship.
+Apparently, the internet on Navy ships is often restricted to preserve bandwidth
+and maintain operational security.
+But the big dogs on board wanted to check sports scores
+and stream movies uninterrupted.
+Is that real?
+So they smuggled the dish on board
+and bolted it to a wooden pallet strapped to the ship.
+They may have gotten away with it too,
+if they bothered to hide their network's SSID.
+Instead, rank and file sailors started asking why
+there was an unexplained wifi network named Stinky.
+And that just didn't smell right.
+California-based startup Reflect Orbital
+has the modest goal of being able to sell sunlight
+in the middle of the night using giant sky mirrors.
+While physically plausible,
+it's not actually clear Reflect Orbital
+even has the technology to pull this kind of orbital sun mirror stunt.
+I think it's plausible.
+The company has yet to launch anything into space,
+but it's currently taking four minute reservations
+via its website for late next year.
+As part of the reservation process,
+they ask you why you want your very own nighttime patch of sun.
+Perhaps because they also don't know why anyone would buy this over a hundred dollar spotlight.
+Do they?
+And engineers from Cornell and Florence University
+have created a new bio-hybrid robot
+that uses electrical signals from an edible mushroom to control a mechanical body.
+Why do we have to say it's edible?
+Mushrooms can sense different chemical signals from the world all around them.
+Which allows the bio-robot to dynamically respond to its environment.
+Obvious applications include recreating the predator-prey relationship
+as a form of enrichment for vegans.
+This isn't an entirely new concept.
+Nearly a decade ago,
+the Open Worm Project created a digital version of a worm's brain
+that could be uploaded into a Lego robot
+in a kind of black mirror, but for invertebrates concept.
+What are we doing here?
+Why?
+What's next?
+I created a cyborg celery.
+Why?
+Here's another concept.
+Come back on Monday for more tech news.
+I'm gonna hold my breath until then to make sure you show up.
+If you don't,
+I won't take another breath and I could die.
+Please.

2024-09-09 whats_up_with_all_the_iphone_16_buttons.en.ass-translated.txt

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+Warning.
+This episode may, or may not, contain a Tim Cook impression.
+Sometimes it happens organically, but we make no promises that one will occur.
+Viewer discretion is advised.
+Buy your mom an impression!
+At their It's Glow Time event this morning,
+Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 lineup,
+new AirPods, and a new Apple Watch,
+along with old AirPods, and an old Apple Watch
+that you might have thought was new if you aren't terminally online.
+Thankfully, we are.
+So here's the lowdown.
+Apple kind of flattened out the iPhone lineup this time around,
+bringing the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus two chip generations up
+from the A16 Bionic to the A18,
+which means these new non-pro iPhones will have Apple Intelligence.
+In beta.
+In the US.
+Next month.
+A lot of that kind of tomorrow energy going on at this event,
+but we'll get into that.
+The non-pro iPhone 16 start at 800 bucks and now have the customizable action button
+introduced with last year's 15 Pros,
+as well as an all-new camera control clickable slider button
+that's also on the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Max.
+It not only serves as a proper shutter button
+when taking photos in landscape mode,
+it can be lightly pressed to bring up additional UIs for fine focusing
+or changing modes by sliding your finger.
+Kind of like you would do with physical knobs on a dedicated camera,
+evoking memories of the iPod click wheel
+and Apple's history of brilliantly emulating familiar hardware on new tech.
+Sorry, that sounded sarcastic, but it was genuine.
+I struggle with giving earnest compliments.
+Good job, Jacob.
+Clicking and holding the camera control button
+will activate the new Visual Intelligence feature,
+which will let you use a photo to search the web,
+prompt Siri or chat GPT,
+and even add an event from a poster to your calendar.
+It's like what Google Lens pretends to be
+and is actually really cool.
+I'm sorry, I just, I don't, I don't know how.
+So wait, all the iPhone 16s sound pretty similar right now.
+Why would I pay over a thousand bucks for the 16 Pro or Pro Max
+other than to get that exclusive color that seemed like it was poo brown,
+but is actually called Desert Titanium
+and doesn't actually look like poo to everyone's surprise?
+Well, you don't want the regular old 18.
+You want the A18 Pro.
+It's got a bunch of upgrades
+that will let the 16 Pros run Apple Intelligence 15% faster
+than on the iPhone 15 Pro.
+Not that we would know at this point.
+It hasn't come out yet.
+But the Pros also have larger displays,
+studio-quality mics that enable customized background noise removal for video recording,
+and upgraded cameras that support recording 4K 120 video.
+Hey, if it's good enough for the weekend to film a music video with,
+it's good enough for me.
+Next up,
+the new AirPods 4 have an H2 chip and also an upgraded version with ANC and a wireless charging case,
+while the AirPod Pros have gotten upgraded hearing testing abilities 
+that help them function as clinical-grade hearing aids.
+I don't know, sounds like boomer s**t to me.
+Apple also showed off the new Apple Watch Series 10,
+with a bigger display and the thinnest design ever.
+It now can run the Translate app directly on watch,
+and adds sleep apnea
+to the list of conditions it can detect,
+continuing the watch's transformation
+into basically the tricorder from Star Trek.
+At their next event in October,
+Apple will reportedly unveil new iPads and Macs,
+packed with new buttons
+that activate features that will definitely become available at some point in the future.
+Hahaha, you press the button,
+it's like,
+This feature will be available sometime next year.
+There's no Tim Cook impression,
+but that was like, almost
+Craig Federighi.
+Your friends and family can now message each other.
+I want...
+Ha!
+Send little kisses over the internet.
+IFA 2024 kicked off in Berlin last Friday,
+and some of the tech there really put the funk in Internationale Funkastelung.
+That's what IFA stands for, by the way, according to Jacob.
+Nanoleaf showed off its Sense Plus battery-powered smart switch
+that it's been working on for eight years,
+although that's no guarantee of success,
+as Concord has shown.
+The switch uses a proprietary protocol called LightWave
+to control all Nanoleaf smart lights in a room,
+while two configurable buttons on the Sense Plus can use Matter to control other devices.
+Then there's Lenovo's auto-twist AI PC concept,
+which has a motorized 360-degree hinge,
+allowing the display to follow you around,
+like it's asking for a restraining order.
+I know you said you're done using me for stuff,
+but actually, I have something to tell you about.
+You, like, close the window, and then, like, walk away,
+and it's like, is
+that it?
+More helpfully,
+the laptop can detect when it's not being used
+and close itself to prevent any real snoops from gaining access.
+Oh, interesting.
+Meanwhile,
+Acer showed off a gaming laptop concept called Project Dual Play.
+Its touchpad pops out and flips over into a controller
+that further separates into two smaller controllers, Nintendo Switch-style.
+Wow,
+but if you're into gaming products that actually exist,
+there's the Tecno Pocket Go,
+a handheld PC disguised as a chunky gamepad with AR glasses as a display.
+It evokes a cyberpunk dystopia,
+where the majority of the population are forced to use the younger sibling controller.
+If you're more into home gadgets,
+the Wireless Power Consortium,
+the minds behind the Qi wireless charging standard,
+announced the Ki Standard.
+You're supposed to say it the way that other people said the other one wrongly.
+Apparently, it's called that because it's for kitchens.
+Okay.
+Ki transmitters can be baked into countertops,
+that's a pun,
+and deliver up to 2,200 watts to compatible smart appliances.
+These appliances will be cordless to make them dishwasher-safe
+and also render them useless if you ever move.
+I thought that was a genuine feature.
+There is a benefit, though,
+if you accidentally knock over a blender or something,
+it'll stop spinning.
+It'll never spin again.
+On the even weirder side,
+there's the air purifier table from SwitchBot,
+the only company brave enough to ask the question,
+what if we just made an air purifier,
+but then we gave it a little hat?
+You should be brave enough to ask about our sponsor,
+Seasonic.
+So,
+you think you got what it takes to watch the QuickBits, do you?
+Huh.
+Well, feast your peepers on this!
+Huh!
+AMD's Jack Huynh spilled some big beans this week.
+In a statement at IFA,
+Huynh said AMD will be integrating their consumer and data center GPU architectures,
+RDNA and CDNA, respectively,
+into a unified UDNA architecture,
+making a more accessible platform for developers
+and hopefully more effectively competing with Nvidia's Cuda ecosystem.
+But it seems AMD won't be competing with Nvidia's flagship gaming GPUs,
+as Huynh told Tom's Hardware,
+TeamRed is re-prioritizing mid-range GPUs,
+saying, quote,
+I don't want AMD to be the company that only people who can afford Porsches and Ferraris can buy,
+and that's why their high-end X870E motherboards reportedly won't cost more than $800.
+It's a board for the people.
+For the people in higher tax brackets.
+Meta's rumored budget headset, the MetaQuest 3S,
+is expected to launch on September 25th at Meta's Connect event,
+but a render of the headset was recently released online
+thanks to reliable leaker, Meta.
+The render was originally spotted
+in the files of the MetaQuest client for Windows and posted to Reddit,
+and it seems to show a design that combines elements
+of the Quest 2 and Quest 3.
+Likewise,
+third-party accessories for the 3S have already appeared on AliExpress,
+including apparently real photos of the headset.
+I don't know, though.
+This could still all be just a prank.
+What if we're all in the Metaverse already?
+I mean, we just don't...
+Amazon's Audible has started to invite certain US audiobook narrators
+to train AIs on their own voices.
+Narrators who opt in will be compensated for any audiobook that makes use of their AI voice,
+though likely at a lower rate via a royalty share model.
+Narrators can still choose which productions
+get to use their AI voice model,
+and will be able to use built-in tools to edit the AI narration
+to correct things like pronunciation mistakes and pacing.
+But I mean, at that point,
+why not just record the audio yourself?
+It sounds like you have time.
+Oh, what was this delivery?
+What is this guy, an idiot?
+Sonos is still suffering from its software issues.
+According to a report by Mark Gurman,
+reporting on something other than Apple?
+Right?
+What are you doing, Mark?
+What are you doing, buddy?
+The company's app troubles have caused it to delay the launch of two products,
+one of which is a set-top box codenamed Pinewood.
+Sonos is also scaling back production of its Ace headphones,
+as they haven't exactly been flying off the shelves.
+Do you want to buy headphones that will break in a couple months for no reason?
+Worth a shot.
+Oh yeah, by the way,
+Sonos makes headphones,
+if you forgot or were never told.
+Gosh,
+I wonder why they aren't selling.
+And researcher, and I guess fashion designer, Teresa Barton,
+is recycling old Nvidia GT 730 graphics cards
+into purses that cost $1,024 exactly,
+which is one way to make enough money to finally afford an RTX 4080.
+Barton also offers higher-end purses
+fashioned out of H100 AI chips
+for over $65,000.
+These repurposed GPUs aren't functional, according to Barton,
+they're ethically sourced from data-centred dumpsters,
+but the fan still works,
+which should mean your wallet and keys get excellent airflow.
+And we'd appreciate more airflow this Wednesday when
+the next episode of TechLink drops,
+so come on back,
+if you're a fan.Hahaha,
+I'm sorry,
+oh God, I'm so sorry, please
+That was,
+I didn't mean to make that joke,
+that was not,
+please.Please come back.

2024-09-11 microsoft_un-patches_windows_10.en.ass-translated.txt

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+Welcome to TechLinked,
+where we're going to patch your knowledge of the world
+with some hot, fresh tech news.
+Microsoft has sheepishly admitted
+that the Windows 10 security updates it released between March and August
+were in fact a serious downgrade that undid several old security patches,
+like a bad case of scurvy reopening decades-old wounds.
+Luckily, I've never been on a pirate ship.
+And also, luckily, it seems that only a small number of systems were directly affected,
+enterprise users still using the original 1507 version of Windows 10 released in July, 2015.
+According to Senior Director of Threat Research at Immersion Labs
+and also auto-generated character in Skyrim, Kev Breen,
+Microsoft's statement points to an integer overflow vulnerability
+where the build version numbers verified by the Windows Update service
+fell into a range that caused a code error.
+This then led to certain optional components
+to be reverted back to their original unpatched versions,
+i.e. exactly how they were when they were first manufactured.
+Security experts have given this particular bug a score of 9.8 out of 10,
+which would be great if this was an Olympic dive or a dressage performance. Mh-huh.
+Microsoft, though, has now released a new patch
+to patch the old patch that unpatched this particular patch of PCs.
+The US Department of Justice's antitrust trial against Google started this week.
+Oh, not that one.
+This is a new one.
+As you may know,
+Google was recently found liable for illegally abusing the dominant market power of its search division
+and is now awaiting the court's suggested remedies
+to prevent it from continuing to do so in the future.
+Ah, the courts.
+Now, however,
+the company is again in court facing similar accusations regarding its ad division.
+As with most antitrust disputes,
+a major point of contention in the case
+is how to define the market that Google is supposedly dominating.
+The DOJ says that Google is acting as an illegal monopoly by intertwining its various ad tools,
+specifically its publishing software ad manager
+and its ad exchange network, AdX,
+and its advertiser network market, AdSense,
+leading to website publishers to feel trapped.
+Google, however,
+says that it's part of a much bigger ad market
+where it competes with fellow tech giants
+like Amazon and Meta and Microsoft and Roku and TikTok and Yahoo,
+the company.
+That one, not just the feeling.
+Of course, most of those supposed rivals
+really only publish ads within their own walled garden,
+whereas Google,
+much like Jesus and the smell of microwaved salmon, is everywhere.
+In other Googlish news,
+Nevada's Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation
+has apparently paid Google over $1.3 million
+for access to AI-powered cloud software
+that will recommend whether or not
+unemployed citizens should receive government benefits.
+Hmm.
+In the past,
+organizations have typically relied on AI and other less sophisticated algorithms,
+primarily to handle relatively low-stakes decisions that don't require much human oversight.
+However, this system is apparently going to be used
+to analyze evidentiary documents and transcripts for unemployment appeals hearings,
+which are likely to be relatively complex cases.
+I mean, just look at those words.
+They're big words.
+According to Nevada officials,
+this system will help them eliminate the backlog of cases
+that has existed since the pandemic
+by reducing the time it takes to write a determination,
+from several hours to just five minutes in some cases.
+While the state promises each case will receive human review,
+five minutes of human review isn't particularly reassuring.
+This is yet another example of how automation is being used
+as a way to place more and more responsibility
+into the hands of unaccountable machines.
+Similarly, an experiment by More Perfect Union
+found that several Uber and Lyft drivers
+standing directly next to one another
+were offered the exact same jobs for different amounts of money.
+This was particularly drastic in Lyft's case,
+where the pay for a trip could vary as much as $3,
+potentially adding up to hundreds over the course of a normal month.
+And that money could wind up being really important
+after the robot down at the unemployment office denies you your benefit claim.
+Mm, go f**k yourself.
+Stay, poor asshole.
+Each of the following quick bits is fully OSHA compliant
+and has never resulted in the loss of a limb,
+but make sure to wear your special quick bits helmet, just in case.
+There could be eye pokies.
+Following a series of delays due to weather and technical issues,
+SpaceX successfully launched its Polaris Dawn mission,
+carrying pilot slash billionaire Jared Isaacman,
+as well as three other people who have far less money.
+The mission will last five days and attempt the world's first private spacewalk.
+Presumably, they mean private in the sense of privately financed
+and not in the sense that somebody is getting naked, so no peeking.
+other SpaceX projects, however, have been delayed,
+as the Federal Aviation Administration has been slow to issue launch licenses.
+SpaceX by itself apparently accounts for 80% of the overtime logged by FAA workers
+charged with safety and environmental reviews for space travel,
+similar to how Elon Musk accounts for 80% of TOS violations at Twitter.
+I'm above the law.
+Huawei has launched a folding phone with not one,
+but two hinges,
+and the world will not shut up about it.
+The Mate XT features a 6.4-inch OLED display when fully collapsed,
+but fully unfolded, it becomes a 10.2-inch tablet
+that's nearly the size of a standard iPad.
+There's also a 7.9-inch in-between single-fold configuration
+if you just want a little bit more screen.
+You're not showboating.
+Oh, and its price starts at about 20,000 won(yuan),
+or 2,800 US dollars.
+It's the perfect phone for people who miss unfolding maps when they get lost,
+but still wanna be able to fold them back up when they're done.
+People keep wanting to toss data centers in the ocean off the California coast without a permit,
+and regulators, they're sick of it.
+The most recent offenders are the founders of Y Combinator-backed startup Network Ocean,
+who wanna dunk servers in the San Francisco Bay
+as a way to save energy and slow ocean temperature rise,
+which I can already see a problem with.
+Sure, hot servers might not raise the whole ocean's temperature,
+but experts say localized hotspots could trigger toxic algae blooms.
+Microsoft actually tested submerged servers in California and Scotland
+before recently abandoning the project.
+You know what they awoke in the darkness of Bikini Bottom.
+Meta has admitted to using public photos and posts on its social media platforms
+from as far back as 2007, when I joined,
+to train its AI models.
+In a confession that's only really newsworthy
+because it was made in an Australian Senate inquiry
+by Meta's global privacy director
+immediately after she denied Meta had done that exact thing,
+users in the UK, you have the legally mandated ability to opt out,
+but users from anywhere else do not.
+And while the Meta exec made it clear
+that they only scraped accounts over the age of 18,
+if an adult posts pictures of kids on their account,
+those are fair game too.
+I'm sorry, you're not ready for the future
+where everybody owns everything.
+That's a you problem.
+And by everybody, I mean us.
+And a robot will begin removing melted radioactive fuel
+from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
+And it'll certainly take its sweet time.
+This test removal will grab merely three grams
+of the approximately 880 tons of waste,
+which will then be studied to both learn more about what happened
+and to determine how to best remove the rest.
+Grabbing this sample alone will take two weeks
+because the robot must be maneuvered very carefully by rotating teams
+that are averse to the idea of spending more than 50 minutes at a time
+in a highly radioactive environment.
+What? You don't want to grow a third arm?
+Or suffer a painful death?
+And I'll suffer painfully if you don't come back on Friday for more tech news.
+Not nearly as painfully as someone with radiation sickness,
+but it still hurts a little.