Daily Tech News 14 September 2021

• Facebook has unveiled a new compression algorithm called Superpack that produces files typically 20% smaller than Zip. (Facebook)
  
  It does this not by using a smarter algorithm, but by generating and compiling a custom algorithm on the fly. If the file is large you can attach the code for the new algorithm to the compressed copy and still save space. The decompression side takes that same custom algorithm and runs it in reverse.
  
  Not mentioned in the article: The terms safety, security, or buffer overflow. The words exploit and exploited do appear, but not in the context I'm concerned with.

• If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done slowly or if possible not at all: Australia's digital vaccine passport is six months behind schedule and still nowhere in sight. (ZDNet)
  
  This is the kind of government incompetence I can truly get behind.
  
  
  
• Microsoft has announced its stance on Windows support for Arm-based Macs. (Thurrott.com)
  
  And that stance is no.
  
  
  
• Things are happening on Ethereum. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I work with blockchains on almost a daily basis and I'm hard-pressed to understand, let alone explain, what these idiots are doing.
  
  
  
• YouTube improbably took down a stream of the 2021 Ig Nobel Prizes. (Improbably)
  
  Over use of parts of a recording of Funiculi, Funicula from 1914.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:32 AM

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