Daily Tech News 22 June 2023

• Journalists for Censorship is at it again: Spotify's podcast platform is going off the rails, except for Joe Rogan who is still drawing huge audiences and we can't stand it!!!!! (The Verge)

  One problem is that none of these people — from former presidents to filmmakers to bestselling authors — were able to deliver sure-fire podcast hits. Even a podcast hosted by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen ended up putting people to sleep.

  This comes as a surprise?

  This cascading series of events says a lot about the unwieldy nature of Spotify's podcast business, which is still driven mostly by the former host of Fear Factor. Not even a compilation video of Rogan saying the n-word nearly two dozen times got him kicked off the platform. It's a lot of power for one creator to yield.

  JfC: WHY WON'T YOU CANCEL HIM?!
  Spotify: He actually makes us money.
  
  
  

• Elemental's co-writers wanted it to open, honest, and not an actually good film like Zootopia. (The Verge)
  
  I'm so old I remember when Pixar was a surefire hitmaker. Now its just another third-rate cartoon studio.
  
  How did that happen?
  
  This is how:

  Honestly, what's funny is we're taking a breather from the strike lines to do this and a few other interviews, and we're going back this afternoon.

  If you're a writer, you can't go on strike. Writing is what you do. It's in your blood.
  
  Corollary: If you can go on strike, you're not a writer, you're a janitor with a keyboard. (No offense to janitors, but if they tried to do their jobs with a keyboard they'd be useless too.)
  
  
  
• Intel has discontinued the Arc A770 limited edition - the model with 16GB of VRAM. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The A750 with 8GB VRAM is nearly as fast and much cheaper, so unless you specifically wanted 16GB of RAM that's not a dealbreaker.
  
  
  
• Apple's 24-core workstation-class M2 Ultra CPU, found in the new Mac Pro (base price $7000) has shown up on the Passmark benchmark list. (Notebook Check)
  
  It's 1% faster than AMD's 7845HX, a 12-core laptop chip.
  
  The editor at Notebook Check seems to think this is a great achievement for Apple rather than an embarrassment. I think that benchmark score is probably low, but taken at face value, AMD has six consumer-level chips faster than Apple's flagship CPU, and dozens of workstation and server parts.
  
  
  
• Feel good story of the day: Elon Musk triples down on making Twitter terrible for trans people. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Musk said that if you use the term "cis" as a slur, it will be treated as such, and your account will be suspended.
  
  They also complain about the Babylon Bee pointing out that "Rachel" Levine is a man. The only thing missing is a reference to GamerGate and I'd have filled my Entitled Whiners bingo card.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

| Access Comments