Daily Tech News 9 July 2023

• In which your intrepid reporter learns that "blinding headache" is not just a colourful expression.
  
  Yeah, that was a fun few minutes.
  
  
  
• Harvard professor Avi Loeb is an idiot. (CBS)
  
  What he claims: Evidence of an alien spaceship that exploded over the Earth.
  
  What he has: Metal spherules too small to see, dredged up from the seafloor with a huge magnet, from the general vicinity of a reported meteor, that are unlike other meteoritic material and were found amidst volcanic debris which just maybe suggests an alternate origin.
  
  Of course, the post is written by, and the video interview edited by CBS as its dancing dog story of the day, so maybe he doesn't believe the things that, well, he actually said, but then he's an idiot for different reasons.

• How the recent Supreme Court decisions affect US tech companies. (The Register)
  
  The article discusses the recent decisions handed down blocking racism in college admissions and state governments attempting to compel speech.
  
  Unfortunately the author of the article is an idiot, and also British, and has less than no understanding of the subject matter, and bases everything on quotes from people who just had their grift rugs pulled out from under them.
  
  Loss of diversity hires could cost the US economy $14 billion, says one estimate.
  
  Out of control diversity hires have already cost the US economy $3 trillion.
  
  
  
• Never deploy after 3PM, or on a Friday. (The Register)
  
  Yes, it's always after 3PM somewhere.
  
  No, I stand by my statement.
  
  Anyway, GitHub went down.
  
  
  
• End Antarctic tourism now. (The Atlantic)
  
  It's time to ban the plebs from our pristine wilderness.
  
  Ours. Not yours.
  
  This is The Atlantic, after all.
  
  
  
• Google is going to suck up all your public data to train its AI. (PC Gamer)
  
  Though to be fair, public data is, well, public.
  
  
  
• Threads is going to suck up all your private data to sell advertising. (Ars Technica)
  
  Here's some of what the Threads app on iOS hands over to Meta when you click that Yeah, whatever button:
  
  

  Purchases (Purchase History)

  Financial Info (Other Financial Info)
  Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location)
  Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info)
  User Content (Emails or Text Messages, Photos or Videos, Audio Data, Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content)
  Search History
  Browsing History
  Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness)

  
  Uh, no. No, I will not be creating a Threads account.
  
  The Twitter app on iOS is better, but still terrible. Don't use official apps if you can possibly avoid it. There is a reason companies push you to use the official app, and it is not because it's better for you.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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