Daily Tech News 12 September 2023

• How ice is turning into an exotic and luxurious commodity. (Axios)
  
  Ice? What exactly do you mean by "ice"? Obviously not frozen water, because even ignoring the polar ice caps, there's about 150 quadrillion kilograms of ice just sitting around in various glaciers.

  Ice — in exotically shaped cubes, boozy popsicles or suffusing your coffee — is having its moment in the zeitgeist.

  Why it matters: During a record hot summer when icebound places are melting rapidly, it makes sense that ice — a commodity we take for granted until it grows scarce — has turned chic.

  Oh. You really do mean frozen water.

  By the numbers: More than 60% of Gen Z consumers ordered a cold coffee drink from a food service location in the first half of 2022, compared with 33% who ordered a hot coffee drink, says Mintel, the trend-spotting consultancy.

  Consuming nearly 0% of the world's non-renewable ice supply.

  At the same time, American tourists are getting scorned in Europe for their ice-loving ways. (In other cultures, ice is seen as taking valuable real estate away from the beverage at hand.)

  The European ice ration is two cubes per month, so this is not surprising.

  The bottom line: While the fancy ice trend is mostly about harmless fun, the growing prevalence of drought and water insecurity point to a future where ice will be at an ever-greater premium.

  Yeah, if you can't do first-grade level arithmetic. And don't have object permanence, something that most babies develop by around six months.
  
  When you're talking to or otherwise dealing with journalists, treat them like an unusually stupid Cavalier King Charles spaniel that has recently been exposed to rabies and also sprayed by a skunk.
  
  They're certainly not human.

• Europe's economic outlook continues to worsen amid lingering inflation and high interest rates. (AP News)
  
  The ice ration has been increased from two cubes per month to one.
  
  Also it's saying something when Europe's governments are more honest than America's.
  
  
  
• Microsoft is removing third-party printer drivers from Windows. (The Register)
  
  Have a printer that isn't directly supported by Windows? Congratulations. Now you have a brick.
  
  They already did this to my Canon scanner, which is in perfect condition but completely unsupported.
  
  
  
• Trends are usually bad. Trends in software development are always bad. (Renegade Otter)
  
  A five year survey of tech startups showed that those chasing the Shiny Thing in software development died, while those using boring old tools and platforms that just got the job done tended to... Well, a lot of those died too, but they did better than the first category.
  
  If a startup is using COBOL, and can explain why they are using COBOL, they're probably going to make a fortune.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:15 AM

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