Daily Tech News 3 August 2024

• Intel shares are down 30% overnight. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Oops. How did that happen?
  
  And down 50% for the year so far.
  
  This helps explain why AMD delayed its biggest CPU release in years over a much smaller problem. They basically did exactly the opposite of Intel: Catch the problem before selling the CPUs and recall everything.
  
  AMD hasn't been entirely forthcoming on the nature of their problem either, but they weren't selling chips with known faults.
  
  
  

• The DOJ is suing TikTok over violations of privacy of children on a massive scale. (Ars Technica)
  
  They allege that not only does TikTok knowingly allow children to register as adults, but that even the children's version of the app violates COPPA.
  
  Which allows for a $50,000 fine per infringement, which given the scale of this could run to $100 billion or more.
  
  COPPA is impossible for online platforms to enforce perfectly, but you are expected to at least not issue internal instructions instructing your employees not to enforce it. Which TikTok apparently did.
  
  
  
• Looks like Net Neutrality is dead. Again. (KSL)
  
  The Sixth Circuit, which had already issued an administrative stay, has now blocked the rules pending a full hearing to begin late October.
  
  
  
• Apple is apologising for one of its ads again. (The Verge)
  
  This time the company seems to have annoyed Thailand specifically, where the "Crush" add was more generally offensive.
  
  What's the ad? I don't know, they seem to have scrubbed it from the internet.
  
  
  
• Meanewhile Google is in full retreat over its own "Dear Sydney" ad, showing how you can use AI to write a heartfelt personal letter. (Tom's Guide)
  
  These people literally never talk to anyone outside their own bubbles.
  
  
  
• Bitcoin is the new orange. (The Verge)
  
  Yes, the people at The Verge are having another totally normal day, meandering between foaming outrage and passive voice like a grammarian on peyote:

  A panel that was ostensibly about the risks and rewards of public mining companies gave way to discussions of President Joe Biden's "whole-of-government attack" on cryptocurrency, as Jason Les, the CEO of the Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms, put it. "President Trump, on the other hand, has been very positive."

  This is no secret. Biden's SEC has been virulently anti-crypto, though they somehow managed to miss FTX's $10 billion fraud entirely.

  A bullet had narrowly missed Trump's skull at a rally two weeks prior, so security was extra tight.

  Yes, a wild bullet attacked Trump out of nowhere.
  
  
  
• Sam Altman has been accused of being shady about OpenAI's safety efforts. (Ars Technica)
  
  I am shocked, shocked, to find that shading is going on in here.
  
  
  
• Metropolis 1998 is an isometric city builder that lets you customise every building. (Ars Technica)
  
  Looks cool if you like 90s pixel art aesthetics.
  
  It's very much not a 90s game though; it's designed to individually simulate over 100,000 people and vehicles.
  
  Free demo is available on Steam.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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