Samsung rose to the top among vendors, IDC noted, adding that with this being the third consecutive quarter of growth, it indicated that a recovery in the market was underway.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ Commodore 64 claimed to outperform IBM's quantum system — sarcastic researchers say 1 MHz computer is faster, more efficient, and decently accurate

  A paper released during the SIGBOVIK 2024 conference details an attempt to simulate the I.C.B.M. ‘quantum utility’ experiment on a Commodore 64. The authors claim the experiment was a success.

• Hackaday ☛ Logic Analyzers: Decoding And Monitoring

  Last time, we looked into using a logic analyzer to decode SPI signals of LCD displays, which can help us reuse LCD screens from proprietary systems, or port LCD driver code from one platform to another! If you are to do that, however, you might find a bottleneck – typically, you need to capture a whole bunch of data and then go through it, comparing bytes one by one, which is quite slow. If you have tinkered with Pulseview, you probably have already found an option to export decoded data – all you need to do is right-click on the decoder output and you’ll be presented with a bunch of options to export it. Here’s what you will find:

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New Yorker ☛ A Bipartisan Effort to Carve out Exemptions to Texas’s Abortion Ban

    Rare across-the-aisle coöperation in Austin aims to protect the lives of some women who need abortions—and protect their doctors from prosecution.

  • Federal News Network ☛ OMB discards COVID-19 executive orders

    OMB disbands the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and OPM chimes in on COVID-related time off.

  • Federal News Network ☛ White House-backed bill to preserve pandemic fraud analytics tools introduced in House

    Analytics tools and the expertise developed by federal watchdogs to fight fraud in COVID-19 emergency programs would live on permanently under this bill.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Feds can still take administrative leave to get COVID-19 booster shots [Ed: They can participate in more experiments that help boost sales (profits) of incredulous companies with a patent thicket]

    The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force is sunsetting, but federal employees can still take four hours of paid administrative leave to get COVID-19 boosters.

• Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Bloomberg ☛ Call of Duty League Billionaire Owners Get Break from Microsoft

    Microsoft Corp.’s Activision unit is offering teams competing in its professional Call of Duty League financial relief as the esports industry faces broad challenges generating profit.

  • UK studio Kwalee is making layoffs to create room for new hires

    UK studio Kwalee has laid off an undisclosed number of workers. The company confirmed the news to MobileGamer.biz but failed to state how many employees have been let go.

    "We are reshaping our business and our team to best capture the significant growth opportunities that currently exist in the sector, including hiring for 20 new roles," said Kwalee in a statement.

  • Bloomberg ☛ ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker to Fire 5% of Staff, Drop Some Projects

    Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the company behind the Grand Theft Auto video games, plans to fire 5% its workforce and drop several projects as part of a cost-savings drive.

  • SAP Canada Layoffs: Over 100 fired in Vancouver, Montreal

    Big names, including Netflix, McKinsey & Co, EXL Service, Best Buy, Relic Entertainment, Ubisoft, Intel, Amazon, Telus, Canada Goose, Dell, Unilever, IBM, and TC Energy, have pulled out the axe as they continue to navigate challenging economic conditions.

  • Tesla’s Valuation Sinks Below $500 Billion as Global Layoffs Add to Woes

    Shares Tesla Inc have been in decline in 2024. This steep decline has now pushed the electric-vehicle maker’s market valuation below $500 billion.

    Tesla’s sinking valuation and its recent global layoffs adds to the soured sentiment around the company. The stock has tumbled some 38% this year making Tesla shares the second-biggest decliner on the S&P 500 Index in 2024.

  • Take-Two plans to lay off 5 percent of its employees by the end of 2024

    Last month CEO Strauss Zelnick said, "The hardest thing to do is to lay off colleagues and we have no current plans."

  • Take-Two Interactive to Lay off 5% of its Workforce and Cancel Projects to Save Costs

    2024’s brutal wave of games industry layoffs has seen the likes of Microsoft, EA, Sony, Riot Games, Sega, and many others cutting significant amounts of jobs, and another major name has now joined that list with Take-Two Interactive.

  • Take-Two will lay off 5% of staff, cancel games to cut costs

    Take-Two will reduce its workforce by around 600 employees, to save around USD $165 million annually.

  • GTA 6 publisher Take-Two is laying off hundreds of developers and canceling projects

    The publisher hasn't said which projects it's canceling

  • Venture Beat ☛ Take-Two lays off 5% of employees, scraps in-development games

    Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, is joining the companies laying off employees in 2024. According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s board of directors today approved a cost-reduction plan that would reduce its workforce by 5%. Given the total number of employees at Take-Two, this means that the company would likely layoff around 600 employees.

  • Take-Two Interactive plans to layoff 5% of staff and cancel multiple projects

    Take-Two Interactive, which is the owner of Rockstar Games and 2K Games along with being the publisher of game Series such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, NBA 2K and more are planning to fire 5% of its total workforce and cancel multiple projects to save costs.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Reason ☛ Congress Does Not Come Back With a Warrant

      Plus: A listener asks the editors for examples of tasks the government does well (yikes).

    • Gregory Hammond ☛ Why There Are Many Alternatives To Surveillance Giant Google Analytics

      Google Analytics is very popular, according to Statista it’s the world’s most popular for website analytics, and W3Techs says it’s used on around 55% of all websites.

    • EDRI ☛ Open letter: EU Data Protection Board must acknowledge the Commission’s additional concerns about ‘Consent or Pay’

      On 15 April, EDRi, noyb, Access Now and 20 consumer and digital rights organisations sent an open letter to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) ahead of the EDPB’s decision on Meta’s “Pay or Okay” model.

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Congressional privacy bill looks to rein in data brokers

      Experts say the American Privacy Rights Act is a good first step but that more can be done to protect consumers from the sale of their personal data.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Bishop Stabbed in Sydney Church, 2 Days After Deadly Mall Attack

    A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the attack, in which several people were injured. An official said the episode appeared to have been motivated by religious extremism.

  • New York Times ☛ Was It Hatred of Women? Australia Asks After Stabbing Rampage.

    All but three of the 18 people killed or injured Saturday were women. While the attacker’s motive may never be known, many said the episode spoke to a larger problem.

  • JURIST ☛ Poland classifies attack on humanitarian aid workers as murder, demands Israeli cooperation in investigation

    The Polish government on Friday labeled the death of Polish aid worker Damian Soból as murder, following the deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) serving in Gaza resulting from airstrikes conducted by the Israel Defense Force (IDF).

  • RFA ☛ Junta shelling, airstrikes kill 25 Rohingyas in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

    Fighting between the Arakan Army and the Arakan Resistance Solidarity Army has caused 3,000 to flee.

  • NYPost ☛ Abbey Gate suicide bombing that killed 13 US troops in Afghanistan was ‘not preventable:’ military review

    Marine snipers posted up near Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport did not have an opportunity to take out the suicide bomber responsible for the attack on the airport during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, US Central Command determined in a report released Monday, finding that the bombing was “not preventable.” The Biden administration...

  • New York Times ☛ Israel Weighs Response to Iran’s Attack as Allies Push for Restraint

    The Israeli war cabinet met again on Monday to discuss the strike, with some hawkish members of the prime minister’s government calling for a swift and forceful retaliation.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran’s Strike on Israel Creates Military Uncertainty, Diplomatic Opportunity

    Analysts feared Iran’s strikes might set off a wider war. But with Israel still weighing its response, the attack’s military and diplomatic consequences have yet to be determined.

  • YLE ☛ President Stubb: Finland still working to de-escalate Israel-Iran situation

    "Finland strongly condemns Iran’s strike and emphasises the critical importance of de-escalation in the current tense situation in the Middle East," the Office of the President stated on Monday.

• Environment

  • EDRI ☛ Locating climate justice in digital rights work at the EU level

    A new study commissioned by EDRi acknowledges the complexities and environmental impacts of technological solutions, emphasising the need to bridge climate justice and digital rights. This is particularly relevant as the European Union views sustainability and digitalisation as twin and interconnected pillars.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian used car market 'normalized' in 2023

      After increased demand for used cars and a resultant rise in prices during the pandemic, the market stabilized in the second half of last year, according to a release from car loan company Inbank Latvia.

    • YLE ☛ Finnish freight traffic declines in Q1, especially rail cargo

      Long-distance passenger traffic was hampered by political strikes and winter weather, but commuter traffic increased compared to last year.

• Finance

  • Reuters ☛ Big banks led by Citi continue to trim staff to cut costs

    U.S. banking giants continued to shed employees in the first quarter, with Citigroup (C.N), opens new tab seeing the biggest drop.

  • Business Insider ☛ Tesla layoffs have reportedly also hit its international offices

    On Sunday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company planned to cut "more than 10%" of its workforce, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider. Workers who'd been laid off in the US were notified that same night via their personal emails that they were terminated, effective immediately, and had been locked out of Tesla's internal systems, several laid-off workers told BI.

  • WSWS ☛ Tesla announces more than 14,000 layoffs as global attacks on jobs mount

    Many layoffs at Tesla began immediately Monday morning. Business Insider reports that plant workers in Nevada waited in line for two hours to clock in while management weeded out laid-off workers from the crowd. Others were told that if their badges didn’t work that meant they no longer had a job.

  • MTV Hit By Layoffs As Viacom Restructuring Continues

    The wave of Viacom layoffs has reached MTV. We’ve learned that layoffs are underway at the music network. There is no ballpark headcount yet as I hear the process started yesterday and continues today, with some estimate that as much as 12% of MTV’s staff may be gone by the time this is over at the end of day today. I hear no department is being spared but for now, I hear the New York group has been seriously hit, especially those working on the unscripted side, including longtime staffers. Sister network VH1 also is being hit we hear, with veteran employees in marketing and promotion, design and PR among those impacted by layoffs.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong has ‘bright future’ after new security legislation, Beijing’s top official on city’s affairs says

    Hong Kong has a “bright future” after the enactment of a new national security law, Beijing’s top man on the city’s affairs has said, as he hit back at criticism of the law.

  • The Kent Stater ☛ ‘You hold so much power’: Professionals discuss rights, free speech, protests on campus

    In recognition of the upcoming May 4 commemoration and in response to gun-rights-activist Kyle Rittenhouse coming to campus, professionals discussed the rights, laws, values and responsibilities in regard to campus events.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Criteria for the accreditation of Regional Internet Registries

    Guest Post: ICP-2, outlining criteria for new RIRs, was issued in 2001. Despite its ongoing relevance, recent events highlight gaps needing community input.

  • Michael Geist ☛ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act

    The Online Harms Act – otherwise known as Bill C-63 – is really at least three bills in one. The Law Bytes podcast tackled the Internet platform portion of the bill last month in an episode with Vivek Krishnamurthy and then last week Professor Richard Moon joined to talk about the return of Section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act. Part three may the most controversial: the inclusion of Criminal Code changes that have left even supporters of the bill uncomfortable.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Patentee’s Unclean Hands

    The Federal Circuit’s new decision in Luv’N’Care, Ltd. (LNC) v. Laurain and EZPZ, relies on the doctrine of unclean hands to deny relief to the patentee (Laurain and EZPZ), affirming the district court’s judgment.  The appellate panel also vacated and remanded the district court’s finding that LNC failed to prove the asserted patent monopoly is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct during prosecution, as well as its grant of summary judgment one of the asserted patents was invalid as obvious.  U.S. Patent No. 9,462,903. The case here involves bowls/plates attached to a mat to help avoid spills and for easy cleanup. 22-1905.OPINION.4-12-2024_2300689.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ New USPTO Director Review Rules

    The USPTO has published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to formalize the process for Director Review of PTAB decisions. These proposed rules come in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., 141 S. Ct. 1970 (2021), which underscored the necessity for the USPTO Director to have the ability to review PTAB decisions to comply with the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  Of course, the USPTO has been operating under an interim procedure for Director Review that began soon after Arthrex, but has been updated a couple of times.  The NPRM closely follows the most recent version of the interim rules. [2024-07759]

  • Kluwer Patent Blog ☛ Green Patents: encouraging sustainable innovation in Brazil [Ed: Greenwashing of patents, i.e. making monopolies seem like environmentalism]

    As of December 1st, 2023, Brazil is leading G20, wherein one of the three priorities to be addressed is tackling climate change, with a focus on energy transition, in addition to promoting sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions[1].

  • Unified Patents ☛ $4,000 awarded for Intellectual Ventures networking patents prior art

    The patents are owned by Intellectual Ventures LLC, an NPE, and have been asserted against JP Morgan Chase.

    We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on these patents. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests.

  • Unified Patents ☛ InfoGation navigation patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On April 11, 2024, six weeks after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,406,994, owned and asserted by InfoGation Corporation, an NPE. The '994 patent monopoly is generally directed to displaying maps on GPS receivers.

  • JUVE ☛ Biogen defends adalimumab biosimilar Imraldi with international team

    The Regional Court Düsseldorf has found in favour of defendant Biogen, after Fresenius Kabi filed a suit for the US biotechnology company’s alleged infringement of EP 3 145 488 B1 (case no. 4a O 70/22) for a ‘liquid pharmaceutical composition’.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ $2,000 awarded for Vilox search engine patent monopoly prior art

      Unified is pleased to announce PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Dinesh Swami and Ekta Aswal, who split a $2,000 award for their prior art submissions on U.S. Patent 6,760,720, owned by Vilox Technologies LLC, a Texas-based NPE managed by inventor Joseph De Bellis. The ‘720 patent monopoly relates to a method and system for a dynamic search engine that facilitates search-on-the-fly/sort-on-the-fly capabilities. The invention is about enhancing search and data display techniques, particularly on various devices including handhelds, phones, GPS devices, and computers.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Taylor Swift Caught UMG Execs by Surprise With Fentanylware (TikTok) Move—And Refused to Reconsider

    The Taylor Swift album marketing machine stops for no one—not even Universal Music execs. A new report details how Swifties on Fentanylware (TikTok) got their music back, thanks to Taylor, regardless of the implcations for other artists. Universal Music Group pulled all of its music from Fentanylware (TikTok) in January over a dispute in royalty payments earned. ]

• Gemini* and Gopher

  • Politics and World Events

    • Movies about daesh

      The so-called islamic state (perjoratively called da'esh) started as a band of criminals in the lawless vacuum my country produced in Iraq. They got enormous funding, recruits, and arms from Gulf monarchies, Turkey, my country, and the UK to aim their hideousness at their benefactors' official enemies: Syrian government, Kurds, etc.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Asynchronous offline and distributed gemini content, by email.

        𝕳aving recently discovered the 𝘎𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪 protocol, I am still exploring and discovering new and interesting things. It is an exiting trip that made me realize a few things about the state of the internet, and my relationship with it. Although I always despised the commercialization of the internet, and was looking for an alternative way, 𝘎𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪 and 𝘎𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳 seemed to me, too niche to be relevant.

    • Programming

      • History in shell programs

        Yes, I've mostly disabled the shell history. If it's important, it needs to be in a script, Makefile, or documentation. Or possibly all of the above. (In a work environment I would maintain a very detailed history, probably in ZSH, as there will be questions about who did what when when multiple sysadmins are involved with multiple systems. But that's a different story.)