Leftovers

• Manuel Moreale ☛ Confidently incorrect

  And who gets to decide that? When you’re writing online what matters is what you decide it’s important for you. No one else gets to decide what’s important for you and for your site. It’s your fucking site after all.

• Johan Halse ☛ Pressing pause

  I've added a ton of filters. I have everything from "TikTok" to "layoffs" to "fascist" or even "LLM" which tells you something about the volume of hyperactive bullshit that's been flooding my zone. I've noticed myself boosting and posting more and more things about the catastrophic political situation we all find ourselves in in 2025, and... what do I think I'm accomplishing, really? A measurable increase in blood pressure for the poor bastards reading? Maybe someone donated money. Maybe someone signed a petition. But that's the extent of it. So I think I'm done, for now. I've uninstalled the excellent Ivory app. I've hostnamed away news sites and have instead started to curate a nice little array of RSS feeds instead, filled with things that matter to my daily life like code and art and music and video games. The Pax Americana is broken, the world is fucked up and hurtling towards war and distrust, but I can't pick it up and shake it and tell it to knock it off. No amount of worrying is going to help put things right. So I can't be out here chewing my nails and screaming in public. Better to dive deeper into work, pick up some new hobbies, let the chips fall where they may. That requires silence. We'll see what comes out the other side. But for now you gotta shut up, Internet, because you're bringing me down.

• Robert Birming ☛ The Best Blog Post Ever

  I can't say that it's the same for me when it comes to books, but it made me think of a blog post I read recently. It was Annie Mueller's answer to the question "What's your favorite post on your blog?". She replied:

  "Always the one I'm writing right now."

• Simon Willison ☛ tc39/proposal-regex-escaping

  One of the best things about having a long-running blog is that sometimes posts you forgot about over a decade ago turn out to have a life of their own.

• Andy Hawthorne ☛ Are Your Blog Post Titles Costing You Readers? | Andy's Blog

  That's how your audience feels about your blog post titles.

  You think they'll dig through your post to find the gold?
  No chance.

  You have to hand it to them.
  Up front.
  Make them want it.

• James G ☛ Blog background experiments

  The last design of my blog featured a Club Penguin background image on every page. The background depended on the page you were on. Pages related to coffee had a coffeeshop background. The time machine page had its own background. Here is an example of a blog post with the default snow background: [...]

• Science

  • Wired ☛ National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues

    Earlier this month, however, these permanent workers were suddenly told by NSF that their one-year probationary period should have been two years and they were no longer safe from being terminated.

• Career/Education

  • Lou Plummer ☛ On Identity

    Most of my adult life, I've used the convenient crutch of describing myself by my job title, conflating what I did with who I was. It was an easy and convenient (and kind of lazy) way to self identify. Of course, there are numerous ways to label ourselves. We do it by our relationships. I get to be Mr. Wonder Woman quite a bit because my wee, shy, introverted wife attracts a lot of attention by virtue of a high-profile job and her athletic prowess. When I go visit my dad, despite being a grandfather myself, I get defined as being Johnny's boy, which kind of makes me feel like Tony Soprano.

  • Riccardo Mori ☛ People and resources added to my reading list in 2024

    Welcome to the twelfth instalment of my annual overview of my most interesting discoveries made during the previous year. Traditionally, the structure of this kind of post includes different categories of resources: blogs, YouTube channels, cool stuff on the Web, and so forth. Such structure isn’t going to change, but if my previous instalment was perhaps unusually brief, I’m afraid the current one is going to be even briefer. There are a few reasons as to why: [...]

  • Flamed Fury ☛ Keeping A Reading Log

    After finishing a book, I like to sit at my desk and record the book details and my thoughts. Then, I can put add them to my website as a bookshelf entry.

  • Lou Plummer ☛ Did You Ever Get in Trouble for Reading?

    I rushed through every assignment for years so that I could read whatever book I was interested in at the time. There are comments on my elementary school report cards about me neglecting other responsibilities to pursue what my teacher called "pleasure reading" an activity she complained that I put before everything else. My excessive reading bothered her so much that she would assign me dictionary pages to copy by hand just so she wouldn't have to look at me with my nose in a book. There were always books in our house. Both of my parents have been voracious readers my whole life. My siblings are also book people. So are my kids.

• Hardware

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Trump tariffs result in 10% laptop price hike in U.S. says Acer CEO

    The decision to increase prices was reportedly confirmed last week, with the Taiwanese tech giant remaining unaffected by tariffs on products that left China before February. Therefore, stock hitting U.S. channels afterward will be subject to increased tariffs.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Acer to raise prices by 10pc in response to Trump’s tariffs

    “We will have to adjust the end user price to reflect the tariff,” Mr Chen said. “We think 10pc probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward.”

    Acer’s most expensive laptops cost up to $3,700 (£2,934), meaning the tariffs could add hundreds of dollars to what consumers pay at the till.

  • Clayton Errington ☛ Too Much Data

    I am not sure what I’ll end up doing with all the extra drives now, but at least I have a place to put all those archives. The other option is taking the hard disks apart and using the platters as decorations. Many of these hard drives and flash drives were the first I’ve ever owned and surprised they still worked.

  • Events

    • Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Europe 2025: Speakers, Lightning Talks, And More!

      If you’ve been waiting for news from our upcoming Hackaday Europe event in March, wait no longer. We’re excited to announce the first slice of our wonderful speakers lineup! Get your tickets now,

• Proprietary

  • Meta, Microsoft, Workday join latest wave of tech layoffs

    Meanwhile, Business Insider reported in early January that Microsoft was planning an unspecified number of job cuts and was taking a “harder look” at under-performing employees as part of the effort.

  • 1105 Media Inc ☛ Microsoft Stepping Away from HoloLens Mixed Reality Hardware

    Microsoft has confirmed that its HoloLens mixed reality hardware efforts have officially come to an end.

    The company ended production of its latest headset, HoloLens 2, in October 2024, and at the time did not disclose future plans for the HoloLens team. In 2023, some teams, including those working on HoloLens, were hit with layoffs, with the company only expressing vague plans to continue its mixed reality hardware push. Further, plans for a third iteration of its mixed reality headset were in the works, but were scrapped (paywalled).

    Now, Microsoft has closed the door on the hardware with confirmation sent to The Verge from Microsoft Mixed Reality CVP Robin Seiler: [...]

  • Comic Book ☛ Marvel Rivals Team Hit with Layoffs

    Despite the meteoric success of Marvel Rivals this year, the development team from NetEase behind the hit title has now been hit with layoffs. More specifically, the Seattle team, led by one of the game directors of Marvel Rivals, Thaddeus Sasser, has seemingly been let go, alongside other members of the team, which, as far as we’ve seen, have been level designers. No official comment from NetEase or Marvel has been made as of yet. Unfortunately, the news comes just after the team showcased their next big patch, which pertained to currency changes and conversion within Marvel Rivals.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    • The Register UK ☛ DeepSeek disappears from South Korean app stores

      The commission on Monday revealed the DeepSeek app was withdrawn from local app stores as of Saturday February 15th, after South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission determined the software breached local privacy laws. South Korea’s nation’s national intelligence service had already warned citizens that DeepSeek collects plenty of personal information, shares user info with advertisers, and uses all input for training purposes. The chatbot has also caused offence in South Korea by suggesting that national dish Kimchi, a fermented vegetable salad, may have Chinese origins.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Modder crams LLM onto Raspberry Pi Zero-powered USB stick, but it isn't fast enough to be practical

      Binh Pham experimented with a Raspberry Pi Zero, effectively turning the device into a small USB drive that can run an LLM locally with no extras needed. The project was largely facilitated thanks to llama.cpp and llamafile, a combination of an instruction set and a series of packages designed to offer a lightweight chatbot experience offline.

    • Chris Coyier ☛ Calculators & Writing

      Using AI to write means you’re robbed of the thinking and feeling it takes to write, which is (most?) of the value. Communicating, I suppose, you’re doing either way, you’re just communicating something you didn’t think about or feel if your writing is generated, which is fucked.

    • The Verge ☛ Humane is shutting down the AI Pin and selling its remnants to HP

      Humane is selling most of its company to HP for $116 million and will stop selling AI Pin, the company announced today.

    • The Verge ☛ Humane’s AI Pin: all the news about the dead AI-powered wearable | The Verge

      Here’s all of our coverage of the AI Pin.

  • Social Control Media

    • International Business Times ☛ Why People Are Slamming TikTok Bakers And Buying Walmart's $25 Heart Cakes Instead

      A viral cake trend that once boosted small businesses has now turned into a potential threat to their survival as a major retailer joins in. Bakers across social media are criticising Walmart for mass-producing vintage heart cakes at a fraction of the cost of homemade versions, claiming it undercuts their businesses and devalues their craft. The controversy has ignited debate over the balance between affordability and supporting independent bakers, leaving customers torn between choosing a budget-friendly treat or backing local businesses.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Lee Enterprises blames cyberattack for delayed newspapers

      Listed companies have become adept at describing ransomware without actually saying the word in recent times, Lee being one of them. It told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that "threat actors unlawfully accessed the company's network, encrypted critical applications, and exfiltrated certain files."

      That sounds an awful lot like double extortion ransomware to us.

    • The Register UK ☛ Decade-old healthcare security SNAFU settled for $11m

      An alleged security SNAFU that occurred during the Obama administration has finally been settled under the second Trump administration.

      The case concerns Health Net Federal Services (HNFS), an outfit that provides healthcare services to military personnel, and its parent company Centene Corporation.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • The Verge ☛ Microsoft isn’t automatically keeping you signed in just yet

      Once Microsoft starts to automatically keep you signed in you’ll have to use a private browsing window on public PCs or make sure you remember to sign out once your session ends, otherwise the account will remain signed in.

    • The Verge ☛ DOGE [sic] is trying to access the IRS’s data on millions of taxpayers

      Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to the IRS commissioner on Monday requesting that the IRS “immediately disclose to the Senate Committee on Finance the full extent of the potential access to IRS systems and data granted to DOGE [sic] team members so that the Committee can address any efforts by DOGE [sic] personnel to gain access to taxpayer records at the IRS, which may constitute criminal violations of federal privacy laws.”

    • CNN ☛ DOGE [sic] seeks access to highly sensitive taxpayer data at IRS

      Gavin Kliger, a software engineer working under DOGE [sic], is expected to be granted access to the system “imminently,” the source said. He will be based at the IRS for at least 120 days but had not yet been given approval as of 9 p.m. ET Sunday.

    • Dhole Moments ☛ Reviewing the Cryptography Used by Signal

      Last year, I urged furries to stop using Telegram because it doesn’t actually provide them with any of the privacy guarantees they think it gives them. Instead of improving Telegram’s cryptography to be actually secure, the CEO started spreading misleading bullshit about Signal®.

      Since then, I’ve been flooded with people asking me about various other encrypted messaging apps and accused by Internet reply-guys of having malicious intentions. Some of the more egregiously stupid accusations were that I was somehow being paid to promote Signal.

    • The Cyber Show ☛ Cash and national security

      Following our published response to a request for comment from UK Treasury Committee on preservation of cash usage, Victoria Friedman of The Epoch Times UK enquired as to more detail on our claimed links between national resilience and cash technology. This article quickly revisits that.

      The perspective of computer scientists on money and national security might feel about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit at this time of the rising "Nerd Reich". For what it's worth, this take is informed by signals, systems and security thinking, not what most would see as mainstream economics.

    • Truthdig ☛ Social Security Head Leaves As DOGE Seeks Access to Sensitive Data

      King, who was with the agency for more than 30 years before becoming its acting director last month, left over the holiday weekend. She declined to give the Musk-led effort to cut federal spending and the workforce, known as the Department [sic] of Government Efficiency (DOGE), access to a centralized database that includes information about income, addresses, retirement benefits and sometimes even medical records for any American with a Social Security number, people familiar with the situation told The 19th. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency or the individuals involved.

    • Digital Camera World ☛ 71-year-old Canadian tourist could face up to 3 years in prison for using drone to photograph Cape Canaveral military base | Digital Camera World

      The charges allege that Pan captured drone photographs of multiple classified and restricted areas without permission from any commanding officer.

    • Android Police ☛ 11 new banks now work with Google Wallet's contactless payments in the US

      Last month, we spotted Google Wallet adding 22 new banks and credit unions to its list of supported institutions in the US. This month, Google hasn't been quite as active, only adding 11 new banks — but still, people from California to New York and numerous states in between will get to use tap-to-pay with their banks for the first time as a result. The full list is as follows: [...]

    • 404 Media ☛ Why Is a Government Contractor Trying to Buy iPhone Hacking Tech From Us?

      A contractor for the Air Force and other government agencies wanted to get a good deal on some Graykeys from us (we're journalists FYI).

    • Wired ☛ Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Being Sued Under the Privacy Act: What to Know

      More than half a dozen lawsuits are seeking to block DOGE employees from rifling through these vast troves of data. One thing they all have in common: They allege that DOGE’s actions violate the Privacy Act of 1974.

      Here’s how a law passed after Watergate could rein in another president whose self-professed zeal for retribution is unnerving constitutional experts.

    • Krebs On Security ☛ How Phished Data Turns into Apple & Google Wallets

      Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.

• Defence/Aggression

  • YLE ☛ Yle sources: Helsinki police disband unit tasked with tackling 'honour'-based violence

    The decision by Helsinki police — and its timing — has been greeted with widespread surprise, especially as the issue of honour-based violence has been increasingly discussed in Finnish society amid fears that such incidents are on the increase.

    Justice Minister Leena Meri (Finns) even held a press conference about the issue last week, telling reporters that "honour-related violence will not disappear if we look the other way".

  • Site36 ☛ Federal Office in Germany advertises return to Greece: Letters cause panic among refugees

    In official letters to asylum seekers already recognised in Greece, the German Federal Office for Migration states that their second application in Germany will probably be rejected. The communication is dubious for various reasons.

  • Site36 ☛ Ripping off refugees: German federal state wants jewellery from asylum seekers

    The German Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act allows applicants to be deprived of funds in excess of €200. Baden-Württemberg wants to extend this and is modelling itself on Denmark. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice wants to focus more on deterrent measures when taking in refugees.

• Environment

  • Overpopulation ☛ To grow or not to grow

    All around the world, politicians, business leaders, academics and many members of the general public worship at the shrine of ‘growth’. They are profoundly and dangerously wrong.

  • Common Dreams ☛ Minnesota Lawsuit Against Big Oil Moves Closer to Trial

    The state’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison in 2020, charges three major architects of climate denial with running a “campaign of deception” to mislead consumers about the science of climate change and failing to disclose their knowledge of the climate harms of their fossil fuel products.

    The latest ruling aligns with rulings in similar cases in Honolulu, Boulder, Vermont, and Massachusetts, all of which are moving closer to trial despite the oil industry’s efforts to derail the cases.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • DeSmog ☛ Environmentalists ‘Weaken’ Canada, Claims Industry Group with Political Ties

    • DeSmog ☛ ‘I’m Not a Scientist’: Net Zero Opponent Nigel Farage Admits Climate Ignorance

    • Common Dreams ☛ Musk-Trump FAA Firings Make Next Air Travel Disaster More Likely

      “The Musk rampage through government is making it virtually certain that we will suffer through otherwise avoidable health, safety and economic catastrophes. Cutting the Forest Service increases fire risk, cutting the CDC and blocking information sharing risks worsening infectious disease outbreaks, cutting the CFPB guarantees Big Bank and predatory loan ripoffs, cutting FDA staff increases the risk for dangerous devices, drugs and food additives, cutting the EPA will increase the risk of mass toxic exposures and on and on.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ Seagrass Gardening

• Finance

  • Pro Publica ☛ Frank Schuler: From Tax Scam Promoter to GSA Adviser

    Even as he has vowed to eliminate “every dollar of waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal budget and operations,” the new acting administrator of the General Services Administration, Stephen Ehikian, has appointed a senior adviser whose firm used to specialize in tax transactions that a bipartisan Senate committee excoriated and that the IRS branded as “abusive” and among “the worst of the worst tax scams.” The adviser has been battling the tax agency in court over $4 billion in disallowed deductions for thousands of his clients.

    The GSA, the federal agency responsible for managing the government’s land and property, will now be taking advice from Frank Schuler IV, the 57-year-old co-founder and longtime president of Ornstein-Schuler, an Atlanta-based real estate investment company. Schuler’s firm was for years among the most prolific promoters of tax-shelter deals known as “syndicated conservation easements.”

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Register UK ☛ UK court says China op can't put off Scottish chip biz sale

    The London court this month handed down a judgment refusing an application for interim relief from FTDI Holding Ltd, while a judicial review is carried out on the order requiring it to dispose of its 80.2 percent share of FTDI, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in USB devices.

    FTDI Holding is listed at Companies House as a company registered in Britain, but is owned by five limited partnerships based in China linked to Jiayin Investment Ltd, a state-owned investment company.

  • The Cyber Show ☛ Death to efficiency

    Lack of efficiency, by any common sense, is not what's afoot here. Just as one might suspect a Ministry of Truth is dissembling rot, might a Department of Government Efficiency have an Orwellian shadow? What happens in the equations as size tends to zero, is efficiency shoots up. A non-existent government is maximally efficient of course. Since I'm broadly a believer in government, I'll paint "Down With Efficiency" on my banner. I'd rather have an inefficient government than none at all.

  • Macworld ☛ Apple's political turn is leading it down a sketchy road

    The thing is, he knows what he should write about, he just doesn’t want to.

    The Macalope doesn’t want to write about politics. These days, he doesn’t even want to think about politics. Have you seen politics? Ugh. Blech. It was never good on a good day. But now…

  • The Verge ☛ Reddit vs. Wall Street: the latest in the GameStop saga | The Verge

    If you want to read about how the group was able to manipulate the stocks of a massive company like GameStop — and the potential fallout — maybe start with our explainer?

    Otherwise, you can use this storystream to get caught up on the full story. We’ll be updating it with all the latest twists and turns.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ Two stories from a USAID career — Crooked Timber

    If you’ve been following the news at all, you probably know that Trump and Musk have decided to destroy USAID. There’s been a firehose of disinformation and lies. It’s pretty depressing.

    So here are a couple of true USAID stories — one political, one personal.

  • Crooked Timber ☛ On Elite Education and the Rise of Maga

    Here I presuppose three ideas: first, that wherever the Trump II presidency ends up, America’s constitutional and political regime will be quite different from (to simplify) the (cold war) post-Warren court era of the last half century and a bit.* Second the re-election of Trump exhibits a willingness to embrace the corruption in the Machiavellian sense that he represents. Importantly, corruption in this sense is not just about illegal and legal bribery, but also and even more about the bending of the rules such that when they function properly the public good is structurally undermined. The two are, of course, connected.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Android Police ☛ X is blocking certain Signal links across the platform

    Anyone looking to share their Signal contact link with others will have to scratch X off their list. Elon Musk's social network, formerly known as Twitter, is blocking the Signal.me tool that the encrypted messaging service uses for contact links.

  • TechCrunch ☛ X is blocking links to Signal, a secure messaging platform used by federal workers

    Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is blocking links to Signal.me, a URL shortener used by the private messaging app Signal that allows users to send out a link that’s used to contact them directly through the service. The blocks, which impact direct messages, public posts, and profile pages, were first spotted by the blog Disruptionist.

  • Disruptionist ☛ Elon Musk’s X blocks links to Signal, the encrypted messaging service

    X, formerly Twitter, is blocking users from posting a “Signal.me” link through DM, public post, or even in their profile page. When trying to post a Signal link, users receive a variety of different “message failed” prompts depending on what version of the X platform they use (i.e. X for web, X for iPhone, etc.)

  • Consequence ☛ Placebo's Brian Molko Charged with Defamation of Italian Prime Minister

    Placebo lead singer Brian Molko has been charged with defamation in Italy for comments he made in July 2023 about right-wing Italian Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni.

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Placebo frontman Brian Molko charged with calling Meloni ‘fascist’ and ‘racist’

    On Monday, Italy’s justice ministry allowed prosecutors in Turin to move forward with the legal proceedings. Defaming the Italian government, parliament, courts or army carries a fine of up to €5,000 (£4,146) and a direct summons to trial. Although public defamation in Italy can carry a prison term of up to three years, a spokesperson for justice minister Carlo Nordio has said Molko is unlikely to receive a custodial sentence.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • CPJ ☛ Bangladesh journalists face threats from attacks, investigations, and looming cyber laws

    “Democracy cannot flourish without robust journalism,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh’s interim government must deliver on its promise to protect journalists and their right to report freely. Authorities should amend proposed laws that could undermine press freedom and hold the perpetrators behind the attacks on the press to account.”

    CPJ’s calls and text messages to Nahid Islam, the information, communication, and technology adviser to the interim government, requesting comment on the ordinances did not receive a reply.

  • CPJ ☛ Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San indicted for ‘abusing democratic freedoms’

    “Vietnamese journalist Truong Huy San was exercising, not abusing, his democratic freedoms in his independent reporting on Vietnam’s Communist Party-dominated politics, and he should not be punished for doing so,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “These wrongheaded criminal charges should be scrapped and San should be freed unconditionally now.”

  • Andy Hawthorne ☛ Truth VS Opinion | Andy's Blog

    Journalists used to be hunters.

    Tracking down leads. Following the scent. Getting their hands dirty chasing stories.

    "The best obtainable version of the truth" - that's what Karl Bernstein called it.

    But something changed.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • Alabama Reflector ☛ Red states embrace Trump’s crackdown on remote government work

    The Nebraska Association of Public Employees, which represents more than 8,000 state employees, challenged Republican Gov. Jim Pillen’s November 2023 order requiring workers in offices full time. The group argues that Pillen cannot do so without labor contract negotiations.

    Justin Hubly, executive director of the union, said most of Nebraska’s state employees would continue working from physical offices, as they did before the pandemic. But he said many state jobs could be performed remotely.

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Checking in on the Party of the Working Class

    Even writing a piece debunking this idea means that you are entertaining the idea as within the realm of possibility. For this reason I would be happy to never write such a debunker again. The problem is that this meme, this valueless sheen of concern for “the working class,” has infiltrated The Discourse enough that it takes on a life of its own. It has wormed its way into the Overton window of Positions That Mainstream Pundits Are Allowed to Take, and from there it can spread into the populace. Thus we are still, today, subjected to Oren Cass and Third Way and Ruy Teixeira and other professional opinion-havers who, I hasten to add, have spent their careers not doing jack shit for the labor movement, declaiming on either How Republicans Can Cement Their Status as a Working Class Party or How Democrats Can Win Back the Working Class or other things that imply, by their very existence, that “Republicans as working class party” is a serious topic of discussion.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• US News And World Report ☛ Exclusive-EU Antitrust Chief Says Trump Has Upended Europe-US Relations

  Ribera has the power to approve or veto multi-billion euro mergers and also slap hefty fines on companies seeking to bolster their market power by throttling smaller rivals. She also oversees the EU's green agenda and is tasked with keeping it on track to meet the bloc's 2030 climate goals.

  Tensions are running high between Washington and Brussels after Trump's decision to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium from March 12; reciprocal tariffs from April; and separate tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips.

• CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: America and “national capitalism”

  But here's the kicker: after Bill Gates quit Microsoft, he became a professional investor. He stopped doing a job and started investing in companies where other people were working. Over the next 13 years, Bill Gates (investor) made more money than Bill Gates (Microsoft CEO) made in his 25 years of doing a job. He also made more than Liliane Bettencourt.

  That's what r > g means: that even the most successful worker in human history can't make as much as a person who merely has a lot of money, and the more money you have, the more money you make.

• Patents

  • Software Patents

    • Stephen Hackett ☛ Turns Out, You Can't Spell 'Humane AI Pin' Without HP

      For its $116 million, HP is getting “key AI capabilities from Humane, including their AI-powered platform Cosmos, highly skilled technical talent, and intellectual [sic] property [sic] with more than 300 patents and patent applications,” according to a press release.

    • Humane Inc ☛ HP Accelerates AI Software Investments to Transform the Future of Work | Humane

      HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) announced a definitive agreement to acquire key AI capabilities from Humane, including their AI-powered platform Cosmos, highly skilled technical talent, and intellectual [sic] property [sic] with more than 300 patents and patent applications. The acquisition advances HP’s transformation into a more experience-led company.

• Copyrights

  • Torrent Freak ☛ LaLiga Blocks Cloudflare Again, New Pirate IPTV Providers & Anything in The Way

    After admitting it deliberately blocked Cloudflare to prevent a pirate IPTV service reaching users in Spain, LaLiga warned it would continue for as long as necessary to prevent live sports piracy. With thousands of innocent website owners and internet users suffering as collateral damage, a new LaLiga announcement reveals that two additional pirate IPTV providers with 400,000 local users have also been blocked, again by blocking Cloudflare. Charts and graphs produced by internet users leave little to the imagination.