Links 24/01/2024: Bankruptcies Aplenty and Twitter (X) Promoting Scams for Profit
Contents
- Leftovers
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Leftovers
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Techdirt ☛ Our FutureCast Tool Awarded ‘Ingenuity’ Award By Association Of Professional Futurists
Last year, I wrote here about FutureCast, a very adaptable “game” framework that was designed as a foresight tool, to help explore pathways to change. It was developed by myself and our partner in all things game related, Randy Lubin of Leveraged Play.
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Hackaday ☛ Switching Regulators For Dummies
We often use linear regulators in our designs. They are cheap and simple – you put the regulator chip itself on the board, add two capacitors, and get a voltage. Linear regulators are imperfect, of course – they can’t help but waste the voltage difference as heat, for a start, which straight up excludes them for high-current purposes, or significant voltage difference conversions, unless you have a hefty heatsink handy. They also can’t boost voltage, which means you can only go from high to low – a bit of a disappointment.
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Hardware
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RFA ☛ S Korea, UK renegotiate trade deal for enhanced chips cooperation
The move is expected to aid Washington’s new supply chain initiatives that require less of China.
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Hackaday ☛ Inside A Fake LM358
[IMSAI Guy] got some fake LM358 op-amps. Uncharacteristically, these chips actually performed well even though they didn’t act like LM358s. [IMSAI Guy] did a video about the fake chips and someone who saw it offered to analyze the part compared to a real LM358 to see what was going on. You can see it too in the video below.
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Hackaday ☛ Read QR Codes Without A Computer
Did you ever watch Star Wars and wondered how people understood what R2D2 was saying? Maybe [Luke Skywalker] would enjoy learning to decode QR Codes by hand, too. While it might not be very practical, it would be a good party trick — assuming, like us, you party with nerds.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ The era of Nintendo Switch Flash Carts has arrived, potentially opening a new door for piracy
The first Nintendo Switch flash cart from MIG-Switch has arrived, but brings with it concerns for legitimate gamers buying used Switch titles in the future.
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CNX Software ☛ SAPPHIRE EDGE IPC-FP6 mini-ITX motherboard supports 10GbE networking
SAPPHIRE EDGE IPC-FP6 is a mini-ITX motherboard powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 SoC with support for 10GbE networking and designed for gaming machines, medical imaging equipment, digital signage, thin clients, or POS terminals.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Hackaday ☛ X-Ray CT Scanners From EBay, Brought Back To Life
If you have ever wondered what goes into repairing and refurbishing an X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) scanner, then don’t miss [Ahron Wayne]’s comprehensive project page on doing exactly that. He has two small GE Explore Locus SP machines, and it’s a fantastic look into just what goes into these machines.
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YLE ☛ Health institute weighs in on winter swimming claims
Cold-water swimming has gained popularity in Finland in recent years, with aficionados saying that it helps with many ailments. Yle sought expert evaluation of these claims from the Institute of Occupational Health.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Techdirt ☛ ‘AI’ Exposes Google News Quality Control Issues, Making Our Clickbait, Plagiarism, And Propaganda Problem Worse
Journalists have long used Google News to track news cycles. But for years users have documented a steady decline in product quality parallel to similar complaints about the quality of Google’s broader search technology. Many stories and outlets are often no longer indexed, low quality clickbait and garbage are everywhere, and customization seems broken as Google shifted its priorities elsewhere.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Security Week ☛ France Fines Yahoo 10 Mn Euros Over Cookie Abuses
France's data protection watchdog fines Yahoo 10 million euros for not respecting users' refusals of internet-tracking "cookies"...
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Defence/Aggression
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RFA ☛ Vietnam denounces China’s occupation of islands in 1974
50 years after the naval clash that killed 75 South Vietnamese soldiers, Hanoi condemned Beijing’s use of force.
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Defence Web ☛ Burkina Faso operating Chinese self-propelled guns and mortars
Burkina Faso’s military has acquired Norinco WMA301 fire support vehicles fitted with 105 mm guns from China, as well as Norinco 81 mm CS/SM1 self-propelled mortars. President Ibrahim Traore took delivery of the vehicles at a 12 January handover ceremony.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Lai’s victory isn’t the full story. Here are five deeper takeaways from Taiwan’s election.
The January 13 election in Taiwan revealed which political parties hold the strongest hands, what’s next for the legislature, and how China might respond.
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The Strategist ☛ New appointments in China’s PLA highlight the direction of Xi’s military reform
Last December, the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) appointed Dong Jun, former commander of the People’s Liberation Army navy (PLAN), as China’s new defence minister more than two months [...]
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Latvia ☛ Further questions about visit of Latvian MPs to China
Latvian Television's De Facto investigative broadcast on January 21 posed further questions concerning the lengthy visit of a delegation of Latvian politicians and businesspeople to China.
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New York Times ☛ Appeals Court Revives Mexico’s Lawsuit Against Gunmakers
The decision, which is likely to be appealed, is one of the most significant setbacks for the gun industry since passage of a federal law that provided immunity from some lawsuits.
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France24 ☛ India: After Ram temple inauguration, Hindu nationalist groups eye other mosque sites
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a temple to the Hindu deity Ram in a ceremony in the northern town of Ayodhya. The temple is controversial as it was built on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries, before it was torn down in 1992 by Hindu zealots incited by members of Modi's party, the BJP. The mosque's destruction triggered the worst religious riots since India's independence, killing 2,000 people, most of them Muslims. Today, after winning a court battle over the Ram temple, Hindu nationalist groups are now filing lawsuits against other historic mosques and Muslim sites elsewhere in India. Our correspondents report.
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The Straits Times ☛ New Zealand to send defence team to support Red Sea security
New Zealand will deploy a six-member defence team to the Middle East as part of an international coalition to uphold maritime security in the Red Sea, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Tuesday.
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France24 ☛ Blinken starts West Africa tour to boost democracies, counter Sahel security threat
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday opens a week-long tour of Africa's west coast as he seeks to bolster US-friendly democracies with security deteriorating in the Sahel.
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The Strategist ☛ Australia and China have very different notions of stability
Last week’s Chinese embassy press conference was a further effort to corral Australia into compliance and compromise with Beijing’s views.
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Latvia ☛ Twenty spies detained in Latvia over eight years
Over the past eight years, the State Security Service (VDD) has publicly announced the detention of twenty persons for espionage or other activities threatening national security. It cannot be excluded that the number of detainees was higher because not all cases are reported to the public, Latvian Television reported on January 23.
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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Hackaday ☛ Kites Fill Electricity Generation Gaps
Looking at a wind turbine from first principles, it’s essentially a set of wings that generate lift in much the same way an airplane wing does. Putting the wings on a rotor and calling them “blades” is not a huge step away from that. But there’s no reason the wing has to rotate, or for that matter be attached to a fixed platform, in order to generate electricity. Anything that generates lift can be used, and this company is demonstrating that with their kite-powered wind generators.
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YLE ☛ Prosecution: NBI traced crypto funds to suspected therapy centre blackmailer's account
Aleksanteri Kivimäki is suspected of hacking a patient record database belonging to the psychotherapy centre Vastaamo, aiming to blackmail tens of thousands of victims.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Crypto company Terraform Labs files for bankruptcy amid SEC litigation
Cryptocurrency company Terraform Labs Pte Ltd., which is facing fraud charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. TechCrunch reported the move today, citing court documents submitted on Sunday. Terraform’s Chapter 11 paperwork specifies that the value of its assets and liabilities ranges from $100 million to $500 million.
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Finance
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YLE ☛ Bankruptcies led to 15,000 job losses last year
Many builders whose employers went bankrupt have since started their own small firms.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Silicon Angle ☛ Report: Alphabet’s X lab letting go dozens of employees as part of restructuring
Alphabet Inc.’s X research lab, which incubated Waymo and the Wing delivery drone venture, is reportedly letting go of dozens of employees. Bloomberg reported the job cuts today, citing people familiar with the matter and an internal memo.
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Techdirt ☛ The Sky Is Rising 2024 Edition: Rather Than Destroying Culture, The Internet Has Saved The Content Industries
Over the years with support from CCIA, we released additional editions of the Sky is Rising report via our think tank The Copia Institute, but our last one was five years ago in 2019, before the COVID pandemic. Last year we set out to revisit not just the data, but the structure of the whole report. The process took almost the entire year, but we’re excited to release our latest edition of The Sky is Rising.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Silicon Angle ☛ New Hampshire Democrats received AI-generated robocall from Joe Biden telling them not to vote
Concerns over the weaponization of generative artificial intelligence are again at the fore after Democrats in New Hampshire over the weekend received faked robocalls from President Joe Biden telling them not to bother voting in Tuesday’s primary election, according to the state attorney general’s office.
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Techdirt ☛ ExTwitter Accused Of Secretly Boosting Mr. Beast Video With Undisclosed Ad Placements
It’s kind of pathetic how desperate Elon Musk is to convince people that ExTwitter is a good platform for posting their video content. I assume it’s a perfectly okay place to post videos, but it’s hardly where most people go to watch videos, and Elon may discover sooner or later just how difficult it is to change the overall perception.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ How the gov’t thwarted HKFP’s effort to ‘tell a good Hong Kong story,’ despite repeated calls from top officials
In 2013, newly-inaugurated leader Pooh-tin Jinping called on China’s external propaganda organs to “tell China’s story well,” as Beijing sought to better control the narrative globally. Over a decade on, top Hong Kong officials – including John Lee, Algernon Yau, Paul Chan and Frank Chan – have repeatedly urged the public and press to tell “good Hong Kong stories.”
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Meduza ☛ Navalny sent to punitive isolation cell for 25th time since imprisonment — Meduza
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YLE ☛ What's still taboo in Finland?
Taboos, or customs governing social relations, say a lot about what a society believes, according to a cultural researcher.
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Off Guardian ☛ Digital Kill Switches: How Tyrannical Governments Stifle Political Dissent
What’s to stop the U.S. government from throwing the kill switch and shutting down phone and internet communications [...]?
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong Bar Association calls for ‘transparent’ legislation of city’s own national security law
Legislation of Hong Kong’s own national security law must be “transparent and thorough” to refute claims that the government does not listen to the public, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Bar Association has said.
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Cloudbooklet ☛ Facebook Marketplace Gone? Here’s the Reason Behind its Removal
Learn about Facebook (Farcebook) Marketplace Gone issue, which restricts users to access facebook marketpalce.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Techdirt ☛ Oklahoma Senator Thinks Journalists Need Licenses, Should Be Trained By PragerU
“They’re not sending their best.”
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Techdirt ☛ Trump Has To Pay $392k For His NY Times SLAPP Suit
I mean, there was no way not to see this coming. Last year we wrote about how Trump had lost his vexatious lawsuit against the NY Times regarding its interactions with his niece, Mary Trump. Mary had leaked some tax documents to the NY Times, and Trump sued the Times, arguing (laughably) that this constituted tortious interference.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Techdirt ☛ Data From 4.6 Million Stops Show California Law Enforcement Routinely Engages In Biased Policing
Lots of tech is being thrown at cops with the intent of helping them work smarter. While this might sound like the early waves of a sea change, the end result — at least so far — is just more of the same stuff we’ve seen for decades.
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YLE ☛ Prosecutor General rejects calls to overturn Anneli Auer's sex abuse convictions
Auer's children have since said that the abuse never happened.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong national security law expected to be under scrutiny during UN review of China’s rights record
A civil liberties crackdown, repression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong’s draconian national security law are among concerns expected to be raised during a UN review of China’s rights record on Tuesday.
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Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ Emory U. Is Returning 3 Allegedly Looted Antiquities to Greece
The Michael C. Carlos Museum is repatriating two statues and a coffin following a Chronicle investigation that raised questions about the acquisitions.
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Reason ☛ Brickbat: Don't Touch
Police in Ontario have dropped charges against a reporter arrested while trying to ask Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland a question, saying "no credible security threat existed." Video showed Freeland was walking down a public sidewalk when David Menzies approached her with a microphone and began walking alongside her [...]
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Digital Music News ☛ Quick Catch-Up—What’s the Beef Between Spotify and Apple?
Spotify and Fashion Company Apple have been going at each other legally for more than four years now—what is happening and why? What’s the ‘Apple Tax’? Why does Spotify have complaints about Apple’s business practices? Here’s a quick catch-up on the last four years of legal trouble.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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I dont feel comfort
This world is like spikes with nowhere to sit or rest. I wish I was somewhere else where my body isn't confined to how people perceive me, I would prefer if my body was a void instead or doll limbs stuck to my torso like I am Frankenstein's monster.
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"A community can only ever be as good as its worst member."
"A community can only ever be as good as its worst member."
I've seen a quote of this kind applied to companies, but not as I've said it above.
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Taps
Oh wow, I share a birthday with RMS....
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Technology and Free Software
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The Rising Era of the Multi-Clone
I'm defining a new word to describe a trending type of game I've been seeing in video game development. It's called a **multi-clone**. A multi-clone is a game where its gameplay is primarily cloned from multiple sources. These often become one big mega-sized mashup.
Let's recall what a clone is in the context of video games. A clone is a game that imitates another game, trying to replicate its style of gameplay. There might be some differences, but they're usually pretty close to what their inspiration is. For example, Five Nights at Candy's is a clone of Five Nights at Freddy's. It copies the gameplay and style completely, but with legally distinct characters. It may add some minor new elements or have some other differences, but at it's core it copies the original to provide the same gameplay experience.
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Internet/Gemini
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Guide to mostly harmless hacking
The first thing I encountered when I started browsing the Gopherspace was a scarce number of 'Guide to mostly harmless hacking' files. They were, and still are, a joy to read so I decided to host them in Geminispace as well.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.