Links 08/04/2024: Eclipse and Microsoft Trying to Hide "AI" Losses
Contents
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Leftovers
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Off Guardian ☛ Night for Day or Day for Night in the Heart of Darkness
“I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air” [...]
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Science
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New York Times ☛ Can’t Find Eclipse Glasses? Here’s What to Do.
You can watch a projection of the eclipse using some common household items.
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Science Alert ☛ Desperate Nations May Unilaterally Begin Hacking The Global Climate
A giant threat emerges.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Fixing An Expensive Smart Toaster Is Worth The Time
There was a time when the simplest and cheapest kitchen appliance you could think of was a toaster. Some nichrome wire, a spring, and a mechanical thermostat were all you needed. Those days are gone and today’s toasters are full of special features, network connections, and fancy cases.
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Hackaday ☛ The Easy Way To Make A Smart Appliance
It seems that finding an appliance without some WiFi connectivity and an app to load your laundry data into the cloud is an increasingly difficult thing to do in the 2020s. Many of us resolutely refuse to connect these smart appliances to the Internet, but not because we don’t see the appeal — we just want to do it on our own terms.
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Hackaday ☛ Squishy Miter Saw Shroud Spares You The Sneezy Bits
Let’s be honest. When it comes to operating miter saws, these tools kick dust out the back like a spray paint can. Most of us have accepted this quirk as-is, but not [Inspire Woodcraft] who’s on a mission to achieve near perfect dust collection. And he nearly has it. With a budget dust collection setup, he’s able to eliminate over 90% of the dust from his cuts, and others who’ve adopted his setup can vouch for his results.
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Hackaday ☛ Comparing Desoldering Tools
[Lee] has a Hakko FR301 desoldering gun and a Duratool knockoff. He freely admits that the Hakko is probably better, but he wonders if it’s good enough to justify being four times as expensive. He shows both of them off in a recent video that you can see below.
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Hackaday ☛ Emergency DIP Pin Repair For Anyone
Who has not at some point in their lives experienced the horror of a pin on a DIP package breaking off? It’s generally game over, but what if you don’t have another chip handy to substitute? It’s time to carefully grind away some of the epoxy and solder on a new pin, as [Zafer Yildiz] has done in the video below the break.
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Hackaday ☛ A Spark Gap Transmitter, Characterized
When we think of a spark gap radio transmitter, most of us immediately imagine an early twentieth century ship’s radio room or similar. Most of us know these transmitters as the first radio systems, and from there we’ll probably also know that they were phased out when better circuits arrived, because of their wide bandwidth. So it’s rare in 2024 to find anyone characterizing a spark gap transmitter, as [Baltic Lab] has.
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Nature/Nutrition/Agriculture
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YLE ☛ Scientists design avian app for bird lovers
A Finnish university has developed a new tool for birdwatchers in Finland.
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Science Alert ☛ Large Cities And Cancer Share An Unexpected Similarity
A fascinating symmetry.
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Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's Is More Common in Women, And This May Help Explain Why
There could be more to the story.
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Science Alert ☛ Injecting Sulfur Into The Atmosphere Could Pose Dangerous Risks
Should we really gamble with the only life-friendly planet we know?
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New York Times ☛ In Battle Over Health Care Costs, Private Equity Plays Both Sides
As medical practices owned by private equity firms fuel overbilling, a payment tool also backed by such investors helps insurers boost their profits.
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Reason ☛ New NBER Study Finds Covid Eviction Moratoria Increased Racial Discrimination
Moratoria caused landlords to be less willing to rent to black tenants.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Games ☛ Xbox forms new game preservation and platforms teams, moves AI division under hardware [Ed: Hiding the losses under another reporting division]
The emerging tech team was previously led by corporate vice president Kareem Choudhry, who now departs from Microsoft after 26 years. He was previously CVP for cloud gaming and oversaw Xbox's entry into the games streaming space.
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How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs?
According to one unofficial tracker created by video game artist Farhan Noor, there have been 8000 layoffs in 2024 so far, following an estimated 10,500 layoffs in 2023. The leaders of Microsoft, Embracer Group, Epic and other industry giants have made swingeing cuts to their workforces. While larger companies have inevitably seen the largest reductions, many smaller developers and publishers have also cut staff or even closed their doors. Circumstances vary by company, of course, but as regards the biggest publishers, there are some broad overlapping causes: reckless or, if you prefer, "overambitious" expansion and overhiring during the pandemic lockdown gaming boom; lower-than-hoped returns on new technologies and business models such as NFTs; and rising global interest rates, which have scared away potential investors.
The carnage was uppermost in Larian CEO's Swen Vincke's mind when he accepted Baldur's Gate 3's Best Narrative gong at the GDC Awards last month. According to Vincke, the layoffs can be traced straightforwardly to a pattern of executive greed that sees company leadership betting the livelihoods and stability of their workers on whatever new idea seems capable of delivering instant growth for shareholders.
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Baldur's Gate 3 dev calls industry layoffs an "avoidable f*ck up"
After Baldur's Gate 3 won the Game of the Year award during the Game Developer's Choice Awards last month, the company's head of publishing Michael Douse spoke with Game File about the current state of the industry. During the interview, Douse noted that game developers now have to "act very quickly and react very quickly" to changing industry trends, likening larger companies to oil tankers, which are often unable to change course as things change swiftly.
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Tech Times ☛ Larian Studios Director Says Mass Layoffs Are 'Avoidable' to Happen
In a recent interview with Game File, Michael Douse, the publishing director of Baldur's Gate 3, talked about the pressing issue of industry-wide layoffs that have plagued game developers over the past couple of years.
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Konica Minolta Layoffs 2024: Japan-Based Multinational Technology Company To Cut 2,400 Jobs As Part of Structural Reform and To Increase Employee Productivity, Say Reports [Ed: "Increase Employee Productivity" means increasing work by the remaining ones, including burnout-causing overwork/overtime]
Konica Minolta, a Japan-based multinational technology company, reportedly announced that it would lay off 2,400 employees due to structural reform. The Konica Minolta layoffs were aimed at increasing employee productivity, and other measures included greater reliance on AI, according to a report.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Microsoft's Copilot image tool generates ugly Jewish stereotypes, anti-Semitic tropes
With Copilot, even neutral prompts such as "Jewish boss" output offensive images.
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Security
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Integrity/Availability/Authenticity
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NYPost ☛ NJ thief used Facebook (Farcebook) Marketplace to lure victims with Playstation 5s — and hit one with his car: cops
Yassine G. Rahi, 18, of Bayonne, was arrested after allegedly hitting one of his robbery victims with his car, then fleeing, cops said.
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Defence/Aggression
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NYPost ☛ Chef José Andrés skeptical about IDF account of strike that killed 7 World Central Kitchen workers
World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés on Sunday questioned Israel's claims last week that its military targeted the charity's workers after mistakenly assuming Hamas terrorists were inside, telling ABC News that the conflict has become "a war against humanity itself."
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NYPost ☛ Biden bashes Israel over airstrike deaths: Letters to the Editor — April 8, 2024
NY Post readers discuss President Biden's criticism of Israel after an airstrike killed seven aid workers in Gaza.
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New York Times ☛ Israel Withdraws a Division of Troops From Southern Gaza
Israeli news media reported that the departure of the 98th Division meant there were no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in the southern Strip.
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JURIST ☛ 40 US representatives call on Biden to halt offensive arms transfers to Israel
40 Democratic members of the US House of Representatives signed a letter to President Joe Biden Friday urging him to cease arms transfers to Israel in the wake of an Israeli airstrike that killed seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.
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New York Times ☛ Middle East Crisis: Six Months Into Gaza War, No End in Sight
Israel’s war with Hamas appears to have reached an impasse, at a time when the Israeli government is under mounting pressure to strike a deal for the release of hostages held in the enclave.
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YLE ☛ Orpo says border threat "evident" as Finland prepares deportation law
A law is in the works to prevent those attempting to cross the eastern border from seeking asylum.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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RFERL ☛ Yulia Navalnaya To Receive German Democracy Prize
The late Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny and his wife will receive the Freedom Prize of the Media from a leading German forum this year, with Yulia Navalnaya set to accept the award in person.
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Environment
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Wildlife/Nature
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YLE ☛ Latvian bog likely source of Sunday's stench in Helsinki
People in the capital are once again reporting unpleasant smells.
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Finance
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TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Other voices: No, voters aren’t imagining it. Inflation has been a bear
Everyday Americans are still suffering from the price spike that hit during the early days of Biden's administration.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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New York Times ☛ The High-I.Q. Nonsense of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
His inflated sense of his fitness to lead isn’t just delusional. It’s dangerous.
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New York Times ☛ South Korea’s Election Is About ‘Gladiator Politics’
This week’s parliamentary elections are widely seen as a referendum on both President Yoon Suk Yeol and his archrival, Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US Treasury chief Janet Yellen and Chinese Premier Li Qiang express hope for Beijing-Washington cooperation
By Beiyi Seow US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Premier Li Qiang sounded a hopeful tone on US-China cooperation on Sunday, though the American policymaker noted both sides cannot shy away from tough conversations.
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France24 ☛ China says it conducted military drills in South China Sea on same day as US and allies
China conducted military "combat patrols" Sunday in the disputed South China Sea, its army said, the same day as joint drills by the Philippines, the United States, Japan and Australia.
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France24 ☛ Mexican diplomatic staff leaves Ecuador after embassy raid, FM says
Mexico's diplomatic personnel were leaving Ecuador on Sunday, its foreign minister said, as the two countries severed ties after Quito's security forces stormed the Mexican embassy in a raid that prompted searing international rebukes.
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Atlantic Council ☛ Ursula von der Leyen set Europe’s ‘de-risking’ in motion. What’s the status one year later?
The European Commission president presented a new economic vision for the European Union’s relationship with China in March 2023.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Netflix adaptation of ‘3 Body Problem’ leaves Chinese sci-fi fans divided
By Luna Lin Netflix’s blockbuster “3 Body Problem”, an adaptation of the crown jewel of Chinese sci-fi, has sparked passionate debate and divided opinions among fans in the country despite it not being available to watch there.
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JURIST ☛ Brazil Supreme Court orders X to block certain undisclosed popular accounts
The Brazilian Supreme Court ordered X Corp. (formerly Twitter) to remove certain users from its platform, the social control media company announced on Saturday.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong struggles to win back long-haul tourists amid fewer flights and travel warnings
Along Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on a March weekend, tourists armed with selfie sticks jostled for space as they took photos with the city’s famed skyline as a backdrop.
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New York Times ☛ Homecoming
A single photo captures a moment of setback for families who had tried for a better life.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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APNIC ☛ Forgotten protocol chronicles: Do not underestimate the installed base
Guest Post: The stubborn persistence of legacy technologies.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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