The last several weeks have been abuzz in science technology. Science and fantasy buffs have been going wild over Twitter posts featuring an invisibility cloak invented by Chinese scientists. These posts have been mostly propagandistic in nature with an underlying criticism of the US being left behind. I’ve been critical of our focused efforts of...
In another lifetime, Intel was the world’s chip leader. Then came the rise of 3D graphics cards, followed by cellphones, and then came AI. Intel watched as its chip dominance frittered away as Qualcomm and ARM began supplying chips for phones that were as powerful as desktop computers. The rise of AI repurposed graphics cards...
We’ve reported how streaming companies have consistently ruined their services and Amazon is the latest company to ruin what was once a good thing. Earlier this month, Amazon began charging Prime customers an extra $3 to avoid commercials that weren’t previously shown. In a further dig to its customers, Amazon removed Dolby Vision and Atmos...
I don’t know what’s worse, the behavior of Air Canada’s Chatbot, or Air Canada’s hubris. It all started with Jake Moffatt wanting to book a flight from Vancouver to Toronto for his grandmother’s funeral. Jake didn’t know how Air Canada’s bereavement rates worked, so he did what every company is forcing its customers to do,...
Tesla Cybertrucks have only been on the road for a few months. In addition to the idiot nerds engaging the truck’s autopilot feature while wearing an Apple Vision Pro headset, drivers are reporting the trucks have started rusting. Can Withstand Bullets, but Not Rust The Tesla Cybertruck was billed as the truck of the future...
Once upon a time, the Internet was a great place for discovering new stuff. The Weird Wild Web of the 90s had multiple directories (Yahoo), cringe fringey communities (Geocities), and places to solve problems (UBB). Thirty-five years after the World Wide Web was born (whoa!) finding new things has gotten damn near impossible. It’s tempting...
AI brings lots of possibilities, but we humans are messy and are content to use a technology that can help us cure cancer, solve poverty, and environmental catastrophes to create porn, uncreative art, and deliver misinformation. Deepfakes are AI rendered audio and video recordings of people doing or saying things that are false. Deepfakes have...
In his other life, El Jefe wrote a magnificent data science article about Valentine’s Day data statistics. I refuse to link to it because nerds are delivering him more click through rates than me. According to him, 52% of Americans will be celebrating Valentine’s Day and will spend $192 to celebrate, or makeup, their love....
The TikToks can’t catch a break. Not long ago, the company was being accused of being a data exfiltration scam by the US government. Last week, its CEO was being grilled for perpetuating deviancy against teenagers and girls. This week, TikTok finds itself at war with the world’s largest music label. Death by Exposure Since...
Yesterday, El Goog released subscriber numbers for YouTube TV, its for-pay cable subscription service. While cable providers have been losing subscribers, YouTube TV has been growing its subscriber base. The service has 8 million subscribers paying $73 per month. This number pales in comparison to Charter Communications’ 32 million. It’s also a paltry number compared...