Welcome to the first issue of Tech Tuesdays!
Here’s what I found interesting this week:
AnandTech tested the hot new Mac Mini with the new M1 chipset
Apple’s new SoC (System on a Chip), the M1, is their latest offering. It outperforms all desktop Intel CPUs in single-core benchmarks, and only loses to expensive, high-powered multi-core chips.
Patrick Moorhead of Forbes isn’t as enthusiastic about the new M1
He points out compatibility problems with the Rosetta2 translation mechanism, which is not huge, and these will get fixed ASAP for major apps. When using Rosetta2 (as most devs will), your battery life will go down from the advertised 20 hours to a bit over 5 hours. And these are the numbers for the new MacBook Pro.
For a new user, I recommend a ThinkPad and Ubuntu LTS. Or Fedora.
The Internet Archive is now preserving Flash games and animations
Internet archive is a fantastic service. I wish it could get more funding.
Apple is halving App Store fees to 15% for devs making less than $1 mil annually
A typical antitrust process maneuver, this time from Apple. Still, great for new IOS developers and small businesses.
To do politics or not do politics? Tech startups are divided
Everyone is so focused on making money that they're missing the foundations of that money-making collapsing underneath them. When society no longer operates on a sane basis, and people are impoverished, there is no market anymore.
“Don't worry about being a woman. Yes, it may be a little harder for you as a female founder. But it's not going to be so much harder that it will make the difference between success and failure. Startups are already so hard that the additional difficulty imposed by being a woman is rounding error in comparison.“
A $50 fine equivalent to them.
Youtube decided they will now show ads on all videos even for creators who are not partners
YouTube will now show ads on all videos, even if their creators don’t opt-in. Creators won’t be getting a dime. Glad we still have adblock.
Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anyone else. Can Amazon Pharmacy change that?
Jeff Bezos started selling heavily discounted prescription drugs online. I don’t think giving a single company power over drug distribution is a good move. Why not we just, you know, fix the system instead?
Comcast Prepares to Screw Over Millions With Data Caps in 2021
Imagine having data caps in the 21st century…
OpenStreetMap is having a moment; The billion dollar dataset next door
Still not many people are aware of how awesome OSM really is.
‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies
Censored Planet is an automated censorship tracking system launched in 2018. It collected more than 21 billion vectors over 20 months in 221 countries. It found that censorship is increasing in 103 of the countries studied, including Japan, Italy, India, Israel, and Poland. While the U.S. saw a smaller uptick in censorship, the groundwork for such activity is rising.
“Once available in 2021, the App Tracking Transparency feature will be accessible by opening the Settings app, then looking for the Privacy menu, and looking for the Tracking section.“
Microsoft 365 has employee surveillance and analytics built-in
But, I thought Microsoft in 2020 is not the same Microsoft as 20 years ago?
Upcoming Git changes the default of init.defaultBranch to main
The workaround is trivial, and I love that we’re finally doing some changes.
Starting January 4, Google will block all sign-ins to Google accounts from embedded browsers
It’s very unfortunate that google holds such a monopoly on the web that it has the power to kill minority browsers like this.
That’s a really impressive trailer video. I totally want to throw out all other CSS and dive in.
Google is ending the “top stories carousel” benefit to AMP next spring
Feels like Core Web Vitals are a replacement for the AMP protocol and that’s great for the industry. Many webmasters weren’t keen on building sites using AMP and some users were reporting problems with browsing AMP sites.
A collection of 120+ incredible resources to learn sales
Great resource for marketers. No affiliate links and no crap!
Find out how to get 14k Twitter followers overnight with one Tweet
It’s not going to work again.
Oxford University breakthrough on a promising COVID-19 vaccin
Preliminary analysis shows a 90% efficacy rate when using two doses of the vaccine and 62% when using one. The vaccine can be easily administered in existing healthcare systems, stored at ‘consumer fridge temperature’ (2-8 °C) and distributed using existing logistics.
“As per the flexible approach in the current COVID-19 pandemic authors recommend mass administration of vitamin D supplements to the population at risk for COVID-19.”
"But is it really a diamond without that fundamental ingredient of African suffering?" -DeBeers, probably
Human ageing process biologically reversed in world first
Clickbait as usual. It's "a" first, and it's biologically reversing an aging process, but it's not the first time anyone has biologically reversed an aging process. Still, great news!
Revolutionary CRISPR-based genome editing system treatment destroys cancer cells
“This is not chemotherapy. There are no side effects, and a cancer cell treated in this way will never become active again.”
This is just a lose/lose situation to me. How about giving an education reform and more accessible schools?
Pseudoscience moving into the mainstream
James Randi RIP.
Why Republican voters say there’s ‘no way in hell’ Trump lost
“If I’m being manipulated by Trump... then he is the greatest con man that ever lived in America,” Caleb Fryar said. “I think he’s the greatest patriot that ever lived.”
Prenatal testing can let parents know if their child will be born with certain conditions like Down Syndrome. This fuels the debate over selective abortion for disabilities. For those with money, the options for screening before birth are increasing.
“The fate of our own society, he says, is not going to be pretty, at least in the near term. “It’s too late,” he told me as we passed Mirror Lake, which UConn’s website describes as a favorite place for students to “read, relax, or ride on the wooden swing.” The problems are deep and structural—not the type that the tedious process of democratic change can fix in time to forestall mayhem
Thanks for reading!
If you got any comments or just want to brainstorm, email me at jacob@unhype.com.