Despite several Apple execs hanging out in Melbourne lately, coverage of the Apple vs Epic court case currently taking place in the Federal Court has been virtually non-existent. None of the major news outlets bothered to pay someone to sit in court and take notes on the proceedings. The only news I've seen from the trial are two anecdotes in the AFR regarding Phil Schiller's cross-examination. Apparently nobody at Apple takes notes at meetings because Steve Jobs didn't like people taking notes, so that's why there's so little detail surrounding how Apple comes up with their App Store policies, and that Schiller has no idea if the App Store is profitable because it "is not a report I get and spend time on".
The UK is gonna make a law so that "if someone creates a sexually explicit deepfake, even if they have no intent to share it but purely want to cause alarm, humiliation or distress to the victim, they will be committing a criminal offence". That's right - simply creating a deepfake porno of someone that never leaves a computer will be criminalised. I think it's not controversial that non-consensual deepfake porn is awful and should be a criminal offence, but criminalising the creation is a different league. The Hacker News crowd isn't taking it well, comparing it to 1984's thoughtcrimes. Not sure the UK is at that level (yet) but it's certainly an interesting benchmark they've set. Does deepfake porn cause trouble if nobody ever sees it?
I don't watch Marques Brownlee very often, but I'm linking to his latest video today because he's been copping a bit of heat about "bad reviews" that are "killing companies", after his videos on the Fisker Ocean EV and the Humane AI Pin that were so brutally honest and his audience so large, a negative review really might be the death blow a new business. Get the fuck outta here. We aren't talking about scrappy little creators doing a cute hobby project in their garage. These are companies with billions of dollars of investment, large teams and years of work. If your product is so bad that a milquetoast reviewer like Marques says not to buy it, do better before inflicting it on society.
Solar Quotes checked out a very interesting device for EV owners that have cars with V2L support. The HOEM is essentially a smart device for your switchboard that lets you plug a car into a house via an ordinary socket. Most V2L setups max out at around 3.5kW so you need to be selective about which circuits you hook it up to and you can't charge the car while it's plugged in, but it's only ~$1000 (plus installation) and is easy for any electrician to install. Could be a convenient way to use the massive battery in an EV as a temporary home backup battery for those living in areas with frequent grid outages.
These specimens of optical fibre submarine cable are identical to the cable used in the "Tasman 2" communication link between Sydney and Auckland established in 1992. (Powerhouse Museum)
📻 The White Collar Holler - Stan Rogers
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