Tuesday, November 07
Daily News Stuff 7 November 2023
Cognitive Assonance Edition
Cognitive Assonance Edition
Top Story
- WeWork has gone bankrupt. (Bloomberg) (archive site)
This will save the labour of at least a dozen neurons that I had assigned to correcting all the other neurons that believed that WeWork went bankrupt a couple of years ago.
The company has $15 billion in assets and $19 billion in debt, which is not fatal except that it is also unprofitable and sees no path to profitability without major changes.
The company has filed for Chapter 11 proceedings in the US, which means it will attempt to reorganise to somehow become a functional company... Which it never has been.
Tech News
- Nitrogen-9 is apparently a thing. (Physics Magazine)
If 7 protons and only 2 neutrons sounds wildly unstable - atoms typically have as many or more neutrons as protons - then you are paying attention. It very quickly disintegrates into five independent protons and a helium atom.
In fact, nobody has actually observed Nitrogen-9; what they detected was something that had just disintegrated into five protons and a helium atom. But if you find a flaming pile of junk with four wheels and four doors and a Ford logo, it's not too much of a stretch to guess that it used to be a car.
- Speaking of flaming piles of junk, Washington DC is handing out free Apple AirTags to help track down stolen cars. (PC Magazine)
Which is the least stupid thing I've heard out of Washington in years.
- If you want a pretty decent Windows laptop, the HP Pavilion Plus 14 is available for $680 with a discount code via HP's store on eBay. (Liliputing)
This is similar to the model I'm using right now. Mine has an Intel 12700H, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD; the model on offer has a 13500H - newer, but fewer cores, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Both have a 2880x1800 OLED display, which is really nice, two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI, a microSD slot, and a headphone jack. And the four essential keys.
If it had upgradeable RAM, or even just a build-to-order option for 32GB, it would be pretty much perfect. But you'd need a professional desoldering station to even attempt such an upgrade.
- Bluesky Social has migrated to SQLite. (Hacker News)
SQLite is the most popular database in the world - there are an estimated one trillion copies of it in use, because it is so often embedded inside applications. But it's an unusual choice for a social network.
What Bluesky is doing is giving each user their own database - which means the company is running 1.8 million individual databases.
Which is Dante's 11th circle of Hell. (The 10th is inhabited by postmodernists.)
Disclaimer: The 12th circle is supposedly reserved for New York commercial real estate agents, but has been boarded up and vacant for centuries.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
06:38 PM
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1
Well, given that pretty much every car built since the early years of the 21st century has some form of satellite communication + GPS built-in, I don't really get the airtag thing, except lazy and unaware. Which, I guess is DC in a nutshell.
Posted by: normal at Tuesday, November 07 2023 10:55 PM (LADmw)
2
I don't think OnStar will track your car if it gets stolen and you're not currently paying the subscription fee.
Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, November 08 2023 02:55 AM (BMUHC)
3
You can't convince me onstar (etc.) aren't tracking as many vehicles as they technologically can (and selling that data to advertisers). Whether they'll let you see that information is another story. But that's what warrants are for.
Then again, it's probably a lot simpler (and faster) to put a $30 airtag in a car, than it would be to go through the legal system to access the information that's already there. I just hope there are no crooks in DC who would use this theft recovery system to steal cars.
Then again, it's probably a lot simpler (and faster) to put a $30 airtag in a car, than it would be to go through the legal system to access the information that's already there. I just hope there are no crooks in DC who would use this theft recovery system to steal cars.
Posted by: normal at Wednesday, November 08 2023 03:20 AM (LADmw)
4
That article on the AirTags in Washington doesn't make much mention of any change in actual police policies to do anything once you track your car down. There are tons of examples recently of someone knowing exactly where their stolen car is and the police won't do anything.
Posted by: Davd at Wednesday, November 08 2023 04:08 AM (R7Z4D)
Posted by: normal at Wednesday, November 08 2023 08:49 AM (obo9H)
6
"You can't convince me onstar (etc.) aren't tracking as many vehicles as they technologically can"
Ok, let me rephrase: I don't think OnStar will help you find your stolen car if you don't have a subscription.
Ok, let me rephrase: I don't think OnStar will help you find your stolen car if you don't have a subscription.
Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, November 09 2023 12:05 AM (BMUHC)
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