Guess what happens to the world’s chip production capability when Russia attacks the EU? ”ASML is the only maker of a key technology - extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography - needed to manufacture the most advanced chips… Koch's own calculations suggested it would only become cost effective to switch over from the older technology around 2030-2031…. "This means ASML is likely to have excess High-NA capacity between their factory ramp in 2027-28 and full adoption in leading-edge logic a few years later," he added.”

MSN

”It's going to take years for Europe to build up the arms and ammunition production capacity needed to both aid Ukraine and reequip national forces, Belgium's former deputy chief of defense said. “It’s not a joke, we’re in deep shit," The industrial fabric in Europe isn’t strong enough to support Ukraine."

Europe’s arms production is in ‘deep shit,’ says Belgian ex-general – POLITICO

"Do you think that if Russia establishes a puppet regime in Ukraine, like the one they have in Belarus, and Russian troops are on the Polish border, will we get out of trouble, or will we have bigger problems?" Borrell asked. https://kyivindependent.com/borrell-we-need-to-explain-to-europeans-what-it-means-to-have-russian-army-at-the-door/

”Other platforms only make RSS feeds available for listeners, whereas YouTube takes episodes from an RSS feed and turns them into YouTube videos. This benefits audio-first podcasters since YouTube automatically takes an uploaded RSS feed and creates videos with the podcast’s show art as a static image”

TechCrunch

Podcasters can now upload their RSS feed to YouTube | TechCrunch

Podcast creators can now submit their RSS feed to YouTube and YouTube Music, the company revealed in a video uploaded to its Creator Insider channe...

”Gemini Advanced is clearly a GPT-4 class model. The statistics show this, but so does a month of our informal testing. And this is a big deal … …it is roughly equivalent, though it has its own strengths and weaknesses. GPT-4 is much more sophisticated about using code and accomplishes a number of hard verbal tasks better - it writes a better sestina and passes the Apple Test. Gemini is better at explanations and does great job integrating images and search”

Google's Gemini Advanced: Tasting Notes and Implications

And then there were two.

”Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have been demoted from standalone apps that use the whole screen to shortcuts that open within the default browser… This appears to solely affect users in the European Union, though your mileage may vary. …the breakage of PWAs is deliberate. The Register understands Apple's change will cause users to lose local data in existing web apps, because web apps and Safari have different storage locations, and it will also break notifications, because there's no way to enable notifications without app installation.”

Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta and hasn

PWAs demoted to OWB: Operating Within Browser

”A Russian disinformation campaign is deploying everything from high-ranking lawmakers and government officials to lifestyle influencers, bloggers, and powerful state-run media outlets to stoke divisions in the United States around the Texas border crisis.”

WIRED

Russia Is Boosting Calls for ‘Civil War’ Over Texas Border Crisis

An all-encompassing Russian disinformation campaign is using everything from bots to lifestyle influencers to powerful state-run media to sow divis...

Meta shares how the Threads feed algo works.

Instagram Threads Feed

”Bluesky has gained almost 800,000 new users (or, “newskies“). Now, the platform is slated to break 4 million total signups later today, whereas it hit 3 million only last week.”

TechCrunch

Bluesky gets nearly 800K new users in its first day open to the public, despite outages | TechCrunch

Bluesky opened to the public yesterday after launching in an invite-only beta last year. Getting on Bluesky might not be as exciting as it was when...

You can cross-post to Mastodon, Bluesky and Nostr simultaneously. If you add https://connect.nos.social/ to the mix it can auto-post your Nostr posts to X. View quoted note →

”They have prioritized graphics fidelity and responsiveness, and taken the hit on battery life, weight, and heat. Given how important the experience is to Apple’s AR experience, this is probably the right choice for a first generation device.”

iFixit

Vision Pro Teardown—Why Those Fake Eyes Look So Weird

Welcome to the Vision Pro, Apple’s most complex piece of hardware yet. So complicated that we’ll need more than one teardown to tackle it. Firs...

”The platform has about 3 million sign-ups. Now that anyone can join, the young platform faces a challenge: how can it meaningfully stand up to Threads’ 130 million monthly active users, or even Mastodon’s 1.8 million?”

TechCrunch

Bluesky is now open for anyone to join | TechCrunch

Bluesky looks and functions like Twitter at the outset, but the platform stands out because of what lies under the hood.

Automated algos make no exceptions to founders

Wherever you get your Nostr “being able to say, "wherever you get your podcasts" is a radical statement. Because what it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that's supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that's not owned by any one company, that can't be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience.”

“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement. - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

The age of innocence is over. View quoted note →

”Throughout 2023, some 5.2 million barrels of refined petroleum products that had been produced from Russian crude oil were imported to the UK. Most of the fuel imported - 4.6 million barrels - was jet fuel, which the group's researchers suggested was used in one in 20 UK flights… the so-called loophole indirectly provided the Kremlin with more than £100m in tax revenues.”

Russian oil getting into UK via refinery loophole, reports claim

Russian oil is refined in other countries and sold into the UK as jet fuel and diesel, research claims.

The US builds and, the EU regulates ”The Gemini app…will be available in Japanese, Korean, and English globally except for the UK, Switzerland, European Economic Area countries, and associated territories.” https://gemini.google.com/

“Rather than painstakingly crafting a fake ID by hand—a highly skilled criminal profession that can take years to master—or waiting for a purchased one to arrive in the mail with the risk of interception, OnlyFake lets essentially anyone generate fake IDs in minutes that may seem real enough to bypass various online verification systems. Or at least fool some people.”

404 Media

Inside the Underground Site Where ‘Neural Networks’ Churn Out Fake IDs

The site, called OnlyFake, threatens to streamline everything from bank fraud to money laundering, and has implications for cybersecurity writ large.

“Google will no longer be keeping a backup of the entire Internet. Google Search's "cached" links have long been an alternative way to load a website that was down or had changed, but now the company is killing them off.”

Ars Technica

Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead

Google Search will no longer make site backups while crawling the web.

”Yang’s blog was critical of Beijing and promoted ’practising law, fairness and justice, social justice, freedom, and democracy’”

The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Hostage diplomacy’: Yang Hengjun death sentence rocks relationship with China

China’s ambassador was summoned to Penny Wong’s office for a dressing down that lasted 20 minutes.