Five Things Tech: Social Apps, Weapon Controller, Robodogs, Internet Archive, Teenage Hacker

Saturday is meant for Tech. Just read this.

Oct 05, 2024

Here we go again!

I know that you are all worried about the latest Windows update and you’re also reading up about the latest features that the latest iOS will provide, but this is something I will continue to neglect here in this newsletter. Instead, you can read about the way Apple changed social apps, about soldiers using a controller that looks a bit like an XBOX controller on steroids, then you can learn about robodogs used in actual warfare and not just in dystopian movies. The Internet Archive has been around since the dawn of internet time and this could change now, and you should find out why. Then, finally, we learn about a teenage hacker who really has had an interesting life so far, but the companies he’s hacked will probably have a different viewpoint on this.

Anyhow, have a great Saturday and make sure to share this email with everyone you know, just like you would sync your address book in your social apps!

Enjoy!

Did Apple Just Kill Social Apps?

So Apple finally implemented some privacy options that allows users to only select a few people for an address book sync in an app. App developers cry foul, but as somebody who has a few thousand contacts, I welcome this change. I don’t think Apple killed social apps, it made them better.

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How This Video Game Controller Became the US Military’s Weapon of Choice

While I did excessive training with first-person shooter games when I was younger, I never thought that this kind of controller would become the norm for soldiers who engage in combat. The newly found distance between the soldiers and the battlefield is changing war, but not just for the better.

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US Army testing roll out of gun-mounted robot dogs in Middle East

This is exactly the kind of technology I do not very want to see in the hands of the baf guys. I assume it will only be a few years until this will be used not just in remote battlefields, but also in urban settings, which will be terrifying.

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Inside the $621 Million Legal Battle for the ‘Soul of the Internet’

“To many, the Internet Archive is its own kind of sanctuary — a vestige of a bygone internet built on openness and access, a Silicon Valley standout interested not in series funding or shareholder value, but the preservation of any piece of the cultural record it can get. But to the corporations and people that own the copyrights to large swaths of that record, the Internet Archive is like a pirate ship stuffed with digital plunder. Two lawsuits have brought these long-simmering tensions to the courts and public consciousness, with financial repercussions in the hundreds of millions that could bring down the internet’s greatest library.” - I’m a big fan of the internet archive and every once in a while I go down the memorylane and look at old websites I built ages ago. I’d love to see this wonderful institution stay online.

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