Poised for Data Dominance [7]
Posted on Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Show Notes
Show Notes
Poised for Data Dominance
Episode: 7 Published: 05/03/2022
Look I don’t know how much of this AI-enhanced microwave called Magnetron story is true, and how much is theatre. And frankly, I don’t give a damn. Go feed your eyeballs and top up your mirth meter.
Stories
Google AMP sucks, and a LOT of people are trying to ditch it
NED: Good god man, I thought you told me no one reads the show notes. Why did you put so many links?
CHRIS: Because Bratwurst.
NED: Bratwurst? What the? How does..? OH. I GET IT. LINKS.
CHRIS: Any more stupid questions?
NED: [SIGH] No.
CHRIS: Then get back to scrubbing.
Links:
- 2015 was the prime time to do it, as average phone data speeds around that time were abysmal
- A 16-state lawsuit claiming antitrust violations by google
- A number of web content producers including Vox and BuzzFeed are thinking of ditching AMP completely
- Brave put out a blog post that said AMP is “harmful to privacy”
- In 2020 Brave threw a complaint into the EU’s court
- Google getting sued for stacking the deck in favor of it’s own Google Shopping product
- DuckDuckGo browser apps will convert any AMP links to the original publisher’s webpage before being displayed
- Also it’s worth noting that DDG has a privacy plugin
- Google is working on a new user tracking system called FLoC
- FLoC is so hip, it even has a github page
- There is significant concern around FLoC, as the EFF helpfully points out
- The famous example of Target knowing the state of a pregnancy based only on purchase patterns alone
- Mozilla evaluated FLoC when it was announced, and determined it was wanting
- Web sites have rejected access to applications based on the browser being used
- There is a humorous history of the user-agent string
Lightning Round
- Speaking of terrible browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer is still a thing, until June 15
- Atlassian Provides Exhaustive Summary of Incident
- VMWare clarifies the ESXi boot-from-SD card situation for the millionth time
- Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fella
- Pixel watch prototype ‘found’ by review site. It seems .. fine?
- Istio to join the CNCF (finally!)
The Elon Addendum
Elon continues to be a very silly man who has no idea what he’s talking about, but cannot seem to stop talking. Perhaps if he did, he’d actually have to think about what his words mean. And therein lies madness. Tech Crunch continues on their streak of calling out Elon’s bullshit.
Intro and outro music by James Bellavance
Hosts
Chris Hayner (He/Him)
Our story starts with a young Chris growing up in the agrarian community of Central New Jersey. Son of an eccentric sheep herder, Chris’ early life was that of toil and misery. When he wasn’t pressing cheese for his father’s failing upscale Fromage emporium, he languished on a meager diet of Dinty Moore and boiled socks. His teenage years introduced new wrinkles in an already beleaguered existence with the arrival of an Atari 2600. While at first it seemed a blessed distraction from milking ornery sheep, Chris fell victim to an obsession with achieving the perfect Pitfall game. Hours spent in the grips of Indiana Jones-esque adventure warped poor Chris’ mind and brought him to the maw of madness. It was at that moment he met our hero, Ned Bellavance, who shepherded him along a path of freedom out of his feverish, vine-filled hellscape. To this day Chris is haunted by visions of alligator jaws snapping shut, but with the help of Ned, he freed himself from the confines of Atari obsession to become a somewhat productive member of society. You can find Chris at coin operated laundromats, lecturing ironing boards for being itinerant. And as the cohost on the Chaos Lever podcast.
Ned Bellavance (He/Him)
Ned is an industry veteran with piercing blue eyes, an indomitable spirit, and the thick hair of someone half his age. He is the founder and sole employee of the ludicrously successful Ned in the Cloud LLC, which has rocked the tech world with its meteoric rise in power and prestige. You can find Ned and his company at the most lavish and exclusive tech events, or at least in theory you could, since you wouldn’t actually be allowed into such hallowed circles. When Ned isn’t sailing on his 500 ft. yacht with Sir Richard Branson or volunteering at a local youth steeplechase charity, you can find him doing charity work of another kind, cohosting the Chaos Lever podcast with Chris Hayner. Really, he’s doing Chris a huge favor by even showing up. You should feel grateful Chris. Oaths of fealty, acts of contrition, and tokens of appreciation may be sent via carrier pigeon to his palatial estate on the Isle of Man.