Web Feed Archive

• It's OK To Repair An iPhone, Say Norwegian Courts (via Motherboard)

  4/13/18, 4:39pm EDT

  In an effort to prevent third-parties from servicing their products, Apple has made a habit of threatening independent electronics repair shops with legal action for fixing iPhones and other Apple products. The owner of a small repair shop in Norway decided to fight back -- and won.

• Zuckerberg Does Not Know Tom (via The Verge)

  4/10/18, 7:19pm EDT

  Remember Tom from Myspace? Mark Zuckerberg doesn't. When senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Zuck who Facebook's biggest competitor is, the CEO floundered. According to The Verge: "Zuckerberg tried to give a longer answer about how the 'average American uses eight different apps' to connect with their friends, attempting to frame Facebook as just one of many apps." Top 8 indeed.

• New Finding: Blockchain Dumb and Bad (via Medium)

  4/9/18, 6:22pm EDT

  Some people believe that blockchain is very good and important. But there are others, shadowy dissidents, who hold the heterodox belief that blockchain is actually Not Good. One such rebel is Kai Stinchcombe:

  So in summary, here’s what blockchain-the-technology is: “Let’s create a very long sequence of small files — each one containing a hash of the previous file, some new data, and the answer to a difficult math problem — and divide up some money every hour among anyone willing to certify and store those files for us on their computers.”

  Now, here’s what blockchain-the-metaphor is: “What if everyone keeps their records in a tamper-proof repository not owned by anyone?”