A nuclear error? Don’t worry, the US Department of Transport has road signs for the post-nuclear world. CC-licensed photo by The Official CTBTO Photostream on Flickr.
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A selection of 10 links for you. Radiating. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. Observations and links welcome.
Sonos’ chief product officer is leaving the company • The Verge
Chris Welch:
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A day after Sonos announced a CEO transition, the company is making more moves. Chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin will also be leaving his position. Some employees have told me that Bouvat-Merlin shares a significant amount of blame for the brand damage that Sonos has endured over the last year after deciding to release an overhauled mobile app well before it was ready for customers. There have been reports that top executives at the company ignored warnings from engineers and app testers that the new software wasn’t up to par ahead of its May rollout. Those alarms didn’t stop it from shipping.
In an email to staff, interim CEO Tom Conrad — who himself has plenty of product experience [including at Apple] — said the CPO position is now “redundant” and that Bouvat-Merlin’s job is being eliminated. “I know this is a lot of change to absorb in two days and I want to thank you for being resilient,” Conrad wrote.
“Max’s tenure represents an iconic era for Sonos products, including the award-winning Sonos One, Beam, Move, Ace, Arc, and Arc Ultra, establishing Sonos as the world leader in home theater audio and setting the foundation for our next chapter,” Conrad’s email reads.
Bouvat-Merlin will serve as an adviser to Conrad before fully exiting the company.
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I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting where Conrad told Bouvat-Merlin that the CPO job was redundant. Though I also think it was probably very short, and that Conrad did pretty much all the talking. Also Bouvat-Merlin’s “adviser” role will consist of being asked “what would you do?” and them then doing the opposite.
Bouvat-Merlin and departed CEO Patrick Spence have to take the blame for ignoring all the people inside the company telling them not to release the updated app. When bad news can’t travel up a company, there will be calamities. (In passing, I wonder how well Tim Cook and those around him can hear any bad news from inside the company.)
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Apple will soon receive ‘made in America’ chips from TSMC’s Arizona fab • Tom’s Hardware
Jowi Morales:
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Apple is already testing the initial batch of processors produced for its devices by TSMC Arizona, reports Nikkei Asia. To begin with, the tests intend to compare the Arizona output to see if the quality is similar to chips produced in TSMC’s cutting-edge fabs in Taiwan. If the chip quality verification testing does not encounter any hiccups, the source says that the first batch of mass-produced chips from the Arizona fab is expected to arrive at iDevice makers as early as this quarter. If this is the case, Apple will likely be TSMC’s first American customer to use locally made chips. AMD and Nvidia will likely follow suit soon, as they’re also running wafer test production there.
The entry of locally produced chips in the American market is a big win for the United States’ push for silicon independence, especially as it massively relies on Taiwan for the majority of its most advanced chips. Taiwan is located in a high-risk location, with the belligerent CCP-controlled China having the island in its sights. The island is also prone to natural disasters, which can disrupt semiconductor production and result in supply crunch situations.
However, even if Apple gives the go signal to TSMC and the latter starts making chips in Arizona, the processors still need to be shipped back to Amkor in Taiwan for packaging until TSMC completes its facility in Peoria, Arizona. But whatever the case, this is a significant push in the right direction for the U.S., especially as the Arizona fab has been delayed for about a year due to various issues. Aside from TSMC and Amkor, other suppliers to these companies, like LCY Chemical, are also setting up in Arizona. That way, they could stay near their client and simplify logistics.
Despite importing about half of its employees from Taiwan, it seems that the common American is also slowly benefitting from TSMC’s presence in Arizona, especially as it’s reported that the company has started aggressive recruitment from American universities.
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“The common American”? An earlier report on this site says that the processors are 4nm versions of the A16 Bionic system-on-chip used in Apple’s iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus and the main processor of Apple’s S9 system-in-package for smartwatches, which has two 64-bit cores and a quad-core neural engine.
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If you ever see this speed sign, you’re probably going to die (and everyone else probably has) • The Autopian
Lewin Day:
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Back in the mid-20th century, America was tangling with the realities of nuclear war. Top generals contemplated targeting strategies, while engineers mused over whether there was anything to be done top stop a torrent of enemy missiles falling across the nation. These superweapons seemed to promise destruction on an overbearing scale, threatening the very existence of human civilization itself.
Against this bleak backdrop, government administrators turned to the concept of Civil Defense. The idea was to do whatever could be done to protect the citizens of the nation from the horrors of nuclear war and, crucially, its immediate aftermath. In turn, the Department of Transport worked up some rather depressing road signs to help people get where they needed to be in these bleak and trying times.
Flip open the 1961 edition of the MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, ie traffic signs and signals), and you’ll find an important section on Civil Defense. It featured a handful of designs for traffic management in a post-nuclear world. Perhaps most interesting was the “MAINTAIN TOP SAFE SPEED” sign, designated CD-4. Its purpose was highly unique:
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The “MAINTAIN TOP SAFE SPEED” sign may be used on highways where radiological contamination is such as to limit the permissable exposure time for occupants of vehicles passing through the area. Since any speed zoning would be impractical under such emergency conditions, no minimum speed limit can be prescribed by the sign in numerical terms. Where traffic is supervised by a traffic regulation post, official instructions will usually be given verbally, and the sign will serve as an occasional reminder of the urgent need for all reasonable speed.
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Yes! You’re driving through the Death Zone, perhaps trying to reach the fallout shelter, hoping they’ve kept it open for you and have room. And plenty of food.
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Meta to cut 5% of employees deemed unfit for Zuckerberg’s AI-fueled future • Ars Technica
Ashley Belanger:
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Anticipating that 2025 will be an “intense year” requiring rapid innovation, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly announced that Meta would be cutting 5% of its workforce—targeting “lowest performers.”
Bloomberg reviewed the internal memo explaining the cuts, which was posted to Meta’s internal Workplace forum Tuesday. In it, Zuckerberg confirmed that Meta was shifting its strategy to “move out low performers faster” so that Meta can hire new talent to fill those vacancies this year.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management,” Zuckerberg said. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
Cuts will likely impact more than 3,600 employees, as Meta’s most recent headcount in September totaled about 72,000 employees. It may not be as straightforward as letting go anyone with an unsatisfactory performance review, as Zuckerberg said that any employee not currently meeting expectations could be spared if Meta is “optimistic about their future performance,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Any employees affected will be notified by February 10 and receive “generous severance,” Zuckerberg’s memo promised.
This is the biggest round of cuts at Meta since 2023, when Meta laid off 10,000 employees during what Zuckerberg dubbed the “year of efficiency.” Those layoffs followed a prior round where 11,000 lost their jobs and Zuckerberg realized that “leaner is better.” He told employees in 2023 that a “surprising result” from reducing the workforce was “that many things have gone faster.”
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I wonder if any of these “lower performers” are in the metaverse division, which it’s hard to believe is thriving. Is anyone doing a timeline of how long it is since Zuckerberg said “metaverse”?
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Americans are tipping less than they have in years • WSJ via MSN
Heather Haddon:
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Tipping at U.S. sit-down restaurants in the past six years peaked at 19.9% in early 2021, when Americans were likely to express gratitude as Covid-19 lockdowns eased.
People have become increasingly grumpy about dining out. Many have recoiled at menu prices that have risen sharply in recent years, and are going out less and ordering less when they do. Some restaurants have added mandatory gratuities and service fees to bills, driving up bills and resulting in some diners tipping less.
“Instead of that second or third drink, people will go home,” said Andrea Hill, director of operations for HMC Hospitality Group, a Chicago operator of Hooters restaurants. “Our servers are making less per table.” A Hooters location in downtown Chicago sells a BBQ Bacon Cheddar burger for $12.49.
John Reilly, a doctor in Washington, D.C., considers himself a generous tipper. But he’s hitting his limit as menu prices rise. “Restaurants have not been doing well here in D.C., and price definitely has much do with it,” Reilly said.
About 38% of consumers reported tipping restaurant servers 20% or more in 2024, according to a survey last fall of 1,000 consumers by restaurant technology company Popmenu. That’s down from 56% of consumers in 2021, according to the company, which said budgets are weighing more on diners’ minds.
Americans went to restaurants less in 2024 than they did in 2023. Restaurant chains and operators last year declared the most bankruptcies in decades, with the exception of 2020, when Covid-19 shutdowns decimated the industry, according to an analysis of BankruptcyData.com records. High-profile bankruptcies in 2024 included casual-dining chains Red Lobster and TGI Fridays.
Restaurant workers didn’t fare much better. Waiters, bartenders, cooks and other restaurant workers averaged less time working per week last year than 2023, according to federal data.
Restaurant servers know customers are annoyed about how often they’re now asked for tips. Payment systems on digital tablets prompt them to add gratuities, even at businesses like airport concessions and gas stations.
“I can see tipping culture in the U.S. cracking,” said Jenni Emmons, a server at an upscale Chicago restaurant. “People are being pressured to tip for things they didn’t used to, and I feel my income is under threat because of this.”
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The American tipping culture is bonkers. Then again, this story seems to be perennial, and always in the same direction. Here’s a WSJ story saying much the same from November 2023, for example.
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Cost of Sizewell C nuclear project expected to reach close to £40bn • Financial Times
Jim Pickard, Rachel Millard and Gill Plimmer:
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The sum is double the £20bn estimate given by developer EDF and the UK government for the project in 2020, reflecting surging construction costs as well as the implications of delays and cost overruns at sister site Hinkley Point C.
The higher estimate is likely to raise questions over the government’s strategy for a nuclear power revival, at a time of stretched government finances and cost of living concerns.
EDF says that once up and running, Sizewell C should be able to supply low carbon electricity to the equivalent of about 6mn homes for 60 years.
The Treasury is due to decide whether to go ahead with the project in this year’s multiyear spending review, according to officials.
The UK government and French energy group EDF were the initial backers of Sizewell C but they are trying to raise billions of pounds from new investors, a process that is dragging on longer than planned.
Earlier this month the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) said it could not reveal the current cost estimate for the project as it was “commercially sensitive”.
But one senior government figure and two well-placed industry sources said that a reasonable assumption for the cost of building Sizewell C would be about £40bn in 2025 prices.
The government has already awarded £3.7bn of state funding to the project.
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Nobody is quite able to explain why the cost is so gigantic and keeps going up. Allegedly, “lessons are being learnt” from the construction of Hinkley Point. Could we not look back at how the old nuclear stations were constructed and just, well, do that again? Or were they all wildly late and over budget?
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Free Our Feeds
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Q: How is Free Our Feeds connected to the team at Bluesky?
Free Our Feeds is independent from Bluesky, but we have been in contact with the Bluesky team and they are supportive of the goals of the campaign. This is about developing a social media ecosystem on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, which is ultimately what Bluesky wants as well.Free Our Feeds want to make sure that the open social media infrastructure that Bluesky has built remains operated in the public interest. As Bluesky CEO Jay Graber said “billionaire-proofing” relies on people outside of Bluesky adopting the protocol and making it their own. Bluesky’s great work to date and good intentions are clear, however social infrastructure run in the public interest cannot be governed by a private social media company in the long term.
Q: What will the money be used for?
It will take $30m over three years for us to realize our three step plan to free our feeds from billionaire control:• Establish a public-interest foundation to support Bluesky’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol, to become independent and globally standardized.
• Build independent infrastructure, such as a second “relay,” guaranteeing Bluesky users and developers have uninterrupted access to data streams, regardless of corporate decisions.
• Fund developers to create a vibrant ecosystem of social applications built on open protocols, fostering healthier and more equitable online spaces.
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Unless something remarkable happens, this will be a wonderful project that will achieve what it intends to do, and its uptake will be limited to nerds who have heard of it and are deeply in agreement with its aims, while normal people will never have heard of it and won’t use it, and even when they do hear of it won’t see the point.
If you think this is cynical, stop a random person in the street today and ask them if they’ve heard of the social media platform Mammoth. They won’t have (it doesn’t exist). Ask them if they’ve heard of Mastodon. Same answer.
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EU reassesses tech probes into Apple, Google and Meta • Financial Times
Javier Espinoza and Henry Foy:
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Brussels is reassessing its investigations of tech groups including Apple, Meta and Google, just as the US companies urge president-elect Donald Trump to intervene against what they characterise as overzealous EU enforcement.
The review, which could lead to the European Commission scaling back or changing the remit of the probes, will cover all cases launched since March last year under the EU’s digital markets regulations, according to two officials briefed on the move.
It comes as the Brussels body begins a new five-year term amid mounting pressure over its handling of the landmark cases and as Trump prepares to return to the White House next week.
“It’s going to be a whole new ballgame with these tech oligarchs so close to Trump and using that to pressurise us,” said a senior EU diplomat briefed on the review. “So much is up in the air right now.”
All decisions and potential fines will be paused while the review is completed, but technical work on the cases will continue, the officials said.
While some of the investigations under review are at an early stage, others are more advanced. Charges in a probe into Google’s alleged favouring of its app store had been expected last year.
Two other EU officials said Brussels regulators were now waiting for political direction to take final decisions on the Google, Apple and Meta cases.
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Oh, you thought these things were entirely driven by objective legal standards? Watch and learn.
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Scammer uses deepfakes to dupe woman into thinking she is dating Brad Pitt, gets divorced and sends £697,000 for ‘cancer treatment’ • Daily Mail
James Reynolds:
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A scammer duped a French woman into paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds after convincing her they were Brad Pitt with reels of AI-generated images.
The 53-year-old victim shelled out 830,000 euros (£697,000) to help with what she believed was cancer treatment for the film star.
The interior designer told French channel TF1 that the ordeal started when she received a message on social media from someone claiming to be the actor’s mother after sharing photos of her lavish ski trip to Tignes on Instagram.
A day later, she received a second message from an account posing as Brad Pitt, saying his mother had spoken a lot about her already.
The victim, who said she was going through a difficult period with her millionaire husband, said she struck up an unlikely friendship with the account from February 2023, receiving poems and kind affirmations.
‘There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done,’ she said, as reported by BFMTV.
She revealed she did have her suspicions and thought the account was fake at first, but after messaging every day and receiving AI generated photos and videos of the star, she became more at ease.
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Good old internet, bringing people together. Unfortunately, it’s the most scheming and the most credulous. Now with the added ingredient of deepfakes.
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Stop trying to schedule a call with me • Mat Duggan
Mathew Duggan:
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One of the biggest hurdles for me when trying out a new service or product is the inevitable harassment that follows. It always starts innocuously:
“Hey, I saw you were checking out our service. Let me know if you have any questions!”
Fine, whatever. You have documentation, so I’m not going to email you, but I understand that we’re all just doing our jobs.
Then, it escalates.
“Hi, I’m your customer success fun-gineer! Just checking in to make sure you’re having the best possible experience with your trial!”
Chances are, I signed up to see if your tool can do one specific thing. If it doesn’t, I’ve already mentally moved on and forgotten about it. So, when you email me, I’m either actively evaluating whether to buy your product, or I have no idea why you’re reaching out.
And now, I’m stuck on your mailing list forever. I get notifications about all your new releases and launches, which forces me to make a choice every time:
• “Obviously, I don’t care about this anymore.”
• “But what if they’ve finally added the feature I wanted?”Since your mailing list is apparently the only place on Earth to find out if Platform A has added Feature X (because putting release notes somewhere accessible is apparently too hard), I have to weigh unsubscribing every time I see one of your marketing emails.
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But it gets worse! As some people are familiar with, including Duggan.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
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The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 