In the US, government webpages referencing the Enola Gay bomber were wiped – then restored. Guess why? CC-licensed photo by chris favero on Flickr.
You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.
A selection of 10 links for you. Flying high. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome.
Meta settles UK ‘right to object to ad-tracking’ lawsuit by agreeing not to track plaintiff • TechCrunch
Natasha Lomas:
»
A human rights campaigner, Tanya O’Carroll, has succeeded in forcing social media giant Meta not to use her data for targeted advertising. The agreement is contained in a settlement to an individual challenge she lodged against Meta’s tracking and profiling back in 2022.
O’Carroll had argued that a legal right to object to the use of personal data for direct marketing that’s contained in U.K. (and E.U.) data protection law, along with an unqualified right that personal data shall no longer be processed for such a purpose if the user objects, meant Meta must respect her objection and stop tracking and profiling her to serve its microtargeted ads.
Meta
refutedrebutted [tch – Overspill Ed.] this — claiming its “personalized ads” are not direct marketing. The case had been due to be heard in the English High Court on Monday, but the settlement ends the legal action.For O’Carroll it’s an individual win: Meta must stop using her data for ad targeting when she uses its services. She also thinks the settlement sets a precedent that should allow others to confidently exercise the same right to object to direct marketing in order to force the tech giant to respect their privacy.
Speaking to TechCrunch about the outcome, O’Carroll explained she essentially had little choice to agree to the settlement once Meta agreed to what her legal action had been asking for (i.e. not to process her data for targeted ads). Had she proceeded and the litigation failed, she could have faced substantial costs, she told us.
«
O’Carroll is actually a very experienced lawyer, and her case was handled by a company which does a lot of similar cases. Whether this sets a useful precedent is a different question, though. The BBC’s writeup suggests.. only if you go through the Information Commissioner’s office.
unique link to this extract
A big drop in programmers may be the first sign of job loss to AI • The Washington Post
Andrew Van Dam:
»
More than a quarter of all computer programming jobs have vanished in the past two years, the worst downturn that industry has ever seen. Things are sufficiently abysmal that computer programming ranks among 10 hardest-hit occupations of 420-plus jobs for which we have data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Learning to code was supposed to save millions of would-have-been liberal arts majors. But today there are fewer programmers in the United States than at any point since 1980. That’s a 45-year period in which America’s total workforce has grown by about 75%! It’s so long ago that millennials hadn’t been invented, the oldest Gen Xers were barely in high school, and even many boomers were too young for their first real coding jobs.
…Upon perusing the fine print, we saw that while programmers do in fact program, they “work from specifications drawn up by software and web developers or other individuals.” That seems like a clue.
In the real world, “developer” and “programmer” can seem almost interchangeable. But in the world of government statistics, where we have legal permanent residency, there’s a clear distinction.
In the government’s schema, programmers do the grunt work while the much more numerous — and much faster-growing — software developers enjoy a broader remit. They figure out what clients need, design solutions and work with folks such as programmers and hardware engineers to implement them.
Their pay reflects this gap in responsibilities. The median programmer earned $99,700 in 2023, compared with $132,270 for the median developer. And while 27.5% of programming jobs vanished, jobs for developers have only fallen 0.3%, similar to the broader industry.
So it’s not just industry-wide headwinds holding programming back. What could account for the difference between the coder collapse and everyone else?
«
Yes, it is: the most obvious and best explanation is AI taking over slog programming.
unique link to this extract
Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever • NPR
Emma Bowman:
»
As one of the few large-scale archivists to back up the web, the Internet Archive finds itself in a particularly unique position right now. After President Trump’s inauguration in January, some federal web pages vanished. While some pages were removed entirely, many came back online with changes that the new administration’s officials said were made to conform to Trump’s executive orders to remove “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies.” Thousands of datasets were wiped — mostly at agencies focused on science and the environment — in the days following Trump’s return to the White House.
Information about climate change, reproductive health, gender identity and sexual orientation also have been on the chopping block. For example, pages referencing the Enola Gay — the B-29 aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and is not particularly related to LGBTQ history — were among a leaked list of posts the Pentagon flagged for removal. Some deleted pages, including those related to the Enola Gay, have resurfaced as agencies figure out how to comply with Trump’s directives.
The Internet Archive is among the few efforts that exist to catch the stuff that falls through the digital cracks, while also making that information accessible to the public. Six weeks into the new administration, Wayback Machine director Graham said, the Internet Archive had cataloged some 73,000 web pages that had existed on U.S. government websites that were expunged after Trump’s inauguration.
Graham noted that, for example, the Internet Archive is currently the only place the public can find a copy of an interactive timeline detailing the events of Jan. 6. The timeline is a product of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack, and has since been taken down from their website. Graham said it’s in the public’s interest to save such records.
“How much money did our tax dollars pay to make it?” he said, referring to the timeline and committee proceedings. “It was a non-trivial exercise and it’s part of our history — and for that reason alone, worthy of preservation and worthy of exploration, of understanding.”
«
The Trump admin is, let’s say it again, utterly insane in its desire to expunge its own content from the web. Removing the Enola Gay? Can we guess, just take a guess, why?
unique link to this extract
What does a “Personal Net Zero” look like? • Terence Eden’s Blog
Terence Eden:
»
Five years ago today, we installed solar panels on our house in London. Solar panels are the ultimate in “boring technology”. They sit on the roof and generate electricity whenever the sun shines. That’s it.
This morning, I took a reading from our generation meter: 19MWh of electricity stolen from the sun and pumped into our home. That’s an average of 3,800 kWh every year. But what does that actually mean?
The UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes quarterly reports on energy prices. Its most recent report suggests that a typical domestic consumption is “3,600 kWh a year for electricity”. Ofgem, the energy regulator, has a more detailed consumption breakdown which broadly agrees with DESNZ.
On that basis, our solar panels are doing well! A typical home would generate slightly more than it uses.
…We imported 2,300 kWh over 2024. Quick maths! Our total electricity consumption was 4,500 kWh during the year. Very roughly, we imported 2,300 and exported 1,500. That means our “net” import was only 800kWh.
There’s a slight wrinkle with the calculations though. Our battery is aware that we’re on a a dynamic tariff; the price of electricity varies every 30 minutes. If there is surplus electricity (usually overnight) the prices drop and the battery fills up for later use. In 2024, our battery imported about 990 kWh of cheap electricity (it also exported a negligible amount). If our battery hadn’t been slurping up cheap energy, we would be slightly in surplus; exporting 190 kWh more than we consumed.
So, I’m happy to report that our panels take us most of the way to a personal net zero for domestic electricity consumption.
«
Solar panels and/or batteries (for the cheap rate) really are easy wins for reducing consumption. The payback is remarkably fast, especially as electricity prices (decided by gas!) keep going up.
unique link to this extract
GB Energy announces first major rooftop solar project • Energy Voice
Mathew Perry:
»
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said the investment in rooftop solar projects will help the schools and NHS trusts save “hundreds of millions on their energy bills”.
The funding includes £80m to support rooftop solar for around 200 schools in England, alongside a further £100m for nearly 200 NHS sites. Meanwhile, there will be £9.3m funding for devolved governments to use for renewable energy schemes on either public sector buildings or new community projects. This includes £4.85m for Scotland, £2.88m for Wales and £1.62m for Northern Ireland.
Elsewhere, community energy groups will be able to apply for a share of £5m in grant funding for local clean energy projects. There will also be £6.8m in funding included for existing local net zero hubs across England.
A DESNZ spokesperson told Energy Voice that GB Energy will commit £90m from its initial £8.3bn budget to fund the solar partnership. This includes £50m for NHS hospitals and £40m for schools, with the health and education departments providing match funding.
…Chancellor Rachel Reeves had allocated £100m for GB Energy over its first two years as part of the government’s first budget in October.
It comes amid reports that the Labour government is considering cutting the £8.3bn budget for GB Energy amid efforts to increase UK defence spending. However, the DESNZ spokesperson told Energy Voice the government “remains fully committed” to the GB Energy budget.
DESNZ said the NHS is the “single biggest public sector energy user” in the UK, with an estimated annual energy bill of £1.4bn.
…Currently, only about 20% of schools and under 10% of hospitals have solar panels installed, according to the government.
«
Putting solar panels on schools and hospitals is shooting at an open goal: schools in particular tend to need their electricity during the day. Hospitals maybe can get some batteries too to store their surplus energy (if any?).
unique link to this extract
Bicycle renderings based on people’s attempts to draw them from memory • Booooooom
»
In 2009 designer Gianluca Gimini started asking friends and strangers to draw a men’s bicycle from memory. While some got it right, most made technical errors — missing fundaments parts of the frame or chain.
The exercise is similar to psychological tests used to demonstrate how little we know compared to what we think we do. However, for Gimini this isn’t about proving how dumb we are but, rather, how extraordinary our imaginations can be! Having now amassed a collection of 376 drawings from participants ranging from 3 – 88 years of age, Gimini has started building realistic renderings of the bikes based on these sketches, in a 3D program.
«
Do you think you could sketch a bicycle from memory? It’s worth having a try and then comparing it to these efforts. A lot of them would collapse the first time somebody sat on them – which also raises the question of how many designs the prototype product needed.
unique link to this extract
The world will only get weirder • Steve Coast’s Musings
Steve Coast (the brains behind OpenStreetMap) back in 2015:
»
As we find more rules to fix more things we are encountering tail events. We fixed all the main reasons aircraft crash a long time ago. Sometimes a long, long time ago. So, we are left with the less and less probable events.
We invented the checklist. That alone probably fixed 80% of fatalities in aircraft. We’ve been hammering away at the remaining 20% for 50 years or so by creating more and more rules.
We’ve reached the end of the useful life of that strategy and have hit severely diminishing returns. As illustration, we created rules to make sure people can’t get in to cockpits to kill the pilots and fly the plane in to buildings. That looked like a good rule. But, it’s created the downside that pilots can now lock out their colleagues and fly it in to a mountain instead.
It used to be that rules really helped. Checklists on average were extremely helpful and have saved possibly millions of lives. But with aircraft we’ve reached the point where rules may backfire, like locking cockpit doors. We don’t know how many people have been saved without locking doors since we can’t go back in time and run the experiment again. But we do know we’ve lost 150 people with them.
And so we add more rules, like requiring two people in the cockpit from now on. Who knows what the mental capacity is of the flight attendant that’s now allowed in there with one pilot, or what their motives are. At some point, if we wait long enough, a flight attendant is going to take over an airplane having only to incapacitate one, not two, pilots. And so we’ll add more rules about the type of flight attendant allowed in the cockpit and on and on.
…On a personal level we should probably work in areas where there are few rules.
To paraphrase Peter Thiel, new technology is probably so fertile and productive simply because there are so few rules. It’s essentially illegal for you to build anything physical these days from a toothbrush (FDA regulates that) to a skyscraper, but there’s zero restriction on creating a website. Hence, that’s where all the value is today.
If we can measure economic value as a function of transactional volume (the velocity of money for example), which appears reasonable, then fewer rules will mean more volume, which means better economics for everyone.
«
A first look at how Apple’s C1 modem performs with early adopters • Ookla
Sue Marek, Mark Giles, Luke Kehoe and Kerry Baker:
»
Speedtest data shows the iPhone16e recorded faster median download speeds than the iPhone 16 on both AT&T and Verizon’s networks, but was markedly slower on T-Mobile’s network.
iPhone 16e users on T-Mobile’s network experienced median download speeds of 264.71 Mbps, which is at least 47% faster than iPhone 16e users on Verizon’s network that experienced median download speeds of 140.77 Mbps. The download speed performance for iPhone 16e users on AT&T’s network was 226.90 Mbps, closer to that of T-Mobile users.
However, when comparing median download speeds for T-Mobile users with the iPhone 16e (264.71 Mbps) to T-Mobile users with the iPhone 16 device (357.47 Mbps), the iPhone 16 outperformed the iPhone 16e by at least 24%.
The iPhone 16e’s underperformance in median download speed compared to the iPhone 16 on T-Mobile’s network is most likely due to the fact that T-Mobile is the only US carrier to have a nationwide commercialized 5G standalone network (SA) and one of the few operators globally to deploy significant spectrum depth and advanced features like carrier aggregation (CA) on the new 5G architecture.
«
Those are all very respectable speeds, though. The real takeaway seems more to be that the C1 performs just fine, which is going to be a relief for Apple now the product is out in the real world.
unique link to this extract
Yahoo is selling TechCrunch • The Verge
Emma Roth:
»
TechCrunch has a new owner, again. Yahoo has sold the tech news site to the private equity firm Regent for an undisclosed sum, according to an announcement on Friday.
Regent is the same company that snapped up Foundry, the firm behind outlets like PCWorld, Macworld, and TechAdvisor on Thursday. Founded in 2005, TechCrunch has experienced many shakeups in ownership after AOL acquired the site in 2010.
When Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 and Yahoo in 2017, the company folded TechCrunch, Engadget, Yahoo Sports, and other sites into a new division called Oath, which later became Verizon Media. In 2021, Verizon sold its media division to Apollo Global Management for $5bn, and it was renamed Yahoo!
“Yahoo decided to sell TechCrunch because, in the end, our DNA is simply different from the rest of its portfolio,” TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos writes in the announcement, noting that Yahoo will still have a “small interest” in TechCrunch.
«
In the “announcement” on Techcrunch’s site, editor-in-chief Connie Loizos says
»
“While the financial terms remain undisclosed, one thing is clear: Regent is acquiring an iconic brand. TechCrunch isn’t just a tech news site; it’s the most influential voice chronicling innovation in Silicon Valley and beyond.”
«
Is that true any more, though? Does it chronicle innovation, or just recycle press releases? It’s not the blog that changed the tech world back in 2005. Things have changed a lot in 20 years.
unique link to this extract
USDA announces funding for bird flu research • Iowa Capital Dispatch
Cami Koons:
»
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will fund research projects that explore the highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry, as well as novel vaccines and therapeutics to treat the bird flu, according to a Thursday announcement.
The $100m investment is part U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ $1bn plan to combat avian influenza and inflated egg prices.
Rollins, in a conference call with poultry and farm stakeholders, said the agency has made “significant progress” on its five-pronged approach to the bird flu issue, especially with a decrease in the wholesale price of eggs.
“While we’re noting today that prices are exponentially down, and we’re really, really encouraged by that, there is always a possibility those prices could tick back up,” Rollins said, noting the increased egg demand associated with the upcoming Easter holiday.
The USDA egg market report from March 14 shows a “sharp downward trajectory” of wholesale prices for loose eggs, with prices dropping from more than $8 per dozen in late February to $4.15 per dozen for white large shell eggs.
Rollins said the department confirmed agreements with South Korea and the west-Asian nation of Türkiye [aka “Turkey” – Overspill Ed.] to provide temporary increased egg imports to the country, which was also part of her plan.
…Rollins said she has been in communication with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other departments, about preventing the spread to humans and limiting impact on farmers. Kennedy recently suggested farmers allow the virus to spread in a flock, rather than culling it after a detection, to see which birds survive.
Rollins left the call before taking questions, but staff members declined to share if her conversations with Kennedy were about this approach.
«
So is that $100m on vaccine and $900m on buying eggs? It’s not clear, but wouldn’t be surprising. Some relief though that RFK Jr doesn’t hold sway over everything vaccine-related.
unique link to this extract
| • 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. |
Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified
The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 