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Wes Davis

Wes Davis

Former Weekend Editor

Former Weekend Editor

    More From Wes Davis

    Joe Biden’s birthday gift to himself is a Threads accountJoe Biden’s birthday gift to himself is a Threads account
    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    Congress subpoenaed Linda Yaccarino and other social media CEOs after they refused to cooperate.

    The Washington Post reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee dispatched subpoena-armed US Marshals to CEOs Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter) and Jason Citron of Discord for December 6th testimony about online child sexual exploitation. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also subpoenaed but without the use of Marshals.

    Lawmakers expect Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew to testify voluntarily as Congress continues to try to child-proof the internet with regulation.

    In rare show of force, senators enlist U.S. marshals to subpoena tech CEOs

    [The Washington Post]

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    X, formerly Twitter, turns to political ads to shore up its ads business.

    Company CEO Linda Yaccarino has tasked her son, Matt Madrazo, with getting the ads. Semafor’s sources say he’s been quietly probing Republican political ad firms ahead of the 2024 elections, while former Pandora veteran Jonathan Phelps tries for Democrat spenders.

    The play comes as money from Apple, Disney, and others dries up.

    Twitter bets big on ... CEO's son

    [www.semafor.com]

    SpaceX’s new Starlink satellite internet terminal has a kickstandSpaceX’s new Starlink satellite internet terminal has a kickstand
    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    macOS has a bunch of US keyboard shortcuts Apple never documented.

    There are riches at the bottom of this TidBits story — a list of shortcuts that use the Fn key instead of command, option, or control. Some are easier than Apple’s listed alternatives (like using Fn-F versus the hand-contorting Control-Command-F to enter fullscreen.)

    This delights me, a person who rages when using any interface that doesn’t support tabbing between text input fields.

    The Hidden Secrets of the Fn Key - TidBITS

    [TidBITS]

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    About that new venture.

    Former (and future?) OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been pitching custom, Nvidia-rivaling AI Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, according to a report in The New York Times. He’s reportedly also sought funding from Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s founder, for his rumored Jony Ive AI hardware collaboration.

    Today, Bloomberg reported that the TPU project is code-named “Tigris,” and that “a number of prominent venture firms,” including Microsoft, are ready to or interested in backing Altman’s future projects.

    Altman Sought Billions For AI Chip Venture Before OpenAI Ouster

    [Bloomberg]

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    The origin of the ‘Nokia tune.’

    Sure, you can find out from the Nokia Wikipedia page that the famous ringtone comes from Spanish classical guitarist Francisco Tárrega’s 1902 composition “Gran Vais.” But this TikTok from Alexandra Whittingham was a much nicer way for me to learn that fact.

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    ‘It would be too difficult to disclose the charges more clearly.’

    That’s how The Washington Post paraphrased Doug Mullen, a lawyer for commercial airline lobby Airlines for America, when he testified against government regulation of junk fees.

    The Post catches up on President Biden’s initiative to regulate hidden fees so consumers can actually understand what they’re being charged.

    Industry groups aren’t enthusiastic. In a critical comment on an FTC proposal to require hotels and other businesses to disclose extra charges, one lobbying group quoted in the piece channeled The Verge in asking, “what, exactly, is a ‘fee’?”

    From airlines to ticket sellers, companies fight U.S. to keep junk fees

    [The Washington Post]

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    Where we are with the Sam Altman saga.

    It has been a whirlwind couple of days. If you’re catching up, here’s a summary of the ongoing crisis at OpenAI:

    • The company published a blog post Friday afternoon announcing that it had fired Altman as CEO and that board chair Greg Brockman was stepping down. The board said Altman hadn’t been candidly communicating with them.

    • CTO Mira Murati was named interim CEO.

    • Brockman later said “I quit.”

    • Altman and Brockman posted a joint statement saying they were “shocked and saddened” by the board’s actions.

    • Three high-level researchers reportedly quit in protest: Jakob Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and Szymon Sidor.

    • Sources said that Ilya Sutskever, Open AI’s chief scientist, was instrumental in Altman’s firing.

    • Yesterday, sources told The Verge that OpenAI was trying to get Altman back as CEO.

    • Altman has conditions, including that the board members who fired him quit. The board has been waffling and negotiations pushed past a key 5PM PT deadline on Saturday.

    • The Verge heard there would be mass resignations if no deal was reached by 5PM PT. A deal didn’t happen, and the talks are continuing today.

    • OpenAI is “optimistic” it can get Altman back. A memo to staff last night said an update is expected this morning.

    Turmoil at OpenAI: what’s next for the creator of ChatGPT?

    Wes Davis
    Wes Davis
    Every motor in its right place.

    Software engineer Thomas Barlow has been making TikToks showing off a small musical quartet of step motors that he made possible with an Arduino, MIDI sequences, a little coding, and some other gear. He made a video showing how (and he published code and a tutorial on GitHub).

    Anyway, who knew step motors are perfect for Radiohead?

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