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Aisha Malik – TechCrunch “President Biden has signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, fails to sell it within a year. The bill, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel, was passed by the U.S. Senate in a 79-18 vote late Tuesday after the House passed it with overwhelming majority over the weekend. The bill gives ByteDance nine months to divest TikTok, with a 90-day extension available to complete a deal. If ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok, it would become illegal for app stores to distribute the app in the U.S.”

M.G. Siegler – Spyglass.org “The Chilling of TikTok Of course it won't play out this way. First and foremost, there will be lawsuits. Second, a change of control in Washington may happen before a change of control of TikTok. Third, none of this may matter anyway. By passing this bill, Congress has draped the service in a scarlet letter. And damned it to be bogged down in bureaucracy for its remaining days. Regardless of the merits of this action – I happen to agree with the sale/ban, not because of the fear of data or overt propaganda, but the more subtle subversion where what is simply omitted from feeds sways the masses – I don't believe it will ultimately matter what happens in the end. TikTok's model is predicated around advertising and again, this mark and even just the uncertainty is going to make that a very big challenge going forward. The audience is massive and the demographic is key, but how is, say, McDonalds going to feel about advertising on a platform that the government has effectively deemed an enemy of the state? […] But again, this feels like the end of TikTok regardless. Unless a white knight comes riding in quickly – and it sure doesn't sound like China is going to allow that to happen – the die is cast. The sale or ban may ultimately be put on ice. The chilling effect will linger.”

I have expressed my opinion on the ban here Update: TikTok: It's 'a weapon of war' and here TikTok: It's 'a weapon of war'.

I feel bad for the folks who have built their livelihood on TikTok The hard lesson that TikTok creators may have to learn.

Our trusty old JVC TV, while not a smart one, is and has been a good TV. It was paired with an equally old Roku that had been giving us problems lately. Since the TV itself was still working fine, we decided to upgrade the streaming device. This led us to Roku or Apple TV 4K.

One deciding factor was the growing frustration with all the fucking ads on Roku. Then I came across this article Roku Eyes Patent That Would Inject Ads Into… Everything | Techdirt and that solidified our decision to move away from Roku.

Enter the Apple TV 4K. The speed is fantastic, and the ability to control the TV with my iPhone is a game-changer. No more frantic searching for the remote! We love our new Apple TV 4K!

This is an update to my post TikTok: It's 'a weapon of war' ➡️. According to Fortune “some ex-TikTok employees say the social media service worked closely with its China-based parent despite claims of independence.” […]

“Evan Turner, who worked at TikTok as a senior data scientist from April to September in 2022, said TikTok concealed the involvement of its Chinese owner during his employment. When hired, Turner initially reported to a ByteDance executive in Beijing. But later that year, after the company announced a major initiative to store TikTok’s U.S. user data only in the U.S., Turner was reassigned—on paper, at least—to an American manager in Seattle, he says. But Turner says a human resources representative revealed during a video conference call that he would, in reality, continue to work with the ByteDance executive. The stealth chain of command contradicted what TikTok’s executives had said about the company’s independence from ByteDance, Turner says. Turner says he never met with the Seattle-based manager. Instead, Turner had weekly check-ins lasting less than seven minutes with the Beijing-based ByteDance executive.” […]

“Nearly every 14 days, as part of Turner’s job throughout 2022, he emailed spreadsheets filled with data for hundreds of thousands of U.S. users to ByteDance workers in Beijing. That data included names, email addresses, IP addresses, and geographic and demographic information of TikTok U.S. users, he says. The goal was to sift through the information to mine for insights like the geographical regions where users watched the most videos of a particular genre and decide how the company should invest to encourage users to be more active. It all took place after the company had started its initiative to keep sensitive U.S. user data in the U.S., and only available to U.S. workers.”

I've been using Overcast on my iPhone to listen to podcasts for almost 10 years. However, recently I've been hearing good things about Apple's Podcast app, so I thought I would give it a try.

After using Podcasts for a little over a week, I switched back to Overcast today. I found Podcasts confusing and clunky to use compared to Overcast. While Overcast doesn't have transcripts of shows, on the rare occasion that I need a transcript for a podcast, I can always go to the Podcasts app to get it.

The other day I wondered if an iPhone could be a person's only computer. After doing a little research I discovered that with iPhone 15 Pro using USB C, it could be.

The iPhone 15 Pro can handle many tasks with the right setup. Here's how to turn your iPhone 15 Pro into a more computer-like machine. With its USB-C port, the iPhone 15 Pro can be transformed into a computer by connecting a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor. With a USB-C dongle, you can add additional storage space.

If this has made you curious I recommend watching this video by Stephen Robles. This is pretty fucking cool but I'll be sticking with my M1 MacBook Air.

Rohan Goswami, CNBC – Vinod Khosla and Palantir's Jacob Helberg call on Senate to ban TikTok: It's 'a weapon of war'

“Bytedance is not sitting on the sidelines, however. The company mobilized its user base to oppose the House bill, urging its millions of users to call their congressional representatives and voice their opposition. The in-app notifications prompted a flood of phone calls that overwhelmed some congressional offices.”

“Helberg said the effort was a prime example of the risk TikTok posed. “It was a live demo of precisely the kinds of concerns that we have been trying to highlight to elected officials,” he told CNBC. “All of these concerns that before were theoretical were highlighted in full Technicolor for everyone to see.””

Every business that is reliant on another company's platform for their livelihood is at risk. I've discussed this before, and here's another example. This is a truly unfortunate situation.

Brandon Saltalamacchia, Google Is Killing Retro Dodo & Other Independent Sites

“The main source of our traffic was through Google Search. Whenever you searched for something retro gaming-related, our hope was that you would stumble across our website for advice, as we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into expert journalists to provide you with answers to your retro gaming queries. It worked incredibly well; Google’s search engine did what it entailed, showing users informative content created by human experts.” […] “Since September 2023, Google has hidden our site from millions of retro gamers, reducing our organic traffic and revenue by 85% and causing our business to be on the edge of going under.” […] “Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for us, and in all honesty we’re all out of cash.”

As I mentioned earlier, this is a sad story. Even though I'm not a gamer myself, if you are perhaps you could consider showing some support for this company.

I just watched part of a video where the presenter said that to get in the writing flow you need to write at least 1000 words a day. To me, that seems undoable for most people. First off how does one come up with enough ideas to write every day let alone a 1000 words every day?

I’m trying to write a 1000 words right now writing about needing to write 1000 words a day and this is only 88 words thus far.

I guess to write more words about writing 1000 words a day I could ask an LLM for some help but of course, that wouldn’t be me doing the writing.

Much of what I’m trying to write about requires research, thinking time. And importantly, my writing and thinking are influenced by others’ thoughts and ideas. “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” — David McCullough

Hey friends, I just discovered that Google's Gemini can summarize YouTube videos. This isn't something that I would do all that often but it could come in handy on occasion so I thought I would share it with you.

If you're not familiar with Gemini it's a large language model Developed by Google AI similar to ChatGPT.

Here's how it works:

1. Find your target video
2. Copy the video URL
3. Head to Gemini
4. Paste the copied YouTube video URL into the prompt field on the Gemini page. Then, type a clear instruction like “Summarize this video” or “What are the key points of this video?”
5. Click submit and wait a few seconds. Gemini will analyze the video (using captions) and present you with a summary.

So, the next time you find a YouTube video that piques your interest but time is tight, give Gemini a try.