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Non-Competes, TikTok ban, Subscription Hopping and more
Tech News for the week of 4/22 part 1
Walter Wimberly
April 25, 2024
Welcome back my Tech Curious friends. Below you can find information about the most recent tech news, so let’s get started.
Table of Contents
One Step Closer to TikTok Ban
After the US House passed a similar bill last weekend, the US Senate passed a foreign aid package for Israel, humanitarian aid to Gaza, Taiwan, and the Ukraine.
As is tradition, when someone wants to pass an unpopular legislation, they buried a ban on TikTok in the middle. The president has said he’s willing to sign the deal for aid, but made no mention of TikTok in his press release - because it’s not like he’s their target audience anyway.
TikTok has sworn to fight the ban, and it has won several similar fights before, so they still might survive. However, this one is a bit different, having learned from past mistakes.
The bill does allow for the sale of TikTok to keep it operational. One of the core reasons is based upon fears that a foreign government could have officials alter algorithms to push content they want. Especially important during an election year, when another country may not like you and your policies.
Non-Competes are now Non-Existent
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) essentially banned Non-Compete clauses for employees. What does that mean for the tech world?
Well, ever notice how many stories you hear about people working at tech companies, but only doing a few hours of work a day? Tech companies typically over hire to keep good employees from being able to compete against them.
How much do they over hire? Typically, anywhere from 200 - 500%! Now that they can’t keep employees from leaving and working for a competitor, or starting a competing product, things could get bad... like mass layoffs.
On the flip side, it will make finding a new job, and leaving bad jobs much easier.
Voyager 1 Phones Home
An artist's illustration of Voyager 1 as it travels through interstellar space. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1, the farthest manmade object in space (at about 15 billion miles or 24 billion kilometers), had essentially gone radio silent. However, it is now calling back home, sending information once again.
The fault appears to be a bad memory chip. Which can be expected with a 46-year-old computer. Voyager 1 was only supposed to last 5 years, like the Original Star Trek’s mission, is has become more like the energizer bunny which just keeps going on and on and on and on…
The NASA team is still waiting to see if they can get useful data out of it, but they are hopeful.
A Lack of Power Limits AI?
Star Trek the Original Series
For those of us afraid of an AI takeover (we see you SkyBorg), our savior might come from an unexpected source. We know AI takes a lot of electricity, so that might be its limiting factor.
As Mark Zuckerberg talks about, you can’t just build a power plant. Sure, this is why Google and others are designing specific chips to be more energy efficient, but based upon the wants of the public, it might not be enough.
Will it be enough? Who knows? At least Kyle Reese hasn’t come back through time to try to stop us yet.
Watch an interview with Zuck here.
Microsoft Goes Micro on AI
Not in its investments…instead in making the world’s smallest data model, the Phi-3 Mini. At a mere 3.8 Billion data sets, it is smaller than ones that run Chat GPT and other language models.
Why is this important? Well, it means you can process your request faster and with less power consumption… oh wait; I see what AI is trying to do…
What’s impressive is that they claim it’s as accurate as data models with 10x the amount of information. While its breadth of knowledge isn’t as good as larger models, what makes it unique is in how it learned, like a child.
Subscription Hopping is the Latest Trend
First I was a cord-cutter (someone who drops cable for streaming) and now I’m a hopper! With both, I was a trend setter, as cut when only about 4% of individuals had, and I have been hopping for 2 years or more.
Subscription hopping is the process where people have one or two streaming services for a few months, then drop them, to alternate to others. It is rising in frequency as cost of streaming services have gone up, and as they crack down on sharing passwords.
If you get all the major streaming services, its more expensive than cable. In the battle of person vs tech this is our solution, and apparently for many others as well.
I think this, at least in part, is why Netflix will stop reporting it’s subscriber’s numbers. The question is, how will the streaming services try to thwart this latest trend?
FYI - some links may be affiliate links. If you choose to purchase from the link, I may receive a minor percentage fee, but the price to you is the same.