Stack Overflow, one of the top 50 websites in the world apparently, has been purchased for US$1.8b by a company called Prosus. I've never heard of them either! They call themselves "a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world". They also own Skillsoft, Udemy and Codeacademy. Stack Overflow makes a logical next investment I guess. Stack's founder Joel Spolsky said in a blog post that nothing is changing, but you don't go spending US$1.8b not to change anything. God speed to everyone involved. May it not get fucked up too hard, too soon.
Huawei announced a bunch of stuff last night that's mostly forgettable (a knock off iPad and some smart watches), but one thing they announced that's worth paying mild attention to is HarmonyOS. Whilst Huawei are keen to promote HarmonyOS as a unique operating system designed by Huawei, it's no different to what they've been shipping lately - the Android Open Source Project without the Google services we all know and love, slapped with a Huawei skin and apps. So yeah, if you see Huawei shilling devices with HarmonyOS, you now know what the deal is.
I've started many blogs only to discover after a few weeks that nobody gives a shit, but at least I keep them going longer than Donald Trump's pathetic attempt. Old mate's "From The Desk of Donald J. Trump" blog, which was hailed as a beacon of free speech and a place to communicate with followers after getting shitcanned from every internet platform, has been taken offline after a pissweak 29 days - confirmed by a senior aide. Come on Donny, gotta give it more time than that mate!
Kirk McElhearn popped an AirTag in an envelope in Stratford-upon-Avon and posted it to his mate in London to see how well they could track its movement. There's over a billion iOS devices out in the wild, so it shouldn't be a surprise that at almost every moment humans came into the vicinity of an AirTag, the envelope's location was updated. AirTags aren't really designed to be used this way, but due to Apple's success in selling iOS devices, you kinda can use it as a tracking device, rather than something to simply locate a lost item. It's a little worrying that the recipient of the AirTag didn't notice a warning beep or get a "oi there's a weird AirTag in your presence" notification on their iOS device after having in their home for 3 days - a feature that's supposed to stop people abusing AirTags as stalking devices.
📻 Me and the Bean - Spoon
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The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.