Jack Dorsey has quit as CEO of Twitter. Parag Agrawal, the CTO, will take over as CEO. Jack said in an open letter that "I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders" and anointed Parag as his successor because of how "how deeply he understands the company and its needs" - something that can't be said for Twitter's leaders for a large chunk of its history. Honestly I'm not surprised Jack is leaving Twitter now. It'll let him focus on being the CEO of Square and continue using it as a vehicle for legitimising his strong "cryptocurrency is the future of finance!!" bullshit.
Those fucking annoying spam SMSes might finally piss off now that the federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act has been updated to allow telcos to block spam SMSes. Apparently there was a legal technicality that meant telcos could not interfere with the delivery of an SMS, even if it is spam or malicious. But that's gone now and Telstra was quick to hype their "new cyber safety capability" that is "designed to automatically detect and block scam SMS messages as they travel across our network". Telstra employees' family and friends are currently guinea pigs in a pilot program to test it out and when it doesn't suck will go live for everyone.
Space Explored got its hands on a leaked SpaceX memo and according to Elon Musk, things are shaky at the rocket factory. The money quote is right at the end - "what it comes down to, is that we face a genuine risk of bankruptcy if we can't achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year". Apparently Starlink's viability is tied up in the massive reusable Starship spacecraft being able to take shitloads of satellites into space at once, but Starship's engines are way behind schedule and heat tiles keep cracking and falling off. Space Explored reckons Musk is just being dramatic about impending bankruptcy in order to scare the employees into working harder.
On my recent drive to and from Sydney I enjoyed listening to this episode of the Acquired podcast that went into great detail (270 minutes!) about the history of TSMC and the pivotal role it plays in the success of companies like Apple, Nvidia and AMD. I knew about the recent history of TSMC and how its the premier manufacturer of tiny transistors and even its unique status as "insurance" for protecting Taiwan from China - but I did not know how its founder Morris Chang went through three wars before migrating to the USA, worked at Texas Instruments for 25 years and was then head hunted by the Taiwanese government to lift its economy.
📻 The Green Line Is Us, The Red Line Is Them - Something For Kate
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