Facebook and Instagram use artificial intelligence to try and find what it thinks it should show you. This AI is an algorithm that tries really hard to find what might provoke you to respond. The intent originally wasn’t evil but to make sure you stayed on the site and that you interacted. You can’t show ads to people who aren’t there so
But Algorithms control our lives. Algorithms are used for keyword search in resumes. Gone are the days when HR read over every single resume. Now an algorithm searches for keywords they are looking for and resumes missing the keywords get passed over before they are even reviewed. Go with the fancy paper if you want but probably doesn’t matter much any more.
Supply Chain Christmas
PSA: So if you know what you want to buy for loved ones for Christmas (if you celebrate Christmas), you need to buy those gifts now. Wait what? Yes, basically we have ships at works that are unable to unload ships fast enough so many ships with supplies are stuck waiting at ports and then there are driver shortages as well. And this is affecting shipping all over the world.
Between the slowing down of the US mail service, lingering Covid-19 issues, and so many other crazy things, expect your packages to take longer to arrive. So ordering early may mean the difference between arriving by Christmas or by Valentines if it arrives at all.
So are Big Tech companies like the monopolies of old? The House is looking at five different bills in hopes of regulating Tech companies.
These bills while not naming specific tech companies would attempt to enact several requirements:
A company can’t recommend their products above their competitors. Example: Google couldn’t on purposely suggest their Google Cloud storage over say Dropbox or another cloud storage competitor. Or Amazon suggesting their Amazon Basics brand batteries over Duracell. Also Apple would not be able to force developers to use their App store. It would also potentially force Microsoft to allow other options besides Teams be tied into the Office platform so Zoom or Slack could have one click options inside of Office
They could set the bar higher on mergers. Meaning if Google wanted to buy say Twitter, Google would have to offer a lot more evidence that buying Twitter wouldn’t harm consumers.
It would allow people to download and delete their data so they can do whatever they want. You can already download your content and even delete it but are you really deleted?
It may also mean that Facebook and What’sApp have to break out, Google and YouTube, and Amazon’s store and their Cloud Services.
All of these things have positives and negatives but would majorly disrupt our Internet lives. Are these tech companies too big? Yes but they also provide a lot of benefits.
The winner in all of this, my vote, The Lobbyists. Tech Companies during the 2020 Election spent $124 million in lobbying and campaign contributions. Tech companies spent more than oil companies ( a group that has been the biggest spenders in the past). Last year Facebook and Amazon were the biggest spenders.
Surveys are claiming between 25 and 40% of workers say they will quit their current jobs if their current employers require them to return to the office full time. While a survey is well a survey and it shows perhaps what people hope or wish for, do you think people will really leave their jobs if it requires them to return to work? You would think people trapped at home for the last year would be tired of seeing their loved ones day in and day out but it has a lot of people thinking about work-life balance which until the pandemic sent a lot of us home we didn’t know it was a real thing. In fact we thought it was as rare as a Bigfoot sighting. So what do you think? If you were lucky or unlucky enough to be able to work from home, do you want to stay there? What about those folks who had to go into work day in and day out because there wasn’t any other choice, work, get paid, feed your family. Some companies are looking at this as a win-win (I love those business phrases like that) as they shrink their office spaces and sell open space for top dollar in this overheated real estate market. And folks are finding they don’t have to stay in the same old city to work if they can work remote. I know a guy who is living in Germany because the job can be done from practically anywhere. But it also means employers can find job candidates who are just about anywhere so you don’t even have to be geographically close to apply for a job.
Chapter 3
Choose your own adventure
Do you want to hear about Twitter’s subscription service or Microsoft Windows 10 Support going away?
So for approximately $3.99 a month you will be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue. It will let you Undo a Tweet. Wow, we could have used that during the last presidency, manage Bookmarked content, and change your Twitter icon. Plus you will get some support from Twitter’s support team.
Microsoft has announced in 2025 they will no longer support Windows 10.
Why? Because Windows 11 is coming soon okay, since you are my friends I can tell you. It comes out October 2021. June 24 Microsoft will officially announce Windows 11 (which is technically Windows 10 21H2 but who’s counting) also aka Windows Sunvalley as opposed to Stardew Valley. The next version the interface gets rounded corners (actually just go look at MacOS Big Sur and well a lot of what Apple already does Microsoft is playing catch up with). Also we will get a floating start menu because well, why not. And it gets easier to reach settings from the tray for Sound and Network so you don’t have to fiddle around so much. All good things right?
That is this week’s show. If you would please Like and Subscribe. Hit that bell so you will know when I am causing trouble online.
