Tech News – Page 100 – by Arlin Schaffel

Cryptocurrency Investors Try to Turn Private Islands Into Blockchain Utopias

For as long as cryptocurrencies have existed, libertarians have dreamed of using them to create communities, seasteads, and cities free from the prying eyes of the state and its tax collectors. We’ve seen crypto-inspired attempts to claim disputed lands as tax havens, use UFOs and fireworks to christen a new tax-free Bitcoin town, build cities with DAOs, and establish communities inside of U.S. colonies to avoid taxes. But there’s now a wave of attempts to buy entire islands and build the next crypto “paradise.”
Edward Ongweso Jr @bigblackjacobin

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3n38x/cryptocurrency-investors-try-to-turn-private-islands-into-blockchain-utopias

BlackBerry phones once ruled the world, then the world changed

Image: Wojciech30 / Wikimedia Commons under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

… BlackBerry is shutting down its remaining services, and users running BlackBerry devices with BlackBerry OS 7.1 and BlackBerry 10 — and you have to wonder just how many there were left — will no longer have access to data or even the once famous BlackBerry messaging service, among other things. It’s all getting shut off tomorrow [January 4, 2022].

… BlackBerry phones went from top of the smartphone heap to single digits in the blink of an eye, losing large swaths of market share as it got completely disrupted by Apple and Android touchscreens.
Ron Miller @ron_miller

https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/03/blackberry-phones-once-ruled-the-world-then-the-world-changed

Regina pro gamer Mathew Fiorante suspended from Halo esports for cheating

A Regina man who is considered one of the best players in the world at the video game Halo has been suspended from competition after an internal investigation deemed he cheated — whether intentionally or not — in recent online tournaments.

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/regina-pro-gamer-mathew-fiorante-suspended-from-halo-esports-for-cheating

No charging spots and a strained electrical grid. Welcome to the electric vehicle boom.

(Illustration by Sam Island)

Then the Nelsons’ contractor gave them worse news. If three or four houses on the block all did the same upgrade, he said, pointing to a nearby transformer, the system would blow. “Basically, he said that hasn’t changed,” Rob Nelson recalled. “This whole infrastructure would need to be changed if all these houses go to 200 amps.”
https://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/no-charging-spots-and-a-strained-electrical-grid-welcome-to-the-electric-vehicle-boom/

Log4j Software Vulnerability Expected to Persist, Possibly for Months

PHOTO: FRED TANNEAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A flaw in a widely used piece of free internet software is prompting companies to rush to update their systems and prevent cyberattacks, but the technology’s ubiquity means the threat could affect businesses for months, security researchers say.

Corporate security executives say they hurried over the weekend to assess whether and how their computer networks use the software, Log4j, while waiting for vendors to disclose the risk to their own technologies and issue software updates to mitigate the threat. The bug was disclosed Thursday.

Log4j is used on computer servers to keep records of users’ activities so they can be reviewed later by security or software development teams. The nonprofit Apache Software Foundation, a group that distributes the open-source tool at no cost, has said it has been downloaded millions of times.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/log4j-software-vulnerability-expected-to-persist-possibly-for-months-11639436434

John Deere Blows Off Shareholders Asking About Right to Repair

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

“Deere seems to be more focused on stifling shareholder concerns than addressing them,” Green Century President Leslie Samuelrich said in a statement. “Spending time and energy on an SEC challenge could be put to better use by making their products better serve their customers.”

Deere’s tractors are so notoriously difficult to repair that farmers have learned basic hacking techniques to keep them running. The used tractor market has also exploded, with tractors built free of on-board computers commanding incredible prices at auction. As a result, the much feared government regulation has finally come. States across the country are looking to pass their own right to repair bills and President Biden has signed an executive order aimed at creating right-to-repair legislation.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyp7xk/john-deere-blows-off-shareholders-asking-about-right-to-repair

Leave Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker’s grapes alone

(Image credit: Square Enix)

If you managed to get past the login queues(opens in new tab) for Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker and made your way through the main story, you might have stumbled upon some grapes. These grapes aren’t your typical grapes; truthfully, they’re more like crystal obelisks with the image of the spherical fruit plastered on each face. These grapes are low poly and proud.\

It wasn’t long after the new expansion’s launch that the grapes burst onto social media, with one user calling them, quite frankly, audacious(opens in new tab).

The hard-edged grapes are now famous, making their way into many memes on Reddit and Twitter. The low poly grapes can be anything: from the mother crystal in Final Fantasy 14’s grand story to the orbs worth pondering.
https://www.pcgamer.com/leave-final-fantasy-14-endwalkers-grapes-alone/