Month: September 2021

Interview with Harvard professor Willy Shih on the global chip shortage, supply chains, how much money it would take for the US to catch up with TSMC, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge)

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Interview with Harvard professor Willy Shih on the global chip shortage, supply chains, how much money it would take for the US to catch up with TSMC, and more  —  Since the beginning of the pandemic, the demand for microchips has far exceeded supply, causing problems in every industry that

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Amazon launches an app to provide info on crops to Indian farmers, as it looks to tap into the produce market that accounts for the bulk of India’s retail spend (Saritha Rai/Bloomberg)

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: Amazon launches an app to provide info on crops to Indian farmers, as it looks to tap into the produce market that accounts for the bulk of India’s retail spend  —  – It’s promising timely info on crops via a mobile app  — Amazon joins Reliance, Walmart in courting agriculture sector

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Amazon launches the “Kisan Store” in collaboration with the Government of India to let farmers in the country buy farming tools, seeds, and more on Amazon (India Today)

India Today: Amazon launches the “Kisan Store” in collaboration with the Government of India to let farmers in the country buy farming tools, seeds, and more on Amazon  —  Farmers can now buy farming tools, seeds, crop protection and other farming tools on Amazon’s Kisan Store.  —  India Today Tech

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Smooth Servo Motion For Lifelike Animatronics

Building an animatronic robot is one thing, but animating it in a lifelike fashion is a completely different challenge. Hobby servos are cheap and popular for animatronics, but just letting it move at max speed isn’t particularly lifelike. In the video after the break, [James Bruton] demonstrates how to achieve natural motion with a simple

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Texas Right to Life tip site went offline briefly before returning with new provider Digital Ocean, which also has rules against violating people’s privacy (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: Texas Right to Life tip site went offline briefly before returning with new provider Digital Ocean, which also has rules against violating people’s privacy  —  GoDaddy gave website “24 hours to move to a different provider.”  —  The Texas Right to Life group will have to find a new hosting

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Sources: Automation Anywhere, backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, is planning for an IPO later this year or in 2022; the company was valued at $6.8B in 2019 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Sources: Automation Anywhere, backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, is planning for an IPO later this year or in 2022; the company was valued at $6.8B in 2019  —  – SoftBank’s Vision Fund is large backer of software company  — Automation Anywhere was valued at $6.8 billion in 2019

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Source: Google has temporarily locked an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, as the Taliban seeks to acquire former officials’ emails (Raphael Satter/Reuters)

Raphael Satter / Reuters: Source: Google has temporarily locked an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, as the Taliban seeks to acquire former officials’ emails  —  Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter …

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Facebook apologizes after its AI recommendation feature categorized a video of Black men as “about Primates”; Facebook disabled the feature and is investigating (Ryan Mac/New York Times)

Ryan Mac / New York Times: Facebook apologizes after its AI recommendation feature categorized a video of Black men as “about Primates”; Facebook disabled the feature and is investigating  —  Facebook called it “an unacceptable error.”  The company has struggled with other issues related to race.

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Sources: SEC has launched a probe into the developer behind Uniswap; Uniswap delisted dozens of stock offering tokens in July, citing regulatory pressure (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: Sources: SEC has launched a probe into the developer behind Uniswap; Uniswap delisted dozens of stock offering tokens in July, citing regulatory pressure  —  SEC probe comes amid heightened scrutiny of fast-growing decentralized markets  —  WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission …

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The best T-Mobile deals of September 2021

T-Mobile is the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States, climbing up from third place after the merger with Sprint. Its growth is also thanks to the plentiful T-Mobile deals and offers available for new and current customers, with discounts on phones and other accessories. Below, you’ll find the best T-Mobile deals currently available. Take

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#AppleToo publishes an open letter to Tim Cook, asking for transparent and fair compensation, reinvestigation of discrimination and harassment cases, and more (Carrie Mihalcik/CNET)

Carrie Mihalcik / CNET: #AppleToo publishes an open letter to Tim Cook, asking for transparent and fair compensation, reinvestigation of discrimination and harassment cases, and more  —  Among the requests in the open letter are transparent compensation and a reinvestigation of reports of discrimination and harassment.

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Arduino Measures 20V Signals Using Quantizer

Canadian electronics geek and nascent YouTuber [Technoyaki] wanted to measure 20 volt signals on his Arduino. One might typically use a voltage divider to knock them down to the 5 volt range of the Arduino’s 10-bit A/Ds. But he isn’t one to take the conventional approach. Instead of using two resistors, [Technoyaki] decides to build

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Lyft and Uber say they will cover legal fees for drivers who are sued under Texas’ new abortion law for transporting women to abortion clinics (Jessica Bursztynsky/CNBC)

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Lyft and Uber say they will cover legal fees for drivers who are sued under Texas’ new abortion law for transporting women to abortion clinics  —  – Lyft and Uber said Friday they would cover legal fees for drivers on their respective platforms who are sued under Texas’ restrictive abortion law

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CB Insights: investment in e-commerce software startups reached $12.4B in H1 2021, up 51% from all of 2020, with investment in online payments startups up 172% (Malique Morris/The Information)

Malique Morris / The Information: CB Insights: investment in e-commerce software startups reached $12.4B in H1 2021, up 51% from all of 2020, with investment in online payments startups up 172%  —  Spurred by record levels of online shopping, investors have rushed to back e-commerce software companies this year.

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