Month: January 2023

Southwest Airlines’ recent meltdown exposed an over-reliance on aging crew-assignment software SkySolver, forcing the company to return to manual scheduling (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal)

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal: Southwest Airlines’ recent meltdown exposed an over-reliance on aging crew-assignment software SkySolver, forcing the company to return to manual scheduling  —  The airline industry is long overdue for a tech overhaul that takes full advantage of the cloud and data integration, analysts say

Read More
Chinese media: Foxconn says its Zhengzhou plant is operating with ~200,000 workers, or ~90% capacity, back to around reported normal levels, after disruptions (Debby Wu/Bloomberg)

Debby Wu / Bloomberg: Chinese media: Foxconn says its Zhengzhou plant is operating with ~200,000 workers, or ~90% capacity, back to around reported normal levels, after disruptions  —  Foxconn Technology Group has brought the world’s largest iPhone plant to about 90% of anticipated peak capacity …

Read More
A profile of blockchain auditing service CertiK, which inspects smart contracts to help clients like Yuga Labs avoid critical bugs that can lead to lost crypto (Clive Thompson/MIT Technology Review)

Clive Thompson / MIT Technology Review: A profile of blockchain auditing service CertiK, which inspects smart contracts to help clients like Yuga Labs avoid critical bugs that can lead to lost crypto  —  Programming errors on the blockchain can mean $100 million lost in the blink of an eye.  Ronghui Gu and his company CertiK

Read More
United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer argues the creative talent behind shows on Netflix’s ad-supported tier should earn more money if their shows are popular (Christopher Grimes/Financial Times)

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times: United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer argues the creative talent behind shows on Netflix’s ad-supported tier should earn more money if their shows are popular  —  United Talent Agency chief Jeremy Zimmer says ad-supported service ‘changes the game’ for creators

Read More
Holographic Cellphones Coming Thanks to AI

Issac Asimov foresaw 3D virtual meetings but gave them the awkward name “tridimensional personification.” While you could almost do this now with VR headsets and 3D cameras, it would be awkward at best. It is easy to envision conference rooms full of computer equipment and scanners, but an MIT student has a method that may

Read More
Riyadh-based Manafa, which offers SMBs debt and equity financing based on a crowdfunding model, raised a ~$28.2M Series A led by STV and Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures (Deena Kamel/The National)

Deena Kamel / The National: Riyadh-based Manafa, which offers SMBs debt and equity financing based on a crowdfunding model, raised a ~$28.2M Series A led by STV and Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures  —  The series A round was led by STV and Aramco’s venture capital arm  —  Listen In English Listen in Arabic

Read More
India releases draft online gaming rules, seeking to create a self-regulatory body and to require parental consent for gamers under 18, for public consultation (Moneycontrol)

Moneycontrol: India releases draft online gaming rules, seeking to create a self-regulatory body and to require parental consent for gamers under 18, for public consultation  —  These draft regulations come at a time when India’s gaming sector has seen unprecedented growth in terms of app downloads and revenue

Read More
What’s New, From 1927

Here we are at the start of the new year, which for the Internet Archive means a note about what has just entered the public domain. 1927’s finest previously copyrighted materials are now up for grabs in the public domain, which means there’s a treasure trove of films, books, and music to freely copy and

Read More
All Aboard the Garbage Express

Cog railways are a somewhat unusual way of train locomotion, typically only installed when a train needs to climb steep terrain. Any grade above about 10% needs the extra traction since the friction between the wheels and rails won’t be enough to push the train forward or keep it from falling backwards. Even without a

Read More
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein says the company’s Audiences tool, pooling data for upload to Meta and Google’s ad platforms, is a key focus going forward (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Shopify President Harley Finkelstein says the company’s Audiences tool, pooling data for upload to Meta and Google’s ad platforms, is a key focus going forward  —  Canadian ecommerce group touts new tool that allows retailers to pool customer data and better target ads

Read More