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Comment Re: [NOT a] Misleading article, 0.002% of cars...7 (Score 4, Informative) 172

It's better than it sounds. Ford sold 30,176 EVs in 13 weeks. That'd come out to 120,704 for a year -- but since sales increased over previous quarters, their growth rate is also jumping. So 2025's figures will be even higher.

People say "we need Tesla's levels of sales" -- but we have it. It's just spread across a dozen different automakers. You see that in the final sales figures for 2024.

Tesla: 633,000
GM: 114,432
Ford: 97,865
Hyundai: 61,797
Rivian: 51,579
BMW: 50,981
Kia: 43,732
Nissan: 31,024
Toyota: 28,267
Audi: 23,152
Volkswagen: 18,183

Mercedes-Benz (and others) bring this about to where Tesla's sales are -- and Tesla's sales are roughly the same as the year before (dropping 1.1%).

Other interesting stats: last year about 1 in 8 cars sold in America were (battery-powered) electric. And while at the end of 2023 there were 2.4 million electric cars on America's roads, 2024 saw another 1.2 million electric vehicles sold -- a 50% increase. In just 12 months.

So I think you have to say electric vehicle sales are increasing, quite a bit. The idea is it reaches a "critical mass" of adoption, and then all the infrastructure swings into place.

Submission + - CES 'Worst in Show' Mocked in iFixit Ceremony (thenewstack.io)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Thursday a "panel of dystopia experts" was livestreamed to iFixit’s feed of over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, with the video’s description warning about manufacturers “hoping to convince us that they have invented the future. But will their vision make our lives better, or lead humanity down a dark and twisted path?” The resulting video is a fun and rollicking romp that tries to forestall a future clogged with power-hungry AI and data-collecting sensors.

“We’re seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them,” iFixit‘s Chamberlain told The Associated Press... Proving this point was EFF executive director Cindy Cohn, who gave a truly impassioned takedown for "smart" infant products that "end up traumatizing new parents with false reports that their baby has stopped breathing." But worst for privacy was the $1,200 "Revol" baby bassinet — equipped with a camera, a microphone, and a radar sensor. The video also mocks Samsung's "AI Home" initiative which let you answer phone calls with your washing machine, oven, or refrigerator. (And LG's overpowered "smart" refrigerator won the "Overall Worst in Show" award.)

One of the scariest presentations came from Paul Roberts, founder of SecuRepairs, a group advocating both cybersecurity and the right to repair. Roberts notes that about 65% of the routers sold in the U.S. are from a Chinese company named TP-Link — both wifi routers and the wifi/ethernet routers sold for homes and small offices.Roberts reminded viewers that in October, Microsoft reported “thousands” of compromised routers — most of them manufactured by TP-Link — were found working together in a malicious network trying to crack passwords and penetrate “think tanks, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, law firms, defense industrial base, and others” in North America and in Europe. The U.S. Justice Department soon launched an investigation (as did the U.S. Commerce Department) into TP-Link’s ties to China’s government and military, according to a SecuRepairs blog post. The reason? “As a China-based company, TP-Link is required by law to disclose flaws it discovers in its software to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before making them public.” Inevitably, this creates a window “to exploit the publicly undisclosed flaw That fact, and the coincidence of TP-Link devices playing a role in state-sponsored hacking campaigns, raises the prospects of the U.S. government declaring a ban on the sale of TP-Link technology at some point in the next year.”

TP-Link won the award for the worst in security.

Submission + - When Jimmy Carter Spoke at a Wireless Tradeshow

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: I saw Jimmy Carter speak in Las Vegas on the final day of the CTIA Wireless tradeshow back in 2001. "I feel thrilled to be a part of this," 77-year-old Carter said....

He applauded the work of "entrepreneurs and scientists and engineers that are transforming the face of the globe," and noted their technologies could address problems targeted by the Carter Center.... Interrupted by a few cell phone rings, the former President conversed on a stage at the Sands Expo and Venetian Hotel with Tom Wheeler, the president of the wireless communications trade association. Wheeler reminded the audience of Carter's decidedly nontechnical background, discussing An Hour Before Daylight , Carter's memoir about growing up on a farm in Georgia during the Great Depression. "We were the only family blessed with an outhouse," Carter told the crowd.

Wheeler also asked a question many in the technology community could relate to. Carter, he pointed out, had been involuntarily retired. "What's it feel like?" The former President told the audience he'd re-focussed his energies into humanitarian efforts through the Carter Center, which is active in providing health services around the world as well as monitoring elections...

Carter donated his appearance fee to the Carter Center.

Midway through the hour-long discussion, the former President touted his administration's record of deregulating several industries, including transporation, energy — and communications. "If it hadn't been for that deregulation, this environment in which you all live wouldn't have been possible." Carter also shared with the business crowd that it was a belief in free enterprise that made him want to enter politics, drawn from his experiences selling peanuts as a young boy for a dollar a day.

The audience greeted the former president warmly, giving him a standing ovation both when he took the stage and when he left. Carter joked it was almost enough to make him want to get back into politics.

Submission + - Boeing's Starliner is Experiencing Issues in Space (space.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Space.com reports:

Boeing's Starliner capsule is experiencing some issues in orbit. After launching yesterday (June 5) on its first-ever crewed mission, Starliner missed its first chance to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) today (June 6) after four of its 28 reaction-control thrusters malfunctioned.

That first docking window was at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT). The next opportunity for Starliner to rendezvous with the orbiting lab opens at 1:33 p.m. EDT (1733 GMT)...

Starliner's thruster issues followed two helium leaks the mission team detected after the capsule reached orbit.

Submission + - Boeing spacecraft carrying two astronauts lifts off on historic maiden voyage (cnn.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: The third attempt was the charm for Boeingâ(TM)s Starliner mission after launching its first crewed flight test Wednesday in a milestone that has been a decade in the making.

The new spacecraftâ(TM)s maiden voyage with humans on board lifted off atop an Atlas V rocket at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The historic event is streaming live on NASAâ(TM)s website.

Comment TikTok facing a global ban (Score 5, Interesting) 96

by destinyland (#64410654) Attached to: Sell or Be Banned: Anti-TikTok Bill Passed by US Representatives
TikTok is already banned in India -- the largest nation on earth -- as well as in Nepal and Somalia.

That means TikTok is already banned for 1,464,000,000 people. That's about 18% of the population of earth. And then if you count the population of China, that adds another 1,412,000,000 people. So it's more like 36% of population is already banned from using TikTok.

Comment Best act since the Archies (Score 3, Funny) 39

The Monkees kept demanding to actually play the music heard on their TV show -- and their producer kept insisting on professionals. Finally all four Monkees ganged up, their label relented, there was friction with their producer, and he eventually went off and started up his own band that would never talk back to him... The Archies.

A holographic Elvis is kind of the same thing.

Submission + - Amazon, Etsy, Launch Categories with 'Gifts for Programmers' (thenewstack.io)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: It's a question that comes up all the time on Reddit. Etsy even created a special page for programmer-themed gift suggestions (showing more than 5,000 results). While CNET sticks to broader lists of "tech gifts" — and a separate list for "Star Wars gifts" — other sites around the web have been specifically honing in on programmer-specific suggestions. (Blue light-blocking glasses... A giant rubber duck... The world's strongest coffee... A printer that transfers digital images onto cheese...)

So while in years past Amazon has said they laughed at customer reviews for cans of uranium, this year Amazon has now added a special section that's entirely dedicated to Gifts for Computer Programmers, according to this funny rundown of 2023's "Gifts for Programmers" (that ends up recommending ChatGPT gift cards and backyard office sheds):

[Amazon's Gifts for Programmers section] shows over 3,000 results, with geek-friendly subcategories like "Glassware & Drinkware" and "Novelty Clothing"... For the coder in your life, Amazon offers everything from brain–teasing programming puzzles to computer–themed jigsaw puzzles. Of course, there's also a wide selection of obligatory funny t–shirts... But this year there's also tech-themed ties and motherboard-patterned socks...

Some programmers, though, might prefer a gift that's both fun and educational. And what's more entertaining than using your Python skills to program a toy robot dog...? But if you're shopping for someone who's more of a cat person, Petoi sells a kit for building a programmable (and open source) cat robot named "Nybble". The sophisticated Arduino-powered feline can be programmed with Python and C++ (as well as block-based coding)... [part of] the new community that's building around "OpenCat", the company's own quadruped robotic pet framework (open sourced on GitHub).

Submission + - Does TikTok Censor Content Critical of China? CNN Investigates (cnn.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: CNN anchor Jake Tapper interviewed TikTok's head of public policy last year, asking if they censored content critical of the Chinese party. "We do not censor content on behalf of any government," the spokesperson answered.

But this week CNN reviewed data the total number of hashtags on both Instagram and on TikTok for topics that might be embarrassing to the Chinese government — and found stark differences.

— Hashtag #Uyghurs appears in 10.4X more posts on Instagram than on TikTok.
— Hashtag #Tiananmen (referencing the 1989 pro-democracy protests) is 153 more likely to appear on Instagram than on TikTok.

"So yes, the content exists on TikTok, but there's far less of it on TikTok than on other social media apps," CNN's Tapper says. "And that seems very convenient for the Chinese Communist Party."

Submission + - Cards Against Humanity's Black Friday Prank: Launching Its Own Social Media Sit (adage.com) 1

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: The popular party game "Cards Against Humanity" continued their tradition of practical jokes on Black Friday. They created a new social network where users can perform only one action: posting the word “yowza.”

Then announced it on their official social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and X...

Regardless of what words you type into the window, they're replaced with the word yowza. "For just $0.99, you’ll get an exclusive black check by your name," reads an announcement on the site, "and the ability to post a new word: awooga."

It's a magical land where "yowfluencers" keep "reyowzaing" the "yowzas" of other users. And there's also a tab for trending hashtags. (Although, yes, they all seem to be "yowza".) But they've already gotten a write up in the trade industry publication Advertising Age .

“With every bad thing happening in the world, social media is always right there, making it worse,” a spokesperson said.... "[W]e asked ourselves: Is there a way we could make a social network that doesn’t suck? At first, the answer was ‘no.’ The content moderation problem is just too hard. And then we thought, why not solve the content moderation problem by having no content? That’s Yowza....”

When creating your profile on the network there's a dropdown menu for specifying your age and location — although all of the choices are yowza. More details from Advertising Age:

The company said the word “yowza” was the first that came to mind when its creative teams were brainstorming—and it just stuck. “It’s dumb, it’s ridiculous, it means nothing. It’s perfect,” the rep said.

And the service is still evolving, with fresh user upgrades. The official Yowza store will now also sell you the ability to also post the word Shazam — for $29.99. (Also on sale are 100,000 followers — for 99 cents.) But there's also an official FAQ which articulates the service's deep commitment to protecting their users' privacy.

Do you promise you won’t share my private information with the Chinese Communist Party, like TikTok?

Yowza.

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