😱 A Facebook of any other name - This Geek in Review for 2021-11-05
By goz
The big news this past week is that Facebook is rebranding itself as Meta and Zuckerberg is convinced the next big arena is going to be the Metaverse, an online virtual world aka Ready Player One. I don’t doubt that VR is going to be big, but in most scifi, virtual worlds are an escape from a dystopian world. What does Zuckerberg know? And an even bigger question, where was Second Life in 2020?
When your support staff isn’t very supportive
I stopped using Dropbox when they started to limit the number of clients on a free account. Combine that with an insane pricing schedule means I’m not going to use it. Apparently, the company didn’t collapse after I quit, but that doesn’t mean it got better.
A customer asked in the Dropbox support forums asked when a Mac M1 native client was going to be released. This person was told by Dropbox support that it wasn’t in the works, and people would need to vote to show that M1 support was important. Not supporting a pretty important platform isn’t the best way to run a company, and Dropbox has now announced that the client is coming in 2022.
Nothing like being a year late to the party.
Internet Travels
Retro
- Star Raiders - Atari 8-bit Computers - Star Commander Class 1! - YouTube - Star Raiders is one of the most influential games ever released, and getting Star Commander Class 1 is quite an accomplishment.
- Nintendo’s botched N64 emulation proves just how amazing fan emulators are | PC Gamer
- OS/2’s Last Stand: IBM OS/2 Warp 4 Turns 25
- Creative Spark: Eric Roth - YouTube - Eric Roth (Forest Gump) is a Hollywood screenwriter who still uses an MS-DOS based movie screenwriting program under Windows XP.
Technology
- Gizmodo’s photos from the massive iPhone 4 leak have disappeared - The Verge
- No end in sight for chip shortage as supply chain problems pile up | Ars Technica
- Apple lost $6 billion to chip shortage and manufacturing delays in Q4, Tim Cook says - The Verge
- Chicago Car Thieves Now Target Locksmiths For Key Fobs And Programing Devices – CBS Chicago
- Minnesota man charged with illegally streaming MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA games for profit - The Verge
- Community
- Hive ransomware now encrypts Linux and FreeBSD systems
- Apple’s explanation for no Face ID on the MacBook Pro is nonsense - How else will Apple get people to upgrade if they can’t offer it down the rode.
- iFixit actually tore down Apple’s backordered $19 screen cloth - The Verge - Sounds like an idea for an Etsy store.
- Microsoft reclaims title of most valuable public company after Apple falls | Ars Technica
Geek
Upcoming movies and TV shows
- Lightyear | Teaser Trailer - YouTube - When I first heard of a Buzz Lightyear origin movie I wasn’t too excited, but the trailer changed my mind.
- Moonfall (2022 Movie) Teaser Trailer – Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley - YouTube - Roland Emmerich does not like the planet Earth.
- The Book of Boba Fett | Official Trailer | Disney+ - YouTube
Food
- Man spent $150 yearly on Six Flags food, paid off student debt - Living the dream.
- A&W’s “3/9 Burger” clarifies it’s bigger than a Quarter Pounder - Math is hard.
- Kellogg’s customer files $5 million lawsuit alleging Pop-Tarts don’t have enough strawberries - CNN
Pop Culture
- Supercut: 30 Movie/TV references from The Office - YouTube
- This LEGO build will blow your mind - YouTube
Business
- This resume got me an interview! : recruitinghell - How to beat the machine.
- An early look at the Ford Assembly Line
Pot Pourri
- Abandoned Walmart is Now America’s Largest 1-Floor Library | Urbanist
- Free eBook: The Devil’s Dictionary — Madness Serial Publishing
- New Dictionary Words | October 2021 | Merriam-Webster
- An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue