Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 04/10 - Would You Believe Me If I Told You Elon Changed His Mind?

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Twitter has stopped throttling tweets with Substack links in them, but only after Elon Musk denied they were ever blocked. About 270 US Apple Stores have held staff meetings about unionization risks in the past two weeks. A New York Times article about the environmental and economic impact of bitcoin mines has some crypto proponents up in arms. And the 2023 Dell XPS 13 is… fine. Just fine. Sponsors: OregonState.edu Links: Twitter stops throttling tweets with Substack links (Engadget) Elon Musk Denies Substack Links Are Blocked On Twitter, A Claim That’s Very Misleading (Forbes) Apple (AAPL) Continues Efforts to Keep Retail Stores From Unionizing (Bloomberg) The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin (NY Times)  Crypto enthusiasts go after New York Times for its BTC mining report (Cryptopolitan) Rebuttal to the NYT article (Daniel Batten, Twitter) Dell XPS 13 review: Dell is coasting (and that’s fine) (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Tech Meme Ride Home for Monday, April 10th, 2020. I'm Jackson Bird, filling in for Brian McCullough today. Twitter has stopped throttling tweets with substack links in them, but only after Elon Musk denied they were ever blocked. About 270 U.S. Apple stores have held staff meetings about unionization risks in the past two weeks. A New York Times article about the environmental and economic impact of Bitcoin mines has some crypto proponents up in arms. And the 2023 Dell XPS13 is fine, just fine. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, in the continuing saga of Twitter versus substack, substack links are back, mostly.

For now, on Saturday, Elon Musk tweeted that substack link, Thanks, quote, were never blocked, and Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted, end quote. New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac echoed a lot of people's confusion, tweeting, quote, not exactly clear what Musk means by Twitter database, but it would be interesting if Substack was trying to recreate the follow graph somehow to kickstart their Twitter clone. I think Facebook regularly used to cut off small startups that attempted similar, end quote.

The Twitter clone in question is Substack Notes, a new feature still in the process of being rolled out, which Brian discussed at the end of last week. Notes looks and functions like many other social media platforms, most notably, like Twitter, and Substack has encouraged writers to use Substack as an alternative, or at least a backup, up to increasing Twitter chaos, according to TechCrunch. So potentially in response to that at the end of last week, Twitter users were reporting that substack links, and in some cases even the mention of the word substack,

were being blocked or showing up with warnings. Likes and retweets of tweets with substack links weren't functioning and also appearing with notices that actions had been disabled by Twitter. But now, quoting NGadgett, Twitter, Twitter is once again allowing users to interact with substack links freely. At least for the time being, you can retweet, reply to, and like posts that feature a link to a substack newsletter. The platform also won't issue a safety warning if you click those links. However, as of writing this article, searching for substack still produces results involving the word newsletter.

End quote. This reversal comes after a bit of a tweet storm on Friday afternoon in Saturday evening, Musk was prompted to reply to the initial allegations of limiting substack links and interactions when Twitter files journalist Matt Tybee tweeted about the apparent substack block and said that he'd be moving from Twitter to substack notes in response. In his tweet on Saturday, insisting that substack links were never blocked, Musk also said that Matt Tybee's statement was false and that Matt, quote, is slash was an employee of subsdict. Stack, end quote.

Substack co-founder Chris Best replied to Musk's statements saying, quote, None of this is true. One, substack links have been obviously severely throttled on Twitter. Anyone using the product can see this. Two, we've used the Twitter API for years to help writers. We believe we're in compliance with the terms, but if they have any specific concerns, we would love to know about them. We'd be happy to address any issues.

3. Matt Tybee is not and has never been an employee of Substack. He writes a Substack and gets paid directly by his readers. That writers making money seems to be such a strange concept is telling. This is very frustrating. It's one thing to mess with Substack, but quite another to treat writers this way. End quote. Twitter and Mastodon users over the weekend were reporting that searching for tweets from Matt Tybee, in particular his posts on the Twitter files, were showing up with no results on Twitter. As of recording, this appears to have been fixed or reversed. Law professor Ann Lipton posted on Mastodon, quote, Yes, it's hilarious, but it's really more evidence that Twitter is not a reliable platform

for information and journalists in particular need to find a new home, end quote. And for those who may want substack notes to be their new home, and gadget notes that substack appears to have no plans to alter its course on the product after all of this, tweeting late on Saturday. Quote, we believe that Twitter and Substack can continue to coexist and complement each other. We look forward to making Substack notes available soon, but we expect it to be a new kind of place within a subscription network, not a replacement for existing social networks. End quote.

Many people are pointing out that this particular controversy is pitting a lot of folks who would usually be on the same side against one another. Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, tweeted Saturday, quote, Elon has asked me to, quote, please tell people on Twitter that you are an investor in the company trying to kill Twitter, end quote. So for anyone who didn't already know, substack is a YC company, end quote. Which then led Benedict Evans to reply, quote, it's very revealing that Elon Musk thinks of it that way around. People are running for the exits because he's trying to bowl. them. Every time he does something to destroy trust, people build backup plans and trying to ban the backup plans is what destroys the trust. Vicious Circle, end quote. And from Ride Home,

I'll just say, don't you wish we could just skip to the end of every Twitter scandal? To that point three days later when the company reverses course and everything we told you about for the past few shows becomes a moot point. Circular indeed. Apple is, is continuing efforts to keep retail stores from unionizing by introducing a new prepared message that management is being asked to read during staff meetings at stores across the U.S. Quoting Bloomberg's Power-On newsletter, over the past two weeks, managers at roughly 270 U.S. retail outlets held meetings with staff members to discuss the risks of unionization

and provide a planned update on bargaining between the company and the first unionized store a location in Towson, Maryland. The talks held during gatherings known as daily downloads, followed a bit of a lull at Apple. Months ago, the company held Q&A and information sessions aimed at addressing unions, and its retail chief sent a video to staffers on the topic. Apple also withheld new benefits from unionized locations, drawing outcry from labor advocates. The efforts so far appeared to work. Only two Apple stores have unionized Towson and Oklahoma the city, and locations that sought to organize workers in Atlanta and St. Louis have walked back their efforts. That means that the current state of unionization at Apple is a far cry from the momentum

seen at Starbucks and other chains. The latest round of meetings was consistent across all of Apple's U.S. stores with the corporate side of the company issuing a prepared message to be read to staffers. During the gatherings, management used the state of the Towson store as a bit of a cautionary tale in what some employees saw as a scare tactic and others as the company simply laying out the facts, end quote. That prepared message's points included, according to Bloomberg, dues that amount to 1.5% of pay with termination within a month if employees don't comply to the payment, this based on the proposal from the union representing Towson, priority being given to full-time employees who want weekends off, which the management statement says, would put part-timers

at a disadvantage, and that longer-tenured employees would be prioritized over new staffers. They also indicated that unions could make changes without employee permission and that even, if only a small fraction of employees participate in a labor election, the union will still apply to the entire store. Quoting again from Bloomberg, the managers explained the unionization process in a way that some employees saw as an attempt to pour cold water on the idea. The company did attempt to thread the needle in its messaging, telling employees it believes in the right to vote, but that it just wants them to be fully informed about what they're voting for. While Apple didn't say it, the underlying message to the company's tens of thousands

of retail employees was clear. If your store unionizes, you may be at a disadvantage. Meanwhile, the company has begun to negotiate with the unionized thousand store, and the two sides haven't found much common ground. So far, the store has made about 20 proposals, while the company has made two. Apple tentatively agreed to one of the union's demands, an updated non-discrimination policy that adds language saying the union itself will not tolerate discrimination rather than just Apple. The iPhone maker rejected proposals on having weekly, instead of bi-weekly pay, a third-party arbitrator for resolving grievances to replace existing procedures, a respect and dignity clause, basing promotions and layoffs on tenure,

and scheduling policies. The sides are still negotiating policies over health and safety, additional training for employees who may see their jobs replaced by new technologies, and what happens if a store permanently closes? End quote. In response, Apple Together, the Global Solidarity Union of Workers from Apple posted an anonymous survey on Twitter for employees to fill out if they're, quote, experiencing union busting in their Apple store or aggressive anti-union talk during daily downloads, end quote. On Sunday, the New York Times published a big piece about the environmental and local economic impacts of large-scale Bitcoin mines, looking particularly at ones in Texas and North Dakota. But many crypto stakeholders

are calling the article out for being inaccurate and mislellan. leading, with some going as far to say it's a hit piece and misinformation. Now, the Times piece is truly a long read, so I'd encourage you to read the whole thing if you want all the details, but here are a few takeaways from the original New York Times article. Gabriel JX. Dance, author of the article, wrote that the Times used, quote, both public and confidential records as well as the results of studies it commissioned, to put the most comprehensive estimates to date on the largest operations power use and the ripple effects of their voracious demand, end quote. The Times makes consistent use of comparison to point out how, for example, a Bitcoin mine in Rockdale, Texas, quote, uses about the same amount of electricity as the nearest 300,000 homes.

And quote, each of the 34 operations the Times identified uses at least 30,000 times as much power as the average U.S. home, end quote. They also point out, quote, in Texas, where 10 of the 34 mines are connected to the state's grid, the increased demand has caused electric bills for power customers to rise nearly 5%, or $1.8 billion per year, according to a simulation performed for the Times, by the energy research and consulting firm Wood McKenzie. The additional power use across the country also causes as much carbon pollution as adding 3.5 million gas-powered cars to America's roads, according to an analysis by Watt Time, a non-profit tech company. Many of the Bitcoin operations promote themselves as environmentally friendly and set up in areas rich with renewable energy, but their power needs are far too great to be satisfied by those

sources alone. As a result, they have become a boon for the fossil fuel industry. Wattime found that coal and natural gas plants kick in to meet 85% of the demand these Bitcoin operations add to their grids, end quote. Now, the Times does cop, quote, in interviews and statements, many of the companies objected to the method the Times and Wattime used to estimate their emissions, which calculated the pollution caused by the additional power generated to satisfy the mine's demand. showing it to overwhelmingly come from fossil fuels. The companies said this method held them to an unfair standard. The analysis cited could be used to attack any industry that consumes power, said David Fogle,

the chief executive of coinment, which operates in upstate New York. I think the entire notion of singling out specific industries like this is unfair. End quote. In a series of lengthy rebuttals to the article on Twitter, climate tech investor Daniel Batten says that the Times article overstates actual fossil fuel use by 32 to 89% for each of the top six mines they mention, and he accuses the times of cherry-picking examples to match their argument. And from Cryptopolitan, quote, Pierre Richard, the vice president of riot platforms, a mining company mentioned several times in the article, requests that the publication

make its methodology and simulation open source so that others can observe how the data was obtained. According to him, the methodology of the research was the primary concern, end quote. And again, there are many more points that have been brought up both by the Times and by the critics of this article. I will link to more of Daniel Batten's rebuttals if you would like to peruse those. Ultimately, however, a larger critique as shared by Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein, is that the Times article, quote, doesn't attempt to describe to the reader what Bitcoin actually does worldwide. If you don't understand Bitcoin's value, then of course you think it's a waste of energy, end quote. Or as Batten ultimately said more optimistically, quote, I'm glad the article was written

because it's provided a wonderful forum for people to learn more about the important role that Bitcoin mining plays in stabilizing grids and incentivizing renewable adoption as we transition our grids over to greater renewable energy percentages, end quote. Like I said, take a look at the article for yourself. The 2023 DellXPS 13 reviews are in. It's thin. Light has a nice screen and improved battery life, but only two ports, quiet speakers, and worse performance than similar models. And just to keep things familiar here, I'm going to pull from Brian's favorite source for reviews, The Verge. Quote, the Dell XPS 13 has long been one of the top recommendations for Windows users looking for a MacBook Air alternative. The model I reviewed in

2020 was one of the best gadgets I've ever reviewed. Everything from the screen to the build, to the performance, and battery life was exceptionally strong. Dell has split up its XPS 13 line. You can get XPS 13 plus, a P-Series OLD machine that prioritizes power over efficiency, or you can get the regular XPS 13, a more traditional and slightly cheaper U-Series clamshell, with a focus on portability and battery life. If the XPS 13 plus is for an eclectic and particular power user, the XPS 13 is for, well, everyone else. I've been using the regular XPS 13 for the past few weeks,

and like, it's fine. It's just fine. It's worse than its 2020 predecessor in some ways and better in others. It continues to bring some of the best build quality in the 13-inch space. The display is fine, the speakers are fine, there's an off-purple color option. It's certainly one of the best Windows laptops you can buy, and it also doesn't come close to the performance or efficiency that today's MacBooks can provide, which says a thing or two about the current state of the Windows laptop space, end quote.

The Verges Monica Chin continues to say that the XPS 13 is a winner in terms of portability at 2.59 pounds and 0.55 inches thick. Its low carbon aluminum and glass build is fingerprint resistant, but got a few scratches after being tooted around in a backpack for a couple of weeks. The keyboard and touchpad are a bit small, so heads up for folks with bigger fingers, but overall sleek, comfortable, and with satisfying and responsive click. The display is crisp with low glare, but quoting again, I've seen some complaints about the lack of choice this XPS 13 affords when it comes to display quality. Specifically, you're limited to a 1920 by 1,160 hertz iPS panel on this model, and many have called for an OLD option. The spec sheet I was sent does indicate that a 4K option is available, which would be something, at least, but that isn't currently listed on Dell's website. And I understand where these complaints are coming from. More options are always good, but I will say that I've never used an OLED XPS that I really liked.

On the XPS 13 plus, the XPS 15, and the most recent OLED XPS 13, it was clear that the extra pixels were significantly eating away at battery life. Those factors don't necessarily ruin the machines, but they're significant enough compromises that I generally find myself recommending other OLED laptops as alternatives. All that said, those seeking a harder-core screen may be better suited to the XPS13 Plus, which has a wider variety of resolution options. Chin concludes, in the past, the XPS 13 was a hands-down contender for the best laptop on the market. But the Apple Silicon MacBook has since barreled onto the scene,

and it wipes the floor with most of the ultra-portable Windows laptops that cross by desk on a daily basis. This XPS is no exception. Compared to the M2 MacBook Air, battery life is worse, benchmark performance is worse, screen, while good, is worse, port selection is worse, audio is worse. The XPS is slightly lighter, and I subjectively prefer the feel of its keyboard, but it has two primary advantages now. The lower price, which is not something I'm used to praising about the XPS line, and the fact that it runs Windows, an operating system that many people like an awful lot. And that has me worried. I'm worried that this might just be the absolute best version of an ultra-portable $1,000-dollar-range Windows laptop that you can buy on today's market. It's a very fine device, but I don't feel that I can enthusiastically praise it the way reviewers used to. The XPS is no longer what sells the XPS. Windows is what sells the XPS. And I wonder if Dell or any OEM will come up with something truly innovative in the next few months that will break that mold.

In the meantime, though, please give us a... few more ports." Well, like Brian said at the end of last week, he has finally taken that trip over to the Motherland, and while he's gone in Ireland, I will be filling in. He's still feeding me plenty of tips and content, so never fear. You may not be hearing his voice, but he's essentially still here. And we'll be back for real on Monday, April the 17th. Until then, I will try to keep the ship afloat as best I can, and I'll try to keep it a bit shorter tomorrow.

Got to get back into the swing of these things. So talk to you again then.