Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 11/23 – Foxconn Riots?

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Actual rioting happening at the major Foxconn factory that produces iPhones. Microsoft fully embraces Linux. Advertisers continue to flee from Twitter. What if your wifi router and mesh network was actually a fashionable home décor choice? And surprise! The weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: InternetSociety.org/techmeme Storyblok.com/ridehome Links: Violent Protests Erupt at Apple’s Main iPhone Plant in China (Bloomberg) Windows Subsystem for Linux generally available via Microsoft Store (BleepingComputer) Advertisers are dropping Twitter. Musk can’t afford to lose any more. (Washington Post) Nest Wifi Pro review: better, faster, shinier (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Tiny and Nightmarishly Efficient Future of Drone Warfare (The Atlantic) Robert Iger Returns to Disney Facing Radically Different Streaming Landscape (WSJ) America has an earthquake early-warning system now — on your phone (Washington Post) The Weird-Looking, Fuel-Efficient Planes You Could Be Flying in One Day (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Wednesday, November 23rd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Actual rioting happening at the major Foxcon factory that produces iPhones.

Microsoft fully embraces Linux. Advertisers continue to flee from Twitter. What if your Wi-Fi router and mesh network were actually a fashionable home decor choice? And surprise, the week on Long Read Suggestions. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. There are tons of videos all across social media right now showing Foxx on workers at the iPhone plant in Zhangzhou clashing with security guards as protests have erupted over unpaid wages and COVID-19 fears apparently, quoting Bloomberg. Hundreds of workers at

Apple's main iPhone-making plant in China clashed with security personnel as tensions boiled over after almost a month under tough restrictions intended to quash a COVID outbreak. Workers at the Foxcon Technology Group plant streamed out of dormitories in the early hours of Wednesday, jostling and pushing past the white-clad guards. They vastly outnumbered, according to videos sent by a witness to portions of the protest. Several white-suited people pummeled a person lying on the ground with sticks in another clip. Onlookers yelled, fight, fight, as throngs of people forced their way past barricades. At one point, several surrounded in-occupied police car and began rocking the vehicle while screaming incoherently. The protest started overnight over unpaid wages and fears of spreading infection,

according to the witness, asking to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions. Several workers were injured, and anti-riot police arrived on the scene Wednesday to restore order, the person added. In one video, irate workers surrounded a silent downcast manager in a conference room to voice grievances and question their COVID test results. It wasn't clear when the meeting took place. I'm really scared about this place. We could all be COVID positive now, a male worker said. You are sending us to death, another person said. The Zhangzhou campus was operating normally as a of Wednesday evening, a Foxcon spokesperson said, the rare instances of violence at the plant reflects a buildup of tension since the lockdown began in October. Many among the vast

workforce of more than 200,000 at so-called iPhone City have been plunged into isolation, forced to subsist on Spartan meals and scrounge for medication. Many eventually fled the plant on foot last month. Foxconn and the local government appeared to have gotten the situation under control in recent weeks, promising unusually high wages to attract new staff and promising better working conditions. Wednesday morning's protests suggest that is no longer the case. It underscores how Xi Jinping's COVID-Zero policy, which relies on swift lockdowns to stamp out the disease wherever it pops up, is increasingly weighing on the economy and throwing swathes of the global supply chain into disarray. Beijing recently issued new directives ordering officials to minimize disruption

and use more targeted COVID controls, but surging outbreaks in major cities have forced local authorities to reach for strict curbs again. Zhang Zhao is the site of Apple's most critical production churning out an estimated four in five of its latest generation handsets and the vast majority of the highest-end iPhone 14 Pro units. Apple warned this month that shipments of its newest premium iPhones will be lower than previously expected just ahead of the peak holiday season shopping. The sprawling compound has operated for weeks within a closed loop or a self-contained bubble that limits contact with the outside world. That is keeping some production going. Apple and Foxcon have said they're working to replace staff who've left and resume full production as soon as possible, end quote.

Windows subsystem for Linux is now generally available for Windows 10 and 11 via the Microsoft Store, as Microsoft makes the store version of WSL the default instead of an optional operating system. component. Quoting, bleeping computer. While both provide the same user experience with the Microsoft Store version being the default, users will get faster updates and servicing as soon as they are available instead of waiting for a Windows operating system update. Additionally, following customer requests, all Windows 10 users can now use Linux GUI apps after updating to the Microsoft Store version. Microsoft release WSL in 2018 as a compatibility layer allowing Windows users to run Linux binaries on their computers natively using PowerShell or a Windows 10 command prompt. WSL2, a notable upgrade that significantly increased file system performance was released in May

2019, adding support for full system call compatibility and using a Linux kernel running inside a lightweight virtual machine. It also added support for GUI-based Linux apps with the introduction of WSLG short for Windows subsystem for Linux GUI, which started rolling out to Windows Insiders in May of 2021. You can find detailed guidance on installing and launching Linux GUI apps on the official WSLG GitHub page, end quote. Folks have been focusing on Twitter's processes, maybe going down to bugs and other things, but I've been staying laser-focused on this. According to Pathmatics, over a third of Twitter's top 100 advertising clients, including brands like Mars and Jeep, as well as 14 of the top 50,

Twitter advertisers haven't advertised on Twitter in the past two weeks, quoting the Washington Post. Ads for blue-chip brands, including Jeep and Mars Candy, whose corporate parents were among the top 100 U.S. advertisers on the site in the six months before Musk's purchase, haven't appeared there since at least November 7, the analysis found. Musk assumed ownership of the site October 27th. Mars started suspending advertising activities on Twitter in late September when we learned of some significant brand safety and suitability incident, that impacted our brand, said a statement to the post from Mars, which, in addition to its namesake

candy, makes other food and pet products. Pharmaceutical company Merck, serial maker Kellogg, Verizon, and Samuel Adams Brewer, Boston Beer, also have stopped their advertising in recent weeks the Pathematics data shows. The companies didn't respond to requests for comment from the post. Pathematics data is generated from collecting the ads shown to a sample of Twitter users in the United States. The company estimated that each top marketers' ads were shown. tens of millions of times per week or more during their busiest weeks on the site, with some of the advertisers' ads being shown billions of times over the six months before the pause, end quote. How about a review? There's a new Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro system out there,

and according to the Verge, it's easy to use, it's inexpensive, there are no annoying subscriptions required for basic functions, and crucially it has a nice design, but Ethernet is limited to one GbPS, there's no Google Assistant integration, and few parental options. Quote, the NESTPro is one of the few routers that won't look like a dead spider on your sideboard. And while it's not a high bar, these are the best-looking Wi-Fi routers you can buy. As well as white, the NEST Pro comes in pale blue, beige, or yellow, which may blend in better with your home decor. While I am not a big fan of the shiny finish, it's a bit distracting, they still look better out in the open, the best place for the best signal than most other routers. As a mesh networking system,

the Nest Wi-Fi Pro's closest competitor is the Eero Wi-Fi Pro 6E. Like Eero, Google is targeting people who want something that's nice looking, reliable, easy to use, and that will work well with their smart home, rather than networking experts or people who want hands-on control of every aspect of their networking setup. In testing, the NEST Pro has some advantages over the ERO, while its speeds were slightly slower. They were more consistent throughout the house, and Google offers for free some features that ERO locks behind a monthly subscription. But Nests fixed 6 gigahertz backhaul can struggle to maintain consistent speeds on the nodes furthest from the router, and it only has one GbPS Ethernet ports so it can't handle multi-gig connections. The NEST Pro is a tri-band Wi-Fi

6E router with 1, 2.4 gigahertz, 1 5 gigahertz, and 1 6 gigahertz band. That last one is new. It gives the few 6 gigahertz capable devices, mostly flagship Android phones and a few gaming laptops, a fat new, uncluttered band to speed along on. But the 6 gigahertz band's main job here is to act as a dedicated backhaul turning multiple Ness Pro units into a mesh network. Each pro router can support up to 100 devices, and the system supports theoretical maximum speeds of 2,400 MbPS on 5 gigahertz and 6 gigahertz, and a bit below 600 MbPS on 2.4 gigahertz. That's more than double the combined speeds of the last-gen-n Nest Wi-Fi. Those are theoretical maximums. In practice, you can only connect to one band at a time.

You won't see anywhere close to the maximum speed on any single device, and the pros Ethernet ports are capped at one gig-bit anyway. If you have multi-gig internet, you'll be wasting money. Each router has a thread radio built in. This will be key when support for the new smart home standard matter arrives on Google Home devices, as it will turn Nest Wi-Fi Pro routers into thread border routers, capable of connecting thread smart home devices as well as Matter controllers. So if you have or are considering starting a smart home, the Nest Wi-Fi Pro is one of the first three-and-one devices, Matter controller, Wi-Fi router, thread-border router on the market. There will likely be more, and the Eero line is being upgraded to matter next year. Going forward, it's

likely that thread and matter will be built into every Wi-Fi access point. But the Nest Wi-Fi Pro will be a good fit today if you're looking to future-proof your smart home. Don't anticipate access to multi-gig speeds and want to avoid the Dead Spider aesthetic, end quote. Time for the weekend long read suggestions from the Atlantic. Another story about how drones are changing warfare as we know it. Russia's war in Ukraine has only given us a taste. of what's to come from things like autonomous drone swarms. Quote, For years, military strategists have anticipated the arrival of the so-called drone swarm,

a large cluster of small flying machines that will herald a new era of intelligent warfare. Thousands of robotic aircraft, no bigger than a starling, would be all but invisible when spread out, yet capable of instantly coalescing into a swirling dark cloud like a murmuration. It would move the way such phenomena move in nature, guided by a kind of group intellect. The weapons deployed in Ukraine by both sides are still far from the full nightmare potential. A swarm would use artificial intelligence to allow individual drones to behave autonomously while also harnessing the wisdom of the collective. David Hambling, in his 2015 book,

Swarm Troopers reported that software engineers had already been able to simulate these great swarms in nature by programming drones with three simple instructions. Separate, or keep a certain minimum distance from others, align or stay on the same course as your neighbors, and cohere or attempt to move toward the average position of your neighbor. So instructed, drone swarms would move in clouds that function as a single entity, perhaps widely dispersed at first, hiding them from radar only to converge on a target at the last minute. The swarm would be capable of reacting to threats without human intervention, changing course, speed, or altitude, maneuvering around heavily protected air spaces, and could absorb huge losses without stopping.

machines do not get discouraged and turn back. This is the holy grail, one military analyst said. This is what everybody's working towards. By everybody, I mean advanced countries and advanced militaries hoping to utilize swarm technologies. So the list is short, but it's slowly growing. Of course, it's the United States, it's Israel, it's China, it's Russia, it's Turkey, it's Iran, and perhaps a handful of other states like India and South Korea, end quote. When you consider that a drone swarm consisting of many thousands of off-the-shelf drones would cost less than,

less than, say, one F-35 fighter or a ballistic missile, you have a weapon that would give rogue states or terrorist groups the means to launch devastating attacks or assassinations anywhere in the world. Since the Korean War, American armed forces have controlled the skies wherever they have gone into battle. No other nation had the means to compete with it. The costs, the technology, the experience, and the level of training required are beyond the reach of even the most affluent nation states. Drones swarms could end that domination. An aircraft carrier, a commercial airliner, the White House, the president, sitting ducks, end quote. Then the Wall Street Journal takes a look at what comes next as Bob Eager returns to Disney.

In short, the streaming landscape that he helped kick off is radically different than when he left it. Many of the streaming industry's biggest players are shifting from a growth-oriented streaming strategy to profitability, but are doing so in a difficult economic environment and an intensely competitive market. Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zazlov recently said that profitability, not the number of streaming subscribers, will be the company's benchmark of success. I believe the grand experiment chasing subs at any cost is over, Mr. Zazlov said earlier this month, spending a lot on content while making a, quote, fraction in return, all in the service of growing sub-numbers has ultimately proven, in our view, to be deeply flawed, he said, end quote.

Next from the Washington Post, did you know that we now have the best earthquake early warning system that we've ever had before, thanks to your phone, or thanks to all of our phones collectively. Quote, known as Shake Alert, America's earthquake early warning system was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners to give you typically up to 20 seconds of advance warning before significant shaking arrives or even a minute in extreme circumstances. If you're close to the epicenter, you might not get much notice, but it could still be enough to protect yourself.

After nearly two decades of development, Shake Alert is now operating in Oregon, California, and Washington State, where it's considered 83% complete. The U.S. Geological Survey is considering expanding the system to Alaska next. Shake Alert got one of its largest tests with that October earthquake when it took less than 10 seconds for the system to send about 2.1 million warnings to Californians like me. Thankfully, there were no reports of major injuries. For me, the little bit of early notice helped me prepare mentally for what was about to come. The experience also left me wondering, how can a push alert reach my phone faster than shaking does? That's a multi-stage process, and really I find it just fascinating that we can do it at all, says Dave Crocker, a member of the Shake Alert operations team at the USGS, end quote. And finally, when Penny and I flew back from Chicago the other weekend, the pilot made a point of announcing that we were flying on some new form of airbus that was super fuel efficient. Well, according to the journal, that's just the beginning. a look at the weird-looking super-fuel-efficient planes that we could all be flying someday soon.

The designs now exist mainly as artist renderings, models, and small-scale prototypes. That could be set to finally change. NASA in June launched a competition for U.S. companies to design and build a full-scale demonstrator. The rules require entrance to target planes around the size of a Boeing 737 that can carry 150 passengers. The agency wants a prototype that could fly as early as 2027, and be ready for mass production in the next decade. Aircraft designers have coalesced around three main designs, which people involved in the latest contest said are expected to feature prominently in the entries. They carry exotic names such as transonic trussed braced wings, blended wing bodies, and double bubbles

that reflect how far removed they are from most of the conventional planes that now carry commercial passengers worldwide. The blended wing models and the double bubbles, which combine two almost round fuselages, use the main body of the plane to provide lift, rather than relying mainly on the wings, Professor Hansman says. They also don't need drag-inducing tailplanes. Transonic truss-braced wing models use a conventional passenger tube, which is aerodynamically efficient and an easy shape to pressurize so passengers can breathe oxygen at altitude. They incorporate long, thin wings that have less drag and flight than conventional ones, but are more delicate and need support struts to reduce the stress where they join the body.

Such designs promise improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions, mainly from reducing aerodynamic drag, says Professor Hansman, head of the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, end quote. All right, everybody, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow here in the U.S., so no regular show tomorrow, no regular show on Friday. First regular show will return on Monday. In the meantime, I do have a bonus episode for you, a look at Space Tech via a interview with the Internet Society. I'm just not sure what day I'll drop it, either tomorrow or Friday or Saturday. Either way, definitely a look at the whole internet from space, space, looking at issues I had never considered before. Enjoy that. Happy Thanksgiving. Talk to you on

Monday.