Techlink does not legally liable for any feelings of breathless
exhilaration or dystopian horror experienced while viewing
our show. By watching this part of the video, you agree to that. And everything else, I say, ha, gotcha.
Around 2,500 pages of technical documents purportedly detailing the inner workings of Google Search
has leaked online. The documents directly contradict
years worth of public statements from Google about how their algorithm works, including
that rankings aren't determined by click-centric user
signals. They are. They don't consider subdomains separately from domains.
They do. And they don't consider the age of a domain or penalize new sites.
They do again. Google itself has not confirmed or denied
whether the documents are authentic, possibly because the leaked trove was allegedly acquired
when Google itself accidentally published them to GitHub.
That's a Microsoft site. And they were saved by an external automated
documentation service. If true, the charitable read here
is that Google was trying to obfuscate the way its algorithm works from spammers and potential competitors.
The uncharitable read is that Google is a lying liar who lies.
Beyond these kinds of direct, let's say, fibs,
marketing expert Rand Fishkin says, the documents reveal that Google Search prioritizes
big, powerful brands over pretty much everyone else,
even when small independent sites are more authoritative, trustworthy, and relevant, which is a bit
like getting all your health advice from Mr. Beast because he has way more Twitter followers
than your doctor. He does. That's Dr. Beast to you.
PayPal has announced that it is launching an ad network that will target its 400 million users
with personalized promotions based on the data the company has collected on their past purchases
and spending habits. And honestly, PayPal, I don't need ads
for more body pillows. You should already know that. PayPal says that users will be able to opt out
of their data being included in the ad targeting, which isn't quite the same as opting out
of their data being collected. The only option PayPal appears to offer
for controlling what information they collect about you is deleting your account.
This would also presumably affect users of Venmo and browser extension Honey, which PayPal controls.
The announcement follows a rough patch for PayPal, including significant layoffs,
tepid growth projections, and an unwhelming stock performance.
That being said, this could also be an opportunistic bid
to take advantage of the DOJ's ongoing antitrust lawsuit
against Google's own ad business. Who knows?
Maybe in 20 years, 30 years, it'll be PayPal
writing absurd checks to regulators in a desperate attempt to make their legal problems go away.
OpenAI says that it has formed a new safety committee
less than a month after it dissolved the old AI safety committee.
This new, even safer committee will apparently be led by CEO Sam Altman,
who obviously just has a ton of time on his hands and loves meetings, as well as board chair Brett Taylor
and fellow board member, Nicole Seligman.
Seligman, you decide. According to OpenAI's blog post,
the first task of the safety and security committee will be to evaluate
OpenAI's current processes and safeguards for 90 days,
after which they will report to the full board and presumably recommend the creation
of a third final safest committee. In a fantastic case of awkward timing,
former OpenAI board member, Helen Toner, has spoken publicly on Sam Altman's firing
and rehiring late last year. According to Toner, a major factor
leading up to the surprise dismissal was a series of serious lies by omission
on the part of Altman, including failing to disclose ownership stake
in the OpenAI startup fund and failing to notify the board
that chatGPT would be launching November, 2022,
meaning that they found out about it at the same time as the rest of us on Twitter.
Much like hot dogs, quick bits are made of all the less appetizing offcuts of regular tech news,
which would grind up into delicious paste and extrude Reddit to your waiting mouths.
Sometimes they're wrapped in stomach skin. Colorado is the latest state to pass
right to repair legislation for consumer electronics with a bill that goes beyond requiring
that companies provide documentation, software data,
and repair tools to consumers and independent repair shops at a fair price.
The new law also limits parts pairing,
which other states have shied away from due to industry pushback.
This will likely put even more pressure on Apple who have softened their position
on used parts in recent months, like an uptight mom folding to the social pressure
to order pizza by pretending it was her idea, but only plain cheese.
Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent
that will let Windows 11 users install Android apps through the Tencent App Store,
which will be integrated with the Microsoft Store, albeit only in China.
It's unclear whether this new arrangement involves the Windows subsystem for Android
used by Microsoft's Amazon App Store partnership, which the company suddenly killed a couple months ago.
What is clear is that Microsoft is either scared of making a deal with Google,
or they just don't know what the Google Play Store.
New rumors have surfaced regarding NVIDIA's purportedly upcoming ARM-based processor,
not only is Team Green allegedly partnering with MediaTek to take on Qualcomm's Windows on ARM offerings next year,
but NVIDIA may be turning to Intel's foundries
for the silicon. It may sound a bit weird for Intel to help usher in the end of the x86 architecture
that they developed in the first place, but hey, if someone's gonna put an end to your life's work,
it'd be nice to at least make a buck off its demise.
Turn into hot dogs. The Japanese space agency JAXA has lost communication
with its Akatsuki spacecraft in orbit around Venus,
not Uranus. Losing contact with Akatsuki is significant,
since it's currently the only active mission at Venus, probably because the planet is a hellscape.
In addition to newly discovered volcanic activity, Venus sports a surface temperature of 464 degrees Celsius,
a surface pressure 92 times higher than Earth's,
and it's covered in clouds of sulfuric acid,
the worst kind of acid. Yet, we sent a probe there anyway,
proving that even the greatest scientific minds of our time somehow can't tell
when a woman wants to be left alone. Men.
Gigabyte has built a motherboard with a PCIe slot that can support graphics cards weighing up to,
a whopping 128 pounds, which would sound completely unnecessary
even five years ago. But it seems like recently the GPU industry
has heavily selected for a chunk. Bench Life previewed the board, named the B650e,
AORUS Pro X, a USB4, and while it has some other cool features,
I just couldn't concentrate on them after imagining plugging in a graphics card
the size of a dog. Maybe even three or four dogs,
depending on how small your dog is. It wouldn't even have to work.
I'd be happy. And just looking at the proportions of the slot, it would be a wiener dog.
You know what else would make me happy? If you came back on Friday for more tech news,
please, I need this.