Welcome to Tech LinkedIn, the show chronicling my effort to absorb the
world's tech news so that when I die, scientists in the future can access my
body's memories to find out what the hell was wrong with all of us. The
internet was in chaos today after a serious Amazon Web Services outage.
Banks, airlines, Reddit, Facebook, Fortnite, and a load of other services
and platforms were inaccessible, leaving many people unable to access their own
funds, book crucial flights, and provide crucial context for that weird ass
Reddit comment they just posted. It's not what I meant. Uh, overall, AWS
serves about a third of the internet, and this outage even caused some
technical issues at our office, and we're in Canada. We have our own
internet. Now, this outage is going to cause Amazon to be out some money, too,
as companies that missed out on business during the outage try to collect
repayment from Amazon, with some estimates of the financial damage
reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Amazon says the outage stems
from a DNS issue in North Virginia, an issue which they say has been mitigated,
but there are still ongoing errors, and Amazon says it is working to fully
restore service. I just hope Amazon can fix things soon. Think of all those
unposted thirst traps being lost by
tears and rain.
More research pointing to social media's harmful effects on teens has been
conducted by social media parent company Meta, who didn't tell anyone about it
and I guess hoped everyone just keeps posting through the pain. This internal
meta study reported on by Reuters found that teens who reported feeling worse
about their body after using Instagram tended to see about three times more
content that focused on body shapes or body parts that are usually sexualized
like the chest, buttocks or thighs. This is elbow kink eraser. This and other
content that people may disagree on the appropriateness of is categorized as
people disagree content by Meta in both
the most sensible and most stupid naming decision ever. They changed it to that
from its former name teens sensitive content because what are teens a bunch
of snowflakes? Get over it. Now, obviously, the study doesn't presume to
draw a causal relationship between body dissatisfaction and being served
constant posts of perfectl lookinging people. This is science. But at least
Meta is looking at these things and taking some actions, like giving parents
some controls over their teens ability to chat with the company's AI
characters, who have shown a willingness to problematically flirt with anything
that moves. Xbox has blamed the price of the ROG Xbox Ally X handheld on Asus
with Xbox President Sarah Bond telling Variety that Microsoft left the pricing
up to Asus who apparently have more insight into what people want. There you
have it. They priced it that way because it's what we wanted. We all want $1,000
handhelds. And how does ASUS know what gamers want more than the gaming console
company? Actually, this is Xbox. Uh that that makes sense. Despite their
cluelessness though, Bond reiterated that Xbox is committed to making nextG
hardware, which he confirmed is in development. However, former corporate
VP of Xbox and former president of Blizzard, Mike Ibara thinks they uh they
shouldn't bother. In a tweet, Ibara wrote that only a would continue
to make console hardware when the games all go or will go third party. Ibara
also went after the this is an Xbox ad campaign, saying that whoever came up
with that clearly doesn't play games. I mean, imagine an RPG where any item with
a blade is just called sword. How am I
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three devices at the same dang time with a USBC port and a built-in braided USBC
cable that supports 30 watts input and output so you can fast charge other
devices or recharge your power bank. And if that wasn't enough, it doubles as a
convenient carrying strap. This is just wow. It's 10,000 mAh and yeah, take it
on the plane. It's flight safe. I think it's clear at this point that the UG
Green Mag Flow is your smart charging choice for iPhones, and you can find out
more about it in the link below. Now, you'd think the Quick Bits are easier to
absorb because they're small, but no. Each one makes me feel like I got a
little bit electrocuted. Totally worth it, though. The scientists are counting
on me. A United Airlines flight had its windshield shattered somewhere above
Utah by space debris. Maybe images of
the damage show that the pilot got multiple cuts on their arm, which is
exactly what aliens would do. >> Probes. >> They probed his arm. But he managed to
land safely. Apparently, the aircraft was too high up at the time of impact to
have been hit by a bird of earthly origin anyway. And while hail and an
unregistered weather balloon are being bandied about as possible culprits,
space debris and meteorites are also being suggested. Wait, we So, we still
have just no idea. They haven't Have they looked at the plane yet?
>> I'm pretty sure they think it's the weather balloon.
>> Don't tell them that. So, this is how the invasion kicks off with the Xenos
throwing their interstellar garbage at our passenger planes. We could be
talking about alien technology here, folks. And that's what makes it tech
news. Sure, thousands of NSA and US government
officials have had their personal data stolen by a group of hackers. The same
group recently doxed hundreds of DHS,
ICE, FBI, and DOJ officials. Apparently,
the data comes from the nearly 1 billion Salesforce records stolen earlier this
year, and the group says they have data on more than 22,000 government
officials. Previously, Salesforce told its clients it would not pay a ransom on
the data, so it's everyone else's problem now. And it appears the hacker
group is looking to do business elsewhere. However, upon the alleged
doxing of an NSA official, the group's server was taken offline. Maybe they've
pissed off the US government. Or maybe they got taken down along with Fortnite
and Snapchat and all the other important things. China has accused the US of
carrying out cyber attacks against their national time center, potentially
shattering the fabric of reality itself. Now, that might sound like the US is
attacking the hyperbolic time chamber from Dragon Ball Z or something, but the
time center dictates China's standard time and is crucial for communications,
finance, transportation, power, and defense services throughout the country.
You know, things that need time. Although the US embassy has not
addressed China's allegations, China claims this is part of a years'sl long
set of cyber attacks that saw US agencies use 42 types of special cyber
attack weapons which forced China to experience the horror of daylight
savings time. Why do we still anyway? But the US better look out or China
might send an army of dancing unitry robots that'll sache their way to
vengeance. It is a little terrifying. Microsoft is
denying any links between its data center complex in Kerataro, Mexico, and
local water shortages, power outages, and illnesses. While Microsoft claims
they prioritize the needs of the community there, and Mexico's National
Power Company attributes power outages to stray animals and lightning strikes,
reports of issues have escalated in the last year since the data center opened.
Even if the data center isn't directly responsible for these issues, it seems
the Kerataro region might not be the best spot for a data center anyway
because of the regular droughts it experiences and lack of power
infrastructure, things you've we've said that you need. Some data centers have
even resorted to running on gas generators. Sure, Microsoft's statements
here come off as unconvincing, but they said they didn't do it. So, I'm going to
blame the only other obvious offender that's left. El Chupaca Cabra. They
never proved it wasn't real. Coler, the HomeGoods company has revealed the
Dakota, a little camera that attaches to your toilet bowl and snaps pictures of
what's going on in there. The images of your bowl business will get scanned to
tell you about your hydration level and gut health. Okay. Don't worry, though.
The sensors are pointed down. Your data is end to end encrypted and Coler
promises that with the Dakota privacy comes first, which really does feel like
it needs to be stated about a camera that close to your wrinkle star. And
hey, why don't you get your wrinkle star back here for more tech news on
Wednesday? It's going to be good. And no, I can't promise you that. I don't
know what I'm going to be required to absorb into my body on any given day.
And you might ask, Riley, what does that mean?