Issue 134
🫧 The Bitcoin Bubble Is (Allegedly) Not Bursting, and Uber Decided to Become Big Taxi
Intro
Hello there,
Pressing link after link on the internet has worked well for me this month. It means I have a collection of bizarre and interesting stories from around the web that I'd like to share!
This month, I've got the following for you:
🫧 The Bitcoin bubble is not bursting, but shrinking.
🦹🏿♂️ Paying unethical people money doesn't press their ethics switch.
🚕 Uber decided to become Big Taxi and carry out some (allegedly) illegal and aggressive lobbying.
Enjoy this month's stories!
-Tom
📰 From the Newsroom
Investment Experts Think Bitcoin's Value Is Going to Split-Coin 🖖🏻
When Bitcoin was first announced, the world at large laughed. However, the cryptocurrency hit the gym, got a sensei, and came back buff and full of value. Early investors kicked sand in the face of the bullies, but now the tide is turning again.
2022 and cryptocurrencies aren't friends. In fact, Bitcoin has saw a 47% loss in June alone, with 60% of a polled cross-section of investors believing it will get worse before it gets better - projecting that Bitcoin can get chopped in half yet again.
Here's why the crash is happening:
The COVID-19 pandemic saw crypto as 'easy money.' However, now the world is opening up again, the focus is switching to other moneymakers. For example, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are a hot trend, but they aren't doing well either.
Retail is not taking to cryptocurrencies as the industry would hope. This is something that crypto like Bitcoin needs to happen in order to become more legitimate, but retail is skeptical.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not regulated, but they are getting enough attention that governments feel the pressure to do so. This is causing more people to sit back and wait to see what happens before investing.
I think we all need to step back and consider that Roblox coins should be the currency we all need to use. This would make me feel better about the $2,000 a year I spend on it, anyway.
futurism.com
If Hackers Ask You For a Ransom to Give You Back Your Stuff, Guess What? They Might Not Give It Back 🏴☠️
We're at a funny crossroad with ransomware attacks. We know they are bad, and we know that you also need your data back without delay. Even better, victims of ransomware bring their legal counsel on board to help figure out a solution. That advise – which is on the rise – is to pay the ransom.
This is bad, for a few reasons:
One, if you pay an unethical person a ransom, you are rewarding them for the effort. Psychology 101 tells you that if you reward the effort, you'll see repeated behavior - i.e., more ransomware attacks.
One of the conditions of paying a ransom is that your data will disappear from the hacker's servers. This isn't guaranteed though, which means you have your data, but your security is still shot.
You might not even get your data back, because, well, hackers. They have no legal obligation to do anything.
One of the reasons for paying a ransom is to stop any further financial penalties from regulatory bodies such as the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) in the UK. This isn't 'known fix' though, and the ICO state that a business still might face those penalties, regardless. The only solution is mitigation and a more robust security policy.
zdnet.com
There Has Been Some 'Uber-Strength' Lobbying With a Side-Dose of Deceitful Behavior In the Taxi Industry 🚖
If you want to find something on the internet, you Google it. If you want to travel, you get an Uber. The transport company delivers almost everything a taxi company should be for the customer, and it has the rest of the industry quaking in fear.
As a former lobbyist for Uber revealed though, that aggressive expansion across the world was the reward for some shady, deceitful, and potentially illegal tactics. Here's some of the juicy details:
Governments who saw Uber as violating local transportation laws had their heads turned by a team of lobbyists. In turn, this resulted in the taxi regulations changing to suit Uber's policies and expansion.
In France, Uber had support from upon high – Emmanuel Macron (at the time, he was an economy minister) went to bat for Uber. In fact, he and the then Uber CEO Travis Kalanick were on first-name terms. Kalanick even had no problems with Uber drivers using violence at protests in 2015.
Lobbyists carried out similar 'eyelash-batting' strategies towards leaders such as Joe Biden in the US and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Will this change anything though? Probably not. After all, Uber is entrenched in the taxi industry, and customers love what the service offers. Also, the new CEO – Dara Khosrowshahi – has acted as profusely apologetic. All combined, this is likely to keep the wolves at bay.
cnet.com
⛓️ Ten Must See Links of the Month
Microsoft are continuing their on-again, off-again relationship with VBA macros within Office 365 apps. Right now, you can't use them – in the near future, though, have at it.
Oh dear – speaking of poor relationships, Elon and Twitter are most definitely off. Now, the real-life Tony Stark is not buying Twitter, the flappable social media company is trying to force the sale through the courts.
We’re now giving Artificial Intelligence (AI) intuition, and Skynet is one step closer to sending a Terminator back to the past.
Everyone's favorite aspect of the internet – advertisements – will soon come to your mobile device's lock screen. If you're happy about this, I have some Bitcoin to sell you.
Lithium-Ion batteries are no match for solid-state versions. The latter is cheaper, safer, and charges faster. Even better, they're almost ready to become a part of electric car manufacturing.
The FBI just can't stop putting tech down such as super-secret computers and night vision googles, then forgetting where they put them. Someone get them a bulk order of AirTags.
Dall-E is a new type of open-source AI that will draw nine images based on your prompt. It's like Fiverr, but free and you're talking to Ron from Ron's Gone Wrong. We typed in "Bizarro Devs" and got cursed Supermen.
First there was Cliff's Notes, but now, Wordtune and similar apps are leading the line for natural language processing and understanding. It could change how we read, write, and understand language.
If a product is free, you're the product. Tell this to the two people who lost $8 million in cryptocurrency trying to claim a free $2,000 in Bitcoin.
For some reason, US President Joe Biden decided he would be the one to share the first public image from the James Webb Telescope. The image itself is a composite of nearly 13 hours of photos taken using a Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
🎤 It’s How They Said It
Carl Sagan
🧮 The numbers game
1.4 million: The number of frogs a teenager in the UK decided to breed for his "frog army."
Five: The length of the 'Sweded' version of the Dragon Ball Z Majin Buu Saga that features gaming luminaries Hideo Kojima, Gabe Newell, and more.
85%: The number of IT decision makers who believe their business will see a negative impact from rising business costs.
Outro
That's it for this month. If you have links to share, then my emails are always open. Simply reply to this email to land in my inbox.
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Have a great month,
-Tom