Month: August 2018

(credit: Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock)

Tens of millions of people in the AT&T and Verizon service territories can only buy slow DSL Internet from the companies, yet they often have to pay the same price as fiber customers who get some of the fastest broadband speeds in the US.

That's the conclusion of a new white paper written by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), a broadband advocacy group.

AT&T has been charging $60 a month to DSL customers for service between 6 and 10Mbps downstream and 0.6Mbps to 1Mbps upstream, the white paper notes, citing AT&T's advertised prices from July 2018. AT&T also charges $60 a month for 50Mbps and 75Mbps download tiers and even for fiber service with symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100Mbps. These are the regular rates after first-year discounts end, before any extra fees and taxes.

Enlarge (credit: Spencer Platt | Getty Images)

Tesla is creating its own chips optimized for machine learning, CEO Elon Musk said during a call with investors on Wednesday. Musk acknowledged the rumored project last December but is now providing more details.

"We've been in semi-stealth mode for the last two to three years," Musk said.

During that time, Tesla created what Musk described as "the world's most advanced computer specifically for autonomous operation."

Enlarge (credit: Spencer Platt | Getty Images)

Tesla is creating its own chips optimized for machine learning, CEO Elon Musk said during a call with investors on Wednesday. Musk acknowledged the rumored project last December but is now providing more details.

"We've been in semi-stealth mode for the last two to three years," Musk said.

During that time, Tesla created what Musk described as "the world's most advanced computer specifically for autonomous operation."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Thursday morning, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed freezing fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles at 2020 levels, erasing the gradual fuel economy increases that were signed into law by the Obama administration just before Trump took office.

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt deemed the fuel economy standards too high in April and opened a formal rule-making process to revise the standards. Rule-making takes time, and undoing a law requires studies, documentation, and public comment periods. After Pruitt, facing ever-growing spending scandals, resigned in July, Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler became acting administrator and took up the mantle of rolling back fuel-efficiency standards.

The proposed rule published today (PDF) was issued in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which maintains a parallel set of fuel economy standards. The rule also challenges California's authority to set fuel economy standards that are more aggressive than federal standards, setting up a legal battle between the Golden State and the federal government.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Thursday morning, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed freezing fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles at 2020 levels, erasing the gradual fuel economy increases that were signed into law by the Obama administration just before Trump took office.

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt deemed the fuel economy standards too high in April and opened a formal rule-making process to revise the standards. Rule-making takes time, and undoing a law requires studies, documentation, and public comment periods. After Pruitt, facing ever-growing spending scandals, resigned in July, Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler became acting administrator and took up the mantle of rolling back fuel-efficiency standards.

The proposed rule published today (PDF) was issued in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which maintains a parallel set of fuel economy standards. The rule also challenges California's authority to set fuel economy standards that are more aggressive than federal standards, setting up a legal battle between the Golden State and the federal government.

Enlarge (credit: CreditDebitPro)

Physicists have a reputation for being a bunch of stickybeaks—they will jump into unrelated fields and tell everyone that they are doing it wrong. This reputation is so well deserved that there is even a relevant XKCD. Sometimes, though, it all works out—usually because the physicists stick to their area of expertise, which just happens to be relevant to the problem.

In this case, we are talking about economics. It just so happens that the economy falls into the category of a complex system, which various physicists spend a lot of time playing with.

The paper in question seems to bring together a number of slowly developing concepts in economics. Taken together, and adding a touch of dynamical modeling, their merger leads to better forecasts for gross domestic product (GDP)—and I expect that other economic indicators can be attacked by a similar procedure.

Enlarge / In a weird and gross way, these two subjects complement each other. (credit: @ThePracticalDev)

Below you’ll find the third installment of the After On interview with legendary tech publisher and prognosticator Tim O’Reilly. Please check out parts one and two if you missed them. Otherwise, press play on the embedded player, or pull up the transcript—both of which are below.

In today’s installment, Tim rejects the fashionable forecast that automation will eradicate all human jobs next week. Being closer than most of us to Jeff Bezos, he knows a thing or three about operations at Amazon, which presents a fascinating case in point.

The company began a hugely successful two-year robot buying spree in 2014. The robots automated countless repetitive and dangerous human tasks. And during that time, the company hired more than 100,000 new people in its warehouses. It turns out, these robots amplify the productivity of the folks who work with them. And when bosses get more bang for their buck from a category of worker, they tend to hire more of them.

Enlarge / The note sent to affiliate program members letting them know a major source of revenue will be going away. (credit: TouchArcade)

Apple is shutting down an App Store affiliate program that shared a small percentage of revenue generated by third-party links to purchase apps or in-app content. The move will likely have an outsized impact on sites that provide editorial reviews and recommendations of mobile games and other apps, which rely on that affiliate revenue for much of their budget.

The announcement, which will become effective October 1, comes just over a year after Apple cut the program's revenue sharing rates for mobile apps from 7 percent to 2.5 percent. Affiliates will still continue to earn a commission on linked sales for iTunes movies, TV shows, music, and books, as well as subscriptions to Apple Music.

In a note sent to affiliate program members, Apple said the long-running program is shutting down because of "the launch of the new App Store on both iOS and macOS and their increased methods of app discovery." The implication, it seems, is that Apple's own built-in app discovery algorithms are now so good that it no longer needs to encourage actual humans to recommend and link to specific apps and games via the Web.