Techmeme: Experts say Hua Hong, China's second-largest chip foundry, is barely affected by US sanctions and its focus on older chips could make it Beijing's new favorite (Qianer Liu/Financial Times)

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December 26, 2022, 9:00 PM

Top News

Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:

Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant — Musk's intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

How Elon Musk's finances got more complicated as TSLA dropped 65%+ in 2022, shrinking his borrowing power and his fortune from an estimated $340B peak to $140B — Billionaire's borrowing power has shrunk with Tesla share decline — Elon Musk's Unconventional Management Style: Former Employees Share Stories

More: Livemint. Tweets: @techwontsaveus, @jimpethokoukis, @ryanbethencourt, @brian_henderson, and @peterbakernyt

Freddy Brewster / Los Angeles Times:

FOIA emails detail Sam Bankman-Fried's courtship of US federal regulators, including hiring former regulators and dining with ex-CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz — Before his mid-December arrest, cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly claimed that he was a responsible business leader …

More: Insider and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @markamesexiled, @nkulw, @denniskelleher, @bitboy_crypto, @foiafeed, @attorneyjeremy1, @jeffbercovici, @denniskelleher, and @johnlothian

Timmy Shen / Forkast:

IntoTheBlock: the Bitcoin network hash rate fell by 38.8%+ on December 24 from its December 21 peak as many US-based miners paused operations due to blizzards — The Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped by more than 38.8% from its peak on Wednesday, as many U.S.-based miners have been forced …

More: CoinDesk, The Block, Wu Blockchain, Cryptopolitan, Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist.com, Decrypt, Bitcoin News, and crypto.news

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @lopp and @peterktodd

Jaran Mellerud / Hashrate Index:

Analysis: publicly listed bitcoin mining companies collectively owe $4B+, led by bankrupt Core Scientific with $1.3B as of September 30 and Marathon with $851M — The public bitcoin mining companies collectively owe more than $4 billion, and the biggest of them has already declared bankruptcy due to its unsustainable debt burden.

More: The Block

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Stanford study: programmers who used AI tools like GitHub Copilot to solve a set of coding challenges produced less secure code than those who did not — At the same time, tools like Github Copilot and Facebook InCoder make developers believe their code is sound

More: arXiv and WinBuzzer

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @divergencearran, @timmisiak, and @weldpond

Omer Benjakob / Haaretz:

A look at Tel Aviv-based Toka, which helps governments, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement hack security cameras to alter live feeds and past recordings — Meet Toka, the Israeli cyber firm founded by Ehud Barak, that lets clients hack cameras and change their feeds - just like in Hollywood heist movies

Tweets: @haaretzcom, @spyblog, @haaretzcom, @haaretzcom, @omerbenj, @marwasf, @omerbenj, and @evacide

Ben Hunte / VICE:

A look at the Central African Republic's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022 and launch a half-baked “Sangocoin” cryptocurrency in July 2022 — The Central African Republic heralded its status as the only country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as legal currency …

More: Reuters, Cointelegraph, BeInCrypto, and CoinGeek

Mastodon: @deivudesu@mastodon.social. Tweets: @cfr_org and @viceworldnews

Justin Garrison / Justin Garrison:

Stack Overflow's 2022 Developer Survey: 40.2% use a Linux-based system, up from 25.3% in 2021 and 23.2% in 2018, compared to 62.3% for Windows and 31.1% for Mac — Thanks to the 2022 StackOverflow developer survey we can finally say 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop!

More: WebProNews, Slashdot, and Stack Overflow

Tweets: @thom_wolf, @sspaeti, @akien, @akien, @akien, @akien, @cfkschaller, @rothgar, and @shomikghosh21

Qianer Liu / Financial Times:

Experts say Hua Hong, China's second-largest chip foundry, is barely affected by US sanctions and its focus on older chips could make it Beijing's new favorite — US restrictions on advanced tech help foundry benefit from Beijing's shifting view of the semiconductor supply chain

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:

A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing device for hackers to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors, garage doors, and more — Don't be fooled by its fun name and Tamagotchi-like interface—this do-everything gadget is trouble waiting to happen and a whole lot more.

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

Experts warn of a months-long disruption risk to Apple's iPhone production, operations, and Chinese consumer demand caused by China's latest COVID-19 wave — Supply chain experts warn outbreak following reversal of zero-Covid curbs creates uncertainty for iPhone maker

More: Techaeris, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, Gizchina, Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, Nikkei Asia, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iLounge, Yahoo Finance, The Register, and New York Times

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @dnystedt, @barrypavel, @levinepmc, @catherinemary0, @aadilbrar, @finestyew, @danharris, and @patrickmcgee_

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:00 PM ET, December 26, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Sources: after its amended offer, WBD board members are weighing whether Paramount could offer a superior deal, possibly sparking a new bidding war with Netflix

CNN:

Don Lemon pleads not guilty to two federal charges stemming from his reporting at an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church

Hollie Richardson / The Guardian:

A look at the growth of Belfast in Northern Ireland as a home for producing TV shows, following the success of the comedy Derry Girls

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More News

Iris Deng / South China Morning Post:

Chinese government data for January to October 2022 shows domestic smartphone shipments fell 22% YoY from 275.3M to 214.5M units

More: PingWest and Reuters

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:

Jon Peddie Research: there are 18 companies globally developing and producing GPUs; eight out of the 11 PC and data center GPU designers are based in China

More: Business Wire

Matthew Field / Telegraph:

Source: Magic Leap raised $450M in 2022, across $150M in equity and $300M in debt, giving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority control of the company

Mastodon: @caseynewton@mastodon.social. Thanks:@matthfield

Financial Times:

Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales from COVID-19 disruptions

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @baxiabhishek

Jennifer Conrad / Wired:

Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel on AI's ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation trade-offs, and more

Tweets: @wired and @jenniferconrad

Earlier Picks

Shen Lu / Wall Street Journal:

Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo's marketplace Temu app had 10.8M US installations since September 1 and became the most downloaded US app from November 1 to December 14

More: The PhilaVerse. Tweets: @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @shenlulushen, and @timcohn

Ricardo Cano / San Francisco Chronicle:

A new California law effectively bans dealers and carmakers like Tesla from “deceptively naming or marketing” semi-autonomous vehicles as full self-driving

More: TESLARATI, PCMag, and Notebookcheck.net

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @chuckbaggett, @sfchronicle, @wholemarsblog, @scottmoura, @sfchronicle, and @jacktwhitlock

CyberScoop:

Current and former CISA employees and sources detail an agency that lacks a clearly defined strategic direction and whose leadership seems more focused on PR

Tweets: @igpalert, @mikebfarrell, @dcuthbert, @kellymnyc, @mariambaksh, @suzannemsmalley, @jimlangevin, @ericgeller, @tarah, @cyberscoopnews, @mideastxmidwest, @danielkennedy74, @mayhuangwrites, @gavinbwilde, @tonyajoriley, and @brfreed

Simon Hill / Wired:

A look at XRAI Glass, an Android app for the deaf and hard of hearing that can caption real-life conversations when paired with the $379 Nreal Air AR glasses

More: Weekly Metaverse. Tweets: @wired

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Twitter restores a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources, after removing it reportedly following Elon Musk's order

More: The Guardian, BGR India, Livemint, Engadget, Neowin, and New York Post

Tweets: @ajpennyfarthing, @elonmusk, @annecollier, @malpern, @janlindyjames, @alexwgoldenberg, @elonmusk, @kwilsonmg, @tomcoates, @joshraby, @jasonleopold, @skwrlz, @jamesrbuk, @jacobtwop, @dukestjournal, @bestofdyingtwit, @jules_su, @jamesrbuk, and @martinsfp