It’s Prime day & hospitals selling datasets: The weekly recap (2021#25)

Must. Keep. Going. Summer. Holidays. Are. Coming.

It’s Prime Day!

Go give Bezos some more money. After all, he seems like a cool billionaire. First, let’s destroy all the bookshops. Then, make everyone sell at my stores, and steal their designs to sell them cheaper. Slaves? that sounds good too, it will improve our margins. Recycling? mate, that seems like such a big effort.

Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, ITV News investigation finds, on itvNews

The hunt for medical datasets gets wilder

Hospitals selling “de-identified” medical data “for science”. Made me think about the news some weeks ago about ransomware paralyzing the oil industry in the US. Will we see these kind of attacks directed at hospitals soon? How much money are those datasets worth? In case of attack, how much would they pay for getting them back? Could they just not negotiate with the data from patients?

Hospitals are selling treasure troves of medical data — what could go wrong?, on theverge

And that’s it for the week. Stay safe!

The good and the bad NFTs, hype trains, and more : The weekly recap (2021#24)

Conference week, which means not a lot of time to read cool stuff outside of work. However, sunshine arrived to Paris, curfew is disappearing, and summer holidays are getting closer and closer, so I will call it a win. Let’s start with the links:

So long and thanks for all the fish

You know we are doomed when videogame companies make more sense than universities. Exhibits A and B:

How scientists are embracing NFTs, on nature

Devolver Digital somehow sold an NFT that made the world less awful, on rockpapershotgun

By the way, if you have a little bit of time, the whole Devolver conference on the E3 was sublime:

The hype train was here

E3 finished, and even if the only “bomb” we got was Elden Ring, there was still a lot of cool stuff in many conferences.

There is no more room in here

I am happy to read that the OECD realized that there are less positions in academia than people getting a PhD. Jokes aside, there are some cool insights on how the future could be shaped for this small bubble that many people has no clue on how it works (maybe including many of the ones we are inside of it)

Researchers’ career insecurity needs attention and reform now, says international coalition, on nature

Empty offices, bazooka trickshots, taxes, and more: The weekly recap (2021#23)

So much cool stuff happening, and so little time…

Stop fangirling rich people

Rememeber this: big companies just want money, they are not your friends. They are guided ONLY by money, not by moral, ethics, or anything else you can think about.

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax, on ProPublica

The creator economy is running into the Apple Tax — this startup is fighting back, on theverge

Tales from the pandemic

Two very nice reads on how the pandemic changed things (sometimes for the better). I am looking forward to see the changes in society when we are ‘back to normal’. Will it be like 9/11? Will we forget this in no time? Wait and see…

The empty office: what we lose when we work from home, on the guardian

Education outreach can inspire the next generation of scientists, on nature

Hop in, we’re going to a better place

E3 started this week and oh boy, I missed this. Time to enjoy with the lies, the memes, and the cool games:

Bazooka trickshot confirmed Battlefield canon:

Elden Ring IS HERE!

And that’s it for the week. Stay safe!

PS: I can’t wait to see what is the % of FIFA code that has been the same for the last 10 years:

Hackers Steal Wealth of Data from Game Giant EA, on vice

The weekly recap (2021#22)

Summer arrived to Paris (it only rained for two days this week). Busy schedules, but things are going nice (crossing fingers!). Let’s start with the few links I want to share this time:

Prime time

Yeah, it is super nice to receive packages the day after you buy them. This is not causing people to die working for Amazon. Keep walking, nothing to see here.

Amazon’s newest euphemism for overworked employees is ‘industrial athlete’, on theverge

Amazon Calls Warehouse Workers ‘Industrial Athletes’ in Leaked Wellness Pamphlet, on vice

Also, I think is a super good idea to let the same company build its own mass surveillance network. What could go wrong?

Amazon US customers have one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing, on the guardian

Another round of “first image of…” from the Curiosity rover. This time, clouds in Mars. Could not help but stop and look marbled by the colours of the Martian sky (I always pictured the surface as a red desert with a very limited colour palette).

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Captures Shining Clouds on Mars, on NASA

Unreal 5 is here

And it looks amazing. It is always nice to see the technical aspects of videogames, and this video shows a little bit of that. Easter egg: temporal super-resolution being implemented in mainstream tools! Can’t wait to see more of this engine during the E3.

That’s it for the week. Stay safe!