Tech Newsletter
May 21-27, 2023
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All of my opinions are italicized.
EU passes sweeping crypto regulations
Cryptocurrency has not been regulated that much since it was created. That is kind of the whole point of a decentralized network. Now, the EU passes the world's first regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. Under the new rules, any organization dealing in cryptocurrency purchase or trading would be required to "collect and make accessible certain information about the sender and beneficiary of the transfers of crypto assets," regardless of the amount. In other words, say goodbye to the so-called anonymity of cryptocurrencies. The last part where there would no longer be any anonymity in crypto is the worst part. What is the point in using cryptocurrency if it is now controlled by the government? Even before this, I found that cryptocurrency doesn’t make much sense. You can’t use it hardly anywhere, there are so many types of them (all with different values), and the value of crypto is very unstable. The Swedish Finance Minister stated “Recent events have confirmed the urgent need for imposing rules which will better protect Europeans who have invested in these assets, and prevent the misuse of crypto industry for the purposes of money laundering and financing of terrorism” These recent events were the crypto crash in late 2022 that was caused by the collapse of FTX , Celsius and other crypto industry chaos. Now we have a predicament. No one wants to invest in crypto because of its instability, but the regulation required to fix the instability would ruin the whole point of a decentralized currency.
Windows Copilot
Microsoft is adding a Copilot AI assistant to Windows 11. Much like the Copilot sidebars we’ve seen in Edge, Office apps, and even GitHub, Windows Copilot will be integrated directly into Windows 11 and available to open and use from the taskbar across all apps and programs. The Windows Copilot can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. It looks very similar to the dialog box that’s found in Bing Chat, so you can ask it general questions and things you might usually ask a search engine. It won’t directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar and is a separate Copilot button alongside it instead, much like how Cortana had its own dedicated space on the taskbar in Windows 10. Windows Copilot is a “personal assistant,” according to Microsoft, which sounds a lot like how Microsoft described Cortana as a “personal productivity assistant.” Windows also adds native support for rar and 7-zip files. Usually, you had to install WinRAR in order to extract these file types.
AMD RX 7600
New GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia are both disappointing. While they are technically faster than last gen, the GPU industry has turned from massive performance gains year over year, to small incremental upgrades. The RX 7600 from AMD is, in some ways, the exception to that. It is about 10% more performant than the last generation 6600. While that is not very much, the exciting part is that the 7600 is $60 less than the launch price of the 6600. The reason I said launch price instead of just price is because AMD is also cutting the prices on last generation hardware at the same time. With these new numbers, the 7600 is about 20% more expensive for only 10% more performance. The main thing that has been plaguing modern GPUs has been the amount of VRAM. A few years ago, 8GB of VRAM was good enough, but now it is barely enough. It is a stretch to play some modern games and it would be an even bigger challenge to play the next generation of games. If you do not play games on your computer, then 8GB is too little for productivity work. Compared to Nvidia, the 7600 is a no-brainer for gamers, even though it is slightly slower in games, it is almost 40% cheaper. AMD is really competing with themselves with the price cuts that they are giving to the 6000 series. The 6700XT is more powerful than the RTX 4060 Ti and it is still cheaper.
Nintendo pushes 3DS firmware that prevents hacking the device
This is mostly just a rant. You have been warned.
The 3DS has been discontinued since 2020 and after 8 months since the last update, Nintendo decided to release a new update. The official patch notes for the sudden update cover the now-standard (if vague) promise of "further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments [that] have been made to enhance the user experience". But I bet that the only purpose of this update was to destroy as many emulators as possible without completely destroying the 3DS. After the firmware update, many of the documented hacking methods that could previously be used to install custom 3DS firmware, would no longer work. Not only does Nintendo have the nerve to close down the eShop and make it impossible to recover your games, they also insist on degrading the experience of the people who are using their hardware to the fullest extent. Another reason why they would do this is to sell their stupid subscription service called the “Expansion Pack”. The expansion pack is just an emulator that is for the switch and it is now the only way to ethically play older Nintendo games. The Expansion Pack doesn’t even have that many games on it anyway. You get games from the N64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Advance. SInce they discontinued the 3DS, I expect that they would add the 3DS to that list as well in the next few years.
Netflix password crackdown hits the US
Netflix is now telling its users that Netflix accounts are only intended to be used in a single household. They even sent targeted emails to accounts that are being used in multiple locations. There are now two options for having a shared account. 1, transfer the extra person's profile to a new membership that they can pay for separately or 2, spend $7.99 a month extra to share your Netflix account with someone who doesn't live with you. This has already been happening in other countries and now Netflix is bringing it to us. You can only add extra members if you have the $15.49 Standard plan or the $19.99 Premium plan. I do not use Netflix in any way so I would not be affected by this but, I don’t like this. I am fine with the whole “pay extra if you want to share your account” because just be happy that Netflix let password sharing exist for as long as it did and they are not charging more. What I don’t like is that the way that they are going to determine that you are password sharing is by tracking your IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity. I care more about privacy. If you don’t like this, then I would advise you to just stop paying for Netflix since that is the only way for change to happen.
Bonus news
Vote on a domain name
There were a lot of great submissions from the community and I have narrowed them down to 7 contenders. Please vote on the future domain of my website. Voting link at the top of the page. Voting closes June 13th.
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