Twitter’s one-man chaos machine gains control

So, Elon Musk appears to be confusing everyone. His recent Twitter purchase ruffled some feathers but exactly what will be happening with paid services, advertising, bringing back banned people and a host of other questions are still up in the air. Many have commented that their subscriber count has been coming back and others supported by bots have seen a dramatic drop. Staff are now expected to come into work and those who complain are being fired. Many found out about their firing via Twitter and many others have been locked out of key systems until the dust settles with Elon bringing in people from his other companies to oversee operations in the short term. There are those who believe more open speech may return to Twitter, and I for one think it is a good idea as the platform can have a huge affect on events.

Adding to the question is the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading. With 134 other affiliated firms, the company filed for bankruptcy protection. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned and fled to the Bahamas leaving the company in the hands of John Ray III, who coincidentally oversaw the liquidation of Enron when it crashed. In related news, the CFO of FTX has close ties to the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission that has been pressuring crypto companies, with the exception of FTX. The crash of the optimistically estimated US$32 billion (1.1 trillion baht) company has rattled crypto markets worldwide. The company also has been linked to a money laundering scheme involving Ukraine. There’s a lot more to this story as it unfolds over the next couple of months.

With inflation rising in many countries worldwide the work market is shrinking in the IT realm, so this may not necessarily be a good time to be jumping for a new job. Like all things, this cycle will pass but I recommend that you focus on keeping your current employment unless forced to do otherwise. Six months ago, it was the opposite in some places, which shows how quickly things can change. The big names like Twitter, Amazon and YouTube are shedding workers in the thousands. For some of these organisations, they have workers in multiple countries so the impacts are widespread.

Remember my story about tracking pixels being used by China’s TikTok? A number of US government agencies, including the Army and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have removed any applications they had executing Pushwoosh code. It turned out the software firm, which presented itself as an American one, was actually Russian. Pushwoosh supplies code and data analysis tools allowing developers to generate customised and automated push notifications based around smartphone usage. Or more simply, it’s a data collection and surveillance tool that others like Google have been chastised for. In this case, the data is potentially being gathered by Russian authorities, a concern when groups like the US Army is using it. Pushwoosh has denied the allegations.

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n related but in no way surprising news, Apple is being sued over claims that it is tracking iOS users even if those users have selected “opt out” for being tracked. Apple is being accused of lying about the functionality by excluding itself from the no tracking rules, ie, instead of lots of things tracking them it is only Apple. If true this is a distinction without a difference of course. The action is being turned into a larger class action suit so we haven’t heard the last of this.

You probably read about the latest Australian hacks against Optus and more recently Medibank. This has encouraged the government to create a new 100-person task force to stop cyber criminals and hunt them down. This latest drive has, I’m sure, nothing to do with the fact that there has been info, some of it around mental health, released on high-profile politicians in Australia.

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atching more and more people jump on e-scooters and riding on the footpath, an article on a new form of roller skate caught my eye. They slip on over your shoes, then an AI learns your personal gait, which allows them to become an extension of your legs. This increases your walking speed by up to 250%, or a comfortable running speed. At the same time, they lock when walking up stairs, getting on a bus or when are waiting for a cross walk. The maker claims they are not like traditional roller skates. They can slow down to a normal walk in a metre and automatically regulate speed when walking down a slope. Let’s see if these make it into the mainstream anytime soon.

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inally for this week, nothing back from Samsung, RAID Shadow Legends is still a terrible game while Path Of Exile is a great free one. Prepare yourself for more inflation and scarcity of goods and put a little bit away for a rainy day.

James Hein is an IT professional with over 30 years’ standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.