Zag To The Zig #22 :: Tesla hacking, EU says no to WhatsApp and AI is hype
Welcome to my Castle of Curiosity, called Zag To The Zig. Lots of interesting stuff in the Tech Basement this week.
In the Tech Basement
đď¸đď¸ These security researchers âhackedâ a Tesla with a piece of duct tape. By putting the bit of tape on a traffic sign for a 35 mph speed limit, they tricked the carâs cameras and the Autopilot sped up to 85mph (about 135 km/h)! Â
Flying taxis are one of those futuristic sci-fi visions. But Wish, a joint venture between Boeing and a company from Googleâs Larry Page, have come to an agreement with the government of New Zealand to run a trial for its all-electric and self-piloting âflying thingâ. đď¸đŠď¸
Last week, 2 analysts from tech investment company A16Z wrote a critical post about the business viability of AI companies. This week, this physicist and math consultant âwith a particular dislike of self-anointed expertsâ backed it up with some of his own very down-to-earth experience and insights. Semi-technical but well written, very ZTTZ and even a bit funny.
Intriguing. The European Commission has recommended its staff switch from WhatsApp to Signal. After my break from Facebook, I guess that should be my next move.
In the Economy Room
In the corridor between the Tech Basement and the Economy Room we find this interesting post on incentives, one of my pet subjects. This opinion piece on mining and the rationality of incentives makes the case for why the centralisation of bitcoin mining doesnât matter.Â
Bitcoin is secure not because it is impossible to attack, but because it is costly to attack.
And moving on from that, if youâre in a conceptual mood, then do read on about how Kyle Samani sees the bitcoin/decentralised model as a blueprint for coordinating economic activity that can actually scale. Iâm particularly intrigued by projects like LivePeer, which uses incentive models to decentralise heavy infrastructure stuff like video streaming.Â
Whoâd have thought. Seems like you can make money from streaming. The valuations of those damned record labels are going up, up, up.
âTo an asset manager, music is a relatively safe and solid performing stock to add to your portfolio.â
Random ZTTZ
Looking for a new name for your company? You can either tap into the creative power of 75,000 creatives at SquadHelp (didnât know this existed). Or you could just type in some brand values and let this AI-powered name and logo generator create a bunch of options for you. Domain squatters galore. Â
đ End note: 1 thing Iâll be doing this week
Iâll be kicking off a slightly more long-term project for some Flemish cities. Excited about that.