Tech News
Tech News and Analysis from around the web
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba unveils Xunxi, a pilot factory it has been operating for three years for developing tech aimed at helping manufacturers adapt quickly to consumer demand — - Daniel Zhang is spearheading a drive into new manufacturing — Company wants to provide back-end technology to manufacturers
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Check Point: Iranian hacker group Rampant Kitten, which has been active for 6+ years, has developed an Android malware capable of stealing 2FA SMS codes — The malware could steal 2FA SMS codes for Google accounts. Also contained vague functionality to do the same for Telegram and various social networks.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
A look at iOS 14's privacy-centric features including mic and camera access notifications, local network access control, compromised password warnings, and more — Behold: The useful and not-so-useful privacy features you've been waiting for. — Eleven months ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared privacy a “fundamental human right.”
Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat:
Report: France's centralized StopCovid tracing app only has ~2.4M downloads, with ~700,000 users having uninstalled it and under 200 notifications sent so far — When the pandemic was raging across Europe last spring, many politicians and health experts were optimistic that a new generation …
Nick Bastone / The Information:
Sources: Google's pro-privacy plan to block online ad trackers has boosted the US' antitrust probe, as publishers argue it would create an unfair playing field — Google has taken a lot of heat for violating people's privacy. Now it could get in trouble for trying to protect it.
Sean Szymkowski / CNET:
Tesla wins lawsuit against former employee Martin Tripp, accused of hacking Tesla and supplying sensitive info to unnamed 3rd parties; court will seal case — The automaker won its case against an ex-employee who sought whistleblower protections and was accused of hacking Tesla's Gigafactory.
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Comcast reaches a deal with Roku to ensure NBCU's Peacock service is carried on Roku devices, after NBCU threatened to pull its TV Everywhere channels — - Agreement ensures Peacock is carried on streaming platform — NBC's threat came amid dispute with Roku over advertising
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Unity raises $1.3B in its IPO, closing up 31.44% in first day of trading, giving the company a market cap of around $17B — - Shares of Unity, a video game software developer, jumped 31.44% in its market debut Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. — The stock priced late Thursday at $52 a share.
New York Times:
In August Facebook said it would crack down on QAnon, but analysis shows QAnon is flourishing on the site, at times aided by Facebook's recommendation engine — The social network tried cracking down on the spread of the conspiracy theory and other extremist material. But QAnon groups are still flourishing on the site.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Outschool, a marketplace for online classes, raises $45M Series B, says bookings grew 2,000%+ between Aug. 2019 and Aug. 2020 and it turned profitable this year — Outschool, which started in 2015 as a platform for homeschooled students to bolster their extracurricular activities …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
DOJ charges six people who allegedly bribed Amazon employees and contractors since at least 2017 in a scheme to benefit some third-party sellers — - The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday charged six individuals who allegedly bribed Amazon employees and contractors …
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Sources: mobile game maker Scopely is in discussions to raise at least $200M at a valuation of around $3B, up from a valuation of $1.9B in March — - Valuation would be an increase from $1.9 billion this year — NewView and Wellington expected to lead the funding round
Tim Baysinger / The Wrap:
WarnerMedia's streaming service DC Universe to rebrand as DC Universe Infinite and become a comics hub, with its scripted original series moving to HBO Max — “Harley Quinn” renewed for Season 3 as DC Universe transitions into a comic-book subscription service
Bevin Fletcher / FierceWireless:
Ericsson acquires Cradlepoint, a wireless wide area network gear maker, for $1.1B — Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson is acquiring U.S.-based Cradlepoint for $1.1 billion, as it looks to expand its presence and accelerate 5G adoption in the enterprise market.
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, S7+ review: nice displays with snappy performance but DeX still feels unfinished and widescreen aspect ratio is bad for productivity work — Samsung's latest tablets are saddled by familiar problems — If you want to buy a tablet that can possibly replace your laptop …
I believe self-executing functions in JavaScript are obsolete with ES6. I never liked and rarely used them. I prefer to use features put there by the designers, rather than use a clever hack that makes you wonder why the feature wasn't put there.
Now in ., you can create a simple block and declare your variables with let. No clever hacks needed.
Some real-world example code.
- { //insert headline for 1st level subs
- let htmltext = "";
- let ixButtonsArray = ix + 1;
- let theButton = theButtons [ixButtonsArray];
- function div (classname, val) {
- return ("<div class=\"" + classname + "\">" + val + "</div>");
- }
- function add (s) {
- htmltext += s;
- }
- add (div ("divButtonEmoji", theButton.htmlEmojiCode));
- add (div ("divButtonTitle", theButton.theTitle));
- add (div ("divButtonVal", ix));
- opInsertRawHtml (htmltext, right);
- }
The block, like a bundle in Frontier, allows you to collapse some code, hide its variables from the containing code, without declaring a new routine. It's essential that you put a comment at the opening left curly brace to say what the block does. If that's not easy to do that indicates a refactor is needed, imho.