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To understand what's happening to GameStop stock, first you have to understand short selling, where investors make a bet that a stock will go down instead of up. To do this, they borrow a share of the stock (for a fee), immediately sell it to pocket the current value, and agree to buy another share later to "cover" their short position.

But shorting stocks comes with huge risks if the stock price goes up. When your short position eventually comes due, you're forced to buy the stock at whatever price the market currently sets, and there's theoretically no limit to how high it could go. If you invest $1,000 in buying a stock, all you can lose is $1,000. If you borrow $1,000 worth of stock to short it, you could lose a lot more than that when you're forced to buy much more expensive stock.

A good explainer on how GameStop exploded the market this week.

The people that are actually hurt the most by this decision are the ones who’ve spent years packaging Google’s open source browser. They’ve put in considerable time and effort to compile, distribute, and support a custom built Chromium, only to have Google pull the rug out from under them without so much as a call for comments. You might think that’s just one of the risks you take on when supporting a BSD-licensed project, which by definition offers no implied warranty, but in this case things are a little less cut and dry.

As developer Eric Hameleers explains in a lengthy blog post, he was supplied with a dedicated API key for his Slackware Chromium builds by the Google Chrome Team in 2013. He was granted “official permission to include Google API keys in your packages”, and was told that the usage quota for that particular key would be increased “in an effort to adequately support your users”, as normally the key he was assigned would only be for personal development use. Evangelos Foutras, the maintainer for the Arch Linux Chromium package, has indicated he received a similar email at around the same time.

Here's a good piece on all the hoopla regarding Chromium and Google's about-face on their API keys for package maintainers.

Today, we’re launching our first microcontroller-class product: Raspberry Pi Pico. Priced at just $4, it is built on RP2040, a brand-new chip developed right here at Raspberry Pi. Whether you’re looking for a standalone board for deep-embedded development or a companion to your Raspberry Pi computer, or you’re taking your first steps with a microcontroller, this is the board for you.

But there are limits: even in its lowest power mode a Raspberry Pi Zero will consume on the order of 100 milliwatts; Raspberry Pi on its own does not support analogue input; and while it is possible to run “bare metal” software on a Raspberry Pi, software running under a general-purpose operating system like Linux is not well suited to low-latency control of individual I/O pins.

This version may not be for everyone, but for those who want to get started on Pi, it's a good get.

It looks like after Alder Lake in 2H 2021, Intel will be moving to TSMC as its prime partner in mass-producing its next-generation CPU lineup. The press release states that Intel's Core i3 CPUs will be the first mass-production lineup made at TSMC and will be utilizing its 5nm process node. Do note that mass production doesn't exactly means a hard launch and we might end up getting these chips later around 2022. With that said, Alder Lake CPUs will focus on high-performance while utilizing the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node.

But Intel plans to shift its entire mid-range and high-performance lineup to TSMC by 2H 2022. The next-generation processors will be featuring the more advanced 3nm process node from TSMC & will be the successors to the Alder Lake lineup. It is not known whether these will be mobility or desktop parts but from the looks of where things are headed, Intel might utilize TSMC for mass production of both segments.

A major shift for Intel giving they're lagging behind AMD and others.

The warrant alleges that on Nov. 10, Jones downloaded a file equivalent to between 600 and 700 sheets of paper, containing contact information for about 19,182 Floridians. The file contained names, organizations, titles, home counties as well as personal phone numbers and emails, the warrant states.

On her Twitter account, Jones said the charge was retaliation for her criticisms of the state’s COVID-19 response and claimed the charge had nothing to do with the original search warrant at her home last month.

“They didn’t find proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me for in retaliation,” she tweeted on Saturday.

Rebekah Jones blew the whistle when Florida officials manipulated COVID-19 data to support their keep-the-state-op strategy. Last night, she turned herself in to face a bogus felony charge of illegally accessing a computer system. This is what abuse of power and censorship looks like.

The takedown spree, which was published publicly by Game Jolt co-founder and CEO Yaprak DeCarmine, notes that the games in question use copies of Nintendo’s intellectual property without permission. Game Jolt allegedly profits from this.

“These web pages display images of Nintendo’s video game characters in connection with unauthorized online games that copy the characters, music, and other features of Nintendo’s video games.

“The web site at gamejolt.com generates revenue from advertising banners displayed on the site and advertisements played while users wait for the games to load,” the takedown notices add.

Nintendo continues to hate their gamers…

“The steps we’re taking today are painful, but necessary,” Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said in an employee memo Wednesday. Dropbox committed to preserve job security through 2020, but Houston said that looking ahead to this year “it’s clear that we need to make changes in order to create a healthy and thriving business for the future.”

The company said the job cuts will help it focus on its top priorities for the year, which include evolving the core Dropbox experience, investing in new products and driving operational excellence.

They have been pretty much in the stale end in the last few years and it shows. I myself have been moving away from it in the last year and going into a self-hosted solution on 10Cloud (powered by Nextcloud). I still use Dropbox but not as much as it used to be.

cc @matigo

In many ways, the WRT54G router series has become something of the Nintendo Entertainment System of wireless routers. Coming around relatively early in the mainstream history of the wireless router, it showed a flexiblity far beyond what its creator intended for the device. While not the only game in town, it was overwhelmingly prevalent in homes around the world.

Although much less heralded, its success was comparable to the then-contemporary Motorola RAZR for a time, in that it was basically everywhere, on shelves in homes and small businesses around the world. The WRT54G, despite the scary name, was the wireless router people who needed a wireless router would buy.

I still have some of those today, still fun to hack!

The name of Mauch's company is Washtenaw Fiber Properties LLC, and it's registered as a competitive access provider with the Michigan state government. While technically a phone company, Mauch provides only Internet service without any phone or TV offerings.

"My tariff is really funny," Mauch said, explaining that the document he was required to file with the state explains that his company provides services only on an individual, case-by-case basis.

Mauch said he has spent about $145,000, of which $95,000 went to the contractor that installed most of the fiber conduits. The fiber lines are generally about six feet underground and in some cases 10 or 20 feet underground to avoid gas pipes and other obstacles.

Installing the actual fiber cables into the conduits was a task that Mauch did himself. A fiber blower can cost over $26,000, but Mauch said he built one using a rented air compressor and about $50 worth of parts from a hardware store. Mauch said he also spent $8,000 on a directional drill machine that installs cables or conduit under driveways and roads without digging giant holes.

Folks shouldn't have to do this but this is what people have to do unless the corruption and monopolistic state of broadband stops.

It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," Priest River, Idaho ISP Your T1 WIFI told its subscribers in an email.

The ISP says all users will have Facebook and Twitter blocked by default, and those that want access will need to be whitelisted. The company claims it was responding to calls from customers demanding their families and children be prevented from accessing both websites.

"Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting," the email states. "This is why with the amount of concerns, we have made this decision to block these two websites from being accessed from our network."

The effects of repealing Net Neutrality on clear display.