Category: General Tech

Another Elon Musk company is doing things in another Tennessee city, as Hannah McDonald reports:

Aerial footage from Sky 5 shows a freshly dug pit near the base of the State Capitol, a visible sign of progress on The Boring Company’s controversial underground transportation project in Tennessee.

The 10-foot-deep, 20-by-20-foot test pit was dug this week to study the rock beneath downtown. It’s part of the company’s plan to eventually shuttle passengers between the airport and downtown in Teslas through twin tunnels, aiming for a nine-minute trip by 2027.

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polymatt’s newest project blew my mind:

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Jimmy Maher, writing at The Digital Antiquarian, about my favorite game as a kid:

Back in 1994, MicroProse had published a game called Transport Tycoon, by a lone-wolf programmer named Chris Sawyer, who worked out of his home near Glasgow, Scotland. Building upon the premise of Sid Meier’s earlier Railroad Tycoon, it tasked you with building a profitable people- and cargo-moving network involving not just trains but also trucks, buses, ships, ferries, and even airplanes. Written by Sawyer in pure, ultra-efficient Intel assembly language — an anomaly by that time, when games were typically written in more manageable higher-level languages like C — Transport Tycoon was as technically impressive as it was engrossing. When it sold fairly well, Sawyer provided a modestly upgraded version called Transport Tycoon Deluxe in 1995, and that also did well.

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Happy Prime Day! In the spirit of the season, I’ve rounded up a bunch of links so you could rebuild my desk, mostly on Amazon. Shameless, I know…

Computer

• 14-inch MacBook Pro
• CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt Dock
• Apple Studio Display with Adjustable Display
• Elgato Stream Deck XL
• Logitech MX Master 3S Wireless Mouse
• Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
• Apple Magic Trackpad
• A couple of OWC USB-C enclosures with some very fancy SSDs in them
• 11-inch iPad Pro, usually in a Smart Folio but sometimes in a Magic Keyboard

Audio + Video

• USBPRE2 Audio Interface
• Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP
• Neumann KMS 105 MT Condenser Microphone
• Rolls MS111 Mute Switch
• Some very old and very out-of-stock Schiit gear
• Ultimate Ears 7 CSX in-ear monitors
• Elgato Key Light
• Belkin MagSafe Continuity Camera Mount

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Harry McCracken:

In the 1980s and 1990s, PC Connection built its brand on a campaign starring folksy small-town critters. They’ll still charm your socks off.

JUST LOOK AT THEM! HOLY MOLY:

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Kevin Purdy, writing at Ars Technica:

Popular NAS-maker Synology has confirmed and slightly clarified a policy that appeared on its German website earlier this week: Its “Plus” tier of devices, starting with the 2025 series, will require Synology-branded hard drives for full compatibility, at least at first.

“Synology-branded drives will be needed for use in the newly announced Plus series, with plans to update the Product Compatibility List as additional drives can be thoroughly vetted in Synology systems,” a Synology representative told Ars by email. “Extensive internal testing has shown that drives that follow a rigorous validation process when paired with Synology systems are at less risk of drive failure and ongoing compatibility issues.”

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On Friday’s episode of The Vergecast, there was an exchange that really caught my attention. David Pierce mentioned the photos of all the tech CEOs at Trump’s inauguration in January, to which Nilay Patel replied:

The thing that kills me at that is the expectation they had going into that photo was corruption. Right? Tim Cook is going to personally donate a million dollars to Trump’s library and that will take the DOJ case away from Apple. Naked corruption. That is a nakedly corrupt thought.

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I recently linked to CalDigit’s line of new Thunderbolt 5 docks with excitement. Then, my buddy Jim Metzendorf sent me a link to this press release about the products. Just soak this in:

CalDigit’s new Element 5, is more than just a next-gen connectivity device—it’s a performance backbone built for the future of AI. With three fully-featured downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports and up to 120 Gbps of bandwidth, the Element 5 enables local developers and researchers to run large language models (LLMs) like Llama, Mistral, and Phi-2 at full speed, entirely offline.

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I’ve been using a CalDigit TS4 on my desk for years, allowing me to plug in my entire setup with just one cable going to my MacBook Pro. It has never given me any trouble, and is well worth the price in my book.

Now there’s a set of new docks from CalDigit, using Thunderbolt 5. Here’s a bit from the company’s press release:

The TS5 is a docking station built around pure connectivity. Its 15 ports are packed full of essential ports. The four powerful 80Gb/s Thunderbolt 5 ports allow users to expand and evolve their workflows like never before, and the 120Gb/s Bandwidth Boost feature allows users to connect bandwidth hungry displays with ease.

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I suspect there will be one of these in the Hackett household sooner rather than later.

Or maybe not?

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Eric Migicovsky’s new company has two watches available for pre-order. The $149 Core 2 Duo features a 1.2" black/white e-paper screen, while the Core Time 2 has a 1.5" 64 color e-paper screen and runs $225. The former is set to ship this summer, with the latter coming at the end of the year.

The checkout page includes this text:

I understand that these watches will work with iPhones. But I realize Apple restricts and degrades functionality of 3rd party smartwatches. Because of this, I do not expect these watches to have the same features as Apple Watch. Read this blog post if you’d like to learn more.

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Jay Peters, writing at The Verge:

Humane is selling most of its company to HP for $116 million and will stop selling AI Pin, the company announced today.

AI Pins that have already been purchased will continue to function normally until 3PM ET on February 28th, Humane says in a support document. After that date, Pins will “no longer connect to Humane’s servers.” As a result, AI Pin features will “no longer include calling, messaging, AI queries / responses, or cloud access.” Humane is also encouraging users to download any pictures, videos, and notes stored on their Pins before they are permanently deleted at that shutdown time.

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