629: Throbbing Rocket

Grumpy Old Geeks

Pink slips and "challenging environments" at Hasbro, Etsy, Cruise & Twit; San Fran tech CEO slave contract; Epic will case vs Google; Meta fact-checking plan for Threads; Starlink loses out on subsidies; Microsoft plays nice with unions; Tesla's Swedish Trash Metal, recalls over Autopilot software, Cybertruck; SpaceX & Blue Origin; communing with the whales; more Traitors; Slow Horses; Sliced Bread; streaming consolidation & confusion; Netflix metrics; Murderbot; Apple updates; GM drops CarPlay for... safety; Mistral; E3 is officially dead; Teresa Strasser; Longitude by Dave Sobel; Charlie Stross Accelerando; hello, Computer?

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Show notes at https://gog.show/629/

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Hasbro to cut 1,100 jobs despite Dungeons & Dragons thriving

Etsy stock falls after company lays off 11% of its staff, citing ‘very challenging’ environment

Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise

A HEARTFELT FAREWELL: TWIT SAYS GOODBYE TO VALUED TEAM MEMBERS

IN THE NEWS

San Francisco tech CEO Christian Lanng accused of forcing assistant to sign 'slave contract,' sexual torture

Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight

Meta is going to fact-check content on the Threads app

Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies

Microsoft agrees to union contract terms involving the use of AI

Tesla's Fight With Swedish Unions Just Got Trashy

Tesla Recalls 2 Million Vehicles Over Autopilot Software Issue

Tesla could still sue Cybertruck owners if they flip their vehicles too soon

Watch a Cybertruck get towed by a Ford pickup after the Tesla appears to get stuck off-roading

Tesla claims California false-advertising law violates First Amendment

Researchers fuse lab-grown human brain tissue with electronics

SpaceX shares cinematic footage of last month’s Starship mission

Bezos’ Blue Origin aiming to make long-awaited return to launch next week

Whale-SETI: Groundbreaking Encounter with Humpback Whales Reveals Potential for Non-Human Intelligence Communication

MEDIA CANDY

The Traitors UK

Slow Horses

Gary Oldman looks worlds away from his usual self as he sports a bushy grey beard at screening of Slow Horses in NYC after receiving Golden Globe nod

Doctor Who Special 3

Sliced Bread

Showtime's Cable Channel Is Changing Its Name to... Paramount+ With Showtime

Google begins shifting users from Play Movies & TV ahead of its January shutdown

Netflix’s first engagement report reveals its most popular shows and movies

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos Explains Why It Has Been Hiding All That Streaming Data

Tucker Carlson Launches Subscription Streamer, Because X Reportedly Couldn’t Do the Job

Apple will reportedly reward artists for offering music in spatial audio

Apple is making a Murderbot series starring Alexander Skarsgård

APPS & DOODADS

iOS 17.2 and Apple's new Journal app are now available

Apple tvOS 17.2 has a redesigned TV experience and no iTunes Movies or TV Shows apps

Apple launches Stolen Device Protection for iPhone with iOS 17.3 beta, here’s how it works

GM’s latest excuse for dropping CarPlay is its dumbest yet

Everybody’s talking about Mistral, an upstart French challenger to OpenAI

OpenAI inks deal with Axel Springer on licensing news for model training

E3 is officially dead

AT THE LIBRARY

Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League by Teresa Strasser

Longitude by Dava Sobel

Accelerando by Charles Stross

Glasshouse by Charles Stross

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