making

Polymarket and company have sophisticated gambling addiction to the point of making it indistinguishable from “investing”

by

Prediction markets are no longer a niche of the Internet and datanerds to become the new obsession of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi are receiving multi-billion dollar valuations by repackaging traditional bets as sophisticated financial instruments. The image that defines the moment occurred recently in Manhattan, according to Bloomberg: the patriarch of the New York Stock Exchange (70 years old, impeccable suit) closing a multimillion-dollar deal with the founder of Polymarket (27 years old, t-shirt and plastic bottle). That meeting sealed the fate of the sector: betting is no longer a game, it is finance. Why is it important. We are facing a radical cultural and regulatory change. By redefining bets as “event contracts”, these platforms try to circumvent gambling legislation (which in Spain would control Consumption) to sneak into the traditional financial system, with the support of giants such as the owners of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The panoramic. Kalshi is already worth $10 billion and Polymarket is looking for $12 billion. They are not beach bars, as we said, the owner of the NYSE has invested there. The hockey league (NHL) and Donald Trump’s media company are already signing deals. It is the traditional financial system embracing chance. It is, above all, legitimation. Semantic reengineering. Polymarket’s true success is not technological, it is linguistic. They have eliminated the stigma of the gambler by changing the dictionary: It’s not a bet. It’s an “investment.” It is not a betting house. It’s a “exchange of contracts”. You are not a gambler. you are a trader which analyzes “market sentiment.” An example of the absurdity of some cases: people betting by Elon Musk entering the race to be president of the United States, oblivious to the fact that Musk was born in South Africa and therefore cannot become president, since the US Constitution vetoes the presidency to foreigners. That is to say: all those bets are money thrown away from minute one. How it works. Instead of betting 50 euros on Trump winning, you buy a “share” of that result that is worth 1 dollar if you are right. This allows the same person who would win or lose money at roulette to now win or lose it in an app with stock market charts. Although the savings fly the same, the user feels smarter and less guilty: he believes that he is operating in something more similar to the IBEX, not in a casino. What’s coming. There is a civil war brewing. The old guard of the game (the owners of traditional casinos) see this as unfair competition. Jay Snowden, CEO of Penn Entertainment (a casino and sports betting company), has already warned: This is a direct threat to your industry. Prediction markets and games of chance overlap. In conclusion. Polymarket has managed to sophisticate gambling addiction for a generation that believes itself too smart to play games of chance. They have created the perfect casino for those who despise casinos, allowing them to risk savings under the illusion of doing financial analysis. In Xataka | Five years ago he worked from his bathroom on the brink of ruin. Today he runs a company valued at 8 billion Featured image | Hush Naidoo Jade PhotographyMockuuups Studio

In 1982 Seiko created a watch for making calls and watching television. His only problem was arriving too early

by

History is full of devices that were ahead of their time. I am not referring to literary or cinematographic machines like the tablet by Kubrick or the multiple predictions from Verne, but to other devices that were put on sale decades ago and now we realize that they are very similar to some of the latest gadgets on the market. One of these inventions was Seiko TV Watch. In its day this rarity was considered and recognized as the smallest television in the worldand even made appearances in some movies, but today no one can miss its striking resemblance to current smart watches, and in a way we could say that we are facing a distant relative. The history of this device began in 1972, but the first step was not taken by Seiko but by another North American company called Hamilton. They were the creators of Press P1the first digital wrist watch in history. The Japanese they acquired to Americans, and they embarked on their own path into the digital age by launching their first watch of this type in 1973. At that time it was said that society was moving towards a revolution in visual information, and to join it with its new range of watches the japanese company started to work on the research and development of liquid crystal panels (LCD) with active matrix that were capable of reproducing moving images. Over the following years, these efforts helped their watches become increasingly smaller and thinner, with higher component density and more energy efficient. They were also implementing new functions such as stopwatches and calculators. After three years of development and hundreds of millions of yen invested, the summer of 1982 Seiko advertisement in Tokyo a new watch. It was about TV Watchthe first to finally allow us to watch television on our wrist. This was Seiko’s TV Watch A watch that you can watch television on. Today this concept seems simple, but back then being able to carry it out was a little more complicated. The TV Watch was made up of three different elements that had to be connected together for it to work. The result was a science fiction product, yes, but a little uncomfortable to wear. On the one hand we had the clock, but we had to connect it to a radio and television receiver the size of a walkman. We also needed headphones, and these also had to be connected to the signal receiver. And how could you carry so much cable with you in a fairly comfortable way? Well, very simple, pay attention to this drawing that appeared in your manual. As you can see, the trick was to put the receiver cable under the sleeve to connect it to the watch. But in case we didn’t want to complicate our lives, the TV Watch also had a function to listen only to the audio of television broadcasts. The watch itself had dimensions of 40 x 49 x 10 millimeters and a weight of 80 grams, and all its magic was concentrated in its innovative 1.2-inch white and blue LCD screen with a resolution of 32k pixels and 10 shades of gray. I also had a second smallest screen in which we could see the time, set the alarm and use the stopwatch as with any other digital watch. During the presentation of the device, its creators had to give certain explanations about how they had achieved such ingenuity. They said their new panels controlled the molecular arrangement of liquid crystal within an electric field, and that this made it possible to create miniature images with very low power consumption. Especially when compared to the cathode ray tubes of conventional televisions. The receiver measured 74.5 x 125 x 19 millimeters and weighed 140 grams. This made it too big to carry in a back pocket, but perfect for the inside jacket pocket. Its battery consisted of two AA batteries that gave it a range of five hours, and it tuned both FM radio and television on VHF & UHF channels. What could have been and was not The TV Watch arrived on the Japanese market in December 1982 with a single DXA001 model that cost 108,000 yen, although a second, cheaper DXA002 model was later released. The difference between the two was that the second included a hearing aid instead of headphones, and its price dropped to 98,000 yen. In exchange, these two models today would be worth around 600 and 500 euros respectively. The presentation of the device managed to generate a lot of interest, and the watch made front pages of newspapers and headlines on television. It was considered an innovative product for allowing us access a large amount of information in real timeand it attracted so much attention that a year later it also ended up reaching the US market. Errr, okay? During its launch in Japan, Seiko managed to sell 2,200 units, and the president of the company’s North American subsidiary said that the reception from the American media had been so good that he believed he could sell all the ones they manufactured. This optimism translated into the production of between 15,000 and 20,000 units ready for export. But not everyone saw the TV Watch as an invention destined to revolutionize the market. In fact, it is known that at Sony they came to say that their laboratories had the capacity to develop a similar product, but that They didn’t think there was a big enough market. for this type of devices. In the end it turns out that they were right, and the watch did not end up becoming a successful product. In the TV Watch curriculum we find several dates indicated. In 1982 he won the Nikkei Award for Superior Quality Products and Services, and a year later he made an appearance in Octopussythe new James Bond movie. The watch culminated its career in 1984 by entering the Guinness Book of Records as … Read more

There are people making all kinds of theories to know the price of the Steam Machine. And no one is very optimistic

by

The Valve’s Steam Machine has been received as a manna for the somewhat disastrous hardware landscape of the industry, with Switch 2 turned into a completely isolated system and aimed at its circle of consumers and Sony and Microsoft giving the impression of being somewhat lost in a scenario that is little or nothing exciting. In these comes Valve, which has already turned the concept of the portable PC upside down with its Steam Deckand now proposes a consolidated PC, completely oriented to work with Steam and ready to steal space from traditional consoles. Of course, there is a question that no one dares to answer completely: and the price? There are more and more theories. Not at losses. Valve has discarded compete in price with traditional consoles. The company confirmed that its new Steam Machine, scheduled for early 2026, will not follow the subsidized pricing model that characterizes PlayStation and Xbox. This means, as explained by one of the engineers responsible for the design of the machine, Pierre-Loup Griffais, that the device will align with “what would be expected from the current PC market”, explicitly rejecting the idea of ​​selling at a loss to expand market share and be more attractive to the general public. Frustrated expectations. The gaming community did its calculations: one of the most widespread bets said that Valve would take advantage of its 30% commission for each game sold on Steam to offer affordable hardware. These illusions have had to be qualified: youtuber Linus Sebastian revealed on his WAN Show that when he was in a meeting with Valve itself and suggested a price of $500, “no one confirmed anything, but the energy in the room completely changed.” That is, the youtuber thinks that Valve’s intentions point to a higher price. The current projections They place the Steam Machine between $750 and $900, very far from the $549 for the standard PlayStation 5 or the $599 for the Xbox Series X. Even the base model, cheaper and with 512GB, could exceed $600. Disappointing precedents. The original Steam Machines, launched in November 2015 after two years of delay, They barely reached 400,000 units sold throughout its commercial existence. The concept shipwrecked for multiple reasons: SteamOS ran on Linux, drastically limiting the catalog of compatible games; the product lacked a defined identity (it was, at the same time, too rigid for PC users and excessively complex for console consumers); and the proliferation of manufacturers led to a chaotic range of prices, from $499 to $1,500. In 2018, Valve quietly deleted any mention of the product from its store. How the subsidized price works… Yes, Valve has already said that it will not apply. But an approach is useful to understand what options Valve has on the table. The console industry traditionally operates through a model of hardware sold at a loss, which is recovered through the console business ecosystem. For exampleMicrosoft sold the Xbox 360 with a deficit of $125 per unit, while Sony absorbed losses of $240 to $300 with each PlayStation 3. The economic recovery It is obtained later, from commissions usually of 30% on each game sold, from subscription services and from official accessories. Microsoft publicly acknowledged in 2021 that each Xbox was still trading at a loss. The component crisis. But there is another reason to expect a high price for the Steam Machine, and that is that the rise of artificial intelligence has unleashed an unprecedented crisis in the memory market. There is data which speak of year-on-year increases of 171.8% in DRAM prices. Samsung and SK Hynix satisfy only 70% of orders, prioritizing HBM memories for AI data centers. AND are predicted serious shortfalls in DRAM, NAND Flash and hard drives during 2026, in a crisis which can last until 2029. The conspiracy of prices. The combination of unsubsidized hardware and expensive components puts the Steam Machine in an ambiguous position. Valve now has unthinkable advantages in 2015yes: in-house manufacturing, SteamOS refined thanks to the commercial success of Steam Deck, and a much broader compatible library. However, some analysts They warn that success will depend largely on the final price. Without the possibility of competing economically with traditional consoles, the device could remain half-hearted in commercial terms.

Satya Nadella made the world love Microsoft again. AI is making people hate it again

by

Microsoft wants to turn Windows into an “agent operating system”. That was one of the great advertisements of the Ingnite conferences that were held these days. The proposal involves filling Windows with AI agents so that they are part of the user experience and do things for us. The intention is good. The result is not. what’s happening. Windows celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2025 (and Microsoft, its 50), and it does so with a total commitment to AI that it now wants to transfer to its Windows operating system. At the Microsoft Ignite event, various new features were presented that were precisely aimed at integrating AI agents into the system from the taskbar, but also at supporting the Model Context Protocol, the de facto standard for connecting AI agents with third-party services and applications. The movement is reasonable. Microsoft’s decision is strategically impeccable. AI is everywhere, and what the company intends is for it to be an integral part of its operating system. And by the way, of course, don’t leave its ecosystem to take advantage of it. The intention is good, but Microsoft’s problem is different. You are being tiresome. It is often the case that companies that try to promote their services do so in a particularly tiresome way. Microsoft is certainly known for this, and you only have to remember how it made numerous attempts to force us to upgrade to Windows 10. Then they came similar attempts with the new versions of Windows 11. With AI, it has already shot itself in the foot from time to time, and the best example is Microsoft Recalla striking option that by its design initial ended up being delayed and now it has been completely relegated to the background. Well I install LinuxPavan Davuluri, president of the Windows and devices division, was talking about this integration of AI in Windows a few days ago, but his tweet ended up provoking a string of criticism. One of the first answers indicated that Windows “is evolving into a product that brings people to the Mac and Linux.” Or for that matter, bring back Windows 7. Others went further and they asked that the Windows 7 operating system would return with its “clean user interface, icons, unified control panel, no junk apps, no ads, just a pure, performing operating system.” Microsoft is growing dwarfs. Davuluri ended up closing comments two days later, but yes responded to a tweet from the well-known software engineer Gergely Orosz, who criticized Windows’ erratic strategy and also Microsoft’s commitment to developers. In his response he indicated that “we know that we must continue working on the user experience, both in day-to-day usability and system dialogues inconsistent with the experiences of advanced users.” Be careful with promoting what doesn’t work. The problem with Copilot is that it still has a clearly worse reputation than other AI models despite being entirely based on ChatGPT. At Microsoft they know itbut still They are hiring influencers to promote Copilot to younger consumers. Nadella started well… The arrival of Satya Nadella to Microsoft it was a breath of fresh air. The company was on its way to becoming the new IBMbut its surprising renewal and spirit of openness —GitHub purchaserenovated love for linux— joined the success of reinforcing Azure and turning its cloud platform into a money making machine. threw great projects and thus regained some of the love (and luster) that he had lost in recent years with Ballmer at the helm. …but things are going wrong. However, this (understandable) obsession with AI is contaminating that entire trajectory a bit, and this is evident in the comments and criticisms of users, who do not seem interested in Windows being full of AI even though that could be interesting in the long run. The practical advantages at the moment do not seem to be notable, and forcing them is never a good idea. And in case Nadella reads us, we propose an idea. Let users decide. It’s as simple as that: Microsoft forces things too much by forcing users to accept these system changes without further ado and offering them as options that are activated by default. Users usually don’t like things being changed for the better, and what Microsoft should do is make everything opt-in (and not opt-out). That is to say: offer these options disabled by default, and let the users decide to activate them. If they are really worth it, it is very likely that these options will end up going viral on their own and people will simply enable them. In Xataka | The unexpected return of Windows 7: it reaches almost 10% of the market when Microsoft prepares to retire Windows 10

Mercadona has become the queen of Spanish food. And in the process it is making gold for some suppliers

by

The forecast was shocking. So much so that it generated a considerable stir. In spring, during the presentation of Mercadona’s annual report, Juan Roig predicted that in a matter of 25 years, kitchens will disappear from homes because people will eat outside the home or eat ready-to-eat dishes. That conviction (which Roig preaches since at least 2019), added to the commitment to white label and local stores, has turned Mercadona into a heavy weight of the retail sector, with a market share that is close to 30%. Not only that. By the way, the Valencian firm is making gold from a few companies that have become allies of its food strategy. One figure: 150 million. Its name may not tell you much, but if you shop frequently at Mercadona (for food) it is quite likely that you have tried the products of Martinez Family. The company is made up of Embutidos Martínez, Platos Tradicionales, Cinco Tenedores and La Pila Food and is a key supplier to Mercadona, basically in its prepared food offering. The group (Also of Valencian origin) manufactures lasagna, gratins and roasts. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that recently Familia Martínez revealed which will invest a whopping 150 million euros between this and next year to reinforce the Platos Tradicionales facilities and keep up with Mercadona. To be more precise, he wants a larger surface area for barbecues, for which he will gain 20,000 m2 in Buñol; and provide a 3,500 m2 logistics center in Torrent, a space for distribution and storage with capacity for 1,000 pallets. Why is it important? For several reasons. The main one is what it reveals to us about both Familia Martínez and Mercadona. And in turn what that tells us about consumer trends. The commitment of the Valencian supplier coincides with the growth of the offer of ready meals and the so-called “fifth range“, processed, cooked and packaged foods. As a reference, the Spanish Association of Prepared Dish Manufacturers (Asefapre) calculates that the consumption of its products rose 6.6% last year in Spanish homes. “These investments are not just figures, they are a sample of our commitment to accompany the growth of our great client,” confirm the CEO of Familia Martínez, Raúl Martin Calvo. And in Mercadona (around 85% of your business) the bet is clear. Juan Roig’s chain takes years expanding its “ready to eat” section, with foods already prepared for consumption. The last annual report from Mercadona shows that in 2024 the service was available in 1,200 stores in Spain and 60 in Portugal, an expansion that “has not stopped growing”. Is it a special case? Familia Martínez is not the only one that is growing thanks largely to Mercadona’s tailwinds. The Country posted this saturday an article about Ozturk Quebapa firm based in Toledo, founded in 2015 and specialized in the production of kebab and meat products. Again, its name may not sound familiar to you, but if you like the traditional Turkish meat that Mercadona sells, you have probably tasted its creations. Ozturk is a supplier for the Hacendado brand for a few years. Its history predates the pact with the Valencian chain, but as they admit in Ozturk “with Mercadona everything changes.” The company saw its activity increase and acquired a second plant. Now it also sells to countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland and France. According to precise The Countrylast year it had a turnover of close to 64 million and its forecasts are to exceed 75 this year, a scenario that does not seem unattainable if one takes into account that it reached 37.8 in the first semester. Add and continue of names. Familia Martínez or Ozturk are examples of companies that are growing driven by Mercadona’s strategy in food, but not the only ones. The sushi offer of the Valencian chain gave wings for example to the Norwegian Leroy Seafood Group. In May Info Retail informed that its subsidiary Leroy Processing Spain It closed 2024 with a turnover of 122.5 million euros and its objective is to reach 160 in 2025, with a growth of 30%. The firm landed in Spain more than a decade ago and began making sushi and Japanese food long before 2021, but even so Mercadona has played a strategic role the last few years. Profand, Panamar and Tarradellas. Three other relevant names in Mercadona’s food supply. The first, the Galician fishing company Profand, is an integrated supplier to the Valencian supermarket chain, which has helped it market a whopping 78 million trays of fish throughout last year, with a growth of 13%. The signature itself stood out that nuance in a statement in which he celebrated having overcome the 1 billion of cash. In 2023 Panamar too saw rebound its turnover after becoming a supplier of bread to the Valencian chain and Tarradellas House wave Estiu refrigerator They have found in it a valuable pillar. Everyone benefits from the formula that is driving the Roig chain: its ability to gain market share in a sector highly disputedthe commitment to white label and local stores and the conviction that domestic kitchens actually have the years counted. Images | Mercadona In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

That Instagram and Facebook are plagued by fraudulent ads is bad. That Meta is making money with them is even worse

by

Congratulations! You have won an iPhone. the king Felipe VI announcing investments. Work at Primor and get paid up to 160 euros per hour. These are just three examples of fraudulent ads that have appeared on Facebook and Instagram, but there are many more. So many, that Meta is making money with them. What has happened? An investigation of Reuters has revealed that Meta estimated that 10% of all revenue volume would come from fraudulent ads, which would total $16 billion. In an internal document from December 2024, Meta estimated that its platform serves about 15 billion “high-risk” scam ads every day. By “high risk” they mean those that are clearly frauds, like those we mentioned in the introduction, so the real number would be even higher. It seems like fraud, because we charge you more. Meta has automated systems to detect these types of ads, the problem is that the policy to block them is quite lax. The documents reveal that ads are only blocked if the system identifies it as a scam with 95% certainty. If the percentage is lower, what they do is raise the advertiser’s fee to supposedly discourage them. That is, if they continue to advertise, Meta makes even more money from frauds. The favorite site of scammers. There is more. In another document, Meta admits that “It is easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than on Google.” The information comes from channels in which scammers discuss their methods, although they do not specify the reasons for their choice. They also estimate that a third of all successful scams in the United States occur through their platforms. Regulation. Meta is in the crosshairs of regulators around the world. The European Commission initiated action against the company for the use of data to serve advertising to users. In United Kingdom took them to trial for the same reason and more recently the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating them for the financial frauds advertised on their platform. In documents published by Reuters, Meta shows its intention to reduce illegal ads, but is concerned that a sudden reduction would negatively affect its revenue. Don’t touch my publi. Meta is in a delicate moment for the huge increase in spending on AI which, despite having achieved positive results in the last quarter, has caused its shares to fall 8%. Considering that targeted advertising is Meta’s main revenue stream, a reduction on this front could shake the entire house of cards. Meta responds. Speaking to Reuters, a Meta spokesperson criticized the news, saying the documents “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.” He says the estimate of 10% profit from scam ads was excessive and the actual figure was much lower, although he declined to give an updated figure. According to Meta, in the last year and a half, fraudulent ad notices have been reduced by 58% and in 2025 they will have eliminated more than 134 million scams from their platform. Image | Generated with AI. background Pixabay In Xataka | The majority of medical discharges that are investigated are fraud. The nuance is that they are only investigated if there are signs of fraud

making cell towers mini data centers for AI

by

A few days ago we heard the news that NVIDIA had invested $1 billion in Nokiataking over 2.9% of the Finnish company. Although the check in itself is striking news, since for many people, Nokia had been lost off the map for many years, the movement makes all the sense in the world: it is the Western response to many of the Chinese technology companies that for years have been investing in the deployment of 6G. And of course, with NVIDIA behind them, telephony base stations can serve much more than just providing coverage to millions of devices: becoming small distributed data centers for AI. The plan behind the investment. NVIDIA and Nokia are not just designing equipment for mobile networks. They are redefining what a cell tower is. The idea is that each base station (the towers and small installations that we see on buildings and streets) become a computing node with the ability to execute operations involving AI technologies in real time. “An AI data center in everyone’s pocket”, according to Justin Hotard, CEO of Nokia. The key here is to bring processing closer to the user in order to eliminate latency, which is usually one of the most frequent problems in AI applications that require real-time processing, such as instant translation, augmented reality or autonomous vehicles. Without latency, everything changes. When we ask an AI to translate a conversation or analyze live images, every millisecond counts. Sending that data to a distant server, processing it, and returning it introduces a significant delay that mars the final experience. The most logical solution is to decentralize: that the AI ​​lives close to the userin the telecommunications infrastructures themselves. In this sense, NVIDIA will contribute chips and specialized software, while Nokia will adapt its 5G and 6G equipment to integrate that computing capacity. As announced, the first commercial tests will begin in 2027 with T-Mobile in the United States. The Nokia effect on the stock market. Nokia shares they shot up 21% after the news broke, reaching highs not seen since 2016. NVIDIA and OpenAI have become King Midas of technology: everything they touch goes up. The investment is also a boost to the strategy of Hotard, who since his arrival in April has accelerated Nokia’s shift towards data centers and AI. The company, which already acquired Infinera for 2.3 billion to strengthen its position in data center networks, it is now positioned as the only Western supplier capable of competing with Huawei in the complete supply of telecommunications infrastructure. EITHERafter space race. While Europe and the United States accelerate their 6G plans, China has been investing aggressively in this technology for years. This alliance between NVIDIA and Nokia is a somewhat late response, but necessary. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, explained in his speech in Washington that the goal is “to help the United States bring telecommunications technology back to America.” It is not just about infrastructure, but about strategic control. And whoever dominates this network of brains distributed throughout cities and roads will control the AI ​​applications of the future. And now what. The McKinsey consulting firm esteem that investment in data center infrastructure will exceed $1.7 trillion by 2030, driven by the expansion of AI. Nokia and NVIDIA want their piece of the pie, but they are also betting on a structural change: that mobile networks stop being mere data tubes and become intelligent computing platforms. It remains to be seen if this model works commercially and whether operators are willing to update their infrastructure. Cover image | NVIDIA In Xataka | Xi Jinping wants two things: first, to create a global center that regulates AI. The second, that it is in Shanghai

Jeff Bezos’ giant rocket is ready and NASA is making eyes at it

by

For once, Elon Musk’s Starship is not the protagonist. In the midst of a heated public debate about Who will take astronauts to the Moon first?Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, is about to launch the first New Glenn rocket mission for NASA, with an unexpected lunar spin. Ready to take off. Now that Starbase platform 1 is undergoing renovationsall eyes are on the LC-36 platform at Cape Canaveral. The giant rocket that attracts attention this time is the imposing New Glenn from Blue Origin, another beast 98 meters high and seven meters in diameter, ready for its first order. After successfully completing a 38-second static burn with its seven BE-4 engines, Jeff Bezos’ megarocket has the green light for its first assignment: NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars. When? In the absence of confirmation from Blue Origin, the United States Federal Aviation Administration aim for a first try on November 7 between 19:51 and 21:50 UTC, with another two-hour backup window on November 8 starting at 19:49. It is not a minor release. ESCAPADE is NASA’s first multi-craft mission to Mars orbit. The New Glenn will launch the twin Blue and Gold probes, built by Rocket Lab to study the magnetosphere of the red planet. Second landing attempt. For Blue Origin, the secondary mission is almost as important as the main one: recovering the rocket propellant for the first time. In your January inaugural flightthe New Glenn managed to reach orbit, but failed in its first propulsive landing attempt, SpaceX’s specialty. Now the first stage of the rocket, 65 meters high, will have a second chance to land in the Atlantic Ocean. To do this, Blue Origin will once again deploy the autonomous barge “Jacklyn”, named in honor of Jeff Bezos’ mother. Getting it is key to the company’s lunar plansin more literal ways than we thought. From Mars to the Moon. According to Ars TechnicaBlue Origin has ambitious plans for this same rocket. If the New Glenn manages to land successfully after launching the ESCAPADE mission, Jeff Bezos’ company hopes to quickly refit it for a third flight. And what does that third flight consist of? Nothing less than the launch of the first Blue Moon Mk-1 lunar cargo module. The same one that Blue Origin is trying to adapt against the clock to replace the SpaceX Starship in the first manned lunar landings of NASA’s Artemis missions. NASA waits for no one. In the midst of a self-imposed race to reach the Moon before China does in 2030, NASA (or more specifically, NASA’s internal administrator, Sean Duffy) has reopened the Human Landing System contract for the private sector to make simpler proposals than Starship HLS to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon. Although it is actually simpler, the Blue Origin architecture It would not be without problems, including cryogenic refueling in orbit, an extremely complex choreography of ships that, to this day, neither SpaceX nor Blue Origin have demonstrated on the required scale. Image | Blue Origin In Xataka | We already know why Jeff Bezos invests so much money in space: he believes that in 20 years millions of people will live there

who is making money with the elimination of the DGT triangles

by

January 1, 2026. That is the key date. The day from which It will be mandatory to use a connected V-16 light to signal a breakdown on the road. Not only that, that day we will say goodbye to emergency triangles. Because those who use them will be exposed to a fine. The decision, confirmed in 2021, continues to raise controversy with just a few months left to fully implement it. Until now, the V-16 light could replace emergency triangles, which were no longer mandatory on highways and expressways. However, it will be from January 1 of next year when not only will they not be mandatory, they will also be prohibited. How did we get here and why? The new regulations The change is very simple. The emergency triangles that have accompanied us until now will be prohibited from January 1, 2026. The Royal Decree 159/2021published on March 17, 2021, modified annex XI of the General Vehicle Regulations. It specifies all the changes that must be taken into account when having an approved light and how to act with it. From then on, every driver must have a V-16 signal connected which, in general terms, must comply with the following requirements: Radiate light 360 degrees Maintain irradiation intensity for at least 30 minutes Protection degree IP54 at least Guaranteed operation between -10ºC and 50ºC Powered by cell or battery that must guarantee its operation for a minimum of 18 months Guaranteed connectivity for at least 12 years, to notify the DGT when the device is activated. If you have any doubts about whether or not the purchased device is approved by the DGT, the entity has a list in which all devices are included who have passed the homologation exam. The real change, as we say, is that the DGT makes the use of this system mandatory and, in addition, bans emergency triangles. He assures that placing triangles on the road increases the risk of being run over and, therefore, it is better to use a light that should be placed on the roof of the vehicle to warn other drivers. In the case of a motorcycle, it must have an adapter to position it on the handlebars. Yes indeed, the DGT makes it clear that the motorcyclist is not obliged to have this device. However, those who use the triangles face a fine of 80 euros (a minor offense for “not properly signaling the obstacle created on the road in the event of an accident or vehicle breakdown”, as stated in article 130 of the General Traffic Regulations) and, in addition, those who do not have a connected and approved V-16 light (those not connected are valid until December 31, 2025 but not from January 1, 2025). next year) can also be fined 80 euros as is the case until now with triangles. How did you get here? This is one of the questions that has raised controversy. And Spain is the only country in Europe in which these V-16 lights will be mandatory. What happens if we have to travel outside our borders? If the country has a full agreement with Spain, V-16 light is perfectly valid but if it does not have it, we will have to count on the triangles to be able to indicate an emergency. In any case, Spain being the only country where it is mandatory, it is recommended to carry emergency triangles if you leave our borders. The DGT assures that, however, the measure was necessary because installing the triangles on the road means too much risk to the passengers of a disabled vehicle. According to the data provided with the presentation of this V-16 beacon, between 2018 and 2021 they died every year between 18 and 22 people run over on the road after getting out of a vehicle and In 2022 there are 58 deaths. Of course, the agency does not specify whether these attacks were caused by the installation of the triangles or for any other reason. In fact, the DGT has recently changed the regulations. From 2023 It is mandatory to stay off the road in a place away from traffic whenever possible. However, if there is no space, passengers in a disabled vehicle no longer have to wait outside the vehicle; it is now mandatory to sit inside with the seat belt on. The V-16 light, they say, allows you to signal the vehicle without having to get out of it, just by putting your hand out of the window and placing it on the roof. When activated, the beacon begins to emit a light signal that must be seen from a kilometer away. It automatically contacts the DGT 3.0 platform which will send the information to the means closest to the incident, such as the light panels, to notify the rest of the drivers. Furthermore, the signal itself will broadcast information to connected vehicles to circulate in the vicinity, alerting them that they will find a broken down vehicle on the road. It’s the call signal V-27 that will appear on the car’s instrument panel and is made up of a red triangle with an exclamation mark inside and three curved lines on the outside to mark connectivity. Of course, the beacon does not connect directly to emergency services. This task is left to the drivers, who have to call to convey their situation and what happened. Also your insurance if it is necessary for the car to be towed by a tow truck. The money We have already seen the arguments of the DGT but… how much is it going to cost us in our pockets? Right now, the connected and approved V-16 lights are selling for around 50 euros. This money includes data service for a minimum of 12 years. Of course, we must keep in mind that they also require minimal maintenance. The agency recommends changing the battery or fully charging the battery every year. A problem that, obviously, emergency triangles … Read more

The Internet has become such a hostile place that there are people making drastic decisions: go back to MySpace

by

In a thread on Reddit’s r/Millenials subreddit, a user named Blue_Bi0hazard counted that had signed up for SpaceHeya curious MySpace clone, and I was happy about two things. The first, due to the personalization that this new social network offered. “I can’t stand today’s social media,” he explained. “There is hardly any personalization, everything is gray and simplified. Remember how MySpace or Tumblr was: there you really felt that your profile represented you.” Second, because of how the algorithm has taken over everything: at SpaceHey, he explains, “your feed is chronological, rather than what Facebook or Twitter think you should see, plus the damn ads.” These criticisms are not new, and for some time they have caused a unique Internet revolution. Small communities are returning to using clones of myspace as SpaceHeyor of GeoCitiesas NeoCitiesand although their scope is limited, they are the symptom of something very worrying. Beyond nostalgia Behind these seemingly nostalgic gestures, something deeper is drawn. Not only the desire to return to a retro design, but to raise a kind of digital demand. A “I want to have my corner again” in a sea of ​​feeds that no longer belong to us and over which we have no control. The return to MySpace, or rather, to something that evokes it—like SpaceHey—is actually a critical and rebellious act. It is a gesture that says “I am tired of the current Internet turning me into a consumer rather than a user, that everything I do is subject to the algorithm, the subscription and the ads.” And that’s when that return to those rehashes of the past takes on that other meaning. That of a more or less silent protest. Twenty-five years ago, opening the browser was like doing digital zapping and extremely garish. Amateur blogs were interspersed with local forums, profiles with flashing GIFs, view counters (view counters!), and pages that didn’t open on their own, but also had music on autoplay. It was the internet of the 2000s. GeoCities, LiveJournal, ICQ, Friendster, Blogger and MySpace conquered users and they did so with hardly any algorithms. Was a more hippie internetmessy and unpredictable but full of personality. The profiles were their own spaces, not showcases optimized for clicking. Now we remember that time fondly and smile when we realize that the Internet was full of defects. Loading times were much longer, handling HTML was almost a craft, and mixtures of fonts and designs often resulted in strident and garish web pages. However, they also had virtues. They let you make mistakes without charging you for it. They let you be weird without having to ask permission. Nobody (or almost nobody) had to sell anything, and nobody yet knew that they would end up selling you (or your data). It was the internet as a workshop, not as a gallery or showcase. but then standardization arrived. With Facebook, YouTube, Google or later Instagram and TikTok, we were promised order, efficiency and global connection. The Internet went from being its own territory to a service platform in which profiles became uniform, timelines identical, and rules impersonal. The “enshittification” of the internet This is how we have reached the digital fatigue that many experience today. 20 tabs are opened and the same ads, the same formats and the same giants appear. The Internet is no longer so much a “site” as a “medium” in which we only consume, and what we do more than explore and navigate is end up being victims of doomscrolling. This is where the concept comes into play. “enshittification” (“shitification”, in a loose translation) coined by writer Cory Doctorow. This neologism, as recently explained in an interview with Voxdescribes the drift of many online platforms, although it is applicable to all types of companies: “At first they are great for the end users. Then they find ways to retain those users (switching costs, network effects, contracts, DRM) and once the users are trapped, the company makes the product worse to get more value. They then use that surplus to attract business customers (advertisers, sellers, creators), they trap them and start making the product worse for the business side as well. In the end, everyone gets trapped and the platform becomes a pile of garbage. You can see this in places so like Google, Facebook, Uber and Amazon. In other words: what started out promising becomes mediocre, predictable and profit-oriented, not user-oriented. Shitification clearly manifests itself on today’s internet in various ways. It does this with mandatory subscriptions, with algorithms that decide what you see, with constant advertisements and with data that no longer seems to be yours, but rather turns you into simple merchandise. Before, you opened a blog to publish what you wanted. Now the objective seems to be to gain clicks or provoke engagement. All of this has caused users to become target audiences, consumers and even simple data. It seems that there is no more time to browseand we only have it to consume what the algorithms offer us. On Reddit someone asked if others were nostalgic for the internet of the 2000s and the comments were conclusive. The first of them, in fact, made it clear: “nothing seems genuine anymore.” Reviving MySpace That’s where platforms like SpaceHey, which appeared in 2020 and it is totally inspired by MySpace. Its creator, a young German named Anton Röhm and nicknamed “An” on the platform, is in fact the contact that by default is added to your “friends” on the platform, as on MySpace you added that of its creator, Tom Anderson. Long live the wild and original internet. Like a good clone, the similarities between SpaceHey and MySpace go much further. In SpaceHey, personalization shines, and that aesthetic of early 2000 It is evident in strident and shocking designs. The social network — which has around two million users — does not intend to compete with Facebook or Instagram, but it allows its users to recover part of that feeling of freedom and control … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.