September 28 2018 - WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

 

Main News Topics

Intel invests $1 Billion to meet 14nm demand

Source 1: AluminiumTech https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/977040-intel-invests-1-billion-to-meet-14nm-demand/

Source 2: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13410/intel-investing-1b-to-meet-14nm-demand-prioritizing-highend-core-and-xeon (letter at the bottom)

 

• Bob Swan, Intel’s CFO and interim CEO, issued an open letter to the company’s customers and partners today.

  • In the letter, he addressed tight supply of some of the company’s products, outlining the set of actions Intel is taking to tackle the problem.

• What he said:

  • The surprising return to PC TAM (total addressable market) growth has put pressure on our factory network.

    • We expect modest growth in the PC TAM this year for the first time since 2011

  • Intel’s prioritizing the production of Xeon® and Core™ processors to serve the high-performance segments of the market.

  • supply is tight, particularly at the entry-level of the PC market.

    • Intel believes they have at least the supply to meet the full-year revenue outlook announced in July, which was $4.5 billion higher than January expectations.

• To tackle the problem, Intel is:

  • investing a record $15 billion in capital expenditures in 2018, up approximately $1 billion from the beginning of the year. They’re putting that $1 billion into 14nm manufacturing sites in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland, and Israel. This capital along with other efficiencies is increasing supply to respond to increased demand.

    • fab investment is usually on the scale of months, so any investment now is unlikely to increase fab throughput until end of Q1 next year.

  • making progress with 10nm. Yields are improving and they continue to expect volume production in 2019.

  • taking a customer-first approach. We’re working to align demand with available supply.

• The problem from a manufacturing perspective:

  • A fab can only produce so many silicon wafers per month

  • Each wafer can contain multiple CPUs

  • The new higher-core CPUs (28 core Xeon, Core i9) are larger, meaning you can fit fewer CPUs on a wafer.

  • As demand for larger die CPUs increases, Intel just can’t make them fast enough.

  • Therefore, Intel re-allocated fab space to its high margin Core and Xeon parts, resulting in a shortage of entry-level parts

  • All of that is happening on their 14nm process. Therefore, they developed a new 22nm version of its H310C chipset.

• The letter resulted in Intel stock increasing 45 to 47 and AMD decreasing about 32 to 30

  • Moves of 3-5% each

 

Amazon's Anti-Union Video leaks

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/976629-abhorrent-amazon-amazons-aggressive-anti-union-video-leaks/

Source 2:

 

• News site Gizmodo has obtained what it calls “a 45-minute union-busting training video” that was allegedly produced by Amazon and sent to Team Leaders of  Whole Foods last week.

  • Amazon bought Whole Foods las year for $13.7B

• The video’s narrator states that the video is “specifically designed to give you the tools that you need for success when it comes to labor organizing,”

• The video states:

  • “We are not anti-union, but we are not neutral either,”

  • “We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, or most importantly, our associates. Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsession—things that are generally not associated with union. When we lose sight of those critical focus areas we jeopardize everyone’s job security: yours, mine, and the associates’.”

  • provides some background on the National Labor Relations Act

  • Video lists “warning signs” that “can indicate associate disengagement, vulnerability to organizing, or early organizing activity,”

    • Use of words like “living wage” and “steward”

    • Distribution of petitions and fliers

    • Associates raising concerns on behalf of their coworkers

    • Wearing union t-shirts, hats, or jackets

    • Workers “who normally aren’t connected to each other suddenly hanging out together”

    • Workers showing an “unusual interest in policies, benefits, employee lists, or other company information”

    • Increased negativity in the workplace

    • “[A]ny other associate behavior that is out of character

  • The video asks managers to listen to 10 hypothetical employees and select whether their remarks constitute a “warning sign” or “innocent interaction.”

  • “You would never threaten to close your building just because associates joined a union. But you might need to talk about how having a union could hurt innovation which could hurt customer obsession which could ultimately threaten the building’s continued existence.”

  • potential organization are supposed to be escalated to human resources and general managers immediately.

 

• The video itself does not appear to be publically available online; we only have select screenshots.

  • Gizmodo has asked Amazon to publish the video

  • Gizmodo says publishing their own copy would compromise those who provided it to them

• Hot take:

  • There are times when employees need unions, and times when unions suck for both the employer and the employee

  • Amazon would be crippled by unionized workers (Whole Foods maybe less so)

  • This leak benefits employees because Amazon must now work harder to improve working conditions in order to prevent unionization

  • This article documents Amazon’s poor track record with how employees are treated, but we’re actually talking about Whole Foods which has its own CEO

  • The screenshot with the T.I.P.S is so outrageous it makes me wonder whether it’s even real. Is this fake news created by Amazon’s political rivals?

 

What’s Coming Out on Floatplane? Go Over Current Week.

Rapid Fire

Tesla sued by SEC

Source 1:

Source 2: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/27/tesla-falls-4percent-on-report-elon-musk-sued-by-sec.html

 

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud

• The SEC complaint alleges that Musk issued "false and misleading" statements and failed to properly notify regulators of material company events.

• Among other remedies, the SEC is seeking to bar Musk from serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company if found guilty.

  • "A chairman and CEO of a public company has important responsibilities to shareholders,"

  • "Those responsibilities include the need to be scrupulous and careful about the truth and accuracy of statements made to the investing public, whether those statements are made in traditional forms such as a press release or an earnings call or through less formal methods such as Twitter or other social media."

  • "Neither celebrity status nor reputation as a technological innovator provide an exemption from the federal securities laws,"

• Musk’s response:

  • "This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed,"

  • "I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way."

• The SEC, in its complaint, alleged Musk knew that he:

  • (1) had not agreed upon any terms for a going-private transaction with the Fund or any other funding source;

  • (2) had no further substantive communications with representatives of the Fund beyond their 30 to 45 minute meeting on July 31;

  • (3) had never discussed a going-private transaction at a share price of $420 with any potential funding source;

  • (4) had not contacted any additional potential strategic investors to assess their interest in participating in a going-private transaction;

  • (5) had not contacted existing Tesla shareholders to assess their interest in remaining invested in Tesla as a private company;

  • (6) had not formally retained any legal or financial advisors to assist with a going-private transaction;

  • (7) had not determined whether retail investors could remain invested in Tesla as a private company;

  • (8) had not determined whether there were restrictions on illiquid holdings by Tesla's institutional investors; and (9) had not determined what regulatory approvals would be required or whether they could be satisfied.

• In the hours after the initial tweet, Musk doubled down on the proposal in subsequent tweets. The SEC cited those subsequent tweets in the complaint as additional misleading statements.

• Tesla and the SEC were close to a no-guilt settlement but Musk pulled out at the last minute

  • Tesla would have had to pay a nominal fine, and the CEO would not have had to admit any guilt

  • However, the settlement would have barred Musk as chairman for two years and would require Tesla to appoint two new independent directors

  • Musk refused to sign the deal because he felt that by settling he would not be truthful to himself, and he wouldn't have been able to live with the idea that he agreed to accept a settlement and any blemish associated with that  

 

No Sex, Drugs, or Violence on Apple’s Streaming Service

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/977052-apple-cuts-out-sex-drugs-and-violence-in-upcoming-original-content-to-appear-family-friendly/

Source 2: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/09/apples-original-content-will-shy-away-from-gratuitous-sex-violence/

Source 3: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/22/17890082/apple-streaming-service-original-content-no-sex-and-violence-report

 

• Apple has edited or axed some of its original programming plans because it doesn't want shows to include "gratuitous sex, profanity, or violence."

  • Tim Cook reportedly killed a semi-autobiographical drama about Dr. Dre's life. Named Vital Signs, the drama had scenes that included drug use, sex, and guns.

• Apple has apparently been replacing showrunners on shows that don’t meet the vision:

  • replaced the showrunner on the series that stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon- allegedly in part because they took issue with some of the humor written into the show, and Apple wanted a more upbeat show in general.

  • Showrunner Bryan Fuller stepped down from the revival of Spielberg's Amazing Stories: Apple found the program's original premise "a little dark."

• The reason is that Apple is a product company first and foremost. They can’t risk negative sentiment toward their content to affect device sales.

  • Apple Services exist only to bolster hardware sales

  • It’s also possible it’s partly strategic as ‘family friendly’ is a differentiator in its own right

• Apple has been widely expected to begin rolling out its original content in March 2019, but delays could push this back.

 

Playstation opens its doors

Source 1: SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/976266-playstation-gives-into-the-fortnite-crossplay-drama-and-opens-its-doors-fully-finally/

Source 2: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/09/26/extended-fortnite-cross-play-beta-launches-on-ps4-starting-today/

 

• Sony Interactive Entertainment says it has “ identified a path toward supporting cross-platform features for select third party content.”

• The first step will be an open beta (on now) for Fortnite that will allow for cross platform gameplay, progression and commerce across PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems.

• We are waiting for updates as to what this will mean for other titles going forward.

• Does this make Sony vulnerable to user migration away from consoles and onto PCs?

 

Dust settles on Disney/Comcast auction wars

Source 1: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/26/17905812/comcast-sky-21st-century-fox-stake-europe-uk-15-billion

Source 2:

 

• The summer’s Fox / Comcast / Disney drama came to a close last week when Comcast finally managed to outbid 21st Century Fox for a controlling stake in European TV and broadband provider Sky for $38.8 billion

• Fox already owned 39% of Sky, and is now selling that to Comcast for $15 billion, giving Comcast full control.

  • Disney was supposed to get Fox’s 39% of Sky as part of the deal to buy Fox.

  • Comcast had also tried to buy Fox before losing to Disney

• Sky represents an existing distribution network for big chunks of the European market

• So the full timeline then is:

  • Disney and Comcast compete to buy Fox

  • Meanwhile Fox tries to buy the remainder of Sky it doesn’t already own

  • Disney outbids Comcast and gets Fox, hoping to also get Sky

  • Comcast outbids Fox for Sky

  • Fox sells Sky to Comcast

  • Everyone spent more money than initially planned.

 

Facebook say 50m users left vulnerable to a new security flaw

Source 1: SC2Mitch https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/977053-facebook-say-50m-users-left-vulnerable-to-a-new-security-flaw/

Source 2: rcmaehl https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/977025-updated-hacker-voice-im-in-zuckerberg-to-be-deleted-from-facebook/

Source 3: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/

 

• Facebook engineers have discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts.

• attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As”, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else.

• This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts.

  • Access tokens are digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app.

• Facebook has now fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement.

  • They also reset the access tokens of the 50 million accounts affected

  • And took the precautionary step of resetting access tokens for another 40 million accounts that have been subject to a “View As” look-up in the last year

  • after they have logged back in, people will get a notification at the top of their News Feed explaining what happened.

• Facebook is temporarily turning off the “View As” feature while we conduct a thorough security review.

• This attack exploited the interaction of multiple issues in the code.

  • It stemmed from a change made to Facebook’s video uploading feature in July 2017, which impacted “View As.”

• Facebook has yet to determine whether these accounts were misused or any information accessed.

  • Nor do they know who’s behind the attacks or where they’re based

[Daniel644]

already watching

[takagi19]

I enjoyed the almost-anarchy at 56:17.

[Rune]

I liked the dark ambiance lighting there

[N.tony]

Is there a high-pitched whine, or is my sound system dying?

[Freeman]

Where is the WAN show document from the most recent episode (took place on 5th/6th)?